Tiger Ad Stops Traffic, Literally

As a consumer, how often do you stop, look and become absorbed by an outdoor ad? Mindshare Singapore recently partnered Saatchi to produce an outdoor campaign that motivated passers-by to engage with the brand, by creating an interactive gaming experience to convey Tiger’s new “Enjoy Winning” theme.

Singapore’s busiest walkway was transformed into a gaming domain where commuters could take one another on or challenge themselves in games such as Spot-the-Difference, Join-the-Dots and Sudoku.

The idea beat 22 other impressive world entries to win the JCDecaux’s Innovate International Campaign.

The campaign also won ‘Best Use Of Outdoor’ at the 2008 Singapore Media Awards and a special award at the 2008 Singapore Outdoor Advertising Awards.

Kotex Integrated Campaign’s An Absolute Success

Mindshare Singapore recently masterminded an integrated consumer engagement campaign across Mediacorp’s various media platforms to promote the Kotex range of Ultra Thin sanitary pads.

The planning team conceptualised a content platform with the Channel U’s production team to reinforce the brand’s affinity with females aged between 25 to 39 years old.

Based on a reality format, a contest named ‘Be Absolutely U’ was commissioned to search for Singapore’s most confident and vivacious young ladies, in line with the brand’s personality.

The campaign kicked off with TV trailers on Channel U to encourage ladies to register online and participate with a friend. Other recruitment vehicles include radio spots, magazine ads and recruitment road-shows at Plaza Singapura which included a product sampling exercise. The samples also carried details of the contest to extend the reach of the campaign.

It was further supported by an online campaign with banners on relevant websites and blogs. Popular blogging celebrity, Xia Xue, was invited to blog about the contest and her experience with the Kotex Ultra Thin.

The website, www.beabsolutelyu.mediacorptv.sg , attracted thousands of participants, who uploaded photos and description of themselves. A panel of judges shortlisted the top 4 teams. Voters were asked to vote for their favourite teams. Winning teams stood to win cash prizes.

The same details were also hosted on www.kotex.com.sg. Both sites also carried product information and profiles of ‘Absolutely U’ ambassadors, including feminine lifestyle tips.

The results were only announced at a private ‘pyjama’ party held at the ultra-uber Fashion Bar in Clarke Quay, where finalists and friends were treated to a fashion show, beauty and grooming tips as well as fellowships with the finalists from Channel U’s ‘Campus Superstar’ TV show.

‘We are pleased to note Kotex demonstrated an in-depth understanding of how to engage with the young females audience who are internet savvy and are part of a thriving social media community,’ reports Jimmy Lim, Executive Director of Mindshare Singapore

Behind Mindshare’s Quirky CNY E-card

What do superhero comics, the sayings of Confucius in three languages and an edgy guide on shopping in Moscow have in common?

They are all making their home in Omnitoons, a content and app provider for iPhone, Google’s G Phone and other smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Mindshare Singapore recently worked with Omnitoons to produce a Chinese New Year greetings e-card that was sent to clients and partners, via the email and mobile platforms.

As one of the industry’s leading proponents of mobile marketing, Mindshare has written various articles on the subject.

See previous news entries :
Saturday, January 10, 2009 : Mindshare rings in the changes in mobile across Asia Pacific
http://mindsharesingapore.blogspot.com/2009/01/mindshare-rings-in-changes-in-mobile.html)

Saturday, January 10, 2009 : Brian Stoller on Mobile Marketing
http://mindsharesingapore.blogspot.com/2009/01/brian-stoller-on-mobile-marketing.html

So for a change, the Singapore team decided to put words into action with mobile media partners, like Omnitoons, to demonstrate how the platform can work in congruence with a brand’s marketing strategies.



Omnitoons, a partner of film-related comics with Paramount Pictures, is set to produce dozens of e-books for smartphones every year. It is also opening up its platform to help authors, artists, photographers, filmmakers and others to put their content on mobile devices.

With Singapore recently acknowledged as the world’s most wired nation, the platform is only going to grow further in the years to come. Brands with youth appeal should tap into their quality content and introduce them to the mobile population, as a way to promote a brand in a novel way.

Omnitoons can also work with marketers to produce a strategy that fully encompasses print, web, mobile and other platforms with their sister companies in Tuber Productions, a transmedia group based in Singapore with partners in Hollywood, Tokyo, Manila, Ho Chi Minh and Seoul.

Mindshare Singapore is currently working with Omnitoons to raise further awareness of mobile marketing amongst its clients.

For further information please visit www.omnitoons.com

Mindshare Asia Pacific Leader Reflects on 2008

In an internal newsletter sent to all Mindshare offices around the region, Asia Pacific Leader, Ashutosh Srivastava, shared his thoughts on what he called an eventful year in 2008.Here are some excerpts from his address.

GLOBAL REORGANISATION

Mindshare’s global reorganisation, has centred on three core elements – new look and corporate identity, new products and services based on the Value Exchange framework, and new roles, along with organisational design and team structure.

‘Since we announced the restructuring in April 08, different groups of colleagues have been working behind the scenes, redesigning and fleshing out the product, as well as the HR strategy and the new branding, breathing life into the vision that signals our intention to be a new-age agency providing a marketing and media network for our clients,’ Ashutosh said.


DIGITAL INTEGRATION

He further explained that one of the key areas that is in line with the objective to integrate digital into everything that staff do at Mindshare, a global network of digital champions drawn from all offices has been created. The champions will be working on a roadmap for a Mindshare digital nation. In Asia Pacific, this network will be led by regional team member Brian Stoller, who is based in Hong Kong.

BUSINESS WINS

In terms of new business wins, he reported that the last quarter of 08 saw great wins including a Pepsi win-back from OMD in Thailand and retention in Pakistan and Daimler Benz in China.

Mindshare also picked up a search marketing assignment from Malaysia Airlines, with the initial work winning the SEA Googlies – both for the search team and the client, as Advertiser of the Year.

As for the business planning teams which have generated significant growth this year, as clients heading into a downturn clamour for greater return on their marketing investment and more ways to assess the boost to effectiveness we are providing.

WINNING HEARTS AS WELL

Recent wins involving Diageo and LG reinforce our belief that the new Mindshare model is just what our clients are looking for. There has also been some great Invention work from a number of markets.

Clearly one of the big turnarounds was crafted on Rolex China, where Invention has begun to change the client’s perception - of us as a traditional media buying agency, with no understanding of the luxury market, to a marketing partner, working on content based solutions.

CLOSING

Finally, he drew attention to the fact that not only has Mindshare been one of the most awarded agencies in AP this year, but this is also the first year that Mindshare picked up Agency of the Year honours in the industry awards for as many as six countries in the region.

‘I am confident Mindshare will continue to build up momentum in 2009 so that we are even better positioned at the end of the current economic slump and consolidate our lead in the market,’ he closed.

M-Networking : During the recession, socialising might just get you and your brand ahead.

Mindshare Singapore has launched M-Networking, an industry outreach programme for marketers and partners to share and receive the marketing world's best practices.

‘With Mindshare Singapore’s extensive list of clients and industry partners, as well as our clout in most industries, we decided to create an informal socialising platform where practitioners in the marketing world can come together to discover and share with each other, over some food and drinks,’ explains Jimmy Lim, Executive Director of Mindshare Singapore.

The monthly networking series will see collaborations between major media partners with Mindshare’s event team, and will touch on a series of issues facing marketers in the recent economic environment.

‘In today's challenging times, building business relationships is a key tool to identify business opportunities that may not have been obvious before. The M-Networking sessions will facilitate the exchanges of best practices, ideas and even collaborative opportunities,’ Lim explains further.

During these sessions, participants can also look forward to exchanges with some of Mindshare’s best minds, drawn from its specialised units of Digital, Invention, Business Planning and Content. They will focus on key areas and opportunities for marketers to take advantage of

‘We are happy to report that our calendar is booked solid till year end. Monthly invitations will be sent to our clients and we hope they take this opportunity to capitalize on possibilities that may arise from such sessions,’ Lim said.

2009 Ad Spend To Decline In Most Sectors, With Few Exceptions

In line with global trends of which the advertising/media industry is no exception, Mindshare Singapore has predicted a 15% decline in Singapore's media spend in the year ahead across platforms such as television, print and out-of-home.

Mindshare is also expecting a first from the current slowdown. It is seeing clients planning significant shifts from one channel to another as a result of the slowdown.

In the last major regional slowdown in 1997, media was not as fragmented as today. Back in 1997, there were not many alternatives to TV and print. Since then, there had been an explosion of alternative forms of AV media, such as cable TV, IPTV, the internet and outdoor screens. Cable TV is expected to hold as it inherits the terrestrial TV budgets due to better value.

With declining TV ratings and unfavourable media rates, advertisers are beginning to increase their focus on these alternatives to see better returns on their media investments.

Bucking the trend are sectors like entertainment, luxury, pharmaceutical and government-services which are not showing signs of budget cuts.

"There shouldn't be any major budget decline for the entertainment sector like movie distributors and cable TV, as consumers are expected to spend more time at home or go to the cinemas, due to work-related stress. The luxury sector is also quite a resilient sector, as the full impact of the crisis is still being assessed within the high net-worth individuals segment," Jimmy Lim, executive director of MindShare Singapore, said.

The advertising budget cuts in 2009 as compared to last year ranges from 30% to 45% in the banking sector, 30% to 50% for the FMCG sector and 30% to 50% in the automotive sector.

The study also points out to aggressive spending by the Singapore government, for instance the Ministry of Manpower which is investing in re-training due to lay-offs through the Workforce Development Agency and the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience schemes, and the Ministry of Trade's various incentives for SMEs to tide over the recession.

M-Xchange : Value Exchange Platform for Clients

Mindshare Singapore recently launched M-Xchange, a Value Exchange platform for its clients and partners to join forces and develop new marketing campaigns or co-manage existing campaigns. The platform allows collaborators to share marketing resources, so they can generate better returns on their campaign investments.

‘With the current downturn, clients are recognising the need to share marketing resources though joint collaborations. This enables brands to develop common engagement platforms to sell more than one products or services to a particular market segment,’ Jimmy Lim, executive director of Mindshare Singapore said.

Mindshare reports that with marketing budgets slashed severely across most industries, various brands are tapping into each other’s marketing assets such as sales campaigns, databases, events, online and even real estate spaces. The platform was formed on the premise that every marketer has marketing resources with monetary values to trade with other marketers.

‘The smart marketers have begun to realise the efficiency of collaborating with other brands rather than going solo right now. I guess you can say that the sum of all small parts make a better whole in such difficult times,’ Lim adds.

‘Because we’re more than just media specialists, we looked at the business issues our clients are undergoing right now. And we found out that by developing marketing platforms for one client and then attract other clients to help defray the total marketing cost, we were able to help all our clients stretch their limited resources,’ Lim explains further.

‘It’s like walking into a store, where a marketer can browse through a range of marketing assets owned by other clients, and ‘purchasing’ them with their own monetized assets,’ said Lim.

M-Alert To Help Clients Extend Campaign Reach

Deemed as an industry first where an agency owns a media channel, Mindshare Singapore recently launched a database marketing channel for all its clients to advertise their campaigns.

Called ‘M-Alert’, this innovative channel will tap into Mindshare Singapore’s database of clients, partners as well as the Group M and WPP networks in Singapore.

‘We have a personal database of close to 10,000 middle to high income professionals, who are consumers themselves, so why not let our clients reach them with their products and services,’ Jimmy Lim, executive director of Mindshare Singapore, explains.

An email invite had been sent to the database where recipients have the option to decline future updates. So far, the responses have been tremendously encouraging. Recipients who chose to receive frequent updates are known as 'M-Friends', who can look forward to the latest promotional deals, new product previews or even above-the-line campaigns. Key clients such as Zuji, Nike and Sincere Watch have so far benefitted from the M-Alerts.

‘In good and bad times, our success is always tied to our clients’ success. Now more than ever, we need to help our clients optimise the reach of its marketing campaigns. It’s a form of peer-to-peer marketing. By reaching 10,000 fellow professionals with high disposable incomes in our database, our clients’ campaigns will be closer to success in these trying times,’ Lim adds.

For enquiries on how you can benefit from M-Alert, feel free to contact Jimmy Lim at Jimmy.Lim@mindshareworld.com