The headlines, a month in news

1 Olympic spending soars

Sponsorship Clients spending on Olympic related advertising has reached more than RMB30 billion and is set to accelerate leading up to the August Olympics.

The latest round of Olympic research from CSM Media Research and consulting firm R3, shows marketing and media activity surrounding the Olympics has hit "unprecedented levels" among sponsors, with Coca-Cola leading the study in Olympic awareness.

"To date, we've seen more than RMB30b in measured media spent by key sponsors - and we expect at least that much again in the coming months," Matt Brosenne, international client services director at CSM Media Research, said.

In the latest research period, major Olympic sponsor Coke performed the strongest in terms of recall and media efficiency. But the research, which tracked more than 600 marketing campaigns in the past three months, showed that it's not just the biggest media spenders getting the best return-on-investment. Smaller spending sponsors such as Visa and adidas are competing well.

Greg Paull, principal at R3, said noise levels were "off the scale", but marketers are getting better results through creativity and consistency.

 

2 Gaming publisher calls it a day

Media Fierce competition for advertising in the gaming publishing sector has forced local magazine group S-Team to close its Hong Kong and Shanghai operations.

S-Team, which started in Hong Kong 10 years ago, has already closed its Shanghai operations and Hong Kong will wind down soon.

The company published PC Weekly, GamePort, Digital and Digital Choice, as well as a number of online brand extensions.

Matthew Wong, S-Team publisher, said despite a successful run with its stable publications, "unhealthy competition" for advertising revenue and a cover price war had taken its toll.

Wong said in the past three years, the average price of a full color page ad had been reduced from $5000 to $1500.

"And it is very easy to predict the final winner must be the one who has tons of money to burn," Wong said.

Although its main PC Weekly title will close, the company said will keep its Game Weekly masthead.

Wong added that the company would invest resources into the game sector in coming years and enter the PC online game market in the near future. 

3 Watsons makes luxury move

Marketing A.S Watsons Group will expand into the luxury retail space later this year with the launch of its high-end perfume and cosmetics store Marionnaud.

The health and beauty retailer has appointed creative agency Fluid to develop the marketing and advertising material for the store's launch, which is expected to roll out in March. A spokesperson for A.S Watsons Group could not confirm a launch date.

 

4 Tourism Australia stunts cinema goers

Marketing Tourism Australia has kicked off a branding campaign using cinemas as the key channel to promote its beach culture to the "experienced seekers segment".

The campaign will run for four weeks across different cinemas across Hong Kong, featuring stunt shows, pavement art drawings and washroom advertisements.

M&C Saatchi created the campaign with Carat managing media buying and planning.

One stunt includes bikini-clad females and male models dressed in wetsuits and scuba-diving gear invading cinemas.

In addition, cinema washrooms have been decked out with marketing material featuring Tourism Australia's tagline "So where the bloody hell are you?".

 

5 Elle explores masculine side

Media The men's publishing sector will see another competitor from April when Hachette Filipacchi Magazines (HFM) rolls out a men's edition of its Elle magazine.

Men's Elle will initially launch as a biannual title, but if successful could see a full launch.

HFM will position the magazine against men's uno and Esquire, chasing male readers aged 25 to 40 years with a high disposable income.

Christine Ho, associate publisher at HFM, said the company will launch two issues of Men's Elle this year, following strong interest from advertisers.

"We will definitely consider different possibilities when the magazine's out, but I can't really comment on that at this stage," she said.

 

6 Traditional media losing ground

Media TV and newspapers have lost a significant share of clients advertising spend to outdoor and interactive media, despite a 11.7% year-on-year increase.

Latest figures from Admango show that while traditional TV, newspaper and magazine remain the key media, interactive and online has increasingly become a popular channel for marketers to promote their messages.

Within the interactive ad spend category, Yahoo! Hong Kong dominated at 52.9%, followed by Atnext.com at 13.8% and MSN messenger with just 5.1%.

Other popular portals that made it into the interactive mix include on.cc, headline, Sina, Singtao and she.com.

The top three categories for interactive include banking, education and computers & internet with PCCW the top spender at $34 million, followed by Citifinancial and The Wall Street Institute.

 

7 Ad Plaza launches virtual media planner

Marketing Advertising Plaza has launched an online platform to allow marketers to shop for and create marketing campaigns based on budgets, media placement and demographics.

The platform will target small to medium-sized companies as well as larger corporations looking to advertise their products and services in Asia.

Lucien Harrington, MD for AdvertisingPlaza.com, said there had been a dramatic shift in the way people buy and consume entertainment in the digital world.

"AdvertisingPlaza.com extends this trend into the world of advertising putting buyers and sellers in complete control of the process at every stage," he said.

Harrington added that the response from ad sellers was strong, with the South China Morning Post, The Economist, Time, Milk and Tatler among those to have already signed up. The website is also beefing up its list of companies that will provide additional support for marketers in developing a campaign from creative, marketing to research.

 

8 HP chases China youth

Marketing HP will increase its China budget by some 30% this year in a bid to build its share of the estimated US$135 billion youth electronics market.

HP, the second largest player in China's rapidly expanding personal computer market, said the fourth quarter of 2007 saw its Personal Systems Group in China more than doubled in size, making China largest market for HP outside the United States.

Late last year, HP launched a ‘My Computer My Stage' campaign inviting young influential Chinese artists to showcase their creative talents.

"China is the first and so far the only country in the world where this global youth campaign is being rolled out, which shows the importance that HP attaches and the commitment it makes to the Chinese market," Robin Seow, marketing & SMB director for HP China, said.

This year see tough competition in the youth electronics market, with China PC maker Lenovo launching a raft of new products targeted at a younger age group.

 

9 TNS merger goes for scale

Research Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) has merged its Hong Kong and Singapore operations, naming Wade Garland as MD of the combined group.

Garland, currently MD of Hong Kong, will add Singapore to his brief with current Singapore MD Grant Bertoli to take management of Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines markets.

"The businesses in Hong Kong and Singapore are similar in structure," Garland said. "The type of projects we are now receiving demand more scale and more resources. Basically we will now operate as two offices of one company."

No staff would be made redundant as a result of the merger, Garland said, adding that HR and administration departments for each country will stay.

 

10 WPP bolsters HK unit

Agencies Another month, another raft of acquisitions from the WPP Group in Greater China.

The past month has seen the global holding group make two significant local acquisitions, which kicked off with WPP's wholly-owned Wunderman acquiring the Agenda Group Asia. Agenda provides a full range of tech and digital marketing services and employs 260 people. Based in Hong Kong, Agenda has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Another WPP agency Hill & Knowlton acquired a 70% share of Hong Kong-based Rikes Communications for an undisclosed amount. Following the acquisition, the agency will be known as Rikes Hill & Knowlton. Raymond Siu, managing director at Rikes will continue in his role.

 

11 TVB overhauls weekly magazine

Media TVB Weekly has boosted its content and relaunched its weekly magazine with four additional booklets to cover parenting, beauty and digital TV.

TVB Weekly was previously sold in two booklets covering TV drama entertainment news and lifestyle, but the revamp has seen the magazine expand into four booklets, TVB Weekly, TV Baby, TV Beauty and TVB Digital Guide.

Yu Ming, publisher of TVB Weekly, said the different booklets will allow advertisers to target a more segmented audience.

With HD and DTV being a currency topic, the new booklet will also attract electronics and set-top box advertisers. Yu said the new magazine aims to attract a 15% to 20% increase to its current readership of 198,000.

The new launch will not affect advertising rate card rates and cover price will remain at HK$12 as well as print run maintained at 85,000.

 

12 Dentsu partners with Focus for online push

Digital Focus Media and Japanese advertising company Dentsu have entered into a joint venture to launch an online advertising company Digit Ones.

Hua Kuang Advertising Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Focus Media, will own a minority 33% share in the China-based company with Dentsu to own the remaining 67%.

The two companies will invest US$9 million to establish the agency, which will focus on providing online advertising services to Dentsu clients and build its own list of clients through direct sales activities and providing interactive services.

The new agency will absorb Dentsu's three major advertising companies in China - Beijing Dentsu Advertising, Beijing Oriental Rihai Advertising and Shanghai Oriental Partner Advertising.

 

13 HA aims for $3m in ad revenue

Out of home The SAR government's Hospital Authority (HA) has opened its door to advertisers for the first time and is aiming to generate up to $3 million in annual ad revenue.

A five-year contract to provide indoor poster and outdoor advertising in public hospitals has been awarded to Convey Advertising and Media Savvy. Media Savvy will operate its contract under Easy & Savvy Media.

As part of the deal, HA will establish up to 800 advertising panels within the 18 major hospitals in Hong Kong. An annual income of more than $3 million will be generated from the advertising outsource program, HA said.

All advertising in the hospital will be closely watched and regulated in accordance with the HA Advertising Standards, which are based in the Generic Code of Practice on Domestic Free TV Advertising Code in Hong Kong.

 

14 Online grows faster than TV in China

Online TV continued to dominate the Chinese ad market in 2007, but new media has recorded the strongest growth, reaching RMB9.4 billion in 2007.

Figures from Nielsen Media Research show total ad spend for TV, newspapers and magazines has increased 15% year-on-year at RMB441.5 billion with TV taking 82% share, followed by newspapers and magazines.

CTR market research said advertising spend in the same period had slowed from 22% in 2004, 18% in 2005 and 2006 to 9% in 2007.

Tian Tao, VP for CTR, said the 9% rate is considered a historical slowdown compared with the country's GDP growth of 11.4%.

He said that shrinking ad spend was due to several factors such as marketers reserving money for the Beijing Olympics, weak spending from major industries, particularly pharmaceuticals, and advertising spend on new media.

Online, Nielsen said more than 3,000 advertisers, largely multi-national groups from the automobile, IT, electronics and FMCG sectors, driving online growth.

Mazda, Toyota and Lenovo topped the list for online advertising with China Mobile and Mengniu among the Chinese brands that made it into top 10.

 

15 M&C continues new business run

Agencies M&C Saatchi has started the year with a strong sweep of new business and its looks set to continue with some as yet unannounced clients signing up the Hong Kong office.

In January, YHS Hong Kong handed its HK$10 million Soy Dream business to M&C Saatchi in a three-way shootout along with United Asia Finance, which hired the agency to manage its e-Cash Revolving Loan project for 2008. Marketing activities for Soy Dream kicked off in November last year with major efforts in sampling. M&C is expected to create a number of mass marketing initiatives including TV, print and outdoor executions.

UA invited three agencies to pitch for its business, which will receive a significant boost in 2008 as its seeks to take a greater share of the revolving loans category.

 

16 Octagon shifts operations to China

Sponsorship The Interpublic-owned sports and events marketing group Octagon will wind back its Hong Kong operation and focus on growing the company in China.

Irene Cheung, Octagon's executive vice president, said after careful consideration, staff and clients had been told the company will move the bulk of its operations to Shanghai.

She said some of Octagon's clients and staff had already been relocated to sister Interpublic companies, which includes ad agencies McCann Erickson and Initiative.

Octagon will keep a small presence in Hong Kong to service clients including the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon and the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens.

"This is a big change and a new chapter for the company," Cheung said.

 

17 W Hotel gears up for Q3 launch

Marketing Starwood Hotels has hired a marketing team for its luxury line of W Hotels and will appoint a PR agency as the brand makes its first foray into Greater China.

Headed by general manager Damon Page, W Hotel Hong Kong has nabbed Matthew Jung, former director of marketing & business development for Emphasis Media, as director of marketing to lead all marketing initiatives in Greater China.

W will soon appoint a PR agency from a shortlist of five.

Page said that a focus for the next few months would be to build the W brand in Hong Kong with an online presence expected soon.

Page is yet to revealed any brand partnerships, but said he would seek products that are in line with the W Hotel's marketing strategies. Bliss has announced it will launch its full service spa when W Hong Kong debuts in early Q3 this year, with Hong Kong the first stop.