Digital dialogue offline and off the cuff

With a dynamic past, the future can promise nothing less. Prying into their plans that are tightly under wrap, Andrea Mathew shoots rapid-fire questions as Gary and Harish take em’ head on ...

Clients seem to be hesitant to explore the digital space. What are their biggest fears?

Gary: We believe clients today are beginning to realise the importance digital has to play in their marketing communication mix. However, they continue to be conservative in their allocations from their marketing budgets. Digital is not an afterthought. Brands that ignore this, do it at their own peril! Digital is still not given its due credit compared to traditional advertising budgets. Getting into the digital advertising and communications space is an investment and requires long term strategies.

Some clients are willing to invest into short term campaigns, which in the end provide little yield and results. Trends in the UK have shown the prospects of digital, where digital advertising has overtaken TV adex. It is just a matter of time, as the medium heads toward being a mainstream media in Malaysia.

Advertisers are finding it difficult to justify digital media investment to their bosses and boards. What sort of justification will help to solidify ROI for clients?

Gary: With digital, some brands will build stronger affinity faster than others. Like we have mentioned, going digital is a long term initiative. With the right strategy, approach and plan there is an enormous opportunity for marketers. It cannot be achieved through a single online campaign or a short term contest microsite.

Brands need to embrace the digital ecosystem to allow their consumers to engage with them. Truth be told, very few clients have concrete strategic digital plans with properly benchmarked goals. It is no longer just about site traffic but rather engagement, CRM and conversion opportunities. When basic fundamentals are not in place, defining a measurement currency becomes difficult.

With a clear and concise result-oriented strategy, brands can then set up their own measurement benchmarks. That may vary between clients and their brands. Besides being one of the most measurable mediums, few brands have invested into proper analytics and goal oriented models. In most cases, the most important component is not being monitored and less effort is placed in obtaining the right kind of results.

We have seen brands who jump into the social media space because of its popularity, but do not invest in any kind of social monitoring. Success cannot be monitored based on merely how many “Likes” but rather the level of engagement and sentiments. Some key learnings for marketers in the digital arena:

• Realistic budget allocations vis-a-vis realistic goals and objectives.
• Invest into analysing and monitoring their digital initiatives; both by campaign and long term goals.
• Establish long term concise objectives, plan and budget for it.
• Provide for a more balanced budget allocation for media, production and measurement.
• Be willing to experiment, be flexible and adaptable of total.

Facebook, the most visited site in Malaysia, is not tracked by Nielsen. Nielsen reports digital adex at 0.7%. Is Nielsen under-reporting Malaysia’s digital adex and how is that affecting the growth of digital advertising?

Harish: The Nielsen report does indeed under-report digital adex as their numbers only reflect the 6 or 7 websites that it tracks. A large number of online publishers are not captured. It is only a matter of time when the numbers will reflect reality. As you rightfully pointed out.

Media agencies are moving into the gap created by the lack of skills in some creative agencies, and independent digital players are mushrooming. How do you deal with the lack of talent and the high turnover associated with the industry?

Harish: It is a challenging time for most digital agencies and the ability to retain and grow talent is crucial. We have been working pro-actively with the 4As Digital Division, the MDA Knowledge Council and other independent parties to explore programs to bring more skilled digital professionals into our space. It is no longer an agency issue, but it is a creative industry problem. In fact Gary is a founding member of MDA and sits on the council as the Secretary of MDA.

Having been around for 10 years in the digital industry, we are committed to growing talent. We will continue to invest into training talent and giving them career opportunities with proper career growth plans. It is crucial for us to grow our digital talent base in Malaysia as we are lagging behind more advanced markets such as Japan and Korea, and not until there is a sustainable and sizable industry and talent pool, are we able to compete at the highest level.

10 years is a good record for a digital agency. Your achievements so far are admirable but what’s next for Amphibia?

Gary: It still feels like Amphibia was established just yesterday. But we’re still on the roller coaster ride; it's fast, furious and incredibly competitive. In the last 3 years, we have grown from a 15 people company to a 30-strong team. We have reached a comfortable size with sufficient resources across all departments, and in the coming 12 to 18 months we hope we are able to deliver even more exciting work.