NOW

My favorite Asian TV spot from the recent past is from India. It advertises the Happydent White Chewing gum, you probably have seen it. It is the very likable and funny story of a Rajah’s palace in India where all light bulbs are replaced by servants chewing the gum. The product makes the teeth so shiny white that they illuminate everything from chandeliers to the car’s headlights. The spot is hilarious and the Bollywood soundtrack is so contagious that you find yourself humming it immediately. TV commercial storytelling at its best.

When I think of my favorite Asian digital campaign from the recent past it gets a little more difficult. Sure, there are plenty of industry events, creative award shows, marketing seminars and digital summits where I am exposed to a wealth of campaigns and case studies. But when prompted to pick my favorite I have a hard time. I think about successful campaigns I remember, campaigns that involve great banner advertising. Campaigns that stretch beyond the web into mobile or digital outdoor or campaigns that engage through games and online story telling. Many campaigns come to mind, though not one stands out as much as the TV spot from India. We can definitely improve a little when it comes to creating memorable digital campaigns, so it seems.

To the credit of our profession though, digital campaigns are not as easily stored and told as quickly as a 60 second TV commercial. They tend to be built around complex strategies that involve multiple channels, have built-in mechanics that facilitate a brand-consumer-dialogue and try to stretch digital innovation to deliver a fresh and surprising approach. But here is something they could learn from this TV commercial: don’t take yourself so seriously, be simple and have a little fun.

There are four simple and easy steps that can be taken to make sure a digital campaign gets as much recall value as a good TV spot.

First of all it’s about human insights: a universal truth should be underlying the idea. Too many times digital campaigns are built around pure demographic data rather than real insights into the specific target audience. What drives them, what motivates them, what are the daily issues they are facing? Only an idea that is built on a consumer insight can really cut through the clutter and deliver a memorable message. One of the examples that come to mind is the campaign for the Philips Bodygroom. Created over two years ago by Tribal DDB this campaign is still remembered amongst many male and hairy friends.

Then, of course you say, a strong idea is the basis for a successful online campaign. And this is true: without an idea the campaign will not make it past any brand recall study. If you look around though, how many truly big ideas come to mind when thinking of a digital campaign in Asia? Many times we get lost in the execution; focusing on getting the mechanics right, adding complex backend technology and putting mechanics in place to measure the campaign’s success from every angle. The real issue at hand is to create a compelling and memorable idea that lives beyond the next click. Something that gets passed on and talked about, not just in an online forum or on MSN, but at the water cooler, in the real world. Viral spots I believe were conceived to do just that: to provide a branded story that is compelling enough to forward or have a chat about. But it shouldn’t stop here; an idea should be bigger than a spot on YouTube. When looking in my memory’s archives for a great digital idea then Subservient Chicken springs to mind, still. An idea that combined a brand story with cutting edge technology, an idea so strong that it was and still is talked about way beyond digital media.

The third ingredient that makes for a memorable campaign is good storytelling. While copywriters and art directors in traditional agencies are trained to do exactly that, most digital agencies are not equipped to tell a compelling brand story, be it on- or offline. The fact is that digital savvy talent comes from a more rational approach to building a brand: delivering a customer or user experience across multiple digital channels, from websites to mobile phones to in-store installations. Digital creatives are mostly visual designers, technology engineers and experience architects. They sometimes could do with a magic spark, a creative leap that leads to a story that can be experienced and re-told many times over again. Great story telling online however is different from what it is on TV. The user is part of it and the story cannot happen without him/her. A great example of this is lonelygirl15, a story that has been running for nearly 2 years and which involves an audience of over 70 million in its ever evolving story play.

Lastly there is simplicity. Especially in digital marketing it is so easy to get lost in complexity. New technologies emerging daily, more and more fragmented channels for the consumer to hang out in, social networks and web 2.0 are all factors to consider for a campaign, but are they necessary? If so, which ones? It is the nature of technology to be complex, but it is our task to make the complex simple. It is great to experiment, to drive the acceptance of new communication models. It is imperative though to do so without loosing the potential impact of the campaign.

In the end the most memorable campaign will win. It will win over the hearts of the consumers more so than their minds. A digital campaign that makes me laugh out loud, makes me think or question my behavior, one that touches me on an emotional level, I will talk about and remember the next time I am prompted for my favorite digital campaign from Asia.

Posted by dirk at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Also in China Computer Arts is a relatively influential publication. Like with most design magazines in China though the fact is that up to 80% of the content is not original. I think its about time that they start to push the local creative community and report more about domestic designers and agencies.

Posted by dirk at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Media Magazine Hong Kong launched their new "Digital" publication for the Asia Pacific region. I had the honor to write the first "private view".

Posted by dirk at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Published in "The Internationalist" cover story "How has digital, the internet, and new technology changed the debate of global vs. multinational vs. local marketing?" If you think that is a tough question, be assured, I had a tough time writing it. Read it below or download a PDF with pictures here

Rewind to 2002, BMW Films. One of the most innovative, most talked about and most viral branding campaigns ever run. When the creators, Fallon USA, were briefed to develop a groundbreaking new advertising campaign, the client and the agency were brave enough to think big. We all know BMW films. Today, more than 30 million people have viewed the short movies online. But in fact, that didn't stop there. When I walk into my Beijing neighborhood DVD store (of course all titles here are counterfeit), then still on the best-seller rack the BMW films DVD find a buyer for 10 Yuan. An example of how a very early digital campaign, executed in a big style, had an immense reach, far beyond the original US target market.

The ubiquitous availability of digital media, and content, has brought tremendous opportunities to marketers. What cost a fortune only 4 years ago, is now almost for free. With the right strategy, making use of web 2.0 applications like blogs, picture- and video sharing sites, and taking into account the big consumer trends like co-creation and community, a campaign can take off by its own, without much media spend and without the need for expensive content production. A brilliant example, the recent Smirnoff Tea music video from BBH, which was posted exclusively on YouTube and within a month already reached an audience of more than a million.

Digital media, and especially the internet, by default offer access to a global audience. For the better or the worse. Starting a global discussion about a brand or a product can equally lead to great benefits as well as to dramatic disasters. Both have plenty of examples.

The real trick today is to make smart use of a global digital platform and extend the campaign down to a locally relevant message, in order to trigger interaction and get measurable results. When Dove launched the "campaign for real beauty", such an approach paid well off. While the print, TV and outdoor campaign used locally relevant messages and visuals to start a discussion about the definition of beauty, the website offered a global platform for women of all countries, nationalities and races to express and share their views. Today more than 1 million targeted consumers cast their votes, posted notes on bulletin boards, and became brand ambassadors by regarding Dove as the trusted sponsor of this real debate.

Digital channels and content is a great opportunity for global branding. Going forward however it is important to understand that while technology enables consumers globally to join the discussion, the relevance of the message increases by narrowing down the reach to geographically relevant areas. While conceptually everything will be available for everyone, digital realistically is regional, national or even local. Reading my favorite newspaper online, getting local news via email, the weather report on my PDA, and the right location based promotion message on my mobile phone will make a lot of sense in the future. With Google and other search applications adding their "local" tab to the search bar, it is obvious that the biggest power of digital is not necessarily the macro effect a global campaign can have, but the narrow casting and its relevance to the consumer.

Posted by dirk at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was asked to write an article for the Greater China edition of Viewpoint magazine, Ogilvy's house internal magazine to all staff, media and clients. Here is what I wrote:

-----

We creatives live a tough and dangerous life. We have to work such long hours, we have to endure those endless meetings and we have to fight so hard to sell our brilliant ideas to our clients. As if this would not be enough pressure, now we are even threatened by the very people we are creative for: our client's consumers.

Suddenly, it seems, everyone is a copywriter, a designer, photographer or music composer. Everyone wants to, and easily can, create content and share it with the world. And it seems that many of those videos, blogs or podcasts are even more successful than our well crafted and researched ideas? What's going on out there?

The answer is short, and it doesn't sound very sexy: UGC. User Generated Content is about to spark a revolution of how we consume media and share our ideas.

mySpace.com is the biggest collections of personal blogs in the world. It has now reached the magic number of 50 million bloggers and is therefore also one of the biggest internet phenomena in history. MySpace started out as a platform where musicians and bands could post their songs and fans could chat about it. Music as the force behind the network. Now, there are up to 270.000 new blogs created a day, with topics ranging from my-cat-on-my-sofa-pictures to discussions about coca-cola's latest TV ad. The power of this incredible large amount of UGC is so attractive to other surfers, that mySpace is about to become the most frequented website in the US, with people spending hours and days reading through blogs of other people.

YouTube.com is another fascinating online idea. A website where people can share videos as easily as they can watch it. Within an instant you can upload your movie clips (from your phone, video camera or ripped from DVDs and TV) and share it with anyone in the world. Viewers can rank and vote and comment on it. Once you've started, you can't let go. You'll find just about anything on YouTube, from recorded TV series from the 80s, to exotic cocking receipts to south park episodes to music videos to the funniest clips you have ever seen. Just try it out. Already now youTube claims to have more than 45 million videos played a day, and site visitors more than amazon.com and almost as many as CNN.

Of course there are plenty other examples of places where users share their own content or mix up others. Pictures on Flickr.com, your favorite sound on Last.fm and your bookmarks on de.licio.us.

So if everyone is out there creating their own content, what are we creatives then supposed to do?

The key to survival is that we know how to make the most creative and most relevant use of these new resources. That we find ways of making it work for our brands and that we manage to make the user and his creations part of our story.

One recent example was the China launch of MP3MOTO.The campaign made use of the just emerging phenomena of home-shot lip-syncing videos, as seen in the Back Dorm Boys' performance of "I want it that way". Ogilvy recruited the two students from Guangzhou and had them sing the original track of "Radio in my head" for Motorola. As expected, the video went very viral. On the campaign's website users could create, upload and share their own videos and remix the soundtrack. Over the campaign period, the site had more than 14 million page views, there were 257 videos uploaded and 232.000 people voted on them. 545 songs were remixed and 1.3 million people voted on them. A great example of how powerful a campaign can be if we include the consumer in the equation.

Nike London took the idea of user generated content even a step further. On their runlondon.com website they offer a lot of useful content: running tips, training techniques, a schedule planner. But the real meat is this: a running-route finder based on a Google map and satellite images. You can in 3 easy steps create your very own and personal favorite running route through London. Draw it on a map or directly over a very detailed satellite image. Add your comments and then, of course, share it with every other running fan in town. Runners can search through routes based on distance, terrain, postcode or lighting conditions. And they can vote on it. This is an example of how a brand can offer a platform for users to share their passion, and their knowledge with others, in a very innovative way. It creates an immensely relevant value for the audience. And therefore for the brand.

In the future, we creatives (as well as everyone else!) have to stay on top of these new digital innovations. We have to pay very close attention to what really matters to consumers. We have to find ways of making them part of the story, part of our campaign, we have to let them own the message. If we all embrace the change and feel comfortable in this new digital lifestyle, then we will be able to create campaigns with even more impact and especially value for our clients' brands.

Posted by dirk at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This article I wrote for Campaign Brief Asia, the leading publications for all advertising creatives in Asia. The funny thing is that Kim Shaw, the editor in Chief, so far has not made any effort to include anything interactive into Campaign Brief. It is so traditional, that even he makes jokes about it.

The current issue has a special feature about creativity in China. So he invited me to contribute something general, rathe rthan too interactive, haha. I didn't want to go down the traditional route of writing about our own stuff, so here is my take on what will happen in the near future to creativity in China:

In the 60's when China launched its first TV network there were approximately 12 thousand black and white sets dotted throughout the country. In a lack of understanding on how to structure and design the TV programming, the government looked to Russia and East Germany for advice. The outcome: a glittering evening's entertainment of factory workers discussing the current five-year-plan and the National Ballet performing the revolutionary 'Raise the Red Lantern'.

It's now 2006 and after 40 years of a shadowy media industry, China is fast tracking. The current generation of youth has skipped video recorders for Div-X movies; CD players for MP3 players; landlines for mobile phones and monopoly for World-of-Warcraft. They're as digital savvy as their counter parts in Europe or America and they're a whole generation of early adopters. The digital lifestyle has brought this generation an ease of access to information, connecting to others and limitless opportunities for self expression. The digital generation in China is not only the most informed and best connected ever, it is also the most creative.

This new generation of young creatives is growing up – almost unnoticed – in the cities, towns and villages. They use their computer to express their emotions. They sit in internet cafes for days and weeks to create animations in flash, which they then upload on community sites to be seen by hundreds and thousands of peers. They form small design collectives and produce posters for local parties, packaging for around-the-corner shops, brochures for real estate developments and CD covers for their bands. They create toy figures, customise jeans and sneakers, print t-shirts and publish magazines. Most of it for very un-commercial reasons. Why: because it's a way of self expression, a way of making a point, leaving a mark in the Chinese creative landscape.

This generation comes from a unique background: as part of the one-child-policy, their parents grew up during the Cultural Revolution, with its hardships and destructive attempt to suppress anything creative and innovative. They were born in the '80s and grew right into Deng Xiao Ping's open-door policy. They were the first generation with access to foreign music and literature, with the means to build an informed opinion, to be influenced by western culture. They were eager to break free from the rigid lifestyle their parents were living. They were part of the progressive plan to growth and witness the transformation from ancient China into a glass-and-steel high-tech capitalist world. They've experienced more change in their 20 years of life than most westerners have in their whole lifetime

Now these kids are getting organised on design websites, in Chinese design magazines and in nationwide design exhibitions. They're connecting to the rest of the world. They're hungry to learn and they're willing to experiment. They're influenced by the top visual artists in the world: at the same time they're proud to be Chinese, to build on their thousands of years of cultural heritage. They've grown up in one of the most dynamic markets in the world and they have something to say, they're real, they're authentic. They will create a creative landscape in China that will be very unique in this world.

It will take another few years, but there will be a creative generation in China that will easily compete on a world stage. They will know the rules and they'll begin to set standards as they start to create their very own unique style. It's up to us in the advertising industry to recognise this movement, to value this generation and bring them close to our work.

Posted by dirk at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This Article I wrote for Campaign UK magazine. It was published somewhen in late August 2006.

Twenty five years after Deng Xiaoping made the decision to experiment with demographic engineering, with the introduction of the one-child policy, a generation of digitally savvy consumers is coming of age: according a 2005 population estimate, China had almost 275 million people under the age of 14. Roughly equally the USA's entire population for that same year.

Pretty much anyone you speak with today under the age of 30 is part of the one child generation, a generation who grew up without brothers or sisters, but with two caring parents and four loving grandparents who pool their rising disposable income to meet this one child's every need – and want. Why: to provide a better life than they had; they're determined to give them a life more comfortable of any generation. Studies have estimated that up to half a typical urban Chinese family's disposable income is spent on, or by, the child in the family.

The pressure is on. For the bigger part of high-school this generation has to perform to ensure they qualify for the limited spots available at the city universities each year. If not, years of comfortable favors from family members have been borough. So they study. They study so hard there is no time for anything else. No friends. No fun and almost no life outside the study room. Their only luxury is a digital connection to the world, a PC in their room, or if this is not affordable, daily visits to the closest internet bar.

The connected computer becomes the focal point of this generation in China. They grow up with a computer that links their study room, filled with pressure and the desire for freedom, to the outside world. Days and months are being spent in MUD games like World of Warcraft and Legends of Mir. Friends are being added to the much important buddy list on MSN and QQ, China's version of an Instant Messenger with 80 million users. Stories are written, are drawn and animated in flash, and are being uploaded to flashempire.com and flash8.net where they find hundreds of thousands of viewers. E-magazines on niche topics are published anywhere in the country and read by millions of young reader. MSN spaces host millions of private blogs, customized homepages full of emotions and self expression. E-flyers are sent out that bring people together in real life, to punk concerts and hip hop parties.

This generation of young Chinese consumers is more connected than any generation before them had ever been. They skipped over video recorders for DIV-X encoded mpeg movies; CD players for mp3 players; fixed landlines for mobile phones; film for digital cameras and arcade games for multi-user online games. The digital lifestyle is present everywhere and the numbers speak volumes: more than 100 million connected PCs - half of them broadband - link kids' study rooms, students in university and white collar workers in office buildings together. 400 million mobile phones send billions of SMS, with another big revolution looming when China enters into 3G communication at the end of the year.

Technology is liberating those young Chinese. It allows them to reveal a true inner self, to be emotionally open, express their feelings and ambitions and be in charge of their own personal space.

The current revolution is obvious: it's digital. But it's happening so fast it's difficult for communication and marketing specialists to keep up, to stay relevant. What's in our favour is the knowledge that Chinese think in terms of community – they see themselves as members of a group, which is why the digital lifestyle amongst this target is so prevalent – Chinese society is a relationship society; they listen to recommendations and emotional appeals, they're big readers and talkers. Word of mouth branding works well, but messages need to address motivations; tell a story and have a strong identity.

Posted by dirk at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)