Tag: Asia Pacific

Singapore – Global home and personal care company Colgate-Palmolive has announced a three-year partnership with foodpanda to bolster its digital strategy and give consumers across the region even greater access to its range of products.

Colgate also aims to drive its leadership within the health and wellness space forward. Said partnership follows prior successful collaborations which have shown a strong demand of Colgate’s core range of oral, personal and home care products on foodpanda via pandamart including the key markets of Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, amongst others. 

Through the partnership, consumers will be able to easily purchase a wide range of Colgate products on-demand and have them delivered within an hour any time of the day through foodpanda. Popular products purchased on the platform include Colgate’s core range of products such as Colgate Toothpaste and Mouthwash, as well as products from personal care and home care brands like Palmolive, Ajax, Glo, and Softlan.

This partnership will not only allow Colgate to reach more customers and bring extra convenience, but it will also provide the company with deeper insights into consumer purchasing habits to inform Colgate’s business and marketing efforts. 

M Chandrasekar, director of customer development at Colgate-Palmolive APAC, noted that the company’s digital commerce strategy has driven significant growth for their business and greater integration of q-commerce will further strengthen their leadership across the region.

“Quick commerce is witnessing strong growth in Asia Pacific and we are confident that our partnership with foodpanda will enable us to better meet customers’ needs in a more efficient and effective way, having our products delivered right to their doorstep within minutes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Julien Tessonneau, senior director of q-commerce at foodpanda, commented that through the partnership, Colgate can leverage foodpanda’s robust q-commerce network and technology to enable even more convenience for customers.

“As customers’ demands for on-demand deliveries continue to grow, we are committed to ensure that our offerings are in line with what our customers want. We are very excited to partner with a leading brand like Colgate to further support the daily needs of our customers,” Tessonneau said.

Foodpanda also did q-commerce capabilities for several brands such as LEGO Group, Xiaomi, and Unilever.

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 – Around 77% of marketers in Asia-Pacific, or 3 out of 5 APAC marketers, have said that they intend to increase or dedicate the same budget to social media amidst economic uncertainty this year. This is according to the latest research from media monitoring and social listening platform Meltwater.

According to the data, around 42% are currently running a social listening programme and an additional 15% plan to do so in 2023. Moreover, around 64% of the respondents have the goal of improving their understanding of audiences and target groups.

In terms of the social media platforms that dominate the APAC social media landscape, Facebook led the list, with 87% of marketers using it. They are followed by Instagram (81%), Linkedin (81%), Youtube (64%), and Twitter (50%). Comparatively, TikTok has yet to be leveraged at the same rate, with only 29% using the platform.

Mimrah Mahmood, senior director and partner at Meltwater Asia-Pacific, explains that the average internet user actively uses about 7.2 social media platforms each month, hence audiences are not always where you expect and marketers should now have stronger social listening tools to find and understand users.

“With a huge amount of consumer data available these days, it is now possible to segment audiences in far more sophisticated ways. Marketers need to go beyond demographics and look at communities. Social media data can reveal how people form ‘digital tribes’ based on their shared attitudes, behaviours, and interests, allowing marketers to make more strategic decisions,” Mahmood said.

In terms of the rise of short-form content in the region, Mahmood said, “Short-form videos such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are effective new formats that marketers should incorporate moving forward. In 2024, we expect to see more social commerce features, including paid ads, and purchase capabilities woven into these formats in response to consumers seeking more seamless shopping experiences.”

Singapore – To expand its client capabilities across Asia-Pacific’s retail media market, global commerce media company Criteo has announced its acquisition of Australia-based omnichannel media platform Brandcrush. Through this, Brandcrush aims to offer holistic omnichannel monetization solutions for global retailers whilst helping brands and agencies to discover and acquire omnichannel media from major retailers. 

As retail media provides revenue opportunities, retailers usually rely on emails and spreadsheets to manage packaging, availability, and purchasing of their media inventory. With the acquisition of Brandcrush, global retailers will be given the capability to able to manage a more comprehensive media inventory for both e-commerce and physical retail. 

Furthermore, the acquisition will also serve as support for the advertisers to scale their advertising through the whole omnichannel retail media landscape.

Sherry Smith, general manager of global enterprise at Criteo, said that as marketers prefer investing in retail media, offline is emerging as the new frontier; therefore, brands and agencies must be able to effectively plan, execute, and measure their campaigns in an integrated way.

“Brandcrush directly addresses the current market need for consolidated offline and online advertising management, and our combined solutions will make omnichannel retail media strategies a reality, empowering retailers to own their entire retail media ecosystems,” Smith added.

Teresa Aprile, co-founder and CEO at Brandcrush, commented, “By combining forces, we’re bringing together our platform with Criteo’s best-in-class retail media technology to create the most effective monetization platform for retailers.”

Last year, it can be noted that Criteo announced its plans for its technology and analytics centre to expand its operations across APAC.

Criteo connects marketers with media owners to provide engaging shopping experiences from product discovery to purchase.

Asia Pacific – In addition to its existing media remit in Taiwan since 2020, marketing and advertising agency Dentsu International expands its partnership with online delivery platform foodpanda to support its media transformation journey and bring closer collaboration across the markets of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of dentsu Media APAC, said that the agency built a strong foundation in Taiwan by differentiating foodpanda from its competitors, making a great relevance to its target audience. 

Mehrotra added, “To be entrusted with and grow our remit in APAC is a true testament to foodpanda’s confidence in us and we are honoured to add this portfolio in our roster. We are excited to continue driving meaningful difference in their media and marketing strategy and can’t wait to do some great work together.”

Meanwhile, Ankit Kochar, head of brand media for foodpanda APAC, said that the company decided to extend their partnership with the agency due to its strong legacy in media roots by being able to navigate today’s digital complexities.

“Their extensive network and versatility were some of the key criteria that we were seeking in a partner, and we look forward to a meaningful and collaborative relationship in the years ahead,” he added.

Last month, dentsu in Africa has established a partnership with global outdoor advertising technology provider Moving Walls to launch a full-stack Out-of-Home (OOH) adtech platform across the multiple markets in the continent.

Singapore – Global, performance-driven content leader Green Park Content has announced the promotion of Fe Husaint as managing director for APAC to strengthen the agency’s operations, power up its growth, and accelerate its success across the region. Husaint previously held the creative and global brand head position at the agency.

Husaint brings with her strong experience in developing a creative and strategic approach to managing brands’ creative remits. She became an integral part of Greenpark’s growth in APAC whilst helping to grow the agency’s revenue with global and regional business.

Marcelo Bittencourt, departing managing director for APAC, said that Husaint deserves the promotion because she has been pivotal in growing the agency’s business and culture.

Meanwhile, Husaint commented, “I plan to inspire a strong, inclusive, and diverse culture—to do my part in powering business growth to the next level. I am also excited to usher in a new era of Greenpark—my vision is to have a holistic approach with creativity and innovation at the core.” 

“I envision a business model that’s driven by innovation such as Generative AI Creative Solutions. This is my future-forward vision to continue pushing the boundaries of creativity, while being able to offer cost-efficient solutions to our Client partners,” she added.

Greenpark has been growing its operations in seven APAC countries with over 130 digital experts within its team.

Earlier this year, Greenpark has also announced the promotion of Lesley Renton as its head of marketing and demand generation for APAC.

Singapore – MMA APAC, a not-for-profit marketing trade association, announced the winners of the prestigious 2022 SMARTIES APAC Awards. The categories in the awards include marketing impact, purpose driven marketing, impact media, experience technology, Web3, e-commerce marketing and creative.

In its eleventh year, the refreshed SMARTIES APAC handed over 81 awards that included 25 gold, 27 silver and 29 bronze ones. The award show that has 7 categories and 29 sub-categories attracted a total of over 2,300 entries this year.

Big winners of the night were Heineken Silver’s ‘The eKoin’ and Cadbury’s ‘Shah Rukh Khan My’ ad campaigns which were bestowed the ‘Best in Show’ honour. Lifebuoy won ‘Most Resilient Brand of the Year’ while Mondelez India Food Pvt Ltd. and ‘Cadbury Celebrations’ were felicitated with the title ‘Advertiser of the Year’ and ‘Brand of the Year’ respectively. 

Amongst the agencies – Wavemaker India, Publicis Groupe Vietnam and Mindshare APAC were adjudged the ‘Media Agency’, ‘Creative Agency’ and ‘Agency of the Year’. Grab and Rephrase.ai were awarded the ‘Publisher of the Year’ and ‘Enabling Technology Company of the Year’ respectively.

This year’s SMARTIES also launched the world’s first advertising and innovation award on blockchain in the form of tokenized trophies or NFTs.

The NFT award will feature four exclusive animated artworks designed by Brazilian artist Adhemas Batista, representing the SMARTIES trophy categories (Bronze, Silver, Gold , Grand Prix & Industry Awards). All winners will own a unique artwork. Each NFT award will also give specific privileges to its owner such as workshops, free tickets for events, invites to showcase, case-studies and other community driven activities.

Rohit Dadwal, MMA Board Member and Managing Director APAC, said: “Year after year, I am excited by the innovative campaigns that the ecosystem collaboratively is creating keeping in mind what today’s consumer wants. It’s equally inspiring to see a treasury of marketing and advertising geniuses come together on one of the most prestigious platforms of all times – MMA SMARTIES APAC 2022.”

He added, “We have also launched NFTs to gift winners through which we will acknowledge their outstanding contributions to the industry by issuing a digital award which can be verified for ownership at any point of time. The NFT also exhibits the rich legacy of past winners and makes the award valuable as well as prestigious. This initiative makes us the torchbearer in the industry for launching this very first cryptographic asset.”

MMA SMARTIES is currently organised in 14 markets globally out of which five are in APAC including India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia with the regional awards event held in Singapore. 

Commenting on his experience as the jury chair, Umesh Phadke, chief transformation officer at L’Oréal SAPMENA, said, “MMA through Smarties APAC has established a strong platform for the industry to showcase the most inspirational campaigns and case studies. As a chair for the awards, I was honoured to have the opportunity to see the best work from our industry. It was energising to see brands and agencies in APAC pushing the boundaries by incorporating new technology and creative ideas.”

Kowloon, Hong Kong – With the aim of increasing its store portfolio across the Asia-Pacific, Starbucks has announced its plans to open 400 new stores in the region in 2023 to serve additional communities in its major cities.

Starbucks also plans to build on its existing portfolio of over 300 stores across 40 cities in India by extending its footprint into at least five new cities. The company also targets expanding its stores beyond the metropolitan areas of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, as well as opening a new store in Laos. 

“Asia Pacific is a dynamic and diverse engine of growth for Starbucks globally. As recovery continues, the region achieved over 20% sales growth year on year, demonstrating the strength and relevance of the brand,” said Michael Conway, group president of International and Channel Development for Starbucks.

He also added that the company is well-positioned for further growth with its licensed business partners.

Moreover, the company has also unveiled its new store in Gwangyang-si, South Korea today, February 16, which marks its 5,000th store milestone in APAC. According to Starbucks, the new store has the latest digital features and technology and a new drive-thru store that offers customers on-the-go more convenience.

To this, Conway commented, “The opening of our 5,000th store in Asia Pacific reaffirms our commitment to bring the unparalleled Starbucks Experience to more customers in one of our fastest growing regions.”

Emmy Kan, president of Starbucks Asia Pacific also said, “That our 5,000th store in Asia Pacific is a drive-thru store speaks both to the changing habits of our customers, and of our determination to meet them where it is most convenient, while still offering the Starbucks connection.” 

She also added that the company will continue to enhance its store formats and innovate to cater to changing customer behaviours and fuel growth in the region.

Building on the welcoming ‘third place’ experience, Starbucks also plans to open more Starbucks Reserve stores across APAC to bring customers an ‘intimate, multi-sensory coffee experience’.

Singapore – Global creative and media agency VaynerMedia has appointed Chan Woei Hern as the head of creative for Asia-Pacific, where he will further strengthen its credentials as an integrated consumer-centric agency in the region.

The seasoned creative brings with him an experience in the advertising world across the creative, media, content and film segments. He previously served as the executive creative director of VMLY&R Commerce for Malaysia and Southeast Asia, where he integrated and accelerated growth in the areas of creative commerce.

Woei Hern has also led the creative teams at advertising agencies Naga DDB, dentsu, and Ensemble and has worked with brands such as Grab, Nippon Paint, Maxis Communications, Petronas and Munchy’s.

In his new role, he will be reporting to Tim Lindley, managing director of VaynerMedia APAC.

Lindley said that when they started to find a successor for VJ Anand, who was recently promoted to the ECD position for the EMEA region, Woei Hern was on the top of their list. 

Lindley added, “His excitement for our attention-first model, his curiosity across platforms, and his passion to develop great people make us even more excited about the next phase of our growth. Woei Hern is an exceptional creative talent, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the team.”

Meanwhile, Woei Hern commented on how inspiring the energy is in the media agency. 

He added, “I can’t wait to see what an amazing adventure this will be to bring the culture to life through the work we do together as a team.”-

Last November 2022, one of the leaders of VaynerMedia APAC, Jonathan Gerard, who is its head of production, joined MARKETECH APAC as one of the speakers at the webinar, What’s NEXT 2023: Influencer Marketing in APAC. As part of the panel discussion, Gerard shared his insights on how brands should best engage with influencers as their content creator partners.

Asia Pacific – Social media conversations on shopping are expected to shift now that the way people purchase has changed once again with the ushering of the post-pandemic. This has been evident in social media listening company Digimind’s latest report which revealed that within APAC, internauts have produced over 8 million online mentions of luxury brands in the year 2022.

We need not go too far on this occurring reality when the recent viral TikTok incident supercharged the conversation on ‘luxury’, where a Singapore-based Filipino teenager drew backlash for calling her first Charles & Keith bag purchase as ‘luxury’.

At present, the interest of consumers in conversations on luxury shopping persists. The report by Digimind monitored the public posts of online users from four APAC countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines – that mentioned the top 10 luxury brands namely Cartier, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Rolex, Tiffany & Co., and YS. 

Within the overall 8 million social and web mentions in the region, the report showed that Thailand tops the volume of these online mentions, accounting for 37% of it, or in particular, 2.9 million. This was followed by Indonesia with 1.94 million and the Philippines contributing 1.92 million. Meanwhile, Malaysia and Singapore recorded 867,000 and 295,000 mentions, respectively.

Since the four countries do not have the same population numbers, the data was based on the number of active social network users per country.

The report also explained that there may be several factors on why these luxury brands were being talked about online. First, there is a 79% positive sentiment recorded behind the brands amongst APAC consumers. Another factor is the collaboration of K-pop artists with the said luxury brands. Iterations of these would be artists wearing custom-made outfits during their concerts or events. Furthermore, luxury brands are getting a lot of attention due to venturing into newer technologies, including Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), the metaverse, and cryptocurrency for payment purposes.

Olivier Girard, head of Digimind APAC, said that the luxury culture in Southeast Asia is very much alive because of loyal customers, with fans adoring the ambassadors of these products. Girard also added that they noticed the continuous interest with great average of monthly mentions and sentiments from the people in the region.

He added, “When it comes to high-profile events, social media coverage is a critical area of monitoring, where a single blunder can potentially have massive repercussions on multiple stakeholders. Social media monitoring tools like Digimind Social offer brands the ability to spot the hottest trending discussions and extreme shifts in sentiment in real time, turning actual public perception into concise, actionable reports to activate the right escalation chain.”