No. Asia is not behind the West in digital marketing

If you've ever worked in marketing in the Asia region (including India and Australia), one of the most common apologies you hear when it comes to the effectiveness of Asia-based marketing talent and content is, Asia is behind the West regarding their ability to innovate and perform on digital. This sentiment suggests that Asia-based marketers lack a level of 'maturity' or 'savviness' on digital compared to the markets of the US or Europe.

The reality is that Asia-based marketers are no less innovative, hard working or savvy on digital than their Western-based counterparts. Rather, they have more hurdles to overcome when it comes to performing even the most mundane marketing tasks. This friction primarily sits around the delivery and distribution of digital marketing in Asia, not talent.

The friction is caused by a couple of key factors:

• Asia-based marketers have to deal with the cultural and political nuances of over 48 countries, instead of one market with one culture, like the US.
• Asia-based marketers regularly have minimal say on the content creation or distribution process for their region because all strategic marketing decisions sit at 'Head Office' - normally based in the US or Europe.
• Asia-based marketers have a fraction of the budget to work with to reach over 60% of the world's population (4.6 billion people); compared to Western-based marketers who are given a much larger budget to reach just a fraction of that number (325 million people in the States).
• Connectivity is still an issue in many Asian regions meaning distribution of marketing material is still a big issue with large black spots.
• Asia-based marketers are hopelessly under resourced and are often forced to wear many hats just to deliver the basic tasks; whilst their Western counterparts usually have a much better resourced team - which includes the luxury of specialists.

The reason why Asia-based agencies and brands are often underrepresented in many global marketing awards is this friction. It is not because marketers lacks ability, maturity or talent; it's because they lack time and resources to make innovation and performance a priority.

Indeed, local Asian brands with properly resourced local Asian teams are actually creating some very innovative content including the examples below from Singaporean bank, DBS.

DBS's 'Sparks' is an innovative example of Asian content. The premise of these are essentially DBS 'case studies' told as a NCIS-style webseries.

Consider what 'Asia' really is

One of the biggest mistakes Western-based brands make when they try and grow their markets in Asia, is they lump all of Asia into one big region (often called APAC or JAPAC). According to Wikipedia, "Asia" is defined as any place to the east of the Suez Canal and Black Seas. To put that into context, this definition of Asia contains 48 different countries with 4.6 billion people (roughly 60% of the world's population) speaking over 2,000 languages.

Let's stop and think about the magnitude of these numbers for a minute and try to comprehend all the cultural nuances that each country in Asia has. Then let's compare that to the US - which is one country (or two, if you include Canada) with a single dominant language and one dominant culture. The level of diversity in Asia dwarfs that of the US.

Moreover, Asia is home to many religions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism to name but a few. Indeed, over 31% of all Muslims are live in South-East Asia (dwarfing the Middle East and Africa) with a diverse spectrum of religious and political freedoms.

Politically, Asia has six communist nations and two socialist nations, as well as a mix of democracies to totalitarian governments. For the Asia-based marketer trying to be relevant to the very different parts of "Asia", they have to ensure that their marketing does not offend any tradition, value, religion or political persuasion across multiple countries (otherwise you have a PR crisis on your hands).

Indeed, it is simply naive to think what works in Australia will work in Thailand (because of a different language) or in Malaysia (due to Islamic sensitivities) or China (due to political censorship).

Such considerations are ever present in the daily tasks of an Asia-based marketer. This inevitably affects the speed and quality of the content delivered. The result of these considerations is often 'safe' or 'vanilla' content because it's better to be bland than to innovate and risk offending in such a minefield. These are hurdles most Western-based marketers never have to jump to at the same level. It also means, without this friction, the West has the luxury to innovate, both with their resources and time.

Another great example of quality content from an Asian brand. This Pixar-inspired animated short from Chinese retailer, JD.com, featuring their dog mascot "Joy" for Chinese New Year.

Where does the decision making & budgets lie?

For the Asia-based marketer working for a global brand, the fact that 'Head Office' sits in New York or San Fran or London or Paris is probably one of the biggest causes of friction in her ability to do her job. Often the Head Office has to have the final say on every piece of content that goes out in Asia; or (worse still) all the content is created in these regions for the Asian market.

It is hard to take seriously assets generated by creators who've never visited the market of their core customer.

Another reason why Asian content is often created in or curated from the West is budgets. It is easier and cheaper to scale and re-purpose Western-centric marketing material to Asia, than it is to have a separate Asia-based marketing team create new content for each region. But this push for scale comes at a cost to performance. Western-centric content is often irrelevant for the Asian market, which results in lackluster engagement and regional performance.

When such results happen, the pressure is on the Asia-based marketer to justify the performance, especially as the assumption tends to be that the tactics and creatives that worked in the US, should also work in Asia. If we take it that most Western marketing materials don't translate well in Asia, then some logistical questions need to be asked:

• How is the Asia-based marketer supposed to compete with a US marketer when she has no control or say over the content strategy or creation process?
• How is she supposed to do her job to the best of her ability to maximize the value from her regional audience when she is just a backseat driver to the brand's marketing efforts?
• When the content arrives at her desk (and it is highly "Western-centric") how is she to make that irrelevant piece of content work for her in Indonesia and Japan?

She often has no real power, resources or budget to "regionalize" that content, so it goes out to market - under performs - and she is stuck defending herself from sentiments like "Asia is just not as mature as us". The reality is her team is highly capable, if given the freedom to control what she knows is best for her market. But Head Office's fear of relinquishing control to those in region causes a lot of friction on her team's performance.

I would love to see a Western brands really place a lot of faith in their Asian marketers. Give them the budget to be effective in both creativity and in distribution and reap the results - just like HP did recently:

HP's recent video "Paro" for 2018's International Women's Day; starring an all Asian cast. Is an example of a western brand that understands Asia.

Give it up for the Asia-based marketer

There are no quick solutions to the logistical issues in Asia, but it must be recognized that the region is in no way the same as the West when it comes to marketing, sales and business. A broad stroke 'global' marketing strategy is often governed by objectives such as scale and cost rather than regionalization and creativity; and perhaps that needs a rethink.

To the Asia-based marketer, be proud of your ability to operate on a shoe-string and your ability to juggle multiple market nuances with minimal support. Know that if you can be successful in marketing in Asia, there's a pretty good chance you will be successful anywhere else in the world.

For those marketers based in the US and Europe, understand that you are lucky to have the freedom, resources and budgets to innovate and tap into your passion. It is not always like that in other parts of the world. I encourage you to come and work in Asia for a while - see the red tape, the friction and hurdles an Asia-based marketer has to jump through just to get the job done. You will have a much better appreciation for what they do and where the true opportunities lie in region.

This video from India's SBI Life hits you right in the feels. It's all about a father's relationship with his children. Great Asian content.

Some resources to help you create 'Asian-content'

• Klaud9 - The one-stop shop for Asian images
• The Right Fit - A market place for Asian creatives and talent
• Canva - Asia-based startup building great design templates