A final round up of Day 1 on our 4th Asia-Pacific Conference…

After an enlightening morning, our delegates once again congregated for an afternoon of presentations focusing on digital, education and empowerment, finishing with an informative trends presentation.

We set off with an exciting look into today's nominees for our 1st Nicholas Hall APAC Consumer Healthcare Marketing Awards that will be decided and presented tomorrow. We are looking for the most outstanding examples of Creativity, Innovative Digital and New Product within Consumer Healthcare, with applicants such as Bactidol (J&J), Berocca (Bayer), Scotts DHA Gummies (GSK) and Insto (Combiphar) vying for first place. These are just examples of the 11 prestigious brands that will be presenting their campaigns and products for us. I look forward to seeing the results.

Leon Duan (Acorn) did us the honour of following on from the votes, with his presentation on ‘The Upcoming Great Leap Forward in China’s Digital Marketing and eCommerce’. Acorn is committed to be the ‘brand incubator to China’ for Multinational Brands providing one step solutions.

There is a key population segment that is creating opportunities for China due to the need for convenience with 62% of respondents (Illuminera Consumer Research 2015) stating that convenience was a stronger feature than price. Consumers look for a trusted brand, a better experience (including design and ergonomics), and better delivery, while being influenced by ‘Word of Mouth’ communication.

Concluding that to successfully complete the ‘Upcoming Great Leap Forward’ to improve in the Chinese Market, brands needs to have diversified selling channels, while taking consumer fragmentation (due to an increase in touch points) into consideration to create efficient marketing and using data-driven approaches.

We were able to have a quick caffeine boost and networking session before getting into 'Education and Empowerment' with Debjit Rudra (GSK) asking how can we become catalysts of change in our market?

There are three things that we can do to address the issue of education and empowerment of our consumers; Awareness of their condition, knowledge of self-care and giving them the confidence to treat (through an healthcare ecosystem). We need to understand the consumer and communicate with them using powerful connections, as it is not enough for them to simply be aware of our brands – they need to believe in us too.

We as brand owners have a responsibility to make sure the professionals communicating with our consumers are educated and empowered to deliver the right solutions. The patient and consumer is at the centre of our ecosystem, and we have become interdependent. We need to take charge of educating and empowering the entire ecosystem.

Jean Claude Bacos (Head of Asia-Pacific: Consumer Healthcare Bayer) closed day 1 with ‘The new OTC Asia Pacific Industry’ trends review.

There will be 10 billion people on earth in the near future, so he argued that it is a matter of improving and managing life, and nourishing the planet. It is essential to harmonise with ASEAN and open up new opportunities, more trade and a promotion of multilateral trade deals. It is essential for an alignment from OTC companies with a strong connection with ASEAN.

He summed up the conference extremely well by saying that it is fantastic that there is a mutual respect among competitors to come together and discuss how we as an industry and category can go forward to create consumer focused solutions through new technology and creating new opportunities.

Now I am off to mingle with our delegates at the Nicholas Hall Drinks reception, where there will be networking and a little drink or two!

All the Best,

Nicholas