Tag: Advertising

Mumbai, India – The International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS) has re-elected Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), as its vice president at the ICAS Awards 2023.

Kapoor has been an active member of ICAS and its vice president since May 2021. She is also at the forefront of advocating for ethical advertising practices and consumer protection. 

In the event, ASCI also won ‘The Inspiration Award’, which highlighted the successful initiatives by the self-regulatory organisation (SRO) and its contribution towards ensuring higher ethical standards in Indian advertising. It also recognised ASCI’s thought leadership initiatives in creating a roadmap for more progressive advertising, through collaborations with multiple stakeholders. 

Kapoor received the award at the ceremony held in Istanbul, which comprised awards and seminars on a global scale. It was attended by members of SROs, and officials from around the world. 

On ASCI’s award and her re-election, Kapoor said, “We are honoured to receive the award and also at the re-election. The reappointment is a validation of the role that ASCI has played on the global platform over the past 35 years.”

She added, “Our association with ICAS is the next step towards taking the best advertising and self-regulation practises across borders, which can help in the development of the advertising sector while safeguarding the interests of consumers.”

She also shared that both recognitions will help advance the organisation’s shared goals and ensure that self-regulation remains an essential part of the industry.

Singapore – Hepmil Creators’ Network (HCN), one of Southeast Asia’s leading digital creator community and part of Hepmil Media Group, has announced that it is to be a badged as a TikTok Creative Marketing partner specialising in Creator Marketing.

Under the program, brands can work with HCN to create content optimised for TikTok and clients will be able to access all offerings of TikTok Creator Marketplace. Brands can likewise tap into TikTok’s first-party audience insight, growth trends, best-performing videos, and much more to identify the right creators for creator and paid advertising campaigns.

With the partnership, HCN plans to double the number of creators within the Network this year and is also expanding its operations to Thailand and Vietnam to help brands operating in these markets kickstart hyperlocal TikTok campaigns with its pool of creators. In addition, HCN is also widening its scope, and evolving to become a talent agency for creators who are exclusive to the Network. 

“TikTok is now a key platform for brands to engage their audiences in an authentic way. For brands to resonate with their audiences, they must have content that strikes a chord. Many turn to creators for advocacy, but it’s more important to have a pulse on what’s trending within the TikTok community, such that branded content can drive desired marketing impact,” said Cassi Yang, regional general manager at Hepmil Creators’ Network.

Yang further added that being badged as TikTok’s creative marketing partner is proof of the Group’s capabilities in delivering ‘content that sticks’.

“With our network of creators and onground teams who have a pulse of what works and trends, we have been able to offer our clients solutions that resonate with their target audience. The mark of accreditation by TikTok will only further our abilities to provide services that are effective, but more importantly, content that is optimised to resonate,” added Yang.

Adrian Man, director of ecosystem partnerships, APAC and MENA at TikTok also said, “Badging Hepmil Creator’s Network is a milestone for the region’s digital media capabilities, and acknowledging that homegrown network can deliver solutions for brands that can resonate in a region has a diverse audience.”

Man added, “Creators are the lifeblood of our platform, and we’re constantly thinking of new ways to make it easy for them to connect and collaborate with brands. We’re thrilled to be integrating with an elite group of trusted partners to help brands discover and work with diverse creators who can share their message in an authentic way.”

HCN joins influencer marketing and content creation platform Vamp, marketing services company Consumer Acquisition by Brainlabs, and ad platform Nativex, amongst others, as one of TikTok’s marketing partners.

Singapore – Global mobile growth and monetization platform Digital Turbine has appointed James Roger as vice president of brands and agencies for Asia-Pacific. In his new role, he will be leading the brand business in the region.

Prior to joining Digital Turbine, Rogers served as the managing director and general of S4M, which is now Locala, where he led sales and operations for APAC. he also held several leadership positions at InMobi from 2012 to 2017, where he was deeply entrenched into the mobile advertising space and supported a global base of agency and brand clients.

He brings with him extensive experience in digital media, and a proven track record of delivering exceptional results and developing high-performing teams.

Speaking on his appointment, Rogers said, “Digital Turbine is uniquely positioned within the mobile industry, delivering excellent mobile experiences to brands, agencies, mobile carriers and app developers. I am excited to lead the team in APAC as they continue to deliver best in class creative campaigns and ad experiences to drive results for the world’s leading brands and agencies – while Digital Turbine continues to unlock further mobile opportunities in the region.”

Meanwhile, Michael Wong, senior vice president of global sales at Digital Turbine, commented, “We are excited to welcome James as our newest vice president in APAC. His regional sales, operations and leadership experience, paired with his adtech expertise, will help elevate our brand business while further accelerating Digital Turbine’s growth.”

Singapore – Mobile data analytics provider data.ai has announced the launch of Total App Revenue (TAR), a mobile performance metric that provides brands and publishers visibility into all mobile revenue streams. 

Powered by data.ai’s proprietary artificial intelligence, TAR introduces the first mobile performance metric that combines advertising revenue, first-to-market products, and in-app purchase, providing a competitive advantage for in-app advertising, cohort purchases, and ad network performance. 

With the solution, customers can now also break down revenue streams and anticipate market expansion opportunities based on shifts in consumer behaviour.

“Total App Revenue provides a clear picture of data we’ve been missing in our business development and model creation. With data.ai, we finally have a way to understand our full revenue streams and benchmark against competitors,” said Carlos Salvado, senior market analyst at Rovio Entertainment.

Theodore Krantz, chief executive officer of data.ai also said, “Total App Revenue is the ultimate mobile performance metric. The mobile app economy is worth half a trillion dollars and making sense of a competitor’s monetization strategy is key to improving their app position in the market.”

This follows data.ai’s launch of two offerings on measuring data on a mobile application’s ranking, as well as data intelligence, including performance against similar apps last year.

The pandemic pushed the e-commerce and recommerce industries to greater heights due to the digital shift in consumers’ shopping behaviours. Thus, the rise of retail media became more evident in the marketing and advertising space — and has since evolved to meet the changing needs of consumers and brands alike.

In the new instalment of ‘What’s NEXT 2023: Interview Series’, MARKETECH APAC sat with JJ Eastwood, managing director at Carousell Media Group, to delve deeper into the retail media space. In the conversation, Eastwood provided his insights on how retail media has evolved, what’s next in advertising, and Carousell Group’s role in it. 

Beginning the conversation, Eastwood shared that the company was made to make it easier for people to sell things faster and vice versa, for buyers to have a more seamless purchasing experience. To this, Carousell’s founders found the solution: bringing best-in-class features in e-commerce into the secondhand or recommerce space. 

After almost a decade, Carousell Media Group was established – the marketplace’s advertising arm – which was targeted at connecting brands and advertisers to tens of millions of active users across Carousell Group’s family of brands.

Watch the full interview with Carousell Media Group’s JJ Eastwood here.

Speaking about the role of retail media in the marketing and advertising industry, Eastwood said that the former’s number one goal is to help brands acquire new customers and increase sales. 

To give an example, he said, “We want to show our consumers who come to Carousell this really nice blend between preloved items and brand new items and give them the choice. And we do that by showing the ads from our advertisers.” He also added that Carousell Media Group helps brands amplify their first-party data strategies.

But amidst all these, Eastwood said that there’s much more to look forward to from the company to trailblaze a continuous evolution in the retail media advertising space – which includes enhancing existing advertising products with machine learning capabilities.

Hear more about Carousell Media Group and retail media by watching the full interview HERE.

India – Indian stationery brand, Linc, has released its new illustration-based ads for one of its most popular products, the Deli Highlighter. The ads were made in collaboration with marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson.

The two spots featured bird’s eye view illustrations of Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest gathering of devotees, and Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, to emphasise how the product “makes one stand out in a large crowd.”

Speaking about the campaign, Deepak Jalan, managing director at Linc Pens, said, “Linc, as a company has always stood for uniqueness, both in the way it designs its products, and the way it reaches out to its consumers.”

He added, “These stunning illustration-based ads for Deli Highlighter is yet another such campaign to create [top-of-mind] awareness of the brand, in a creative way.”

Arjun Mukherjee, executive creative director and vice president at Wunderman Thompson Kolkata, also pointed out, “To demonstrate how easy it is to spot anything using this highlighter, the need was to show overcrowding of epic proportions.”

He also said that while Kumbh Mela and Dharavi were obvious picks, the challenge was to recreate an ‘unimaginable hustle, bustle and chaos’ as the canvas for the ads through detailed illustrations and crafting.

Soumya Chowdhury, VP and CSD of client servicing at Wunderman Thompson Kolkata added, “We have been partnering Linc Limited for quite some time and creating clutter-breaking communication for them. This time, the particular product needed something extraordinary to ‘highlight’ its benefit in a simple, impactful way, and make consumers take notice.”

Last month, Wunderman Thompson has also collaborated with Australia-based frozen food brand Birds Eye to launch the brand platform ‘An Eye For Good’ to showcase the sustainable work they do in order to bring high-quality food products to its consumers.

Singapore – After inaugurating its APAC headquarters in Singapore last year, advertising agency Le Pub appointed Hanh Kanssen as its general manager and Cyril Louis as its executive creative director.

Kanssen brings with her experience in connecting brands and consumers. She has worked with brands from Asia, Europe, and North America where she helped in driving their significant growth. 

Meanwhile, Louis brings expertise in designing products, crafting brands and businesses, creating physical and digital experiences and developing humanitarian initiatives. In his last stint, he was with creative company Elephant as global group creative director.

Amrita Randhawa, chief executive officer at Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia, said that with Kanssen’s expertise in several Asian markets and latest cultural trends, combined with Louis’ creative hybrid and passion for technology, they will bring something special to the agency.

Kanssen commented that joining Le Pub is extremely refreshing and exciting, given that the agency helps to build brands in culture.

“Personally, I feel very proud of the world-class creative talent we have on the team, all handpicked to focus on building the next generation of brands that have a strong presence at the table of culture,” she added.

Earlier this year, Le Pub crafted a campaign for beer brand Tiger Beer as part of the lunar new year celebration.

Singapore – Digital media measurement software platform DoubleVerify has announced a new solution called ‘DV Campaign Automator’ catered to Google Campaign Manager 360. This allows businesses to streamline the campaign trafficking process: from campaign creation and settings adjustments, to tag management, billing and reporting, as well as removing manual, repetitive touch points that can hinder campaign execution and performance.

To serve these audiences, DV Campaign Automator automates the entire verification trafficking workflow for brands and agencies, whilst offering comprehensive protection and reporting capabilities.

DoubleVerify’s solution was developed in partnership and close coordination with Google, enabling end-to-end automation within Google Campaign Manager 360. Said launch underscores Google’s commitment to supporting advertiser and agency clients with efficient campaign trafficking workflows and powerful insights. 

Some of the features of the new solution include enabling advertisers to accelerate their campaign activation process by fully automating the campaign trafficking workflow, and reducing campaign setup time, amongst others.

Jack Smith, chief product officer at DoubleVerify, said, “We are thrilled to launch DV Campaign Automator which provides advertisers a singular solution that fully automates verification support, campaign setup and trafficking workflow on Google Campaign Manager 360. With DV Campaign Automator, we are simplifying and automating the entire process between our system and the world’s most used ad server, to better support global brands and agencies.”

Manila, Philippines – Local independent agency GIGIL has now announced an expansion to its services, which will now include full public relations and media planning and buying services to the public. 

According to the agency, the launch of these new services will also help boost the performance of clients’ campaigns, as well as complement GIGIL’s campaign ideas.

GIGIL’s PR services include media relations, crisis management, digital PR, KOL/Influencer management, community relations, events management, strategic communications, brand awareness, content management, CSR, and activation. 

Meanwhile, its media planning and buying service will continue to provide comprehensive media strategies and employ creative-driven media tactics. It will offer 360-degree media channel planning, management and execution that cover traditional, digital, and social media.

The agency’s PR arm started two years ago, and has earned over PHP100m in PR values combined from its various projects. The media planning and buying services, on the other hand, started in 2021, and have worked with clients such as Netflix Philippines to create media executions for campaigns.

Jake Yrastorza, managing partner at GIGIL said, “We have always envisioned GIGIL Philippines to be an ‘ideas’ agency, first and foremost. With our full-service PR and media departments, our ideas will have a greater chance to move culture, so our clients can move more products off shelves.”

The agency update comes months after GIGIL has announced its expansion to the United States and Canada, as well as unveiling its metaverse division ‘Metama’.

GIGIL has been known for creating humorous and tongue-in-cheek campaigns for brands such as RC Cola, Orocan, Julie’s Bakeshop, Unioil, and Allianz. They are also responsible for multiple campaign drives for Netflix Philippines, including for shows such as Trese, All of us Are Dead, Red Notice, and Money Heist: Korea.

Sydney, Australia – As Super Bowl 2023 draws near, media agency Initiative is bringing back its popular Super Bowl ad betting competition via the Marketing-Multi platform. The competition is open to all ad industry experts who want to test their power of prediction.

Built by Initiative’s Cultural Analytics department, marketing-multi is crowdsourced by industry experts across Australia and internationally to provide the most eclectic multi-market with odds updating live every day.

Currently, ‘Chat GPT created spots’, ‘spot featuring the British royals’, and ‘appearance of Nepo babies’ are amongst the odds industry pundits are betting on through its website, marketingmulti.au.

In the competition, punters can only bet if an outcome will occur (yes or no), and how many times they predict the outcome occurring. Scoring will be based on probability with the final odds from each day added to a punter’s daily score calculation.

Similar to last year, there will be no money involved but the participant with the highest cumulative score will earn an official ‘Marketing-Multi Super Bowl Ring’ and industry ‘bragging rights’.

“Arguably the world’s biggest advertising platform, Super Bowl sets the stage for the biggest benchmarks in creativity where brands open their wallets and take a punt showcasing their brand, in often outrageous ways, to win the one true ad-attentive environment,” said Chris Colter, chief strategy and product officer at Initiative.

Ryan Haeusler, head of communications design and architect of the platform also explained, “The aim of the game is to get as many legs right, with no penalties for a wrong punt, whoever strings together the most correct answers takes home the ultimate prize: water-cooling bragging rights and the lofty title of this year’s Super Bowl Nostr-AD-Amus.”

Launched on February 8 last year, Marketing-Multi is targeted at helping industry experts predict the best and most hilarious ads of The Super Bowl.