PR Network (PRN), a global network of public relations agencies, hosted its first digital forum in Asia, a full-day conference that analysed regional industry trends and shared insight about the transformation of marketing, advertising and public relations in the digital era.
The conference, “Exploring the Digitalisation of Culture, Consumer and Market,” gathered more than 150 business executives, media gurus and marketing professionals at Swire Properties’ co-working
space blueprint in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong, on January 25.
PRN Chairman and Managing Partner of Sympra, Veit Mathauer, said: “The PRN Digital Forum served as a perfect platform to embolden PR Network members while engaging Hong Kong PR and marketing professionals. The way our industry is trending, we will depend more and more on our networks and outsourcing the expertise of specialised communications professionals all over the world.
“Digital tools and services have become the focal point of most of our clients’ marketing efforts, and our access to and understanding of data has grown as a result. Communication between consumers and brands and companies has never beenmore seamless.”
Presentations, round-table discussions and analyses were delivered by industry specialists from leading local and international companies, including HSBC, INFINITI, Microsoft, Swire Properties, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and British Telecom. Representatives from Lalamove, Easyship, Qupital, MoneyHero.com, OAX Foundation and JetOne Motion – some of Hong Kong’s most successful start-ups and fintech companies – delivered keynote presentations and joined panel discussions.
Wong Sai Wan, Editor-in-Chief, Malay Mail, delivered the keynote presentation, “Media
& PR, Disrupted by Digital”, which analysed the fall of newspapers and print news media, and the future for traditional journalists. During the subsequent panel discussion, “The Digital Impact on Media and the PR Industry”, PR professionals provided a glimpse at how their agencies are coping with the transformation from print news to online news and marketing, and discussed the rise of
sponsored content and online news distribution.
At a round table discussion, “Going digital – where is the value?”, specialists discussed the way digital marketing has steered their respective industries, which included a focus on the customer journey, integrating the work of new tech companies for artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and the rise of cloud and IT solutions. The discussion featured Saptarshi
Mukerji, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, INFINITI; Wincy Chan, IoT Ecosystem Lead, Microsoft; and Peter Yu, CEO, JetOne Motion.
A discussion titled “Fintech Leaders” was moderated by Andrew Work, Head Content Strategist, APAC, NexChange. Local fintech gurus Adriana Lica, Head of Commercialisation & Growth, HSBC; Andy Chan, Founder and Director, Qupital; Rachel Lam, Managing Director, MoneyHero.com; and Liam Bussel, OAX Foundation, discussed peer-to-peer payment solutions, paperless and cashless commerce, factoring and trade finance, insuretech and the rise of cryptocurrencies.
Blake Larson, Managing Director, International, for Hong Kong-based Lalamove discussed his company’s dependency on analytics and a focus on small data versus big data in a keynote, “Disrupting Logistics”, which reviewed the startup’s quick progression to its current position as one of the world’s leading on-demand logistics services with more than one million delivery drivers.
“Lalamove has been through an evolution from a data perspective,” Larson said. “We focus on very
specific data and how to take action from it; it is only through putting your data to use in a systematic way that you can scale efficiently. We have engrained it in our people to make meaning and more importantly action from data from the day they start with us.”
Public Relations Network (PRN) is a global collective of like-minded, owner managed public relations agencies providing consultancy and local support for worldwide PR campaigns. Creative Consulting Group is a multi-disciplinary public relations and marketing agency with a focused expertise in corporate and marketing communications.
