KUALA LUMPUR: South-East Asia (SEA) is an exciting and vibrant region with great potential for innovation and growth, according to World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) CEO Stephan Loerke (pic).
Speaking at the Global Marketer Conference yesterday, Loerke said SEA and Asean in particular, was a pertinent market to global marketers mainly because of their potential.
As an emerging region, Asean’s 600 million consumers were expected to double in the next 10 years, along with mobile phone penetration at record levels and purchases being done via smartphones as well as the availability of internet access at high score levels.
“We are seeing a region, which is moving from an era where a lot of marketing was about implementing global strategies.
“Opportunities for growth is abundant here, as the conditions are favourable since the market has moved towards innovation,” he noted.
He cited AirAsia as an example of a start-up that started out with zero budget and was now a global brand, mainly because it placed people at the core of its business.
He said key to success in any brand was identifying the importance of people in a company.
“Firms should place people at the centre of what they do and where branding is concerned, you need to be people-centric and intuitive,” he added.
That said, employees were the best ambassadors in a firm, as they were touch points with customers, he said.
Commenting on whether the economic downturn had hindered market spend, Loerke believed that the ups and downs experienced in the global market would inevitably make a region stronger.
“The strength lies in the brand, reliance, stability and agility to adjust to externalities,” he noted.
Having said that Loerke added such economic cycles were prevalent, but firms should have long term perspective to navigate from the cloudy environment.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA) president Margaret Au-Yong said MAA welcomed WFA’s return to Asia-Pacific for the third time in five years.
She said WFA’s choice in location marked its commitment to the region, as Asia-Pacific now accounted for almost 30% of global ad spend and having fast-growing markets such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.
Au-Yong said while most firms have predicted a cautious outlook on ad spend in the first half of the year, it was essential for companies to grow their brand simply because consumers were not loyal to one particular brand.
She said MAA was now stepping up efforts to reach out to SMEs to allow them to learn more about branding and marketing strategies from multinationals.
Such an event was a platform for SMEs to reach out and grasp knowledge from global marketers, she added.
The WFA’s Global Marketer Week in Malaysia was held for the first time in 2016 in collaboration with MAA.
Key note speakers, who provided their inspiring insights of innovation, new platforms and marketing at the four-day conference that started on March 15 include AirAsia Group CEO and founder Tony Fernandes, Samsung Electronics America Marc Mathieu, TATA Communications strategy and marketing vice president Amit Sinha Roy and BrainJuicer CEO and chief juicer John Kearon.
The Star Media Group is the media partner for the event.
*Source from The Star – 18 March 2016
View more MAA & WFA Global Marketer Conference 2016: http://www.wfanet.org/KL/
