Best of 2014: Chatter and lookalikes

Campaign Asia-Pacific is presenting a new top-5 list every day until we send our last daily bulletin of the year on December 19. We've had fun pulling this annual review together, and we hope you'll enjoy it too.

Please follow along as we spotlight the year's highlights and lowlights. And if you think we've screwed up—either by inclusion or omission—please let us hear about it in the comments and/or on Twitter @CampaignAsia using the hashtag #CampaignBestOf2014.

<< See all 2014 year-in-review top-5 lists >>

Without further ado, here are the...

TOP 6 CHATTER ITEMS OF 2014

Chatter is a regular column in the print edition of Campaign Asia-Pacific, available only to subscribers.

1. "There needs to be a surgical recasting of marketing expenditures.”

This was Mindshare’s Gowthaman Ragothaman’s comment at the end of 2013. Have they undergone said recasting? Well, sort of.

2. “The best thing for us would have been if it carried on forever.”

After joyously taking a hatchet to the proposed POG merger, Martin Sorrell seemed disappointed when it finally fell apart.

3. “They’ve kind of given up on 2014.”

Steve Yi of Edenred in Korea painted an Eeyore-like picture for the country’s marketers amid shrinking budgets.

4. “If you’ve always had to share a newspaper, being able to afford your own is something you want.”

Introducing PwC’s entertainment and media outlook this year, Marcel Fenez reminded us that not everyone lives online—or does anything there at all.

5. “The better you sell, the less scam there will be.”

Speaking at Spikes, BBH’s Johnny Tan stated something obvious that many seem to have forgotten.

6. “It seems the same people who ‘created experiences’ even when designing banner ads are now becoming ‘storytellers’.”

In an interview with Campaign, Stefan Sagmeister of Sagmeister & Walsh enjoyed getting in a dig at a term that is definitely used too liberally. 

TOP 5 LOOKALIKES

Left: Mark Pope, MD, Dow Jones Asia
Right: Wallace, inventor and cheese fan

Left: Amber Liu, CEO, Amber Communications and Digital A-Lister
Right: Ekin Cheng, Cantopop star

Left: Jane Lin-Baden, CEO, Isobar China and Digital A-Lister
Right: Maleficent, vindictive fairy played by Angelina Jolie
Please note: This is not a comment on personality traits

Left: James Hacking, BlueCurrent senior VP
Right: Tom Hiddlestone, British actor (best know as Loki in The Avengers)

Left: Johnny Hornby, Chairman and CEO, The&Partnership; founding partner, CHI&Partners
Right: Emma Thompson, two-time Oscar winning actress