Commoditisation and hacking to round off Media360Asia

The event's afternoon agenda will begin with a session entitled The commoditisation of media. Commoditisation is increasingly being regarded as a key threat to the traditional functioning of the media industry. With improved technology supposedly providing enhanced price-transparency and benchmarking, and increased board-level pressure placed on achieving maximum ROI and reducing costs, are we in danger of being numbed by numbers at the expense of creativity? Which types of media are more endangered by commoditisation? And wherein does the power lie to protect the fundamental tenets of marketing? Panelists will include Sital Banerjee, senior director and global head of media, Philips; Steve King, CEO, ZenithOptimedia; and Henry Tan, COO, Astro. George Patten, managing director of Accenture Interactive, will moderate.

Following that, Bonin Bough (left), vice-president of global media and consumer engagement at Mondelez, will present the positive side of hacking in Hackonomy. The word 'hacker' sounds negative, but not all hackers are bad. Instead, hackers and hack-thinking are the source of a monumental, positive shift in business, startups and culture all over the world. Hackers create immense value by breaking things, whether it’s breaking from tradition, process, or simply the way we’ve always done things. A new hacking economy is spreading quickly across industries, from software to hardware, aviation to space exploration. Hacking is even changing less obvious parts of human life, like dating. And, of course, the hackonomy has a huge impact on marketing. Bough will explore how marketing, media, advertising and organizational cultures are all changing because of the hackonomy.

An Executive Q&A featuring Cheuk Chiang, CEO Asia-Pacific, Omnicom Media Group, Gerry Boyle, chairman, Asia-Pacific, ZenithOptimedia, and Mark Heap, CEO, Asia-Pacific, MediaCom, will lead up to the day's last session, The Modern Media Business.

With recessionary pressures once again on the rise, shareholders demanding maximum ROI, how are modern media businesses evolving and building sustainable models? Are we truly understanding the need for change and placing ourselves in a position to enhance the value proposition to clients? Is technology and data-focused organisations long-term partners or very real threats to traditional agencies? And will they continue to drive change in the business of media as we know it? The discussion will be moderated by Angela Mackay, Asia-Pacific MD of the Financial Times, and include Mike Cooper, CEO, PHD; Dan Neary, vice-president, Asia-Pacific, Facebook; John Sheehy, president of global operations, Starcom; David Sternberg, head of media, Manchester United; and Karim Temsamani (right), president, Asia-Pacific, Google.