Here are some marketing tips from our Expert Panel to help you take on stompAIDS Challenge 2007!

	Name: Johnson Seah Designation: Deputy Director, Corporate Marketing Company: Health Promotion Board
	Name: Joji Jacob Designation: Senior Creative Group Head Company: DDB Singapore
	Name: Vincent Chai Designation: Director Company: Kinemat Pte Ltd

1. What makes up a marketing plan?

“A marketing plan is a comprehensive strategy that seeks to promote the benefits of a product or service. The promoted items in question could be a pair of shoes or even a point of view. A marketing plan consists of

a. a problem (often disguised as an opportunity),
b. a solution,
c. a target audience, and
d. a media vehicle to take the solution to the target audience “

- Joji Jacob, Senior Creative Group Head, DDB Singapore

2. What makes a good marketing idea?

“A good marketing plan solves the problem with maximum impact and cost-savings. To elaborate further, it should be able to promote the desired behaviour to the largest number of people at the lowest possible cost. “

- Joji Jacob, Senior Creative Group Head, DDB Singapore

3. How do you judge/gauge a good marketing idea?

“An idea that generate results. i.e. sales volume”

- Vincent Chai, Director, Kinemat Pte Ltd

4. How can we make our marketing idea stand out among the crowd?

“Be bold, be innovative. Great ideas are always bold and innovative.”

- Vincent Chai, Director, Kinemat Pte Ltd

5. How do I work within a limited budget, yet produce a great marketing plan?

“A limited budget is your friend. It stretches your brain and makes you come up with solutions that you would not otherwise think of. A small budget stops a weak idea from hiding behind fancy (often expensive) production techniques. Usually, the smaller the budget, the bigger the idea. “

- Joji Jacob, Senior Creative Group Head, DDB Singapore

6. Could you suggest an example of a good marketing idea?

“A good marketing idea that the Health Promotion Board had developed recently to target single female smokers was the Perspex event launched outside Wisma Atria.

Models holding fashionable products were seen parading at pre-determined venues, which provided maximum exposure to our target audience.

The cost of each fashionable product displayed was tagged to the approximate number of cigarette packs (for e.g. the cost of one pair of shoes was approximately equivalent to 13 packs of cigarettes). The campaign appealed to the lifestyle wants and fashion needs of young women.”

- Johnson Seah, Deputy Director, Corporate Marketing, Health Promotion Board

7. What makes a creative and effective campaign?

“Developing a health promotion campaign is a challenging experience because our campaigns have to motivate behavioural change. As such, we have to develop creative and innovative marketing strategies to appeal and reach out to different population segments.

A campaign is creative and effective when it is able to capture the attention of our target audience and result in a subsequent mindset shift towards the adoption of healthy behaviour.”

- Johnson Seah, Deputy Director, Corporate Marketing, Health Promotion Board

8. What skills and attributes do we need to win in this competition?

“In my opinion, you will need to look at the problem in a new way. If I were you, I would spend a lot of time researching both the problem and the target audience. I would walk in their shoes for a few miles. I would think of at least 60 (yes, SIXTY) different ways of saying the same thing, and then I would settle on the one that I think is the most involving.

Then I would think of how best to communicate the solution: Which media should I use? Is there any new media that I can think of? How best could this idea be executed: Should I use photography, or illustration or mere words? I would do more than is required by the brief. I would think like the navy, and deliver like the pirates. “

- Joji Jacob, Senior Creative Group Head, DDB Singapore