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Optimising TVCs for mobile in Asia Pacific, the Facebook Creative Shop way

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By Shawn Lim, Reporter, Asia Pacific

December 20, 2017 | 7 min read

When Toyota wanted to raise brand awareness for its Corolla Altis model in Thailand, it revamped its existing TVCs for a mobile audience and converted its advertisements into a variety of ad formats for its Facebook and Instagram news feeds.

Once that was done, the company played with speed and front-loaded its shortened videos with branding and messaging that highlighted key specs to capture people’s attention quickly on mobile.

It then ran the campaign on Facebook and Instagram in two waves during seasonal peaks for car sales that also coincided with one of the biggest motor show events in Thailand.

This is just one of the many examples of how short form video has become the biggest opportunity for advertisers on Facebook and Instagram to easily adapt their TVCs for mobile in Asia Pacific, says Rafael Guida, head of Creative Shop for Southeast Asia at Facebook in an interview with The Drum.

“By optimising its TV commercial for mobile, Toyota was able to achieve 26-point lift in ad recall, an 11-point lift in brand perception that Toyota is “stylish,” and awareness of its new features, all at 50% lower cost per lead compared to other platforms,” adds Guida.

Aside from Toyata, Guida lists brands like McDonald’s, Nestle, Lazada and Magnum that have also created successful mobile ad campaigns with the help of Facebook’s Creative Shop. However, he stress that there is still room for improvement for agencies and brands when it comes to creating mobile ads campaigns in SEA and APAC.

Firstly, the former regional executive director for APAC at OgilvyOne says brands must optimise their TV ads for mobile to ensure that there is message consistency, as well as attracting and engaging with the viewer much sooner than on traditional formats.

“Whilst consumers have a larger appetite for online video, the average attention spans are dwindling so a brand’s value proposition must be communicated at greater speed,” he explains.

Next, Guida says Facebook and TV work better together as the social media company solves challenges that exist when using TV only, and helps maximise reach with relevant messaging at scale, beyond the living room. “It makes it considerably easier for brands to be able to reach people where they are engaged and capture attention in ways that align with how people consume information on mobile.”

Finally ads need to be created with mobile in mind, continues Guida, pointing out that while optimising TV commercials can be a solution to improve the performance of ads in the short term, Facebook believes that content created specifically for mobile are the goal in the long term. “Storytelling on mobile is a new art form that the industry is still mastering, from vertical framing to earning attention,” he explains.

In order for these three steps to work however, Guida says there are two misconceptions that agencies and brands in SEA and APAC must correct in order for the mobile ad campaigns to be successful.

One is the budget allocation between TV and mobile as there is still a large discrepancy when brands allocate marketing budgets between TVCs and mobile, according to Guida.

Quoting a Kantar Millward Brown’s Ad Reaction study, the Brazilian-born Guida notes that mobile receives approximately 20% of total media spend in APAC, a region known to be a mobile-first market. Based on the study, he observes that brands are beginning to recognise the importance of mobile, and the spending divide is shifting, there are more potential for growth.

“With the rise of the multi-screen experience, brands that evolve their story from TV to the mobile screen stand to enjoy better ROI and efficiencies. The Millward Brown study also shows people in APAC now spend almost twice as much time on their mobile screen than on TV,” he explains. “When Facebook is used to prime TV ads, a memory multiplier effect is achieved leading to a 19% lift in memorability. In times like these, it’s only natural that the worlds of digital and TV should collide.”

Secondly, Guida says that access to measurement is extremely important for any brand or advertiser to drive and inform their media strategy. This is because measuring across media platforms has been especially challenging in the past as customers search and discovers products across multiple channels and landing on various touch points.

He further explains that some measurement tools miss the connection between where an ad was shown and whether a purchase was made, arguing that counting clicks and cookies alone makes it difficult for a brand to know the impact of their advertising and if they are driving meaningful business results.

“Effective marketing relies on how many times brands are hitting the same touch points their audience is on – across any device – something you can’t measure accurately without people-based measurement,” he says. “Across Facebook’s ecosystem, brands can measure reach, frequency, targeting and cross-device performance to understand and optimize how they connect with their audience.”

While some brands are reluctant to spend their ad budget with Facebook to create a mobile ad campaign and have experienced some sort of success on their own, Guida is keen to stress that Facebook helps all businesses to better use Facebook and Instagram to achieve their business goals by putting emphasis in mobile creative.

He adds that Facebook’s Creative Shop supports businesses by boosting mobile innovation through collaborations with creative agencies and businesses in APAC, as the region’s mobile-first population is a huge contributing factor to the rise and strength of conversational commerce in the region.

“It’s important for brands to harness Facebook and Instagram to make meaningful connections with potential customers. At Facebook, we're committed to equipping businesses with the tools to connect with people, enabling businesses to create thumb stopping creative on mobile and achieve real business results,” he explains.

Guida highlights that Facebook has also drove education efforts across agencies and the ad industry with the launch of Blueprint, a new global education and certification program to help educate agencies and marketers. “In addition to that, we held ‘Mobile Moves People’ and ‘Mobile Moves Commerce’ industry events across SEA, which is aimed to inspire and educate marketers and business leaders on building for mobile, including creative best practices, mobile video strategy, consumer insights and building for a commerce driven world on mobile,” he adds.

As the main goal for Creative Shop is to ensure campaigns are leveraging the creative potential of our platforms that are effective for clients and provide value for people, Guida says agencies and brands share the same goals with Facebook, which is why it is natural that all three parties to work together to create relevant ads, and craft them in an entertaining and useful way to reach consumers where they are today.

Drawing on his experience as a former agency executive, Guida adds that in a complex advertising ecosystem, it is easy for agencies to just focus on the format. However, Facebook believes that in thinking idea-first and then figuring out the best way to activate that idea across the ecosystem and making it relevant for the platform and audience to deliver against the brand objective.

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