The second part of this series is based on the panels in the Marketing Track at WIT Conference 2013.

Summary and Thoughts of the Placement Panel

As this panel was about existing and emerging channels of distribution, we began with Lawrence Kuok from Starwood (pictured left), who gave a presentation that showed why they selected Brand Karma as their social commerce agency and how the ad dollars invested in many small ad campaigns on Facebook added up to give Starwood US$2 million in ROI thus far, beating the goal they had set at the start of the campaign ($1M).

Does this mean that social commerce has come of age?  Sean Seah from Groupon (pictured below left)  thought so, and claimed that Groupon could also offer brands the same return on investment. As Groupon’s aim was to inspire travel, Sean was pretty sure that Groupon introduced travellers to suppliers who wouldn’t otherwise have been thinking of that specific destination.

I got mixed opinions from the solution providers in terms of Groupon’s efficacy and whether it was a good thing to sacrifice brand.com business for volume from flash sales. However, Andrew Cox from Sabre Hospitality, Patrick Andres from Travelport, and Chris Gribble from Infor (pictured above in panel with Morris in red on extreme right) were all very explicit about not being too choosy from a distribution point of view because the landscape was so dynamic. In fact, when shown a slide that listed different categories of channels for suppliers to use, Andrew asked ‘Why choose?’ Suppliers should use all of them to maximize the exposure. From a supplier’s point of view, Lawrence favored investing in direct brand.com business.

It was clear from the panel: People are changing the rules of distribution – and it may be too early to tell where their votes will end up.

I think that the single largest problem in most travel businesses is still the relative high cost of customer acquisition through third party channels. The dream has been to first leverage mass intermediary channels (agreeing to pay commissions or offering steep discounts, or both) to establish your brand, and then shift from third party channels to direct over time. But the reality is that many suppliers grow dependent on intermediaries and don’t take the second step.

But perhaps people are savvy and, with ever increasing distribution options suppliers, can flip the old strategy and go direct first, then intermediaries second?

Starwood has been exemplar in the way it continues to explore new channels that help them get to the end customer directly, complementing that effort with a strong loyalty program in SPG, attractive products, and well-known brands.Their recent upwardly revised financial forecast may reflect the outcome of their philosophy – and also better days ahead.

Summary and Thoughts on the Promotion Panel

My final panel dealt with Promotion – or branding, and the outcome of that – loyalty. Nick Baker began with a fantastic case study on how Tourism Australia leveraged social media to create great buzz and engagement for working holidays in Australia.nThe campaign generated A$44M equivalent advertising value and introduced Australia as a great place to work to a new generation of people around the world.

So the question that followed was – is social media the channel for all customers? Both Louise Daley from Accor Advantage Plus and Naomi Mizumura from American Express (pictured extreme left and 2nd left respectively in panel) felt that traditional channels – print and telephone – were still critical and perhaps more important for their businesses. Timothy Hughes of Agoda.com, on the other hand, was all about digital and getting into social this year – though his sister property Booking.com has been doing a fantastic global TV campaign (see here), he didn’t see them going into traditional broadcast.  Frank Lin from MyALN told us that both were needed to win the Chinese consumers.

What about loyalty and what does it mean today and tomorrow? I felt this question stomped the panelists in that most could come up with the functional outcome that has traditionally defined loyalty and which they’re using to measure the success of their respective programme, but no one seemed completely convinced that the same definition would hold in the future.

But I understood why. In a recent Google study, travellers visit an average of 22 websites (offline bookers) and 32 websites (online bookers). People are looking, and looking around a lot; some of these People are customers deemed ‘loyal,’ but who are also loyal to your competitors.  How will the definition of loyalty evolve?

(PIctured right: Tourism Australia’s Nick Baker)

This, unfortunately, cannot be fully addressed right now as a new generation of People comes of age.  We can only observe and respond as how they prefer to deal with brands becomes more clear as time goes on.

Final Thoughts

People are having a huge impact on the way we market; the degree in which we can grasp the changes varies. Some changes are clear – as in the way Product reviews form customer expectations. Some are trending, as in how Big Data can improve Pricing-based yield optimization with better targeting, and how new channels (like Facebook) are viable Placement options to stimulate more direct business with a lower cost of customer acquisition. But some trends are yet to emerge, as we saw with Promotion and its effect on loyalty; social media is the norm whereas traditional communications channels are the new luxury. And the KPIs to measure what comes of the branding efforts are only safe for now. Tomorrow, it can be something totally different.

To me, the dynamic nature of Asia that upends preconceived notion of how business ought to be conducted is what makes Asia exciting, and that’s what the Asia Factor is all about. Half of the world’s population lives in Asia and most of them are under the age of 35. These are the People driving how commerce will change. The change isn’t coming.  It’s here and now. Marketing is only the first of many things that will be reshaped by People.

So buckle up and get ready for a wild ride.