Highlights from the first China Media Agency Roundtable in Shanghai

Michael O’Neill, editor of Campaign Asia-Pacific moderated the roundtable, which revolved around hot topics ranging from the continuing value of online versus more traditional media forms, to the sustained push to dig deeper into lower-tier cities; and the attitudes of clients toward digital spend to the scarcity of talent to service growing demand for digital offerings.

Here are some notable quotes from the attendees:

Annie Hsiao, president, Maxus China

"Actually China is just like Europe: we have the Chinese central government and the local provincial governments. The growth momentum will be from lower-tier markets, and the characteristics of China's different tiers will need different executions and strategic directions."   

Bessie Lee, CEO, GroupM China

"The lower-tier cities in China are something new to multinational clients who believe the myth about China being one country. They only realise, after we break it down for them, the fact that the lower-tiers have progressed at a faster pace than the first-tiers. Consumers residing in lower-tier cities are more involved in technology than the first-tier consumers."

Cary Huang, managing director, UM China

"Digital may give you additional revenue, but it's not going to replace traditional media."

S Y Lau, president, online media, Tencent

"The cultural dimensions of the media and advertising industries are not that HR-savvy. At the end of the day, the biggest motivation that people would want for their contributions of 16-hour days is respect. We should talk more about people than about numbers."

Jeff Kwek, head of strategy & branding, online media, Tencent

"The long tail of music and movies will be applied to the long tail of media. The days of hits and blockbusters are gone - 'big' will be challenged."

Jonathan Hsia, general manager, Starcom China

"Data from diverse tier 4 and 5 cities are not available. Even the more syndicated research providers like Nielsen have not been ahead of the curve, and we're starting to hear more voices from marketers and agencies to focus on that a little more."

Seth Grossman, managing director, Carat China

"A city called Ping Ding Shan in Henan province with 5.2 million people - a bigger population than Singapore - is not very much talked about. But it represents a meaningful incremental revenue opportunity to clients. If they spend a little investment on their nominal awareness of the city at this point, they can get a rapid build quite quickly, whereas the cost of growing in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou is becoming a challenge because of media inflation."

Steven Chang, CEO, Zenith Optimedia

"No doubt, digital developments are what the clients need, and particularly the scarcity of digital talent is affecting us. There are basically not enough talents with digital experience."

----

For a full report on the roundtable, see the November edition of Campaign Asia-Pacific.