ad asia 2015 review

AdAsia 2015 TAIPEI

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2015

www.brecorder.com/adasia2015

Clouidea

AdAsia | November 23, 2015 | 3

AdAsiaBackground of Asian Advertising Congress (AdAsia)

ABOUT

In 1958, the first AdAsia was initiated by President Hideo Yoshida of

Dentsu Inc. and held in Tokyo, Japan. Later on, it is held twice a year and

hosted by member countries in Asia by turns. The theme is decided by host

countries to carry out research into the issues of various cross-regional

marketing communications. Participants are representatives of

member countries with around 1500 to 1800 people in total.

2013 AdAsia in Vietnam – Received by President

Truong Tan Sang in person.

BR Research: What is the total spending on advertis-ing in the country? Tell us about the proportion of this total that is directed towards different media.Sarmad Ali: The media market in Pakistan is estimat-ed to be about Rs60 billion or just under $600 million. Print media rakes up about a third of this tally, while 54 percent of the spending is directed towards the television industry. Advertising spend on online media is about three percent of the total, while about four percent and seven percent has been spent on radio and out-of-home advertising.

BRR: What has been the overall growth trajectory of media in Pakistan in recent years?SA: In the first half of the decade spanning 2000 to 2010, the industry was registering impressive double-digit growth of 15-20 percent. In the latter five years of that period, the momentum stalled and stagnation ensued. However in the past 2-3 years, growth has once again picked up, particularly in the electronic media. Print has been the hardest hit segment in recent years. Though revenues have improved in value, the proportion of ad spend on print media, out of the total ad spending, has been consistently dropping. Back in 2005, print media was pulling in more than half of all ad revenues, compared to its current 33 percent share in the pie. Print revenues have increased from about Rs8 billion in 2004-05, to almost Rs18 billion at present, but its declining share is what I call the Window of Pain.

There have been few if any new entrants in print media over recent years, but a host of new television channels have cropped up over the same time. The arrival of new entrants coupled with innovation in television media industry has helped it attract the largest chunk of ad revenues. Although radio has grown rapidly, its low base means that the absolute value of revenues is still relatively small. Internet media has grown more than 20 percent annually, and has gone from being virtually non-existent some years back to becoming a billion rupee-industry.

BRR: What are the factors that have taken the biggest chunk of the advertising pie to television channels?SA:The number of TV channels has mushroomed from four in 2003 to close to a hundred at present. There has also been a lot of innovation in television programming. Advertisers did not want to dedicate hefty sums of their advertising spending towards news channels, back in the early 2000s. But now, news is the genre to be in. Innovations have been plentiful in entertainment genre as well. Thirdly, there have been significant advancements in television audience measurement systems. There are problems and limitations associated with the use of the ratings system, but it is better than not having one at all. Advertisers were able to gain valuable insights as a result of the audience measurement systems. As far as the print industry is concerned, there is no similar readership measurement system. There have been studies conducted by various

research organisations in recent years but these are spread over a considerable lag of time and these exercises have not been repeated at regular intervals. There is growing realisation in print media that such information needs to be collected and analyzed on regular basis but the information gap persists. In my view, advertisers are hungry for more data on print media but the hesitation is on part of many print publications that fear that their actual readership will be revealed to be lower than what is stated by them. I feel that the print industry should support efforts to present data in a transparent form and that will help improve revenues for the whole industry. BRR: Beyond the most viewed television channels, there are dozens of others that are facing severe liquidity constraints. Is there a case for consolidation in the industry?SA: In my opinion, there are far too many television channels in the country at present. There is not enough money going around in terms of spending on advertising to keep them all afloat. In Pakistan, there is no subscription model for television channels, so there is complete reliance on ad revenues. For this reason, I believe that many channels will eventually close down. It is also worth noting, that the media buying houses enjoy immense power in the television space. But I don’t think that this dominance will sustain over the longer term and market forces will dictate more competition in this realm.

Continued...

Having said that, the prevalent liquidity crunch is one of the biggest challenges that the domestic media industry has ever come up against. There is a need for all industry stakeholders to collectively seek solutions to this problem. Huge amounts of money are stuck up in government advertisement dues; to the tune of over Rs 2 billion. Then there are differences in the recovery mechanisms between print and media outlets. In my opinion, these differences need to be removed by introducing uniform practices in print and television media. That is imperative for the survival of the industry as a whole.

BRR: How much of a factor is government advertising for print media industry and what is its impact?SA: In fact the government is by far the largest source of advertising revenues, particularly for print media. But the government sets its own rates, which are about a fifth of the tariff rate for advertisements placed in print media. So far, no amount of lobbying by the industry has convinced the government to rationalise these rates. The choice of media is also centralised in the hands of the Press Information Department or the provincial Public Relations Depart-ments and not the relevant government department which is placing the ads. By virtue of being the advertiser, the government also has significant potential for arm twisting. The smaller and regional newspapers are almost entirely dependent on government advertising for their survival. These regional newspapers serve those areas that are not covered by the leading national newspapers and also operate as the training grounds for journalists in the country. The government must ensure the survival of regional press so that both those functions continue to be performed.

BRR: Which sectors of the economy do you foresee as leaders in terms of advertising spending on media in coming years?SA: Education is the single largest sector in terms of advertising revenues for Jang as it contributes about 14 percent of our total ad revenues, and this sector shows no signs of slowing down. There is also a lot of investment flowing into the real estate sector and I foresee much more advertising from this sector. Financial services and telecommunications services already are major sectors in terms of ad revenues, but the latter’s spending has not grown as was expected after the launch of 3G and 4G in the country. Besides this, the tide of consumerism is unabated and so consumer goods from packaged foods to household items to shoes and clothing will all remain high in terms of advertising spending.

BRR: In your view, what is the significance of AdAsia conference for the domestic advertising and media industries?SA: This platform brings together advertising practi-tioners, advertisers and other stakeholders once every two years. It allows the industry participants to share views and knowledge on emergence trends, latest technologies and procedures. It is also a very import-ant opportunity for networking as the participants mingle with advertisers and practitioners from across the region. The meetings organised at the event help participants gain valuable professional insights. The conference which is scheduled to be held in Taipei this year will mark the 29th time that it is being convened. I would also like to compliment Business Recorder for its continued endeavours in bringing out special reports on the occasion of AdAsia and IAA congresses and highlighting these events.

4 | AdAsia | November 23, 2015

Managing Director Marketing & Advertising Sales of Jang Media GroupSecretary General of All Pakistan Newspapers Society

President of the International Advertising Association’s Pakistan Chapter

Sarmad Ali

“There is a need for all industry

stakeholders to collectively seek

solutions to liquidity crunch”

BR Research: What is the total spending on advertis-ing in the country? Tell us about the proportion of this total that is directed towards different media.Sarmad Ali: The media market in Pakistan is estimat-ed to be about Rs60 billion or just under $600 million. Print media rakes up about a third of this tally, while 54 percent of the spending is directed towards the television industry. Advertising spend on online media is about three percent of the total, while about four percent and seven percent has been spent on radio and out-of-home advertising.

BRR: What has been the overall growth trajectory of media in Pakistan in recent years?SA: In the first half of the decade spanning 2000 to 2010, the industry was registering impressive double-digit growth of 15-20 percent. In the latter five years of that period, the momentum stalled and stagnation ensued. However in the past 2-3 years, growth has once again picked up, particularly in the electronic media. Print has been the hardest hit segment in recent years. Though revenues have improved in value, the proportion of ad spend on print media, out of the total ad spending, has been consistently dropping. Back in 2005, print media was pulling in more than half of all ad revenues, compared to its current 33 percent share in the pie. Print revenues have increased from about Rs8 billion in 2004-05, to almost Rs18 billion at present, but its declining share is what I call the Window of Pain.

There have been few if any new entrants in print media over recent years, but a host of new television channels have cropped up over the same time. The arrival of new entrants coupled with innovation in television media industry has helped it attract the largest chunk of ad revenues. Although radio has grown rapidly, its low base means that the absolute value of revenues is still relatively small. Internet media has grown more than 20 percent annually, and has gone from being virtually non-existent some years back to becoming a billion rupee-industry.

BRR: What are the factors that have taken the biggest chunk of the advertising pie to television channels?SA:The number of TV channels has mushroomed from four in 2003 to close to a hundred at present. There has also been a lot of innovation in television programming. Advertisers did not want to dedicate hefty sums of their advertising spending towards news channels, back in the early 2000s. But now, news is the genre to be in. Innovations have been plentiful in entertainment genre as well. Thirdly, there have been significant advancements in television audience measurement systems. There are problems and limitations associated with the use of the ratings system, but it is better than not having one at all. Advertisers were able to gain valuable insights as a result of the audience measurement systems. As far as the print industry is concerned, there is no similar readership measurement system. There have been studies conducted by various

research organisations in recent years but these are spread over a considerable lag of time and these exercises have not been repeated at regular intervals. There is growing realisation in print media that such information needs to be collected and analyzed on regular basis but the information gap persists. In my view, advertisers are hungry for more data on print media but the hesitation is on part of many print publications that fear that their actual readership will be revealed to be lower than what is stated by them. I feel that the print industry should support efforts to present data in a transparent form and that will help improve revenues for the whole industry. BRR: Beyond the most viewed television channels, there are dozens of others that are facing severe liquidity constraints. Is there a case for consolidation in the industry?SA: In my opinion, there are far too many television channels in the country at present. There is not enough money going around in terms of spending on advertising to keep them all afloat. In Pakistan, there is no subscription model for television channels, so there is complete reliance on ad revenues. For this reason, I believe that many channels will eventually close down. It is also worth noting, that the media buying houses enjoy immense power in the television space. But I don’t think that this dominance will sustain over the longer term and market forces will dictate more competition in this realm.

Continued...

Having said that, the prevalent liquidity crunch is one of the biggest challenges that the domestic media industry has ever come up against. There is a need for all industry stakeholders to collectively seek solutions to this problem. Huge amounts of money are stuck up in government advertisement dues; to the tune of over Rs 2 billion. Then there are differences in the recovery mechanisms between print and media outlets. In my opinion, these differences need to be removed by introducing uniform practices in print and television media. That is imperative for the survival of the industry as a whole.

BRR: How much of a factor is government advertising for print media industry and what is its impact?SA: In fact the government is by far the largest source of advertising revenues, particularly for print media. But the government sets its own rates, which are about a fifth of the tariff rate for advertisements placed in print media. So far, no amount of lobbying by the industry has convinced the government to rationalise these rates. The choice of media is also centralised in the hands of the Press Information Department or the provincial Public Relations Depart-ments and not the relevant government department which is placing the ads. By virtue of being the advertiser, the government also has significant potential for arm twisting. The smaller and regional newspapers are almost entirely dependent on government advertising for their survival. These regional newspapers serve those areas that are not covered by the leading national newspapers and also operate as the training grounds for journalists in the country. The government must ensure the survival of regional press so that both those functions continue to be performed.

BRR: Which sectors of the economy do you foresee as leaders in terms of advertising spending on media in coming years?SA: Education is the single largest sector in terms of advertising revenues for Jang as it contributes about 14 percent of our total ad revenues, and this sector shows no signs of slowing down. There is also a lot of investment flowing into the real estate sector and I foresee much more advertising from this sector. Financial services and telecommunications services already are major sectors in terms of ad revenues, but the latter’s spending has not grown as was expected after the launch of 3G and 4G in the country. Besides this, the tide of consumerism is unabated and so consumer goods from packaged foods to household items to shoes and clothing will all remain high in terms of advertising spending.

BRR: In your view, what is the significance of AdAsia conference for the domestic advertising and media industries?SA: This platform brings together advertising practi-tioners, advertisers and other stakeholders once every two years. It allows the industry participants to share views and knowledge on emergence trends, latest technologies and procedures. It is also a very import-ant opportunity for networking as the participants mingle with advertisers and practitioners from across the region. The meetings organised at the event help participants gain valuable professional insights. The conference which is scheduled to be held in Taipei this year will mark the 29th time that it is being convened. I would also like to compliment Business Recorder for its continued endeavours in bringing out special reports on the occasion of AdAsia and IAA congresses and highlighting these events.


AdAsia allows the industry participants to share views and knowledge on emergence trends, latest technologies and procedures. It is also a very important opportunity for networking as the participants mingle with advertisers and practitioners from across the region.

Can you resist the TL-DR impulse? You’d have to make the effort, the next paragraph is long and somewhat boring, but necessary to lay the foundation of what I assure you, is going to be a valuable lesson, economi-cally as well as acumen-ically! Societies have always had an organizing principle. It is what divides our history into various eras. For a long time it was land. There was a limited amount of productive land hence a limited amount of food. People worried about it more than anything else, politics revolved around it, nations fought over it. Land was the biggest economic scarcity; it was the currency, it was the organizing principle of human society. But then the industrial revolution hit and the primary scarcity was no longer land; machines could now help produce more than enough food for everybody. Everything revolved around manpower, so labor became the new currency. You needed skilled labor to run the machines that made people money. Enter the consumer era and now there was more being produced than any one person would ever need or could ever purchase. The new organizing principle of society, the new currency, the new scarcity was knowledge. With so many choices of what to purchase with their hard-earned money, people spent most of their day-to-day existence trying to figure out what the best washing powder was, what a vacuum cleaner could do, how to spend their retirement fund and so on. The fields of advertising and marketing came to dominate society, as the means of distributing the information people needed to make those all important decisions. If you are still reading this I salute your self-control and appreciate your investment of time and attention from the bottom of my heart. So where were we now? What is the organiz-ing principle of modern day mankind? The internet of today has more information than any of us could possibly know what to do with. Whatever you want to know about, you can in 10 seconds or less. Knowledge is no longer the scarcity in our world. There’s an abundance of it, just as there’s an abundance of labor and an abundance of land. The wealth of information means a dearth of something else, something informa-tion consumes; isn’t it obvious now? The new scarcity is that of attention. There is more information flowing through our society than any of us could ever hope to process or understand. You know the whole argument around how the smart-phones and internet together have ruined everything, from privacy to politics? Well I like to use the word “disruption” instead. It is ironic really, that the technol-

ogy created to get things done (our laptops, tablets and smartphone) are now the gatekeepers of an infinite number of distractions and sources of instant gratification, accused of preventing you to get work done more than any other factor has ever been. Simply put, our attention is a resource and these devices get most of it, but you only have that much of it! Before my digital advertising friends start jumping with joy, this does not assure digital advertising will work any better than its conventional counterpart. Let me elaborate this without losing more of my readers: Google has been able to document the interaction of the new and old media in its search statistics: It has found a strong relationship between specific televised ads and a spike in searches on the topic of the ad. The relationship between online and offline behavior operates in both directions, so one is not supreme over the other, period! This is also why we are still bombarding the average consumer with thousands of advertising messages per day, and no matter who says what, these messages are still intrusive in nature. Why else would the ads we make (and aspire to) get wackier and more preposterous with every passing day? Irrespective of medium, advertising has always been about luring the audience into consuming a piece of communication; it has always depended on the amount and quality of attention. But attention wasn’t the primary currency for brand advertising like it is now. We all have a very limited amount of it and marketers ahead of the curve now value it higher than any other variable. Perhaps it is because the way we pay attention has changed. How often do you sit and spend focused time on one thing, never flipping between different tasks? For most of us, it’s pretty rare if not never. Whenever we are doing one thing, we are also doing another. My favorite modern day writer Mark Mason explains it beautifully: “This is life now: one constant, never-ending stream of non sequitur and self-referential garbage that passes in through our eyes and out of our brains at the speed of a touchscreen”. Most of us though, find that our ability to multitask has improved but that also means our attention is fragmented, unfocused and pretty hard to retain. No wonder we’ve given birth to what research-ers call the Goldfish generation. According to a recent study published by Microsoft highlights the deterio-rating attention span of humans, saying it has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, when the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds now - which is less than that of the notoriously ill-focused goldfish!

A shrinking attention span is making it that much harder to engage customers in an increasingly fragmented media market. But before the media planners and buyers reading this quote me and proclaim “The 30 seconds spot has stopped working!?” or that “The new standard of copy size should be 8 seconds instead!!” let me finish. Nope, that’s not it. To be honest I never believed an ad’s duration should be dictated by the media plan. Media plans are made for the communication and not the other way round. In fact, by just getting the ad viewed several times you can no longer guarantees the message will get through. What the ad copy size does and should depend on is what needs to be said and how creatively does it need to be said. And for those making the ad, it has also became clear that the role of “creative” in advertising is moving even

farther away from its former wacky haired, slow paced, shallow philosopher paradigm and into a younger, quicker, co-creative, almost push-button future where ideas meet technology in a market defined in minutes, not months. And while it looks like the most challenging time for conventional advertising agencies, it is also the most opportune. Just because we may be allocating our attention differently as a function of the technologies we may be using, it doesn't mean that the way our attention actually can function has changed. You’d be surprised to know that your tech savvy consumers are actually getting better at processing information and encoding that informa-tion to memory through shorter yes, but more powerful bursts of high attention.So if you (brand or agency) were any good at conven-tional advertising, you’d do just fine in this era, and the

next. All that has changed is the velocity of things; if it was going to fail, it will fail faster now. I say this because the science of creating powerful communica-tion hasn’t changed. I see the marketer who under-stands his audience better still wins. I believe great ideas are still medium independent, and that true product innovation still does more to get loyalty than most loyalty schemes. If you remember I promised this would be a valuable investment of your time and attention, I salute you again. You sir, are no goldfish!Here is the gist of it, besides all the science behind creating advertising communication for the goldfish generation, or the Millennial, or the GenZ or whatever comes next, three fundamental to consider:

YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE,

PLEASE?


by Umair Saeed

If you (brand or agency) were any good at conventional advertising, you’d do just fine in this era, and the next. All that has changed is the velocity of things; if it was going to fail, it will fail faster now. I say this because the science of creating powerful communication hasn’t changed. I see the marketer who understands his audience better still wins. I believe great ideas are still medium independent, and that true product innovation still does more to get loyalty than most loyalty schemes.

Can you resist the TL-DR impulse? You’d have to make the effort, the next paragraph is long and somewhat boring, but necessary to lay the foundation of what I assure you, is going to be a valuable lesson, economi-cally as well as acumen-ically! Societies have always had an organizing principle. It is what divides our history into various eras. For a long time it was land. There was a limited amount of productive land hence a limited amount of food. People worried about it more than anything else, politics revolved around it, nations fought over it. Land was the biggest economic scarcity; it was the currency, it was the organizing principle of human society. But then the industrial revolution hit and the primary scarcity was no longer land; machines could now help produce more than enough food for everybody. Everything revolved around manpower, so labor became the new currency. You needed skilled labor to run the machines that made people money. Enter the consumer era and now there was more being produced than any one person would ever need or could ever purchase. The new organizing principle of society, the new currency, the new scarcity was knowledge. With so many choices of what to purchase with their hard-earned money, people spent most of their day-to-day existence trying to figure out what the best washing powder was, what a vacuum cleaner could do, how to spend their retirement fund and so on. The fields of advertising and marketing came to dominate society, as the means of distributing the information people needed to make those all important decisions. If you are still reading this I salute your self-control and appreciate your investment of time and attention from the bottom of my heart. So where were we now? What is the organiz-ing principle of modern day mankind? The internet of today has more information than any of us could possibly know what to do with. Whatever you want to know about, you can in 10 seconds or less. Knowledge is no longer the scarcity in our world. There’s an abundance of it, just as there’s an abundance of labor and an abundance of land. The wealth of information means a dearth of something else, something informa-tion consumes; isn’t it obvious now? The new scarcity is that of attention. There is more information flowing through our society than any of us could ever hope to process or understand. You know the whole argument around how the smart-phones and internet together have ruined everything, from privacy to politics? Well I like to use the word “disruption” instead. It is ironic really, that the technol-

ogy created to get things done (our laptops, tablets and smartphone) are now the gatekeepers of an infinite number of distractions and sources of instant gratification, accused of preventing you to get work done more than any other factor has ever been. Simply put, our attention is a resource and these devices get most of it, but you only have that much of it! Before my digital advertising friends start jumping with joy, this does not assure digital advertising will work any better than its conventional counterpart. Let me elaborate this without losing more of my readers: Google has been able to document the interaction of the new and old media in its search statistics: It has found a strong relationship between specific televised ads and a spike in searches on the topic of the ad. The relationship between online and offline behavior operates in both directions, so one is not supreme over the other, period! This is also why we are still bombarding the average consumer with thousands of advertising messages per day, and no matter who says what, these messages are still intrusive in nature. Why else would the ads we make (and aspire to) get wackier and more preposterous with every passing day? Irrespective of medium, advertising has always been about luring the audience into consuming a piece of communication; it has always depended on the amount and quality of attention. But attention wasn’t the primary currency for brand advertising like it is now. We all have a very limited amount of it and marketers ahead of the curve now value it higher than any other variable. Perhaps it is because the way we pay attention has changed. How often do you sit and spend focused time on one thing, never flipping between different tasks? For most of us, it’s pretty rare if not never. Whenever we are doing one thing, we are also doing another. My favorite modern day writer Mark Mason explains it beautifully: “This is life now: one constant, never-ending stream of non sequitur and self-referential garbage that passes in through our eyes and out of our brains at the speed of a touchscreen”. Most of us though, find that our ability to multitask has improved but that also means our attention is fragmented, unfocused and pretty hard to retain. No wonder we’ve given birth to what research-ers call the Goldfish generation. According to a recent study published by Microsoft highlights the deterio-rating attention span of humans, saying it has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, when the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds now - which is less than that of the notoriously ill-focused goldfish!

A shrinking attention span is making it that much harder to engage customers in an increasingly fragmented media market. But before the media planners and buyers reading this quote me and proclaim “The 30 seconds spot has stopped working!?” or that “The new standard of copy size should be 8 seconds instead!!” let me finish. Nope, that’s not it. To be honest I never believed an ad’s duration should be dictated by the media plan. Media plans are made for the communication and not the other way round. In fact, by just getting the ad viewed several times you can no longer guarantees the message will get through. What the ad copy size does and should depend on is what needs to be said and how creatively does it need to be said. And for those making the ad, it has also became clear that the role of “creative” in advertising is moving even

farther away from its former wacky haired, slow paced, shallow philosopher paradigm and into a younger, quicker, co-creative, almost push-button future where ideas meet technology in a market defined in minutes, not months. And while it looks like the most challenging time for conventional advertising agencies, it is also the most opportune. Just because we may be allocating our attention differently as a function of the technologies we may be using, it doesn't mean that the way our attention actually can function has changed. You’d be surprised to know that your tech savvy consumers are actually getting better at processing information and encoding that informa-tion to memory through shorter yes, but more powerful bursts of high attention.So if you (brand or agency) were any good at conven-tional advertising, you’d do just fine in this era, and the

next. All that has changed is the velocity of things; if it was going to fail, it will fail faster now. I say this because the science of creating powerful communica-tion hasn’t changed. I see the marketer who under-stands his audience better still wins. I believe great ideas are still medium independent, and that true product innovation still does more to get loyalty than most loyalty schemes. If you remember I promised this would be a valuable investment of your time and attention, I salute you again. You sir, are no goldfish!Here is the gist of it, besides all the science behind creating advertising communication for the goldfish generation, or the Millennial, or the GenZ or whatever comes next, three fundamental to consider:


1. Always start with a clear, single-minded advertising objectiveIt is what will help you arrive at a single-minded proposition. Whenever you’d try to say too many things, you’d waste your time, your money, and their attention. Remem-ber, less is more!

2. Trust your gut, playing safe is not exactly safeI’ve always been a big proponent of investing in research. But lately I see a lot of gutless marketers looking at research as a safety net only. No matter how much our industry values research, no matter how big your big-data becomes, do not lose faith in your gut on a mistaken belief that people make decisions based on facts and evidence only… that we all always act reasonably. The process consumers follow to arrive at a buying decision is sloppy, filled with irrational thinking, often contrary to their best interests, sometimes courtesy our efforts and sometimes for no reason whatsoever. If you believe in an idea, go for it. What’s the worst that’ll happen? It will fail? Rest assured it could have failed even if the research said it wouldn’t.

3. There is no such thing as an ‘original’ idea, there is only your idea“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to." Jim Jarmusch, MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004 I have this written on my office wall. Whenever I get too full of myself and my all ‘original’ ideas I read it out loud, laugh at myself and am reminded of where my idea actually originated from. Stop being so stiff about it, as long as you made it yours, as long as you took it somewhere else, as long as you didn’t conceal your thievery, it’s alright!


Marketers continually face the challenge of coming up with innovative and creative advertising to catch their target audience’s attention. In the past, tactics have been limited largely to placing advertisements in newspapers and on television and radio channels. With technological developments and the advent of social media and mobile apps, advertising has changed quite radically as many new avenues and methods are now available to reach and interact with consumers. But precisely because of the plethora of communication channels and content now targeting consumers, it has become even more important for brands to ensure that their marketing efforts stand out to build and maintain brand image and awareness.Technology has enabled consumers not only to receive but also to create and share their own content with regards to the brands they use. We have all heard the phrase ‘Content is King’, but it is even more important now when consumers are looking for content which they can relate to and share with friends. Therefore, it is no longer enough for leading companies to put out their message, they also have to allow consumers to interact and engage with their favorite brands. The following are five ways in which advertising has evolved at EBM over the years:

1. Broadening The Definition Of “Brand” Over the last decade, Peek Freans Sooper, Pakistan’s number one selling biscuit, has steered a major shift in its approach to advertising. The brand, which is now a household name, realizing that it has become an integral part of its consumers’ lifestyle, decided to shift its positioning from purely functional attributes to becoming a lifestyle brand. In 2013, Sooper introduced the “Sooper Hai Zindagi” ad campaign to explicitly connect the brand name with its consumers’ lifestyles. In keeping with the lifestyle brand philosophy, the recent Sooper consumer testimonial campaign went a step further, asking its consumers, “Sooper aapki Zindagi ko kaisay super banata hai?” (How does Sooper make your lives super?), thus starting a conversation with its target audience. This innovative approach of allowing consumers to engage with the brand clearly works, as demonstrated by the phenomenal success of the Sooper testimonial campaign. The campaign received and therefore, actively involved, more than 300,000 consumers, who sent entries from across the country sharing personal experiences of how the brand made their lives “super”.

FIVE WAYS ‘BISCUIT’ ADVERTISING HAS EVOLVED

By Zulfiqar Ali Ansari

2. Going DigitalBrands increasingly need to attract today’s smartphone and tablet-engrossed population. Peek Freans RIO, the market leader in the cream segment for over a decade, targeting kids aged 9-14, has shifted its focus from ATL to digital, in order to engage its digitally-savvy young audience. The brand, which promises to provide non-stop fun for kids, launched a new game called SKATERIO on its website www.PFRio.com.pk . The game is not just a form of entertainment but directly engages the consumer with the brand through the clever integration of variants, billboards, and characters from the TVCs into the game. Since its launch the game has been played thousands of times.


3. Know Your Consumer Understanding your audience, knowing their lifestyle and aspirations, and their likes and dislikes, is a sure-shot way of creating successful brands through relevant advertising. Peek Freans Gluco is one of our oldest brands. After its re-launch in 2009, Gluco has become the market leader in energy biscuits for children. In an age when competition amongst kids has increased and every child wants to excel in his or her endeavors, Gluco has created the “League of Gluco Achievers” ad campaign. The four talented kids showcased in the ad inspire viewers with the message “Aur hum hain GLUCO KIDS! Strong bano Smart raho!” The campaign has been nominated consecutively for awards in 2013 and 2014 by the Pakistan Advertisers Society.

4. ATL Alone Is InsufficientCreating unforgettable experiences is one of the best ways to ensure that your brand stands out. Experiential Marketing is a form of advertising that tries to immerse the consum-ers in a richer experience of the product by engaging as many of their senses as possible. This can be in form of guerilla marketing tactics, product sampling through brand activations, or publicity stunts or events. EBM recently re-launched Peek Freans Butter Puff with the introduction of a new variant ‘Veggies’, to target a mature but trendy audience. The brand initiated an activation campaign at various high-end locations, presenting the biscuit in combination with various accompaniments such as cheese, olives, ranch dressing, etc. The campaign continued its activity on digital media, where the brand invited famous food bloggers and instagrammers to create ‘14 Different Ways To Eat Butter Puff’. The bloggers created new recipes and experimented with fun ways of eating Butter Puff, which they shared with their followers. These digital platforms allowed consumers to get involved and share their experiences as well. The engagement rate of consumers crossed 12 percent in the span of one month alone, with a participation of more than 5000 fans.

5. The Rise Of VideoEBM has a legacy of promoting ‘edutainment’ through movies, which feature stories and messages that resonate with its brands. In these campaigns, EBM combines its pledge of providing high quality, delicious biscuits along with high quality, purposeful entertainment for children. We, therefore, partnered with 3- Bahadur, Pakistan’s first animated movie, launched recently. The movie carried a strong message – Every child has innate powers through which they can bring a positive change in society – a message which Peek Freans Gluco truly believes in. The audio, visual story telling in the film provided a rich and complex medium to engage the young audience’s attention and senses. The sponsorship of 3 Bahadur helped build brand equity and strengthened the emotional connect with its target group. A complete 360 degree communication campaign was launched through limited edition packaging, ATL and BTL and mobile and digital media. The movie was a hit and so was the top of mind brand recall. These five changes have been incorporated by marketers across the advertising world and are applicable across industries. Consumer behavior is changing and in order to keep pace, advertising – even if it is for biscuits – has to evolve to build up and maintain a strong brand image and reputation, and enhance top-of-mind awareness and more favorable customer attitudes.

Zulfiqar Ali Ansari is the Head of Marketing at English Biscuit Manufacturers (Pvt.) Limited and has been working in the field for over a decade.


My compliments to the team at Business recorder for coming out with a supplement on Adasia year after year which provides crucial

insights into the mega event. One such effort that I distinctly remember is they coming out with a supplement that provided the history of Adasia thereby listing the

year in which it started till the last event accomplished. I am sure lots of research must have gone into that effort.

Jawwad Ahmed deserves a special mention for the consistency he has shown over the years in his efforts and so does the team at

Business Recorder.

BIPIN R PANDITChief operating officer, The Advertising club

Once again, the advertising and communication community is bracing itself to share and exchange ideas at Adasia 2015, in Taipei, Taiwan. One can surely expect this to be an occasion for every professional to learn. This year’s theme ‘Clouidea (Cloud Idea) Marketing x Digital x Life=

The Future of Cloud Ideas’ promises a different discourse wherein the speakers will not only take stock of how computing technology has affected the communication platforms, but will also yield some vital

insights for the stakeholders. I sincerely hope that the members of Pakistan’s advertising and

communications industry will benefit a lot from this event.

NADEEM AKBARCEO, MCP, Islamabad

Messages


With global trade alliances and financial systems shifting integrations, Pakistan is better positioned to maximize its geo-strategic potential. Development of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has already been initiated building trade, technology and energy infrastructures. Under Central Asia South Asia (CASA) 1000 project, energy and trade linkages are being geared up. On the other hand, Iran Pakistan India (IPI) gas pipeline is also on the cards with Iran’s economy coming out of international sanctions. At an unprecedented pace, Pakistan is overcoming its energy limitation. Reforms in energy sector of Pakistan has opened up new avenues of innovation. Hydel power projects are being improved. Solar energy parks have been and are being established. Wind turbines have started producing energy in Pakistan. Electricity supply from wind mills have already started contributing to the national grid. It is well anticipated that Pakistan will achieve sufficiency in energy beyond 2018. To this effect, coal fired power projects and nuclear power plants are also at work. Collective effect of these diverse projects is certain to usher Pakistan into an era where it will be exporting electricity.Contrary to some misperceptions about Pakistan’s potential, progress and pluralism – right of educa-tion, right to information and freedom of expression are flourishing. Labor reforms are well on track. Conventionally agrarian economy of Pakistan is also fast transforming into being a technology-intensive and services-driven model. As a result of these broad-based reforms, investors’ confidence in Pakistan is on the rise. Moody International has improved Pakistan’s ranking. Pragmatic agendas are also being implemented in Pakistan to achieve better standing on global competitiveness index and on ease-of –doing business charts. Import-export balance of Pakistan is improving leaps and bounds.

Thanks to the General System of Preferences (GSP+) status that has been awarded to Pakistan for exports to EU markets. FMCGs, Telecom services, financial solutions, real estate, energy and other sectors continue to attract global investments. This phenomenon is growing exponentially with Pakistan’s television, radio, print and digital media’s expansion. The highly diverse and dynamic media industry of Pakistan is on the 45 degree growth path with good success rate and tremendous potential. Backed by a robust advertis-ing industry, the consumer market is continuously leaving red oceans of competitiveness and entering new blue oceans of innovation. Pakistani consum-ers, viewers, listeners and readers are rated with a relatively higher emotional intelligence. This is taking the creative benchmarks and servicing standards higher, hand-in-hand with market demand. From media planning to film production

and from activation to digitalization – brands in Pakistan are reaching new heights of excellence. Gaps between the brand promise and brand experience is being bridged every day - with a new passion and loftier edge. As media industry in Pakistan improves both its qualitative and quantita-tive aspects, there is growing need for regional and international integration. Pakistani media delegates have been actively participating in AdAsia and other events for many years. Time has come, for the world to witnesses Pakistan’s rejuvenation and embrace real Pakistan’s robust diversity. Time has come to leave behind ‘unreal Pakistan’ that only existed on the mind-map of the world due to long stained perceptions of international media, industry leaders and brand powers. Now is the time for AdAsia and admen to come to Pakistan for exploring new horizons and for reaching new heights with the changing winds of time.

For the first time in its history, Pakistan is headed for a decade of democratic reforms. This signifies institutionaliza-tion of democracy and systematically improving governance. Owing to mainstreaming of national action plan this geo-market has achieved resilience against extremist elements, successfully. With the national policy adoption of

Vision 2025, all sectors of socio-economics are being steered towards progress. Here infrastructure development is turning around the cityscapes as well as lives of people. Technologies are on the rise here. With one of the best

cellular density, Pakistan has entered a 4G era where ecommerce is enabling business, large and small. With two-third of the population in prime youth and continuously improving skills driven knowledge-base, Pakistan has

already become the hub of best-in-line human resources.

Poised to become fastest growing socio-economy of the region

Pakistan – Virtually the 6th largest

consumer marketHas all it takes to host next AdAsia

Sohail KisatGroup Chairman

MCOM - MediAd - MindCom - SkyCopter Films


With global trade alliances and financial systems shifting integrations, Pakistan is better positioned to maximize its geo-strategic potential. Development of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has already been initiated building trade, technology and energy infrastructures. Under Central Asia South Asia (CASA) 1000 project, energy and trade linkages are being geared up. On the other hand, Iran Pakistan India (IPI) gas pipeline is also on the cards with Iran’s economy coming out of international sanctions. At an unprecedented pace, Pakistan is overcoming its energy limitation. Reforms in energy sector of Pakistan has opened up new avenues of innovation. Hydel power projects are being improved. Solar energy parks have been and are being established. Wind turbines have started producing energy in Pakistan. Electricity supply from wind mills have already started contributing to the national grid. It is well anticipated that Pakistan will achieve sufficiency in energy beyond 2018. To this effect, coal fired power projects and nuclear power plants are also at work. Collective effect of these diverse projects is certain to usher Pakistan into an era where it will be exporting electricity.Contrary to some misperceptions about Pakistan’s potential, progress and pluralism – right of educa-tion, right to information and freedom of expression are flourishing. Labor reforms are well on track. Conventionally agrarian economy of Pakistan is also fast transforming into being a technology-intensive and services-driven model. As a result of these broad-based reforms, investors’ confidence in Pakistan is on the rise. Moody International has improved Pakistan’s ranking. Pragmatic agendas are also being implemented in Pakistan to achieve better standing on global competitiveness index and on ease-of –doing business charts. Import-export balance of Pakistan is improving leaps and bounds.

Thanks to the General System of Preferences (GSP+) status that has been awarded to Pakistan for exports to EU markets. FMCGs, Telecom services, financial solutions, real estate, energy and other sectors continue to attract global investments. This phenomenon is growing exponentially with Pakistan’s television, radio, print and digital media’s expansion. The highly diverse and dynamic media industry of Pakistan is on the 45 degree growth path with good success rate and tremendous potential. Backed by a robust advertis-ing industry, the consumer market is continuously leaving red oceans of competitiveness and entering new blue oceans of innovation. Pakistani consum-ers, viewers, listeners and readers are rated with a relatively higher emotional intelligence. This is taking the creative benchmarks and servicing standards higher, hand-in-hand with market demand. From media planning to film production

and from activation to digitalization – brands in Pakistan are reaching new heights of excellence. Gaps between the brand promise and brand experience is being bridged every day - with a new passion and loftier edge. As media industry in Pakistan improves both its qualitative and quantita-tive aspects, there is growing need for regional and international integration. Pakistani media delegates have been actively participating in AdAsia and other events for many years. Time has come, for the world to witnesses Pakistan’s rejuvenation and embrace real Pakistan’s robust diversity. Time has come to leave behind ‘unreal Pakistan’ that only existed on the mind-map of the world due to long stained perceptions of international media, industry leaders and brand powers. Now is the time for AdAsia and admen to come to Pakistan for exploring new horizons and for reaching new heights with the changing winds of time.

For the first time in its history, Pakistan is headed for a decade of democratic reforms. This signifies institutionaliza-tion of democracy and systematically improving governance. Owing to mainstreaming of national action plan this geo-market has achieved resilience against extremist elements, successfully. With the national policy adoption of

Vision 2025, all sectors of socio-economics are being steered towards progress. Here infrastructure development is turning around the cityscapes as well as lives of people. Technologies are on the rise here. With one of the best

cellular density, Pakistan has entered a 4G era where ecommerce is enabling business, large and small. With two-third of the population in prime youth and continuously improving skills driven knowledge-base, Pakistan has

already become the hub of best-in-line human resources.

ad asia 2015 review

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