Archive for June, 2009

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Cannes - Asia’s final tally
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

As reported yesterday, Asian agencies posted their best ever haul at Cannes. We’ve had our Excel whizzes working overtime, and can now present the breakdown by country (including the new PR awards):

No surprise to see Australia and Japan at the top. But maybe a disappointing year for China and India following last year’s success.

Congratulations to all winners.

Update Since initial posting I’ve updated the table with the official figures - our original estimates were a few medals out. It’s still a record year for Asia though.

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Posted in Advertising, Digital, Media, Public Relations | No Comments »

Watch out China - the Scientologists are coming
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Have just been sent a link to the China Daily website, which contains a rather curious ad.

Here, on the site of a Communist Party mouthpiece, next to an ad for HSBC, is an ad for Scientology:

It links through to the Church of Scientology’s international website, including its video channel.

Interesting, as China isn’t exactly known for tolerating cults. Or religions supported by Hollywood actors. I wonder whether the Scientologists actually approached China Daily, or has this been done through an ad network?

Anyone else seen any signs of Scientology’s assault on China popping up online? It would be really interested if these ads are popping up on Chinese-language sites.

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Posted in Advertising | 3 Comments »

Everything you know is wrong
Monday, June 29th, 2009

So you thought advertising raised awareness, increased brand loyalty and drove sales. Looks like you were wrong.

The title of this posting is a shameless reference to a piece I wrote many moons ago when I was on Marketing magazine in the UK (the original and still the best magazine bearing that title!). Then I was writing about the launch of a new book that seemed to turn some of advertising’s most cherished assumptions on their head. Best of all, it did so by using hard evidence - the book was based on an exhaustive study of IPA Effectiveness Awards Entries.

I was reminded of this when one of its authors, Les Binet of DDB, addressed the Hong Kong 4As Effies last week. In a brief presentation, he stated the following:

* Campaigns that focus on sales growth rarely manage it. Advertising is most effective for reducing price sensitivity, yet only four per cent of campaigns have this as an objective.

* Campaigns that aim to increase brand penetration are three times more effective than those that aim to improve loyalty. In fact, brand loyalty hardly ever changes.

* Brand awareness is one of the worst predictors of business success. Far more important is brand ‘fame’ or ‘talkability’.

* Stand-out doesn’t matter. More important is how much people like the ads.

* Campaigns that use pre-testing are half as effective as those that don’t.

Any of that ring true with Asia’s marketing community?

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Posted in Advertising, Marketing | 1 Comment »

Has HK won its first ever Grand Prix?
Friday, June 26th, 2009

That’s the question we were asking in the office yesterday, following McCann Worldgroup’s out-of-the-blue triumph in the Cannes Design category.

We’re pretty sure it’s Hong Kong’s first ever Grand Prix - but attempts to confirm it were thwarted by the paywall surrounding the Cannes archive. The guys at McCann seem to think so too, according the people I was chatting with at last night’s HK Effies (more on which later).

So, can anyone else out there remember an HK Grand Prix? If not, hats off to McCann for a real coup.

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Posted in Advertising | 1 Comment »

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