Two weeks ago, the iMedia Brand Summit was launched in South East Asia. 100 brands, agencies, solution providers and online publishers met at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, for a unique networking opportunity in a relaxed setting. There they also listened to extraordinary keynote speakers, took part in fun recreational activities -- and most importantly, shared ideas and insights with their peers. Here's what they took away from the event:
Michael Stellwag, Manager -- Digital Marketing, Qatar Airways
"iMedia events are the best networking platforms in the industry -- getting to meet people with similar interests and backgrounds from all over the world, as well as different companies on the buy and the sell sides. By far, that's the most valuable aspect.
"Then of course the content is good, keeping up with the latest trends in the industry. It's a good place to learn what the next big thing is going to be. Asia is a budding market, so while the topics may not be quite as in-depth as in the US, iMedia plays an important role in helping to synthesise digital media into the marketing mix here. It's appropriate for its audience, and this region will catch up, thanks to conferences like this.
"Meeting some very interesting people on the sell side helps open our eyes to new vendors and new potential partners. It's a beautiful setting where people just relax and are themselves -- and there's no hard sales pitch. It's a relationship-based network that you build, and in the end probably leads to higher conversion rates for sellers."
Chow Wei Heng, Vice President Marketing, Resorts World
"These last few years, our approach to digital has been experimental, trying this and that. We have come to the stage where brand owners like us will have to make up our minds whether we're going to take this whole digital game a lot more seriously, and make some long-term commitments in terms of people, talent, and money, so that digital becomes a core part of the marketing, sales and customer service model, rather than something that we want to experiment with, and tweak at -- which is we have been doing.
"If you ask me, how much money do I spend on digital media -- I would say not much. Maybe 5 percent? And it's always a short term campaign or in certain specific markets, so there's no long term commitment. In a way attending this is like a wake up call. It is time to reassess, to go back and talk to the marketing team, talk to the bosses, and really come up with a more concrete plan on how we're going to move forward in terms of the digital arena."
Mark Wong, Vice President, Marketing & Development, Asia Pacific, Preferred Hotel Group
"The presentations were very good; learning about new markets like the silver market was very fascinating, and finding out about new technologies was also quite interesting. There wasn't too much of a sales pitch, which was fantastic. It was more educational."
"For the roundtable sessions, we could have had more time to rotate amongst the different topics. That would have really helped us in understanding different areas. Some brands could have also shared their experiences with us.
"The attendees were more senior, so the content could have been a bit more challenging: More of 'we have already done this, how could you have done it better?' rather than 'this is how you start with something', which then becomes too elementary. I think it would be more fruitful for us to walk away thinking 'why didn't I think of that?'
"Otherwise, I think it was good to meet the same calibre of people across different industries. I usually attend travel conferences and everyone seems to talk about the same thing, because it's only about one vertical. But I heard from brands like McDonalds, Motorola, NEC -- things that I never thought might be applicable to my industry, so I think that's fantastic to have that cross pollination of ideas."
Agatha Yap, Director of Marketing, McDonald's
"What was relevant to us was firstly the evolving pace of the whole digital world, and some of the new technologies that are available in the marketplace. The second thing would be some of the relevant discussion points, brought up in the panels that advertisers, media owners and marketers face in terms of taking this technology forward. The third thing which was actually a bonus was getting a group of like-minded marketers and senior executives together to harness our experiences. That was invaluable."
KK Ko, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, LG China
"I've been away from the digital industry because I had to focus on LG's business in a traditional way. There were urgent things like store innovation and training of salespeople -- that kind of thing was priority. But because I have a huge commitment to digital marketing, I was very excited to come here, and I was right. The speeches and content were beyond my expectations; new technologies talked about by presenters like Eyeblaster were really helpful for me. It was a good way for me to recover my commitment."
Lin Pei Hua, Assistant Vice President, Marketing & Communications, Tangs
"It confirmed that digital marketing is the way to go. I can't forego traditional marketing, but it's when I have to cut back on traditional marketing -- that gap will have to be filled by digital. It could be a blessing in disguise because it will give me the opportunity to try new things."
Marcel Lee Pereira is editor of iMedia Connection Asia.
The presentations, photos, and podcasts from the iMedia Brand Summit will be made available here in the next few weeks.
