MAR ETINGEVENTS

And the key to becoming future-ready is to

keep the customer experience at the heart ofit all. Customer centricity is the key in making

sure customers remain loyal to brands

"Marketing in the last five years has changedso much, it is exciting and scary at the same

time " Wong said, adding that what makes it

exciting is that analytics and data can tell brandsso much more about a customer now

Brands now have the ability to track

exactly how far their customers have interactedwith them - when a customer has logged in,checked out the website, left the website at

what point, or how much time they spent. All

this data is a gold mine for marketersAlso, as a result of the boom in digital

and social media consumption, unstructured

data has also proliferated. "If brands are able

to combine this with the company's existing

CRMs, they have the power to look at the

entire customer journey - that will be a key

differentialor going forward, " Wong saidHowever, all of these goals can be achieved

if brands have the right talent in their marketing

departments. Citing a Harvard BusinessReview, Wong said the study identified that

there were three categories of employees in

Economic turbulence across markets be the biggest priority. In the olden times, the marketing team which shape the bench forcontinues to grow. China's slowing growth and the spray and pray strategy worked for many growth - thinkers, feelers and doers.

"Thinkers are skilled at analytics, customerEurope's ongoing struggles are putting markets brands, but that strategy is grossly dated insegmentation and scenario analysis. Feelersglobal Iy at peril. Businesses, therefore, are today's times

"We talked about awareness, above-the- connect to customers and communicatenaturally playing it safe, marketing budgets are

being revaluated and prudent ways to measure line campaigns and so on, and with that one internally. Doers execute marketing initiatives,the effectiveness of every dollar are being put big marketing push we would hope the brand which is essential in today's 2417, always-on

awareness goes up, but that doesn't work economy, " the study saidin place.In an organisation, depending on the need,It's time to ask marketing the tough anymore, " she said

"Now it is all about being targeted - creating a brand has to configure a mix of these threequestions for the road ahead. In economic"That's how you come up with agile teamsuncertainty how can marketing properly justify brand awareness isn't the real deal. Creating

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to talent, "its place in the bottom line? And how can you awareness among the right audience is what isWong saidsafeguard your company from the risks of an imperative. "

At IBM, Wong said every marketing dollarunpredictable market place?Content at the heart of new-age marketingTo answer these questions, Marketing was tracked

"Marketing ROl is a serious discussion These transformations taking place inmagazine, together with the BBC, organised afor us. What levels of interest/lead marketing marketing also means the era of one-offhalf-day event

In a conversation with Karishma Vaswani. activities have generated - through events or massive campaigns are over and the need isthe Asia business correspondent for BBC otherwise - is something we track very closely. " for brands to be always-on. or at least engage

This is one big change that has happened audiences consistently. It has underlined theNews, Susie Wong, CMO for IBM ASEAN,spoke about the realities of marketing in today's from the past owing to the economic

uncertainties and the realities of global marketsturbulent times

Another massive change brands are"The pressure on marketing to be effective

is real, more so in Asia. It's a no-holds barred dealing with is technology. Technology is aconversation we have at IBM, where we track major disrupter and new-age tech-based

every dollar we have spent on marketing and companies are proving to be a threat forthe vatLie it has added, " she said adding that established players' Citing the examples of

Uber and Airbnb, Wong said brands who weredata is at the heart of it all

For marketers to operate optimal Iy able to deal with the "unknown unknowns"becoming data and consumer centric should were the ones who would thrive

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need for compelling content marketing morethan ever before. How are marketers organising

themselves to generate, disseminate andamplify content? The second half of the event

focused on this topic

Sock Hwee Tan, director of marketing andcommunications for Asia Pacific at Ups, said

in the past marketing teams were focused

on channels or products, but that structure

doesn't make sense anymore because lineshave blurred

"Instead of looking at channels and products

we are looking at what content will resonate with

our audience and who in the organisation is best

placed to create it, " she said

Content marketing has forced brands to

look inwards - find great stories from within and

share with the target audience - but what does

it take to realign the teams to meet the currentThe BBC has recently come up with BBCwere the hardest things to break - whether itneed?

Story works which brings editorial insights toHe Iene Blanchette, digital marketing leader, was product silos or departmentsFuji Xerox has embarked on its content corporate storytelling helping brands createregional digital marketing and business support

for Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific, said anyone working journey with much seriousness. Although, "not content tailored for their audience."While media agencies are well entrenchedin a large corporation would agree that silos quite there yet", she said it has a sound strategy

in the process of content creation andin place

It has crea ed the role of a content manager production, publishers are beginning to have

who sits in the new digital marketing team. The direct conversations with clients as well, " heprerogative of the team is to oversee all digital said, adding that one of the foremost factorsefforts and fully align digital with other marketing for the success of content marketing is having

a clear objective of what the piece of contentstrategies

"We want to make sure digital and the should do for the brand.There are three key factors which determinephysical world are not looked at as two separate

things. We are conscious of the fact that we the success of content marketing for brands -access, assets and approval.don't want to build a digital island, " she said

"These determine how well their contentFuji Xerox also created a hybrid team

internally, with people from different strategy will work, " he said

Content marketing is way too critical forbackgrounds and departments slowly moving

into the digital team. This is to ensure the team it to be outsourced, speakers on the panelfully understands all aspects of the business discussion said. While agencies and vendors

could come to add value and help amplifyand creates content that is robust.

Given the enhanced role content is plying content, the process should be led from within

in marketing, client structures were evolving, the client organisation.

"If we ask agencies to create contentsaid Ajistair MCEwan, SVP of commercial

externalIy, they will do it, but it will be superficialdevelopment for Asia and ANZ, at BBC

- especially in the B2B space where client

relationships are fairly deep, " Blanchette said

Content marketing, idealIy, should play

the role of a unifier within the company - be

it leveraging employees for content or global

counterparts to source for relevant content and

adapt it to local markets

"There are new dynamics at play when it

comes to content and brands are in the process

of figuring what is best for them. There is a need

to pull in employees as they are a brand's true

asset and this involves the breaking down of

silos, " Tan said

60 MARKETING JANUARY - FE aRUARY 2015

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............................

DATE=

Wednesday, 2 December 2015

AR ETI GEVENTS

VENUE:

PARKROYAL on PickerIng Singapore

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