Ogilvy & Mather Singapore has just launched a print ad campaign for
doAsia.com, an online no-holds-barred city guide to bars, clubs and
restaurants, revelling in controversy and attitude.
The ad that launched the company was barred from the Asian Wall Street
Journal (AWSJ) and sparked a high-level meeting at the International
Herald Tribune before it was agreed that it could run. It was accepted
by Business Week.
According to O&M, the reason given by the AWSJ was because it featured
transvestites. The journal felt that these kinds of people were not
appropriate for their readers.
"The fact that the AWSJ banned the ad is ridiculous," said Mr Andy
Greenaway, executive creative director at O&M, which created the
campaign.
"The message we're delivering is completely relevant to the service
provided by doAsia. The characters in the ad are real people in a real
bar. It's real life and I can't see why AWSJ would shy away from reality
and pretend this kind of world doesn't exist."
Created on a budget of S$500,000 (US$300,000) for four
print ads and Zo cards, the campaign has a dual purpose, Mr Greenaway
told CReATION.
To capture the interest of doAsia's target audience of professionals,
businessmen, as well as potential future investors, and to get talked
about. That is why an irreverent, humorous, satirical and pointed style
was used, reflecting the attitude of the reviews, and creating the
founding characteristics of the brand, he said.
Headquartered in Singapore, doAsia claims to feature more than 2,000
reviews taken from an online community of residents across Asia. These
are compiled and presented by anonymous editors in Hong Kong, Singapore,
Bombay, Bangkok, Manila, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai.
The information can be accessed through mobile phones and its website
(www.doasia.com).
Its WAP service is available to users in Singapore, the Philippines and
Hong Kong.
By courting controversy and leveraging on the PR opportunities, doAsia
appears to have stretched their dollars further and formed the
foundations of their brand.
O&M regional director Tim Isaac said too many companies had been
spending wildly to seek further investment and "put their name up in
lights rather than build brand values".
"Spending has not been sales-driven or on building a brand, but on a
brand name and building confidence to go to IPO," he said.
"It is cloud-cuckoo land. People haven't stopped to look at brand equity
or positioning, other than to the financial community.
"It was difficult to see what many dotcoms were offering and what their
identity would ever be. The dotcom collapse hasn't arrived here yet, but
I'm sure it will happen.
"Financial heartache is just round the corner. There won't be so many
buses being painted as in the past 12 months as spending contracts."
Among O&M's other dotcom clients are Indigoz, Asiatravelmart, Netlock
and Giant Oak.Giant Oak is an ecommerce search engine that trawls the
Internet for appropriate content to match its users' profiles, and is a
JV between Andersen Consulting and Overseas Union Bank (OUB).
Giant Oak will have its consumer launch in late October.
