BBDO Guerrero/Proximity launches Digital Lab for marketers

MANILA, Philippines - With almost one out of three Filipinos connected to the Internet, and 82 percent owning a mobile phone, Filipinos are more than ever digitally connected. That’s why in these wired and exceedingly connected times, even being under a rock is no excuse for being left out of the advertising trend that is digital marketing.

This is the reason why BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines recently launched Digital Lab, a space to inspire, share, learn, play and celebrate all things digital for its clients and staff.

“We have established our Digital Lab to enable marketers to dream up possibilities for their brands digitally. It’s both a physical and online space where one can discover new ways to engage people in a constantly evolving digital landscape,” said Richard Fraser, regional managing director of Proximity Asia and one of the speakers during the Digital Lab’s first by-invitation learning series at the Ayala Museum.

The Digital Lab in Manila is only the second such lab in the world, after the first one was launched in New York.

“The importance of engaging them in these digital spaces poses a challenge to marketers. Digital is no longer a platform, but a language that marketers need to speak and understand,” explained Leah Camilla Besa-Jimenez, general manager of Proximity Philippines.

Fraser added that since brands need a long-term strategy for digital marketing, “it is no longer just a ‘nice thing to have,’ or a ‘box to be ticked’ in your marketing strategy.”

Among the event’s guest speakers were Fraser; George Foo, COO of iHubMedia (official partner of Facebook in Southeast Asia); Anand Tilak, head of CPG, finance, education and government category of Google Southeast Asia; and Samir Ahmed, country head of Deploy Digital.

Declaring that Filipinos are enthusiastic digital consumers is an understatement.

The Philippines is one of the most active digital marketing markets in the world, being the world leader in consumption of online video and one of the most socially networked nations in the Asia-Pacific.

Considering this, going digital is based on a simple rule of thumb in running an effective campaign. Follow what your consumers are doing.

“If they spend 40 percent of their time online, then that’s where you take your brand and your message,” Tilak said.

Creating an effective digital marketing campaign, meanwhile, starts with developing great content, according to Paul Roebuck, CEO of BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines.

“The viral nature of social media and how it can help brands is important, but you got to start with great content. Because if you have content that’s not compelling then no one is going to share it no matter how many people are connected to each other,” said Roebuck.

Given the pervasiveness of digital media in the country, once you get to engage people, the return on involvement or engagement you’re getting is huge.

“For example, if I’m an online friend who’s willing to share with you something that I think is going be relevant to you, suddenly I become a kind of a marketer for the brand. And even better, I’m only going to share what I think you’ll be receptive to or what’s relevant to you. It’s an effective way to solve that age-old challenge of how to get to the right people at the right time with the right message,” Roebuck explained.

Fraser said it’s one of the reasons why he thinks campaigns that have a digital component in them are more efficient and can deliver much more efficient returns on marketing investment.

Indeed, success in digital marketing goes beyond the usual metrics of popularity like page views, page clicks and the like.

“With digital marketing, you can get people more actively involved in the campaign — and consequently, the brand’s message — online. It engages them more deeply. That’s how it effectively augments and supplements traditional marketing media like TV and print,” said Besa-Jimenez.

For all these reasons, digital marketing has proven to be more than just the next passing fad in advertising.

“More and more people today are born digital ‘natives.’ Digital marketing has moved beyond something they just want to consider into something that has become more of a necessity,” said Besa-Jimenez.

BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines (www.bbdoguerrero.com) is a network office of Proximity/BBDO Asia-Pacific, part of BBDO Worldwide and a member of Omnicom Group Inc., a global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company.

BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines is one of the Asia-Pacific’s most highly regarded creative agencies. It maintains a client portfolio that includes Pepsi, Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, Fonterra, Mitsubishi Motors, Pizza Hut, Emperador Distillers, Bayer Consumer Healthcare, Ayala Land, Bayan Telecommunications, Wrigley, and MARS.

Digital Lab can also be accessed through the blogs http://digitallabblog.com and http://www.digitallabblogasia.com and on Twitter www.twitter.com/thedigitallab.