Music industry gets pwnd for epic fail

(If the headline makes sense to you then you already know all about this, off you go, see you in Digg.) For the rest of us here's the story.

The music industry is having its day in court over unauthorized music downloads in what is billed as one of the most important IP rights cases in history, are they right? Only partially.

The trial, which is just entering its third day in Stockholm, Sweden, the home of Pirate Bay, pits the music industry, specifically, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Universal, Warner Bros., EMI, and Sony BMG, against peer to peer music, video, games and software bit torrent site the Pirate Bay.

Not to get too technical, Pirate Bay hosts torrent files which allow users to download files in parts and at greater speeds from a lot of different sources. The Pirate Bay is basing its defense on technical details, details which the prosecution is having difficulty understanding - the main argument is it only hosts the torrents on its servers not any copyrighted material therefore it can't be charged with copyright infringement.

The company, in its five year history, has always laughed off 'cease and desist' letters and other threats from the music and film industry before but has finally ended up in court. But is the music marketing machine completely innocent in the growth of file sharing online and therefore deserves to win?

As victims of unethical operators with no regard for intellectual property rights in Malaysia ourselves we are sensitive to copyright and IP issues but I think the music industry and to a certain extent the film industry has got it wrong for a long time.

It is hard to feel sorry for an industry in decay the way the music industry is. Consumers seem to have said if you cannot find a better and fairer way to distribute music well, we'll do it for you.

It's well known that artists do not get a large slice of the profits from the sale of each CD with the music marketers arguing musicians wouldn't be so popular without the millions that go into promoting each album. The trouble is the way musicians get popular is changing as well, there are now about a dozen acts you would class as commercially very successful who started out as MySpace, Facebook or YouTube acts.

Should music and videos be free? Of course not. Who would continue to make music if there were no commercial gain, except hippies and church choirs. But if there was a more equatable way of purchasing music that didn't build in all the marketing costs and pass them along to the consumer they might find the business not looking so precarious.

For instance if you discovered a band online and you went off and bought their CD why should you pay the producer's marketing costs if you discovered the music virally?

Apple has it partially right but not fully. In a number of countries the iTunes store offers pay per
download songs, TV episodes and movies and, despite the hugely annoying DRM (digital rights management code attached to the songs, which means you can only play it on 5 devices and pretty much only in iTunes) it is more convenient than having to chase music on bit torrents, plus the files are stable and the libraries huge.

But it isn't available here in Malaysia like many Asian countries.

Bit torrent downloading here isn't a huge issue I guess because of the terrible broadband speeds Malaysia suffers with compared to many other markets and the ready availability of content like pirated videos, not just at the street sellers around Bukit Bintang but in proper shops across whole floors of malls in places like Little India and China town in KL and throughout other towns like JB.

If copyright owners, like the ones trying to close down Pirate Bay this week decided they wanted to start charging equitable prices for songs that could be bought separately or for a bundled price as an album they would certainly pick up some of the revenue they are losing out on through the massive downturn in CD sales over the past 10 years - due largely they argue to peer to peer file sharing.

But they seem to want to stubbornly protect an old business model at a time when old business models are falling daily in the face of tough economic times and changing consumer habits of consumption.

Also, by taking on a very vocal and very powerful internet community, even if the labels win they won't be winning any friends and the considerable backlash is well under way with blogs, forums, social news sites and tweets pulsing with anger over the trial.

If the Pirate Bay is going down it will go down as it lives, in swashbuckling style. The founders have long run a section on their site where they lampoon legal threats from record companies and artists who try to have their content (err the bit torrents) removed.

The founders have been turning up to the trial in a cheerily painted bus and remain defiant, blogging about the trial as it happens and fans and supporters have been turning up to cheer them on waving Jolly Roger flags and banners. The founders are certainly playing to the crowd.

"The record companies can go screw themselves,” was what founder Gottfrid Svartholm said about the record companies suing Pirate Bay.

Socialising online is having a dramatic impact on consumers and if companies and whole categories don't get that then it paves the way for someone who does get it to create an opportunity.

Maybe the music industry will be walking the plank on this one whether they win or lose (ok that was unecessary...)

The customer is always right (...in the way of my social life)

Let me tell you a tale of two customer service experiences which reveal a lot about what is terribly right and terribly wrong with the razor sharp edge of all marketing where your front line meets your purchaser, the art of customer service.

The first was a wet market in Chow Kit where I have just started to buy food essentials on a regular basis. It was a little bit daunting at first the market is huge but it's extremely rewarding if you are prepared to dodge flying chicken parts and wade through puddles of animal's blood and other liquids.

Here I can get served by the guy who caught the fish, slaughtered the chickens and grew the chillies. In terms of his company, him and his family, he is the brand custodian, he knows his product, he can tell you where it came from and he can tell you quite a bit about it. Despite clearly getting up at a time on a Saturday morning when many of us are just getting to bed, he's relatively cheery. His prices, even though i am pretty sure I am getting a "special price", are still a lot cheaper than the fancier supermarkets.

Which brings me to the comparative experience.

If the market in Chow Kit sold coffee beans, decent olive oils and poncy tomatoes dried to about five different stages then I'd have no need to go to a more conventional supermarket at all, particularly the sort set up to separate foreigners, who suffer from occasional culinary home sickness, from their money.

I do once a week have to visit a particularly fancy supermarket in the Pavilion and on Saturday I found myself in this very supermarket and with a basket full of over priced items approached a check out.

This and not the prices is always the worst part of a visit to this particular supermarket. Often when you approach there are one but usually two very young staff clearly making plans for the rest of the weekend, none of which involve running your grocery items through their check out.

If they do break up their conversations long enough to provide some customer service, it is only to lazily push things across the scanner whilst getting involved in conversations going on several checkouts away where, like myself, there are more frustrated customers helpless to do anything but wait until the misery ends and they are out of the store.

Instead of providing a welcoming environment, which makes you want to linger and therefore help the store's owners with their ultimate goal of shifting inventory, makes you feel like you are an un-invited, over-aged and therefore somewhat creepy guest at a teenager's birthday party.

I'm fine with this vibe in a clothing shop, because it's a great indicator I am too old to be shopping there, and I am ok with this in a music shop, I can even tolerate a certain amount of it in an Apple store as long as the young staff know at least as much as I do about the products and preferably more - but in a place where I buy bread - no thanks.

Don't get me wrong I used to have part time jobs when to put myself through university myself and spent a bright shining year as a pizza maker where I was every bit not there as these guys, however I had a boss who'd kick us up the proverbial if we ever misbehaved in front of, or disrespected, customers.

The final straw on this particular visit on Saturday and I have to say most visits to this supermarket are very, very similar, was when my cashier and his cheer squad managed to ring up something wrong with my bill and had no idea how to undo it. What ensued was an argument about who would go and get the manager that went on for several minutes and left me asking "aren't there any adults that work here".

Of course my reply was a shrug from my server and his cheerleaders and after several more minutes, during which absolutely nothing happened I grabbed my credit card and said "you know what I'll come back another time". The reply was a giggle.

So the store loses a customer, one who buys something at least once a week and I tell everyone I know, and no one ever even hears about it and the customer service staff really don't care and there in lies the problem.

The marketing department may be pretty busy tying up partnerships, running campaigns both in-store and external, managing the extremely complex art of in store marketing and point of sale for numerous brands, but it never hears that a lot of the good work it does is undone by transient part-time staff who really have no association with brand or even know they are representing one.

It certainly isn't a unique Malaysia issue. Down South the problem there as well but shows itself in a different way (yes even in the service culture of Singapore). Five people will over-enthusiastically yell "good morning" as you walk into a store which is nice, but then really don't know enough about what they are selling or have the communications skills to carry through on the initial promise.

Lets cut back to the stall owner in the wet market, he can tell you anything you want to know, he isn't sitting texting on his phone or talking to his other stall buddies or watching what is going on three stalls over while you are asking when and where the prawns were caught.

He might not have a fancy orange uniform or take credit cards but he's living his brand because he knows his brand and he knows there are 40 other guys who could just as easily take my money.

You'd be surprised how many marketers are talking about a return to values and understanding customers on a more personal level as part of their survival strategy.

I say bring it on.

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Or not?

We're all familiar with how festive seasons are supposed to be a time for merriment and happiness.
With that in mind, the Asian community, particularly is reminded to reflect on the values of love and respect for family and loved ones.
But can this be taken too far sometimes?
Petronas has been ooh-ed and aah-ed at many times over for its extraordinary, moral-centred TVCs screened on television for all festive seasons.
Leo Burnett's team, led by Yasmin Ahmad have been the working hands behind the inspiring commercials with work like 'Tan Hong Ming in Love' for Malaysia's 50th Independence Day, which has won and continues to bag award after award and last Chinese New Year's 'Nobody's Child' carrying the message of cherishing your family.
It depicts a seven-year-old Tan Tiam Hock, who is scolded by his teacher for not being able to draw a reunion dinner scene in school.
The TVC then shows why he doesn't draw anything when he goes home to an orphanage.
While it is admirable that the Leo Burnett team incorporates values into its work, has it left the Malaysians wondering if there's too much depression?
Here's a look at the 2008 Deepavali ad and then later this year's CNY ad. Have your say below ...



One More Day



Petronas' The Wings of a Man for Deepavali 2008

The Glitch Brand Forum?

Kudos to organisers Media Prima and the Global Brand Forum (GBF) who, on the overall, did an excellent job at the Global Brand Forum held on Dec 4 and 5.
While they made sure the participants had their fill of intelligent courses of information and tips of marketing and branding their products in their effort to push Malaysian brands to the global front, the press corp may have had a little bit of challenge.
Not to diss the public relations companies who were charged with looking after the journalists nor the organisers but it was a little impossible - unless you were armed with a DSLR camera - to take close up shots of the speakers on-stage.
There was an invisible camera for security reasons, one would gather, that photographers could not cross to get up close to the stage but the opportunity did come about at the press conferences held a level below (a five minute walk in heels and lugging bags aplenty; three minutes in flats).
At the media centre, unfortunately, there were four lines short of internet connection as there was only one LAN plug-in. Those who had the modern-day USB modem turned out to be the smart ones who did not need to waste any time.
The second day, as reported by Advertising + Marketing (www.marketing-interactive.com) saw the holographic and recorded video conference of Ivanka Trump who saw "a hand waving" shortening her 15-minute presentation.
Let it be known that each speaker had about 45-minutes to say their piece.
But in the defence of the Global Brand Forum, they had exhausted all options including a private jet for the one-time supermodel to turn up, said Karthik Siva - chairman of GBF.
Still, they were told two-days before her appearance, the emergency - an event - could not be forgone.
So the organisers resorted to rope in Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat as a surprise guest but for some reason, there was a delay in her appearance so the participants had a longer lunch break.
Which turned out to be convenient for the Muslim participants who had to attend Friday prayers.
Sherawat, in the end, shared a couch with panelists film-maker and director Samar Khan, Hollywood director Oliver Stone and Melium Group president Datuk Farah Khan to share her thougts on 'Creating Brand Leadership in Entertainment and Fashion Industry'.
Hollywood director Oliver Stone

Sherawat, in the midst of the discussion and taking questions, did get a little dressing down (pun intended as she was dressed in a tight grey-dress which rode up as she took to the stage) from a participant who is quite prominent in the Malaysian marketing, communications and advertising industry.
Stone also took a hit for being invited guest speakers at the Global Brand Forum as Hollywood did not have much to do with direct branding efforts.
She had emphasised that the GBF was "beyond" Sherawat's league.
Riz Khan, played the very mediating host, requesting that the participant respected the speakers who had made the effort and took time to attend the forum, to share their personal experiences and thoughts with the 930 audience who turned up.
"GBF's role was to educate the overall aspects about branding to just the marketing world but to show that the diversity of branding.
"That it goes beyond the serious business and the entertainment industry does have a part in it," Khan said, gaining the further admiration of the rest of the crowd who clapped and cheered for him.
It can still be said the organisers achieved what they had wanted to do which was to educate Malaysians on building their product and brands.

Sony so right, so wrong

Malaysia - Here comes the venom, but don't worry, the agency names have been omitted to protect the guilty. Actually it's not all venom some of it is nectar, the nectar of a wonderfully good idea.

There are two TV spots that have my attention at the moment both of them are for Sony products.

I have always been a big fan of Sony and I know agencies love them as a client because some divisions can be brave and visionary, they like to get involved with their communications, usually in the right way - I've blogged extensively on work like the original PlayStation creative, particularly the evocative "Double Life" spot.

True to form Sony's creative to leverage on its Quantum of Solace tie in featuring Daniel Craig, is an extremely good ad - it's all about the product and positioning.

Craig, who in the ad plays the character from the Ian Flemming franchise, that he has reinvented as "the Bond with bruises", is bombarded by all manner of ballistics as he calmly stands in an immaculate suit.



The connection with the film is obvious and it's done in a way the never strays from the benefits of Sony's high definition line, the inference, though not the tag line, is it doesn't get any more real than this. The spot concludes with a close up of Craig's battered face and the simple line "Bond in Sony High Definition".

The product is present but not overbearing in a retail way and the ad cuts through the run of the mill film tie ins because it uses bespoke footage, not simply a montage from the film with the logo at the end.

Unfortunately Sony is also the client for the ad that bugs me the most at the moment. It's not because it's a particularly awful ad, and heaven knows there are plenty of those on the box right now (if I see that piece for the Malaysia Savings Sale again I'm going to hurt something), it's more that it forms part of a series which started as an exceptional piece of creative.

I am talking about the Sony Bravia Domino City piece, shot in India and featuring a bunch of over sized coloured dominoes falling over through the streets and temples and ending in a large concentric circle of colour with the tag "Colour Like No Other".



This all started with a spot which launched the Bravia range of TVs for Sony called "Bouncy Balls" (if you watch it plug your headphones in and turn it up loud as the music is half the impact) I am sure you have seen and heard of this stunningly simple and highly awarded TVC which saw the agency dump 250,000 bouncy balls down a San Francisco street and film it to creative a haunting and human ad about colour with the tag; "Colour Like No Other". You can read me banging on about it on another blog I used to write here (yes it's an external link so make sure you come back).

The spot was so successful and awarded (it won a gold at Cannes in 2006 and the Grand Prix at the Midsummer Awards in London) other agencies have made attempts to extend the idea with varying successes but none has captured the spirit of the original.

You may have seen Rabbits (arty and clever but lacking), Pyramids
(which seemed to try to replicate the original - you know throwing colourful things down a steep incline) and Paint (this one was kind of clever and on brief but I don't think it ran in Asia).

However the latest Domino City spot really is the death knell for the idea. It seems like an unnecessary stretching of the idea, in fact it's kind of silly(yes, but not only that seems poorly executed with the dominoes looking kind of tinny and unsubstantial an in general I think there are travel network interstitials that engage me much better than this.

In the end it's a bit of a mess and looks little more than an expensive way to get a production crew, the agency and (hopefully since it's on their tab) the client, to see India.

This idea is dead, it's time for a new position for Bravia Sony.

If you think I am wrong and this spot will sweep Cannes next year, or you think the Bond piece is rubbish, I'd love to hear your counter viewpoints.

The Proximity strategy ...

"Was there? Were there people shaking their heads?" jury head Ronald Ng responded to questions.
It was the tailend of the 30th Kancil Award Festival - at least for the press who stuck around to speak to the agency who scooped up the Golden Kancil as well as the most number of awards at the event at the Sunway Resort and Spa hotel on Friday.
The rest were ready to call it a night or head to the after-party at a smoke-free club next door.
For those who were at the event, please refrain yourself from reading the next two words - BBDO/Proximity Malaysia held the spotlight for almost all the categories that were up for grabs.
The hall howled and cheered everytime the name was mentioned and truth be told, there were indeed a few spotted shaking their heads at 12 Gold, 4 Silver, 11 Bronze and 15 Merit mentions.
Naturally, suspicion would arise from across the board as Ng also happens to be the executive creative director for the agency.
Almost immediately, he said: "The chief judge does not vote, you know?"
And bless him for being honest and there was truth when he quipped: "It would have been great if everyone wins."
"I think they were happy for us ... They were happy," Ng convinces.


Maybe it was strategy that BBDO/Proximity secured that many successes by submitting more entries for the categories.
Perhaps it was really good work as judged upon by the panel of international creatives without having been put pressure or persuaded by Ng.
But really, Ng says and this was affirmed by Creative Director 'MUN', the team broke their backs to gain the recognition.
"It recognises all their efforts ... Staying till 3am and 4am to work on these pieces, it makes it worth it for them," he adds.
Let's face it, it's human nature to take favour on those under your wing but then again, it's the same human nature to play the blame game when all it really is boils down to pure luck and good work.
Que sera sera ... The deal's been done, the certificates and recognition's been given out. There's no point crying over spilt milk, as the saying goes.
Maybe next year the other agencies should learn the trick - more entries and quality work as tipped by the forces that be.
Whatever is said and done, kudos to Ng and BBDO/Proximity general manager and 4As Creative Excellence Committee head Jennifer Chan on the job well done.
The 30th Kancil Awards Festival was an amazing month-long journey with many a lesson on creativity and change but most of all, I think everyone's mostly relieved it's come to the end.

Eds note: Check out the video below to see the electric atmosphere at the event in general and to see BBDO picking up one of their awards and a few other pics from the night.

Watch Not Far From Here and savour Nasi Kandar

The Kancil Speaker Series 2008 had a few enlightening moments, with two individuals who are worlds apart. It was during a session where the speakers highlight on an interesting topic - change. 

Firstly, the film maker. Just one look you can sum up that he is a composed individual with great intellect, BUT please don’t judge this ‘book’ by the cover. He is far from composed; he lives in the past and constantly believes that the world might come to an end anytime.

Ho Yuhang, a renowned, award-winning film maker who won awards for documentaries such as Semangat Insan: Masters of Tradition (1999) and Not Far From Here (2001) also won Special Jury Prize at Nantes for feature film Min (2006), and the NETPAC award in Pusan for Sanctuary (2004).

For a guy who made a name in the film industry, with other noted film makers, such as James Lee, he does not believe that he has gone through any changes – be it personally or professionally. However, Yuhang ‘ambiguously’ touched the topic of change. I don’t know if he realised it but somewhere down the road he had an epiphany that made him take a giant leap – from an engineering to film making.

Without any money to produce a film, he started off simple by working as a production assistant and ripped off the company by utilizing the books and made photocopies of it for future reference. “They had lots of paper and not going to use all of it” was his excuse.

Reading and writing script to land on a big break was all he did unlike others in the company who had a fair share of fun.
He is also an atheist but luck was shining down on him as he received a call to make his first film, and finally won an award later on after a few rejections.

From then on, revenue was tangible, and fame followed, luring him to make more films and writing more scripts.
The other guy, who very much believed that he went through positive changes in his business, made it very clear that there is more to come. Sirajuddin Mydin, managing director of Kayu Nasi Kandar flew all the way from Penang to tell the audience that we should not be deceived into eating any other nasi (rice) kandar that claims the originality. Because there is only one original recipe that comes from Penang and it uses about 39 special herbs and spices to make this mouth-watering nasi kandar (and no drugs involved, mind you – it is a common misconception among Malaysians).

Sirajuddin has many ideas that he would like to put forth. Among them are opening a fast food conceptualised restaurants and be consistent in branding.

As a noble man he takes interest in others’ comments and critics, and to ensure good quality, he savours the nasi kandar almost every day.

Unlike the 39 recipes, his recipes for success comes down to three - be consistent, committed and constantly keep an open mind. Adding to that Cs is evidently change. He believes change is vital for an industry to move forward. With that he creatively lures more people to enjoy a fulfilling nasi kandar.