Tag: APAC

London, United Kingdom – Committed to global expansion and future growth, global integrated communications agency WE Communications has announced two regional executive roles for APAC and EMEA, promoting Avian WE group CEO Nitin Mantri to regional executive managing director for APAC, and WE’s UK managing director Ruth Allchurch to regional executive managing director for EMEA.

Mantri and Allchurch will both help in strengthening the agency’s operations in APAC and EMEA by overseeing client retention and business development, nurturing the teams of talents, and driving strategic growth initiatives through the development of new client services and capabilities. 

The two new hires will report to the president of International and global chief operating officer Kass Sells, who oversees WE’s eight international markets and its affiliate network. 

Speaking on Mantri’s appointment, Sells said that he has demonstrated his ability to develop teams and business operations that fuels the agency’s growth. Meanwhile, Sells considers Allchurch as a leader of action who will extend her knowledge to EMEA, after seeing her as an instrument for growth in their UK Business.

Sells added, “I’m proud of how each of these leaders has evolved at WE, developing their teams, building successful relationships with clients, all with an eye toward the future.”

Meanwhile, Melissa Waggener Zorkin, global CEO of WE Communications, said, “Our sector and services growth, expanded client partnerships, and acquisitions in these international markets have created an exciting inflection point for our business. We are well positioned to make strategic changes to our broader international leadership team that will enable us to build our blueprint for future growth.”

Mantri will maintain his Avian WE Group CEO title while Allchurch will continue to manage WE’s recent acquisition of Hopscotch Consulting.

Hong Kong – After a regional review involving eight network agencies, it’s Havas Media that ultimately snared the account of international financial services firm, Sun Life. Havas Media will now be officially the company’s agency of record (AOR) for its markets in Asia namely, Hong Kong, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. 

The agency’s remit includes providing regional strategic leadership, coordination and reporting, with full-funnel local advertising and SEO services. 

The partnership with Sun Life will be led by the Havas Regional Hub in Hong Kong and be supported by its local Havas offices. The media agency will also be partnering with advertising agency Invictus Blue and digital marketing agency First Page SEO in fulfilling its AOR role.

David Broom, chief client experience and marketing officer of Sun Life, commented that through its long-time provision of services to clients in Asia, it has become a trusted brand in the region.

He added, “As we continue to grow and as digitalisation and media consumption trends rapidly evolve, we required a partner that could help us both now and into the future. We are very pleased to partner with Havas Media and look forward to working together.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Cawte, managing director of Havas Media in Hong Kong, said that with the aim of winning the confidence of the Sun Life team, they have taken the time to understand its integrity and community values.

Cawte added, “Having such a long history in Asia, their credibility and customer understanding are unparalleled. We are really looking forward to helping them unlock their enormous potential, over the coming years.”

Sydney, Australia – London-based adtech data and location firm Blis has made a number of appointments and promotions to expand its operations in Asia-Pacific, specifically in the markets of Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Amongst the notable leadership unveiled is the announcement of Donald Saw as its new country manager for New Zealand.

Saw’s role is expected to charge efforts forward in meeting the increasing demand from advertisers in New Zealand. He will leading the company’s sales and operations across the country. 

For leadership targeted at the whole of APAC region, meanwhile, Blis has named Lupe Prada as head of marketing and Clarie O’Mahony as head of client services. Prada will lead marketing initiatives in APAC while O’Mahony is tapped to be in charge of the client services team in the region.

In addition, Scott Mathison is the newly appointed sales manager for Queensland and Western Australia. 

Commenting on new appointments, Emma-Jayne Owens, managing director at Blis APAC, said that she’s delighted for their new hires as they continue to grow across the APAC region over the past few years.

She added, “They join Blis to drive our ambition for an even stronger team within each of our markets, where their combined local knowledge, expertise in client service and growth marketing allows us to provide solutions to help our clients’ businesses grow.”

Sydney, Australia – European-headquartered digital media, gaming, and entertainment company Azerion has partnered with advertising platform Right Thing Media to allow advertisers to deliver campaigns with social impact messaging inside its portfolio of in-game advertising and high-impact inventory across APAC. 

Under the partnership, Azerion and RT.M will enhance existing creative with social and environmental impact messaging and calls to action that inspire and engage audiences. They can work with any ad format, distributor, agency or media owner across web, mobile, and app campaigns. The two companies also manage the full creative and amplification process, from concept to completion: compiling post-performance data from ad distribution partners, and delivering funds to non-profit, charity, and social enterprise partners.

Moreover, the partnership enables advertisers to earmark an agreed percentage of their total campaign spend to be pledged to a nominated charity or nonprofit partner. It also produces an impact report that combines ad performance with impact insights and outlines how the campaign has made a tangible difference to society, whilst meeting the brand’s ad performance goals.

Gerson Barnett, executive director of Right Thing Media, commented, “We are thrilled to team up with Azerion in the Asia-Pacific region to drive change within the media industry and enable charities to elevate their profile. We’re all about action, and our partnership with Azerion will enable more brands to deliver effective high–social–impact campaigns to deliver a responsible media supply chain.”

Meanwhile, Georgia Woodburne, Azerion’s JAPAC managing director, said, “We have a platform that allows us to reach millions of users, serving quality creatives in environments where we already have secure heightened attention. We’re excited to be able to partner with Right Thing Media to use our platform for positive social impact, and to bring awareness to causes that really matter, for both consumers and brands.”

Singapore – Digital ad verification and fraud prevention platform Trafficguard has appointed Elie Shuggi as its new chief product officer. He will be responsible for scaling the company’s product offerings and supporting its growth globally. 

Elie brings over 20 years of experience leading global products in major Fortune 500 companies across banking, insurance, and e-commerce. This appointment comes just weeks after the company announced an AU$3m funding raise to support its growing roster of global blue chip clients such as entertainment giant Disney, online travel leader Lux Escapes, and sports betting businesses such as William Hill and Better Collective.

In his new role, Shuggi will be in charge of growing TrafficGuard’s organisational and product capabilities including advancing a ‘Self Serve’ product designed for SMEs, and a social product, focussing on the rampant ad fraud problem impacting social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Commenting on his appointment, Shuggi said, “I’m thrilled to be a part of this high-performing company and its mission. Helping develop and scale the business’s product portfolio is a challenge I’m truly looking forward to tackling, with the added benefit of working alongside a talented, high-calibre team.”

Mat Ratty, CEO of TrafficGuard, shared that ad fraud is in many ways, a pandemic – one that is affecting companies more than anyone thinks and impacting traditional metrics which govern spend and investment, and it is a $127b problem plaguing the advertising industry today and they are at the forefront of disruption and innovation in this space. 

“TrafficGuard is fast becoming the measurement and verification tool of choice for enterprises and SMEs globally. We are in rapid growth mode, and Elie’s experience will complement and drive our product ambition forward – especially towards SMEs, who are the hardest hit by bad actors in ad fraud. We are excited to welcome him to the TrafficGuard team and look forward to bolstering our product portfolio and truly helping brands reach their maximum market potential,” said Ratty.

TrafficGuard said that this is its third key leadership hire after the recent promotion of Matt Sutton to chief operations officer and the hiring of Chadwick Kinlay as chief marketing officer. Together, they bring over 25 years of experience and world-class leadership to the business.

Sydney, Australia – As part of its continued expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, data-driven marketing and regulatory solutions platform Fyllo announced that they will be joined by Daniel Cravero as the new VP for ANZ and Chrysa Soon as the VP for customer success & operations in APAC.

The two new senior hires will be reporting to Robert Woolfrey, managing director for APAC. Soon will be based in Singapore while Cravero will be based in Sydney.

Cravero will be bringing his broad digital advertising experience and industry-recognized leadership in data for the development of Fyllo’s marketing and data solutions in Australia and New Zealand. He will also be collaborating with leaders across the region on the development of Fyllo’s data offerings.

On the other hand, Soon will be bringing her decade of agency and platform experience from companies such as Amobee and Havas to her new role. She is also expected to handle regional client management, amongst other responsibilities.

“The debate around data is a pressing concern for brands and consumers alike. Daniel’s leadership on data will help Fyllo navigate this rapidly changing environment, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, while Chrysa will ensure our client management is industry-leading from the outset,” Woolfrey commented.

“Identity as we know it is undergoing significant changes around the world and Fyllo is at the forefront of this movement,” said Cravero.

He added, “Fyllo bridges the gap between ID-based audiences and contextual targeting which allows us to bring scalable solutions to the ANZ market. I am delighted to join Robert and the Asia Pacific team to bring this to life.”

This follows Woolfrey’s appointment last August, which is also a part of Fyllo’s expansion efforts.

Singapore – Dentsu International has announced the launch of its exclusive dentsu gaming data and insight capability which aims to help brands connect more authentically with consumers and become part of the gaming culture.

For the launch, two specialist sets of data were fused with dentsu’s proprietary Consumer Connection System (CCS) research panel data, including gaming data from GWI Gaming and dentsu’s proprietary Southeast Asian research on gaming attitudes.

GWI’s data is available across 21 markets globally, including nine markets in Asia-Pacific. On the other hand, Dentsu’s data came from six Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. 

The data fusion allows brands to access high-fidelity portraits of gamers that encompass lifestyle and media attitudes, behaviours, and deep-rooted gaming habits. Moreover, the SEA data shows insight into gamers’ willingness to pay for in-game products versus similar real-life products. 

This is expected to open a new depth of insight available for strategy, planning, and activation.

Jamie McConville, dentsu gaming lead for APAC said, “The explosion of gaming genres and ways to play has led to an always-increasing variety of gaming behaviours. Our motivation-based segmentation provides an effective way for brands to identify relevant groups of gamers that consistently translate in every market and provide strong creative and behavioural insights for these audiences.”

This project is also in conjunction with dentsu gaming’s 42-page global report titled “dentsu: For The Game” last October, which includes an in-depth analysis of gaming culture and how brands can value-add to the gaming experience and develop a genuine and effective presence in the gaming ecosystem.

The said report also identified six gaming archetypes for brands to tap into. These archetypes have been named according to their primary motivations, such as “For The Revive”, “For The Hype”, “For The Party”, “For The Win”, “For The Immersion” and “For The Downtime”.

Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of dentsu Media APAC said, “There are an estimated 1.5bn people in Asia Pacific who game. Of these, over 40% are females and a quarter are Gen Z. 25% of them play to be part of a community, while 8% do it For The Win; to develop their skills and be praised.”

She added, “Simply grouping them together as “gamers” isn’t good enough. In the current economic context, marketers need to demonstrate how every dollar counts when building their brand. Therefore, it is critical brands are reaching the right audience and targeting effectively for maximum relevancy and to minimise wasted efforts as they venture into new virtual territory.”

Sunil Naryani, chief product officer for APAC at dentsu international also commented, “By supercharging our CCS data platform with proprietary gaming research data in Southeast Asia, we have built fully media-addressable gamer profiles which our clients can access for holistic insight across gaming preferences, media consumption habits and brand affinities, along with the ability to also activate these profiles today in their marketing campaigns for increased effectiveness.”

CCS and GWI’s fused data and insight are exclusive to dentsu gaming, and are accessible through dentsu’s agencies including Carat, dentsu X, iProspect, DENTSU CREATIVE, Merkle and the dentsu Japan network.

Established last year, dentsu gaming has been providing access to specialist strategy, activation, and original intellectual property (IP) development for brands seeking to connect with and navigate the gaming ecosystem.

Asia-Pacific – Global partnership management platform impact.com has announced the opening of its new office in Tokyo, Japan to further expand its business operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Japan team will be led by Country Manager Ryo Matsuzaki, who brings in a decade of technology, marketing, and sales experience to his new role. Matzusaki previously held senior sales and technology leadership roles at Appier Group and Google/DoubleClick. He was also Media.Monks’ first country manager in Japan for three years before moving to impact.com.

The expansion allows their platform and clients to create new partnerships worldwide, gain further traction in key verticals like fashion in Milan, and hire diverse leaders and market experts all over the world.

“impact.com’s roster of customers in Asia continues to grow at a rapid pace. Our expansion across Asia-Pacific over the last few years is further strengthened by the growth potential we see in the region. This is part of our commitment to broaden our local presence to effectively enable and support the creation and expansion of partnerships in these markets,” said impact.com Managing Director for APAC Adam Furness.

He also added, “We are excited to continue building innovative partnership technology solutions that support the forward thinking brands and creators we work with on a global scale.”

The new Japan team is expected to manage impact.com’s local customers and actively develop a network of top regional publishers and new businesses in the market. The company also aims to further its investment in additional resources to customise and localise its solutions in the new markets.

Furthermore, the APAC team will be assisted by impact.com’s recent senior hires: Country Manager for Indonesia Myre Gustam and Partner Development Manager for Southeast Asia Cris Tan.

With the Japan office launch, impact.com is now represented in 20 locations worldwide – seven in Europe and seven in Asia, including the newly opened offices in Milan, Italy, and Paris, France. The company is also seeing regional growth over the last three years after entering the Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia markets.

Singapore – Global digital media agency M&C Saatchi Performance has elevated Melissa Yik to country director for Singapore, and Roshat Adnani to managing partner for APAC.

Yik has been with M&C Saatchi Performance for eight years. During her previous role as an account director, she has been responsible for driving digital performance across brands including Amazon Shopping, Beam Suntory, and beIN SPORTS, as well as Grab, and Zalora. In her new role, Yik will continue to steer accounts while guiding the agency’s Singapore office which acts as an important regional hub.

Meanwhile, Adnani has been with the agency for five years. He enters his new role three years after having been promoted to director of growth for APAC, which saw him responsible for managing the P&L across markets like India, Indonesia, and MENA, working across clients like Tinder, Myntra, Swiggy, Alodokter, and MPL, as well as Traveloka. In his new role, along with his existing responsibility, he will be taking care of maintaining the agency’s relationship with existing and new partners and overseeing financial operations.

Both roles will report directly to Kabeer Chaudhary, managing director for APAC at M&C Saatchi Performance.

Commenting on her new role, Yik said that back then, there were only 3 of them in the Singapore office and she is so proud today to be given a chance to lead the team of over 40 talented marketers to drive results for some of the agency’s biggest regional accounts. 

“I look forward to working even harder with our team of inspiring individuals, leveraging on our extensive ability to convert data insights into impactful media strategies for all our clients,” added Yik.

Meanwhile, Adnani also commented, “The next few years will be critical for not just the agency but for the industry as a whole and I am excited about working alongside Kabeer in navigating the changes.”

Chaudhary shared that the agency would not be where it is today without the digital expertise and the ability of Yik and Adnani to always go the extra mile for their clients and their team. 

“Their guidance and business acumen have driven our success making a real impact on our client portfolio and growth. We’re honoured to be able to promote talent that has grown within the agency and together with it,” said Chaudhary.

Australia – Research company Ipsos has announced the appointment of its long-time global executive Hamish Munro as the new CEO for APAC, and current CEO for SEA Suresh Ramalingam as the new chief client officer for APAC. 

Munro moves into his new remit after three years as Ipsos’ global head of interactive devices. Since joining the company in 2013, he has also had stints as CEO of Australia and New Zealand (2013 – 2015), CEO of SEA (2016 – 2017), and CEO of APAC operations (2017 – 2019). 

In his new role, Munro is set to bring broad international operational and research management experience, along with more than two decades of diverse market research and leadership. He will also be replacing current Ipsos APAC CEO, Christophe Cambournac, who will move into a global role with the business. 

Meanwhile, Ramalingam moves into his new role after four years as CEO for Ipsos’ SEA markets. Prior to joining Ipsos, he spent more than 20 years at Nielsen, working across its emerging markets in various leadership roles, and the most recent one as managing director of consumer insights across LATAM, EMEA and South-East Asia, based in Dubai. 

In his new remit, Ramalingam will be leading the client organisation for Ipsos’ APAC region and will be based in Kuala Lumpur. 

Commenting on his new role, Munro said “I am excited to collaborate with my colleagues across Asia Pacific and continue to build on our strong client partnerships, building and strengthening our talent and deploying many of our new services to help our clients grow.”

Meanwhile, Ramalingam also said, “Our strong client organisation teams help drive engagement with our key clients in Asia Pacific collaborating across our services to provide the best possible research outcomes catering to their business needs. I am very excited to continue to focus on building client relationships across Asia Pacific.” 

Ben Page, Ipsos’ CEO, said that Munro and Ramalingam were set to bring a wealth of industry experience and corporate knowledge to their new roles. 

He further shared, “Hamish has been an integral part of the global Ipsos team since 2013, sharing his 25-plus years [of] experience in market research, marketing, communications and account management roles.”

“Suresh has already shown his ability to grow and manage client relationships across Southeast Asia, delivering on our long-term growth plans for the region. In his new role, I’m confident that his client and people-focused leadership style coupled with his extensive research and management experience will help in leading the client organisation successfully in our APAC region,” added Page.