Hopes rise for a brighter digital future

Collaboration, communication and continuing conversation are the buzzwords surrounding the outlook for digital media in the coming year. This was the message from industry leaders from the fields of public relations, internet portal, media and advertising who came together for the Digital Downloaded roundtable.

“Certainly, digital will continue to drive everything in 2009 - what we’ve seen with the rise of the internet and digital is nothing short of a revolution,” says Tarun Deo, managing director and partner of marketing development and tech group for Fleishman-Hillard.

Also upbeat is Amanda King, president and managing partner at Tribal DDB Worldwide, Asia-Pacific. King suggests that the digital market will be stronger in 2009, because clients have moved on and understand the medium better. “Next year, the real stars will be sitting up, waking up to this powerful area.”

“From a marketer and agency perspective, marketers in 2008 have been more knowledgeable and have taken bolder risks,” adds Dan Rosen, director of global sales, Yahoo Asia-Pacific. “Traditional marketers want to be seen as innovative and mobile.”

The same can be said of those clients in media agency OMD’s portfolio, according to Jason Lima, digital director for OMD.

“Clients like to seem to be knowledgeable, and like to be seen to be mobile - but it’s always been seen that digital gets the runt of the budget with no accountability,” he says, adding that 2009 may see a turnaround as media agencies endeavour to demystify and uncomplicate digital to more traditional clients.

Indeed, the general consensus at the table is that the use of digital media as a platform for brand communication will definitely grow in 2009, despite a potential drop in adspend due to the credit crunch.

Some even go as far as to predict double-digit growth as clients and the industry develop a better understanding of this ‘new’ media. “The economic downturn will unquestionably be advantageous for the digital scene,” says Oz Aksugur, worldwide COO of BLUE.

Aksugur points out that Asia in 2008 was exceptionally strong, seeing unprecedented amounts of client investment pouring into digital. “Without a single cold call, we were able to grow by 70 per cent in 2008, from an already sizeable position in 2007,” he says.

Digital’s advantage over traditional media platforms, and the reason for the financial shift to digital, is its effectiveness of interaction, argues Richard Fraser, regional managing director of Proximity Asia.

“Companies are already indicating a significant shift in marketing spend to digital in 2009,” says Fraser. “They are increasingly looking at ways to engage and involve consumers - motivated by the erosion in effectiveness of mass media. The online platform is increasingly becoming the primary interface for brands and their consumers, and there should be a heightened desire to ensure the online opportunity is maximised.”

However, according to King, digital media in the year ahead must ensure it is keeping up with fast-changing online consumer habits. “Attention spans are decreasing significantly due to multi-tasking, with a string of information coming in at one time. Therefore, we have a nano second to grab that attention.”
Consumer knowledge will be crucial in this respect, although King notes that the understanding of behaviour metrics is not as good in the region when compared with markets such as the US. “As such, finding placement for your message at the right time can be difficult,” she says.

Rosen points out the need for a range of engagement strategies, as consumer reactions are variable at different times of the day. “For the morning, messages should be short and to the point as the consumer is busy and hasn’t the time to interact,” he says. “At night, video is appropriate as consumers have more time to engage.”

“The market moves so quickly; there are millions of micro-sites people go to once and never go to again,” adds King. “What do we do for attention? Clients want perception.”

But a better understanding of the consumer is just one aspect of the digital challenge in the year ahead. For Fraser, relevance is going to be a key driver. He argues that search will play a critical role as brands need to ensure a high degree of relevance and value in order to gain and maintain consumer’s attention and engagement.

All at the table agree that search engines will move forward from the directory format to a more creative web of information.

Rosen says that the changes will be gradual: “Google and Yahoo are making small changes [to the search engine]; you don’t notice but they are incremental and tactical. Yahoo will add more structure into search results, linking maps and news images. We expect it to be more organised. We are getting there as quickly as possible.”

Turochas Fuad, head of mobile for Yahoo Connected Life, Southeast Asia, says that new technology will be leading the development of search. Mobile voice search, for example, is progressing to the point where it is being tweaked to accommodate regional accents.

Search aside, another key area of engagement is the social media space. Deo suggests that the internet is unique in that it allows anyone to be heard and have share-of-voice. “This is very different and clearly places the consumer centrestage,” he says.

“Couple that with the consumer’s ability to be part of social networks - where people with similar views can congregate - and you have a huge shift in consumer habits and behaviour. This is why we tell clients that irrespective of your engagement with these groups, they will still talk about you. So, be part of the conversation.”

Unsurprisingly, Deo sees the public relations industry taking a central role. “Our business is centered on building relationships, fostering conversation and allowing others to carry our message. My prediction is that you’re going to see greater global influence by communications agencies such as ours, as demand for our core capabilities continue to increase across all communication fields.”

Deo is not alone in seeing social media networks as one of the growth platforms in the region in 2009. “In fact, I see social networks reaching a wider populace in 2009, with older audiences adopting the platforms,” says Fraser.

Being able to monetise social networks and user participation is, however, an altogether different story.

“The growing voice of disapproval aimed at advertisers and the platforms themselves regarding unsolicited or loosely targeted advertising will gain momentum,” Fraser adds. “Smart marketers will recognise that moving from advertisers to enablers will be the key to endearing consumers, driving advocacy and affinity, and subsequently affecting sales.”

Aksugur agrees. “In Asia, consumers rely on peer-to-peer advice more today than ever before,” he says. “It is beyond the discussions about e-commerce and online transactions. Our offline brands are increasingly built and demolished online by our consumers. Command-and-conquer branding is dying, being replaced by peer-to-peer branding.”

While social media is a cause for optimism, the roundtable was less excited by mobile, agreeing that there have been very few interesting breakthroughs in regards to mobile media. “We could be doing something that isn’t boring,” says King. “We could be showing 2009 as a year of breakthrough work.”

Given the rapid growth of mobile in the region, the time is certainly right to make a breakthrough. Yahoo’s Fuad highlights the sheer weight of numbers involved.

“There will be three times more mobile phones than PCs by 2010,” he says, arguing that the industry needs to develop a business solution and the right platform.

Even so, the current financial climate might make such business solutions difficult to achieve. Due to tightening budgets, 2009 could be the wrong time to expect too much inovation in the mobile field, especially in terms of methodology or concept.

Indeed, this may be true of the digital sector as a whole. While clients may finally be understanding the possibilites of the platform, it is unclear where the great new ideas will spring from. Growth areas such as search, social media, rich media advertisements and behavioural targeting have made a big impact over the last few years, and 2009 may simply not be as exciting in respect of new developments.

To possibly counter this, Lima says the digital media industry needs to focus more on continuing the conversation with the consumer regarding brand communication.

Clients also need to understand that not everything can be about tracking to drive revenue and return on adspend. They have to realise that it is also about the ability to build the brand.

In addition, 2009 could be the year when marketing strategies finally become more holistic, helped by the drawing of more clients into the digital realm. Rosen, for one, suggests that campaigns should “not be seen as online or offline but as a whole.”

Fleishman-Hillard also does not see a division between online and offline, digital or analogue. “All channels of communications are integrated into a single framework of communications,” say Deo.

And, according to Fraser, if agencies are not moving towards integration already, “they are well behind the eight ball.”

“It’s not an easy road but it is critical to get down it as quickly as possible, he says. “Non-digital agencies need to evolve or die.

“Creative departments should be integrating digital creatives into their team and digital should be becoming ‘creative’ - not digital creative.”