Week in review: Big moves, big questions, big campaigns

News

The week's biggest story—the impending departure of Barry Cupples to a global role at OMG and the ascent of PHD's regional CEO Cheuk Chiang into Cupples' current spot—is sure to have significant reverberations. 

Also making a big move this week was Dick van Motman, who hired Ted Lim as regional chief creative officer for Dentsu Asia. Lim comes from a stint of less than a year as chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Singapore, but is best known for his work at Naga DDB in Malaysia, where he spent 20 years. 

In other news, Master Kong made some media moves in China, Adfest named its winners, BMW and Brilliance announced plans to tempt Chinese car-buyers with Zhi Nuo, an entry-level sub-brand, and watchmaker Audemars Piguet set up its regional HQ in Singapore and chose a media agency. 

Analysis

Marketers must know the answers to big questions about consumer behaviour, media and markets. Among the big questions we looked at this week:

• In the age of tablets and smartphones, are toymakers finding it a challenge to maintain the hold they once had on children's imaginations?
• In which markets are people most likely to shop using their smartphones? The answer may surprise you.
• Will online video of live events grow into a significant medium?
• Will mobile apps help broadcasters improve their ratings-gathering processes and prove their relevance?

The Work

A significant portion of the Hong Kong community will descend into cosplay lunacy this weekend for the annual Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament. Sorry, the "Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens". And whether that means you'll be running away from or running toward the stadium area, we think everyone can agree that JWT kicked off the festivities in appropriately campy fashion with this fun, big-concept TVC.

Elsewhere, Pulmuone got Koreans to drink juice by letting them adopt tomato plants, Ford gave Thai drivers augmented-reality test drives, Jim Beam built a very large drinks cooler at Bondi Beach, Oriental Princess portrayed Thai femme fatales, and we found it hard to describe, let alone explain, this effort for Appy Fizz.

And finally

Six Chinese websites will go dark for an hour this weekend. No, that's not our prediction relating to government censorship; it's a show of solidarity for Earth Hour.

McDonald's claims it gave away 5 million McMuffin sandwiches on Monday morning in an ambitious effort to grow its breakfast sales. And the stunt surely drew a lot of earned-media coverage. But the only people with time to wait in the lengthy queues were the retired and unemployed—probably not the demographics the brand had in mind.