人才・聚
自1956年成立以來，浸大已培育了逾140,000位畢業生，當中許多校友在各個領域都取得了顯著成就。我們期望讓校友擴闊知識領域，因此發掘來自不同專業領域的校友，並邀請他們分享有關方面的知識。
林振煒校友分享市場行銷及傳訊的趨勢
奧美香港內容行銷總監及業務總監林振煒校友
林振煒校友 (工商管理 — 市場學) 於十一年前出席浸大舉辦的就業講座時主動出擊，親身向講者遞上他的個人履歷，結果成功獲得於奧美實習的機會。奧美是一家跨國市場行銷及公關公司，自1948年創立以來，一直致力策劃及製作創新和標誌性的市場行銷活動，屢獲殊榮。憑藉於浸大就讀期間所學的市場行銷知識及創作能力，林校友多年來於市場行銷及傳訊行業努力，成為業內一位全方位的專才，具備創作、社交媒體策劃、客戶服務及公關等各項能力。
林校友優秀的專業能力讓他於2014年贏取由香港公共關係專業人員協會頒發的「新晉公關專業人員獎 」。林校友亦分享他於2017年與團隊打破本地Facebook直播的觀看人次紀錄，以及他所創作的微電影於2021年成為該年分享次數最高的香港廣告。他帶領團隊至今赢得逾30項業界的獎項，包括由YouTube頒發的「2021 YouTube Works Award Hong Kong年度大賞」，成績驕人。林校友現時於奧美香港身兼內容行銷總監及業務總監，也是奧美「一百位亞洲領袖計劃」成員之一。
林校友與他工作上的伙伴
1. What is the major change in the industry landscape in this decade? How do experts in the industry cope with the change?
Suits on my first day, shorts yesterday. This is how much this industry has changed.
Among all, one of the most drastic changes must be our information consumption habit. We went from spoon-fed (TV channels) to on-demand (YouTube, Netflix, scrolling on Instagram, etc). This flipped us, as marketers, upside down and shifted our communication focus from ‘paid’ to ‘earned’. This means that media investment does not necessarily convert to awareness, and the industry has to recalibrate the way brands engage with consumers, to ensure the content produced is attractive enough so that consumers will choose to interact with us.
When information became increasingly cluttered, we must create content that is either entertaining or educational, so as to provide value to consumers; and to ensure that the content will not just become noise that goes unnoticed. As it is often said in recent years that there is no one ‘big channel’ anymore, marketers can no longer rely on a single touchpoint for mass communication. Instead, we need to map out every possible touchpoint through consumers’ decision-making journey and influence them along the way. That’s why the term ‘integrated’ has become a buzz word, but it is really just what we have to do to innovate and survive.
Furthermore, the dividing lines between different job functions in marketing communications have hence become blurry. I believe that everyone can play a part in the creative process, including the clients and consumers. Thus ‘creative’ is no longer just a department but more of a mindset. Agencies and industry talents are expected to be more agile, versatile, and hyper local. At the same time, they should be able to adapt to the fast-changing happenings in society. However, the demand for marketers to have good ability in telling stories remains unchanged. We have to stay super sensitive (and sometimes sentimental) to what is happening around us and stay curious, at all times.
2. As you manage both creative/content development and business development, what is the relationship between the two aspects? How did you equip yourself with the essential skills in this dual mode of operation?
The two modes actually go hand in hand. Our main goal is to be a trusted advisor and a solution provider in marketing communications to clients. Nowadays, brands care less about the talk but more about the walk, so the ability to give advice to clients – not only on top-level strategy but also on the idea and execution, becomes very important. At the same time, as a creator, we get the chance to engage our clients first-hand, and have a more thorough understanding of their thinking and needs. This helps weave the trust of, and partnership with, clients.
The dual mode of operation also minimises organisational complexity. In such a way, we can stay agile and act quickly to react to different opportunities in the market in a timely manner.
I have the fortune to have amassed all the essential marketing skills during my college days. As a marketing student, I learnt a lot about marketing strategy and consumer behaviour, etc. But I also followed my passion to sharpen my creative tools by taking electives at HKBU. I studied film and drama script writing, advanced Chinese writing, video editing, graphic and web design etc. from different faculties. Looking back, all these skills come in handy. I know it sounds like an ad endorsement, but I assure you it is not, and they do help.
林校友與業內人士分享他對於市場行銷及傳訊的見解。
3. Technology has changed our life a lot nowadays. How has technology changed the advertising industry and what are the key challenges imposed by technology on the industry?
Technology has reshaped our industry. There are many ways we can feel its impact.
The use of big data and social listening allows us to identify mega trends and topics that resonate with the audience the most. Last year, we created a campaign called ‘There’s No Taste Like Home (記憶嘅味道 一直喺度)’ for a local chain noodle brand riding on the emigration sentiment. The idea is informed by the results from search trends and social listening on the Internet.
“If content is King, then context is God.” Technology helps merge content and context, such that the right message can be delivered to the target group of audience at the best opportune time. For instance, we once positioned a product signifying career status and launched the promotion campaign on LinkedIn targeted at people who got promoted or embraced a new career move. And it worked well.
Some other technological advancement, such as “AI human”, helps save production cost and also helps mitigate the potential reputation risk of engaging a celebrity. “Chatbot” helps automate the day-to-day operation.
However, there are still a number of challenges for marketers to fully embrace new Marketing Technology (MarTech). For example, marketers still find it difficult to collect and retrieve the right data signal, and gauge the reliability of the data at hand. Keeping up with all the changing algorithms from Facebook and Instagram has been a constant challenge as well. From a measurement standpoint, we are also exploring, from online to offline, new ways to fully evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, and thoroughly examining the relationship between awareness to understanding, to preference, and to sales conversion.