Video | AustCham Shanghai Member Moment - ASAP+
AustCham Shanghai recently interviewed David Rumsey, CEO of ASAP+, a full-service digital marketing agency based in Shanghai, London and Sydney helping global organisations reach Chinese consumers. ASAP+ offers a broad range of services across four categories: creative solutions, audience engagement, market intelligence and digital ventures.
Summary of the key questions asked:
Q: Why China is such a key focus for the organisation?
David: China being the number one outbound market for Australia and all the world’s markets, I just really saw the opportunity about connecting with the Chinese consumer and the exploding middle class in particular. Over the last four years, we’ve been working with large businesses predominantly related to travel and luxury brands, our value proposition is we understand the market and we can help your business connect with the Chinese market.
Q: What’s your experience been getting your head around the evolution of the Chinese consumer, particularly over the niche of the luxury and high-end travel market?
David: The growth is astronomical, you really don’t have a picture of that until you’re in a city like Shanghai, seeing how fast everything moves. In China the boom in international brands has been significant. The Chinese consumer is constantly becoming more sophisticated through digitisation, it’s hard to understand how China really is mobile first until you see it.
Q: Can you share an interesting campaign you’ve been a part of recently?
David: Probably an interesting one recently was the work we were doing with Wine Australia. One of the challenges at the moment is not necessarily the volume challenge, but it’s the premiumisation challenge. The idea was how do we position Australia, having this concept of Aussie way of doing things and telling that story through videos, copies and pictures across social platforms, inviting the audience to understand and get an infinity of Australian wine, and the way Australian wine is crafted and created.
Q: What has the impact of the pandemic meant for your clients, and how you engage in digital marketing for them?
David: I’m an example of that, sitting in Sydney and not Shanghai and it might be like that for a while. We’ve worked with our clients to switch to inspiration, aspiration and continue to present Australia as the fantastic place it is. For our luxury clients, there are still opportunities for cross border sales in China. The Chinese consumers still want to purchase this season’s releases. Since they can’t travel, we’ve encouraged our clients to look into innovative solutions like cross border sales, pop-up stores solution using platform like WeChat and mini programs.
Q: What is the future of the luxury market in an offline setting?
David: Every brand is now doubling down online in China and pushing that online channel significantly. Part of that is the new reality due to social distancing, masks that need to be taken into account. Consumers still want to go to the store. So the brands that are doing really well are nailing the online to offline pace making sure this entire experience, which is both the physical experience and virtual experience.
Q: How important it is to be part of campaigns across digital platforms? Is there real ROI behind the transactions that go through these large-scale promotions?
David: I think brands that spend the time to understand who is likely to be purchasing and where those new audiences come from, they’re doing well. It comes down to how you take an integrated approach, not just looking at one platform but rather how the platform supports your product. If you’re not doing the research, you can spend a lot of money and not get results. It is worth finding the right partner in China, talking to AustCham and getting references to set yourself up for success.
Q: Where’s your view on the market bouncing back?
David: We’ve had some clients who have seen good numbers and feel that the worst is over. For other clients, like our travel clients, it’s still unclear. We’ve got this scenario where they want to put in the money but aren’t sure when to do that. Domestic travel has seen strong bookings in China and what that tells me is that when borders open there will be big demand to travel.
