Thirteen agencies rise in challenging year

For the 13th year, Campaign presents the most detailed overview on agency performance in Asia-Pacific. The Agency Report Card is compiled after nearly four months of work that includes reviewing submissions from 37 of the region’s top agency networks, independent new business analysis from R3, awards wins from major festivals around the world, and the opinions and analysis of our senior editors.

To ensure the process is as thorough as possible, agency CEOs have the opportunity to present their year in a Q&A session with Campaign. We believe this detailed process ensures we deliver the fairest and most quantitative approach possible to review agency performance over the 12 months of 2015.

The year, as our agency write-ups show, was characterised by largely positive growth from most of the holding companies in the region, driven by an active review calendar across major global accounts. As a result, 13 of the agencies featured moved up in the scorecard. In a year marked by challenges, business transformations and acquisitions, we congratulate those that came through the year with a positive position. Across the creative, media and digital reports, we made the decision to drop the scores of five agencies. These decisions, as well as the methodology behind the report card, are detailed on page 37. 

This issue also features coverage of Media360, the fourth of our annual media events dedicated to bringing together leading clients, media agencies and media companies to debate the future of the industry. See page 60.

Media360, conceived to meet the industry’s demand for a high-level, invitation-only event that accurately assesses and analyses the real issues affecting media businesses, saw over 350 senior delegates meet in Hong Kong to discuss the disruption and transformation in our industry.

This year, we extended the programme to include an intense Academy, targeting the future leaders on the brand side as well as their agency partners. There’s more coverage of Media360 online at campaignasia.com/media360summit.

Atifa Silk is brand director, Campaign Asia-Pacific

CONTENTS

4 Inbox
Consumers’ demand for more inspiring content, and the need for ‘dictators’

6 The Month
Latest news roundup

12 The Big Picture
We Are Social’s Digital in 2016 report 

14 Insight/Advertising
Ad agencies embrace design thinking
Ng Tian It on the power of tenacity
Craig Davis on ideas

18 Insight/Marketing
Mobile marketing in Thailand flourish amid economic gloom
Millennials are drawn to fine dining
Jollibee’s quest for global expansion
Do awards matter to marketers?
James Thompson on insight

24 Insight/Media
Niche social media open up new channels for brands and marketers
Janice Lee on Viu launches across Asia
What programmatic players need in 2016
Marcel Fenez on media

30 Insight/PR
Nonprofits need help for resource-efficient but impactful PR
Chris Graves on influence

32 The Face Behind the Brand
DirectAsia Insurance’s Pauline Png on her mission to spread happiness

35 Agency Report Card
The marks are in: find out who is top of the class in 2015 and who flunked their finals

56 The Atifa Silk Interview
Charles Courtier talks about MEC’s digital and data growth strategy

60 Media360Summit
Our in-depth report on all the discussions and debate from the conference stage

82 The Work
The latest ads reviewed

84 Improve Your Career
Jeremy Bullmore’s sage advice, plus Alan Cerutti on capturing opportunities 

86 Offline
Industry gossip, event pictures and workplace of the month