Some of the world’s largest brands, agencies and media owners, gathered over two days at the Festival of Media Asia Pacific (FOMAP) to discuss the future of the media industry from 16-18 March 2014. This year’s festival was held at the Capella Singapore, bringing together over 600 delegates and 50+ luminary speakers from across the region and the world, to trade ideas and discuss some of the most interesting and pressing issues affecting the media industry.
Commenting, Charlie Crowe, Founder of Festival of Media and Chairman of C Squared said, “Asia-Pacific continues to be a global hub for media innovation and excellence, and this year’s event has been a great success, welcoming some of the region’s most pioneering media leaders to the stand to share their own unique perspectives on the challenges and opportunities faced by businesses in the region. Once again the event has proved a hit with delegates, offering up the latest research, fascinating industry case-studies and educated commentary on the industry issues making the headlines, to provide an educational and above all else, enjoyable event.”
This year’s event was based on the theme ‘Agility’, focusing on the increasing need for businesses to be nimble and responsive to the constant changing media environment. Highlights from the first day of the event included a session with Professor Jerry Wind, Wharton Future of Advertising Program, and Rose Tsou, Senior Vice-President, Yahoo! APAC, who discussed key findings from a joint industry framework on native advertising. The framework, they explained, provides a path for marketers making use of Native Advertising to increase the effectiveness of their work, without compromising their audience’s trust by being fully transparent and proud of the content offered by the brand.
Charlie Crowe, Founder of Festival of Media and Chairman of C Squared joined Steve Mosko, President, Sony Pictures Television to discuss the way that piracy continues to present challenges for the media industry, looking at how the explosion of free video in China could signify the solution. In another session, Scott Lamb, Vice-President International, Buzzfeed, discussed the importance of connecting to the audience when using publishing via social media, emphasising the benefits of humour, relevance and making sure ads are still able to provide some form of entertainment.
This theme was echoed by Scott Donaton, Global Chief Content Officer, UM, who argued that advertisements should aim to encompass their messages in ‘stories,’ as an effective way of engaging audiences. Storytelling then, explained Scott Donaton, should form the basis of successful media campaigns.
The second day of the Festival kicked off with Peter Vessenes, Founder & CEO, CoinLab and Chairman, Bitcoin Foundation, who addressed the impact of Bitcoin, providing a glimpse at the future of currency, where goods and services are bought virtually and the ways it could reshape the media buying landscape.
Picking up on the Festival theme of ‘agility’ Shailesh Rao, VP, APAC & Latin America & Emerging Markets, Twitter, joined Damien Cummings, Regional VP & CMO, Philips ASEAN & Pacific, to discuss how brands can create relevant real-time content to meet the demands and engage with empowered digital consumers.
This year’s event also played host to five innovative showcase theatre sessions, including a session on multiscreen marketing and the opportunities in Asia presented by Millward Brown, a session from Sizmek entitled ‘Putting a social spin on online strategy; a presentation from Unruly on social video and the science of media sharing, along with a session presented by Warc, highlighting the latest wave of Warc's mobile marketing survey conducted across the region, in association with the Festival of Media Asia Pacific and the Mobile Marketing Association. Havas Media Group APAC also showcased how technology can play a bigger role in increasing social media engagements with the unveiling of the company’s new social innovation ‘Heartbot’ – a machine that turns a set of identified hashtags into generated electricity.
This year’s event concluded with a prestigious awards ceremony celebrating the best creative media thinking in Asia Pacific, and a platform to recognize the best work of brands, agencies and media owners in the region.
This year saw entries from 12 countries in the region, being judged by a panel of senior agency heads and global brand marketers, chaired by Andrew Knott, Vice-President - Media and Digital, McDonald’s Corporation.
Top winners included MediaCom, which was awarded ‘Agency Network of the Year’, also picking up a further three awards for its other campaigns across the region, including Best Communications Strategy for its ‘Shave or Crave’ campaign for Gillette (India), Best Event / Experiential Campaign for its Tasting is Believing Campaign for Coke Zero (Singapore), and The Retail Award for its ‘Give Music Generator’ for Universal Music Australia (Australia). MediaCom was also highly commended in the Best Entertainment Platform category for ‘Westpac – Air Rescue’.
Other top winners included UM Australia, which won The 2014 Agency of the Year award, also scooping Best Entertainment Platform for ‘Lambnesia’, Best Social Media Strategy for its ‘XTL’ campaign, and The Creative Use of Media Award for ‘Fast Front Pages,’ campaign. UM Malaysia, was also recognized, winning the Consumer Research Award for ‘Smiling is an Act of Charity’- LISTERINE Rides on a Cultural Insight’, also being highly commended in the Best Use of Technology category, for KFC finding ‘Waze’ to ‘Fast Food’.
Other top accolades went to FCB Media, which was awarded the coveted accolade of Campaign of the Year for its ‘Driving Dogs’ campaign.
Creative agencies also performed well in this year’s awards with the likes of Ogilvy & Mather winning Best Engagement Strategy and Leo Burnett winning the Utility / Public Service Award.
Other highlights from the 2014 awards included new category winners MEC which was awarded The Best Launch Campaign, UM Malaysia, which scooped the Consumer Research Award and Match Media which picked up the Data Innovation Award.
Sohu IT and Vivo Xplay were awarded the newly introduced Record-breaking Brand Award, which aims to celebrate and recognize the greatest record-breaking media campaigns of the last 12 months. The new award category, which is launched in collaboration with Guinness World Records, was introduced this year as part of the organization’s partnership with the Festival of Media Conference and Awards series.
The 2014 Rising Star Award, in partnership with Starcom MediaVest Group, which rewards the brightest young media talent in Asia. Taking in entries from under 30’s media professionals from across the region, five finalists presented live at the event to FOMAP’s panel of judges. After much deliberation by the judges, the 2014 award was presented to Business Director Donna Sharp, based in China.
Commenting on the Festival of Media Asia-Pacific Awards, Charlie Crowe, added, “I would like to congratulate all of the winners who put forward a very strong range of entries, demonstrating the high standard of creative media industry talent we have here in Asia Pacific. My congratulations also go out to Donna and the Rising Stars runner-ups who made it very difficult to pick a winner. I would also like to give thanks to the delegates, partners and sponsors for their participation in Festival of Media Asia-Pacific 2014.”
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