Tag: APAC

Singapore – Digital media measurement company DoubleVerify has announced the launch of its new DV Attention Lab™, which aims to help advertisers optimise campaign performance using in-depth ‘attention data’ on ad engagement and ad exposure. 

The newly-formed DV Attention Lab™ features a multidisciplinary team consisting of data scientists, product experts, and marketing analysts – leveraging an industry-leading technology platform and attention dataset. It will focus on providing advertisers with sophisticated, attention-based insights and recommendations on campaign performance, powered by DV Authentic AttentionⓇ, a performance solution that analyses over 50 data points on the exposure of a digital ad and consumer’s engagement with a digital ad and device – in real-time, and covering industry benchmark reports, best practice guides, and illustrative case studies, amongst others.

Moreover, DoubleVerify has recently released the DV Authentic AttentionⓇ Snapshot, a comprehensive and holistic overview of high-level attention measurement – available to all DV advertisers at no additional cost. This feature helps clients achieve greater campaign performance against the current macroeconomic backdrop. Delivered weekly, the Snapshot provides unparalleled attention-based data at scale, with easily digestible insights to identify top and bottom media performers, and benchmark an advertiser’s performance in a specific industry, amongst others.

“Traditional KPIs such as viewability and clicks are not effective at identifying whether an ad is making an impact on the end viewer, and disruption from regulatory shifts to cookie deprecation is hindering how brands can use existing tools. With that in mind, we are confident that privacy-friendly attention metrics will become the industry’s new performance currency. We are excited to launch the DV Attention Lab™ to help advertisers navigate today’s digital landscape,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. 

Meanwhile, Jordan Khoo, managing director of DoubleVerify APAC, noted, “For APAC, a Magna study found that 71% of total advertiser budgets will be spent on digital that will result in a crowded marketplace. Advertisers in the region are therefore finding ways to optimise their campaign performance. The timely introduction of our DV Attention Lab™ allows us to bolster our capabilities and better guide our clients to drive returns on investment for their media budget.” 

In September 2022, DoubleVerify teamed up with agency Havas Media in Hong Kong to be its preferred partner in offering pre-bid brand suitability, fraud, contextual activation, and viewability solutions. The partnership comes months after DoubleVerify’s partnership with Havas Media in Australia.

Singapore – Experience management (XM) company Qualtrics has launched its new Video Feedback, a new way for organisations to collect qualitative feedback on the Qualtrics XM Platform™. This will allow organisations to now capture video feedback from their customers, analyse both words and emotions, and use that data to make business decisions quickly and with confidence.

Video Feedback brings consumers’ thoughts and feelings to life by empowering respondents to describe their experiences in their own words. It automatically translates and transcribes audio, saving researchers time and speeding up the action. Additionally, sophisticated text analytics built directly into the product enables researchers to quickly surface themes from video responses, analyse them to highlight the most important responses, and set up automated alerts to prompt action. With this, marketing, CX, and HR teams will be able to use Video Feedback to integrate richer insights into their feedback programs.

Moreover, with editing capabilities built right into the product, researchers can also edit videos and build highlight reels to tell data-driven stories and help people easily understand experience data to make faster, more accurate decisions about their business. 

According to Qualtrics, Video Feedback is the first of a number of qualitative research features that Qualtrics will introduce over the coming months. Because it is built on the Qualtrics XM Platform, organisations can bring together Video Feedback with all of their experience data—from survey responses to unstructured feedback such as social media posts, product reviews, and chats— and easily turn large volumes of feedback into insights that drive action.

“Now more than ever, companies need to make decisions with empathy, speed and scale. With Video Feedback, Qualtrics is defining the next era of research and empowering organisations to understand what really matters to the next generation of consumers and design the products, services and experiences they want now and next,” said Michel Feaster, Qualtrics’ chief product officer of research.

Singapore – Global public relations and marketing consultancy firm Edelman has announced several strategic leadership appointments in health across APAC, which include the appointment of Will Collie as vice chair of Health in APAC, Brian Wang as head of Health for China, and Jenny Jackson as head of Health in Hong Kong. These senior appointments serve to further Edelman’s growth in APAC, with Health as a strategic priority.

As vice chair of Health in APAC, Collie will be overseeing Edelman’s Health teams in India, China, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Thailand, as well as Taiwan, and Australia. Collie, who now resides in Australia, was previously based in the United States in both Los Angeles and Chicago, where he was head of Edelman’s Southern California business and prior to that Chicago Health business. He also served as Edelman’s Health lead in Sydney, where he joined the firm in 2012. Before joining Edelman, Collie served as senior manager of external affairs for the global pharmaceutical company Sanofi.

Meanwhile, Wang will be overseeing the Health teams in Beijing and Shanghai. Prior to Edelman, his career spans almost 20 years across the health, wellness and retail sectors in Taipei, Beijing, and Shanghai. This includes 12 years at GSK Consumer Healthcare, where he led brand teams across integrated marketing, channel planning, in-market portfolio positioning and communications across the Greater China Area.

And lastly, Jackson will be bringing more than 12 years of health communications expertise. She has led multi-channel communications and market research campaigns for global pharmaceutical and medical device companies across APAC, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Jackson brings to Edelman a strong understanding of multiple healthcare, regulatory, and compliance environments across a wide range of disease areas.

Commenting on the appointment, Collie said they’re building teams with no boundaries, bringing the best minds to their clients regardless of where they’re based. 

“Our integrated approach, coupling data, insights and health expertise to deliver high-impact creative engagement, sets us apart. The addition of these deep-rooted Health experts, with their knowledge of the region and insights at the local level, strengthens our capabilities both across APAC as a region as well as in local markets where clients are operating on the ground,” Collie added.

Meanwhile, Kirsty Graham, global president of practice and sectors at Edelman, said health remains a key driver of business for Edelman globally, and the opportunity to partner with clients in this industry across APAC is enormous.

“These senior appointments strengthen our specialised approach – we have the expertise, the depth of knowledge and the nuanced insights to drive truly impactful client programs. Under Will Collie’s leadership in APAC, we continue to expand our specialisation of Edelman Health’s teams and offers,” said Graham.

Just recently, Edelman Indonesia appointed Melvin Goo as its new chief operating officer. Through the new appointment, Goo will drive the next chapter of the firm’s growth in Indonesia, and realise Edelman’s ambitions of delivering integrated marketing communications solutions for local, regional and global clients serving the market.

Singapore – Experience management (XM) company Qualtrics has announced new XM Benchmarks that will give organisations insights to make critical decisions based on Qualtrics’ vast experience data and industry-leading analytics. 

The new XM Benchmarks are powered by organic feedback from Qualtrics’ nearly 17,000 customers spanning dozens of industries around the globe, in addition to targeted panel data from surveys.

According to Qualtrics, many organisations have a wealth of customer and employee experience data from surveys, support conversations, chat, and social media posts, but lack the ability to use it to decide what to prioritise and what actions to take. Using these benchmarks, organisations can compare their customers’ satisfaction, patients’ perceptions and employees’ engagement against their industry peers and competitors, in order to uncover their biggest risks and opportunities and make the right decisions to address them.

Qualtrics Employee Experience (EX) benchmark data shows shifting employee expectations. For example, Qualtrics’ EX benchmark data demonstrate changes in employees’ satisfaction with pay and benefits – a major driver for their intent to stay with a company. Qualtrics’ proprietary data shows that the share of employees who felt they were paid fairly for the work they did decline in the U.S. (from 58% to 56%), UK (from 51% to 49%) and Australia (from 61% to 57%) between 2020 and 2021. Similarly, in 2020, 63% of employees believed their companies offered competitive benefits packages, but that number fell to 57% globally in 2021. The drop-off was particularly steep in Australia (from 58% to 51%) and the UK (from 57% to 48%).

A company using the EX benchmarks can compare these results to their own employees’ responses globally and within their industry, and identify risks to retention in various parts of the world.

Brad Anderson, Qualtrics’ president of products and engineering, noted that amidst inflation, spending cuts and a tight labour market, organisations must find ways to differentiate themselves from competitors and keep employees engaged and productive.

“Qualtrics has more experience benchmark data within our XM Platform than any other company. The insights our platform delivers allow our customers to identify performance gaps, opportunities and best practices across industries and geographies and take action – all within the XM Platform,” said Anderson.

Moreover, Qualtrics’ new Employee Engagement Benchmarks are composed of data from over 250 science-based questions, including EX25, to measure the 25 key drivers of every employee’s experience including work-life balance, respect and collaboration. The benchmarks also include data for Qualtrics’ validated DEI solution and the Wellbeing solution, enabling companies to attain or maintain a diverse workforce and inclusive culture, and make improvements that impact employee well-being. And lastly, the new Employee Technology Experience (ETX) Benchmark offers organisations comprehensive benchmarking of their entire technology experience, including speed, reliability, change management, knowledge management, and other aspects of IT.

Meanwhile, the CX Agent Performance Index Benchmark uses three key attributes, namely friendliness, knowledge, and understanding, to help organisations compare their customer care agent performance against competitors and peers based on operational characteristics including contact centre size, support team size, CRM system, industry or country. While, the CX Support CSAT Benchmark allows customer care teams to compare their overall satisfaction scores and support performance against competitors and peers based on operational characteristics like contact centre size, support team size, CRM system, industry, or country.

Singapore – Tiqets, an online platform for cultural and leisure experiences in Europe and North America, has partnered with Klook, a travel and leisure e-commerce platform in the Asia Pacific, to connect both their supply channels to offer consumers a world-class supply of cultural and leisure experiences.

Through the new partnership, customers can now use both platforms to seamlessly book an expanded range of experiences available through either Klook or Tiqets. With this integration in place, museums, attractions, and tour operators working with Tiqets and Klook can significantly increase their reach, and consumers will be able to easily book thousands of unforgettable experiences wherever they travel.

As the travel industry enters its rebound phase after a gruelling, two-year global pandemic, both companies have made a remarkable comeback. Over the summer months, Tiqets saw a 220% surge in bookings in Europe and the UK alone. Similarly for Klook, the company has seen outbound bookings grow eleven times in the same period compared to earlier in the year, signalling that the travel bug is stronger than ever. With the end-of-year holiday season on the horizon and the partnership underway, another impressive increase in bookings is expected.

Luuc Elzinga, Tiqets’ president and founder, commented, “We are thrilled to be partnering up with Klook, one of the most impressive OTAs in the industry. Through this partnership, our network of more than 4,000 of the best museums, attractions and tour operators that provide guided tours at these museums will benefit from greater visibility in the APAC market, and Tiqets will benefit from the new supply that Klook already has connected.”

Meanwhile, Wilfred Fan, chief commercial officer at Klook, said that this partnership with Tiqets opens new doors for both groups of customers to enjoy instant and seamless access to the widest selection of attractions and experiences across the Asia Pacific and Europe.

“Klook has gone from strength to strength during the pandemic, and we’ve quadrupled the number of activities on our platform over the last two years in anticipation of travel recovery. We will continue to work closely with our merchants to accelerate their recovery and reach even more customers around the world,” added Fan.

Singapore – Bonsey Jaden, a digital marketing and advertising agency backed by digital technology group CUE, has appointed Sherwin Kukreja, former head of social media at digital telco Yoodo, to be its new head of social media. This new role is Kukreja’s re-entry into the agency end of the digital marketing and branding world.

Kukreja comes into the role with more than enough to go on, having occupied the same position for Yoodo, under Celcom in Malaysia. He also runs on the principle that everything one experiences should inform the next thing. The said international experience includes his unorthodox start as a sound engineer in Melbourne and Dubai, before—in his own words—stumbling into advertising, and thereby finding his passion.

Moreover, Kukreja has had a hand in several campaigns and events, including the launch of the Samsung S9, the first-ever world event for BMW in Malaysia, and, true to his musical roots, Yoodo Presents: Punk Rock Picnic, which featured the biggest local punk rock bands.

Having handled clients from different industries—from food and beverage to tech — Kukreja still believes that his biggest accomplishments have been personal in nature. He noted, “I’ve built my management skills to the point where I can say that people are the most important part of any job and that the key to people—managing them or working with them, it hardly matters—is listening.” 

Bonsey Jaden said that the appointment of Kukreja aims to expand and strengthen the agency’s expertise and leadership team across the Asia Pacific region through continued investment in its talents.

Meanwhile, Daniel Posavac, Bonsey Jaden’s co-founder and CEO, commented that they are so excited to have Kukreja on board with them, giving them fresh leadership and experience in a key part of their business.

“We love the diversity of experiences and skillets from talent who don’t take the traditional pathway —not exactly studying advertising, but picking up principles and skills through the years. I personally believe that if you’ve got the passion for it, nothing will stand in the way of a successful career – and Sherwin is certainly a great example of that. This particular role is integral to driving excellent digital experiences for our client, with social media remaining a prime marketing channel, and Sherwin’s personal emphasis on cultivating meaningful relationships reassures us that we’re headed in the right direction,” said Posavac.

Singapore – Hotel tech provider, Vouch, has launched a digital guest platform that combines pre-arrival guest engagement and experience personalisation for hotels. Called ‘Bespoke by Vouch’, the platform empowers hotel guests with a convenient way to tailor their hotel experience, while boosting productivity and revenue for hotels through smart automation.

‘Bespoke by Vouch’ is a pre-arrival extension to the company’s flagship guest experience platform, a product that offers hotels faster, more efficient guest services through service digitalisation. Through this platform, guests may personalise their upcoming hotel stays by purchasing experiences that interest them and receive instant confirmation on their purchases. 

Moreover, the platform’s algorithm also allows tailored recommendations based on guest profiles and preferences which ensures a high degree of relevance and value for each guest.

The key benefits of ‘Bespoke by Vouch’ include flexibility for guests, incremental revenue for hotels, pre-arrival data collection of guest information, and a powerful management portal that gives hotels full pricing and inventory control on all items, as well as guaranteed delivery of every paid transaction, and manpower savings for front office and reservations departments.

Joseph Ling, founder and CEO of Vouch, said that with their years of knowledge and technical capabilities, they are well-positioned to create an ideal solution that achieves both guest satisfaction and labour efficiency through automation.

He further shared that the pre-arrival experience, which is often neglected, has largely been labour-intensive and this lapse in digitalisation has created a wide efficiency gap for hotels when compared with other industries in the service sector. 

“This is where we can support our hotel partners with reliable solutions to aid them in their efforts to provide a great guest experience every single time,” added Ling.

Vouch said that the platform is also programmed to disable access for guests on the day of their arrival, ensuring no unexpected, last-minute requests that hotels will be pressed to fulfil. Additionally, for room upgrades, the platform triggers a second round of inventory checks on the hotel’s PMS to verify room availability before proceeding to allow guest payment on the platform.

Singapore – Singapore-based telecom ViewQwest, has partnered with Hong Kong’s telecom and technology solutions provider HKBN Enterprise Solutions (HKBNES) to both elevate their regional capabilities in providing ICT and digital transformation (DX) services to customers in APAC, especially for large regional retailers. 

By combining ViewQwest’s extensive regional network with HKBNES’ one-stop digital solutions, the two companies will be able to further strengthen their regional capabilities to create win-win-win outcomes with customers.

Moreover, leveraging HKBNES’ competitive ICT and digital solutions capabilities, ViewQwest will be working with HKBNES in deploying digital transformation services in Hong Kong and Macau. Both will be establishing a colocation facility in HKBN’s data centre, providing on-ground technical and engineering support to ViewQwest’s customers in Hong Kong and Macau, including software and hardware installation and troubleshooting services.

Vignesa Moorthy, CEO of ViewQwest, shared that their partnership with HKBN leverages their deep knowledge and experience in the Hong Kong and Macau market, and it will enable them to better serve their customers with regional operations.

“This combined play marks a significant milestone in our journey and mission to help our customers build and transform their network and security architecture with confidence, streamlining operations, driving cost-savings, and enabling business agility,” said Moorthy.

Meanwhile, William Ho, co-owner-to-be and CEO at HKBNES, noted that this is a unique growth opportunity to further enhance their position as one of the most trusted ICT and digital transformation solutions providers, as they can more dynamically meet their customers’ diverse business and strategy needs – like expanding into overseas markets.

“This world-class partnership will strengthen HKBNES’ footprint in Singapore, and provide us with a solid foundation for accelerated development and growth in the Southeast Asia and APAC markets,” said Ho.

Singapore – Mindshare, the media services company under WPP, has appointed Sidharth Parashar, former president of investments and pricing at GroupM India, to be its new chief investment officer for APAC.

In his new role, Parashar will be focusing on enhancing Mindshare’s investment strategy across local markets, as well as driving Intentional Investment and the opportunity for Good Growth in the region. He will also be reporting to Helen McRae, CEO of Mindshare APAC.

Additionally, Parashar will be based in Singapore and will be part of the Mindshare APAC leadership team.

Commenting on his appointment, Parashar said, “It has been an amazing journey at GroupM, and I am delighted to now take over this new Mindshare APAC investments role. I look forward to this opportunity in new markets to build value for our client’s business.”

Meanwhile, McRae noted, “I am very pleased that Sidharth will be joining our regional team. He brings a tremendous depth of expertise and will be a great champion of Good Growth for our clients.”

Prasanth Kumar, GroupM’s CEO for South Asia, said that Parashar has had a phenomenal career journey where the organisation has witnessed his evolution from a practice expert to a leader over the last 18 years with GroupM. 

“He has successfully led the investment mandates across all media and has elevated the practice through innovative products and delivering exceptional value for our clients. I would like to wish him the very best and will continue to work closely with him as he drives the regional investment strategy for Mindshare,” added Kumar.

In July 2022, Mindshare announced new leadership appointments, namely Shankar Rajagopal as chief client officer for APAC; Ashish Thukral as managing director at Mindshare and m/SIX Vietnam; and Preeti Mascarenhas as head of strategy and product for APAC.

Singapore – Global creative and media agency VaynerMedia has bolstered its leadership in APAC with a slew of elevations in its creative team.

Former Creative Directors Mae Ong and JY Lay are now both Group Creative Directors, while previously Associate Creative Directors Krystle Morais and William Beale now hold the position of Creative Director.

Tim Lindley, managing director of VaynerMedia for APAC, said that they strive to build the most contemporary creative and media agency in the world, and this entails finding and nurturing people who are determined “to change the game.”

“We are proud of our 250+ strong VaynerMedia team across the APAC region and will do everything we can to help them build their careers. We congratulate everyone who has been promoted. This includes our next generation of creative leaders like JY Lay, Mae Ong, Krystle Morais, William Beale, and many other talented folks across functions,” said Lindley.

The creative leads will be reporting to VJ Anand, Head of Creative and Managing Partner. All the newly promoted creative leaders are based in Singapore, except for Morais who’s based in Thailand.

The agency said that aside from the four new senior promotions, there are more recent elevations that have been implemented across the company.