Forget creativity, purpose of advertising is to sell products and services

I REFER to the letters, 'Why are most advertisements on Singapore TV not as appealing as those produced overseas?' by Ms Winnie Leong Wan Li (ST Online Forum, July 26) and 'Society needs to open up for ads to be more creative' by Mr Kenneth Yap Meng (ST Online Forum, July 27).
Both Ms Leong and Mr Yap observed that advertising in Singapore lacks a certain creative flair that is common elsewhere. It seems Singaporeans are unable to be creative and as Mr Yap suggests, perhaps Singapore is still too closed a society to accept creative advertising.

Having spent many years in London's culturally dynamic Soho district, and having met people who don't seem to regard my work as a writer as 'work', I can sympathise with Ms Leong and Mr Yap's views on the advertising industry in Singapore.

However, having said that, I believe neither has understood the purpose of advertising - that is, to sell products or services.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy said: 'I don't want you to tell me my advertising is creative. I want you to tell me my advertising is so interesting that you'll buy the product.' By that criterion, it seems advertising made in Singapore is doing quite well - it is persuading Singaporean consumers to buy the products and services advertised.

While I agree that advertising produced in Singapore sometimes lacks the 'wit' of advertising in Australia or Britain, there is a good reason for this. Singaporean consumers on the whole respond to the advertising directed at them and may not respond in the same positive way to advertising produced for the Australian and British markets.

Singaporeans can also take pride in the fact that more and more of their compatriots are taking greater responsibility for the advertising directed at them. Men like Mr David Tang, CEO and president of DDB, and Mr Tham Kai Meng, regional creative director of Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific, have shown that as long as one has insights into the local and regional consumer, one can succeed in advertising.

Singaporeans who have created 'homegrown' agencies, such as Mandate Advertising, have also managed to do Singapore proud in the regional market. They have done this by investing time into learning the consumer mindset of the markets they enter and producing advertising consumers in these markets respond to. Mandate's Malaysia office, for example, has been in operation for 14 years, which has to be a sign that a homegrown agency is doing something right in the region.

It's not just the homegrown agencies that can succeed overseas. Singapore talent has also been tested in the international market. As Mr Kelvin Pereira, chief creative director of Crush Advertising, another homegrown agency to expand overseas notes, Singapore 'has always exported talent overseas from Tan Shen Guan (late 1980s) to Norman Tan (2005)'.

Admittedly, there is a long way to go before we see a Singapore born and bred Neil French or a homegrown agency reaching the size of WPP. But there are reasons to be optimistic. Agencies like Mandate and people like Mr Pereira show that although Singapore advertising may lack the 'wit' of other countries, its advertising industry is producing advertising Singaporean consumers respond to and, more important, advertising regional and international consumers respond to. The fact that we can compete in the international market in such a 'people-centred' industry is something we should celebrate on our 41st National Day.

Tang Li

Copyright: (C)Singapore Press Holdings Ltd 2006