Industry heavyweights discuss Digital Matters in Singapore

Day one opened with a keynote from industry luminary Robert Tercek, president of General Creativity. Other highlights from yesterday include Andrew Grant, head of film and interactive entertainment group at Akamai Technologies, revealing secrets to success for delivering the highest-quality content experience over the public internet and tools for enabling the next generation of consumer entertainment.

Just before lunch BBC.com’s vice-president for commercial and operations in Asia-Pacific Phu Trong divulged the BBC’s plans to launch a global iPlayer, as well as explaining how the recent Royal Wedding was taken onto a variety of devices and platforms. Trong said lesson learned from that are in preparation for the BBC’s coverage of the London Olympics in 2012.

Closing advice during the next session ‘Moving forward with social media’ included stressing the importance of training and the importance of social media strategy “rather than just checking the boxes”. ESPN’s Nigel Harper advised lowering the barriers to entry to enhance the consumer’s experience, while Viki.com’s Razmig Hovaghimian said retention, rather than just attraction, was key.

“Be sure to find your brand voice in a social media context,” added Ogilvy’s Thomas Crampton.

Today's proceedings began with a keynote interview with Robin Seow, VP of marketing for personal systems group at HP, with questions from Ted Cohen, managing partner at TAG Strategic. This was followed by the first panel of the day looking at how mobile can add value to the Asian digital entertainment landscape.

Next up was Google innovationist Justin Baird, who highlighted a number of 'screen shifting' technologies and discussed how they are changing the dynamics of the online experience. "All these devices are working together," he said. "The future really is about interactive content."

In the next panel session, hosted by Casbaa, which co-produced Digital Matters alongside Branded, speakers looked at ways to deal with digital piracy. Panelist looked at ongoing developments in combating online piracy in areas such as gaming and music, quoting case studies from around the region.

The morning closed with the second part of the Advertising Matters session, which looked at how brands are building their presence among digital communities. The message was that traditional methods of online advertising are failing. "Digital gets the adspend leftovers and the direct dollars," said Joe Nguyen of comScore. "The brand dollars are not there. That is the one thing that this industry needs to change."

Much more to come in the afternoon session, including the Digital Publishing Innovation panel, moderated by Campaign Asia-Pacific. Speakers including Angela MacKay from the Financial Times and Nick Blunden from The Economist will talk about how digital has transformed their business and predict the next wave of innovation for digital publishing.

After five years in Hong Kong, Branded is bringing Music Matters and the inaugural Digital Matters industry forums to Singapore for the first time. The grand finale to culminate the week's events from 24 to 28 May is Music Matters LIVE with HP, a live music festival showcasing Asian and international bands and artists.

Digital Matters offers a platform for the development of the digital entertainment landscape in Asia.