The Global Marketer Conference co-hosted by WFA and the Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA) in KL was the centre piece of the week which brought together some of the biggest names in marketing to share insights into how they have built their brands in South East Asia and globally, where they have found their inspiration and how they have overcome challenges.
More than 450 marketers from the ASEAN region and beyond were welcomed by MAA President Margaret Au-Yong and WFA CEO Stephan Loerke.
AirAsia Group CEO and Malaysian legend Tony Fernandes gave the keynote speech and told the story of building a world-beating brand based on genuine consumer insight and human understanding. Tony also tackled some of the challenges and opportunities in leveraging data analytics to make a company seem more human to 20 million customers… “Every one of your employees is a marketing person in your company. If they don’t understand the brand, then you are losing a very important source of promoting your company… You can always sell an external brand, but if your people don’t believe in it, then you just sell negative”, he said.
The highest rated speaker from Global Marketer Week in Sydney, BrainJuicer CEO John Kearon, debuted a unique global study by the WFA in partnership with BrainJuicer. The Future OF Insights unveils the shared aspiration of CMO’s and insights leaders for the insight function to play a strategic consultant role, challenging current thinking and proactively helping R&D, marketing and sales turn human understanding into business advantage. The full report can be downloaded here: www.wfanet.org/futureofinsights
Suresh Balaji (HSBC’s Head of Marketing in APAC), Smita Gupta (TATA Communications’ Marketing Director in APAC), Miguel de Andrés (Google’s Creative Head of Technology in APAC), Ranga Somanathan (Starcom/MEdiaVest’s COO in South East Asia) and WFA’s Marketing Director for Asia Ranji David braved the stage for the ASEAN Accelerator panel to discuss the potential of marketing in South East Asia. The panel discussion was moderated by Emily Tan, Campaign Asia-Pacific Deputy Editor.
The conference’s afternoon session kicked off with James Temple, SVP, Managing Director, Executive Creative Director EMEA at R/GA, on how brands and agencies can accelerate innovation.
Mondelēz’s Global Leader for Fly Fearless Maria Mujica shared the story of Fly Fearless; a culmination of many experiments around the globe. From humble beginnings in Buenos Aires up to the global roll-out, real change with real scale.
David Wheldon, RBS CMO and WFA President, closed the conference with a State of the Union Address, highlighting seven ways marketers are making their lives harder. “Brands need to act and think like people. In my experience, the people I’ve most admired have a number of traits in common: they are passionate and entertaining, they have a point of view, they show empathy, they are open and transparent in their dealings. Most importantly, you know you can trust them. The successful brands of the future will be those that most effectively embrace these characteristics. These attributes will govern not only how brands communicate and serve their customers“, he said.
The conference was followed by a Google Showcase featuring Google’s innovations, from web search and online video to panoramic street view and beyond.
You can download the agenda here.
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