24
media & marketing
Zhang is Omega’s
brand ambassador
CHINESE actress Zhang Ziyi (pix)
is the latest addition to watch-
maker Omega’s select group of
brand ambassadors.
Zhang is in good company
as Omega counts among its
brand ambassadors some of
the world’s most accomplished
men and women who have dis-
tinguished themselves not only
professionally but through their
humanity and desire to leave
the world a better place.
They include actors George
Clooney and Nicole Kidman,
sports stars Michael Phelps, Dame
Ellen MacArthur and Michael
Schumacher, supermodel Cindy
Crawford and the last man to
walk on the moon, Eugene Cer-
nan.
S e -
lected
for the
values
t h e y
share
w i t h
Omega – credibility, achieve-
ment and pioneering spirit – they
focus international attention on
the brand, but more than that,
they become members of the
watchmaker’s extended family.
Following her cinematic
debut in Zhang Yimou’s The Road
Home, which won the Silver Bear
Award at the 2000 Berlin Film
Festival, Zhang Ziyi has gone on
to appear in 16 other movies
including Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon; House of Flying Daggers
and Memoirs of a Geisha.
She currently stars in Mei Lan
Fang, the critically acclaimed
Chen Kai-Ge biopic which has
been selected to compete in the
Berlin Film Festival in February.
Omega plans to build a global
campaign around its stunning new
spokesman, the highest ranking
woman on Forbes’ list of China’s
most powerful celebrities.
“I love Omega’s watchmak-
ing heritage. They have a great
legacy and history in China of
which I am pleased to be part of
it,” she said.
Zhang is global ambassador
for the Special Olympics, the
competition for people with
mental disabilities, and spokes-
man for Chinese foster-home
programme Care for Children.
Retail media an
effective ad tool
by Angela Sargunan
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
IN THE face of the flagging
economy, many brands have
opted for creative advertising
approaches and strategically
placed ads to capture consum-
ers’ attention.
In particular, the retail/point-
of-sales media targeted at the
supermarket and hypermarket
environ-ment has been getting
a positive response from the
industry.
Based on Nielsen media re-
search, the point-of-sales seg-
ment has seen positive growth
in advertising expenditure
(adex) compared with previous
years.
“Today, hypermarkets deli-
ver to the masses, and retail
media plays a role in reminding
customers of product qual-
ity and benefits via creative
advertisement placements at
areas where the buying is hap-
pening,” MagiqAds founder and
executive director Sailendra
Kanagasundram said at the
inaugural Retail Media Forum
recently.
“On average, there are about
a million shoppers visiting
hypermarkets, and point-of-sales
media is an effective advertising
tool to capture the masses,” he
said.
The forum, which saw about
300 participants from various
areas of the industry, was an
initiative undertaken with the
support of Sledgehammer
Communications (M) Sdn Bhd
regional CEO Harmandar Singh.
“We have all seen evidence
in the world that branding is key.
Look at the great brands of our
time and they are all about con-
sumers trusting products and
buying into quality,” Harmandar
said, adding that appropriate
advertising placements con-
tribute to the overall success
of brands.
Speakers at the forum were
Bodhi Tree Knowledge (Thailand)
stra-tegic marketing consult-
ant Nuchnapa Warunwutthi,
Omnicom Media Group Malay-
sia managing director Andreas
Vogiatzakis and former
theSun
TBWA/Tequila Singapore man-
aging director and creative
integrator Graham Kelly.
“Retail media is the next pow-
erful revenue-generating com-
munication tool to communicate
a brand besides conventional
approaches like newspapers and
television,” Harmandar said.
Kanagasundram said the
point-of-sales or retail media
industry is worth RM57.8 mil-
lion, which accounts for about
1% of the country’s RM5.5 billion
adex, and represents potential
growth in excess of RM200
million within this category in
Malaysia.
MagiqAds creates margin
for clients by analysing and
strategising workable in-store
media solutions such as 3D ver-
tical illusion ads to be placed on
pillars, walls and hypermarket
aisles and floors to capture
public attention.
“We are confident of cap-
turing 2% to 3% of industry
growth based on the increased
number of hypermarkets and
shopping malls nationwide,”
said Kanagasundram, whose
company has been exclusively
appointed to
(From left) Nuchnapa, Vogiatzakis,
Kanagasundram, Kelly, Mindshare Malaysia MD
Rahul Thappa and Harmandar.
| FRIDAY DECEMBER 26 2008
manage media space at Jusco
and Tesco, as well as 60% of
space at Carrefour.
“In the last few years,
in-store activities have been
receiving attention from mar-
keters for their dual effective
role as a brand communication
tool and sales tool,” Nuchnapa
said.
“However, the effective-
ness of each in-store activity
is difficult to measure. There
are methods of measuring the
revenue-on-investments of
each in-store activity to help
marketers maximise their
in-store activity investments,”
she added.
Marketers first need to
understand the consumer’s
path to purchase and the
relationship between brands,
the consumer and consumer’s
media before they are able to
generate revenue from any
campaign, Vogiatzakis said.
“By strengthening our
understanding of how consum-
ers use the various channels
and touchpoints along the
path to purchase, we enable
ourselves to advance greater
brand experiences to consum-
ers,” he said, while disclosing
the results of a recent survey
on the intricacies of consumer
decision-making and path to
purchase, and the role retail
media plays in this.
Focusing on the creative
aspects of media, Kelly spoke
on the challenges of concep-
tualising and creating dynamic
and visible messages.
He stressed that creative
and engaging advertising can
only happen when both clients
and the agencies involved
are prepared to buy into the
idea of doing something dif-
ferent.
“A lot of times, the clients
know that they have lost touch
with the consumer, or they want
to reach out to a new consumer
segment,” Kelly said.
“You then have to think
about how to communicate in a
new way. A bad campaign costs
as much as a good one, so why
not make a great campaign that
really works?”