MediaWorks gets underway in Vietnam

The event brings together young, up-and-coming media agency talent, many of whom have not previously travelled abroad for business purposes, to devise a solution to a genuine client brief. This year, 12 teams of 10 will compete to deliver the best strategy to a brief from Standard Chartered Bank revolving around its recently announced sponsorship of Liverpool Football Club.

The sponsorship, which will last for an initial period of four years, will officially take effect next May. With sponsorship activation still a relatively weak point in Asia, the bank is looking for an innovative way of leveraging the property to drive awareness and attract new customers. The brief focuses on the 18 to 30 demographic in the fictional market of Chindia, a country with a population of 1.2 billion.

Client representative Nicola Apostolis, senior manager of brand advertising for the bank, noted that the target audience would eventually become priority customers. She added that despite the bank's long history and presence in 70 global markets, the brand has yet to become a household name.

"We don't want to be all things to all people, but we want more people to know about us," she said, admitting that banks did not typically inspire great excitement among young people and that the image of the banking sector had been hit hard by the financial meltdown.

Challenges specific to Standard Chartered outlined in the brief include low penetration, low brand awareness and a high level of loyalty to competitors. Apostolis noted that the bank has made negligible investment in advertising and media until this year, having recently launched its high-profile ‘Here for good' branding campaign.

Delegates were told that the primary aim of the sponsorship - and the prospective campaign around the property - are to increase brand awareness from 29 to 40 per cent and to attract a minimum of 50,000 new customers through promotion of new and existing products. The budget allocated for the media initiative is US$10 million.

Mark Patterson, chairman of Mediaworks and chief executive of GroupM, described the brief as "the best we [at Mediaworks] have ever had".

"It's a really strong brief. Standard Chartered is a brand with Asian roots in a category that has its challenges, and this is a chance to do something brave and different. Being asked to come up with product ideas and talk about issues beyond media is a superb opportunity," he said.

Prior to receiving the brief, delegates assembled with their respective mentors to embark on a team-building exercise that involved devising an agency name and logo, both of which were later rationalised in a presentation to all participants. ‘Grow', led by Malcolm Hanlon, regional managing partner of ZenithOptimedia, was named the winning concept by the judges for its consistency, simplicity and positive connotation. The winners will be rewarded with a massage treatment before digging in for a long night of idea generation.

Additional mentors include Andrew Cawte, strategic planning director for MediaCom Asia-Pacific; Maggie Choi, regional MD of OMD; Steve Garton, Synovate's global head of media; Christopher Harrison, partner of invention and client leadership at Mindshare; Torie Henderson, CEO of OMD Singapore; Harpreet Kaintel, regional chief strategy officer for ZenithOptimedia; Linda Robson, director of learning and development at GroupM; Jeffrey Seah, CEO of Starcom Southeast Asia; Neil Stewart, regional CEO of Maxus; Susana Tsui, regional president of Neo@Ogilvy; and Jasper Donat, co-founder of Branded.

Pitch presentations will take place on Friday, with the result to be announced the following morning.