Digital Asia

When I moved to China in March 2001, the numbers were intriguing. There were a total of 18 million internet users in China and this seemed like an outrageously high number at the time. Eight years later, there are 250 million Chinese consumers online, making them the world’s largest internet population. The situation became even more interesting a few years ago, when Chinese telcos stopped selling modems and went straight to installing ADSL. Now there are 215 million people on broadband, equipped with 1MB lines, craving anything that’s potentially entertaining. That’s not a bad platform to start from if you work as a creative person in a digital agency.

While the numbers of internet users are extremely high in China, that doesn’t mean we are talking about highly sophisticated consumers. The marketing and advertising industry is merely 15 years old, and in many cases, you don’t really need to be all that creative to cut through the clutter. In fact, Chinese consumers don’t really mind the clutter. It might even be part of their culture. Just picture a postcard of Hong Kong at night, and you’ll conjure up thousands of neon signs. That is exactly what communication looks like to Chinese consumers; high visual impact. This also applies to online advertising. In the Western world, you would have one to three banners on any single web page, where as in China, you will have up to 30 banners all competing for attention.

Adopting innovation
The extremely high growth rate of the Chinese online population reflects the general mindset of consumers in this region; early adoption. In the west, things take a while to be truly embraced and accepted by the general public, while in Asia consumers are constantly on the look-out for innovation. Instant messaging, social networking, browsing websites on mobile phones, interacting with outdoor ads, even watching TV on mobile phones, are not really considered or talked about much. They’re just there, part of everyday life. And this behavior is visible in almost any culture and country across the region.

In Japan for example, surfing websites on mobile phones was popular long before consumers used computers to go online. Today the mobile phone is the single most important access point, offering information from news providers and blogs, to friends, colleagues and social networking services. The phone serves as ubiquitous media player, as a payment option, as a general link from the real to the virtual, or vice versa. Think 2D barcodes, they are basically found everywhere in Japan.

Japanese consumers are extremely sophisticated in how they receive messages through their personal digital channels, so it takes a fair amount of creativity to get through to them. This works like a catapult, in order to get the message out, marketers and agencies need to spend considerable effort conceiving creative and innovative approaches, as well as packaging and distributing that message. This in turn spurs even further sophistication amongst consumers. No wonder Japanese digital agencies are consistently the highest awarded at international creative shows. Their work sets new standards in the innovative use of technology and in creating new digital channels.

In Korea, everything is about high speed internet access. There are few homes it seems, without a 100Mbit connection. Three out of four mobile phones connect through 3G and receive broadcast TV shows. Koreans make avid use of this technology, especially by connecting through MMOG (massively multiplayer online games), or by logging on to cyworld, the Korean Facebook which dates back as early as 1999 and connects about 25% of the Korean population. But while consumers in Korea are spoiled by this advanced technology and sophisticated gaming and communities, there seems to be a gap in what marketers are willing to push for. The rather conservative mindset of Korean marketers leaves plenty of room for ground-breaking innovative campaigns.

The electronic government
The fact that Asian consumers quickly adopt emerging technology into their daily lives, has led to many improvements being made by governments around the region. Singapore is a shining example of this early advancement with roll-outs of e-government services not just for Asia, but globally. The relatively small population, yet dense dwelling, has made e-government services both an ideal test market as well as a necessity. Accenture has consistently ranked Singapore as one of the top three countries in the world in regards to maturity of e-government. Singapore has over 1,600 government e-services available. More recently, Singapore has also started putting up free wireless broadband kiosks in shopping malls and public buildings.

In Malaysia, where broadband penetration moved from 1% in 2003 to almost 18% in 2008, blogging is one of the most wide-spread hobbies amongst its multicultural citizens. With more than 500,000 bloggers, Malaysia ranks among the highest per capita blogging countries in the world. And everyone blogs, from religious leaders and the ex-prime minister, to the opposition party leader. In fact, during the March election, official statistics showed that around 70% of Malaysian voters had been influenced by blogs. In a society where most television stations and newspaper publishers are controlled by the government, blogs, text messages and viral videos became the most influential source of information for voters, resulting in a historical blow to the Barisan National party, who had ruled the country for more than 50 years.

Creativity in Asia
Asia is one of the most competitive creative markets when it comes to creativity in advertising and design. Especially agencies from Singapore are constantly listed amongst the highest awarded creative shops in the world. Thailand is world famous for its unique and humorous story telling craft in TV commercials, while Malaysia and Hong Kong are renowned for beautiful design and art direction. Japan has probably the most sophisticated and innovative creativity in new media and increasingly also other markets like China, Korea, Philippines and India invest in and grow their creativity.

Asia’s advertising creativity originates in a dire need: Historically most large scale brand and product campaigns were not originated in Asia but been developed in New York, San Francisco, London or Paris. These campaigns then were sent to regional headquarters or directly to local markets for local language adaptation. This left creatives with the daunting task of localizing, vs actually creating new and talked about campaigns. Money in Asia to shoot new commercials, develop new print campaigns or create impactful online campaigns therefore has always been limited. And with limited resources, one has to get more creative to achieve great results.
Article in ADMAP magazine
Implications for marketers
According to an eMarketer study from January 2008, an estimated 543 million people are on the internet in the Asia Pacific region alone. That is almost as many people as Europe and North America combined. According to this study, within the next four years, almost half the world’s internet population will be from Asia. Pair this with steadily increasing online ad spend (China is up more than 25% year on year), and online marketing makes for a very attractive target for agencies and marketers alike.

But in order to conquer Asia, marketers must be aware of and have an inherent understanding of cultural and behavioural differences.

A digital and creative outlook for China 2009

15 million unique visitors, 8.5 minutes on the website and a click through rate of over 4 percent! Those are numbers that I hear frequently when I judge a Chinese campaign in a regional or international creative award show. These shows are an interesting mirror of both, what is going on creatively in China and how fellow judges from around the world perceive campaigns coming out of China.

For the latter, big numbers are not any longer favorable criteria. On the contrary, those numbers raise eyebrows and doubt about the work’s creativity. Broad effectiveness doesn’t necessarily translate into brilliant creative thinking. Therefore it is fair to say that the more niche a campaign is targeted, the more difficult to reach the audience, the better the creative product has to be.

In the case of China, I think this is what is going to happen over the next year and beyond. While digital channels, and especially online have certainly reached a mass medium stage, it will be the very targeted campaigns that will set the creative standards, which then in return will be copied and re-used for broader campaigns further down the road.

Over the past 12 months we could already see things going his way. Many a campaign website has seen a significant increase in production budget, which enables creatives to work with talents from outside the own office: 3D artists, music composers, illustrators and camera men and directors. These websites create buzz, word of mouth even without spending much money on media, and are well known even beyond the target audience.

Especially in China entertainment has been high on the list of things people do online, and with a more figured out situation in the video sharing industry, branded content and brand entertainment will certainly be a thing to watch for in the next 12 months. Partnerships with professionals from outside the industry – script writers, actors, and directors – will play a significant role in creating successful online content.

Mobile is rumored to have a breakthrough in 2009, what this means though I don’t know. My personal opinion is that mobile will always be a difficult one to crack when used as a mass medium. In targeted situations this medium can become a real killer though. Social networking, location based services, flash players, high resolution cameras and many other new innovations will make for great use for in more targeted campaigns.

The global killer application on the internet is social networking and while xiaonei and kaixin are expected to grow their user base to unprecedented heights, there is still plenty of room for marketers to weave a smart SNS component into their campaign. Especially useful applications and widgets will give brands a positive appeal amongst the networkers. But the real opportunity here lies in the power of word-of-mouth, turning consumers into evangelists and spreading the word without investing big dollars in media.

Finally I believe a big trend that comes from Japan and Europe will make a significant debut in 2009 in China: the cross-over between the virtual and the real. Campaigns will increasingly make use of interaction other than with the mouse. Webcams are a hot item, when used properly they can really add the fun element into any campaign. Convergence through mobile phones and also digital outdoor that is connected to the internet will be something agencies will certainly look at.

2009 will be another year of growing up in China. While the numbers will get even more gigantic, it will be the ones who have to reach a sophisticated audience that have to be creative. Like Bill Bernbach said in one of my favorite quotes: “… the future, as always, belongs to the brave.”

Art Directing the Beijing Olympics

No doubt the games are the most exciting event for anyone in Beijing who has stayed here for any length of time. Seven years in my case and for almost the entire time the government has systematically prepared me for this event.

Many things have changed, as no doubt you will know. We’ve torn down an entire section of this city as big as my hometown to construct an all new central business district. The same for the Olympic green, where tens of thousands of residents have been moved to places not mentioned. We got a new CCTV building and a new opera, we built an entire new subway system, an airport which couldn’t be any bigger, and made it rain on command. A lot of change indeed.

One of the things though that go rather unnoticed is the visual change in details that came along with all this. What seems granted for Olympic tourists and the people seeing Beijing through the eyes of a TV camera is in fact something rather special for us Beijingers.

It starts with the city’s cab drivers who have undergone a complete make-over. While the old and trashy cabs have been banned off the street over the past three years, it wasn’t until August 1st that the taxi drivers themselves got a visual upgrade. While these guys used to live more of a cowboy live before, dressing as they pleased and even shaving while driving, they now all sport the same yellow and blue uniform with matching ties. When asked about it, they are all very happy with the new shirts and pants and give a thumbs up for their 100% cotton comfort. Only the ties are a bit of a drag and usually stowed inside the glove compartment. It took this gentleman a few minutes to make it work.

Also in the comfort of the night to August 1st another amazing thing happened across the city. Suddenly every shop front, in every road and on every corner, featured a standardized signage. Where before a wealth of more or less creative signs pointed out what to expect behind the doors, now a unified size and a standard set of colors and fonts make every street and every shop look the same. I can only imagine the amazing logistics behind such a feat. Even McDonalds and KFC had to comply with this new regulation, though they could keep their logo on the board.

Walking though the Olympic streets of Beijing reveals another detail to the trained eye: flowers everywhere. This I have to admit took a while of trial and error though, as flowers in all kinds of shapes and forms have been put up and down throughout town for several months. It is a real treat, wherever you go you can play flower spotting, written in tulips or roses you find anything from “Welcome to Beijing 2008” to “Use civilized behaviour; create a new atmosphere”

But of course it is all about the sport and the organizers really have managed to apply a total Olympic 360 branding to the city. The Beijing Olympic logo, the colorful signage with the lucky clouds, the 5 mascots and countless slogans are applied to every bridge, every fence and every billboard that sat empty after the non-sponsors’ advertising was removed. The Olympic branding really is a welcome change in design and typography to this usually rather grey city. I only hope that when the factories are turned back on after the Olympics, that some of Beijing’s new art direction will stay for a little while longer.

Click here for a laugh

My favorite Asian TV spot from the recent past is from India. It advertises the Happydent White Chewing gum, you probably have seen it. It is the very likable and funny story of a Rajah’s palace in India where all light bulbs are replaced by servants chewing the gum. The product makes the teeth so shiny white that they illuminate everything from chandeliers to the car’s headlights. The spot is hilarious and the Bollywood soundtrack is so contagious that you find yourself humming it immediately. TV commercial storytelling at its best.

When I think of my favorite Asian digital campaign from the recent past it gets a little more difficult. Sure, there are plenty of industry events, creative award shows, marketing seminars and digital summits where I am exposed to a wealth of campaigns and case studies. But when prompted to pick my favorite I have a hard time. I think about successful campaigns I remember, campaigns that involve great banner advertising. Campaigns that stretch beyond the web into mobile or digital outdoor or campaigns that engage through games and online story telling. Many campaigns come to mind, though not one stands out as much as the TV spot from India. We can definitely improve a little when it comes to creating memorable digital campaigns, so it seems.

To the credit of our profession though, digital campaigns are not as easily stored and told as quickly as a 60 second TV commercial. They tend to be built around complex strategies that involve multiple channels, have built-in mechanics that facilitate a brand-consumer-dialogue and try to stretch digital innovation to deliver a fresh and surprising approach. But here is something they could learn from this TV commercial: don’t take yourself so seriously, be simple and have a little fun.

There are four simple and easy steps that can be taken to make sure a digital campaign gets as much recall value as a good TV spot.

First of all it’s about human insights: a universal truth should be underlying the idea. Too many times digital campaigns are built around pure demographic data rather than real insights into the specific target audience. What drives them, what motivates them, what are the daily issues they are facing? Only an idea that is built on a consumer insight can really cut through the clutter and deliver a memorable message. One of the examples that come to mind is the campaign for the Philips Bodygroom. Created over two years ago by Tribal DDB this campaign is still remembered amongst many male and hairy friends.

Then, of course you say, a strong idea is the basis for a successful online campaign. And this is true: without an idea the campaign will not make it past any brand recall study. If you look around though, how many truly big ideas come to mind when thinking of a digital campaign in Asia? Many times we get lost in the execution; focusing on getting the mechanics right, adding complex backend technology and putting mechanics in place to measure the campaign’s success from every angle. The real issue at hand is to create a compelling and memorable idea that lives beyond the next click. Something that gets passed on and talked about, not just in an online forum or on MSN, but at the water cooler, in the real world. Viral spots I believe were conceived to do just that: to provide a branded story that is compelling enough to forward or have a chat about. But it shouldn’t stop here; an idea should be bigger than a spot on YouTube. When looking in my memory’s archives for a great digital idea then Subservient Chicken springs to mind, still. An idea that combined a brand story with cutting edge technology, an idea so strong that it was and still is talked about way beyond digital media.

The third ingredient that makes for a memorable campaign is good storytelling. While copywriters and art directors in traditional agencies are trained to do exactly that, most digital agencies are not equipped to tell a compelling brand story, be it on- or offline. The fact is that digital savvy talent comes from a more rational approach to building a brand: delivering a customer or user experience across multiple digital channels, from websites to mobile phones to in-store installations. Digital creatives are mostly visual designers, technology engineers and experience architects. They sometimes could do with a magic spark, a creative leap that leads to a story that can be experienced and re-told many times over again. Great story telling online however is different from what it is on TV. The user is part of it and the story cannot happen without him/her. A great example of this is lonelygirl15, a story that has been running for nearly 2 years and which involves an audience of over 70 million in its ever evolving story play.

Lastly there is simplicity. Especially in digital marketing it is so easy to get lost in complexity. New technologies emerging daily, more and more fragmented channels for the consumer to hang out in, social networks and web 2.0 are all factors to consider for a campaign, but are they necessary? If so, which ones? It is the nature of technology to be complex, but it is our task to make the complex simple. It is great to experiment, to drive the acceptance of new communication models. It is imperative though to do so without loosing the potential impact of the campaign.

In the end the most memorable campaign will win. It will win over the hearts of the consumers more so than their minds. A digital campaign that makes me laugh out loud, makes me think or question my behavior, one that touches me on an emotional level, I will talk about and remember the next time I am prompted for my favorite digital campaign from Asia.