CANNES\u2014As a caretaker of the world\u2019s eighth-largest brand, Tencent\u2019s CY Lau believes that marketers must be both the ultimate trustees of brand legacy and \u201cdefenders of consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a member of the \u201cGroup of 25\u201d under the aegis of the CMO Growth Council, Lau is hoping to create \u201ccongregations of marketing organizations\u201d to restablish the importance of marketing, he explains in this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Cannes Lions<\/a> International Festival of Creativity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conundrums of the marketing fraternities that we\u2019re facing today largely has to do with some of us have kind of deviated from the very first mandate or mission of being a great marketer,\u201d says Lau. \u201cMarketing in the past used to be a very, very highly regarded profession that brings great values to society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lau, who is Tencent\u2019s SEVP, Chairman of Group Marketing & Global Branding, gave a presentation at Cannes to introduce “Tech for Good”<\/a> as an integral part of Tencent’s new vision and mission. His speech outlined how Tencent ignites the goodness in individuals to build a “universally accessible” digital community that addresses the challenges to individual empowerment, community, society and the planet.<\/p>\n

One example is the Tencent Foundation, which engages individuals in charitable causes such as monthly donations, bundled charitable programs and daily step challenges and has become the world’s largest online platform for public charitable donations.<\/p>\n

One of the goals of the CMO Growth Council at Cannes was to figure out how to turn the passion displayed by its participants in meetings over the past year into concrete action. \u201cIt has to move beyond passionate individuals\u2026into an organizational-led movement,\u201d says Lau<\/a>. \u201cThe real thing is not about hastily coming out with solutions, it\u2019s really about being honest to ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by interviewer Joanna O\u2019Connell<\/a>, who is VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, whether marketers face a challenge of process or people, Lau points to the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything leads back to people, because people create process,\u201d he says. In seeking to create a \u201cglobal center of excellence for innovations and creativity,\u201d the Council must \u201clet information flow, let people really cultivate a life-long learning experience\u201d as opposed to seeking quick fixes.<\/p>\n

So how has a company as powerful as Tencent benefitted from its participation in the CMO Growth Council? \u201cImmensely,\u201d Lau says, adding that the company is \u201cvery privileged and fortunate to be among the McDonald\u2019s the Googles the IBM\u2019s of the world. But then we must remember that we\u2019re only 20 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also a strong ambition, there\u2019s a strong dream, to share with the world what we thought have made us from good to great, from China, from Tencent, from the so-called first mobile-first land of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

You are watching Beet.TV coverage of the CMO Growth Council Summit in Cannes. This series is presented by Teads. For more videos from our series, visit this page<\/a>. Please find all our coverage from Cannes 2019 right here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANNES\u2014As a caretaker of the world\u2019s eighth-largest brand, Tencent\u2019s CY Lau believes that marketers must be both the ultimate trustees of brand legacy and \u201cdefenders of consumers.\u201d As a member of the \u201cGroup of 25\u201d under the aegis of the CMO Growth Council, Lau is hoping to create \u201ccongregations of marketing organizations\u201d to restablish the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":61259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[8018,8019],"tags":[2930,3851,6736,7588,7993,8051],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}