Asian Creative? A New Brief

Omar Jamil, CEO Latitude blogs for Aurora from New Delhi

Lunch, Fragments and Figments, A Peak into a 360 degree experience
Session 3 - Asian Creative? A New Brief

Ok folk… just back from lunch, courtesy Malayala Manoram – Flavours of Onam. The food was delicious, although again, insufficient seating arrangement appears to be a constant (as one delegate put to me following the end of Session 2, “After paying so much, the least we expect is not to have to sit on the ground.”).

Awaiting Session 3 to start; given that we’re a good hour behind schedule, I’m not sure if we’ll go ahead with the ‘Fragments and Figments’ bit or if we’ll kick right off with Session 3.

So it looks like the 360-degree session is on because a troupe of dhol and chipta walas just came on stage. Although I might be mistaken because I can see a sign in the backdrop reading ‘Kingdom of Dreams’ – so this might just be a performance to ‘warm up’ the crowd. Ok so that was Fragments and Figments – basically a ‘teaser’ of what’s due for the final day’s closing session.

And here goes Session 3:

Akira Kagami, Global Executive Creative Advisor, Dentsu Inc.

Bruce Haines, Chief Strategy Officer, Cheil Worldwide

Thirasak Tanapatanakul, Worldwide Chairman, Creative Juice

Kitty Lun, Chairman & CEO, Lowe China

Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & CD, South Asia, Ogilvy and Mather Ltd

Moderator: Tom Doctoroff, North Asia Director & CEO, JWT China

Theme – rise (or lack thereof) of creativity in Asia. In western world creative comes from big brand idea to engage consumers. Creativity in context of brand building and business building.

Tom asked each person to bring a piece of creative that defines their market and industry and agency.

Start off with Kitty Lun – creative for Alipay. In China, money is king and morality on the decay. So Alipay wanted to demonstrate values. Commercial very non-commercial – talking of lack of morality in China.

Uh oh – sound problems with the video… Sigh… And the hits keep coming….

The commercial, however, is good…. Moving… and I can see how it’s totally non-commercial – bringing in that social messaging aspect talked about in the previous session. Nice link up. Essentially a trust driven commercial – won several awards, including China Elements – award in China Advertising Festival – all about what appeals to consumers. The commercial was based on a true story.

Piyush ‘boycotting’, so on to Bruce – showing commercial for Tesco – three Gold Lions and a Grand Prix. Idea routed in a business idea, not just a communications idea. As a result of the ad, thousands of new Tesco Club members.

On to Kagani San – launching of Kyushu bullet train. Interesting concept – very ‘crowd-sourcing’-ish…  The commercial launched just before the major Japan earthquake – unintentionally it created a sense of communication and belonging with people.

Piyush: difficult to identify any one piece of work… so much great creative. Vodafone, Coke – impossible to identify one piece of work to illustrate the changes.

Tom: rise of new tech giving new canvases for creative.

Tom has now led the panellists into a really interesting discussion ranking the creative in their respective markets on a scale of 1-10 and determining why they’ve chosen to rank the way they have. Best quote so far from Bruce: “Celebrity obsession (in Korea) makes me feel a bit… ‘creepy’.” Another interesting one – Kitty Lun ranking China: “On the one hand, 8; on the other, 2.” As Tom puts it, some very ‘elegant evasion’.

But Kitty explains – China a huge market. And it’s difficult to live with mistakes. So you cant take any big risks – so you end up not being foolish. So they’re hungry, which gives them an 8; but given that they’re not ‘foolish’ enough, they’re a 2. Translated – Chinese marketers are hungry and ambitious, but given the high costs (say for instance for TV), they are risk averse. Which keeps them from taking creative risks – which is what often leads to great creatives. Often write scripts and make commercials that pass audit tests and focus groups, but no Oomph.

Piyush ranks India as 5 and 5. More than one India – India number 1, urban India doing a fantastic job. Gets 4 out of 5. Second India, rural India – gets 1 out of 5. A lot of work remains to be done.

Good question: are Asian creatives getting into international awards shows? Is there frustration with international judges? Kagani San: a lot of misunderstanding about Japanese culture in theearly 90s; but past 3-4 years a lot of progress been made. Bruce feels the work which is truest to market is the work that gets recognised or awarded. Workthat mimics Western work tends to flop – both in the market and in the international awards circuits. Fails not only because not relevant, but also because it’s been seen already.

Kitty: In international awards circuits, Asia the rising star. Many Grand Prix awards given to Thailand, China, Japan, India… Piyush adds that international awards don’t really matter – yes, a nice pat on the back. But the real question is whether or not that work moved the man on the street. “We have nothing to prove to the world; we need to prove something to the man on the street,” he says.

Industry structure. Some markets very brand building, others not. Long term brand equity vs short term price gains. AreAsian markets brand building? Piyush says, “India without a doubt…. We are blessed with some multinational brands who understood many years ago the Indian way of brand building.”

Kitty says China should be because of size and long-term economic criteria. However, still seeing certain clients thatdon’t understand the importance of brand building – state-owned enterprises, as well as smaller, local enterprises. E.g. China Mobile – cash flow huge, so everything sales-focused. So very much a sales-driven modus operandi. Also with such companies, no competition so they haven’t seen need to build brands. But Kitty sees changes amongst local clients – especially digital clients. Multinationals bringing in that brand building ethos. Kitty believes that Ali Baba Group is one local company that has moved beyond these limits and understands brand building.

Korea – Bruce believes it’s a work in progress. A lot like China – many local businesses sales-focused, however shifting towards marketing focus. Been slow into shifting into thinking that brand is important; but that’s changing. With movement of people frommultinationals into local companies, the understanding of the importance ofbrand is growing. Interestingly, in many areas and markets sales outpace brand – so for instance, Samsung TVs may now outsell Sony TVs in many markets, but Sony still perceived as the stronger brand.

In Japan corporate brands are what are essential – as opposed to product brands. Given the social expectations, consumers want to see strong steady corporate brands. Uniqlo (clothes brand) is one counter example of great product branding.

Mostly though, optimistic views – that clients are pushing towards brand building as an essential part of the marketing mix.

Two fantastic quotes – one from Kitty Lun: “Attractive people like us because we’re attractive.” (speaking about creatives of course, but said in such a sweet unapologetic, unassuming way that I think it took on wider connotations – the ripple of laughter in the crowd evidence of that).

Second from Tom (about Piyush): “I’m scared of you… [several minutes later] I think clients are scared of you too!”

All in all, this has (in my opinion) been the most interesting session so far – probably because it was the most engaging. Unlike previous sessions, the audience was involved and engaged – several laughs and many pauses for applause. Tom Doctoroff was a fantastic moderator; kept the session conversational, knew where to be light-hearted, how to focus the discussion and lead it to where he wanted, as well as how to connect everyone’s views into a coherent, cohesive overview.