The Ramblings of a Ginger Abroad – The Brand Agency Perth’s Matt Wilson at Spikes Asia 2019

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The Ramblings of a Ginger Abroad – The Brand Agency Perth’s Matt Wilson at Spikes Asia 2019

Matt Wilson, senior copywriter at the Brand Agency Perth and co-creator of Foodbank’s Hungry Puffs campaign shares his thoughts after Day 2 of the Spikes Asia 2019.

 

To grow the pie, you must look beyond the crust
This trip has got me thinking – why aren’t WA agencies more active in the South East Asian market? Why are we bound by our geographic borders? We share a time zone with 60% of the world’s population. 60%. That’s 4.5 billion people.

Perhaps it’s time we shift our thinking, take advantage of our proximity to Asia and look to grow the size of the ever-shrinking advertising pie in WA. It’s a 5-hour flight. We have Skype. Did someone say satellite agency? Singapore is where all the big global brands come to play and it’s crying out for new creative solutions. It’s a culture that embraces new ideas and innovation. Don’t believe me? A robotic arm just made me an omelette for breakfast. Enough said.

AI – Preserving knowledge otherwise lost
There’s no doubt Asia has embraced AI. I’m not talking about the robot vacuum cleaners that get stuck under your couch but nifty solutions to human problems that draw you in.

Tuna Scope is a pescatarian friendly piece of AI which caught my attention – and drove me to have sushi for lunch. The thing I love is its ability to capture knowledge that would otherwise be lost and preserve it. Imagine what AI could do for languages on the brink of extinction?


AR – Actually Relevant
I’ve been a little sceptical of AR in advertising – is it a fad? The new QR code? Or something more?

CCO Johan Vakidis of Publicis China and Haotian Zhou, the Brand Manager of Heineken take the stage to explain Heineken’s World Teleporter, an AR campaign born out of a true cultural insight – 9 out of 10 people in China don’t have a passport, and yet, the population aspire to travel.

The solution? Give the travel hungry Chinese easy access to countries they couldn’t otherwise explore using AR.

Just scan a Heineken and you’re transported to another world. The resulting AI experience was bang on brand and a great reminder that Heineken is ‘a global beer’ stocked around the world.

Stand for Something
Alzheimer’s scares the shit out of me. It’s an illness that I’ve seen family members experience and it’s not been at all pleasant.

By 2050, more than 130 million people will live with the disease. And despite the doom and gloom, The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders out of TBWA / Hakuhodo Japan left me feeling hopeful.

Brands attaching themselves to a cause isn’t new. But I think this campaign actually goes one step further and takes the lead on a topic that needs to be talked about.