Turn to cutting-edge media platforms, marketers told

They also suggested that the key coming trends would be related to e-commerce, mobile marketing and data analytics.
Peeraya Hanpongpandh, dean of the School of Communication Arts at Bangkok University, said Thailand’s digital industry was facing a serious shortage of qualified personnel in marketing and communication.
However, it should be recognised that the industry had in fact witnessed a rapid change in customer behaviour following advances in digital media technology, she said.
She made remarks at a Bangkok University-arranged seminar about how to manage brands in 2014, ahead of the full implementation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
Siwat Chawareewong, chairman of the Digital Advertising Association (Thailand), said the association had witnessed a rising skilled-personnel shortfall over the last couple of years due to the rapid growth of the industry, particularly from increasing client demand in line with changes in customer behaviour.
Siwat, who is also CEO of mInteraction, a leading digital agency, suggested that to cope with this challenge, marketers should focus on marketing communication via online video in order to attract young-generation customers.
They should also focus more on customer segmentation, he added.
Also commenting on segmentation via online communication, Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, managing director and founder of tarad.com, pointed to his “Gay Day” promotional campaign, which targets gay customers.
During the campaign, his e-commerce website offers an array of special products such as unique fashion clothes, whey protein supplement and condoms for the high-purchasing-power customers in this market segment.
“The campaign anticipates good feedback in terms of sales,” he added.
Pawoot said data analytics was also important for marketers and product owners, as well as for small and medium-sized enterprises, in getting to know about which customer segments had high potential for each product.
The digital industry is also witnessing that major companies, particularly in FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) businesses, are turning their focus on these kinds of marketing approaches, he said.
Meanwhile, to cope with the shortage of qualified employees in the digital media industry, the School of Communication Arts at Bangkok University has collaborated with the Digital Advertising Association (Thailand) and top marketing communication professionals in launching “BU.I.L.D”, an intensive course for carving out new-generation marketers.
In the first phase, the programme consists of four intensive courses: digital marketing for tomorrow’s brands; how to win AEC online consumers for Thai SMEs; building tech start-up brands with creative marketing; and unconventional creative media.
The programme will run from September to November.