APAC Brands Urged to Be Brave with Major Rebound inAdvertising Set for 2021

Analysis and News - Market News - Asia

Despite the turbulence advertisers in Asia and beyond have faced throughout this current year, ad spend in the region is expected to soar by 8.1%in 2021, although the creative choices will need to be bold indeed if true standout is to be sustained in this hugely competitive market.

Liking Isn’t Helping: Classic Crisis Relief work from Publicis Singapore.

The global advertising industry is navigating its way through the choppiest of waters. In the APAC region, advertising revenue is forecast to shrinkby as much as 8.5% this year, while Hong Kong alone is expected to experience a decline of nearly 25% year‑on‑year.

Despite this, don’t expect to see any industry soothsayer of doom appearing on a TikTok channel or WeChat platform anytime soon. Indeed,according to the Magna Advertising Forecast – a bellwether of industry trends – the APAC advertising market is set for a strong recovery in 2021,with likely growth of 8.1% and a total spend expected to top US$175 billion.

Overall, the Forecast indicates that Asia Paci�c is likely to remain the world’s second‑largest advertising economy, behind North America, butcomfortably ahead of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It also identi�ed a number of sectors expected to do particularly well within the region,notably pharmaceuticals / healthcare, telecommunications technology and packaged food.

Underpinning such optimism is the widely held view that the region excels when it comes to embracing new technology and fostering rapidinnovation. In line with this, many of its future‑focused and digitally adventurous advertising agencies have successfully migrated online and ontosocial platforms in order to meet the needs of their increasingly sophisticated and technologically astute audience.

Moreover, big‑data analytics, immersive ad‑tech and a plethora of new formats mean brands can now target consumers with far greater accuracyand more relevant content. This has been particularly notable in the shift towards the far wider use of short, snappy, shareable video.

Hitting the Sweet Spot

All these clever strategies, innovative tactics and novel forms of communication, however, cannot prevail without one vital element – creativity.The Holy Grail idea. The zag to everyone else’s zig, as it were. Original thinking in the advertising arena – though it remains a rare commodity –when artfully deployed, will inevitably engage, connect, inform, excite and, ultimately, sell.

For its part, the APAC region is now served by all the large agency networks – including the likes of M&C Saatchi, Ogilvy, BBDO, McCann, LeoBurnett and the DDB Group. In addition to such creative might, it has also proved fertile ground for many of the smaller, more agile and notablydigitally adept players, such as Razor�sh, Krew Digital, Why Interactive and iProspect.

08 Oct 2020

Nick Galanides, Special Correspondent, Birmingham

One thing all of these agencies have in common is an awareness of just how fast the overall marketing landscape is changing and anunderstanding of where the sweet spot lies for each individual territory. While Hong Kong, for example, tends to favour local content, �avour andlanguage when it comes to marcomms, Singapore gravitates towards a more global feel and a higher level of English output.

Interestingly, many Asia Paci�c‑based agencies are now recalibrating their creativity and focusing more on authenticity. In essence, the impossiblyglamorous, perfumed goddess riding off into the sunset has given way to the �awed, the non‑perfect and the believable.

Heaven and Hell: JWT Shanghai’s celebrated Samsonite campaign.

Acknowledging this in a recent trade press interview, Mark Webster, Chief Executive of JWT Hong Kong, said: “I think people are getting a little tiredof wonderful, beautifully air‑brushed pictures and perfection. There’s a kind of urge to have a little dirt under the �ngernails.”

When Creativity Becomes Great

In recent years, APAC creativity has dined at the top table, with accolades for its work often taking a lead in the WARC (World Advertising ResearchCenter) rankings.

It’s not hard to see why.

Essentially, a visual revolution has taken place. While provocative, edgier, more arresting images have seduced the viewer, at the same time,divergent thinking, original designs, vivid colours and punchy dialogue have kept engagement high. Alongside this, lofty production values haveturned �lm and video into grand pieces of art.

In addition, new formats have put the consumer in charge, enabling them to control what messages they receive, when and where. This has led toopt‑in features, app noti�cations and interruptive media having to walk a �ne line between informing and intruding.

What, though, of greatness? From a personal standpoint, there are three examples of recent APAC advertising work that particularly screamoriginality and bravery.

The devastatingly effective Liking Isn’t Helping (Publicis Singapore), for one, is a veritable powerhouse of a press campaign for Crisis Relief, adisaster mitigation organisation run solely by volunteers. Its striking offer is stark, black and white journo‑style photographs of war horrors, �oodsand earthquakes ringed by upturned thumbs mimicking Facebook ‘Likes’.

Its brilliance lies in its juxtaposition of these images. Simultaneously shocking and familiar, it’s rare indeed for an ad to turn on the viewer quite soovertly. This does, though, and to great effect, defying anyone to come away from it without confronting their own apathy and lack of action. Itslack of contrition and sparsity of language is also undeniably unsettling. It’s no wonder it snagged the agency a Cannes Gold Lion Award. Thumbsup for that, at least.

Heaven and Hell by JWT Shanghai, meanwhile, although undeniably something of an oldie, remain one of the best and most awarded outdoor /print ads of all time. Once again, it’s the visual narrative that dazzles. At heart, it’s an ad for a smart suitcase that puts over its USP (extremedurability) in a wonderfully non‑obvious way. Indeed, storytelling the tortuous journey and survivability of Samsonite luggage against theindulgence of �ying ‘angel‑class’ is virtuoso thinking.

Nick Galanides: “A return tosterility.”

Meet Graham: Car‑crash awareness courtesy of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.

Its real beauty though, lies in its assiduousness to detail and dramatic contrast, with its aesthetic turning something mundane into an oiledcanvass of classic art. No matter how many times you wait at the carousel, you’ll never pick up on an ad as good as this one.

The third of the three is Meet Graham, an interactive campaign for Transport Accident Commission Australia devised by Clemenger BBDOMelbourne. The character we are invited to meet was created to compellingly illustrate how a body would need to evolve in order to withstand theimpact of a car crash. The sculptured humanoid – part augmented reality technology and part educational icon – toured the country, drivingdebate and becoming the face of human vulnerability on all social highways and byways.

It was a dazzlingly different way of thinking about road safety and far removed from the usual shock and awetangled‑metal tactics that many desensitised viewers now all but automatically screen out. Among a fatiguedaudience serenaded by Mission Impossible stunts, this magni�cent work of immersive drama elevated the subjectmatter above any other car‑safety initiative around.

So there you have it – three slices of genius where APAC advertisers have stuck their heads above the parapet. Asto what makes them quite so great, it’s largely down to being brave, totally original and visually beguiling, while notbeing afraid to veer off the well‑trodden path and venture into relatively unknown territory.

With the advertising sector expected to rebound in 2021, will we see a return to sterility or will bland be banned? Mybet is that the APAC region will continue to blaze its own creative trail.

Nick Galanides is the former Creative Director of Cogent, one of the UK’s largest independent creative communications agencies.

Related Topics

Advertising Services Media Design Services Hong Kong Mainland China Australia Australasia

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