A new digital research done by TNS in six Asian Markets (China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) has just been published.
The research had four main objectives:
- To understand consumer awareness of a brand’s digital presence in each market
- To examine the use of digital media by different brands in the region
- To assess the effect a brand’s digital presence has on influencing consumer choice
- To explore levels of consumer trust towards different media channels.
3000 consumers, aged 15 to 39 participated in the research and the brands included in the survey comprise the top spending advertisers in each market across all media, according to TNS’s ad expenditure data.
Highlights
The research highlights some uncomfortable facts for Asia’s online marketers. Here are the key findings:
- Online techniques are some of the least trusted forms of marketing; but they also suggest ways that a brand can build a highly credible presence on the internet.
- In terms of awareness, the survey shows little change on last year, with multinational brands still dominating.
- Attitudes towards digital marketing vary significantly around the region. For instance Thailand and Malaysia posted by far the highest scores for digital persuasion, while consumers in Hong Kong and Singapore, the two markets with the most sophisticated media industries, showed much lower levels.
- Across Asia, the least trusted forms of media are all digital – more than 40 per cent of Asian consumers say they do not trust ads in video games, ads in virtual worlds or ads in mobile SMS. More than 30 per cent do not trust emails or pop-ups. And 25 per cent do not trust search ads or banner ads. In all those cases less than 12 per cent said they trusted the medium completely.
- Not all ‘interruptive’ media fare badly; TV comes off quite well in comparison, with 18 per cent trusting it completely and 14 per cent not trusting it at all.
- Recommendations from friends or family are the most trusted source of information, but expert and consumer reviews on websites, brands’ own websites and consumer opinion in blogs all score highly.
While innovative digital branding clearly plays an important role in driving consumers to action, the study indicates that lack of trust in online marketing remains a serious issue. Digital marketers face an especially stiff challenge winning people over in developed markets like Taiwan, but online channels are also regarded with a healthy degree of skepticism in China-perhaps largely due to a heavy-handed approach. Malaysia and Thailand are shown to be more open, signalling room for experimentation.
To add credibility to visibility, marketers need to continue to make full use of online by listening and engaging-not just showcasing.
Top 20 regional digital brands
This year’s ranking of the region’s top-performing digital brands finds new categories stepping up online promotional activity, while traditional heavy hitters such as Nokia and McDonald’s maintain a solid presence in most markets surveyed. In particular, telcos feature highly in the rankings, not only in markets such as Singapore, but also in Thailand, Malaysia and China, where an enhanced web profile reflected increasingly competitive conditions within the sector. The top 20 regional brands are:
- McDonald’s
- Nokia
- KFC
- Coca-Cola
- Nike
- Sony
- Samsung
- adidas
- Pizza Hut
- Nestlé
- Pepsi
- Canon
- Toyota
- Heineken
- Citibank
- Olay
- Honda
- Philips
- VISA
- Head & Shoulders
Singapore
If we zoom in on Singapore (my favorite country in the region 
) it’s the telco trio SingTel, StarHub and M1 that fights it out…
As SingTel’s deal to poach English Premier League coverage from StarHub shows, competition for subscribers in that sector is fiercer than ever, so it’s no surprise that the major players have maintained a strong presence online.
Finance brands also placed highly – DBS, one of the banks criticised for its sale of certain Lehman Brothers-linked investment products, made the top 10 along with Citibank, while UOB, Visa, OCBC and HSBC make the top 20.
The survey shows that Singaporeans multitask when it comes to media. Sixty-three per cent watch TV while online, and 66 per cent use mobile as they surf the web. Mobile marketing is more prevalent than in other markets: 24 per cent of respondents recall seeing mobile ads, higher than in any other market except Malaysia. Singaporeans also seem to have the highest opinion of mobile SMS ads. Although 32 per cent said they do not trust them, that is the lowest score of any nationality.
Singaporeans are among the most marketing-savvy consumers in the region. Just 19 per cent said that digital activity had significantly increased their interest in a brand, while 24 per cent said it had not increased their interest at all. They also loathe pop-ups and pop-unders more than any group: 48 per cent do not trust them, the highest score in the survey
Top Digital Brands in Singapore:
- SingTel
- StarHub
- Nokia
- Singapore Airlines
- McDonald’s
- DBS
- M1
- Nike
- Coca Cola
- Citibank
Hope you found this as informative as I did – and of course last but not least: Merry Christmas everyone!
Source: http://www.campaignsingapore.sg/ and http://tns.com.sg/
