ASIA PACIFIC CONTENT MATTERS How consumers make decisions based on content that form ROI for businesses -Waggener Edstrom Communications Harad defined content marketing as a “communication without selling, give-and-you-shall receive approach to generate interest, attract prospects, and build trust”. I find this definition to be quite helpful, particularly because it emphasizes the point that content marketing is not meant to be a ‘selling’ tactic. This might be a hard pill to swallow, but if you want immediate financial (only) returns for your marketing and communications budget then buy paid media. Content marketing is not about immediate returns, and is to do with building brand, creating trust, advocacy, than it is to do with immediate conversion. In the mid-term though, content marketing does create significant shifts in purchase behavior and intent too – it does lead very tangibly to financial returns. Rather than provoke a purchase reaction, content marketing should seek to influence a purchase decision. This is not to say marketers and communicators shouldn’t invest in paid media, rather, that these are two fundamentally different strategies. - Zaheer Nooruddin

1. 82%
74%
63%
57%
49%
follow Mobile Device brands
follow their favorite Consumer
Electronics brands
follow their favorite F&B brands
follow their favorite Healthcare brands
Philippines
98%
90%
India
Indonesia
Vietnam
97%
Hong Kong
91%
China
89%
Singapore
82%
South Korea
72%
36%
Japan
44%
Australia