Potential for Spending on Digital Advertising and Social Media to Rise as Industry Addresses Measurement, Organisational and Business Model Issues

Senior Marketers and Agency Executives Speak their Minds at the Closed Door Digital Marketing Roundtables in Hong Kong and Singapore

Hong Kong and Singapore, 21 July 2011 –- The first series of 2011 closed door roundtables moderated by the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) in Hong Kong and Singapore reveal that online marketing spending is being held back by measurement, organisational and business model issues. There was unanimous recognition of the business value of the importance of digital advertising and social media in the marketing mix, but both marketers and agency representatives said they were constrained. The fact is that their own systems, structures and budgeting had not evolved quickly enough to meet the changes in consumer behaviour to maximise the online opportunity. Online ad spend was around 6% in both Singapore and Hong Kong, as compared with 16.3% in Japan and Australia, 17% in the US, and 25% in the UK, where digital exceeds newspaper advertising. There is clear upside for growth when these issues are addressed.

Marketers focused on the importance of ROI and voiced frustrations that measurement systems are not yet in place to effectively track their business KPIs. ROI is increasingly defined as shifts in the net promoter score, database building, lead generation, customer engagement and sales results, rather than click-through rates, the number of social media ‘likes’ or other media metrics. “Outcomes not outputs” is the new mantra. Agencies perceived a disconnect between what clients say they want in their creative and media briefs, and the business results they increasingly expect their agencies to generate.
Both marketers and agencies face organisational hurdles in Hong Kong and Singapore. Marketers flagged the challenge of doing integrated marketing in siloed organisations, and balancing global vs. regional needs.

“The question isn’t whether to go digital or not. Instead, we require an altogether new marketing model to replace the old, broken one. The new model emerging is collaborative marketing that offers valuable content, and experiences that get conversations going”, said one senior marketer participant.

Agencies are also grappling with the new realities of the changing marketing landscape and are aware that they must develop business models that effectively and profitably meet client needs.

“The ADMA’s intent in hosting roundtables and publishing these insights is to help raise senior level understanding of the power of digital, mobile, and social media marketing in Asia Pacific, and fulfil our mission of growing the use of digital for effective marketing investment”, said David Ketchum, Chairman, Asia Digital Marketing Association. “We will host more roundtables, extending into China, and include publishers as well as marketers and agencies in the future.”

Participants in the two marketing roundtables represented consumer and B2B companies from the hospitality, telecommunications, technology and software, medical, FMCG, luxury, retailing, banking and consumer financial sectors, as well as not-for-profit. At the two agency roundtables, the participants were from a cross section of 4As and independent agencies with capabilities ranging from creative services, to media buying, to integrated, to digital, to search, to marketing performance, to full service, and included local, regional, and global organisations.

The roundtables provided an opportunity for these leaders to share insights and their experiences in helping their organisations adapt to the changing marketing landscape and to capitalise on social media and digital marketing opportunities. The conclusions from these roundtables, held in Q1 2011, built on the findings of the inaugural Q3 2010 roundtables. The full results report is available to ADMA members and to all others in summary form on www.asiadma.com.

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Contact:
Kay Bayliss
Executive Director, Asia Digital Marketing Association
Email: contact@asiadma.com
Tel: +852 8100 9987