MANILA, MAY 29, 2013 – The University of Asia and the Pacific Tambuli Awards 2013 Conference was held earlier today at the PLDT Hall of the UA&P, Pearl Drive, Pasig City. The Conference, which precedes the Tambuli Awards 2013, serves as a platform for some of the movers and shakers in the advertising and marketing world to offer their insights and share experiences regarding relevant topics, to which a panel of reactors responds with their own corresponding inputs. This year’s Conference had as its theme “Integration and Meaningful Connections”.
The speakers explored the different facets of meaningfulness in this day and age and how determination of what meaningfulness meant for one’s brand helped truly connect with customers and also made excellent business sense. Stuart Clark, Managing Director, Havas Media International APAC, talked about Havas’ pioneering global study on meaningful brands, defining these brands as those that related to people not only in terms of marketplace outputs but also personal and collective wellbeing. Most brands, said he, are functional while others are aspirational, but those brands that thrive are those which move from simple differentiation to making an actual difference in peoples’ lives.
Albert Cuadrante, General Manager of Greenwich, shared his own insights regarding shifting from mere consumer insight to human insight, which is more comprehensive and offers a view of the bigger picture. He said that one of the best sources of human insight was examining the conflicting goals that each one of us is faced with today, resulting in so-called “goal conflicts”. He concluded that the brands that help us resolve these conflicts are those that have a more meaningful impact on people.
Viboy Palillo, Director for Brand Planning, Lowe Philippines and Sajju Ambat of Lowe Vietnam discussed doing well by doing good. They explained that business is key to efforts to do good, as business considerations must always be respected, adding that meaningful and good behavior engenders trust and this trust gives good more potency. Palillo and Ambat said that to do good, a firm needs to define its social purpose, avoid ‘greenwashing’ or too much spin, connect with its “fan(atic)s” or satisfied customers, avoid waiting for others to do good first, and, lastly, to “get naked” or be transparent.
For his part, Harpreet Kaintel, Chief Strategy Officer, Asia Pacific, ZenithOptimedia, discussed the value of integrated connections. He said that having a consistent and integrated approach is no less than critical in this day and age. Kaintel pointed out three critical challenges faced by today’s market players: they need to know how to mine new digital data, foster lasting connections with customers, and properly capture value and measure results.
The final speaker, Noel Lorenzana, President and CEO of MediaQuest Holdings Inc, talked about paving the way for mobile-led integration. A new era, said he, is emerging – we are entering the era of the cloud. Developments are preceding apace such that layers of new services are emerging thanks to the emergence of the cloud, from home security and monitoring to connected cars and other devices. This, said Lorenzana, means that brands’ engagement with an increasingly mobile set of customers can take place literally everywhere, anywhere and anytime.
The Conference was capped by the responses from the reactors, Lizelle Maralag, President of GMA Marketing and Productions – GMA Network and John Miller, Chairman and CEO, Nestle Philippines, and their moderator Jos Ortega, CEO of Havas Media Ortega. They shared some issues that cropped up during the course of the speeches, such as the fact that ordinary consumers may have a hard time differentiating authentic advocacies from those simply intended to burnish a company’s reputation. Maralag shared that GMA is not concerned with ratings alone; advertisers are also looking at shared values. Miller said that in his experience trust was pivotal yet immeasurable, saying that trust would “fly out the window” if companies failed to be authentic. Ortega wrapped up by saying that the digital world is a “Wild Wild West”, but we do have leaders whose values anchor us today.
The Tambuli Awards is the only global award on IMC effectiveness and societal values. The Awards, which are currently in their 7th iteration, highlight the integral link between values and effectiveness, championing advertising that not only boasts eye-catching visuals but also promotes virtues such as spirit of service, family values and hard work. The Awards Night is to take place on May 30, 2013.
