HK adland leaders share their aspirations and goals for 2024

2023 wasn’t an easy year for many of us as job cuts continued due to tough economic conditions. Budgets were cut, and plans were changed. But work and the industry hustle carried on as per usual, with new avenues found.

However, amidst the difficulties, the industry persevered and sought to navigate the evolving landscape, adapting to new norms and exploring innovative approaches.

According to the latest Online and Offline Media Trends Report by admanGo, the proportion of online media ad spend, which includes desktop, mobile and social media, in Hong Kong to total ad spend had been steadily increasing, rising from 23% in 2018 to 55% between January and September 2023.

Meanwhile, the proportion of offline media ad spend, including TV, print, radio and outdoor, to total ad spend in the city had decreased sharply from 77% in 2018 to 45% in 2023.

As we embark on the year 2024, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to several leaders in the Hong Kong adland to gather their aspirations for the new year and their goals for driving positive changes within the industry.

Andreas Krasser, CEO, DDB Group Hong Kong 

2023 has been a challenging ride for Hong Kong agencies. While people moved beyond the fear and inhibitions of COVID-19, marketing budgets mostly remained small. Pitches, on the other hand, were plentiful. This led to a swarm of agencies scrambling for small projects, inadvertently burning out their teams. Guilty as charged. 

While this might have “worked” in 2023, it is certainly not a sustainable practice. So, my crystal ball prediction? Agencies will reprioritise their people’s mental well-being over the coming 12 months. Yet, I hope it's going to be more than token efforts like mental health awareness days. Let's involve marketers and procurement, sparking a dialogue about healthier pitch practices: extended timelines, fewer deliverables, more concise briefs, less agency competition, longer-term assignments, and maybe even pitch fees. Some might say I’m a dreamer, but (hopefully) I’m not the only one. 

Here's another crystal ball insight: In 2024, marketers will demand agencies help them achieve growth again. 2023 was more about maintaining the status quo for many due to lingering COVID restrictions. However, 2024 will usher in more aggressive growth goals, challenging agencies to provide solutions that can move people, culture, and ultimately, their clients' top and bottom lines. So, buckle up: 2024 is going to take off powerfully! 

Simone Tam, CEO, Greater Bay Area, Dentsu

2024 is going to be a year where we will see the real deal – who has the know-how. 

Businesses that suffered but survived the pandemic will see how they can regain the growth to at least the pre-COVID level. 

Businesses that boomed during the pandemic will need to see how they can continue the growth momentum without being just a temporal gap filler.

All the tactics that came into play during the pandemic and all the tactical recovery campaigns that leveraged on revenge shopping, eating and traveling will no longer work in 2024 and beyond. 

Instead, we are entering a new era where we will see the beginnings of many trends that are here to stay. And here are two examples of fundamental changes that will impact us for years to come: 

Hong Kong as part of GBA.  Those who have remained in Hong Kong are here to stay.  Mainland Chinese will keep coming and more of them will live here. HongKongers spending in the mainland will also only grow. Marketers and agencies must understand the market realities and welcome the opportunities of growth with Hong Kong as part of GBA. 

A cookieless world is finally here. Our industry will lose the current most popular method of identifying target audience and tracking effectiveness. Therefore, the employment of artificial intelligence and MarTech solutions will have to come into play.  Brands again, if not already, will have to ramp up their efforts in data strategy and CRM, fast. Agencies must have the expertise and solutions to add true value to their clients. 

While it’s going to be another challenging year, I am actually quite looking forward to it, as we will see senior marketers and their agency partners putting their strategic minds together and laying out long-term plans to gain sustainable growth. And when there is a long-term plan that everyone can align to, campaigns will naturally be less tacky and subjective. Instead, we will see solutions that are more strategic and sustainable. And in the process of doing that, we are training our junior folks better with meaningful strategic thinking, which will have a long-lasting positive impact on our industry.

Joanne Tong, managing director, IPG Mediabrands Hong Kong

2023 was the first step out of the dark age of COVID. It sure was a year of uncertainties, yet we have all kept our heads down, grinding. Today, I looked up and realised, we have made it through the year. Some say that a New Year’s resolution is just a dream. But I would have to agree with John Lennon. “A dream is only a dream when you dream alone. A dream you dream together is reality.”

COVID has taught us an important lesson “What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger” Within this past year, we faced different challenges. From changed consumers’ attitudes, behaviours to purchase behaviours, marketers and agencies had to be passionate, professional, pliant and persevering. Great progress was made hand in hand with our partners, together we studied new trends, performed data analytics, developed omnichannel retail and future-proofed business strategies to create personalised shopping experiences.  

2024, we will continue to embrace new challenges that come our way, as we are better equipped than before. We will continue to keep our hearts set on winning together with all our clients.

Florence Wong, CEO, OMD Hong Kong

OMG APAC has just released 2024 trends in the media industry. I want to highlight two trends that impact media planning and daily operations particularly.

The first trend is cookie deprecation. One-third of OMD Hong Kong clients have equipped themselves with sufficient first-party cookies so that they do not worry about the cookie's deprecation impact.  However, two-thirds of Hong Kong clients have not conducted data policy and have not accumulated first-party data intentionally, so they will face tough media rate inflations.  We have contingency plans for clients who have not prepared for cookie deprecation. For instance, we suggest moving their budget from display to connected TV which provides addressable audience data and another chance for clients to collect audience data during operation.  Of course, paid search and social ecosystems protect those clients with the lowest impact.  We suggest advertisers face the actual situation of first-party data with Martech set up as soon as possible.

The second trend is the impact of AI applications. We all knew very well about the adaptation of ChatGPT and generative AI since the beginning of 2023. The outstanding performance that we have observed so far is about content or creative creation, content write-up, and application for brainstorming purposes.  Many generative AI models have been trained on publicly available data, with no regard for its sensitivity or its ownership.  The trend of AI applications in 2024 will be trained on synthetic content which regurgitates the same information over and over again and possibly resulting in a generic sea of sameness.  It will take approximately another five to 10 years before GenAI takes off in the mainstream market.  It is undoubtedly revolutionising industries relating to human experiences and working efficiency.

Miranda Xie, general manager, TEAM LEWIS Hong Kong

“2023 has seen most economies recover from COVID, including a revival of marketing activities. Marketers understand that there is a new need to make an added effort to navigate new habits and consumer demands after the COVID “marketing winter”. This can be seen with the comeback of travel and tourism retail activities.  

Stepping into 2024, we expect investors will continue to be bullish on Asia. The Asia Pacific region is expected to outperform the global economy in terms of growth. However, geopolitical factors will be key criteria for marketers to watch out for. Marketers will need to realign performance and investment, as such, KPI and return tracking and measurement will be critical as many brands will be cautious given both external and internal pressure.  

Also, creativity will play a more prominent role - this isn’t just limited to creative campaigns per se, but rather marketers themselves have to think out of the box to create new synergy. Innovative technology such as AI, new platforms and creative thinking across media relations, digital, as well as brand reputation management, will likely be the focus of 2024.

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