SPEECHES:

Announcement speech by
Datuk Vincent Lee, President of 4As
Tuesday September 18, 2007

Friends and partners of the media, my colleagues from the ad industry, our distinguished partners from Interbrand, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Today marks a milestone for our industry. A coming of age for Malaysian brands and brand builders. Today, Malaysia joins a select band of countries that have begun to recognise and value brands as assets that can, and must, be taken into economic value.

This is a beginning of a journey in benchmarking best practices. It is a prelude to having, I fervently hope, a Malaysian brand in the global 100 brands within the next few decades.

If I may paraphrase Neil Armstrong, this is one small step for the 4As but it's a giant step forward for Malaysian brands. MMVB will help them gain the recognition they duly deserve for building great value into their brands.

This project is the result of collaboration between the 4As, and Interbrand, the world's leading Brand Consultancy. Over 4,000 of the world's leading brands are valued by interbrand. They have an aggregate value of more than US$500 billion. Interbrand has done 12 similar country studies, two of which is in Asia.

Today, the studies we have commissioned recognises RM56.5 billion in brand value. Most of these hidden assets are not recognised in shareholder or book value. Above all, we are validating the values taken into the books by getting the biggest brand in valuation methodology to value Malaysian brands.

Last week, in my weekly Brand Insights column in a local newspaper, I had posed a question that I feel merits repeating. A brand, as we all know, is an intangible asset. A sum of stories and images told and sold to consumers by us magic makers called advertising agencies and marketers.

How on earth do we value this trust? This empathy? This capacity for brands to ensure future earnings for their companies?

Well, I am going to keep you in suspense as there are real experts from the world leading valuation company here who are better placed at discussing this.

Let me just end with the basic logic of what we are trying to achieve.

Brands are the engine of growth and wealth generation in companies. We need to recognise their hidden asset value and take it into shareholder value and into GDP.

Brands don't happen; they are nurtured and engineered year-on-year. A brand such as Coca-Cola has survived for two centuries to date. It is said to be recognised by over 94 per cent of the world's population.

Introduced to the world in 1904, in just 10 years the company had 200,000 window display cut outs, 50,000 metal signs, two million trays for soda fountains and millions of branded collaterals – from coke glasses, to chewing gum, t-shirts, baseball caps, and so much more.

If that was the state of play for Coke 1n 1913, imagine the sum of brand noise it has today in the collective memory of so many generations of consumers? And herein lay its worth, valued by Interbrand at US$67.5 billion.

What about the value of our home-grown brands? What value do we put on Maybank or DiGi? Are they ready to stand and compete in the global marketplace?

How do we, partners in media and communications, shout out from the rooftops and the marketplace of the need to effectively support and nurture brands with the right financial support?

This, my friends, is the way forward. Let us celebrate and ensure we spread the word together. Thank you.