Advertising
ASEAN online advertising market
Online advertising numbers are notoriously difficult to estimate in Asia, with some claims of market size at multiples of estimates by others.
This estimate for online adspend in ASEAN, released in December 2008, is the The Yahoo!-Nielsen “Online Industry Review” study.
Here’s how they describe this study:
While there have been some online advertising estimates put forward by different firms in the past, these are mostly ad-hoc, general or cover only specific markets in this region. The Yahoo!-Nielsen “Online Industry Review” study is the first-of-its-kind formal study of the online advertising industry in Southeast Asia and aims to provide media practitioners a critical overview of the expected growth of the online industry, its challenges and potential solutions. The study covers robust two-year forecasts of Search and Display advertising as well as the media landscape overview of the six countries. The findings will help marketers create smarter media plans through a more in-depth understanding of cross media usage behavior of their users.
The table above reveals the forecast expenditure on online advertising across each of the Southeast Asia markets under investigation. The study shows that the online advertising industry in the region is expected to grow more than 60% between 2008 and 2010, across all the included markets. Display advertising will continue to take the lion’s share of the online advertising pie although Search advertising is expected to close the gap in Singapore and Malaysia by 2010. Strong growth is also expected in Search Advertising, particularly between 2008 and 2009 and for the less mature online advertising markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
Popularity: 2% [?]
David Campbell
David Campbell dropped out of high school when he was 18. By the time he was 22 he had founded Fnuky advertising , having already been a General Manager of national ISP, E-Access.
He now works right across the digital platform as an art director, strategist and radio host for Love Digital.
David has also tried his hand at politics, running for positions in the Adelaide city council and instigating nationwide controversy with some of the first ever campaign videos posted on YouTube.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Did Aussies Betray Cadbury Gorilla?
The Cadbury Gorilla advertisement has become an advertising industry icon.
A Gorilla (actually, actor Garon Michael in Gorillla suit) appears on screen to play drums for Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”. For details on the 27-layered animatronic suit (whatever that means) check out the Wikipedia entry.
The ad broke ground for a number of reasons: It had no product and no branding, apart from a 3-second Cadbury logo at the end.
Yet, it quickly became a classic known as “The Cadbury Gorilla” and is credited with turning around Cadury’s fortunes in the wake of a series of recalls and other mishaps.
Now, a new version has been redubbed and launched for the Australian market with a John Farnham song.
A number of people have complained to me - unprompted - that the new version “does not work” and betrays the original.
What do you think? (Both videos below)
Popularity: 4% [?]
Justin Randles
Justin Randles founded the monthly Marketing Magazine and is the Group Managing Director of Marketing Interactive.
He has final responsibility for the company and its brands across all current and future markets and is responsible for the strategic direction.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Normandy Madden
Normandy Madden reports about media and marketing developments in Greater China as a foreign correspondent and Asia Editor for the New York-based Ad Age Group.
Normandy bases herself in the tranquillity of outlying Hong Kong village Shek O with her husband, voice-over artist Reuben M. Her passion for photography and travel is showcased on her personal blog.
As her detailed biography explains, soon after graduating from college she left the U.S. on a one-way ticket and hasn’t looked back since. Her favorite movie is Local Hero and her favorite song is Breathe Me, by Sia Furler.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Michelle Kristula-Green
Now President of Leo Burnett Asia Pacific, Michelle Kristula-Green has lived and worked on four continents, serving a wide range of local and multinational clients during her 25-year career at the company.
She has spent over 20 years working in Asia and currently leads and manages the activity of Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide in Asia, covering 17 offices in 13 countries with over 1,400 employees. Under her leadership, Leo Burnett’s AP operations won top industry awards in Asia and in the world.
In addition to her role in Leo Burnett, she also chairs Publicis Groupe’s China CRIB board, leading the development of the overall Publicis Groupe strategy for China, with specific focus on human resources, M&A, inter-agency collaboration and market expansion.
Before assuming her current post in 2004, Michelle ran a multinational agency in Japan, serving as President and representative director of Beacon Communications, a partnership with Dentsu that resulted from the merger of Leo Burnett and D’Arcy’s operations in Japan. She was responsible for the integration of these Publicis Groupe sister companies into one agency.
Michelle has created thought leadership programs, including ‘Voices at the bottom of the pyramid’, an extensive study undertaken in China and India, looking at the world of the low income consumer and how best to market brands and services to them.
As part of the initiative, Leo Burnett produced two documentary films, putting a human face to the numbers. Michelle was also led two in-depth studies of Asian female and male consumers, ‘Asian Miss Understood’ and ‘Mister Misinterpreted’.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Adventures in PR: Singapore stops mock protest
How do you say Irony in Singaporean? (Irony-lah?)
A mock-protest in Singapore by bone nutrient brand Anlene backfired when police intervened, Adoi reports.
About 20 men marched in ’mock protest’ along Singapore’s Orchard Road on Sunday afternoon to complain about not being able to take part a women-only run sponsored by Anlene.
A helpful member of the public alerted the police of the ”protests” and the PR stunt was halted when organizers could not produce a permit. Police are investigating the incident.
This is not the first such incident in Singapore. (When will PR people ever learn!).
Excerpts from blogger Ephraim Loy’s experience promoting a national youth festival (photo above) last year.
Our team had the same idea. Police requested to see all our placards. They wanted to know our route, whether we would be shouting any slogans, how the placards were to be fixed onto our bodies etc. By the end, our interest died down.
But we still did it. The Police advised that no permit was needed if we stayed in groups of two to three.
Since it was the PR company organizing the event - David Ketchum, CEO of Upstream Asia - who alerted me of this incident, it shows that all publicity is good publicity. (And yes, it also shows I am falling for the trap, but it is a funny story!)
Popularity: 7% [?]
Joi Ito: Twitter makes money in Japan
The US/Europe-based Twitter craze has plenty of users, but no apparent revenue streams
For those not aware, Twitter is the most successful micro-blogging/presence product in the world of Web 2.0. By allowing message postings of only up to 160 characters and delivering messages over SMS systems, Twitter has gained an influential user base created huge amounts of buzz in the tech world. The problem, however, is how to pay for the cost of all those SMS messages. (For now, it appears to be paid for by the largesse of Venture Capitalists.)
In Japan, however, revenue is built into the model from day one
Entrepreneur Joi Ito of Digital Garage explains how - in sharp contrast to Twitter in the USA - he launched Twitter in Japan with a revenue stream from advertising.
Commercial messages must be opted-in, short and engaging
Toyota is the first advertiser and they have a small square banner on the homepage telling Twitter-ers about the Toyota Twitterstream. The idea is to get companies to run a Twitterfeed encouraging their fans can follow. Fans get to see what is happening at the company and the companies can see who their fans are and offer them special events and offers. The key for companies is to have a Twitterfeed that remains interesting enough to keep customers involved.
To have advertising, it must be included from the start of the service
Since Twitter in Japan had advertisements from the beginning, people could not object to a breaking of the social contract, Joi said. “Usually it is just a small number of very vocal people who speak against a move such as this,” Joi said. “We had a few grumbles from people who had used the US-version, but nothing significant.”
Social media CAN support advertising
If you look at last.fm - a company which Joi said he has been involved - the stream of music sent over to like-minded listeners can be seen as passive advertising for the groups whose music is shared. Similar to a broadcast radio, last.fm allows musicians to advertise to you, but they are doing so via a social media system. “The last.fm system becomes a kind of automated word of mouth from one friend to another.” Another example of social media successfully incorporating advertising is Blyk, the British-based mobile phone company that gives away free minutes in exchange for users interacting with advertising. One of the most frequent requests on Blyk’s help line is people requesting more interaction with the advertisements.
But advertisers (and musicians) need to socialize their messages
The difficulty is that Toyota - and any other advertiser using Twitter - will be forced to produce material that actually interests users. The level of tolerance for old-style push advertising will be very low among the Twitterati - and they will not hide their views. A good example how to do it right was a GM blog run by a vice chairman - perhaps called fast lane (anyone know?) - that came across as a social gathering of people chatting around a fireside with the man making the product they adored. The key is striking the right conversational tone.
Could Wikipedia take ads?
If Wikipedia took ads, much of the fundraising for infrastructure would be unnecessary. It is, however, extremely difficult to convince a community to alter the social contract. The Wikia commmunity, on the other hand, accepts ads relevant to their narrow topics. If you are the Buick club, you are happy to have GM ads on your site. It feels like sponsorship, like a racecar driver with ads on his jacket. Advertising within social media needs to thought of in terms of team sponsorship-style approach.Note: Apologies for the background noise in the video. It was friends at Martin Varsavsky’s Techtalk Menorca playing the WiiFit.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Adam Schokora
Adam Schokora is a Shanghai-based Chinese Internet watcher who leads Edelman Digital in China. He also contributes to a number of blogs, including the wildly popular Danwei.org, with posts on Internet trends, developments in digital communications, media and his internet video show “The Shanghai Beat”.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Twitter in China (Cloned of course)
The Pacific Ocean appeared to protect China from the Twitter craze hitting the US and Europe over the last year.
No more!
(Note for Luddite friends: Twitter is a San Francisco micro-blogging phenome that has thousands of people sending 160 character sms messages to each other. It is weird, yes, but also somewhat addictive.)
China has Twitter-ers both in English and in Chinese, but the local specialty of knock-offs has already kicked in. Adam J. Schokora of Edelman Digital speaks in this video about Twitter knock-offs Fanfou, Jiwai and the biggest of them all, Zuosa.
Schokora estimates that while there are only 7,000 Chinese-language Twitter-ers, Zuosa has more than 600,000.
Jiwai has the best looking homepage, but none of them have Twhirl-like offline client. How do you say “Business Opportunity” in Chinese?
To follow China Twitters in English, check out the Chinalist compiled by Christine Lu.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Upstream Asia
Upstream Asia is Hong Kong-based Asia-focussed public relations company with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei, as well as a branded affiliate in Tokyo.
Upstream Asia is listed on London’s AIM.
Popularity: 6% [?]
David Ketchum
David Ketchum is CEO of Upstream Asia, an Asia-focussed public relations company with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei, as well as a branded affiliate in Tokyo.
Ketchum has worked for 23 years in branding, marketing and communications, including posts with Hill and Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller and Calvin Klein.
He is chairman of the Asia Digital Marketing Association; chairman of the Council of Public Relations Firms in Hong Kong; and author of Big M, Little m Marketing New strategies for a New Asia.
Popularity: 6% [?]
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Thomas Crampton was a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times for more than a decade, reporting from five continents, writing a column on Asia and covering Asian politics, economics and culture. Currently based in Hong Kong, he writes here about China, the Internet and New Media seen from Asia, while also advising companies on digital communication strategies. For more information click here...
