#CMO2016- All the Glitz, Glamour and Learnings

 (marketingmagazine.com.my) – By Malati Siniah

Yesterday the much anticipated Chief Marketing Officers Conference, CMO2016, kicked off with a packed room of eager learners from the advertising and marketing fraternity keen to hear the ‘New Realities’ in their Industry.

Throughout the day participants were taken through real case studies including Hong Leong Islamic Bank’s digital transformation, Digi’s business innovation and how Air Asia, Waze, IPG Mediabrands were using big data.

Industry heavyweights namely Raja Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz, MD & CEO, Hong Leong Islamic Bank; Santharuban T. Sundaram, Group Marketing Manager, Etika Holdings and Sulin Lau, Head of Marketing Services, Maxis shared their journey of building successful brands in today’s highly competitive market.

While our speakers kept attendees engrossed throughout the conference the highlight of the day came at 4.30pm when the infamous Dato Seri Vida, maverick entrepreneur of Vida Beauty joined Mr.Harmandar Singh on stage to share how she turned a once unknown brand into a multimillion-dollar business it is today.

Get the inside scoop on what happened below:

“I wish I could burn all banknotes” the humorous exclamation from Raja Teh Maimunah during her talk on Hong Leong Islamic Bank’s digital journey drew chuckles from the audiences. To Raja Teh the strategy of moving towards digital was to bridge the divide between online & offline and to pay attention to your customer’s journey.

“Failing is becoming cheaper than testing” Sulin Lau, Head of Marketing Services, Maxis shared, adding that in this day and age if you were not making some errors you were not learning enough. Last year, Sulin revealed that the brand made more errors in video then successes. These learnings were then used by Maxis to come up with innovative new solutions such as its recent ‘360° cinema banner ad’.

“Why did you change your agency to Entropia” Santharuban T. Sundaram, Group Marketing Manager, Etika Holdings shared one of the two questions everyone was constantly asking him these days. The second question was why he kept going back to traditional media when launching his products. His belief is that ‘Traditional media is traditional only when used traditionally’.

(from left: Rafiq Razalli, CEO, Media Prima Digital; Eric Wong, Marketing Director, IBM Malaysia; Spencer Lee, Head of Commercial, AirAsia; Srikanth Ramachandran, Executive Director, Moving Walls; Bala Pomaleh, CEO, IPG Mediabrands; Edward Ling, Sales Manager, Waze Malaysia) The big thinkers in big data sharing their thoughts on the Panel session ‘How is Big Data transforming Marketing?’

Attendees exchanging name cards, checking out our sponsors shopper360 and GetResponse booths during the coffee and networking break.

Digi’s Loh, Maxis’s Sulin and friends sharing a candid shot during the break

Superstar entrepreneur Joel Neoh stepped on stage to share his journey with KFIT and his newly launched lifestyle brand Fave.

Malati interviewing Dato Vida for MARKETING Magazine

The man behind CMO 2016 Harmandar Singh thanking the speakers and introducing the event’s special guest speaker Dato Seri Vida.

Dato Vida sharing the story behind her trademark pose and why she picked the colour pink for her branding

Want to build an emotional connection between consumers and your brand? Either make them laugh or cry Dato Vida shared with her trademark laugh.

Dato Vida’s honest and unscripted answers kept our audiences in stitches

That’s a wrap for the fifth CMO Conference see you at next year’s event!

 MARKETING would like to thank our sponsors shopper360 (Platinum), Tenaga Nasional Berhad  (Gold), GetResponse  (Silver) and our partners NewStraitsTimes, The Edge, Malay Mail, BFM, Pixio, Waze, SME and MARKETING Inc for all their support