Bangkok--23 Apr--Mindshare
-Moving beyond paid assets to building owned assets, to create earned media
-Using adaptive thinking to learn, optimize, and personalize against demanding consumers
Mindshare Thailand, the leading marketing and media network in Thailand reveals today’s opportunity to build brands during the economic slowdown and to pursue multi-screen strategies to handle consumers’ changing demand and lifestyle.
The key challenge for marketers today is how to integrate communication between devices and measure cross-platform audience ratings. Marketers must also focus on building owned and earned media, not only paid media. There is also an opportunity for brands to apply “the better me” trend: consumers will be looking to brands, products and services that guide, parent, police and yes, even constrain their free will in their quest for a being a better person.
Pathamawan Sathaporn, Managing Director, Mindshare said, “I am a believer in positivity and optimism. The slowdown is an opportunity and a great challenge to continue on driving brand and business. Advertising is part of the solution and not the problem, if done in what we believe in…thinking adaptive, and being adaptive to the opportunities and challenges around us.
Because of the ever-evolving new media and technology, it is truly a year of multi-screen revolution, be it consumers, ‘smartphone lifestyle’ and the launch of digital TV. It is the time to invest, if not monetarily, but in the behavior to build a complete library of assets beyond paid but also on owned (content, websites, e-commerce, social media presence, digital content, mobile interfaces, etc.) to create earned media. Lastly, but just as important, to then use adaptive thinking to learn, optimize and personalize against ever demanding consumers. Brands that continue this drive will become stronger.”
Mindshare shared additional POV on Q2-3 as bellows;
- Overall industry growth in Q1 is 1.8% (including Cable & Satellite) and expected to have 4-6% growth by end of 2014.
- Key performing platforms in 2014 are Smartphone and TV (Free TV, Digital TV & Cable & Satellite)
- Digital TV is expected to grow to 10% of audience share by end of this year. These transformations to digital TV & changes in consumer lifestyle have clearly led to a multi-screen revolution.
Key challenge would be a more effective way to look at measurement methods where the first metric is cost effectiveness and the second is quality of content. Brands should give more weight of measurement to quality program content.
Apart from awareness of the program, consumer engagement that drives owned and earned media must be considered as one of the measurement criteria.
- Key impact and consumer trends are;
1. CONTENT IS SUPERKING
Besides the various choices of online content and the coming of digital TV allows Thai consumers from grassroots to elites have more alternatives to consume content which match their interests and availability. Content that hits the head and/or the heart the most obviously will be the clear winner. Content will also have to adapt to multiple platforms and screens. Content is Superking, but the consumers are gods and goddesses, that are expecting to be pleased and entertained.
2. RIGHT FOR SPEED
Patience is becoming absent: smartphone users impatiently tap their screens demanding instant access to much-needed information or the latest convenience-bestowing app. ‘Nowism’ grows stronger as technology continuously improve, becoming better and faster to pamper consumers in their right for speed, as the attention span in concentrating on story telling decreases. With the clutter of information available to consumers, brands that can grasp their attention either faster or better will definitely benefit.
3. VISUAL CRAVING
Whilst the literacy rate is at 93.5% (source: CIA World Fact Book), there has been big discussion on Thais reading very little print publication. UNESCO’s research claimed Thais on average read 8 sentences per year in 2012 and down to 4 sentences in 2013. The argument obviously is that readership behavior has changed. Increasingly, there is eagerness for data and information but they are being consumed in bite sizes. What’s more, preferences are still towards pictures as proven from the popularity of infographics, video clip viewing, and the Line sticker phenomenon. Urbanites also express their lifestyle and interest via pictures as showing in their social network sites and applications i.e. Instagram. The right combination of info and visual impact will be the challenge for brands in communicating with their target consumers.
4. SYMBOLIC POWER
We do see younger generation Thais shifting towards self-expressiveness and individualism, Thais are still very much a collective society. People who have similar interests, beliefs, logics or attitudes are expressing their viewpoint as a group. And the best way to express this is through symbols such as logo, color, profile picture, etc. Sharing of contents, clicking on a fanpage, and voicing the tribe that they belong to will continue to be big. Brands that can find a way to link to, step into, and captivate consumer’s mind powerfully could create their own-made tribal symbols representing the tribe for their target consumer.
5. BETTER ME
The luxury of convenience provided by technology has made Thai consumers admitting to having ‘bad’ lifestyle habits. Breaking and changing behavior often run up against a simple but strong wall: themselves. Which is why these consumers will look to brands, products and services that guide, parent, police, and yes, even constrain their free will in their quest for a being a better person. And this is both physically and mentally.