I was part of a panel discussion called “Marketing Management in the Digital Age” at the Asia Pacific Marketing Congress (Appies). My fellow panelists were Alvin Neo from Johnson & Johnson, Chiradeep Gupta from Unilever and Maria Nakpil from Hilton Worldwide. The panel was moderated by Emily van den Berg of R3. We discussed the issues facing companies as they reshape their organizations towards digital media.

Some of points I covered:

• In the last 18 months, SingTel has made a major commitment to digital, forming a Digital Marketing team within its Consumer group to work across different Segment and Product teams. The team’s scope covers digital paid media, eCommerce and social media.
• Social Media has proven an excellent channel for Customer Care. SingTel has a dedicated Customer Care team focused on its Facebook and YouTube channels.
• Hiring digital talent is one of the biggest issues facing most organizations. Today’s creative, digital savvy young people are more inclined to work for new media companies like Google or Facebook rather than large corporations. But these are exactly the types of people that these large organizations need to take them into the digital age.
• Most major brands are not structured to take full advantage of eCommerce, even though they may have their own websites dedicated to online sales. The most effective eCommerce sites, such as Amazon, have the capability to publish new content and offer new products to rapidly take advantage of market opportunities. In a retail context, for example, when Michael Jackson died, music and video retailers like HMV redid their store layout overnight to offer all their Michael Jackson content with the highest visibility. Can your eCommerce site react as quickly?

The Appies award and celebrate the most brilliant and inspirational thinking in marketing communications from across Asia Pacific. Only 10 of the best marketing campaigns, chosen from 100, are awarded the Appies Gold Medals.

Thanks to @jematronica for the photos!