HTC vows to double digital ad spending

HTC country manger Terry Chung has pledged to double the company's spending on digital advertising to match its current investments in traditional media.Chung made the statement after the Taiwanese company picked up Digital Brand of the Year at Pixel Media's first Digital Advertising Awards, held on Wednesday night at the Hyatt Regency in Tsim Sha Tsui.Chung said digital was now playing a much wider role in its marketing and said the investments would go a long way to achieving its aim of doubling its share of the smartphone market from 10% to 20% in the next year."Digital media is playing an important role in every industry. We are going to spend more and more on digital media. It's quite effective and really helps our sales," he said.Chung said the company had seen a jump in sales of more than 100% following its digital initiatives. But he added that there was more to its success than just increased spending."It's not just the portion we spend on digital, but also the creative and the agency we are partnering with."Chung added the company was also shifting its focus beyond the high-end business market towards a younger demographic.."Previously we were really focused on the top, high-end executive market. But now we are looking to the younger generation, which will really contribute a lot to our market share growth. We still believe there is a lot of room for growth."On top of its Digital Brand of the Year award, HTC also won Best Integrated Campaign and Best Display Advertising Campaign.Other big winners included Unilever, which took out Best Social Media Campaign for its Rexona Police campaign and HSBC, which won Best Mobile Solution.Pixel also named three Digital Rising Stars of the Year - Stella Lei from Starcom MediaVest, Queenie Chung from GroupM Interaction and Scott Chan, also from GroupM Interaction.