Mumbrella360 Asia ‘IPG Mediabrands Stage’ revealed – including 7 international speakers & new research

Brands tapping into change movements, the outcomes of GDPR, the ‘big tech’ backlash, digital out-of-home, streaming platforms for marketers and winning creative strategies on Facebook and Instagram. These will be just some of the topics discussed at the Mumbrella360 Asia conference in Singapore this November.

The three-day media and marketing conference will return on November 5 to 7 at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. Following the industry ‘call for submissions’, a number of key themes have emerged and the fourth stream of content to be revealed is the ‘IPG Mediabrands Stage’.

First up is a session titled ‘Tapping into Change Movements via Brand Insights’. Change movements seem to have sprung up in every part of the world and brands must take notice of the monumental cultural shifts at work.

In the United States, we are seeing Donald Trump and ‘March for our Lives’ showing how polarised the political conversation has become. In the United Kingdom, the issue of ‘Brexit’ is dividing the nation.  Meanwhile, the ‘Gillet Jaune’ protesters in France continue to oppose president Emmanuel Macron.

And closer to home, Hong Kong’s demonstrators storm and deface the parliament in protest at the controversial extradition bill to mainland China. In the Middle East, conflicts in Syria and Yemen have created a humanitarian crisis that the world is still trying to manage. 

So more than ever, we must dig deeper to understand these cultural crises. Surveying more than 56,000 active internet users across 81 countries and in 44 languages the ‘Wave X Remix Culture’ research offers a unique lens on what’s influencing this behaviour.

Presenting the research will be the New York-based chief marketing officer executive vice-president of culture at UM Worldwide, Deidre Smalls-Landau. Before joining the UM parent company IPG Mediabrands in 2011, she worked for Publicis, Grey and FCB.

Next is the session titled ‘GDPR nearly two years on – What have we Learned?’

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which was introduced in 2018 to protect the data privacy of citizens, threatened to shake the pillars of the media and marketing world.

But while Facebook faced a multibillion dollar fine for data and privacy breaches as a result of GDPR, the amount is pocket change to a company of that size. What of other firms in the media and marketing space though? What is the real impact on day to day marketing? Has consumer trust been altered in any way, shape or form? 

And what further regulations can the industry expect and how does it navigate increasingly local variances of the law, from Japan to California? 

Find out from Cadreon head of Asia-Pacific Yean Cheong. She has been with the parent company IPG Mediabrands since 2011 and prior to that worked for Clemenger BBDO in Australia, among others.

Joining her on stage will be the New York-based UM Worldwide global chief brand safety officer and United States chief digital and innovation officer Joshua Lowcock.

Then we have the session ‘Unintended Consequences – How Brands can benefit from the Big Techlash’. Some brands generate levels of trust and loyalty beyond the norm. Others still have work to do to get to that level.

But with trust in ‘Big Tech’ now destroyed, there is a real opportunity for all brands to step into the space and reclaim the territory that has become the domain on the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon.

Examining how brands can once again rise up the cultural ranks to become trusted at a time when the big tech players are distrusted will be  the New York-based UM Worldwide senior vice-president and executive director of strategy Adam Simon. He has worked with brands including HBO, American Express, Coke, Uber and Johnson & Johnson. His work has seen him pick up two Cleo awards. 

And joining him on stage will be the Singapore-based UM Worldwide Asia-Pacific head of strategy Sharon Soh. She has been with the parent company IPG Mediabrands since 2017 and before that worked for MEC, FCB, Ogilvy and Bates.

This will be followed by the IPG Mediabrands sponsored session ‘Digital Out-of-Home Explained: The unblockable Ad Format’. Consumers can turn off the TV or switch channels, they can put down a print paper or ignore the online news story and the ads that come with them. They can even skip pre-play ads in video content.

One thing they cannot do is ignore out-of-home advertising that exists in the physical world. This, along with the introduction of digital OOH, has made it a winning channel for brands and agencies alike.

That said, there is room to make digital OOH even more compelling and personalised. While weather, traffic and location are already an integral part of digital OOH – what’s the next innovation coming down the line? 

Is there a role for beacons? How can artificial intelligence help boost the channel’s capabilities? And what will future immersive digital OOH consumer experiences look like?

In this session, you will hear from the New York-based Rapport global president and CEO Michael Cooper. He has more than 20 years of experience and has managed budgets of up to US$500 million. Cooper has been in his current role for six years and prior to that worked for Sky and Dentsu.

There will then be a session titled ‘Understanding how Streaming Platforms can help Marketers’. Over the top – or streaming – platforms like Netflix have become dominant in the lives of content consumers However, the space is so nascent that there are assumptions made that may not be true.

Therefore, marketers have to better understand both the role of device partners – like Apple and Amazon – as well as  the services, including Netflix and Hulu for example. It is a new world of virtual multichannel distributors, aggregators (Adobe and SpotX, for instance) and content providers (Fox and Disney, to name but two). This raises questions around scale, reach, data and the closed ecosystems that exist.

And despite the standardised commentary that marketers can only reach the millennial market through OTT, that is far from the truth.

In this session, you will hear from Netflix South East Asia marketing manager Kamil Yadallee. He joined Netflix three years ago and before that worked and MEC and OMD. 

In addition, Cadreon Singapore head Lani Jamieson will also join the conversation. Before joining Cadreon earlier this year, she worked for Merkle, Omnicom and Yahoo. Also onboard will be New York-based Chad Stoller, the UM Worldwide global chief innovation officer.

The next session is titled ‘Is your Facebook/Instagram Creative fit for Purpose? Learn from the largest APAC study ever Done’. Take a billion creative ad impressions from 12 markets, across Facebook and Instagram and analyse them. That will help you find out what creative works on those channels, right?

Correct, so come along to this session to hear about how in a world of faster scrolling and advertising fatigue, a huge data set can help you unlock the key to better messaging.

How do different countries react to advertising on Facebook and Instagram? And what does the toolkit look like to enable you to maximise your presence on the world’s largest consumer platforms.

In this session, you will hear all about the MBiQ study from Reprise Asia-Pacific managing director Ben Poole. He joined Reprise in 2018 and prior to that worked for MEC, Mediacom and Hyper Happen.

Reprise Singapore head Karen Soo will also take to the stage as a speaker in this session. She has more than 12 years of industry experience and previously worked for Starcom, Mindshare, ZenithOptimedia and OMD. Her clients have included Singapore Tourism Board, Nike, Lufthansa, L’Oréal,  and McDonald’s.

The final session of the day on the IPG Mediabrands Stage is titled ‘Thriving Brands in an Age of Cultural Dissonance’. For cultural dissonance is all around us. Every day, real people are at war with themselves, trying to resolve the tension that exists between the deeply-held values encoded in them from birth and the new cultural trends that challenge those beliefs. 

For example, being body proud in an age of increased obesity. Or how the deeply-ingrained value of inclusivity is being challenged by rising racial divisions almost everywhere. 

How brands identify and navigate these competing cultural voices will impact their relevance today. Join this session to unpack how deeply set cultural values are formed and how to win the war of cultural dissonance.

Among the panel of speakers is Initiative Asia-Pacific regional strategic planning director Jasmine Wong. She joined the company in 2017 and prior to that Wong worked for OMD and Starcom. 

Also onboard is Matt Scotton, the APAC chief strategy officer at Initiative. He is an award-winning strategist and before joining IPG Mediabrands in 2014 Scotton worked for Naked Communications in Australia as well as ZenithOptimedia and Carat.

The final panellist is Initiative Australia national head of strategy Chris Colter. He joined the IPG Mediabrands parent company back in 2016.

Hosting the IPG Mediabrands Stage as MC will be the network’s Asia-Pacific CEO Leigh Terry. He has been with the company for nearly three years and before that worked for Omnicom Media Group. Terry is based in Australia.

It is the second time the conference will be held. Back in 2017 the first event saw more than 1,100 delegates attend 70 sessions with 150 speakers across five streams – over the three days.

Some of the industry’s most prominent speakers from across Asia and the rest of the world will feature on the programme. The format also includes one-to-one networking, a large exhibition zone and masterclass workshops as well as the four main content stages.

The annual Mumbrella Asia Awards ceremony will also take place during the same week as Mumbrella360 Asia – November 5 to 7 – meaning that those coming from outside Singapore only need to make one trip to attend both events at the Marina Bay Sands convention centre.

This year, earlybird tickets can also be purchased on the event website for delegates wanting to benefit from the discounted price by buying early. If you are booking a three-day all access pass, for example, you can do so until September 3 and save $400 on ticket prices – paying just $799 instead of $1,199.

The conference is targeted at client-side marketers, ad agencies, media owners, adtech players, consultancy firms and related segments like recruitment and executive education.

“This year, Mumbrella360 Asia is going to be even bigger and better than 2017,” Mumbrella’s Asia general manager Dean Carroll said previously.

“It is about the industry telling us what is interesting and should be on stage at the conference. It comes from the grassroots up with our industry-owned curated sessions. 

“Without a doubt, this is again going to be the region’s best media and marketing conference this year. And for those delegates wanting the cheapest ticket price possible, now is the time to buy while the earlybird offer is on.”

More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks and months so stay tuned for updates. Already onboard as sponsors are Bonsey Jaden (headline), IPG Mediabrands, Omnicom Media Group, Getty Images, Unruly, Brave Bison and The Code Co. Singapore Tourism Board is also supporting the event financially.

For further information on the conference and to buy tickets go to the Mumbrella360 Asia website here. 

In addition, for information on the remaining sponsorship and exhibition opportunities at the event contact the partnerships manager Wilfred Wong on wilfred@mumbrella.asia – and for content inquiries you can reach out to the Mumbrella Asia general manager Dean Carroll on dean@mumbrella.asia