How 2005 panned out

Allan Medforth EVP, regional director, Asia-Pacific, Universal McCann

Much has been said about consumer take-up of alter-native and new digital media, but it never really struck home until we heard, saw and understood real-time blogs with a Singapore dating diary. Blogs are hereby anointed as this year's new media fad! Vlogs and all other P2P digital variants are also making their presence felt, but the real territory to watch is how they are incarnated. 'Digital in overdrive' is perhaps the best aspect of 2005 and it's clearly a great time to be in media agency land, with an increasing need to understand the most compelling consumer contact points, with the most responsive contextual understanding to deliver the most memorable content.

Margaret Lim Executive chairman, Carat Malaysia

In 2005, media groups became much bigger overnight which also enabled them to build media clout by tapping econo-mies of scales and backroom support services efficiencies. Carat formalised an alliance with WMD, the media arm of TBWA in Malaysia. The year also marked the launch of Carat Insight and Carat Interactive. Media specialist agencies came together as the Media Specialists Association (MSA), competing on the basis of capability rather than fees. The rate structure introduced by MSA last year was used as the benchmark for local pitches this year. This was also a watershed year for MSA with the initiation of the inaugural Malaysia Media Awards, with close to 200 entries submitted.

Chris Graves President, Ogilvy PR Asia-Pacific

Here are the trends and challenges to watch in 2006: • Continued proliferation of blogs in both the youth space and the business environ-ment, including for internal employee communications. • The rise of podcasts, rivalling mainstream sources of everything from news, to B2B and verticals, to lifestyle and entertainment. • Media training for all employees, not just top execs, as they now all are potential content creators. • Media monitoring moves to real time. • Bidding up of talent who know the blogosphere, plus the spawning of specialist niche firms in this area. • Need for real time reputa-tion management. Delays to blog attacks are deadly.

Alvin Wong Partner, The Alchemy Partnership, Singapore

2005 was a brilliant year to kick-start our new business. In 12 months, we sealed part-nerships with brands like VW, Montblanc, Sony and Hyun-dai, and also picked up Soo Kee Jewellery, Haw Par, La Salle and PSC. With their support, Alchemy's found a sweet spot to exist among the giant networks. Even so, creative work from the region has stepped up, with the Malaysians putting heart and local flavour in their advertising, and the Thais delivering their share of kick-ass laughs. My personal favourite? It's that spot with baby Kong, mama Kong and the indestructible Ford. Competition's tough. But it just means we have to push harder to deliver the goods in 2006.

Jeffrey Yu Regional president, BatesAsia/ 141 Group

2005 marked the second anniversary of BatesAsia joining WPP. The doomsayers who predicted our demise will be disappointed. We acquired Enterprise Nexus in India, and our China operation is winning alongside our clients -- Nokia and Shanghai General Motors. We created global campaigns for Nokia and Heineken out of our Singapore and Beijing offices, now running in Latin America, Russia, US and Europe. Norman Tan from JWT joined as regional CD based in Shanghai, Rob Gaxiola from FCB Singapore, Mohammad Khan from Enterprise Nexus as chairman and chief creative officer of Bates Enterprise, and Chatchavong Prayudrat as ECD of Thailand. Any more words from the naysayers?

Gregg Creevey Senior VP, sales and marketing, CNBC Asia-Pacific

Our advertising sales are up by 12 per cent compared to the previous year, with strong growth in Southeast Asia. We have introduced non-traditional TV advertisers to the channel, especially in markets like Thailand and Indonesia, where there was limited growth in the past. Our ongoing challenge is the continued evolution and fragmentation of the media landscape, which brings with it more competition for the hearts and minds of viewers, advertisers and distribution platforms. It remains an exciting and stimulating challenge to be able to adapt to these changes and design our programming and advertising solutions in a way that will be accessible and relevant to our viewers and clients alike.

Tan Shen Guan Executive creative director, Y&R Asia

The quality coming out of China is capturing attention. No mean feat, as creatively, it's one of the most difficult environments to operate in. Just ask those on the ground. Really good things are still coming from Thailand. It's showing so much maturity, and the talent is amazing. But, this region is still under the cloud of scam ads. It's going to get worse before it gets better. How do we fix it? Good question. We'll leave it to the next forum. Looking ahead, Asia is still searching for the Big Kahuna, that one piece of advertising that makes a brand famous on a global level. It's not about Asia anymore, it's about making an Asian brand truly famous. Will we see it next year? I certainly hope so.

Mark Ingrouille President and CEO, McCann Worldgroup Thailand

The Thai ban on alcohol television advertising hit hard and it's expected that this will expand to a total ban (as per cigarettes), wiping out a category known for outstanding creative opportunity and freedom. Media-only pitches finally became a reality. The launch of Magna Thailand -- the joint IPG media buying entity -- was an important move in keeping us top of that particular tree. More clients stopped talking about integrated campaigns and actually started doing them. So needs are finally driving logic. The other was a recognition outside of Thailand of this country's creative ranking, which resulted in more regional and global creative briefs hitting our desks.