According to the chairman of the Hong Kong 4As Interactive and Direct Awards committee, Sean Rach, we're now seeing a much broader sense of what digital marketing is. But some in the industry say Asia still lags behind in digital creativity.
Dirk Eschenbacher, regional creative director, OgilvyOne Asia Pacific, says digital creativity in Asia is hamstrung by two crucial factors: time and money — commodities with which clients are often reluctant to part. He has heard rumours that Nike's new global Nike Air website cost US$2 million, but digital spend in most of Asia — where traditional media still enjoys the overwhelming share of marketing budgets — registers within just five digits. "Production is a big problem in Asia, except Japan. Aside from huge broadband penetration they also have more production houses and the best Flash designer in the world, Yugop Nakamura," he says.
According to a digital expert, you can't get a banner ad in the US for under $8,000, and a good banner can cost as much as $36,000. In Asia, it's rare that a client will spend more than $40,000 on an entire interactive campaign. The exceptions are Japan and South Korea, where the markets are more sophisticated, more saturated and more savvy — Eschenbacher cites an example of viral clips in Korea that play only within the country and cost as much as $200,000 to produce.
Indeed, it seems clients in the rest of Asia are still largely in the experimental stages when it comes to digital marketing. Saurabh Dhote, brand manager at Procter & Gamble Singapore, says companies don't want to risk high investments on the internet, preferring to channel resources to proven media.
These factors mean good digital talent is difficult to find in Asia. "For the past five years, most people didn't care to do groundbreaking stuff. Now clients are demanding cool stuff, but the talents are too average," says Eschenbacher.
According to several digital designers, another key hindrance to talent development is that few are devoted to the craft. "Unlike overseas, most designers in Asia are actually just programmers who happen to know Flash," says local designer Khek Wei.
Hari Ramanathan, DraftFCB's senior creative strategist, believes digital creativity also suffers in Asia because agencies and clients alike typically take an execution-led approach, rather than ideas led.
On top of that, agencies in Asia tend to confuse the distinction between internet (the medium) and interactive (a behaviour-led approach). "They use one and the other interchangeably and it shows in their work," Ramanathan notes.
Recently, DraftFCB has taken steps to address that shortcoming by launching a campaign for Motorola in which the audience can become part of the company's banner ads by uploading webcam photos to a microsite. It's this sort of work that has Asia listed on the 2005 Won Report, which ranks agencies according to awards won — Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong all featured in the top-20 of the worldwide cyber category.
Meanwhile, Clark Kokich, worldwide president of Avenue A/Razorfish, which recently acquired Hong Kong-based e-Crusade, notes that talent is likely to remain a challenge given the strong demand for digital services.