In the futuristic crime thriller "Minority Report", technological wizardry enables everyone from the authorities and police to shops and public transport to register via high-tech retinal scanners. In this vaguely Orwellian world, Tom Cruise, framed and on the run from the law, has his eyes surgically transplanted to avoid detection by police. The game is almost given away when it turns out that his new eyes are from a Japanese man, and Cruise is "recognized" as such by high-tech scanners as he passes through a mall. Registering him incorrectly, these automated systems address him by the Japanese man's name as they try to promote specially tailored offers to him.

A curious and dark glimpse into the future, although an imaginative one. But while direct marketing techniques may, thankfully, still be years away from the technological wizardry of Washington 2054 as envisioned by Philip K Dick in his novel, marketers are nonetheless exploiting, as never before, new and established technologies to help companies focus on consumer relationships.

The Internet and proliferation of digital devices and wireless networks have opened up a whole new vista for marketing, not least being the mainland that is mature enough for direct and digital marketing, thanks to the staggering rate of absorption of new technologies, says OgilvyOne's worldwide CEO Brian Fetherstonhaugh. "From a marketing standpoint, the kind of growth we are seeing in China is stunning, the most dramatic in any of my travels around the world," he says. "And it's just the beginning in many respects.

"Mobile and Internet marketing, broadband and digital point of sale are all trends we are observing globally. And in almost every one of those China is the fastest growing market, if not necessarily the most developed." He cites China's more than 300 million cell phone and over 100 million Internet users as examples of those trends.

OgilvyOne is the fastest growing wing of the Ogilvy group and accounts for 36 per cent of the parent body's global business, with 3,500 staff and 110 offices. It specializes in interactive and direct marketing as part of what the parent body has termed "360 degree Brand Stewardship". In short, brand building does not stop with awareness but goes "from first base to band loyalty", says Fetherstonhaugh. "It carries all the way through from brand awareness right down to consumer loyalty and bonding - that's where the real profitability is, so we are using all the tools at our disposal to achieve this."

This new digital world is a far cry from 1948, when David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather, used postcards to raise awareness among wealthy, potential patrons of new hotels. Ogilvy's digital marketing (DM) began 26 years later, with some very minor experimentation with interactive diskettes. But digital marketing began in right earnest only in 1997. The first industries to catch on to it included information technology (IT) and finance, says Fetherstonhaugh.

More recently, the automobile and entertainment industries have used DM techniques. Today, a "wide category of clients, including those in consumer packaged goods and experimental retail sales, are coming on board," he says. All the company's top 15 clients have increased their communications budgets for DM.

Though DM accounts for 50 per cent of OgilvyOne's business today, the print media and the snail mail (to send catalogues, pamphlets and other promotional material directly to potential consumers) still are very important for it. "Technology is only interesting to the extent that it influences consumer behaviours," says Fetherstonhaugh. "Our advice to clients is to pay less attention to the technology, and more to where your customer is going."

Any kind of direct response marketing, be it digital, print or otherwise, can be delicate business. "There are so many ways of talking to a consumer," Fetherstonhaugh says. "If you do it badly it's spam, it's annoying, it's irritating and it is not effective." A marketer, he stresses, needs to keep three basic principles in mind: targeting the right people with the right promotional material, having respect both for the consumer and the brand, and making the communication clear about the brand's values and its rewards to the consumer.

"When you think of American Express, it's not just the plastic (that comes to mind). It represents a level of trust, service and prestige that goes far beyond a piece of plastic. Disney is not just the rides and the restaurants."

Gauging the success of direct marketing involves five measures. Depending on the client's business, quantitative surveys may be conducted to measure brand awareness and to test whether the client is the most preferred brand. Success can also be measured by the number of enquiries made or visits registered on a website or store; the impact on sales and finally how much brand loyalty has been encouraged.

Apart from the Internet that is still the fastest growing in terms of advertising, thanks to broadband, which "has opened up a whole new world of marketing opportunities capable of bringing audio and visual images," Fetherstonhaugh sees Interactive TV as a fast-growing DM feature. Mobile marketing is a prime medium for communication on the mainland, where a high level of cell phone penetration (especially among the younger generation) has encouraged growth in mobile marketing. One such in-store promotion at MacDonald's - a special deal promoted on tray-liners involving SMS messages - registered one million participants.

"Mobile phones started as a voice activity, then thumbs, and now we are seeing it in places like Japan as a commerce vehicle," says Fetherstonhaugh. "E-commerce is going to be the next wave in mobile marketing. Sony's FeliCa chip, with a swipe of the phone, gives you access to bullet train tickets, convenience stores and airport transactions, and this is only the beginning. They will have an estimated 10 million FeliCa chips in Japan in a year from today. You can see this whole range of marketing possibilities that opens up when you can wave your cell phone and create an e-commerce transaction."

Still someway from "Minority Report" retina scans and eyeball transplants perhaps, but the digital revolution is continuing to challenge accepted wisdom on the way companies connect with their customers.

(HK Edition 03/16/2005 page4)