How to drive innovation in marketing

Innovation is yet another demand from today’s marketers. Traditionally, marketers focused on innovation in communication. For this, they worked with their agencies. Today innovation has to touch the areas of product, technology, channels and content. And there is no way marketers can simply outsource this. In order to lead innovation marketers need to collaborate – both internally and externally.

A traditional mindset is suicide

Many marketing organisations, especially those in the FMCG sector, still seem fixated on GRPs and the tried and tested formula of television advertising. Innovation was a nebulous concept and out of bounds for marketers until recently, previously being in the domain of product and R&D teams. Demonstrating ROI on innovation is also not an easy task. Large scale organisations also believe in their process which leads to better efficiencies and less mistakes, but also reduces opportunities to think outside the box.

There are many obstacles to overcome to drive true innovation, and here are quick tips to tackle internal ones:

Enlist Allies

Always be in the lookout for like-minded people from different parts of the company- Product, R&D and even sales. Create ‘informal networks’ which help in pushing ideas through.

Start small

Develop a pilot project to push innovation and provide a business case to senior management.

Involve procurement early on

Start the conversation of value over cost at the onset and bring procurement along in the ride of pushing boundaries.

Don’t underestimate the minor

Smaller markets are usually more willing to experiment than regional marketers. Introduce a differentiated product or a unique channel in a local market and leverage the success story.

Harness public opinion

Public contribution enables shaping of ideas and garnering feedback quickly. An online survey or asking your followers on Twitter are simple ways to learn from your existing consumers. A more elaborate means is to create an online customer community. Portals like getsatisfaction.com do just that.

Atypical agency engagements

The need and speed of innovation is causing marketers to experiment with different agency models. In our years of consulting marketers we have seen various shifts e.g. move from creative agency being the AOR to social agencies getting a seat the grown-up table. However there is no ‘one size fits all’. Clients are trying out the approach that works best for their needs. From ‘best in class’ to ‘bespoke agencies’ it’s all happening.

How leading marketers tackle agency collaboration

• One brief-joint briefings with all agencies in one room including PR, research and social agency is working wonders for the bigger projects. Kimberly-Clark, Mondelez have implemented this for a few years with huge success.
• Reducing lead time. One example is Unilever, which has aimed to reduce lead times to as low as 90 days for test projects.
• Involving social media owners directly- direct access to Facebook, Google, Adobe has changed the dynamics and is urging agencies to get out of their comfort zone.
• Rethinking partnerships- going beyond agencies to include bloggers, influencers and even the consumers directly. Unilever Foundry, launched in Singapore in Jan 2015, is a global platform to connect innovative startups with Unilever’s portfolio of brands. It offers Unilever marketers opportunities to experiment and pilot new technologies more efficiently, effectively and frequently.

Measuring Innovation

Even with the most collaborative efforts towards innovation, ROI has to be proven. ROI on innovation needs to go beyond dollars and cents. Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their time on their own projects. Gmail and Google Maps started life as such 20% projects. However even though not every prototype sees the light of day, what stayed is the culture of innovation. Fear of failure does not create a conducive environment for innovation. It’s important to start small, test, learn and even celebrate failures to apply learnings.

Baby steps towards building an innovation culture

• Innovation should not be just about business results- better process, deeper insights, closer engagement, new ways of working should all be treated as KPIs for innovation.
• It should be a joint responsibility of marketers and agencies, not one party should do it alone.
• Allocate specific budget to support innovation.
• Foster learning-based KPIs vs. revenue-based KPIs.
• Pay agencies on performance– this ensures agency accountability.
• Remove layers of approval by creating small and nimble teams.
• Create processes for turning initiatives into live products.

Innovation is a culture that needs to be embedded. Leaders must pave the way for their teams and it needs to also be connected in the way people and agencies are compensated.

 The writer is Seema Punwani, a senior consultant with R3.

Original article here.

10 Consumer Trends for 2015

Three powerful currents will help reshape the consumer arena in 2015. 

1. The 'on demand' mindset characteristic of the past decade will hit a new high and extend to more services and products than ever before. 
2. Brands will face rising expectation to do good and initiate constructive change rather than only talk (and Tweet) about it. 
3. Consumers will expect instant, digital-fuelled social connection in every area of their life, not just dating (call it the Tinder effect).

The following 10 consumer trends, presented in no particular order, are the product of these and other shifts. As you read, remember: trends aren't really the point. Opportunities are. Each of these trends contains a key, actionable opportunity for innovation that could serve, delight or surprise consumers in a new way in the months ahead.

10 Consumer Trends for 2015

Social in 2015: Five strategies for success

'Social' remains a key topic of interest for marketers – both the development of social media platforms and, more broadly, social as a marketing and communications strategy.

2014 saw the social space evolve rapidly. It is clear that social now refers to a number of diverging tools and techniques, and marketers should be clear which are most relevant to them:

1. Social as the 'plumbing' of the internet – it is the pipes through which content flows and reaches an audience. Thechanges Facebook has made to its algorithm are having an impact in this area, though there are, of course, other channels content can flow through.
2. Social as a real-time platform, and in particular the growing link between TV or live events and platforms such as Twitter.
3. Social as a data-rich media buy – this is the driver of Facebook's rapid revenue growth.
4. Social as a source of data and insight.
5. Social as a customer management tool.

As the social space diverges, there is decreasing emphasis on brands building communities. A provocative piece by former Forrester analyst Darika Ahrens argued that the focus by brands on building 'communities' of fans or followers had been a misstep.

Of course, there are examples of brands that have successfully built and used a community, but Ahrens argued that for each example of success there will be many failures.

Ahrens' conclusion: "Brands need to ditch the community ideology. Then invest in the parts of social media that are working: advertising, customer service, and data."

The evolution of social strategies, then, is not only a result of platform developments, but a realisation of what is working.

Social in 2015 - Five Strategies for Success

MEC Fast Take - Google Play App Store Ads

On February 26th, Google announced that it will be testing paid advertising placements within Google Play, its mobile application store, offering brands a new way to promote and drive traffic to their apps.  

In this Fast Take News Brief, MEC examines the details of this announcement as well as its implications for marketers.

MEC Fast Take - Google Play App Store Ads

5 tips for digital video campaigning

Though the article is based in Hong Kong with insights based on the behaviour of the Hong Kong public, the below tips can still apply in the Singapore context of creating videos.

1. Don’t make videos for the sake of making videos

There should be an objective for creating digital videos, whether it is for awareness or engagement. Audience matters too – you might not use a video to promote products to an 80-year-old grandma, but it might be the ideal medium for millennials and busy working adults, according to Pierre Loo, regional business director and creative director at Y&R Hong Kong.

Even videos created just to be viewed should have clear objectives of how to educate the viewer about the brand or its products.

2. Collaborate with others in the video production process

User-generated videos or videos co-created with bloggers can help explore uncharted realms of creativity for your agency even down to the level of asking a user or a blogger to show you how to cook their best dish on camera.

3. Provide incentives in a digital video campaign aimed at engagement

Because Hong Kong users tend to be more comfortable tagging rather than creating posts, if you are asking people to submit a video of themselves in a campaign, give them a sense of mission such as a worthy cause it will contribute to or offer a prize as an incentive.

“Hongkongers might hesitate if you ask them to submit a video or photos for generating a video that shows themselves on camera. You will only get the same handful of people who always take part in your video campaigns,” Eric Choi, general manager at Y&R Hong Kong said.

4. Make your brand’s distinct voice heard

For Loo, the online medium requires sharing content in your own voice, which requires taking a clear position on a particular topic.

“It may be tempting to upload plenty of branded and unbranded content but avoid content that makes a clear statement on an issue,” he said.

“Some brands may believe that if you don’t have a clear stance, you can keep everyone happy but actually it means you won’t be able to keep anyone.”

Data can be used as a voice of reason to back up big ideas for best expressing the brand’s stance, as well as acting as an opposing force that tempers and gives direction to creativity, acting as the glue between different components of an integrated campaign.

5. Integrated campaigns involving videos should deliver real experiences

Integration means having an omnichannel strategy and this can focus on the experiential side of things rather than simply creating a video and hoping it goes viral.

“A decade ago, brands built their brands by throwing money at customers and investing in a TVC, which is a one-way form of communication.  Now they use digital, which is a more playful way to sell products and share brand values, slowly assimilating brand messages into the consumer’s mind,” Choi said.

“However, in the last three or four years, most campaigns aiming at engaging consumers are driven by events.  Walking down the street, you might notice more and more roadshows and trucks.  If you could work across channels – using events, digital and above the line campaigns, it’s much more complete.”

Because there is no golden medium through which you can reach out to everyone, real life experiences across channels are the most convincing, especially for consumers who are skeptical of your brand or product, Loo added.

Original article can be found here.

10 technology predictions for Asia Pacific in 2015

Forrester Research has unveiled its top 10 technology predictions for Asia Pacific in 2015, with expectations that mobile-powered customer experiences will fuel digital transformation in the region.

“In a world of ever increasing digital demands and shrinking budgets, CIOs need to be smarter with where they place their bets,” said Dane Anderson, Forrester Research’s vice-president, research director and region manager for Asia Pacific. “Successful CIOs in 2015 will improve collaboration with business leaders to craft superior customer experiences.”

For 2015, Forrester’s top 10 predictions and their implications are:

1. Digital transformation will drive technology spending growth of 4.9%

Seventy nine per cent of organisations consider improving the experiences of technology empowered customers as a high or critical priority for their business in 2015. While 57% of businesses across the region see the rising expectations of customers as the number one reason to spend more money on ICT purchases in 2015.

2. The majority of companies in Asia Pacific will be unprepared for digital disruption

Although powerhouses in China such as Alibaba and Haier Group are leading the regional charge to digital business success, many local and regional companies still don’t understand what it takes to build a digital business. Regional organisational inertia will be the biggest hurdle to digital transformation in 2015 and Forrester expects Asia Pacific organisations to be complacent to the growing wave of global digital business houses crashing in their backyards.

3. China will be the epicentre of digital innovation

Fuelled by its massive digital population, a lack of legacy approaches and well-funded digital behemoths, China is set to become the world’s largest e-commerce market by 2015, with market gains of $315.3 billion in online sales (B2C and C2C). China’s social media arena is also developing at lightning speed with 95% of metropolitan Chinese online adults using social media today.

4. ‘Digital India’ will encounter stubborn roadblocks

The Indian government’s $17 billion ambitious “Digital India” programme has the potential to be a game changer for the country. While Forrester applauds the Indian government’s programme to transform India to a digitally empowered knowledge economy, it predicts the programme will face key ground-level challenges in terms of infrastructure operations and standards and the lack of technology management involvement.

5. Mobile business will lag accelerated smartphone adoption

By the end of 2015, Forrester expects 36% of adults in Asia to own a smartphone – ownership ranges from a high of 86% in Singapore to 44% in China and a low of 23% in India. However, few companies will be ready to serve these technology empowered customers on their smartphones in their moments of need. Mobile will remain small in terms of spend – particularly advertising spend.

6. Organisations will move beyond rudimentary enterprise mobility

In 2015, Forrester expects to see a significant number of small, medium and large businesses across Asia Pacific begin to embrace hybrid tablet/laptop devices as a start of their enterprise mobility journey. A growing proportion of forward-thinking businesses in Asia Pacific will begin to examine their employees’ mobile moments and those who succeed will think customer mobility, not enterprise mobility.

7. Customer experience – bridge for CIO-CMO collaboration

In 2015, regional CMOs will become increasingly aware of their technology limitations and the drag the lack of proper planning on integration, application management, security and compliance will place on their marketing agility. At the same time, CIOs will shift focus from back-end IT systems to customer-facing business technology. The meeting point between these two forces will be customer experiences initiatives.

8. Asia will turn to mobile messaging apps for customer engagement

With more than one billion users combined on WeChat, LINE, KakaoTalk, Viber and WhatsApp, Forrester expects regional organisations to increasingly turn to mobile messaging apps for customer engagement. Forrester expects mobile messaging to begin siphoning ad spend away from Facebook, especially for price-sensitive businesses in Asia Pacific that increasingly question the platform’s effectiveness.

9. Apple Pay will dislodge the mobile payments gridlock

In 2014, Forrester’s prediction was the mobile payments landscape in Asia Pacific would remain riddled by fragmentation. This is expected to change in 2015 as Apple Pay’s technology will accelerate payments and enable new customer experiences. In particular, China and Australia will run ahead with Apple Pay on mobile.

10. Customer insights and big data analytics will sprawl

2015 will be the year of increased fragmentation for big data as reliance on analytics spreads within and across organisations. Spending on analytics will increase by at least 10% across the region, but a shrinking proportion of this will be visible to the IT budget. Marketing teams will take the lead to seek data-fuelled improvements in customer engagement.

The writer is Dane Anderson, vice president, research director and region manager for Asia Pacific, Forrester Research.

Original Article here.

Change is in the air(waves)

You may have heard rumbling from the Radio world; a station (91.3FM) with a new feel and sound, new talent, and DJs being shuffled around stations and timebelts,

Here is the latest update:

One FM Station Profile

MediaCorp English Stations
Change in DJ line-ups with effect from 2nd March

Class 95FM
6am - 10am – Muttons
10am - 2pm – Yasminne Cheng
2pm - 5pm – Tim Oh
5pm - 8pm – Jean Danker
8pm – 12mn – Jeremy Ratnam

Gold 90.5FM
6am - 10am – Mike Kasem and Joe Augustin
10am - 2pm – Denise Tan
2pm – 5pm – Jamie Yeo
5pm - 8pm – Vernetta Lopez

987FM
6am - 10am – Sonia Chew
12pm - 4pm – Tabitha Nausser
4pm - 8pm – Gerald Koh and Joakim Gomez
8pm - 12mn – Kimberly Wang

MediaCorp Chinese Stations
Changes take effect:
972FM from 2nd March
958FM and 933FM from 9th March

Capital 95.8FM

Time Belt	Title	Host(s)
6am - 9am	[958早点正能量!] 958 Morning Boost	潘家镳  Pan Jia Biao 黄淑君     Huang Shu Jun
9am - 12pm	[958乐活加油站] Life’s Good!	巫许玛莉 Bukoh Mary
12pm - 3pm	[958一芝独秀] The OMO Show	林灵芝 Lin Lingzhi
3pm - 5pm	[958一品下午茶] A Taste of Afternoon Tea	李一莎 Li Yisha
5pm - 8pm	[958滔客咖啡馆] The Coffeetalk Show	高逸芯 Gao Yi Xin
8pm - 12mn	[958晚安城市人] Good Night, City Dwellers	曾生莲 (Monday to Thursday) Zeng Sheng Lian 邱胜扬 (Friday) Qiu Sheng Yang

Love 97.2FM

Time Belt	Title	Host(s)
7am - 10am	Love 972早安！玉建煌崇 No official name in English	陈碧玉 Chen Biyu 周崇庆 Dennis Chong Qing 李国煌 Mark Lee（8-9am） 陈建彬  Marcus Jianbin（9-11am）
10am - 11am	Love 972彬哥最爱美梅 Bingo loves Mei Mei	陈建彬  Marcus Jianbin 叶咏梅 Renee Yong Mei
11am - 2pm	Love 972最爱Life礼 ( Lively )	蔡礼莲  Leelian Chua
2pm - 5pm	Love 972 Hello， 靓妈来了! Hello, Liangma is here!	陈粉樱  Violet Fenying
5pm - 8pm	超级WW Show No official name in English	洪圣安  Wallace Sheng An 曾晓英  Wendy Xiao Ying
8pm  - 9pm	给Wal 一小时 No official name in English	洪圣安  Wallace Sheng An

Y.E.S. 93.3FM

Time Belt	Title	Host(s)
6am - 10am	就是万人迷 Morning Fanatics	丁志勇 Cruz Teng 萧嘉蕙 Siau Jiahui 钟坤华Chung Kun Wah
12pm - 2pm	No Title	陈彦维 Tan Yan Wei
4pm - 8pm	棒棒傍晚班 No official EDT name in English	林佩芬 Lim Peifen 谢家发 Xie Jiafa 蔡伟彬 Cai Weibin Jeff
8pm - 12mn	宁。可听一听 Ning @ Night	陈宁 Chen Ning