BBDO chiefs spruik digital and inclusion

Pattaya - Nothing's changed, everything's still the same, but technology has magnified our behaviour and enhanced the way we communicate, says BBDO Asia chairman and CEO Chris Thomas at this afternoon's ADFEST presentation with BBDO regional business development director Asia Pacific Simon Bond.

The two gave examples of how the biggest change visible is the shift in consumer power and how consumers create (content), share (ideas) and play (with brands), and it is the digital platform that is driving this shift.

Thomas defines ‘brand' as "a set of values and associations attached to you that exists in customers' minds". He says you can't control the brands but media allows us to shape them and today, consumers really own your brands now.

Some insights the two shared on brands which have done well digitally are ideas which challenge the consumer, create a sandbox for consumers to creatively play, extend UGC into a brand platform, launch campaigns that create debate and deliberate PR, harness the power of the blogosphere, and even allow the consumer to become the brand.

To conclude, Thomas said the world is spending US$222.2 billion on TV globally, and the growth rate in Asia is 16%, and TV will still be around for a long time.

He recommends brands collaborate with different parties in the development of inclusion based ideas, and these parties may be anyone from production companies to consumers to clients.