Opinion

Steve Blakeman on nine things he learned from nine years in APAC

Steve BlakemanSteve Blakeman recently ended nine successful years in Asia Pacific, the last four as regional CEO of OMD, to return to the UK.

Here, the Brit casts a nostalgic eye over his time in the region and shares what he’s learned about creativity, local talent, what young people in media want, Singapore as a regional marketing hub, transparency and three million miles of travel.

1. There is definitely a transition taking place from expats to locals in the most senior roles. When I first arrived in APAC there was a high proportion of Brits, Australians and Americans in key roles. Their numbers have dwindled over the past few years as home grown talent is beginning to assert more control in the most senior positions. I confidently predict that in the next nine years there will be virtually no Western CEO’s remaining in the region.

2. The level of creativity has exploded across APAC in the last decade. Whereas it was predominantly Australia and New Zealand producing award winning work at the key events, we are now seeing an increasing amount of amazing work coming out of India and Southeast Asia. China is still not really pulling its weight given its size. But I fully expect that to change rapidly in the next few years. At OMD in APAC alone in the last four years we have increased the number of awards won by almost 500 per cent taking home Cannes Media Agency of the Year 2013 and Festival of Media Global Campaign of the Year 2015 to name but a few. Winning awards is a proxy measure of success and results – it’s encouraging to see Asia beginning to wake up to that fact.

3. APAC is without question the most diverse region in terms of its culture. From the very Western style markets like Australia, the enigma that is China (more like 10 countries in one), the vibrancy of India, the modernity of Singapore and the fun of the Philippines! (which I have always felt really belongs in Latin America instead of Asia). To run a region like Asia one has to learn to navigate the huge variances in working practices, belief systems and cultural nuances. The more brash Western style simply doesn’t work here. In my experience the key to success in Asia can be summed up in three words: flexibility, humility and approachability.

4. It is the most difficult region to traverse in terms of travel. Even from Singapore as a hub, China and India are over five hours away, Japan and Korea are seven to eight hours and Australia/New Zealand are nine to 10. No wonder that I have spent over 30 weeks a year away from home and done an average of 350,000 air miles a year (which is roughly about the same as a long haul pilot!). In total, I’ve done almost three million miles in nine years. But at least most of it was on Singapore Airlines which, in my opinion, is simply the best airline on that planet.

5. What most of the younger people in our business crave isn’t necessarily money, it is life experiences. The new generation of Asian millennials are less interested in accumulating wealth and material items, they want experiences that money can’t buy. For example, a trip to California to visit the likes of Google and Facebook or a week in Cannes to experience what the Lions is really all about. More forward thinking employers are beginning to realize this and reward their employees accordingly.

6. Conservatism has long been a mainstay of Asia when it comes to the allocation of marketing budgets. As a consequence, the shift to mobile and programmatic has been painfully slow in APAC and that is to the detriment of the region. Consumers on the other hand have embraced technology and have flocked to digital platforms. Thankfully the industry is finally beginning to accelerate and the catch up has begun but the industry practitioners have to accept that lasting change takes a long term commitment and at the moment I still don’t see enough of that spirit.

7. There is an ‘always on’ culture here in Asia and although people tend to start work a little later they definitely work much later into the evening. To be honest, I think this is something that has to change as working longer doesn’t necessarily mean working smarter. If we want to attract the best talent then we have to make sure the working environment is more appealing to young people. Sending out a message that they will be chained to their desks for 12+ hours a day grinding out spreadsheets is hardly going to attract the most gifted individuals. Automation and internal operating systems will be the focus for the next 9 years and should help eliminate some of the more tedious aspects of what we do and help us concentrate on the more inspiring elements of our craft.

8. Agencies have woken up to the power of social to sell their story, especially in the past 2 years. I’ve always been prolific on LinkedIn and since they introduced ‘Publishing’ I’ve been pumping out at least one article a week. Viewing numbers are pretty high (well over 200,000 across all platforms) with some items being picked up by the likes of Business Insider and Yahoo Finance. That translates into good exposure for OMD (and me too I guess). Collectively though we have been slow to adopt social and I was personally shamed into using Twitter more often by the Mumbrella article asking why agency bosses didn’t use microblogging more often particularly when they are advising clients on spending their increasingly higher digital budgets. With the extra effort, I have increased my followers fivefold and my tweets have increased by about the same – it could be higher but I keep my output strictly business orientated.

9. As an agency hub for APAC, Singapore has clearly established itself as the epicentre for the region’s key operations over the past nine years. Its geographic location gives it a distinct advantage over Hong Kong for accessing India and Southeast Asia in particular. Various aspects of its infrastructure help – it’s clean, safe and super efficient. But it is now officially the most expensive city in the world to live in according to the latest Economist survey. It also needs to ensure that it doesn’t lose any more of it’s cultural identity for the sake of technological and financial progress.

Steve Blakeman is managing director, global accounts, OMD Worldwide

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