Not so long ago, many creative agency heads in the US and Europe automatically dismissed Asia as something of a creative backwater. To move to the region from London or New York would have been seen as an odd career strategy. As the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity enters its 60th year, times have certainly changed. Over the past several years, Asia has increasingly shown itself able to compete with much more mature markets at the event. Agencies from the likes of China, India, Korea and even Indonesia have risen to prominence.
The truth is, however, that most markets in the region are still searching for their voice. Creative brilliance shines, but is not yet consistent. One could argue that every market has its day in the sun, and if recent award shows in the region are anything to go by, the balance seems to be tipping once more in Australia’s favour. McCann Worldgroup’s ‘Dumb ways to die’ for Metro Trains, which recently won four gold awards at the Festival of Asian Marketing Effectiveness, is one initiative that many are expecting to represent the region in Cannes this year.
Part of the campaign’s appeal comes from its ability to take on a life of its own outside of paid media. That is also indicative of the market’s advanced stage of development. John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann Worldgroup Australia, who led the campaign’s development, says that there has been “a huge shift away from the old media model”, largely spurred by the simple incentive of saving money.
“Mobile and social have come on in leaps and bounds,” he says. “Traditional media is very expensive and clients are keen to move away from the paid media model. Unless you are one of the top two players in any category, you are really going to get hammered [financially]. Brands are not able to buy enough media to make it work. There are smarter ways to go for advertisers who don’t have big budgets.”
A notable result is the gradual death of the one-off campaign. As the industry moves towards a content model, clients are getting to grips with the concept of continuing engagement and adaptability. Their social etiquette is improving too: gatecrashing is much less of a bane on social media users than it once was.
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The path of the industry in Australia has been organic. Where independent digital agencies initially took the lead in shaping clients’ use of online platforms, larger networks appear to be coming to the fore once again. An investment in technology has helped dramatically. Mescall admits that until relatively recently, the market failed to combine strong ideas with a sound understanding of digital platforms.
Despite having a markedly different approach to creative work, China is another market where online media has become mainstream for advertisers. That is not to say that TV has become irrelevant, but it is encouraging that clients are looking at the bigger picture. Sheung Yan Lo, executive creative director for Northeast Asia and chairman for China at JWT, says that budgets are switching to branded content and social channels. Even in the world of out-of-home, the emphasis is on integration with online media, he says. At a recent conference, he notes, a priority for vendors was connecting outdoor executions with online communities via cloud technology—essentially “making advertising more valuable to advertisers”.
“When you have the right TV spot, you can still have an impact,” he says. “TV is still important, but in another [integrated] sense. Look back 12 years ago; one TV ad would make everyone respond. That’s not going to happen anymore.” But he qualifies that by noting that the chasm between top and lower tier cities is widening. “You can look at the markets as being a decade apart.”
As confidence grows, real-time response has become a factor of the creative process. Nike’s strategy of reacting to the highs and lows of Chinese athletes at the London Olympics across platforms (led by Wieden + Kennedy) has been held up as a seminal example of how brands should approach their consumers. Creativity is moving from well-managed art direction to conceptualisation—even if the transition cannot be expected on a large scale overnight.
Asia’s other developing giant, India, is also showing a shift in thinking. The market was recently in the news for the wrong reasons—scam—following a controversial ‘proactive’ campaign for Ford by JWT that resulted in the dismissal of the executive creative director responsible for it, and the withdrawal of Creativeland founder Sajan Raj Kurup as jury chairman from Goafest in protest over what he described as the industry’s failure to crack down on scam submissions to awards shows. But Kurup is adamant that things are changing for the better. The market is an anomaly in Asia: clients, rather than agencies, are taking the creative lead, he says.
“Clients are demanding the best,” he says. “If you look beyond the scam, there really is some ingenious work. The change is being led my marketers. They are in a position to do something really challenging. We are talking about traditional clients, old guys who are willing to experiment and go the extra mile.”
Southeast Asia could perhaps learn something from India’s example. Ted Lim, regional chief creative officer for Dentsu Asia, has a muted view of creativity in markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Despite the economic growth, particularly in Indonesia, he describes the approach to advertising as stagnant, but not without reason. Rather than deliberately holding things back, he says clients simply lack the incentive to try new things.
“When it comes to trying to push boundaries with digital and social, the feedback is that it’s good, but only reaches a certain percentage of the target audience. They are trying to sell to everyone, and not everyone is online — so they go for the basic common denominator of print and TV.”
Rajesh Menon, executive creative director of BBDO Indonesia, agrees that investment remains focused on traditional channels despite an increase in online penetration.
“Clients are still coming to terms with the idea of internet and mobile advertising so budgets are comparatively small, but I am certain that is going to change,” he says, pointing to the 210 mobile phones in use across the country. “Mobile is going to be the focus over the next couple of years.”
But in terms of ideas, the market is still behind. While he says that since its first gold Lion, Indonesia has started “coming into its own”, good work occurs haphazardly.
“There is a desire to win, and a dawning recognition that Indonesia can come up with ads as creative as any other market,” he says. “It’s just not happening on a consistent basis. There’s no BBDO Guerrero; we don’t have an agency like that.”
Part of the issue is that creativity remains design-focused. Art directors are relatively plentiful, but creatives with more conceptual backgrounds are lacking. In addition, he notes that other, more mature markets are a draw for successful Indonesian creatives.
“We’re fighting hard to keep up with the Joneses rather than outstripping them,” he says ruefully. “Part of it is that people see the work that wins and try to do something like that. They’re not setting trends. No one is thinking ‘what’s next, where can we take it from here’.”
