Matthew will report to CK Law, Managing Director of MEC Malaysia.  The appointment is effective 1^st March, 2012.

Matthew was previously Director of Business Consulting at Better Digital Solutions where he was instrumental in its inception, ascension and subsequent establishment as one of the premier digital media powerhouse’s in the region.  In his role there he was responsible for business development and revenue growth, leading a team to construct and deliver marketing strategies and solutions across numerous digital media platforms for some of the world’s leading brands.

Prior to this role, Matthew worked for Media 2.0 as Business Director.  As one of the early digital marketing pioneers in Malaysia, he successfully orchestrated multiple ground-breaking digital initiatives for iconic brands such as McDonalds, Samsung, Carlsberg, Air Asia and Cadbury, to name a few

Commenting on the appointment, CK Law said, “I am delighted that Matthew has decided to join us at MEC.  His passion for all things digital, plus his knowledge of platforms through his working experience with brands such as Microsoft, Facebook and AdMob will be invaluable to our clients and teams as we continue to innovate our communications strategies.  We’re very excited by his arrival.”

MEC Interaction is an integral part of the integrated service offering from MEC. Based on internal tracking, the Digital billing of MEC has doubled over the last 2 years. Major clients include Citibank, Colgate-Palmolive, Michelin, Caltex, Daimler, Accenture and DHL.

Hosted by Vivian Reijs, and featuring a different professional chef and homeowner each episode, the program premieres Sunday, April 15 at 5:30pm on SBS 6.

“Fix This Kitchen” is based on the successful American TV format created and developed jointly by IKEA and its global media agency MEC Entertainment, part of MEC, and broadcast on the A&E Network.  The American show is in its second season.  Telegraaf Media Video and GroupM/MEC Entertainment produces the Dutch version of the show.

With awkward layouts, crooked kitchen cabinets, and old appliances, many amateur chefs in the Netherlands cook in kitchens ill-suited to their talents. In “Fix This Kitchen”, these struggling foodies are surprised with the kitchens of their dreams, with a renovation led by their favorite professional chef.

During construction, the homeowner goes to the professional chef’s restaurant where they receive a cooking lesson from the top chef. At the end of the program, professional chef and homeowner return home to cook together for friends and family in their brand new kitchen.

As with the US version, IKEA is a sponsor of the new program. "The kitchen is the center of the house. This is where people cook, eat, and congregate throughout the day. At IKEA, people can find a kitchen style to suit every need and situation, as we offer a variety of styles, low prices, high quality, and expert advice. This program provides a great way to showcase our top quality kitchens to the Netherlands , "says Eva-Lotta Sjöstedt, Managing Director of IKEA Netherlands.

In this role, she will be overseeing MEC’s digital offerings on the Campbell’s account in the U.S. Jennifer will be based in New York and report directly to Beth Egan, Managing Partner, Account Director, MEC.

Beth Egan commented, “I’m delighted Jennifer has joined the agency. She brings enthusiasm, experience and leadership to not only the Campbell’s business but to MEC overall.”

Jennifer joins MEC from Initiative. Most recently, she served as VP, Group Account Director responsible for overseeing the digital business of clients including Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Lionsgate and Bayer. Prior to that, Jennifer worked as Online Media Supervisor at Razorfish, where she led the digital media planning group for clients including AstraZeneca, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, Roche and Philly.com.

Jennifer has over 13 years of digital media and creative agency experience working at companies including Tangible Media, Lowe Worldwide, Euro RSCG Circle and as a consultant at The Knot.com and The Sloan Group.

The assignment covers both Italy and international markets and the appointment is effective from May 2012. MEC is a founding partner of WPP’s GroupM.

The new appointment was motivated by the Lavazza’s need to speed up their internationalization process and therefore needed the support and activation of a major global agency.

Media Italia retains the business in Italy until April.  Lavazza would like to thank Media Italia for their great professionalism and reliability during these years of close collaboration.

Ricky has been with MEC for four years and steps up from his post as Digital Trading Manager for Sydney into the newly created role, taking responsibility for all digital trading activity across the MEC teams in Sydney and Adelaide. He will also sit on the GroupM digital trading council.

Both Ricky and James will work closely with MEC Chief Innovation Officer Peter Grenfell and Search Director Alex Hancocks.

“Ricky's new role reflects the ever-increasing importance of digital to our business across display, social, video and other platforms,” Grenfell said. “His knowledge of the sector and effervescent personality makes him the perfect person to drive this forward for us and ensure we have strong publisher relationships that deliver the best value and results for our clients.” 

In his role as Search Manager, James will work alongside Search Director Alex Hancocks to help grow the agency’s Search department. He makes the move to Sydney from full-service UK agency Coolpink, where he spent two years as Paid Media Manager, helping grow the digital team from one to six people. At Coolpink, James was responsible for all online paid media activity, including PPC, affiliate marketing, shopping comparison and email marketing.

“James’s appointment and Ricky’s promotion are further demonstration of MEC’s commitment to provide our clients with a completely integrated offering, with great people at the heart of our agency.”

This is the second major hire by CEO, Matthias Brüll this year.  He also brought Christian Kaessmann (Managing Director of Client Service Management) to MEC in January.

Karin will be responsible for all of the company’s Analytics and Insight in Germany and Switzerland and will be charged with developing the team and their resources.

Matthias Brüll, MEC’s CEO said, “Analytics and Insight is of great importance to our business and for the optimization of communication and data-management ROI for our clients.  With the arrival of Karin, we are delighted to have a very experienced leader join us with such a fantastic  digital background. "

Karin Rothstock was formerly Head of Research & Analytics at TOMORROW FOCUS, and has many years of experience in research, both with media owners as well as on the agency side.  The 32 year old is also an active member of numerous associations.

She will be based in New York and report to Rachel Israel, Managing Partner in MEC’s Global Solutions team. In this new role, Dallia will be responsible for developing and driving integrated communication planning on the Marriott International account.

Rachel Israel commented, “I am truly delighted that we have recruited Dallia for this position on Marriott International. Her technology expertise will be an asset to MEC and to our clients.”  

“I’m excited to join the Global Solutions team in New York, working on one of the most recognizable global brands, and being part of Marriott‘s first global media agency network,” said Dallia Herrtage.

In 2011, Dallia joined the agency’s UK office and was responsible for managing integrated media programs for Lloyds Banking Group and Bourjois. Prior to joining MEC, Dallia served as Account Director at MPG, UK, working for clients such as the BBC, YSL Beauté, Magners Irish Cider, Admiral Insurance and Wonderbra. Before that, Dallia worked as Account Manager at Mindshare, UK, where she developed and implemented media programs for Jaguar and Argos.

Dallia graduated from University of Manchester with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Social Sciences.

In this new role, he will be based in New York and report to Mason Franklin, Managing Director of Engagement Planning. Kristian will be working across clients in the agency’s Global Solutions group.

Mason commented, “I’m delighted Kristian has chosen to join the engagement planning team in New York. He’s made terrific contributions to MEC’s clients in Europe and I know his international perspective, creativity and insight will help us build increasingly effective communication strategy and engagement ideas for both our U.S. and international clients based out of the United States.”

“I look forward to joining Mason and his team and accelerating MEC’s strategic and creative abilities even further. New York is the cradle of media and advertising and any marketers dream. I am truly excited to join the Global Solutions team and deliver business value for our long list of great clients.”

In 2005, Kristian joined MEC in Copenhagen and co-founded the agency’s strategic and digital offering, “Since Twenty Ten” (STT), where he led a diverse team ranging from anthropologists, client managers, communications strategists, art directors, copywriters to flash designers. STT’s mission is to provide true value for people and brands through branded services, utilities and content platforms. Prior to that, he worked as Communications Planning Director at MEC, where he focused on insight development and analytics and communications strategy on the key accounts such as Dodge, Estee Lauder, Honda, IF Insurance, Kraft Foods, Mercedes, SAB Miller, and more.

Before joining MEC, Kristian served as Account Manager at Brandhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark. During this time, he led and developed award-winning national and international campaigns for clients such as Pfizer, Siebel eBusiness Solutions and Alfa Romeo. In the beginning of his career in advertising and media, he spent time honing his craft at Mediacom and Grey Communications Group in Copenhagen.

Fitness First is the world's largest operator of fitness clubs with over 440 Fitness First clubs in 15 countries.  In Germany, they have over 80 Fitness First clubs with over 250,000 members. 

Matthias Brüll, MEC’s CEO said, "We are delighted that we will be working with our Dusseldorf neighbours, Fitness First.   We convinced them with our suite of tools and our expertise in integrated communications planning.  Our team and their brand managers connected really well and we know that we will bring much enthusiasm to the account.”

Women are half the population and control the majority of disposable income in their families, as they are often the principal purchaser of groceries and daily necessities. In China, many women also make purchase decisions for their parents and in-laws. In the past, they shopped in brick and mortar stores. Nowadays, 44% of women in tier 1 and 2 cities and 23% of women in low tier cities also shop online. The research from MEC uncovered that in terms of per capita spend on e-shopping in the past year, women in low tier cities, who spent an average of RMB 1757, were only RMB 339 behind the spend of their tier 1 and 2 counterparts.

China’s geography is massive and its middle and affluent classes are spread out all over the country in pockets of growth and wealth.  However, the reach of physical stores of big or international brands is often limited to large, urban cities.  E-commerce allows marketers to break out of the limiting reach of brick and mortar stores to satisfy the needs of consumers all over the country.  Broadband Internet is now available to approximately 90% of the population in China, providing a widespread foundation for the development of e-commerce. Credit Suisse forecasts that China’s e-commerce would reach RMB 2, 703 billion by 2015, accounting for 6.7% of retail sales.

MEC’s research was taken from three waves (2007, 2009 and 2011) of GroupM Knowledge’s Project Deep Dive (PDD) survey data to look at online shopping behavior of women living in tier 3 and tier 4 (provincial level cities, county level cities and counties) markets, with a focus on skincare and cosmetic products.  The 2011 wave alone covered 583 low tier cities and a sample size of 3800+ women.

More Chinese women are getting into online shopping. Although the rate of increase of the penetration of online shopping in low tier cities are not as high as tier 1 and 2 cities, the former still boasts a 77% increase, moving from 13% penetration in 2007 to 23% in 2011. The Internet is a source of information for 56% of females in tier 3 and 4 markets, providing them with more details about brands and their products. Although they are still quite traditional, with 62% of women saying that traditions and customs are most important, 73% believe it is important to keep on learning new things.  In terms of impulsive purchase (39%) and desire to be trendy and modern (52%), their scores are even higher than their tier 1 and 2 counterparts. With these mindsets, their willingness to buy imported brands and trust well-known brands also shows an increase of 120% and 62% respectively.

While the users of online shopping in low tier markets tend to be younger, mainly from 20 to 29 years old, the users of tier 1 and 2 cities have a broader age range, from 20 to 39 years old. The rate of increase of the online spending power of women in low tier cities (146% increase since 2009) is faster than those of tier 1 and 2 markets (45%). Women from low tier cities also spend a higher percentage of their monthly household income on e-shopping than their counterparts in tier 1 and 2 cities (2.3% vs. 1.8%). All these hint at the huge potential of e-commerce in low tier markets. The top three online shopping categories are apparel/shoes/bags, skincare/cosmetic/perfume and daily household consumables.

Looking at skincare and cosmetic products, female e-shoppers use more of these two categories of products than females in general (13% and 25% more respectively), putting them close to the usage rate of women in tier 1 and 2 markets.  This is especially true in cosmetic products. While slightly less than one-third of females in low tier markets use cosmetic products, 52% of female e-shoppers in these markets use them.  This usage rate is only 2% lower than their tier 1 and 2 counterparts. A look at brand awareness shows that female e-shoppers in low tier markets have a higher awareness than females in general. The ranking of the top 5 brands in terms of brand awareness is similar between low tier cities and tier 1 and 2 markets. Having a good online shopping platform on top of the already widely established brand awareness will give these brands a big competitive advantage.

Online shopping as a distribution channel can offer huge potential for marketers. There are many implications:

Offline and online channels and platforms are intertwined

Consumers tailor their usage of offline and online channels and platforms based on availability, immediate needs, size of shopping list and convenience in terms of time spent or geographical distance. Offline and online should no longer be seen as standalone silos, but should be treated as integral components of a single business model. The key is to drive traffic from offline to online and vice versa as consumers move along the purchase pathway.

From e-commerce to social commerce

Social commerce refers to the use of social strategies to anticipate, personalize and energize the shopping experience. Chinese consumers are very social in their purchase process. They want confidence in what they buy from their friends, and insight from their community. They are prolific reviewers and readers of online product reviews. As this evolves, the marketing mix will likely be more and more driven by consumers. Marketers need to use new ways to sense and shape demand.  The role of brands is to be consumer’s friend and mentor, forging emotional linkages with consumers.  Brands can also create conversations with consumers and provide them with materials to talk about in the social space.

Building trust

The issue of trust is central to building an effective, long-lasting online relationship with consumers. This is especially true for the China market, as consumers have an underlying wariness of fake products being sold online. Reviews and recommendations from friends and fan communities serve to alleviate some of the distrust. However, there are multiple facets of consumer trust online, such as product quality, Internet safety, efficiency, return policy, warranty etc.  Success for any e-commerce player in China involves tackling the various components affecting trust along every step of the purchase pathway.

Mobile strategy

70% of female online shoppers of low tier cities use their mobile phone to access the Internet at home, so a mobile strategy to offer convenience and flexibility is necessary. The mobile strategy should be integrated into the e-commerce and communication plan via the use of gamification, augmented reality, social couponing and mapping/geospatial technologies etc.

Theresa Loo, Strategic Planning, Analytics and Insight Director, MEC China said: “The vast number of female consumers and their control of the family’s disposable income give them lots of leverage over a brand. As more female consumers from low tier cities go e-shopping, marketers without an online shopping strategy are going to miss out. The challenge is to redesign the shopping experience across channels and platforms to provide a truly customer-centric purchase experience.”