Lessons Abroad

Editor’s Note: This article is written by Dave Siegel, President of WonderGroup, based on his recent trip to address the Youth Marketing Forum in Singapore.

I had the privilege of addressing the Youth Marketing Forum in Singapore and, while there, I had the opportunity to observe first hand what was going on in Asian youth marketing.

As you might expect, technological communication in Asia is far ahead of what we are seeing here. And, not surprisingly, Youth marketers there are taking advantage of this by using traditional and new media more synergistically than they are here in the U. S.

As a result of better access to mobile phones and Internet, Asian consumers are moving from being passive to active media consumers even more quickly than their U.S. counterparts. In response to this, some smart marketers are evolving from a focus on brand “positioning” to, instead, a focus on brand “spirit”. The belief there is that a brand’s spirit is critically important if one wishes to actively attract consumers to a brand and its site.

Brands with strong spirits are now forming their very own media “networks” online. And, in doing so, these brands are looking to reap the rewards of having others actually pay them for advertising on their sites - talk about a great ROI!

Marketers are realizing that it is the content—not the brand—that attracts consumers to a network. As a result, one is likely to find online networks such as “The Runners Network,” “The Exercise Network,” etc. The surprise is that these networks are actually owned, operated and, of course, sponsored by a particular brand. And, of course, the site carries appropriate ads for the brand. It’s a brand’s site in disguise!

One of the most interesting cases using traditional and new media synergistically was from Virgin Mobile®. To introduce 5-cent SMS from Virgin to Virgin phones, they used a nerdy, loser-type of guy in a very inexpensive TV spot. In the spot, the guy asked things like, “Have a love question? Text me.” “Want a date? Text me.” He wound up receiving almost a million texts. And then Virgin started (and sponsored) a Web site around him - getting 1 million additional hits in first month!

In summary, looking at what is happening in Asia teaches us that today’s “big ideas” must be more than just “big TV ideas.” And we will certainly be looking at this for our clients.