The  Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) has launched the AFAA 2012 Asian Trend Report in partnership with Warc, the global marketing intelligence provider.

The Report demonstrates how brands are responding to rapid changes in Asia’s fast-growth markets and allows AFAA’s member associations to gain insights into marketing, media and communications. The weakening of the world’s leading economies have shifted the attention of leading brands on developing economies and Asia has become one of the prime spots in the global arena. Growth in the past few years, however, has also coincided with the rapid advancement in the social and technology spheres.

This collision has led to the birth of fresh challenges and the AFAA 2012 Asian Trend Report highlights seven of the main issues facing marketers across the continent. “The Report identifies trends relevant to brand owners and agencies across the region and explains the reasons for their importance while demonstrating how leading brands are responding to them. It builds on the Global 2012 Toolkit report that Warc – our Official Knowledge Partner - launched early this year and it has been edited to focus on trends relevant to Asian brands,” said AFAA Chairman Pradeep Guha. “It allows our members and others in the industry to gain insight into indentifying trends and developing strategies specifically for these consumers. It also provides lessons learned in the leading markets that can be readjusted for implementation in other markets.

AFAA is confident that with the availability of the Report, we are assisting our members to acquire marketing and communications insights and improve their businesses,” Guha said. The goal of the Report is to highlight a number of the key challenges marketers would face this year. Areas of concern for brands have been selected and in each of them the Report focuses on the latest thinking and best practices in advertising. “We are delighted to be partnering with AFAA for the launch of the Asian Toolkit. The pace of change in Asia is relentless and this report will help the region’s marketers to develop more effective programmes by gaining insight and understanding of what actually works in Asia”, added Edward Pank, Managing Director of Warc Asia.

The strength of the Report is the wealth of analysis sourced from Warc and the emphasis on the most interesting new ideas and recurring themes that have been selected by Warc’s team of analysts and researchers. The Report is designed as a toolkit to equip marketers with additional information on brand performances, how brands could follow their foremost peers and how to adapt to “new” consumers a demanding media environment.