6socialAccording to the specialist recruiter font talent, which surveyed industry professionals across Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore, social media remains marketers’ preferred channel to reach out to consumers this Christmas (66%), followed by digital advertising (62%).

Despite the rapid adoption and increased consumption of digital media, the impact of print advertising, however, should not be ignored over Christmas, as 47% of marketers said print is still their most effective medium for seasonal campaigns.

“The Christmas season provides abundant opportunities for brands to get creative with their marketing efforts, fostering greater brand recall and building customer loyalty. While greater efforts have been channeled into digital platforms, an integrated approach that does not exclude print medium is still necessary and beneficial to reach a broad spectrum of consumers,” states Jacqui Barratt, Director at font.

Christmas marketing is a worthwhile investment

The study also looked into marketing trends over the Christmas period, revealing that 87% of respondents said Christmas marketing is a worthwhile investment. However, just 54% said their company actually executes these themed projects during the festive season. This could be due to the fact that not many Christmas marketing budgets have increased this year (22%), while the same number have decreased their seasonal marketing spend.

Regarding brand awareness, Coca-Cola stayed top of mind with marketers this year (23%), closely followed by Starbucks (6%) and IKEA (5%).

Majority of marketers reevaluates career plans over Christmas.

The recruitment expert revealed further that a majority of marketing professionals across Asia Pacific is expected to search for new job opportunities in the New Year. The main reason for wanting a new position is the desire for better pay and benefits (32%), followed by more professional development opportunities (23%) and fewer long working hours (20%).

In fact, 57% of professionals across the marketing, digital, and creative sector said they plan to leave their current job. Even more talent (74%) will be using the Christmas period to take stock of their career and decide what their next move should be.

“From an employment perspective, it is worrying that such a high number of marketing professional are planning to job hop in the New Year. This reiterates a very real need for employers to focus on their long-term retention efforts, and for talent to speak up to their managers about their career goals and direction. Open communication is key to ensuring talent stay motivated and engaged as we move into 2016”, Jacqui Barratt concludes.


While fixing job dissatisfaction requires a long-term strategy, the study revealed talent could be perked up over the Christmas period with company gifts such as cash (36%), a nice Christmas meal on the company (27%), or an extra day off (22%). Thankfully, 56% of respondents said their company will be swapping presents or partaking in a Secret Santa activity.

A Fontastic Christmas - Infographic

Source: font talent