MEC At Festival Of Media Asia

This year's Festival Of Media Asia hosted many distinguished speakers, delegates and content from the best in the industry. Our representatives from MEC who attended the festival weigh in on what constitutes the Top 5 speakers, tweets as well as learnings.

Top 5 Speakers

Sir Martin Sorrell – CEO, WPP

Insights into what is worrying and what is exciting. Global problems and opportunities “every year is more mobile”. Good rapport between Sir Martin and host Charlie Crowe.

James Thompson – CMO APAC, Diageo

Brilliant activations around the Johnny Walker Odyssey campaign using social and owned media. Challenges agencies to offer something “brilliant” and to offer long term strategy.

Phil McAveety – Executive VP, Starwood

Shared vision of customisation and bespoke solutions in the hotel industry. Took us on an imaginary trip that showcased the vision of the Starwood group.

Lakshmi Pratury – Host INK Conference

Introduced us to Vicky Roy a young photographer with an inspiring story. Didn’t use PPT to present and told us to look outside of our circles for inspiration and to learn from others. Captivating storyteller.

Tom Doctoroff – CEO APAC, JWT

Presented a story about the development of China, why it is strong and where its weaknesses are. By far the best supporting presentation of the conference and a very engaging story (even the perfect Mandarin!)

Top 5 Tweets

@ranjidavid China is not becoming more like the West: China is becoming a modern version of itself - Tom Doctoroff, #foma13

Delivered by an American, spoken like a Chinese. By far the clearest and best immersion to China and their unique people culture for me.

@ranjidavid If you catch someone when they're bored, and your content catches their eye, 82% will share it - Sarah Ivey, Initiative #foma13

Often we think about what we want to say as brands and which devices offer the largest pool to target. People are not waiting to get messages from brands. We need to capture them when they are having their moments, capitalize devices and harness cross screen experiences.

@CaitlinOnline The more you know about the people you already have the greater the likelihood you will get the people you don't have - Roger Fisk #foma13

Winning is not by coincidence. Data is you telling people who granted access, that you know who they are and you are willing to engage in personalized conversations with them.

@whosaidwhatwhy #foma13 Stop talking about the 'size' of data and just use it in a meaningful way.

“We want to see more innovation.” “Big data.” Sounds familiar? We are in early stages of coordinating sources of data and having real time dashboards to serve clients in effective ways. I believe data driven innovation shall certainly reframe and reinvent our work.

@shalabhpandey advertising is about Mad men and MATHS Men. - Sir Martin from #wpp #foma13

Agencies consistently told a better story at FOMA without assaulting their audiences with data. Arts and science are the new buzz. Clients can pick it up!

Top 5 Learnings

1. Digital is a massive focus for the industry and talent across APAC is a key priority
   
2. Given the scale of APAC markets and the differing span of technology adoption, mobile is a key focus as many developing / emerging markets have skipped traditional PC platforms and gone straight to mobile (2 billion mobile users in China/India). Only 50% of Forbes 500 companies have mobile ready websites
   
3. Social and geographic mobility is massively accelerating, meaning the way brands connect with the consumer will change rapidly
   
4. Technology is changing what consumers demand
   
5. The rising star competition was interesting in seeing talent put under pressure to deliver a pitch in 5 minutes (they all failed). They were presenting to the Samsung CMO and industry experts. The talent did not overly impress (from a selection of markets) but good inspiration for what we could do internally.