Lean Times Asia
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Lean times suggest more advertising will go online.
Transcript of Lean Times Asia
Dear editor,I’m hearing more and more abouthow bad the economy will be nextyear and how severely businesseswill be affected.
People are inviting a depressioninto their lives without thinking ofhow easily it can be avoided.Afterevery economic downturn, therewill be a significant upturn.Under-standing customers now is criticalto best serve them in the boomtimes.While I understand budgetsare being cut, collecting consumerdata in the digital age is extremelycost-efficient.
Traditional and digital marketersshould recognise the importance ofdigital word-of-mouth, which has
taken on a whole new meaning andis no longer limited to gossip aroundthe water-cooler. When customersbuzz online, the world is listening.Through social media, consumersare becoming increasingly powerfulin determining the future of brands.Capitalise on the digital opinionleaders, and place the marketingfunction in their hands. Throughtheir word-of-mouth and brand rec-ommendations, they may becomeyour best, most affordable market-ing manager.Peter Steyn,MD,Aha! Research
Dear editor,I read with interest WPP’s decisionto ‘Batten down the hatches’
(Media, 30 October). At DDB,we’re not in denial about the stormclouds on the horizon,however webelieve that,no matter the prevail-ing environment, talented peopleremain just that.We’re unwaveringin our belief that talent is the ulti-mate resource of any creative en-terprise.
DDB is resolute in its commit-ment to the identification, recruit-ment and nurturing of talent and,during challenging times,probablymore so. We always have and al-ways will continue to invest in nur-turing our people and hiring thebest in the industry.
So,if you’re feeling a little left outin the cold at your current agency,consider joining one that believesin its core product:people.Craig Lonnee,regional talent MD,DDB Asia-Pacific
22 Media 13 November 2008
OPINION 1
Dear editor,I would like to add to the recent ar-ticle ‘Lean times call for creativethinking at agencies’ (Media, 16October.
Asia follows (and often lags be-hind) North American and Euro-pean markets, and this financialcrisis has only just reached Asianshores.At Oriented Media, we op-erate a publisher network with afootprint that is 60 per cent Ameri-can and 20 per cent European.Even accounting for seasonal vari-ations, we have seen online CPMrates in these markets recentlydrop to 60 per cent of last year’s fig-ures. Interestingly, the underlyingCPM rates remain stable, but fillrates have dropped from 80 percent to 20 per cent.
Over the past few weeks, a num-ber of US blogs have covered howRon Conway, Sequoia Capital andBenchmark Capital — three keySilicon Valley venture capitalists— have prepped the entrepreneursthey have invested in on how tosurvive a major recession. This iscompelling reading.The highlights
are: 2009 is going to be an excep-tionally difficult time for advertis-ing revenues; this is not going to bea bounce-back recovery but a longrecovery (my reading is that we arein for a lean two to five years);con-serve cash now and extend the run-way before it is too late;and finally,cash is king.
So what does this mean for theAsian online market? The reces-sion will force marketers and theiragencies to do things differentlyand to take different approaches.Unlike the cost-cutting exercisescurrently being carried out, this isnot going to happen overnight.
The internet is not going to stopgrowing as recession hits us and ascorporations reduce headcount tosurvive. Online advertising in themature markets of the NorthernHemisphere typically accounts for20 to 25 per cent of total ad budgets.Here in Asia, online advertising istypically under five per cent of theoverall budget. Given that ROI islikely to be the short-term focus ofadvertisers, and given the greatermeasurability of the internet, this
imbalance will be re-addressed tothe detriment of TV and print ad-vertising.
In Asia, premium and blind adnetworks are still in their infancy.There are no companies, such asAdvertising.com, Gorilla Nation,Tribal Fusion, Revenue Science,Unanimis and ValueClick sourcingads from across Asia.The Asian adnetwork market is still very frag-mented.There are few affiliate net-works either. In the same way thatthe quantitative search specialists(those using quantitative algo-rithms) are now moving into andinvesting in Asia,this recession willopen up online advertising oppor-tunities for a host of existing US/European and Asia-Pacific ad net-works and affiliate groups capital-ising on the Asian online upswing.As your article states, mediaagency clients will be forced to “re-evaluate how they’re spendingtheir budgets and to reconsiderwhether they should be doingthings differently”.Peter Burton,operations director,Oriented Media
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 23/F The Centrium, 60 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong [email protected]
Lean times suggest more advertising will go online
Now is the time to get ready for the next boom
The downturn has notstopped DDB’s hiring
Asia-Pacific PR Awards 2008
Date 20 November
Venue Conrad Hotel,
Hong Kong
Website www.prawardsasia.com
Contact Iris Mui; +852 3175 1912;
GreenWorks
Date 20 November
Venue Conrad Hotel, Hong Kong
Website www.thegreenworks.asia
Contact Sam Strauss;+65 6579 0543
ad:tech
Date 25 to 26 November
Venue Shanghai Convention Centre
Website ad-tech.com
Contact Julia Kwan;+65 6513 0600;
Digital Media Awards
Date 25 November
Venue Grand Hyatt
Shanghai
Website digitalmediaawardsasia.com
ContactVic Ho;+65 6579 0538;
Digital Media – A Masterclass
Date 10 December
Venue St Regis, Singapore
Website digitalmediamasterclass.asia
Contact Sam Strauss;+65 6579 0543
Agency of the Year Awards
Date 10 December
Venue St Regis, Singapore
Website www.aoyawards.com
Contact [email protected]
Leaders in Brand Loyalty Congress
Date 23 to 25 February 2009
Venue TBA,Singapore
Website www.iqpc.sg/asia.html
Contact Jamie Goh;+65 6722 9388
Creative Marketing Strategies
Date 25 to 26 February 2009
VenueTBA,Tokyo
Website marcusevans.com
Contact Esther Wong;+603 2723
6736; [email protected]
DIARY
Lai loses out, but maybe the winner after all
Media, 23 F The Centrium, 60 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong35A Kreta Ayer Road, Singapore 089000Email: [email protected]: Media.asia
Editor-in-chief Atifa Hargrave-Silk (+852 3175 1933) Managing editor David Tiltman(1931) Deputy editor Arun Sudhaman (1983) Features editor Michael O’Neill (1986)News editor Tracey Furniss (1984) Senior reporter Asiya Bakht (+65 6579 0536) Reporters Benjamin Li (1938), David Blecken (1941), Kenny Lim (+65 6579 0535),Anita Davis (+65 6579 0534) Editorial assistant Jane Leung (1965) Sub-editor KarenJackman (1940) Advertisement director Stuart Adamson (1921) Advertisement managerNicola Clarke (1988) Greater China account director Joanne To (1987) Regional salesmanager (Singapore) John Kovacevic (+65 6579 0532) Sales and marketing co-ordinatorHanielyin Wong (1920) Group art director Noel De Guzman Senior designers JennyOwen, Louise Liu, Nicky Lui Production supervisors Doris Ng, Eve Ng Group circula-tion/subscription manager Jessie Ho-Avery Circulation manager David Wu Director ofevents Sarah Moore Online publisher Etienne Maccario Design director Wayne Ford Editorial director Dominic Mills Managing directorTim Waldron
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It is hard to keep Jimmy Lai out of the press.No sooner had
his NextMagazine taken tabloid titillation to its logical
conclusion by featuring a copulating couple on its cover,
reports began to filter through that Lai was mulling a
liaison of a rather different sort.
In bidding for the venerable China Times Group,Lai was
perhaps hoping to drive the final nail into the coffin of
Taiwan’s largest newspaper group.After all,it was the
launch of Apple Daily in 2003 that has done so much to
hasten China Times’ decline from being the island’s
dominant broadsheet to a newspaper haemorrhaging
advertising dollars and readers.That Lai’s bid was pipped
at the eleventh hour by Tsai Eng-meng,chairman of
China’s largest rice-cracker maker,has raised some
eyebrows,mainly because Tsai is a newcomer to the media
industry.For Lai,the outcome is disappointing but hardly
disastrous.Not only will Tsai’s media inexperience work in
Lai’s favour,but it is thought that the snack food mogul
paid a considerable premium for China Times.The paper
also tried to ensure that it remained in its current form for
the next 10 years.Given its urgent need for restructuring,
this condition may yet hand Lai a handsome advantage as
he plots further growth for his Taiwan media operations.
Ultimately,it is likely that political forces may have
conspired to prevent Lai from wresting too much control
of Taiwan’s newspaper market.His ability to turn this
outsider status into an advantage should not be
discounted.Despite losing the battle for China Times,Lai
may yet have the last laugh when the dust settles.
Education is key to Chinese mobileAnnouncing his agency’s joint venture with iconmobile,
Chris Reitermann,president of OgilvyOne China,said the
only thing holding back China’s mobile industry has been
the absence of “someone who knows what they’re doing”.
It’s a telling observation — not least because OgilvyOne,
as the region’s biggest digital specialist,must share some of
the blame.Given the user numbers,mobile should be a
major ad medium in China.Yet it remains a fragmented
and complex industry dominated by operators that are
half-hearted about the medium’s marketing potential and
by firms seeking to make money quickly through mass
SMS campaigns.One of iconmobile’s biggest challenges
will be educating the market. Opinions expressed are not those of the publisher.Letters may be edited for content and clarity before publication
