CONTENT MARKETING ASIA

Zaheer Nooruddin

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Best conversation in the feature film. Ever.

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“My essential gadgets are a Macbook Pro laptop, an iPhone 5 and a BlackBerry Z10. I’m a bit of a tech geek, although more than technical features, my buying decisions are based heavily on design. I enjoy fine aesthetic when to comes to hardware, an operating system, and with the apps that I use. Privacy is also important to me. I do my research and I look for gadgets that offer me the best, most seamless experiences and will add value to my life and to how I work. At the same time I am always on the lookout for the “next best” thing. For power dressing – now that everyone in Singapore has a smartphone, and tablets and ultra-thin laptops are commonplace here, I’m thinking that wearable technology is cool – the Nike Fuel Band and…Google Glasses! Gadgets are such a key part of our lives today that the gadgets that we decide to use (or not) most definitely say something about us as individuals and, in the context of work, as professionals. And yes, this includes how we socialize online – that is, through which social networks. There is a lot to be gleaned from how certain people adopt and interact with technologies as they go about living their lives.”

-Zaheer Nooruddin

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The Holmes Report, Arun Sudhaman 21 Jan 2013

The consumer PR business has remained relatively robust throughout the lingering economic downturn, thanks to a more central role that rewards storytelling, content creation and direct relationships with consumers, often via social...

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2013 Trends Forecast: Consumer Marketing Asia

The Holmes Report, Arun Sudhaman  21 Jan 2013

The consumer PR business has remained relatively robust throughout the lingering economic downturn, thanks to a more central role that rewards storytelling, content creation and direct relationships with consumers, often via social media.

Against that backdrop, the Holmes Report invited consumer marketing experts from around the world to help us compile a list of five key trends that determine the consumer PR outlook for the year ahead. We also asked Coca-Cola Latin America VP Javier Sanchez Lamelas to provide his perspective as a client-side marketer at one of the world’s iconic consumer brands.

1. The power of sport Last year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games demonstrated that smart campaigns, allied to a responsive, realtime activation approach, can drive genuine returns in return for sponsorship investment. Numerous brands benefited from the London Olympics, notably Adidas, British Airways and P&G. And while 2013 is considered an ‘empty’ year as far as sporting events are concerned, it seems clear that sports marketing is inexorably moving up the marketing agenda, evolving beyond a vanity vehicle towards a genuine engagement opportunity. Catalyst managing director Bret Werner expects brands to use 2013 to plan for the major events in 2014 - the Fifa World Cup in Brazil, a New York Superbowl, and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

2. Content crashes the party The rise of content creation is not exactly a new phenomenon, but 2013 is set to be the year when the PR discipline fully wakes up to the opportunities on offer. Pushing this along, says M&C Saatchi PR CEO Molly Aldridge, is increasing client demand for content platforms that span a range of channels, whether editorial, digital, mobile, or advertising. “A recent example of this is the new Peroni client that we now work on across the group,” explains Aldridge. “This focuses on branded content and the creative platform above and beyond the actual discipline that supports it and smart brand operators are thinking more and more about creative content first and then the core disciplines needed to push out to the right target groups.”

3. Virtual retail The media shift towards mobile and tablets means that consumers are increasingly making buying decisions on the go. This, says Waggener-Edstrom Asia-Pacific digital strategies lead Zaheer Nooruddin, means that “the marketing communications mix needs to be heavily skewed towards mobile and agencies need to pivot” by thinking “which device” when determining the audience and channel mix. In addition, says Nooruddin, smart brands will focus on online shopping experiences at the expense of physical retail stores. Flagship stores may become grander but much more resource will be devoted to socially-enabled e-commerce platforms.

4. Creativity at all costs If the PR industry hopes to realise its ambition of becoming a central brand development partner, then it has to address a potential creative deficit that was unearthed by the Holmes Report’s Creativity In PR study. P&G CMO Marc Pritchard, who knows a thing or two about successful campaigns, probably put it best when he told us last year that “the PR industry needs to push itself to come up with the big ideas.” A clearer understanding of how insight and planning can drive idea generation would be no bad place to start.

5. Social purpose Convergence may be the latest overused marketing term, but the trends it represents remain real. In particular, the continued fusion of brand and corporate communications will be most apparent where social purpose is concerned, responding to increasing consumer demand for tangible values. “Corporate leaders will attach themselves more closely to the big social issues, particularly as we get closer to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline and the debate over their replacement intensifies,” says Salt CEO Andrew Last. “This in turn will put pressure on consumer-facing brands to step up to the mark, to deliver on the rhetoric of the C-suite.” Last adds that gender equality will also become a much bigger factor in 2013, “creating opportunities for brands that can demonstrate to their consumers that they share their values in this area, and serious reputational issues for corporations who aren’t seen to be doing enough to tackle equality inside or outside of their business.” 

In-house view: “Marketing finally dies…” Javier Sanchez Lamelas, VP marketing, Coca-Cola Latin America

"New marketing & communications trends are based on Darwinism. It means that the only marketing that will survive at the long round is NOT the one supported by the biggest check; or the most pervasive multi-media strategy and not even the one with the tightest strategic fit to the brand it supports. The marketing that will survive above others is the most adaptable and capable of reaching highest virility, ‘rewatchability’, and impact and consumer engagement. It is the one that creates conversations and reaches fastest top of mind.  All the rest will disappear like dinosaurs did a few million years ago, but this process might take some time until marketing finally dies. But it will, and all this is happening because the environment – internet, consumer’s connections, social networks, mobility, etc – has changed our lives dramatically forever".

Original full article here: http://www.holmesreport.com/featurestories-info/12892/2013-PR-Trend-Forecast-Consumer-Marketing.aspx?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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Content marketing principles for Asian brands in 2013

Good read:

“James O’Brien at ‘Mashable’ talks about the value of content marketing and absolutely hits the nail on the head; he states:

The idea central to content marketing is that a brand must give something valuable to get something valuable in return.

To really engage an audience and build your brand image through content marketing you must give something back; that could be useful information, inspiring ideas or in many cases, entertainment!

In almost every post about content marketing there will be some mention of Red Bull and with good reason; Red Bull takes content marketing to a whole new level and the success of their content campaign is extraordinary.

Applying These Principles To Your Strategy

The Red Bull content strategy is highly complex and involves many branches but for a small business looking to improve their brand image and rankings through content marketing, this is simply impossible to emulate. What we can take from the Red Bull strategy, however, is the basic principles and then apply these principles to smaller, more simplistic strategies.

Red Bull’s strategy is very simple in principle: CONTENT MARKETING IS DESIGNED TO PROMOTE AND INCREASE AWARENESS OF A PRODUCT BUT IS NEVER DIRECTLY CORRELATED WITH THE PRODUCT ITSELF. The basic concept can be seen in an array of Red Bull’s published content: thousands will watch a video of a man jumping from an unnerving height in a wingsuit branded with the famous bulls but would a video about energy receive the same number of views? Of course not!

Obviously a small plumbing company in Northampton won’t be producing high quality videos showcasing extreme sports but that doesn’t mean that their content strategy shouldn’t provide valuable, useful information.

Yes, the content strategies of smaller businesses in less ‘extreme’ industries won’t be quite as bold as Red Bull but it’s all about finding the right niche and being realistic.

What will your audience actually be looking for? What will attract the biggest viewing numbers but more importantly, what content will attract the most viewers that are likely to convert into customers? It would be pointless, for example, to produce highly entertaining and humorous posts about recent celebrity antics that attract 200 readers a month for a company selling carpet cleaning products!

So what does all of this tell us about the state of content marketing in 2013? It means that we all need to step our game up and think further than rankings. When it’s been proven how much value content marketing can bring to an SEO campaign and to a company as a whole, the question that remains is: why isn’t everyone doing it? Let’s take a leaf out of Red Bull’s book of content marketing wonders!”

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Original source of this content, reposted here, no copyright infringement intended. To read more: http://www.seo-creare.co.uk/seo-blog/creative-content/content-marketing-more-than-an-seo-tool.html#ixzz2IOm4jup2

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#2013

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#content LEARN

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2013 digital trends

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The Innovation of Search - from LeWeb 2012

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Lack of Company Strategy Frustrates Digital Talent : Campaign Asia Pacific reports

This article appeared in Campaign Asia Pacific on December 14, 2012 and has been re-posted here.

Campaign Asia Pacific

By Emily Tan on Dec 14, 2012 filed under Marketing, Hong Kong

ASIA-PACIFIC: Digital marketing talent is in high demand across the region, but part of the reason companies are finding it so hard to recruit talent is that their stated requirements are at odds with the actual job offered, according to recruitment firm Randstad.

“Many companies say they need people for digital marketing, and in particular, social media but often they have no strategy in place or know what they want the person they’ve hired to do,” said Brien Keegan, director of Randstad Hong Kong.

Often, he said, companies end up hiring someone to “build a Facebook page” without first determining if a Facebook page is what the company needs. These companies also prefer not to hire digital talent at a strategic level, however digital marketers feel they need to be able to control the company’s digital strategy–leading to a gap in expectations.

“Our World of Work report for example, finds that companies in Hong Kong are looking for middle managers to focus more on execution and tactical duties. However digital marketers prefer to control strategy and to not be involved in tactical operations and execution,” said Keegan.

The upshot of it all is that companies are hiring technical experts to execute a strategy they don’t yet have but are refusing to hire talent who can build that strategy. As a result of this disconnect between employer demands and employee expectations, talent across all sectors (not just digital marketing) are discontented.

According to Randstad’s World of Work report, 58 per cent of employees across Asia-Pacific expect to leave their jobs either this year or next. Considering that 68 per cent of companies expect skilled knowledge workers to make up the majority of their workforce in the next five years, and that 51 per cent believe ageing workforces will impact businesses negatively in the next decade, the region could be headed for a talent crisis, said Randstad.

“It’s a ticking time bomb and companies need to wise up that retention is as important as talent acquisitions,” said Keegan.

A major challenge to retention is that that many organisations aren’t willing train, coach or develop talent. This reluctance seems self damaging considering 46 per cent of employers feel that staff are leaving because of insufficient training and development. On the talent side, 48 per cent of employees agree that there is a lack of opportunity for development and training in organisations.

“For corporations looking to grow in new areas such as digital, it’s a good idea to look at available talent and see who is interested, passionate and willing to be trained,” said Keegan. The advantage of this approach is you gain talent who already understand your business and its goals but now have the requisite skills to fulfil the job.

Corporate reluctance to train talent however, could be partly due to a lack of effective and easily available training programmes in this sector–that don’t take too much time commitment. Jonathan Lang, director of Decoded Asia, hopes to fill this gap by importing the training initiative from London to Asia.

Decoded was first established in London last year by former ad creative Steve Henry, ex Ogilvy planners Kathryn Parsons and Richard Peters and award-winning web developer Alisdair Blackwell. The programme promises to teach participants to code HTML5, CCS and JavaScript in a day.

While Decoded is largely patronised by the agencies in London, Lang found that there was greater interest client-side for the upcoming 'pop-up-shop' initiative in late January next year.

“Decoded won’t turn people into expert programmers in a day, but it provides attendees with the fluency to talk to developers and to understand what’s possible and what isn’t,” said Lang. Clients he said, are interested because they realise that a better grasp on digital would help them make better business decisions in the space and around cost control.

While programmes like Decoded answer the need for technical skills, it’s the soft skills that are most in demand in Asia-Pacific, said Keegan. “Any digital marketer today needs strong communications skills as often they will have to work across teams and organisations.”

Talent who gravitate naturally to programming often don’t come equipped with these communications skills and require strong leadership and nurturing to reach their full potential.

Organisations in Asia are facing a transitory stage between the old way of marshalling low-skilled workers and the need to change over to leading a team of skilled professionals, said Keegan. “At present, 34 per cent of employees don’t trust their leaders, either because they regard them as unable to handle current day problems, or because they’ve lost touch with their bosses.”

There is also a persistent “hangover” from the financial Tsunami where many employees were laid off, particularly in the financial sectors leading to a lack of trust in upper management.

“Based on feedback, leaders who want to earn the respect and trust of their teams need to be present and involved in the trenches,” said Keegan.

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Marketing : Digital, Social, Mobile 2013 [INFOGRAPHICS]

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Mobile TV in Asia Pacific | the latest trends

As Mobile TV continues to expand what trends are you seeing and what impact is this development is having on advertisers? For instance, new advertising concepts, or advertising aimed at a particular market segment.

Zaheer Nooruddin: With more smartphones expected to be shipped than other mobile phones in 2013, according to new analyst reports, and the uptake of smart phone devices, combined with more robust connectivity and better, more varied content across many Asian markets – especially in markets like China and India – advertisers must take note. A fundamental shift is taking place in how Asian consumers consume content and engage with brands, powered by social media and smart mobile adoption. I think advertisers and markets across the board, from B2B to B2C, across all industry market segments, but especially with youth markets, have major opportunities with Mobile TV finally becoming a viable reality and moving towards a tipping point in several emerging Asian markets.

  Where do the new opportunities exist for advertisers?

Zaheer Nooruddin: New opportunities exist at so many levels for advertisers – from the type of content that can be created and integrated into consumer campaigns, to an entirely fresh advertising ecosystem that is quickly becoming available and reaching maturity with the mobile platform.

  Are advertisers having any involvement with the programme content or using programme content to position products? For example, rather than traditional advertising, products that feature in lifestyle programmes.

  Zaheer Nooruddin: Some advertisers are already. Especially in markets like China, we are seeing more programme content being developed as branded entertainment and branded content, with products featured. Product placement in Mobile TV content will become more commonplace in next couple of years, but for now there exists an open competitive advantage for companies in most sectors (especially outside of FCMG and Travel & Tourism sectors that have moved quickly with developing content to position products) in Asian markets.

  Are there any noticeable market segments or countries in Asia that are making use of this new channel for reaching potential consumers?

  Zaheer Nooruddin: Mobile TV as channel to reach potential and existing consumers has been proven already in developed Asian markets like Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. When it comes to emerging markets where there is great potential currently, of course China comes to mind first and foremost. I think the convergence of 3 points: consumer adoption of mobile, mobile broadband and 3G connectivity, and Mobile TV content networks is crucial for any country to see sustainable opportunities for reaching potential consumers with Mobile TV and branded mobile content. In a market like China, this convergence has recently taken place. In markets like India, Indonesia and Malaysia, it is about to take place soon. For market segments, the early adopters have been FMCG marketers, as well as the Automotive and Travel segments to some extent. Cases are disparate across segments and markets still, but we are an increasing number of cases. Mobile TV in emerging Asian markets still sits in the ‘innovation marketing’ category. As convergence happens across more Asian markets – and it will rapidly – I think we will see a shift from this channel from innovation to mainstream. Telecoms infrastructure and mobile technology will become accessible to all Asian markets in the near future - the challenge as always will be for brands to catch up and innovate with the content that they create. Clearly there is a big opportunity for brands that enter branded content calibrated for Mobile TV at the right time in the right Asian markets.

  What could be the possible impact on traditional advertising budgets, as Mobile TV advertising plays a bigger role?

Zaheer Nooruddin: Traditional ad budgets will remain strong in Asia for the foreseeable future, but media planners and marketers will need to reconfigure spends into mobile. We are seeing spends shift into mobile gradually already, in developed markets, and this trend will play in a similar manner in emerging markets as “mobile TV convergence” happens. No doubt with big digital ad networks in Asian markets, like Baidu for example, investing heavily in the development of their mobile strategies, we will see advertisers become more comfortable with the Mobile TV ecosystem and the opportunities available to reach consumers. And spends will follow more quickly from traditional into digital and mobile advertising formats. It’s only a matter of time. The shift is already happening. From here on out, it’s just a question of how quickly.

- Zaheer Nooruddin is regional director of digital and social media in Asia Pacific.