A Brand New Game of Online Digital Marketing in Asia

Backgrounds

BMW advertised on WeChat, a popular messaging app in China, with around 550m monthly users in 2015. But its ads were shown only to those whose profiles suggested they were potential buyers of expensive cars. Others were shown ads for more affordable stuff, such as smartphones. The campaign made some angry, because those not shown the BMW ad  referred themselves as diao, or (putting it politely) losers [Extended from The Economist 08/29/2015].

The carmaker’s experience shows the creativity of digital online advertising today, but at the same time, an example of how marketing is struggling to find the right way to reach consumers on new digital platforms, where they are spending ever more of their time. Advertisers like social-media platforms because they gather all sorts of data on each user’s age, consumption patterns, interests and so on. This means ads can be aimed at them with an accuracy that is unthinkable with analogue media.

For example, Chevrolet, an American car brand, has sent ads to the Facebook pages and Twitter feeds of people who had expressed an interest in, or signed up to test-drive, a competitor’s vehicle. Such fine-tuned targeting means that the distinction between advertising and e-commerce is becoming blurred. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms are selling ads containing “buy now” buttons, which let users complete a sale on the spot. It is too early to tell how many consumers want such a convenience, but the social platforms foresee a future in which they get paid by advertisers to provide instant-shopping services that make the platforms more useful to their members, and get them to spend more time on them. Some TV media have to feel much pain from the loss of ad revenue to digital rivals. As TV audiences both decline and shift to services that do not have ads, such as Netflix, the competition will be more chronically felt. However, social networks, and TV advertisers interested in switching to them, have yet to work out what is the optimal format for video ads.

To wring the most out of the ability to target consumers precisely on social media, ad agencies are making big changes to their campaigns. Instead of creating a single, broad-brush message that will run across television, radio, print and outdoor, they are producing many variations on a theme, matching each to the subset of consumers they judge most likely to respond to it.  However, doing with personalisation on social media costs a lot so we cannot target too much. Hence, some researchers look for how to define “online personalities”, which has not been successful. Even if marketers master social media without coming across as clumsy, grating or intrusive, there will surely be a limit to how much advertising will shift to the platforms. Television ads are still great for reaching big audiences with simple messages. This forum discuss the potential topics (but not subject to only):

• Speical cases of digital online marketing in Asia
• Digital consumers in Asia
• Multimodal interaction for marketing
• Business models in digital marketing
• Technological issues in digital marketing
• Attraction and aestehtics in digital online media (artistic experience and digital marketing)

Forum Organizers

• Hokyoung Ryu is a Professor in Department of Arts & Technology at Hanyang University (Email: hryu@hanyang.ac.kr)
• Jieun Kim is an Assistant Professor in Department of Technology Management at Hanayng University (Email: jkim2@hanyang.ac.kr)
• Shuichi Aoki is a resercher at NHK Japan (Email: aoki.s-ha@nhk.or.jp)

Sponsors

• ACM SIGCHI Development Funds
• ACM TVX Steering Committee
• ACM TVX 2017 Organising Committee
• Department of Arts & Technology, Hanyang University

Date & Time for the Forum

TVX Asia Forum 2017 will take place at 9:00am on June 14th 2017 in Hillversum, The Netherlands. The event is planned to channelling more Asian perspectives into the main ACM TVX conference, which was initiated by the General Chairs of ACM TVX 2018 (Seoul, South Korea).

Forum Format

The format of the Forum is interactive, intended to form a community of academics and practitioners interested in the current status of online video and television in Asia. Six keynotes, representing different views (Broadcasters, End users, Marketerers, and Mobile carrier network providers), will be invited. Each of them will have around half an hour to introduce their own state-of-the-art, perspectives, and research concerns. One of the Forum fellows, acting as host, will then have ten minutes of response time, opening the floor then to the Forum participants for general discussion. The intention is to create a process of sustained knowledge exchange and interaction. Also, with an abreast of knowledge of high-definition TV & media consumption trends, some design activities (for the ideations of new TV user experiences) with the forum participants are planned.

Programs

Welcome speech (9:00am – 9:15am)

Learning activities: Extending our knowledge in Asia TV & Media market

Business & Technical aspects (9:30am – 11:00am)

• Hokyoung Blake Ryu (Hanyang University, Korea)
  • Air cinematography on the 5G network services in Korea
• Shuichi Aoki (NHK, Japan)
  • Terrestrial high-resolution TV technolgoies (Future implications of the new technologies)
• Takayuki Nakachi (NTT, Japan)
  • 4k/8k visual communications in the Japan market – What services would be the future to come?

Human/Interaction aspects (11:30am – 13:00pm)

• Si Jung Kim (University of Nevada, USA)
  • TV user experiences in Las Vegas Hotels
• Hideyoshi Yanagisawa (University of Tokyo, Japan)
  • How does expectations affect experience?
• Jieun Kim (Hanayng University, South Korea)
  • Digital food marketing in Korea

Design activities: Developing new TV experiences for Asia TV & Media market

• Tentative design objectives (subject to change at the time of design activities)
  • How to make novel digital marketing on VR headsets
  • How to make effective video markeing at hotels or resorts (rooms & lobbies)
  • How to make immersive & emotional marketing tips on the 8K UHD TV environment

Participation

The ACM TVX ASIA Forum welcomes all international delegates, especially, Smart TV practitioners, new platforms and online content developers, and UI/UX researchers (not restricted to Asian delegates), and commercial directors who are interested in entering into the Asian market. We expect many participants from other disciplines to make our design outcomes richer and more practically applicable.