What politics teaches you about advertising

Malaysia – The common denominator for politics and the advertising world is having the courage to change, preached politician and former Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Chua, who resigned from all ministerial and party positions, in January this year following the emergence of a videotape recording which caught him in a compromising position, addressed a crowd of 300 at the 30^th Kancil Awards Festival Speaker Series.

Keeping his audience captivated with his oratory skills, Chua defined “change” as the “courage to challenge the norm, the courage to challenge short comings and the courage to challenge competitions.”

“Politics and advertising have a similarity in that we need to change to be compatible and relevant. In politics, we need to change to meet the rising expectation of the rakyat (people) while in advertising you need to change with creativity and innovation to be attuned to the ever-changing taste of consumers,” he said citing the people’s call for change in Malaysia’s general elections earlier this year when ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) lost its two-third majority.

The BN was changing albeit in small steps in contradiction to the people’s expectations of giant steps, he admitted, but the premier’s decision to hand over the reins to his deputy was also made in realisation of the people’s want for change and was necessary before the people decide to change the government altogether.

“Change cannot occur overnight and is a continuous process rather than a singular movement but what matter is the end result of the initiatives made to change.

“It’s really not a question of catchy slogans – you’ve got to match the expectations of the people,” Chua said.

Carl Zuzarte, Head of Creative and Content, MTV VBS and MTV Southeast Asia charmed the audience with a compilation of creative works between MTV and advertisers and emphasised the music videos channel’s interest in engaging the audience, applying the same concept in his presentation.

Zuzarte offered gifts to the audience who could answer his questions based on the successful campaign videos he played during his slide-show presentation.

“We like giving the audience control and this helps us take the game much further in how we put campaigns together.

“If we find that the audience cannot control it or shape it in some way then we won’t do it,” he said showcasing MTV’s Green Xmas which was launched in 2007 where the channel encouraged its audience to save the environment, drawing them to a website to make a pledge or get friends to sign up to the effort to get a gift.

Most of MTV’s works, he said, are a result of his team and often involves collaboration across the board – directors, illustrators and advertising agencies.

“Because we are who we are, it makes it easy for us to find people to work with us. We also find the need to innovate as a youth channel and media brand to be different and stand out from the market,” Zuzarte said, also displaying an MTV campaign engaging the audience in learning more about its VJs (presenters) and to be a talent for the campaign.

He said MTV was negotiating with telecommunications companies in Malaysia to launch mobile phone content similar to its deal with Vodafone in Japan.

Citing the recent ‘Feel the Music with Sony Electronics’ project, Zuzarte said the campaign showed what integration could do.

“We enhanced music videos and made it more appealing and it showed as the programme which ran three seasons saw a 50% increase in channel rating.

“The audience could go online, write about their feelings about a song or leave a voice message and we’d put it up whilst the song played on screen,” he said, after showing a posting to Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ during an episode.

The challenge, he said, in the business was incorporating a brand in an advertiser-funded content – that promotes its product and with its brief.

“It is no longer effective for 30-second advertisements by an advertiser nor does it work for the ‘brought to you by’ phrase because creating has to sit with the brand in a way that really connects.

“It is a new thing and it is not easy to do because it might turn people off if it goes too far but we’ve managed to do some good work,” he said, citing MTV’s work with HP on Engine Room where there was “a shameless amount of product placement in content but the audience didn’t really mind”.