We recently attended AdSummit Pilipinas 2018! It was a fun 3-day summit filled with interesting talks, great company, and of course, lively parties at night. There was a lot of information discussed at Subic last March 7-10, 2018 and we’re here to tell you some of the ideas that stuck the most with us.
The main theme of the Ad Summit Pilipinas this year was all about ROI. Not necessarily “return on investment” the term we’re most used to, rather it was about returns other than monetary. It was a mix of Ideas, Independence, Identity, Impressions, Initiative, Inspiration, Impact, Intuition, Influence, Intelligence, and Information. Topics ranged from influencer marketing, culture, as well as ways advertising can have a social impact. Here are 3 of our favorite takeaways from the summit.
If you want to maximize your return on ideas, trust your gut.
The main highlight of the summit was the keynote talk of Anselmo Ramos, co-founder and chief creative officer of DAVID. One of the key messages in his talk was: while good ideas are the fruit of data, sometimes it pays to take a risk and execute your idea with your gut. By gut of course Anselmo is referring to our intuition. You shouldn’t do everything by gut feel alone though. Ansel suggested that most of your ideas should be backed up by data around 80%, but reserve 20% for your gut. This of course are the crazy ideas, something you probably need to check with legal department before running. While it may seem risky, if you trust your gut (and your gut knows what it’s doing) the risk will pay off. Find a client willing to do something new and exciting, or if you’re a client, find an agency who’s willing to think outside the box.
Data + Creatives = Success
It’s common knowledge that making marketing decisions based on data will yield you positive results. This is usually done with media, however, most brands don’t make the connection between data and creatives. Carl Nawagamuwa, Head of Platform Sales SEA of Google delivered his talk on return on intent. How do you, as a brand, marry creatives and data together? It’s all about communication. Break down silos, have your creatives talking to your analysts and researchers. Most importantly use the power of digital to send the right creative to the right audience. After all creative accounts for 50% of changes in brand sales.
To mitigate risk on digital, use 3rd party verification
Digital is one of the most effective advertising platforms today, however, brands should still be vigilant when advertising online. Girish Menon, Vice President of [m] Platform APAC talked about some of the risks brands have when going digital. He discussed something all brands should watch out for brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability. Brand safety is a risk if agencies are not careful or lack proper monitoring. One example brought up during the Q&A is a milk brand in the Philippines appearing on a porn site. Which as a brand owner is potentially damaging to the brand due to association. Ad Fraud is another issue, as ad revenue in digital grows, so do scams to take advantage of this rise. Click farms, false audiences are just some ways brands can be fooled. Lastly, he touched on viewability, along with some metrics on why viewability isn’t exactly that accurate.
How to regain trust in digital? Aside from the usual best practices and right metrics, Girish advocated the use of 3rd party verification for digital advertising. Employing a 3rd party not only protects the brand but also keeps the digital agency running the ads accountable for their work.
Create Acts, not Ads
Overall, the topics discussed during the Ad Summit was all about return. That main return that we noted from the 3-day summit is that, despite digital moving and shaping the marketing landscape, it’s still the big idea at the center that drives people to purchase. Compelling creative leads people to take action. As Josy Paul, Chief Creative Officer of BBDO India said in his talk. “Create acts, not Ads” As advertisers, that’s what we ultimately want, consumers responding to our messages.
