FEATURES: Face-off over image issue - Western talent made a strong comeback in Asian advertising campaigns in the post-crisis era. But its influence has been far less pervasive in the youth market s

When you're producing ads in Asian countries, what sort of faces should you use in them? The obvious answer would seem to be: "Asian ones". But that hasn't stopped the history of Asian advertising being littered with ads featuring western faces - because they were felt to be aspirational, or because advertisers couldn't be bothered to re-record them with local talent. That's gradually changing, but for premium-branded goods and products, the western faces are still there. One of the most successful examples was fashion chain Giordano's recent campaign, which, despite being for a home-grown Asian clothing company, featured as its stars a pair of American twins. The campaign was phenomenally successful, said Giordano's former marketing manager Rebecca Ang Lee, who handled the promotion. "We got a lot of feedback from customers when we used the images of the American twins," she says. "We had people complimenting us, and saying things like: 'I didn't use to be a Giordano customer, but I will be now.' So we decided that was the route we wanted to pursue. International faces still outsell Asian faces. The prestige of western faces is still higher. In particular, companies that want to go international tend to use western faces, and Giordano is heading towards that route. "In time to come, perhaps there will be some shift. Right now everybody's talking about Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - Asians are being seen as superior and interesting. But it's true that the US and Europe are still ahead of us. People in Asia will always be seen as a bit slower to catch up with fashion." The situation hasn't changed as much as you'd expect, according to OMD Asia chief executive Mike Cooper. Asian faces became more prevalent in sectors like luxury goods, he argues, but there's been a regression in recent years. "I don't think it has changed that much," he comments. "Western faces are still being used a lot. In fact, I find it amazing the amount of western talent that's used in Asian advertising. "Smart marketers with big budgets are using local talent, and it's always worked well for people like Procter & Gamble and Unilever to shoot commercials lots of times with talent from different countries. But foreigners are still being used too much as aspirational images; for the majority of Asians, I don't think that's right. "Since 1997 and the financial crisis, Asia's lost a lot of confidence. Maybe that's why there's been a return to using more western talent - because there isn't so much confidence in local icons." That's particularly true is the luxury goods market. In other areas where it was traditionally the case, however, such as the youth sector, the situation is changing fast. In the majority of countries, Asian youth is no longer so inclined to look to Europe and in particular the US for its touchstone of what is or isn't fashionable. A distinctively Asian definition of cool is developing, according to Cheah Chee Kong - otherwise known as CheeK - MTV Networks Asia's vice-president of network editorial strategy. "People used to think that youth culture was the same throughout the world, but that's not true any more," he says. "Young Asian people are increasingly seeing a mixture of western and Asian culture and values, and thinking: 'That's what we are, and that can be cool.' The whole definition of what's cool is changing, and it isn't just western any more." One of the key drivers of this greater sense of cultural confidence is the rise of Japan as a strong centre of cultural influence. According to the Roar survey, conducted in November 2000 by OMD, with the support of Star, Channel V, 20th Century Fox and Hachette Filipacchi, Japan has overtaken the US as the country with the most influence on fashion in Asia. The report, a study of youth attitudes, taken from the opinions of 4,400 young people in eight countries, found that Japan was most often rated as the most influential country across the region. Japan was top-ranked in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, with 78 per cent of Hong Kongers and 75 per cent of Taiwanese putting it in first place. The US was seen as most influential only in the Philippines and Malaysia. "The popularity of everything Japanese is increasing across Asia," says CheeK. "A lot of countries in Asia need a focus for what is cool, and it's shifting to places like Japan that are closer to home. For kids in places like China, the Japanese thing gives them hope that they don't have to be six feet tall or blond." A separate study by MTV, Sources of Cool, published in April 2001, backs up the view that the range of cultural influences in Asia is growing, and that increasingly, those influences are closer to home. The study found that this was giving rise to a more diverse culture, but at the same time to a greater sense of cultural confidence. Sources of Cool concluded that Asian youth are increasingly willing to co-opt trends from overseas, particularly from Japan and the US, and include them in their own personal sub-cultures. According to CheeK, however, when it comes to its programming, MTV's focus is very much on local faces. Except for a few presenters of mixed parentage in Thailand, the company exclusively uses local people in each country as its VJs. "Our policy is pretty clear - we localise across all of Asia," he says. "It's really important for us to connect with the audience. It's based a lot of feedback: we're convinced that if we want it to work in Asia, it has to be localised. You have to be real, and you have to be honest - otherwise people won't be able to connect with you." The company has tried to use Asian faces since its launch in 1995, as part of a broader strategy of focusing on local content. When it introduces locally-produced shows featuring local music, he adds, ratings frequently jump by three or four times. MTV's rival Channel V takes the same view. Its regional channel Channel V International has three mixed-parentage presenters, but according to commercial director Jasper Donat, "that just happened, and was not due to any desire on our part". Other than that, it nearly exclusively uses local people in its shows, and employing Asian talent is the way forward, says Donat: "Except in places like Australia, we'll never have a white face on Channel V. And for Channel V to start using white faces in its marketing would be ridiculous, unless we're promoting international music. It's still cool to have UK or US DJs, for example. "When it comes to people with more western features being regarded as cool, that's just about musicians, a lot of whom are from the US and Europe. But the majority of the music we play is local. "In most markets, using a white face would do you a disservice. Asian kids will look at that and think you're trying to sell to them and trying to be international, and they'll say no way." One solution, among advertisers in particular, to the issue of how to be all things to all people, has been to use mixed parentage or Eurasian faces. Particularly popular in countries like Thailand, Eurasians are supposed to be a kind of everyman, whose appeal is both pan-Asian and potentially pan-global: exotic to everyone, threatening to no one, and possible for everyone to identify with. Eurasians have a new-found prestige and social acceptability, says Neil Ducray, managing director of TBWA Hong Kong: "Ten years ago, in most markets, Eurasians were really looked down on, but now they're huge. People can identify with them, but they've still got a cachet." However according to OMD's Cooper, the era of the Eurasian is already on the wane. "For a long time, you'd have ads with Eurasian faces in them, that were supposed to appeal to everyone, but actually they don't appeal to anyone," he says. CheeK puts is down to conservatism: "A lot of advertisers are using mixed parentage or Eurasian faces. All the faces in Thai advertising are Eurasian - it's scary to me. I don't have anything against the advertising community, but they tend to stick to the safe and tried and tested." And Eurasian faces, which were once taboo, have now become the ultimate expression of conservatism and orthodoxy among advertisers. The irony of it is that with Asian youth growing in confidence, this conservatism may no longer be necessary. In fact, far from Asia taking its cultural cues from the west, the opposite may be starting to happen: the west is looking to Asia. There's what you might think of as the Crouching Tiger Effect, where a slightly stereotypical Asian-ness is seen as attractive; but there's also the deeper issue of Asians actively having an input into the shape of global youth culture, as it fragments and offers individuals more choices. "People in the west are starting to see that Asian culture isn't something that no one can understand," says CheeK. "People are a bit more open to Asian ideas. Asian faces are getting more airtime - I think that's a sign of the times." It's in the youth market where this change is most obvious, but it's true across most product categories. For the vast majority of advertisers, local faces are still best. After all, for most products, even multinational brands would prefer to be seen as local (see analysis, page 24). In her current job as head of marketing communications, consumer financial services for OCBC Bank, for example, ex-Giordano marketing manager Rebecca Ang Lee has found that, far from preferring images of American twins, its customers want to see Chinese faces in its marketing. "It's a very Chinese bank, set up in 1932, and most of its customers are Chinese, so all our advertising features Chinese faces, or at least pan-Asian ones," she says. "It's about building long-term relationships with values like trust and sincerity, so it's important to have people who are the same as our customers." "Ask most people," adds Ducray of TBWA, "and they'll tell you that it's already happened. The change is already in place - there might sometimes be a western face, but usually there'll be an Asian one." The number of product areas where western faces still have a cachet, then, is falling. In particular, they're used less often as an exemplar of what is fashionable, and across most of Asia, their influence in the youth market is waning. They might still be used to signify luxury, or when a brand wants to emphasise its global nature. As ever, though, it's about appropriateness to the brand, and the number of brands where it's appropriate to use a western face is falling. And with the increasing cultural confidence of Asian youth, one thing's for certain going forward: the western monopoly on cool is over.

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