PRESIDENT’S VISION
2
MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR
4
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
6
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
10 CMOFORUM
12 IMCFORUM
14 MEDIAFORUM
16 DIGITALFORUM
18 SOURCINGFORUM
20 INSIGHTFORUM
22 RESPONSIBLE ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN PROGRAMME
24 POLICY ACTION GROUP
26 DIGITAL GOVERNANCE EXCHANGE
28 ALCOHOL MARKETING
WFA EVENTS 2014
30 GLOBAL MARKETER WEEK, SYDNEY
32 LATIN AMERICA REGIONAL MEETING, PANAMA CITY
WFA STAFF
34
TRENDS AND FORECASTS
36 THE CONTAGIOUS DECADE: A PRIMER
40 WARC AD OUTLOOK AND DATA
FINANCIAL STATEMENT
46
AUDITOR’S REPORT
47
2014 IN NUMBERS
48
3
President’s Vision
“The WFA commissioned
research into what makes
great brand marketing
in the Digital Age. The
results showed us that
the recipe for success are
four new ‘P’s; people,
purpose, principles and
participation. I firmly
believe these criteria can
equally be attributed to
the WFA.”
The World Federation of Advertisers
commissioned research in 2014 in the
context of Project Reconnect (www.
project-reconnect.com) into what makes
great brand marketing in the Digital Age.
The results showed us that the recipe
for success are four new ‘P’s; people,
purpose, principles and participation.
As I reflect on my two-year tenure as
WFA President, I firmly believe these
criteria can equally be attributed to
the WFA. This is why WFA has been so
successful in serving brands for over sixty
years and, as a global organisation, why
it is so uniquely placed to promote these
principles in the future.
WFA would be nothing without the
people that make up its membership.
It brings together over five thousand
marketing and public affairs professionals
in a uniquely diverse yet collaborative
network of over seventy of the world’s
biggest brand owners and 56 national
advertiser associations on six continents.
These people are united in a common
purpose; to advance and improve the
activity of marketing in all its forms
so that brands can play a meaningful,
responsible and sustainable role in a
fast-changing society which increasingly
demands more from corporations and
brands.
Its principles have remained true since
its foundation; effective and efficient
marketing communications based on
responsible advertising standards.
WFA is an inclusive and progressive
organisation which engages in a
continuous dialogue with policy-makers,
society and consumers. Participation
is at its core, bringing together the
broader marketing community with
society’s many stakeholder groups.
Correspondingly, it helps brand
marketers better navigate a fast-changing
world.
It equally plays an essential role in
societal and policy debates to ensure
that the role and value that marketing
can offer to individuals, societies and
economies are properly understood.
I have been proud to be WFA President
and have been greatly impressed with
the quality of the work it produces, the
dedication of its staff and the knowledge,
calibre and passion of its members.
I firmly believe WFA will continue
to thrive on the basis of these four
principles.
With my best wishes,
Martin Riley,
WFA President
5
It has been a challenging year for many
of our members. That is why I am
even more grateful for your continued
support.
We are determined to increase our
support to you and your teams to help
you navigate these uncertain times,
hence why we are bringing our members
together more than ever through face-
to-face meetings and remote knowledge
exchange.
With the launch of two exciting new
working groups, the Digital Governance
Exchange (DGX) and the INSIGHTFORUM,
and an increase in the number of
meetings of existing groups, public affairs
and marketing peers came together to
share strategies, experiences and insights
almost ninety times during the course of
2014.
Significantly, the geographical balance
of these meetings is changing too with
a large proportion now taking place
outside Europe and North America.
A highly successful Global Marketer
Week hosted by our Australian
association in Sydney was followed
by over thirty client-side marketer
gatherings in Singapore, Mumbai, Mexico
City and Panama as well as our first ever
global MEDIAFORUM simultaneously
held across three time zones in New
York, London and Singapore.
2015 is an important milestone for the
WFA as we will be holding our first Global
Marketer Week in Africa in partnership
with our Moroccan association. We are
already making inroads into trying to
increase WFA’s footprint in Africa with
a part-time resource in Nairobi working
closely with our regional Vice-President
based in Nigeria.
We have also invested a great deal into
greater remote knowledge exchange so
members can access our services faster
and in a more cost-effective manner. In
2014, WFA hosted monthly webinars
on priority issues for marketers and
conducted over a hundred marketing
benchmark requests. And 2015 will see
the launch of the WFA’s online Global
Knowledge Base resourced by a full-time
marketing services manager.
The global economic outlook
remains uncertain. This is why we are
strengthening our set-up to increase our
members’ ability to access our services
in speedier and more effective and cost-
efficient ways.
Stephan Loerke,
WFA Managing Director
Message from the Managing Direct
Message from the Managing Director
“The global economic
outlook remains
uncertain. This is why
we are strengthening
our set-up to increase
our members’ ability
to access our services
in speedier and more
effective and cost-
efficient ways.”
6
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
STEPHAN LOERKE
WFA Managing Director
MARTIN RILEY
WFA President
wfa
officers
Executive Committee
MIKE HUGHES
Director General
ISBA, UK
WFA Treasurer
MATTHIAS BERNINGER
VP Public Affairs
MARS
WFA Deputy President
7
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
SERGEY GLUSHKOV
President
RAA, Russia
Regional VP
C&E Europe
WFA Regional
Vice-Presidents
LOÏC ARMAND
Senior VP External Affairs
L’Oréal
Regional VP
Western Europe
BOB LIODICE
President & CEO
ANA, USA
Regional VP
North America
JAVIER MEDRANO
Senior VP
Marketing
Grupo Bimbo
Regional VP
Latin America
IDORENYEN ENANG
Managing Director,
Central West Africa
L’Oréal
Regional VP
Africa
RAHUL WELDE
VP Media, Asia, Africa,
Middle East & Turkey
Unilever
Regional VP
Asia-Pacific
8
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MICHAEL BIRKIN
Chief Marketing Officer
Acer
ROEL DE VRIES
Corporate VP, Global Head of
Marketing and Brand Strategy
Nissan
SARAH DELEA
Director External Affairs - Health
& Wellness
Mondelez International
FRANK ABENANTE
VP Brands & Innovation
Anheuser-Busch InBev
JORIS POLLET
Director Government
Relations & Public Policy,
Europe, Middle East &
Africa & Asia
Procter & Gamble
ALESSANDRO CAGLI
EU Affairs Director
Ferrero
MARY CATHERINE
TOKER
VP Government Relations
General Mills
ELEONORE OGRINZ
Head of International
Advertising
Red Bull
MARC MATHIEU
Senior VP Marketing
Unilever
STEPHEN KEHOE
Head of Global Financial In-
clusion & Regional Corporate
Relations
Visa Worldwide
MARIANN COLEMAN
Director Global Agency
Relations and Performance
Intel
DAVID WHELDON
Head of Brand, Reputation,
Citizenship and Marketing
Barclays Group
WOUTER VERMEULEN
Public Affairs and
Communications Director,
Health and Wellbeing
Coca-Cola
WFA Corporate
Member
Representatives
9
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Presidents Emeriti
JAN MORTEN DRANGE
CEO
ANFO, Norway
RON LUND
President and CEO
ACA, Canada
ROGER HARLACHER
President
ASA, Switzerland
PIERRE-JEAN BOZO
VP and Director General
UDA, France
MOUNIR JAZOULI
President
GAM, Morocco
JOACHIM SCHÜTZ
CEO
OWM, Germany
RAFAEL SAMPAIO
Executive Vice President
ABA, Brazil
BHARAT PATEL
Chairman
ISA, India
AHMET PURA
Chairman
RVD, Turkey
BARBARA KRAJNC
Director General
SOZ, Slovenia
HOU YUNCHUN
President
CANA, China
MALCOLM EARNSHAW
CBE
CHRIS VAN ROEY
CEO
UBA, Belgium
HANS MERKLE
WFA National
Association
Representatives
10
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Michael Aidan, Head of Digital and VP Digital Brand Platforms Group, Danone
Heather Allen, EVP Category Development, Reckitt Benckiser
Vincenzo Brugaletta, Head of Integrated Marketing Team, LUXOTTICA
João Ciaco, Director Advertising and Relationship Marketing, Fiat
Keech Combe, SVP Global Marketing, Combe
Mariana Coronel, Global Marketing Director, Groupe Bel
Silvia Davila, Global Food Marketing Head, Mars
Roel De Vries, Corporate Vice President, Nissan
Allan Gamboa, SVP Marketing, Grupo Bimbo
Gannon Jones, Head of Brand Marketing, MillerCoors
Inese Kingsmill, Director, Corporate Marketing, Telstra
Marc Mathieu, SVP Marketing, Unilever
Bruce McColl, Chief Marketing Officer, Mars
Javier Medrano, SVP Marketing, Grupo Bimbo
Danny Micklethwaite, VP Global Brand Strategy, Brand Portfolio & Marketing Capability, Arla Foods
Chris Miller, Divisional VP, Global Brand Strategy and Innovation, Abbott
Luc Poniewiera, Global Media Director, Ferrero
Yin Rani, VP Integrated Marketing, Campbell Soup Company
Daria Rasmussen, Senior Digital Manager, Carlsberg
Carlos Ricardo, Global CMO, BBVA
Martin Riley, CMO, Pernod Ricard
Marc Schroeder, SVP Global Nutrition, PepsiCo
Burak Sevilengul, CMO, Turkcell
Natanael Sijanta, Director Advertising & Exhibitions Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars, Daimler
Raluca Simiuc, International Brand Manager, Red Bull
Hanne Søndergaard, Global SVP Marketing, Arla
Pierre Woreczek, Senior VP - Chief Brand & Strategy Officer Europe, McDonald’s
Cannes, June
11
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
CMOForum
‘CMO’ is one of the acronyms we hear
the most in our industry. Many fora
claim to enable CMOs to network and
learn from each other yet few deliver on
that promise.
That’s why WFA was delighted when our
first CMOFORUM to be held at Cannes Li-
ons welcomed what the Festival organis-
ers described as “seriously high calibre”
group of 27 CMOs, chaired by Martin
Riley, CMO of Pernod Ricard and WFA
President.
For a group of marketing leaders, unsur-
prisingly the session focused on leading
an effective global marketing organ-
isation. Learnings from the Marketing
2020 Research, which was conducted in
collaboration with WFA, helped trigger
roundtable discussions.
One of the key themes which emerged
was flexibility in terms of organograms
being iterative and enabling cross-disci-
pline collaboration but also in terms of
training programmes accommodating
young talent who are used to engaging
with content in a time, place and format
which suits their needs.
When quizzed on their priorities, 85% of
senior marketers in WFA’s membership
cited ‘innovation in marketing’ as a top
priority. CMOs, including Pierre Worec-
zek from McDonald’s, helped tackle this
topic through discussions around how
they are acting as change agents within
their organisations.
In many cases, change involves creat-
ing environments for their talented col-
leagues to be able to behave more as
though they worked for a small, nim-
ble, start-up rather than for one of the
world’s biggest multinationals.
Finally the group turned its focus to
people rather than “consumers”. Unile-
ver’s Senior Vice-President of Marketing,
Marc Mathieu, introduced Project Re-
connect (www.project-reconnect.com),
the WFA’s flagship initiative to try and
ensure brand marketing matches up
to people’s and society’s fast-changing
sensitivities, aspirations and behaviours;
essentially, an effort to help marketers
build more human, responsible and re-
sponsive brands for a digital age.
Whilst many companies strive to put
people at the heart of their businesses,
the same cannot necessarily be said of
our industry. This project represents the
first time the marketing sector has tried
to apply that people-centric logic to our
ecosystem.
Marc introduced the project’s vision
and called on others to join the Project
Reconnect Advisory Board. Seventeen
CMOs enthusiastically came on board
and are now actively helping to steer the
future strategy of the initiative.
Acting as project ambassadors, Marc
Mathieu, Bruce McColl from Mars, Roel
de Vries from Nissan and Natanael Sijan-
ta from Mercedes-Benz have all penned
columns which have featured widely in
the trade press expounding the critical
importance of building a new marketing
model based on a new 4Ps; people, pur-
pose, principles and participation.
12
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Yazmin Agonizante, BBVA
Victoria Aguilar, Combe
Gaby Aguilera Lara, LEGO
Traci Alford, Shell
Sophia Angelis, Brown Forman
Susanne Arfelt, Unilever
Manuel Bautista-Santiago, Microsoft
Amcke Becker, FrieslandCampina
Noelle Beristain, Cuervo
Chiara Bernardi, Luxottica
Kris Boger, Red Bull
Diego Bracamontes, The Coca-Cola Company
Nathalie Brochand, APB/ Heineken
Gaston Calabresi, American Express
Jorge Calvillo, Volkswagen Group
Giorgio Caporusso, Ferrero
Carolina Ana Cardoso, Luxottica
Paco Casa, Grupo Bimbo
Mandy Cheong, General Mills
Jessie Chuah, Guinness Anchor Berhad
Guillaume Conteville, MasterCard
Mariana Coronel, Bel Group
Ben Crowther, BP
Sameer Desai, Mundipharma
Alexandra Dimiziani, The Coca-Cola Company
Martin Dunn, SAB Miller
James Eadie, The Coca-Cola Company
Valerie Falciola, Bel Group
Michelle Froah, Kimberly Clark
Wynthia Goh, SAP
Juan Pablo Gomez Macfarland, Volkswagen Group
Sergio Gonzalez, Cuervo
Julia Gorrod, ISBA (UK)
Martina Gripp, Boehringer Ingelheim
Nacho Guijarro Torres, Johnson & Johnson
Chiradeep Gupta, Unilever
Lisa Halim, SAP
Josep Hernandez, Mondelez
Carlos Hernandez, Abbott
Shennon Ho, Johnson & Johnson
Ivan Jennings, Colgate Palmolive
Enzu Jeon, Johnson & Johnson
Cécile Jolly, McDonald’s
Mattias Jöngard, IKEA
Kate Keane, Johnson & Johnson
Khoo Kar Khoon, MAA (Malaysia)
Morten Kjaer, IKEA
Andrew Knott, McDonald’s
Greg Kukolj, Heineken
Marcos Leal, Abbott
Carla Lechevalier, L’Oréal
Moises Leiferman, The Hershey Company
Jonathan Lidington, SAB Miller
Lisa Lilley, Shell
Gary Lim, Johnson & Johnson
Damir Maric, Daimler
Elisa Martinez Morales, Intel
Ellen Marzell, Microsoft
Javier Medrano, Grupo Bimbo
Diana Moran, Boehringger Ingelheim
Debbie Morrison, ISBA (UK)
Reem Naamani, Emirates
Christine Ng, Nestlé
Charlie Oates, Combe
Jane O’Keeffe, Kellogg
Lander Otegui, Cuervo
Vivian Pan, VISA
Jasmine Pang, SAP
Ismael Pascual, The Coca-Cola Company
Jan Worre Pedersen, Arla Foods
Ricardo Perez, Grupo Bimbo
Valentina Pettenati, SAP
Ulises Ramirez, The Coca-Cola Company
Hugo Saavedra, Mundipharma
Steve Sargeant, Diageo
Geoff Seeley, Unilever
Gurmit Singh, VISA
Miah Sullivan, Luxottica
Sriram Swaroop, Unilever
James Taylor, Diageo
Travis Teo, SAP
Singeng Tong, Fraser & Neave
Alejandra Varela, Combe
Claudie Voland-Rivet, UDA (France)
Jamshed Wadia, Intel
Carole White, Mondelez
The Coca-Cola Company, Mexico City, June
MasterCard, London, April SAP, Singapore, February
13
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Whether a client chooses to work ‘hori-
zontally’ with a large agency holding
company or focuses more on smaller-
scale specialist agencies, integration
remains one of the biggest challenges
facing senior marketers in WFA mem-
bership.
This internal and external ‘orchestration’
role puts a spotlight on a client’s lead-
ership skills, perhaps more than in any
other area. This is especially true when
briefing multiple agencies and internal
stakeholders to deliver integrated pro-
grammes.
Briefing was a key topic for 2014, tackled
via peer research and within meetings.
We discovered that WFA members are
pretty humble in self-assessing their ca-
pabilities. Despite recognising potential
difficulties and areas for improvement,
89% felt that a ‘truly integrated briefing
process’ was worth the effort. Even more
members were convinced by the poten-
tial benefits, with 96% agreeing that ‘an
integrated briefing process had made
their campaigns more effective’.
Another, yet related, core topic in 2014
was marketing capabilities. Like train-
ing and HR strategy, these may sound
like buzzwords for some, but it is clearly
not a new area. We have witnessed an
increasing number of members with ca-
pabilities in their titles and an apparent
increase in investment in this area.
One of our key learnings from research
and our discussions was how few com-
panies have put in place a strategy for
measuring the ROI from these increased
efforts. One area for improvement was
to work out whether companies are
moving the needle in relation to internal
capabilities.
The third big topic area for 2014 was
translating consumer insights into big
unifying marketing ideas. With the sup-
port of WFA’s strategic partners, Brain
Juicer, much debate was generated on
this topic. As ever there was clearly no
one-size-fits-all approach.
Particularly heated debate surrounded
whether companies can effectively test
IMCFORUM
Integrated Marketing Communications
big ideas. There was greater consensus
however around the importance of con-
sumer insights. One of the actions from
these discussions led to the launch of
the WFA INSIGHTFORUM.
At industry level, WFA led sessions fea-
turing members of the IMCFORUM at
two major events in APAC. The Digital
Matters Conference explored the im-
portance of emotion in advertising. In
September at Spikes our panel including
Abbott, Intel and Mundipharma talked
on approaches to leveraging user-gener-
ated content.
The IMCFORUM now boasts nearly 450
individuals. Owing to the exceptional
leadership of Geoff Seeley from Unile-
ver, Gary Lim at Johnson & Johnson and
Javier Medrano at Grupo Bimbo, we
managed to deliver world-class events
in London, Singapore and Mexico City
to a geographically disparate group of
marketers. Two of the meetings, hosted
by Coca-Cola in London and Mexico City,
boasted our highest ever attendances
since the group launched in 2009.
14
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Atul Agrawal, TATA Group
Hanne Alblas, BVA (Netherlands)
Traci Alford, Shell
Rashmee Bandela, Johnson & Johnson
Sital Banerjee, Philips
Didier Beauclair, UDA (France)
George Bincymon, Ferrero
Samal Bishwajeet, Volkswagen Group
Sarah Bohaboy, RB
Andy Bolden, GlaxoSmithKline
Manuela Botelho, APAN (Portugal)
Vincenzo Brugaletta, LUXOTTICA
Mark Butterfield, Boehringer Ingelheim
Americo Campos Silva, Shell
Abhish Chandhok, Microsoft Corporation
Neeraj Chawan, Diageo
Shenny Chen, Adidas
Nicole Chong, Diageo
Michelle Churba, Dannon
Jessica Claar, MasterCard Worldwide
Mark Clowes, AIG
Zvi Cole, Beiersdorf
Daniela Cordua, IKEA
Andrew Coulter, Unilever
Gerry D’Angelo, Mondelez International
Richard Davies, RB
Kirsten Daylies, Microsoft Corporation
Paola De Benedetti, Indesit
Sudhan Deo, McDonald’s
Sameer Desai, Mundipharma
Caroline Devys, LEGO
Danny Duan, Hershey
Rajiv Dubey, Dabur
Dirk Eckelt, Beiersdorf
Valerie Falciola-Borel, Groupe Bel
Kiki Fang, Ferrero
David Forney, Hershey
Vincent Frezzo, Coty
Ian Gallois, Mars
Priyanka Gandhi, Colgate-Palmolive
Gayathri Ganesh, Johnson & Johnson
Sanchita Ganguly, Asian Paints
Tom Gill, Heineken
Piotr Gleinert, Novartis
Christian Godske, Carlsberg
Marni Gordon, ANA (US)
Yvan Goupil, SABMiller
Géraldine Grümmer, Orange
Rajat Gupta, Procter & Gamble
Stefan Handler, Daimler
Hara Harakrishnan, ISA (India)
Hattie Ho, Unilever
Julie Hollander, PepsiCo
Matthew Hotten, Jaguar Land Rover
Santosh Iyer, Mercedes-Benz
Benedetta Jacopetti, Red Bull
Ben Jankowski, MasterCard Worldwide
Phyllis Joseph, Unilever
Mark Kaline, Former ANA Media Leadership Chair
Rup Kamal Kalita, SAP
Joanne Kelly, AIG
Qaiser Khalil Bachani, GlaxoSmithKline
Martin King, Kellogg
Vanda Laura, Shell
Anne Lee, Jaguar Land Rover
Sean Lee, The Coca-Cola Company
Denise Leo, SAP
Shan Li, Daimler
Sophie Li, IKEA
Wendy Li, Intel
Beatrice Lindvall, Johnson & Johnson
Ulrich Loechner, Daimler
Oliver Lonicer, SABMiller
Gerhard Louw, Deutsche Telekom
Sandy Ma, GlaxoSmithKline
Conor MacLoughlin, Mondelez International
Shilpi Malik, Beiersdorf
Andre Marciano, Pernod Ricard
Alessandra Marinacci, Red Bull
Nadine McHugh, Colgate-Palmolive
Atit Mehta, Unilever
Julio Michavila, SEAT
Colleen Milway, JPM Chase
Bhavana Mittal, GlaxoSmithKline
Jeremie Moritz, Pernod Ricard
John Pain, BP
Lei Pang, The Coca-Cola Company
Fabien Petit, L’Oréal
Heiko Pfiffer, Daimler
Luc Poniewiera, Ferrero
Sindhuja Rai, Mondelez International
Kalyan Raman, Mahindra & Mahindra
Jacqueline Rams, Mars
Bob Reaume, ACA (Canada)
Kelly Rose, Vodafone
Ramin Saher, RB
Aditya Save, Marico
Sarah Schwarzer, Daimler
Libor Sedivak, Volkswagen Group
Johannes Seidl, Red Bull
Sonia Serrao, TATA Global Beverages
Komal Shukla, Boehringer Ingelheim
Jonny Silberman, Dannon
Daniel Simon, Daimler
Gabriella Simone, Indesit
Shuchi Singhal, Idea Cellular
Andreas Sjöberg, IKEA
Paul Smith, SABMiller
Nick Sparey, Johnson & Johnson
Subha Sreenivasan, Godrej Consumer Products
Steven Sun, Unilever
Alex Tamayo, Combe
Amit Tiwari, Philips
Marco Trezzi, SAP
Girish Upadhyay, TATA Motors
Anne Van Merkensteijn, Procter & Gamble
Deepshikha Vasishta, Castrol
Sal Vitale, Johnson & Johnson
Alberto Vivaldelli, UPA (Italy)
Feona Wang, Microsoft Corporation
Tiow Wei-Yeong, Diageo
Bob Wootton, ISBA (UK)
Jan Worre Pedersen, Arla Foods
Carol Wu, Pernod Ricard
Samuel Xiao, BP
Vega Xie, Daimler
Jessie Xiong, Daimler
Lucy Xue, AB Inbev
Edwin Yan, Mondelez International
Elvira Yu, Philips
Tony Zhang, Ferrero
Rasheed Zhao, Mondelez International
Wendy Zhao, Shell
William Zheng, Philips
Kelly Zhou, Coty
Grace Zhou, Mondelez International
Lucy Zhuang, Intel
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Stuttgart, May
TATA, Mumbai, November
15
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
It was another healthy year for global
ad markets in 2014 with spend up by 5%
year-on-year, according to most sourc-
es, taking global ad spend to in excess
of $500 billion. Digital was a huge factor
in this growth and the share that this
channel takes of total spend continues
on a steep upward trajectory.
With increased digitisation comes new
trading mechanics, and programmatic
buying is celebrated by some as being
the solution to a labour intensive, inef-
ficient and ineffective process. But the
transparency provided to clients by the
Agency and Independent Trading Desks
who provide this service is a concern.
Seventy-one per cent of respondents to
a recent MEDIAFORUM survey admitted
that they are dissatisfied with the level
of transparency provided by their Agen-
cy Trading Desk.
To respond to these concerns WFA es-
tablished a programmatic task force,
with participation from seven members,
including MasterCard, Coca-Cola, John-
son & Johnson and Philips. It was de-
cided that increased education as well as
real options for improved visibility and
control were required. The WFA Guide to
Programmatic Media was produced and
received considerable attention from the
global client community, the wider in-
dustry as well as the trade press.
Naturally, the scale of programmatic var-
ies by market. Digital represents a rela-
tively low share of spend in India, but it’s
growing rapidly, and there was a clear
interest in this topic among the thirty
client-side media directors who attended
our inaugural MEDIAFORUM in Mumbai.
With a population of 1.2 billion, unsur-
prisingly, media audience measurement
was found to be a key priority for media
directors in India. Interestingly, measure-
ment (or lack of it) also emerged as be-
ing a key barrier to effectiveness for the
forty global media directors who joined
for our first MEDIAFORUM held simulta-
neously across three time zones, in New
York, London and Singapore.
MEDIAFORUM
While this session served to widen the
net of solutions to common media chal-
lenges, it also helped to illustrate how
the client-side community is often strug-
gling with the same set of problems,
demonstrating the value that the WFA
can bring through its collective wisdom.
Further leveraging our network, earlier
in the year we produced a ‘Transparency
Index’, a piece of research intended to
identify and highlight the countries with
lower levels of media market transpar-
ency, the factors responsible for limiting
advertiser visibility, and the safeguards
that can be put in place.
In 2015, we look forward to finding more
ways to deliver insight and support to an
ever-growing community of media pro-
fessionals.
16
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Katie Allen, Brown-Forman
Delphine Aroun, Microsoft Corporation
Sebastien Bardin, Shell
Victor Bayata, IKEA
Stephanie Bell, L’Oréal
Siro Bellone, Ferrero
Juliette Betant, Coty
Sylvana Chang, SAP
Anne Cohen-Aloro, Procter & Gamble
Andrew Crichton, Audi
Damien Cummings, Philips
Gael Demenet, Groupe Bel
Guillaume Du Gardier, Ferrero
Tobias Eidem, SA (Sweden)
Patrick Eikelenboom, Mars
David Ellison, ISBA (UK)
Peter Espersen, LEGO Group
Francesco Federico, Acer
Michele Fernandez, Heineken
Esther Foo, Mundipharma
Jonny Freeman, BP plc
Thomas Froimovici, Ferrero
Laurent Geffroy, Orange
Christian Godske, Carlsberg
Benjamin Goh, Daimler
Kenneth Gronholm, Philips
Géraldine Grümmer, Orange
Chiradeep Gupta, Unilever
Thomas Heilskov, Arla Foods
Bee Hong Lim, Philips
David Huang, Shell
Matthias Ihnken, Beiersdorf
Nihal Kara-Senil, Johnson & Johnson
Alina Khachatourian, Shell
Qaiser Khalil Bachani, GlaxoSmithKline
Kirsten Lahn Hansen, Colgate-Palmolive
Lucie Lancashire, Colgate-Palmolive
Jonathan Lewis-Jones, Nokia
Gary Lim, Johnson & Johnson
Visna Lim, L’Oréal
Ryan Longstaff, Intel
Gerhard Louw, Deutsche Telekom AG
Martin Majlund, Carlsberg
Giovanni Mari, LUXOTTICA
Antonia McCahon, Pernod Ricard
Sandrine Moncere, Novartis
Jeremie Moritz, Pernod Ricard
Nada Muammar, Intel
Christine Ng, Nestlé
Sara Norberg, Heineken
Steven O’Reilly, Procter & Gamble
Vivian Pan, Visa Worldwide
Jasmine Pang, SAP
Valentina Pettenati, SAP
Stefan Pfeiffer, Volkswagen Group
Matthew Pritchard, Novartis
Peter Rohman, IKEA
Claudia Roth, Barclays
Samuel Rueff, Procter & Gamble
Thane Ryland, Nokia
Libor Sedivak, Skoda
Nigel Sheldon, Barclays
Gurmit Singh, Visa Worldwide
Caroline Stephens, Johnson & Johnson
Kylie Summerhayes, Microsoft Corporation
Lily Tay, SAA (Singapore)
Travis Teo, SAP
Jamshed Wadia, Intel
Michelle Yeo, LEGO Group
Pernod Ricard, Paris, February
17
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Spend on digital marketing continued its
relentless growth in 2014 and digital, in
all its forms, now represents one quarter
of total marketing investment globally.
The line between digital and traditional
marketing continues to blur and for mar-
keters in 2014, it is less about digital mar-
keting than marketing in a digital world.
Although online and offline silos still exist,
marketers increasingly manage a much
more balanced and integrated marketing
mix than in previous years.
But there is still more to be done to raise
the understanding of digital marketing
techniques, and this remains the im-
perative of a number of the marketers
in the DIGITALFORUM. In a meeting in
London hosted by Shell we investigated
the options available, such as eLearning
platforms and ‘MOOCs’ (Massive Online
Open Course), to remotely upskill market-
ers based all around the word.
Through discussion forums, research
projects and smaller scale benchmarks
we have covered a remarkable range of
digital topics in 2014, but the two most
recurrent themes have unquestionably
been data and content.
Data is the fuel that stokes the fires of the
digital marketing ecosystem. But, more
than ever before, the objective of market-
ers has been to apply insights from data
to shape messaging and content to the
context it’s appearing in. Relevance in
marketing is achieved through applying
the right content to the right person at
the right time. Finding ways to do this was
a recurrent theme in all the DIGITALFO-
RUM meetings in 2014.
Despite all the data that’s secreted from
the pores of the internet, understanding
the full journey that a consumer goes
through, including all the touchpoints
they interact with on their path to pur-
chase remains a key challenge. A session
hosted by Pernod Ricard in Paris focused
on the techniques available to attribute
credit to all the marketing channels in-
volved in an online sale or action.
With the rise of connected mobile de-
vices, the Internet of Things and wear-
able technologies, digital is truly moving
DIGITALFORUM
beyond our computers to occupy all parts
of our daily lives. In a session in Copenha-
gen hosted by Carlsberg, we heard from a
guest speaker about the digital marketing
opportunities on the horizon that market-
ers should be aware of.
In spite of this trend, a study into global
mobile marketing undertaken by the DIG-
ITALFORUM found a number of barriers
preventing mobile from reaching its full
potential. Measurement, proof of effec-
tiveness and resource were chief among
these, but privacy also emerged as an
obstacle, in a sign that marketers are in-
creasingly cautious and respectful of con-
sumers and their data.
Participation and feedback from DIGI-
TALFORUM attendees was strong in 2014,
not least from our inaugural meeting in
Singapore. We will be returning to Singa-
pore in 2015 and in response to member
demand and a growing network of digital
specialists in the region we will also hold
our first meeting in Hong Kong.
18
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Maryl Adler, PepsiCo
Sarah Armstrong, The Coca-Cola Company
Tigran Avakian, Mattel
Qaiser Bachani, GSK
AJ Baldo, Hershey’s
Donna Baron, Boehringer Ingelheim
Robert Bennemeer, Heineken
Andrea Bottke, Danone
Mary Ann Brennan, Mattel
Katen Brown, IKEA
Phil Cartwright, Jaguar Land Rover
Celine Chauffeton, Danone
Elaine Chen, Friesland Campina
Henry Chen, Luxottica
Wendy Chen, Philips
Benson Cheng, AB Inbev
Michelle Chin, GSK
Terence Chua, Diageo
Michael Connett, Intel
Nadya Demyanovich, Unilever
Felix Diaz, Reckitt Benckiser
Melina Dong, Barclays
Bill Duggan, ANA (US)
Missy Feldman, SAP
Emmy Flash, Boehringer Ingelheim
Matilda Fong, Castrol
Gianpaolo Gagliardi, Shell
Carlos Gusman, Boehringer Ingelheim
Jolanda Hafkamp, Philips
Sarah Han, Unilever
Debra Hedgecock, Mastercard
Juliane Hefel, Henkel
Stefanie Henko, GSK
Hattie Ho, Unilever
Thomas Holzapfel, Deutsche Telekom
Jing Hou, UCB Pharma
Darryl Junior, The Coca-Cola Company
Heleni Kernkamp, Philips
Dorien Koolen, Philips
Alena Koshcheeva, GSK
Lily Li, Diageo
Joe Li, The Coca-Cola Company
Kate-Sh Li, Unilever
Jane Liu, Daimler
Lucy Liu, L’Oreal
Lilian Liu, Luxottica
Amber Liu, Nestlé
Sunny Liu, Nestlé
Irene Liu, Philips
Mano Manikkam, VISA
Ivar Metman, Friesland Campina
Nektarios Misios, Friesland Campina
Debbie Morrison, ISBA
Agnes Ong, KCC
Yvonne Ong, VISA
Sean O’Sullivan, Intel
Lei Pang, The Coca-Cola Company
Linda Peek, Friesland Campina
Adam Popham, Danone
Jeroen Preseun, Heineken
Michael Pues-Tilkamp, Adidas
Cherry Qu, Unilever
Jill Rankin, Boehringer Ingelheim
Christiane Rettig, Boehringer Ingelheim
Sjoerd Ribberink, Shell
Servanne Rignault, Nestle
Fanny Rusli, Mattel
Angela Saferite, AB Inbev
Robert Sarasua, Luxottica
Claudia Sargent, Danone
Shirley Sha, Johnson & Johnson
Sopan Shah, Nestlé
Elsa Shean, L’Oreal
Tony Shipway, Jaguar Land Rover
Sarah Sim, Kimberly Clark
Jo Smallbone, Vodafone
Martino Stampanoni, Novartis
Stuart Sueltman, Johnson & Johnson
Suzanne Sun, Intel
Steven Sun, Unilever
Eileen Tan, Intel
Khee Teo, Barclays
Vicky Veloso, Johnson & Johnson
Jessica Wang, Adidas
Carol Wang, Boehringer Ingelheim
Sandy Wang, Hershey’s
Joy Wang, The Coca-Cola Company
Ian Williams, VISA
Echo Wu, Jaguar Land Rover
Alan Xi, The Coca-Cola Company
Vera Xia, GSK
Lilian Xie, Johnson & Johnson
Elaine Yan, BP
Michelle Yang, The Coca-Cola Company
Sherry Yao, UCB Pharma
Katerina Zashcherinskaya, Barclays
Els Zeeuwen, Friesland Campina
Tim Zhang, Carlsberg
Kathy Zhao, SC Johnson
Veronika Ziegaus, Volkswagen
FrieslandCampina, Amersfoort (The Netherlands), December
19
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
From a very low basis ten years ago when
this group was formed, we see now that
around 95% of global marketers have a
marketing procurement operation. The
average time that this operation has
been engaging with marketing spend is
between six and eight years according to
WFA research. Perhaps more important-
ly, more than half of the most advanced
sourcing teams in WFA’s membership
employ staff with a background which
includes at least five years in marketing.
This expertise in marketing is crucial if
marketing sourcing teams aspire to be
the best they can be. Many of the discus-
sions that have taken place in our meet-
ings have focused on how procurement
is measured. Much of the role of market-
ing procurement is about agency gover-
nance/lifecycle management.
That means the pitching, negotiation,
performance assessment and the re-
muneration of agencies. However, gen-
erating savings is only a fraction of the
value-add that the most forward-thinking
marketing procurement teams can offer.
Savings and cost-avoidance are impor-
tant targets, but most marketing sourcing
teams agree that they are a by-product of
efficient business processes that procure-
ment can help establish, rather than goals
in and of themselves.
Throughout the year, we have focused on
a number of different marketing spend
categories such as POS, Print, Events,
Production, PR and Media. Procurement
typically divides up marketing spend into
these categories to enable them to source
within a specific area of expertise.
This matrix can be incredibly complicated
and a challenge for the more advanced
sourcing teams is that marketing does not
look at spend in the same way. And nei-
ther do consumers, hence the importance
of integrated marketing communications.
Some marketing sourcing teams have
mirrored this view within their structures
by reshuffling media into three areas of
paid, owned and earned, for example.
With over 550 marketing sourcing con-
tacts from across the Americas, Europe
and Asia, our SOURCINGFORUM is the
largest global network of its kind. It fo-
SOURCINGFORUM
cuses on helping marketing procurement
specialists skill up in terms of category
management, champion the role and val-
ue of the function within the industry and
help generate momentum with important
internal stakeholders such as Marketing,
Finance and IT.
Agency remuneration is often listed as
one of the most important priorities of
this group, and notably in 2014, WFA
published the first ever “Report on Global
Agency Remuneration Trends and Use of
Performance Metrics”. This research aims
to help marketers understand ways to pay
for different types of agency services, and
on what basis the best reward their per-
formance.
It is through these types of initiatives that
our global marketing sourcing network
can show leadership in agency gover-
nance and rise to the challenge of helping
marketers build more effective and fruit-
ful partnerships with their agencies.
20
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Marco Aureggi, Ferrero
Giorgio Caporusso, Ferrero
Simon Cox, Johnson & Johnson
Heather Curd, Mondelēz International
Erica de Aquino, Johnson & Johnson
Luis Enrique Gonzalez, Grupo Bimbo
Yvan Goupil, SAB Miller
Niels Hansen, Arla Foods
Carlos Hernandez, Abbott
Steve Hill, Jaguar Land Rover
Russell King, Orange
Adam Langridge, JLR
Lars Lengler-Graiff, IKEA
Laurence Miklichansky-Maddocks, Brown-Forman
Beatriz Minamy, Nissan-Europe
Libor Sedivak, Skoda
David Torres, Shell
Alexis Vernon, Barclays
Gonzalo Viera, Carlsberg
Nick Wright, BP
Brown-Forman, London, September
21
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
In 2014, WFA launched a brand
new group for market research and
consumer insights specialists, the WFA
INSIGHTFORUM. As marketing budgets
face increasing scrutiny worldwide, the
role of consumer and business insights
in helping marketers to make the right
decisions becomes ever more important.
At WFA, we have enlisted the support of
our global network to identify specialists
within our members who run, manage
and support insights programmes
around the world.
Since its launch at the end of Q4, this
new INSIGHTFORUM has attracted over
a hundred individual members from
across WFA’s network. The roles of these
individuals vary from traditional market
research to consumer insights and
business intelligence generation.
Our inaugural meeting in 2014 took place
in London and brought together a number
of these specialists to share, learn and
exchange on their priority topics. The
agenda started by covering the different
ways insights are generated, including a
focus on observational and behavioural
research.
We built on this by looking at some case
studies on how insights can be validated
through ‘real world’ market research
approaches. The group also looked at the
processes used so that insights can be
engaged with and evaluated by marketers
and agency partners alike.
Finally, a major topic of discussion, and
one that looks set to play a major role in
the group’s agenda in the future, was how
to take “big ideas” and transform them
into deployable strategies within brand
plans.
During the first few months of this forum’s
activity we have looked at the common
challenges facing insights directors. In
much the same way as in other WFA
forums, it is these challenges that shape
both the meeting agenda and the surveys
INSIGHTFORUM
that we conduct. Some of the recurring
themes that we have heard relate to
stakeholder adoption, notably the very
natural tendency to only use insights if
they confirm an existing point-of-view, or
originate from a local market.
Similarly, a challenge within insights
teams is how to effectively leverage
insights generated locally and scale them
up to be applicable in other regions.
The proliferation of data is another big
challenge for insight directors, especially
as modelling and analytics are cited as
key components within business cases,
but are not always easy to generate when
justifying consumer behaviour in the real
world.
In 2015, this new group of WFA members
plan to continuing the momentum
generated in the last few months
by conducting bespoke research for
members on topics such as brand
tracking, measuring customer satisfaction
and social media listening.
22
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
François Aubrée, TIE
Marina Badlishah, Nestlé
Ioana Banach Sirbu, EACA
Jürgen Bänsch, ISFE
Tudy Bernier, UNESDA
Fiona Blinzer, ESA
Alessandro Cagli, Ferrero
Simone Ceruti, Danone
Sylvie Chartron, Mars
David Coleman, McDonald’s
Marjolein De Kerf, Cosmetics Europe
Manon Dias, EMMA
Chiara Di Stefano, Ferrero
Barry Dooley, AAI, Ireland
Konrad Drozdowski, Rada Reklamy
Jeanette Drielsma, GSK
Cécile Duprez-Naudy, Nestlé
Sebastian Emig, ESA
Sue Eustace, Advertising Association, UK
Alicia Gaban, ACT
Christopher Garza, Kellogg’s
Thomas Gault, Advertising Association, UK
Renatte Georgescu, Unilever
Oliver Gray, EASA
Thibaud Guény, Groupe Bel
Maryke Hanneman, ENPC
Kristin Hannon, UBA, Belgium
Rafaela Hartenstein, Hasbro
David Hartz, LEGO
Sadaf Hussain, egta
Benjamin Inwood, Advertising Association, UK
Wenche Jacobsen, ANFO, Norway
Franz Kraus, Mondelez
Amandine Labé, EMMA
Julien Lafleur, Landmark
Marieke Lugt, FrieslandCampina
Raelene Martin, ICC
Sophie Mestchersky, App Developers Alliance
Nikolas Moschakis, European Publishers Council
Chiara Odelli, EASA
Julie Paquay, Landmark
Andrea Parola, ICT Coalition
Jaymeen Patel, Apple
Jennifer Pearson, EASA
Christiaan Prins, Unilever
Antoine Quentin, AIM
Rocco Renaldi, Landmark
Martin Rupp, VDZ
Mitchell Simons, Viacom
Marta Sokol, ACT
Jacqui Stephenson, Mars
Ian Twinn, ISBA
Catherine Van Reeth, TIE
François-Xavier Vauchelle, Danone
Wouter Vermeulen, The Coca-Cola Company
Alberto Vivaldelli, UPA, Italy
Astrid Williams, PepsiCo (Chair)
WFA, Brussels, November
23
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Since 1996, the RAC has brought to-
gether brand owners, agencies and the
media at a global level to anticipate and
understand societal and parental aspira-
tions regarding responsible marketing
communications and children. RAC’s role
in helping build trust is to provide global
leadership by championing good practic-
es in marketing communications to chil-
dren. This exercise is shaped by a con-
tinuous dialogue and engagement with
policy-makers, society and consumers.
Spotlight on food marketing
Food marketing to children continued to
be a major challenge in 2014. Driven by
the World Health Organisation and its
regional offices, national governments
worldwide have looked to adopt statutory
limits on food marketing to children.
In response, WFA worked closely with
the International Food and Beverage Al-
liance to develop enhanced global self-
regulatory commitments in the field of
food and non-alcoholic beverage market-
ing to children which were agreed and
launched publicly in September. These
commitments were replicated too by the
EU Pledge group of companies at a Euro-
pean level and were welcomed by the EU
institutions as they were presented to the
European Commission in November.
The industry must now ensure these updat-
ed commitments are reflected in self-reg-
ulatory regimes in countries as diverse as
Brazil, South Africa, India and China. Some
good progress was made in 2014 but much
remains to be done in 2015.
In parallel, industry worked through APEC
to achieve a significant milestone: the
first ever endorsement of advertising self-
regulation by Heads of State from the 21
APEC nations. This agreement kick-starts
a three-year action plan led by WFA in
trying to drive the adoption of effective
industry-wide self-regulation across APEC
countries.
Digital Marketing and Children
Digital represents the point where ethi-
cal concerns around marketing to chil-
dren and those around public health in
light of food marketing converge. In some
countries, ninety percent of children pos-
sess a mobile phone with Internet access
while as many as sixty percent of under-
fives have regular access to a tablet. Of
course, the growing exposure of children
to a “second screen” poses questions well
beyond responsible marketing yet issues
around privacy, online security and safety
were a major focus for RAC in 2014 and
will continue to be so in 2015.
To address some of these challenges,
WFA launched the Marketing to Children
Road Test. It is an e-learning tool designed
to identify the most sensitive and conten-
tious marketing techniques with a view to
helping brands stay ahead of the curve,
avoid public or media criticism or, worse
still, contravene regulations in relation to
marketing to children.
This initiative has been supported by
toy and food marketers alike given that
the public health debate around food
marketing has reinvigorated the age-old
Responsible Advertising
and Children Programme
ethical debate around marketing to chil-
dren. Regulators worldwide are adopting
and revising regulatory frameworks on
marketing to children, whether in Brazil,
China, Vietnam, Malaysia or Ecuador. RAC
will have its hands full addressing these
challenges as well as emerging debates,
such as gender stereotyping, in 2015.
Media Literacy
The only long-term solution to so many
of these policy challenges is education.
Media Smart has been launched in nine
countries so far in Europe and RAC is
keen to drive further growth of the pro-
gramme, help facilitate the exchange
of best practice and materials between
countries and champion the concept as
a credible and effective means of equip-
ping children with the skills to be media
literate.
In 2014, RAC facilitated the set-up of Media
Smart World, which brings together existing
national Media Smart secretariats. RAC has
already conducted an audit of national pro-
grammes, identifying progress, perceived
shortfalls and successes and core priorities
for each market.
In 2015, RAC will seek to respond to these
priorities directly by broadening outreach
to industry and non-industry stakeholders
to raise awareness, help champion the
Media Smart brand and facilitate growth
at a national level.
24
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Loïc Armand, L’Oréal
Didier Beauclair, UDA, France
Katrine Bjerre Milling Eriksen, Carlsberg
Pierre-Jean Bozo, Union of Advertisers (France)
Simone Ceruti, Danone
David Coleman, McDonald’s
Sarah Cuvellier, LVMH
Andrea De Gioia, Procter & Gamble
Chiara Di Stefano, Ferrero
Barry Dooley, Association of Advertisers in Ireland
Cécile Duprez-Naudy, Nestlé
Laureline Frossard, UDA, France
Christopher Garza, Kellogg Company
Caterina Geremei, LVMH
Oliver Gray, EASA
Rafaela Hartenstein, Hasbro Inc.
David Hartz, LEGO Group
André Hémard, Pernod Ricard
Wenche Jacobsen, ANFO, Norway
Dan Jaffe, Association of National Advertisers Inc (US)
Franz Kraus, Mondelez International
Julien Lafleur, Landmark
Malte Lohan, Anheuser-Busch InBev
Dominic Lyle, EACA
Guilherme Monteiro Ferreira, GlaxoSmithKline
Jennifer Pearson, EASA
Christiaan Prins, Unilever
Sandrine Ricard, Pernod Ricard
Magali Sartre, Groupe Bel
Piero Soave, Diageo
Sibylle Stanciu, EASA
Ian Twinn, Incorporated Society of British Advertisers
Vincent Vandepitte, Procter & Gamble
Alberto Vivaldelli, Italian Advertisers Association
Astrid Williams, PepsiCo
Andrey Zaytsev, Kraft Foods Inc.
Muriel Zevaco, Groupe Bel
WFA, Brussels, November
25
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
The defining characteristic for 2014 was
the increasing globalisation of policy
challenges faced by brands when mar-
keting in today’s society.
Global challenges
Data protection, profiling, gender ste-
reotyping, ad misplacement, native ad-
vertising and a number of other areas
received increasing attention from policy
makers around the world.
In response, we saw a growing appe-
tite from WFA members to tackle these
challenges in a coordinated manner. As
such, self-regulatory responses to these
challenges increasingly embraced this
international dimension. One example
was the strong progress that was made
in promoting self-regulatory standards
across the APEC region.
As a consequence the Policy Action
Group (formerly the European Action
Group) evolved throughout 2014 to bet-
ter reflect the global nature of the policy
challenges being discussed; reaching
out to countries and regions around the
world to share and leverage challenges
and best practice solutions.
No digital without data
Digital and data continued to grow in im-
portance for brand marketing strategies
with advertising investments moving
towards search, video and mobile. This,
in-turn, elevates the importance and in-
deed the risk posed by legislation which
threatens brands’ ability to advertise re-
sponsibly online.
Data protection and privacy still pose
the greatest challenge to the evolution
of digital marketing. The European Data
Protection Regulation, once implement-
ed, will create the most comprehensive
data protection legislation on the planet
and, in is current state, casts doubt as
to whether a proportionate solution to
data protection will be achieved.
WFA has advocated, since 2012, for a
risk-based approach to data protection
which recognises that different contexts
and types of data should require differ-
ent solutions. Progress is being made,
but there is a long way still to go.
Data protection is an excellent example
of a global policy challenge. Data pro-
tection reforms took place in a number
of countries around the world and the
threat of data localisation laws were
felt all the way from Russia to Brazil.
2015 will prove equally challenging and
the Policy Action Group will coordinate
WFA’s response to these international
developments.
Digital piracy
2014 also saw increasing political and
business pressure on the advertising
industry to stamp out the unintentional
flow of ad spend to illegal or nefarious
actors through ad misplacement.
POLICY ACTIONGROUP
The rapid uptake of programmatic buy-
ing across the globe, and the potential
for reduced control that comes with it,
meant that the risks of ad misplacement,
both to brand reputation and the integ-
rity of the industry, were broadly felt. Re-
sponses by industry and government to
this have so far been highly variable and
sharing best practice in this field will be
of upmost importance throughout 2015.
Joined-up self-regulation
One great example of joined-up self-
regulation is the European self-regula-
tory programme for online behavioural
advertising (OBA). The programme con-
tinued to grow in 2014, both in terms
of signatories but also in the number of
countries where it has been integrated
into the self-regulatory organisations
codes at a national level. The success of
the programme will be critical in advanc-
ing other self-regulatory solutions in the
digital ecosystem throughout 2015.
As we take a look around the world it is
clear that, as an industry, we are facing
global threats which must be tackled at
the local level and in a coordinated man-
ner. Anticipating threats and the timely
dissemination of best practices will be
critical to avoiding heavy-handed legis-
lation and the promotion of self-regula-
tory alternatives in a fast-moving digital
world.
26
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Jacqui Stephenson, Mars (Chair)
Monika Agocs, SAB Miller
Michael Aidan, Danone
Elliot Antrobus-Holder, Barclays
Jamie Bernard, Unilever
Jane Blacklock, SAB Miller
Rafael Bueno, Ferrero
Dieter Carstensen, LEGO
Muriel Codaccioni, McDonald’s
David Coleman, McDonald’s
Perrine Delahousse, Pernod Ricard
Gael Demenet, Groupe Bel
Chiara Di Stefano, Ferrero
Isabelle Faggianelli, LVMH
Mark Foster, Hasbro
Helen Gourdin, Diageo
Daniel Gurrola, Orange
Srna Herzog, Diageo
Leona Jacobson, McDonald’s
Prashant Khera, GlaxoSmithKline
Martin King, Kellogg Company
Evie Kyriakides, Mars
Hien Le, Hasbro
Vinita Lenaghan, PepsiCo
Orvokki Lohikoski, Microsoft Corporation
Karen Mak, Hasbro
Guilherme Monteiro Ferreira, GlaxoSmithKline
Jeremie Moritz, Pernod Ricard
Jaap Nellen, Ferrero
Henrik Olsson, Johnson & Johnson
Claudia Oudey, Pernod Ricard
Caroline Perriard, Nestlé
Valentina Pettenati, SAP
Luc Poniewiera, Ferrero
Ulrich Puerer, Red Bull
Fabienne Puzenat Vincent, Groupe Bel
Chris Schaumann, Microsoft Corporation
Anna Sheard, Hasbro
Sam Underhay, PepsiCo
Roslyn Vadala, Nestlé
Microsoft, London, June
27
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
2014 saw the opportune birth of WFA’s
Digital Governance Exchange at a time
when the protection of a brands’ reputa-
tion online has never been more essen-
tial yet, at the same time, more challeng-
ing. Throughout 2014, WFA witnessed
an emerging confluence of three trends;
the increasingly digital brand, the in-
creasingly concerned consumer and the
increasingly proactive policy-maker.
The Digital Brand
Firstly, brands continued to rapidly inte-
grate digital throughout their marketing
strategies. This saw the flow of ad spend
moving into more intimate digital spaces,
such as social and mobile. In addition,
brands are overwhelmingly embracing
big data strategies; investing in tools to
better collect, store and derive insights
from the global explosion of data.
The consequence of this is that brands
are now in control of more digital assets
than ever, and this number is growing
rapidly. Whilst this presents substantial
opportunities it does not come without
its share of risk.
The Concerned Consumer
Secondly, we witness mounting privacy
concerns from consumers coupled with
an increase in the number of consumer
empowerment tools.
That privacy concerns continued to grow
throughout 2014 is perhaps unsurprising
in a year which has been described as the
“year of the data breach”.
In December 2014, the Centre for Inter-
national Governance Innovation (CIGI)
published an international survey that
found that 64% of the 23,000 people
questioned are more worried about their
privacy than a year ago.
The Proactive Policy Maker
Thirdly, we saw mounting pressure on
governments to impose legislative con-
trols in the online world.
Greater societal concerns are manifesting
themselves in the form of reinforced ef-
forts from governments in finding ways to
regulate the online world, most notably
around the protection of people’s per-
sonal data.
The Digital Governance Exchange
The purpose of the Digital Governance
Exchange is to allow peers to exchange
solutions and best practice which help
to reconcile, and in some cases reverse,
these three emerging trends.
The ambition is to ensure marketers are
able to safely embrace digital by success-
fully navigating a largely unregulated but
increasingly sensitive environment, whilst
protecting their brand reputation.
Through 2014, the Digital Governance Ex-
change covered topics ranging from good
DIGITAL GOVERNANCE EXCHANGE
data management and ensuring stan-
dards across third parties to how to stay
safe in social and methods for enhancing
consumer trust online.
The meetings were attended by a combi-
nation of legal, marketing and communi-
cations specialists as it became instantly
apparent that effective digital governance
could not take place without engagement
from all relevant business units.
It’s all about trust
WFA’s Digital Governance Priorities Sur-
vey revealed a broad number of hot top-
ics for 2015 but the number one priority
identified by participants was enhancing
consumer trust online and, in particular,
within the data exchange relationship be-
tween brands and consumer.
Trust will be crucial in reconciling the Digi-
tal Brand with the Concerned Consumer.
As such, a sub-group was created to look
into practical ways in which brands can
create meaningful transparency and con-
sumer choice and better understand the
value exchange between marketer and
consumer in the online world.
2015 will be a challenging year for com-
panies looking to safely explore and excel
in the online environment but we hope
through forums such as the Digital Gover-
nance Exchange, WFA is helping its mem-
bers to anticipate these problem areas,
adopt solutions and better protect their
invaluable reputations.
28
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Attendees 2014
Monika Agocs, SABMiller
Mary Barazotto, Brown-Forman
Anders Bering, Carlsberg
Katrine Bjerre Milling, Carlsberg
Stefano Fresi, Bacardi
Gabor Garamszegi, SABMiller
Rutger Goethart, Heineken
Lindsay Graham, Bacardi
André Hémard, Pernod Ricard
Armand Hennon, Pernod Ricard
Srna Herzog, Diageo
Steve Leroy, AB InBev
Malte Lohan, AB InBev
Bob Rayner, Diageo
Sandrine Ricard, Pernod Ricard
Kieran Simpson, Heineken
Piero Soave, Diageo
Roland Verstappen, Heineken
Kerry Walsh Skelly, Brown-Forman
Rick Wilson, Bacardi
29
PEER-TO-PEER GROUPS
Responsible Marketing Pact
In an attempt to tackle the worrying phe-
nomenon of underage drinking, and driv-
en by the perception that harmful drink-
ing is encouraged – amongst other factors
– by the marketing of such products, the
European Institutions as well as many EU
Member States are increasing regulatory
pressure on the marketing of alcoholic
beverages.
Several EU Member States have already
strengthened existing laws on alcohol
marketing. The European Commission is
planning on including provisions related
to marketing in its new EU Strategy to
Support Member States in Reducing Alco-
hol-related Harm.
In 2012, against this challenging backdrop
and as a contribution to help reduce un-
derage drinking, the eight leading alcohol
producers (Anheuser-Busch InBev, Ba-
cardi Martini, Brown-Forman, Carlsberg,
Diageo, Heineken, Pernod Ricard and
SABMiller – together representing over
60% of EU alcohol ad spend) supported
by their EU sector trade associations, set
common standards and practices to mi-
nimise minors’ access, appeal as well as
exposure to alcohol marketing across all
media.
In June 2014, the Responsible Market-
ing Pact (RMP), the first ever cross-sector
self-regulation programme on alcohol
advertising, was officially launched and
presented to the European Alcohol and
Health Forum, the multi-stakeholder plat-
form created by the European Commis-
sion to ‘debate, compare approaches and
act to tackle alcohol related harm’.
The RMP contains significant innovations
such as a ‘standard alcohol profile’ on so-
cial media composed of key ‘safeguards’
to limit minors’ access to alcohol brands’
profiles, channels and pages on the main
social networks. It also contains the first
blacklist of prohibited creative features
which these leaders commit to never rep-
resenting within their marketing commu-
nications.
The RMP is currently still in its launch
phase. The results of independent moni-
toring will be publicly shared with the Eu-
ropean Commission as of 1st June 2015.
International Alliance
for Responsible Drinking (IARD)
2014 also marked the launch of the Digi-
tal Guiding Principles (DGPs), the first
global set of guidelines for responsible
digital alcohol advertising.
As part of the Beer, Wine and Spirits Pro-
ducers’ Commitments to Reduce Harmful
Drinking, thirteen global alcohol leaders
(Anheuser‐Busch InBev, Bacardi, Beam
ALCOHOL MARKETING
Suntory, Brewers Association of Japan,
Brown‐Forman Corporation, Carlsberg,
Diageo, Heineken, Japan Spirits & Li-
queurs Makers Association, Molson Co-
ors, Pernod Ricard, SABMiller and UB
Group) have committed to developing a
set of global guiding principles for alcohol
beverage marketing in digital media.
With this in mind, the International Alli-
ance for Responsible Drinking mandated
WFA to design and help publicly launch
these DGPs. For a year, WFA in partner-
ship with IARD and a taskforce composed
of digital experts from a wide range of
these companies, worked on these digi-
tal guidelines and achieved a final agree-
ment with sign off from all signatory com-
panies.
Using digital platforms to promoting re-
sponsible drinking, protecting minors
from being exposed to online alcohol
advertising and ensuring brand owners
respect users’ privacy, these DGPs pro-
vide tangible guidelines for responsible
alcohol advertising globally and across all
digital platforms.
In September 2014, the Digital Guiding
Principles were officially launched in New
York City in front of a high-level panel of
experts, including a representative of the
US Federal Trade Commission.
30
WFA EVENTS 2014
Sydney played host to the WFA Global Marketer Week in March
2014. WFA teamed up with its local member, the Australian
Association of National Advertisers (AANA) to put on a week
of events, the showpiece of which was the Global Marketer
Conference. Bringing together over five hundred delegates
from over thirty countries, it featured a star-studded line-up of
speakers from the global marketing industry.
WFA President and CMO at Pernod Ricard, Martin Riley, advised
brands on how they might avoid “Tahrir Square” or “Wikileaks”
moments in an age of ultra-connectivity and transparency while
Senior Vice President of Marketing at Unilever, Marc Mathieu,
explained why a brand without a purpose is “just another
billboard” and why the concept of ‘consumer’ is now dead given
people no longer accept being treated as a consumer or target
audience.
That said, “we are much less individual than we’d like to think
and much more influenced by others than we’d like to admit,”
commented BrainJuicer’s, John Kearon, as he put the audience
through their paces to prove his point. “We think much less
than we think; decisions are driven by emotion, instinct and
intuition.”
Sir John Hegarty agreed. Marketers need ideas to be inclusive;
they should always elicit an emotional response and look to
inspire. He reminded the audience that looking at the history
of marketing, the work that wins is work that tells the truth.
“Marketer must move from creating a myth and telling it, to
finding a truth and sharing it,” added Mathieu.
Kearon conferred: “It’s still about great stories, being meaningful
and engaging people as social animals.” “There’s nothing more
valuable than people feeling like they have a stake in your
brands,” chimed Ed Sanders, Head of Marketing at Google Glass.
CEO of Adidas Greater China, Colin Currie, conjured an intricate
and comprehensive overview of the differences in Chinese
consumers and cultures, reminding marketers that a one-
size-fits-all approach to marketing in China won’t work. Acer
CMO, Michael Birkin, offered compelling insight into engaging
millennials, a category with $2.45 trillion spending power: get it
right and 8 in 10 millennials will take action on behalf of a brand
they can relate to!
How to be a successful marketer in the future? Clearly a mixture
of purpose, authenticity, transparency, agility and in-depth
Global Marketer Week
Sydney
Marc Mathieu addresses the Project Reconnect session
insight. Or as James Thompson, Global Managing Director of
Diageo Reserve, put it more simply: “a mixture of humility and
conviction.”
As always, the Conference was complemented by a number
of public events, including the annual Contagious Inspiration
session hosted by Google, a great opportunity to look into the
most cutting-edge and innovative trends at the intersection of
communications, technology and culture.
The Project Reconnect (www.project-reconnect.org) session,
held in an intimate bar setting on Darling Harbour, gave
stage to We Are Social who presented the results from WFA
research on what makes today’s greatest brands and what do
their commonalities tell us about the future of marketing?
The answer? Four new Ps: people, purpose, principles and
participation.
A panel of senior marketers from Pernod Ricard, Kimberly Clark
and Unilever responded to the findings, the latter concluding
that “there is a new value exchange that is happening before
our eyes. People are taking over the creation of marketing.”
WFA member meetings were held throughout the week,
including the Executive Committee, the Annual General Meeting
at which the WFA Officers were elected and the National
Associations Council which brings heads of national associations
together to share insight and exchange best practice in terms
of membership and management and best representing the
interests of marketers at a national level.
31
WFA EVENTS 2014
Marc Mathieu, SVP Marketing, Unilever Sir John Hegarty, Founder, Creative, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) Ed Sanders, Head of Marketing, Glass, Google
James Thompson, Global Managing Director, Diageo Reserve John Kearon, Chief Juicer, BrainJuicer Colin Currie, Managing Director, adidas Group Greater China
32
WFA EVENTS 2014
On June 24-25, WFA co-hosted its 11th Annual Latin America
Regional Meeting together with the Panama Advertiser
Association(ANDAPanama)inPanamaCity.Theforumbrought
together experts from WFA’s National Advertiser Associations
from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay,
Peru and Uruguay, as well as senior corporate members from
companies with activities in the region.
Presentations and discussion topics included public affairs issues
relating to responsible food marketing, marketing to children,
alcohol marketing and data collection and privacy. Marketing-
related topics included a session on insight generation where
BrainJuicer presented on how brands can use behavioural
science to move away from a persuasion-based model of
marketing and embrace a seduction-based model instead.
A focus was also given over to media auditing in Latin America
and included external speakers from MarketShare on how to
better understand ROI from marketing investment and media
auditors, IBOPE, on best practice in the field of media audience
measurement. The meetings finished with a WFA-led session on
media agency remuneration.
The two day event was chaired by the new WFA Regional
Vice-President for Latin America and Senior Vice-President of
Marketing at Grupo Bimbo, Javier Medrano. The 2015 meetings
will be hosted in Grupo Bimbo’s offices in Mexico City.
Latin American Regional Meeting
Panama City
34
STAFF
Stephan Loerke
Managing Director
Stephan manages the WFA secretariat, oversees all work carried
out on behalf of its members and is the WFA’s main spokesperson.
He sits on all WFA public affairs and marketing committees, as well
as on the WFA Executive Committee.
Prior to joining WFA, Stephan worked at the United Nations in New
York and later in both marketing and management roles at L’Oréal.
Combining French and German nationalities, Stephan speaks
French, German, English, Dutch and Spanish.
Matt Green
Senior Manager
Marketing Communications
Matt is responsible for the delivery
of research, benchmarking and
consultancy services to the WFA
MEDIAFORUM and DIGITALFO-
RUM and for setting the agenda,
for discussion and approach, to
core global media and digital is-
sues.
As well as providing services to
brands based in Europe and North
America, Matt is facilitating the ex-
pansion of the network into China
and India.
Matt is a British national and has
had the pleasure of working for
global clients as media agent with
MediaCom and as client lead with
two media management consul-
tancies, including Ebiquity.
Any Ung
Marketing
Communications Manager
After five years working on the
agency side, Any joined WFA’s
marketing team in 2010. She
leads the IMCFORUM, setting
the group’s agenda, facilitating
benchmarking and peer research
and expanding the IMCFORUM’s
global footprint.
Her responsibilities also include
the management of the CMOFO-
RUM and WFA’s strategic part-
nerships, as well as the organisa-
tion of a number of events, such
as the annual Global Marketer
Week and webinars on priority
marketing topics.
A French national of Chinese ori-
gin, Any speaks French, English,
Spanish and Cambodian.
Robert Dreblow
Head of Marketing
Capabilities
Robert leads the WFA’s market-
ing communications team. His
focus includes championing
member priorities at the WFA
and industry events, keeping
members updated on key trends
and overseeing peer groups for
integrated marketing communi-
cations, media, digital market-
ing, insights, sponsorship and
marketing procurement.
Prior to joining the WFA, Rob-
ert was an Associate Director at
MediaCom where he spent eight
years split between London and
Toronto.
Steve Lightfoot
Senior Manager Global
Marketing Procurement
Steve has been with the WFA for
eight years and manages a global
group of over 450 marketing
procurement contacts, as well as
the INSIGHTFORUM, launched in
2014.
Steve offers bespoke consultancy
to this network and is facilitating
delivery of services to Asia-Pa-
cific and Latin American-based
sourcing contacts.
Prior to joining WFA, Steve com-
pleted a research Masters in
marketing at the University of
Leeds. Originally from the UK,
Steve speaks French and English.
Adam Gagen
Director of
Legal & Public Affairs
Adam oversees WFA’s public
affairs work, including relations
with international organisations
and the European institutions,
to help members manage their
strategic response to policy
challenges.
Before, Adam spent five years
in Hong Kong managing Pernod
Ricard’s public affairs agenda
(regulatory affairs, alcohol policy,
CSR). Prior to that, Adam worked
at the European Commission
on trade and political relations
between the EU and China/
Taiwan.
Educated in the UK and US, he
has lived in Brussels, Shanghai,
Taipei, Beijing and Hong Kong.
Will Gilroy
Director of
Communications
Will joined the WFA in 2002. He
oversees all WFA communica-
tions and public affairs work on
food marketing and marketing
and children as well as the or-
ganisation’s regional activities in
Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
Since 2012, he has been based in
Singapore.
Prior to the WFA, Will was a
press and TV journalist working
in France, UK and Spain for cli-
ents including ARTE, Channel 4
and The Times, London. A Brit-
ish national, Will is a graduate of
Modern Languages from Oxford
University and speaks French
and Spanish.
35
Chris Payne
Public Affairs Manager
Chris joined the WFA in 2013 and
is responsible for leading advo-
cacy work in relation to digital
advertising. He represents the
WFA within the European Inter-
active Digital Advertising Alliance
and manages the Policy Action
Group and the Digital Gover-
nance Exchange.
Previously, he worked for a Lon-
don-based public affairs consul-
tancy, in public affairs and com-
munications roles at CEMEX and
General Electric and as an advis-
er in both the UK and European
Parliaments.
Karine Lesuisse
Office Manager
Karine has been the first point of
contact for all WFA members for
many years. She is responsible
for the back office, the everyday
running of the secretariat, per-
sonnel and finance issues.
Theresa and Karine work in tan-
dem for all administrative is-
sues and support each other for
meeting logistics.
A Belgian national, Karine speaks
English and French.
Martin Mycielski
Database Manager
Martin started his career in Po-
land, first in politics and then
managing his own company.
After moving to Brussels he ran
an MEP office at the European
Parliament, co-organised the Pol-
ish EU Presidency and managed
REACH consortia at McKenna
Long & Aldridge LLP.
Martin holds a joint Master’s De-
gree in Diplomatic and Business
Protocol, Foreign Relations and
Event Organisation from univer-
sities in Madrid and Brussels,
having previously studied Iberian
Culture and Management in War-
saw. He speaks English, French
and his native Polish.
Theresa Ruess
Member Relations &
Event Coordinator
Theresa joined the WFA in 2010.
She supports Karine in running
the office and is in charge of the
logistics for all WFA meetings
and events, including the WFA
Global Marketer Week.
A German national, Theresa
speaks German, Dutch, English
and French.
Camelia Cristache
Communications Manager
Camelia joined the WFA in 2014
to work on WFA’s internal and
external communications, while
also managing the WFA network
of national advertiser associa-
tions on six continents.
She has previously worked on
the consultancy side in Bucha-
rest and Brussels for ITC, health-
care and pharma, energy, bank-
ing and FMCG companies as
well as being Communications
Adviser to a Vice President of the
European Parliament’s largest
political group.
Camelia has a Master’s Degree in
New Media from Vrije Universit-
eit Brussels and speaks English,
French, Italian, as well as her na-
tive Romanian.
Paola de la Baume
Public Affairs Manager
After four years as a parliamen-
tary assistant and campaign chief
for a member of the French Na-
tional Assembly, Paola joined
WFA’s public affairs team in 2012.
She leads WFA’s advocacy work
on alcohol-related issues.
Paola is also a lecturer at Science
Po Paris in the second year of the
Master’s programme in Market-
ing Communications.
A French national, Paola speaks
English, French, Italian and Span-
ish and graduated from Science
Po Paris.
Natalia Echeverri
Knowledge Manager
A Colombian national, Natalia
joined the WFA as Knowledge
Manager, a new role focused on
delivering remote knowledge ex-
change created in response to the
WFA’s expanding membership.
She has seven years work expe-
rience at MillwardBrown in Co-
lombia, in retail marketing with a
Chilean Department Store in both
Chile and Colombia and in digital
marketing at Henkel in Germany.
Natalia initially moved to Europe
for a Master’s Degree in Inter-
national Marketing in France
and then relocated to Brussels.
She speaks Spanish, English and
French.
Abtin Kronold
Public Affairs Manager
Abtin joined the WFA in early
2014 to work on food market-
ing to children and to coordinate
the Responsible Advertising and
Children Programme.
Prior to the WFA, Abtin worked
at Facebook as EU Policy Coor-
dinator as well as a legal consul-
tant to the European Commis-
sion. Between his degrees, he
worked as a membership officer
at the International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC) in Paris.
He holds a Swedish L.LM and a
joint Master’s Degree in EU Law
and Policy from four partner uni-
versities in France, Italy, Spain
and Poland. Abtin is an Iranian-
Swede national and he is fluent
in English, French, Swedish, Ital-
ian and Farsi.
36
THE CONTAGIOUS DECADE: A PRIMER
A is for Apple. The transformation of
Apple from technology also-ran to the
world’s most valuable brand has been
a defining obsession across ten years
of Contagious. In so many ways the an-
tithesis of open ‘for everyone’ internet
culture, the company and its superbly
polished works have established a set of
standards for user experience that have
fundamentally altered our expectations
of, and relationship with computers. Be-
stowing a sense of agency and mastery
over our gadgets even while edging us
further away from a true understanding
of how stuff works, the Cupertino corpo-
ration has handed us the keys to an ex-
pertly enabled world of communication,
community and commerce. A world that
reflects our new normal: where A is also
for Always on, for Apps and Algorithms
and APIs. A world that can incubate the
Arab Spring and Anonymous. A world
with Amazon and Alibaba in the ascen-
dancy. And then, of course, there is An-
droid. While Apple’s iOS-running mobile
devices rule the high end of the market,
in less than a decade Android has become
the people’s choice, the de facto operat-
ing system du monde. But even with 85%
of smartphones shipped this year running
Google’s software, the race to run the
world is still a long way from being over.
A is also for alliteration: brace yourselves
for B…
THE PAST TEN YEARS HAVE BEEN A GLORIOUS MASH-UP: EVOLUTION AND
REVOLUTION IN EQUAL MEASURE, A CLUMSY BUT EXHILARATING WALTZ INTO
OUR UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTED, PLATFORM-AGNOSTIC AND RELENTLESSLY
ACCELERATING FUTURES.
BEFORE WE SALLY FORTH INTO A FITTER,FASTER UNKNOWN,A LITTLE ORIENTATION
SEEMS IN ORDER: LOG OFF, LEAN IN AND PORE OVER OUR ATTEMPT TO IMPOSE
NEATLY ALPHABETISED ORDER ON THE CHAOS OF THE CONTAGIOUS ZEITGEIST.
B is for Broadband, benevolent bearer
of bandwidth, the better to support the
binge-viewing of Breaking Bad. As a ba-
sic component of our communication
infrastructure, broadband penetration
has delivered benefits above and beyond
our basic old-school telecoms needs.
Described as a fourth utility after water,
heating and electricity, in 2009 the World
Bank put it thus: ‘Broadband is not just
an infrastructure. It is a general-purpose
technology that can fundamentally re-
structure an economy.’ That was true
even before 2008 became the year of bra-
vado-and-bullshit-fuelled banking balls-
ups, but possibly even more necessary in
its aftermath.
The letter B has also brought us BYOD
(Bring Your Own Device), an alternative to
clunking, employer-issued tech; Bitcoin,
an alternative to clunking, centralised
currency; Beacons, a nascent alternative
to clunking, irrelevant marketing; and
BuzzFeed, an alternative to clunking, text-
heavy news and entertainment.
C is for Cats. Pictures of cats. Cat memes.
Cat videos. Really, though, the rise of cats
is simply the cute, furry face of the rise of
Content in all its guises.
The creation, curation, circulation and
consumption of material and messages is
booming as the tools of production and
channels of distribution become ever
more accessible. Simultaneously, how-
ever, attention is a resource in effective
decline, no matter how diligent our multi-
screen multi-tasking becomes. Coming up
with content that can compete on merit
against everything else out there is ex-
actly as hard as it sounds, and the brands
that are doing it well are few and far be-
tween.
Ten years ago, the ‘C-word’ was Conver-
gence; at the beginning of Contagious it
was hypothetical, a talking point. Now
we’re living it: untold functionality and
utility is telescoped into devices that are
seldom beyond arm’s reach, and the evo-
lution of consumer electronics continues
to be fascinating. Somehow, though, we
don’t seem to have any fewer gadgets:
the ‘Peak Stuff’ story of late 2011 may
have been a false dawn. Peak cats? No-
where near.
Special mention to the Crowd: some kind
of ‘Many Hands Make Light Work’ award
seems appropriate, although more for
contributions to art and science than to
marketing. You shall all receive one mil-
lionth of one percent of one hand clap-
ping. And the gong for storage is meta-
phorically awarded to the Cloud, even if,
as the Daily Mail recently clarified, it is
‘not an actual cloud’.
D is for Disruption. Or should that be
Disintermediation? Or maybe even De-
mocratisation? The combination of Digi-
tal technology and hot and cold running
Data is driving the re-imagination of en-
The Contagious Decade:
a Primer
37
THE CONTAGIOUS DECADE: A PRIMER
tire business categories, with music and
publishing the canaries in the coal mine
for other established businesses trying
to weather the revolution. Distribution is
also up for grabs: if your product can be
broken down into zeros and ones, there’s
the internet. For everything else there’s
Drones and Driverless cars. But top dog
among the Ds is Design, the discipline
and rigour that’s informing the ongoing
over-haul of our world and the organisa-
tions and objects in it. Design has become
more holistic, a strategic as well as an
aesthetic factor and increasingly an open
and inclusive process too.
E is for the era-defining Economy,
dragged down as banking revealed itself
to be not so much a system as a sink-hole,
caving in under exponential entropy and
its own preposterous lack of substance.
It’s for Ecosystems, slick, self-serving,
habit-forming, loyalty-locking walled gar-
dens of blissfully consistent UX. It’s for
Empowerment, especially in the rapidly
emerging nations (more MINT, less BRIC)
leapfrogging established tech infrastruc-
ture and cutting straight to the chase with
mobile. E is for Experience, a new preoc-
cupation throughout this industry and
beyond. For Experimentation because
we can, and, more prosaically, for Email,
an era-defining communications epidem-
ic that even the Emoji has yet to eclipse.
F is obviously for Facebook, not so much
the social network of choice as an inter-
net-age equivalent of the phone direc-
tory: most of us are in it, and if you’re
not, it’s a bit of a statement. Undeniably
useful (as sounding board, stalking appa-
ratus, as authentication/universal login),
Facebook has attained a degree of ubiq-
uity that is now its best defence against
rival platforms. Wherever it happens,
though, our online flocking together is
fuelling the uncanny acceleration we feel
across so many aspects of our lives. The
simmering culture of Fear, the Filter-
bubbles and the Fan culture: everything
from Fifty Shades’ flights of fan-fic fanta-
sy to the mainstreaming of Festivals feels
connected to our increased exposure to,
well, everything.
G is for Google, not only the front door to
the internet, but also a company of global
consequence with an ambitious tendency
to reach for the stars (OK, the moon) and
fingers in dozens of different digital pies.
But G is also for also for Games of every
conceivable stripe. Against a thoroughly
dispiriting backdrop of Globalisation, the
GFC, and the growing Gap between rich
and poor, the huddled masses have been
keeping their spirits up with regular doses
of racy fantasy epic Game of Thrones, the
most-pirated TV show ever (see also Tor-
renting). Gaming in all its guises has also
become ever-more pervasive, an under-
acknowledged fact thrown into relief with
the release of Grand Theft Auto V, which
earned $1bn in three days flat, faster than
any other entertainment product, ever.
We also have gaming to thank for the gift
that is Gesture-control: what started with
the Nintendo Wii quickly opened up a
whole new world with Kinect, now sen-
sitive enough to track players’ heartbeats
through the pulsing of their skin. But as
sophisticated as Gaming has become,
we’re still suckers for animated GIFs.
H is for Hype Cycle, Gartner’s handy
graphic tool for mapping the maturity,
adoption and social application of specific
technologies. So we know, for example,
that Haptics (aka tactile feedback tech-
nology) are currently climbing the Slope
of Enlightenment, while Head-mounted
displays are sliding into the Trough of
Disillusionment. Fun, isn’t it? What if we
could measure the ebb and flow of con-
temporary life in the same way? Harry
Styles: Peak of Inflated Expectations.
Hipsters: Trough. In reality our non-tech
hype is measured in Hashtags: at one
end of the human-endeavour spectrum
the Higgs boson discovery got the world
talking about physics, topping the trend-
ing list on Twitter on July 4, 2012; at the
other, Hacking has made the top ten with
depressing regularity.
I is for Image Explosion. If you’re more
Instagram than Internet of Things, this is
for you. At the end of last year, Yahoo! es-
timated that 880 billion photos would be
taken in 2014, 123 for every man, woman
and child on the planet. Self-contained
cameras are fewer and further between,
but combine smartphones and social plat-
forms with an exponential rise in storage
capacity, and Lo! a new visual language is
born, and anyone can speak it. Expertise
is not the point: the ability to shoot and
share something important, or interest-
ing or pertinent is. The upshot is that pic-
tures have not only helped to define and
document the past few years, they’ve de-
veloped (retro-pun!) into a kind of social
currency and visual shorthand that fuels
and fosters communication on all levels.
J is for Justin, Jay-Z, Jobs, a series of
names of varying significance. Justin
Bieber gets a shout for becoming one
of our first, and most unavoidable You-
Tube stars, inspiring a surge in sales of
hair products for young men; Jay-Z gets
a shout for sound-tracking the zeitgeist
and for a preternatural understanding
of branding that’s allowed him not only
to embody authenticity, but to confer
it on a roll-call of brands – Reebok, HP,
Budweiser, Heineken, Jaguar, Samsung –
without denting his own apparently bot-
tomless appeal; and of course, there is
– was – Jobs, Steve Jobs, visionary, game-
changer and a whole other kind of icon.
38
THE CONTAGIOUS DECADE: A PRIMER
K is for Knowledge, and the changing re-
lationship we have with it. Access to infor-
mation is a transformative thing. Samuel
Johnson said: ‘Knowledge is of two kinds.
We know a subject ourselves or we know
where we can find information upon it.’
He was talking libraries, but the effect of
the internet has upped the ante by an-
other order of magnitude: a whole gen-
eration, when confronted with a gap in
comprehension or savoir-faire, reflexively
knows they can Just Fucking Google It. Or
pick up a Kindle. For those who don’t au-
tomatically turn to the internet, a pitying
digital native is usually on hand with an
eye-roll and a smartphone to help them
out. From Kimye to Kahneman, from K-
pop to Kale, it is getting easier to know
stuff. But it is getting harder to explain to
your kids why school and homework still
matters.
L is for Learning. The acquisition of knowl-
edge and skills is a long way from being
irrelevant, in fact it’s booming as people
around the world sign up in their millions
for tutorials, classes and qualifications of
every conceivable type. The increasing
availability of MOOCs, or massively open
online courses, is offering unlimited par-
ticipation and open access to some of the
most respected educators and academic
institutions in the world. The power of
learning has not been lost on brands and
business, and the proliferation of Labs in
recent years is no coincidence. Test and
Learn, Lean in, think global act Local and
love thy LGBTI neighbours: that’s how it
gets better. (Also, read things that are lon-
ger than a Listicle.)
M is for Mobile. It’s so obvious we
shouldn’t even have to say it. Every year
as far back as we can remember has been
The Year of Mobile, and yet it never quite
seemed to be true. Can we stop now?
It’s just how we do stuff. It’s becoming a
Meme, but more in the original Richard
Dawkins sense than the ‘I can haz cheez-
burger’ sense. Our collective conscious-
ness is gradually optimising for mobile.
It may take another Moonshot to get us
beyond that…
N is for Netflix, feeding our need for the
next movie, the next episode and the next
season with all-you-can-eat dedication to
our appetite for more of that thing that
we love. Thank you Netflix. It’s easy to
forget that in return we’re feeding Netflix
the data it thrives on, from which it can
deduce how better to serve – hell, even to
create – more of what we crave. There are
other Ns to consider: the impact of the
Network Effect; the rise of Nationalism;
the self-conscious ordinariness of Norm-
core; the not-quite-there-yetness of NFC;
And Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge theory,
subtly engineering choice architecture to
alter behaviour, to wit: ‘Nudges are not
mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts
as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.’
Which brings us to O.
O is for Obesity. The World Health Organ-
isation defines obesity as ‘excessive fat
accumulation that may impair health’, a
condition signified by a Body Mass Index
of more than 30. According to the Ameri-
can Medical Association, two thirds of the
US population is overweight, with 36%
of adults clinically obese. In the UK and
China, a quarter of all adults are obese;
in Russia the figure is 23%; Brazil 15%.
The epidemic claims the lives of 2.8 mil-
lion adults per year, making it the fifth
most common cause of death globally.
The Trust for America’s Health and the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have
predicted that more than half of the US
could be obese by 2030, costing $66bn
in treatment and at least $500bn in lost
economic productivity. Gulp. Or should
that be OMG? We have less depressing
Os: On-demand (see also Netflix), Open
Source, O.Ba.Ma. Occupy. Oversharing.
Damn, we were doing so well… Wait: OK
Go! ‘OK Glass…’ Gah.
P is for Privacy. A lot has happened over
the past ten years, but as blithely as we
adopt, early or otherwise, the shiny gad-
gets and devices of the new millennium,
we are still easily creeped-out when con-
fronted with the tales they tell on us. Ban-
ner ads for stuff that we’ve looked at – or
already bought! – follow us around the in-
ternet. We’re routinely asked to sign away
our data in language that obscures rather
than clarifies the reasons why that should
be necessary.
Research by GfK found that 80% of con-
sumers surveyed wanted more regulation
to protect their data privacy and less than
40% trust marketers with their personal
data. That’s bad enough in the smart-
phone era, but the more connected our
daily lives become (and Cisco predicts the
Internet of Things will see 50 billion ob-
jects hooked up to the internet by 2020),
the more necessary clear and reasonable
communication becomes. Why is this not
a ‘Purpose’ issue for more brands? Stay
tuned.
Q is for QR codes. The optimistically
named Quick Response Code has been
both a blessing and a curse. Its success
in Asia has failed to herald its embrace
in Western markets where it continues
to be the weakest link in many a market-
ing campaign. Let’s move on. Quantified
Self. The proliferation of sensors, data
and the devices and software to gather
and process a relentless stream of infor-
mation has gifted us the ability to be self-
obsessed aware in mind-boggling detail.
QS might seem, well, selfish, but really it’s
the beginning of quantified everything.
Yes, it is profound and amazing, just spare
us the details, okay?
R is for… Reprise! (to the tune of We
Didn’t Start the Fire) Rise of the extreme
right, renewables, real-time Reviews, roll-
ing news, reality TV Recession, Raspberry
Pi, riots, robots, Rockefellers switch from
oil to cleaner energy
We didn’t start the fire…
S is for… (keep it going…) Selfies, shar-
ing, screens, space, Snowden Storytell-
ing, Stuxnet, Silicon Valley, Second Life,
streaming, Shenzhen, Soylent Same-sex
marriage, sustainability
We didn’t start the fire…
39
THE CONTAGIOUS DECADE: A PRIMER
Extracts from the Con-
tagious X magazine are
reprinted courtesy of
Contagious Communica-
tions limited. Contagious
provide marketing com-
munications insight and intelligence for
brands, through consultancy, online and
print based resources and events. To find
out more, visit contagious.com.
T is for TED, and for TED Talks, a theat-
rical, time-limited format for spreading
ideas with impact – a bit like WikiHow, but
slightly less practical. Twitter performs a
similar idea-and-information dissemina-
tion function, but with greater economy
and a lot more Trolling. Ideas don’t have
to be good to spread, though: Tea Party,
take a bow. They also don’t have to be ob-
vious: who’d have thought Twitch.tv, the
internet equivalent of sports TV for gam-
ers, would become a thing (acquired for
$970m by Amazon, beating Google to the
deal)? Ideas don’t have to rely on Touch-
screens: feature phones are transforming
lives across the developing world. And
they don’t have to be the brainchild of
billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk, but it
sure does help. For content, of course, we
have Torrenting.
U is for User, as in User-friendly and User
experience, but also in the wider sense
as in You, the consumer, now enthroned
at the centre of the business universe
thanks to quotes like this from Jeff Bezos:
‘Above all else align with customers: win
when they win, win only when they win.’
It’s worked for Uber, the ride-sharing
under-dog-turned-undisputed-champion
of transit disruption. In startup culture,
every new venture wants to be the Uber
of something, but if we had to stand
shoulder to shoulder with one U-related
service provider it would be Kenya-based
Ushahidi Inc. The non-profit has grown
from crisis-mapping to providing open-
source tools and software, focusing on in-
novation and problem-solving on a social
scale. Genuinely Upworthy.
V is for video, because although soft-
ware may indeed be eating the world,
the world is too busy watching videos to
really give a damn. Omnicom recently ad-
vised its clients to shift as much as 25% of
their TV budgets to online video, and this
year eMarketer predicted that spending
on online video advertising will overtake
TV ad spend as early as 2018. From six-
second Vines to the latest ubiquitous vi-
ral, Video has eclipsed Voice-control, Vir-
tual Reality, Vampires and the curiously
disturbing rise of Vaping and Vice. It is a
Very. Big. Deal.
Welcome to the home stretch…
W is for Wearables, because frankly, what
could possibly compete? Not the wane of
Windows. Not even the wonder of wifi.
Not the diligently updated wisdom of
Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia, because we
take it for granted and laugh at it when
it’s wrong, even though it is a marvel of
endeavour and collaboration. And not
Wikileaks because even if information
wants to be free, we’re not totally con-
vinced that it should always get its way.
But everyone loves Wearables, right?
Whether that’s true now is not really
the point: whether it’s true in the next
ten years is way more important. Apple’s
famed capacity to create new markets
means a lot is riding on the success of its
Watch.
X is for… Cut us some slack: X is tricky,
we’re tired, and all we could think of was
The X Factor and the XPRIZE (which re-
ally is spelt like that, we checked). One is
a pitiless singing contest that humiliates
the desperate for easy LOLs; the other
is ‘a highly leveraged, incentivised prize
competition that pushes the limits of
what’s possible to change the world for
the better’. The best thing is, we don’t
have to choose, we live in a world where
these things can happily co-exist. So. Our
final desperate stab at X is a rallying cry to
bearers of the XX chromosome: women.
If there is one thing that’s even less even-
ly distributed than the future, it’s equal-
ity of opportunity, rights and respect for
women. Over the past ten years at Con-
tagious we’ve witnessed a steady build-
ing of efforts to redress the balance in all
kinds of ways, some branded (Coca-Cola 5
by 20), some not (Slutwalks). All chipping
away at a big, but fixable problem.
Y is for YouTube. From ‘Yes we can,’ to
YOLO, nothing has captured or embodied
the spirit of the Contagious decade quite
like YouTube. Now all the world really is a
stage, with no subject too big, no camera
work too shaky, no moment too trivial to
record and share. And this epic and yet
curiously personal platform has created
a new generation of players: avidly fol-
lowed stars of the small glowing screen,
racking up subscribers in the millions,
viewcounts in the billions and the kind of
revenue that make their parents feel okay
about how much time they’re spending in
their bedroom.
Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg is currently the
master of this oddball universe: a passion
for providing first-person commentary on
his video-game exploits has parlayed into
30 million channel subscribers, a total
viewcount in excess of 6 billion, and in-
come north of $4m per annum. A player
par excellence. YouTube is both the great-
est and most terrifying show on Earth.
Good thing we like to be scared…
…Because Z is for Zombies.
AMC’s premiere season five of The Walk-
ing Dead broke cable records with 17.3
million viewers tuning in for a fix of gore,
violence and life-or-undeath struggle. If
YouTube brings us face to face with the
world at its most human, the flipside is
our unsated appetite for tales of the Zom-
bie apocalypse.
The subject of TED talks and TV shows,
novels and Guardian think-pieces, zom-
bies are variously described as a response
to the rise of atheism (novelist Stephen
Marche), a metaphor for consumerism,
and ‘always double, a symbol of fail-
ure and success, slavery and rebellion’
(Professor Sarah Juliet
Lauro). In other words,
an endlessly versa-
tile metaphor for the
overwhelming churn
of unsettling cultural
circumstances and pos-
sibilities that define
our lives now – and an
entirely appropriate
response to an era of
change like no other.
We live in interesting
times. Every day might
feel like the end of the
world as we know it,
but mostly we feel fine.
Ten more years!
40
AD OUTLOOK AND DATA
Digital comes of age
Taking a long-term view of individual
media, the big story of the past decade
has been the inexorable rise of online
advertising. Search, social and display
ads – whether served through desktop,
tablet or smartphone – have now become
an indispensible part of the typical
marketer’s repertoire across the world.
Comparative Warc data from 2005 and
2015 highlight this seismic shift. From
taking just a 6% share of global adspend a
decade ago, online is forecast to account
for 29% this year.
In context, this is now almost equal to the
combined adspend share of print, radio,
cinema and outdoor advertising (31%).
Only TV will take a greater proportion
of ad dollars this year, though at a share
of 40% for 2015, this channel is likely
to remain the largest for many years to
come.
Globally, internet has been the fastest-
growing channel for much of the past
decade, and is forecast to increase by
+16.3% in 2015; TV, by way of comparison,
is predicted to expand by just +2.2%, while
Latest forecasts from Warc suggest
that global adspend growth will
accelerate over the years to 2016,
though a slowdown in the broader
economy could have a negative
impact on the industry.
This year, Warc expects an increase
in adspend of +4.8%, slightly higher
than 2014’s estimated expansion
of +4.3% and taking the value of
the global ad market to $559.9bn
for the year. In 2016, the rate
of global growth is set to rise to
+5.4%, underpinned by a strong
performance from both emerging
economies and North America.
Warc collates actual advertising
expenditure for 88 markets, and has
produced forecasts for key markets
for 2014–16. Using a combination
of adspend data and broader GDP
forecasts from the OECD and IMF,
we set out below some current ad
industry trends.
Net growth will be recorded for all
regions in 2015, with the pace of
expansion fastest in Latin America,
up +9.7% from 2014. In terms of
dollar value, the greatest growth will
be seen in Asia-Pacific, up +6.6% year
on year to $166.8bn; North America
will maintain its position as the
world’s largest ad region, however,
rising +3.8% to $183.6bn.
While still recording a net adspend
expansion for the year, Europe
remains the worst-performing global
region, rising +2.6% to $155.6bn.
Global advertising spend
& economic outlook, 2014-2015
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Yr-on-yr (%) change (Bars) US$ bn (Line)
Total global adspend 2004-2016
Source: Warc Data & Forecasts
Economic outlook, 2013–2016
0
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
2013 2014 2015 2016
Yr-on-yr%change
Global Advanced Economies Emerging Market and Developing Economies
Source: Warc Data & Forecasts
41
AD OUTLOOK AND DATA
Newspapers
Magazines
Television
Radio
Cinema
Outdoor
Internet
2005 Media mix 2015
30%
12%
37%
9%
0%
6%
6% 13%
5%
40%6%
1%
6%
29%
Source: Warc Data & Forecasts
Global
Americas
Asia Pacific
Europe
jan./12m
rt./12m
ei./12jul./12sep./12nov./12jan./13m
rt./13m
ei./13jul./13sep./13nov./13jan./14m
rt./14m
ei./14jul./14sep./14nov./14
* Headline GMI combines data for trading conditions, marketing budgets and staffing.
45,0
50,0
55,0
60,0
65,0
Global Marketing Index: Headline GMI* by region
Source: World Economics in association with Warc (*Headline GMI combines data for trading conditions,
marketing budgets and staffing. Above 50 = improving conditions; below 50 = declining conditions
both newspapers (-3.7%) and magazines
(-3%) will see net year-on-year declines.
Internet has also overtaken TV to become
the single biggest-spending ad channel
in major markets including the UK, China
and Canada: a list that is set to grow over
the years to come.
In short, advertisers are adapting to the
shift of viewers’ attention towards digital
platforms and away from the traditional
media.
Economicheadwinds
Despite this broadly positive news for
the industry, there remain significant
headwinds to growth in the broader
economy.
Latest forecasts for global output from the
IMF indicate an overall increase of +3.5%
for this year and +3.7% for 2016. This is
a downgrade from the previous 2015
forecast of +3.8%, and comes despite the
significant recent declines in commodity
prices, specifically oil – which traditionally
stimulates broader GDP growth. Other
obstacles to expansion include lower-
than-predicted business investment and
the impact of falling prices on consumer
spending and debt repayments.
The latest forecasts also highlight stark
contrasts in performance between mar-
kets. Overall, emerging market and de-
veloping economies are predicted to in-
crease output by +4.3% in 2015; on the
other hand, mature markets, including
Europe and North America, are set to
grow by just +2.4%.
Yet, there are also big contrasts in eco-
nomic performances within both of these
blocs. The emerging markets total in-
cludes still-strong 2015 growth of +6.8%
for China, but a decline of -3% for crisis-hit
Russia. Meanwhile, the advanced econo-
mies total also includes a +3.6% forecast
expansion for the US, the world’s largest
economy, which is partly cancelled out by
growth of just +1.2% for the Eurozone.
Marketers feeling
the pressure
These economic uncertainties are also
getting through to marketers, according
to latest results from our Global Market-
ing Index, a forward-looking indicator
based on data derived from a monthly
worldwide poll of agency and client-side
industry professionals. The index tracks
responses on three separate issues affect-
ing marketers: trading conditions, mar-
keting budgets and staffing levels.
Results across regions have fluctuated
throughout 2014, signalling uncertain-
ties in marketer sentiment. The Headline
GMI metric, which synthesizes responses
across all three of the issues tracked,
dropped late in the year, reaching 55.1 in
December, down from an annual high of
58.3 in April.
Region by region, marketers in Asia-Pa-
cific remain the most optimistic, regis-
tering a Headline GMI reading of 57.0 in
December. By contrast, sentiment in the
Americas weakened significantly late in
the year, with December’s reading reach-
ing just 53.2. While these results still sig-
nal a positive outlook – all scores above
50 signify generally improving conditions
– they still imply that marketers will adopt
a more defensive stance into 2015 than
had appeared likely a few months ago.