In a recent whirlwind trip to Malaysia, A+M managed to sneak in a few minutes for some Q&A with Derek Callow, Google's Marketing head of Southeast Asia.
He speaks of how SEM provides marketers the space on the worldwide web to push their products and services and how agencies are or are not stepping up to push the goodness of SEM.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Hegarty's got bite but does he still have vision
As I begin to finally recover from my Singha beer hangover and the memories of my first trip to Pattaya for AdFest come rushing back, I can now recall the lasting presence - good or bad - that Sir John Hegarty left on the festival.
He was jury president for many of the big awards on offer, such as the Lotus Roots, Film, Radio, Innova, and 360 Lotus, and it was good to see an advertising legend, which Hegarty is, judging work from our region.
But a few things struck me about him during the festival which were that(1) Hegarty still has the aura about him of being one of the world's most famous creative and (2) The man knows how to make great ads but (3) Is he slightly out of touch with today's market?
There's no real need for me to question (1) and (2) - those are facts and it would be pointless for me to argue otherwise. But point (3) is what I want to discuss.
In a room packed full with ad men (and there were plenty of presentations played out to a quarter filled room at AdFest, so Hegarty still has that drawing power) he gave a presentation on the seven basic principles he thought the creative industry needed to consider to succeed.
It was a clear and concise presentation with some great old ads BBH had done in the past mixed in with some new ones like the Audi ad fresh off the production line.
My only problem with the presentation was that it felt a bit old-world. And this nagging feeling was seemingly backed up moments later by the CEO of a competing agency who commented to me that his ideas seemed "outdated".
As a journalist you're trained to be objective and it should be noted that the basis of this post came from Hegarty's reaction to a question posed by another journalist on of ours in fact (Matt Eaton, editor of Hong Kong Marketing and blogger on The Pitch Hong Kong) at a press conference shortly after Hegarty's talk.
In response to a question on whether digital is the place the industry is heading... with reference to waning popularity of TV, Hegarty said the industry had lost the fight against the new digital paradigm.
But when the journalist said, "actually cant you say the opposite? That the industry is taking up the fight and going where people are consuming media?" - he ranted on about how industry journalists were perpetuating some sort of myth about digital and the death of TV. It felt a little defensive.
It's long been unpopular to question the 'black sheep' but there it is but what do you guys think?
He was jury president for many of the big awards on offer, such as the Lotus Roots, Film, Radio, Innova, and 360 Lotus, and it was good to see an advertising legend, which Hegarty is, judging work from our region.
But a few things struck me about him during the festival which were that(1) Hegarty still has the aura about him of being one of the world's most famous creative and (2) The man knows how to make great ads but (3) Is he slightly out of touch with today's market?
There's no real need for me to question (1) and (2) - those are facts and it would be pointless for me to argue otherwise. But point (3) is what I want to discuss.
In a room packed full with ad men (and there were plenty of presentations played out to a quarter filled room at AdFest, so Hegarty still has that drawing power) he gave a presentation on the seven basic principles he thought the creative industry needed to consider to succeed.
It was a clear and concise presentation with some great old ads BBH had done in the past mixed in with some new ones like the Audi ad fresh off the production line.
My only problem with the presentation was that it felt a bit old-world. And this nagging feeling was seemingly backed up moments later by the CEO of a competing agency who commented to me that his ideas seemed "outdated".
As a journalist you're trained to be objective and it should be noted that the basis of this post came from Hegarty's reaction to a question posed by another journalist on of ours in fact (Matt Eaton, editor of Hong Kong Marketing and blogger on The Pitch Hong Kong) at a press conference shortly after Hegarty's talk.
In response to a question on whether digital is the place the industry is heading... with reference to waning popularity of TV, Hegarty said the industry had lost the fight against the new digital paradigm.
But when the journalist said, "actually cant you say the opposite? That the industry is taking up the fight and going where people are consuming media?" - he ranted on about how industry journalists were perpetuating some sort of myth about digital and the death of TV. It felt a little defensive.
It's long been unpopular to question the 'black sheep' but there it is but what do you guys think?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Google-killer in the making?
In case you haven’t noticed – we’ve gone Twitter friendly. For the past month or so, MarketingEds has been working hard with the tweeting and we now have over 1000 followers. But as I start to become more comfortable with this new technology or phenomenon, I realise that Twitter has the potential to be a Google-killer.
Ok I might be exaggerating slightly but if you think of Twitter as a human powered search engine then you can see where I am coming from.
Don’t think of Twitter as a place where you can find out what so and so ate for breakfast, instead use it as a tool where you can get the best search results or problem solving information from.
A Twitter account with a quality following has the capacity to do just this. It’s generally powered by people you know, and who will respond. The next time I am in KL, and unsure of how to get to my next meeting, I might just tweet someone for the directions instead of Googling it.
Ok I might be exaggerating slightly but if you think of Twitter as a human powered search engine then you can see where I am coming from.Don’t think of Twitter as a place where you can find out what so and so ate for breakfast, instead use it as a tool where you can get the best search results or problem solving information from.
A Twitter account with a quality following has the capacity to do just this. It’s generally powered by people you know, and who will respond. The next time I am in KL, and unsure of how to get to my next meeting, I might just tweet someone for the directions instead of Googling it.
Friday, March 6, 2009
You know it’s not your day when…
You know it’s not your day when…a client asks you to reach the entire literate world on a budget of less than $8 million.
Spare a thought for Katherine Kinsella, president of Kinsella Media which is an ad agency specializing in notices for class action lawsuits.
When her client Google settled a class action lawsuit (brought on behalf of authors whose works it scanned for its controversial Book Project) it reportedly agreed to pay $125 million to develop a way for consumers to pay for reading a copyrighted book – Google and the writer(s) will split the earnings.
The search begins for writers.
We got the news from our electronic tip off function but it’s making waves around the world.
Basically, Kinsella Media has recommended to Google to run print ads in newspapers, magazines and journals all over the world in a bid to reach writers – because writers are readers.
No easy task. Especially since the ads intend to drive the audience to a website where the settlement is described, and has to be translated into 70 different languages, and… nobody wants to get on the bad side of Google.
if you’re reading this and you’re an author of a piece of work in Malaysia that Google has scanned for its Book Project – well its good you clicked through – I’ve just saved Kinsella Media some of that precious $8 million dollar budget.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Spare a thought for Katherine Kinsella, president of Kinsella Media which is an ad agency specializing in notices for class action lawsuits.
When her client Google settled a class action lawsuit (brought on behalf of authors whose works it scanned for its controversial Book Project) it reportedly agreed to pay $125 million to develop a way for consumers to pay for reading a copyrighted book – Google and the writer(s) will split the earnings.
The search begins for writers.
We got the news from our electronic tip off function but it’s making waves around the world.
Basically, Kinsella Media has recommended to Google to run print ads in newspapers, magazines and journals all over the world in a bid to reach writers – because writers are readers.
No easy task. Especially since the ads intend to drive the audience to a website where the settlement is described, and has to be translated into 70 different languages, and… nobody wants to get on the bad side of Google.
if you’re reading this and you’re an author of a piece of work in Malaysia that Google has scanned for its Book Project – well its good you clicked through – I’ve just saved Kinsella Media some of that precious $8 million dollar budget.
Enjoy the long weekend!
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