To be or not to be the MDA?

Malaysia – The fate of the Malaysian Digital Association (MDA) – if it kicks off or not – looms in the fervent interest and enthusiasm of the relevant agencies and publishers.

On Dec 17, the MDA pro-tem committee made up of 12 publishers and five agencies will meet for about the 20^th time but it will be their first Town Hall meeting.

It is here that they will gauge the interest of the rest of the interactive industry to be unified under one organisation and help benefit the country’s digital industry.

Terrence Dorairaj, pro-tem committee chairman, said the response so far has been slow.

“They have all expressed interest but I supposed we’ve all been busy with business so it’s been difficult to get consistency,” he told Advertising + Marketing.

The MDA will serve to educate the publications, agencies and introduce standards for practice and advertising as well as do its bit to contribute to the rise in ADEX in the country.

So far, the agencies like Leo Burnett and ArcWorldwide, Starcom IP Digital Services Asia, OgilvyOne and Neo@Ogilvy, while publications including the big names of Star Publication, Media Prima and Utusan Online have signed on to be part of the Malaysian Digital Association.

“Even if we have a strong voice and people want to be members, we will have to get feedback on what they feel about the association; the objectives we’ve laid down; and of course, the subject of fees because we need to operate the association.

“We’ve seen ad-tech conferences in Singapore but here in Malaysia, we don’t have any of those despite having facilities so we look to do that too,” Dorairaj added.

The pro-tem committee have also not discounted the possibility of having the idea shelved until better times as the economy declines.

The idea of setting up the MDA was mooted at the beginning of the year but Dorairaj added if there is a decision to set up the association, it would take six months before the MDA could be established.