Tag: Asia Pacific

Singapore – Programmatic consultancy Bidmath has announced the promotion of Rakesh Singh as regional managing director and Jaa Thisirak Pitayagulsarn as country manager for Thailand. 

Both will play a significant role in driving the integration of digital and data-driven marketing initiatives in Vietnam and Thailand, enabling client development through an agile approach to an ever-changing media landscape.

Singh is a veteran digital marketing and transformation leader with over two decades of experience working with a wide portfolio of brands and global media agencies like GroupM, Omnicom, Publicis and Havas with more than 15 years in leadership roles.

Speaking on his appointment, he said, “The future belongs to businesses and brands that can rapidly scale and embrace data-driven digital marketing approaches. As a result, they are collaborating more closely with new-age digital transformation agencies like Bidmath, which is one of the few agencies where a team of data evangelists in the form of data scientists and digital media planners work together to meet the brand’s digital transformation goals. It’s an honour and privilege to lead a team of highly talented and qualified digital marketing experts, data scientists and analysts.”

Meanwhile, Pitayagulsarn has over 13 years of experience with a demonstrated history of leading automotive, FMCG and e-commerce/CRM initiatives at the advertising agencies Wunderman Thompson and Ogilvy. In her previous venture with Google, she drove Thailand’s digital maturity by helping transform clients’ businesses to meet their desired goals.

“The advancement of technology and the digital transition have altered how Thais consume media and adjust to volatile ways of life. It rose to prominence during the pandemic. We are well aware that traditional media cannot meet all of the needs of today’s consumers, which urges brands to become more resilient, participate, and add value. Thank you to all of our clients for your continued support and partnership,” she added.

Pitayagulsarn also added, “Personally, I am looking forward to collaborating with our talented teams to drive digital maturity and step change growth in the way we serve our customers and clients. It is a pleasure to contribute to our clients’ businesses transparently with a data-driven approach in the rise of the performance marketing era.”

Nate Acton, chief strategy officer at Bidmath, commented, “We are thrilled to announce the promotion of both Rakesha and Jaa. Their exceptional leadership skills, creativity, and deep understanding of our company, people, and industry make them ideal candidates to continue expansion across the region. I would also like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the entire team, who have played a vital role in building the agency’s footprint in Asia Pacific.” 

Singapore – With just a few days before the Lunar New Year celebrations, streaming platform Netflix goes an understated but no less unconventional route of developing a bespoke piece of paper artwork to commemorate the festivity. The artwork, which was done together with global creative company Mash and Malaysian artist Eten Teo, aims to highlight the value of ‘togetherness’.

Framed with the symbolic elements fish, coins, and peonies, which mean abundance, wealth, and prosperity, respectively; the artwork by Teo showcases interactions of the cross-generational family when celebrating the Lunar New Year, a tradition that is deeply rooted in the history and culture of Asian communities.

Rich Akers, Mash Director and Project Lead of Creative Services in Asia, said, “We’re always excited to work with Netflix. Building a virtual creative studio and partnering with an incredible artist, like Eten to deliver on such an ambitious vision, is not a project you get to do every day.” 

In order for the artwork to be an authentic representation of the Asian festivity, Mash curated a Virtual Creative Studio that brought together seven creatives from Mash’s global network. Each one dug deep into their experiences in order to uncover that one key theme that spoke to the true essence of the celebration—the tumultuous and chaotic beauty of cross-generational families over the most important holiday of the Asia calendar. 

The papercut piece is the first physical artwork that is digitised and featured on a local moment on Netflix, a specially-curated collection of titles that celebrates seasonal moments or social events that are important to local audiences.

The artwork will be live on the Netflix screens of viewers across Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan for the duration of the holiday. 

Singapore – Online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced the one-year anniversary celebration for its own brand ambassador Pau-Pau, encouraging users to ‘live like a panda’, meaning freeing up their time and energy to pursue what really matters to them.

In conceptualising the philosophy, the foodpanda team spent hours studying pandas and found that pandas eat as they want to, sleep as they want to and live life without unnecessary worries. Taking inspiration from this outlook, foodpanda believes that humans too can benefit from adopting a similar mindset, and focus their energies on things that truly satisfy them. 

Eunha Bhang, chief creative officer at Delivery Hero Asia, said, “We wanted to create a brand philosophy that will resonate with people of all ages across the region. With ‘live like a panda’, we hope to inspire our customers to look beyond their routine or chores that get in the way of doing things that they truly like, such as spending time with people they love. We want to help them free up time for things they enjoy doing so that they can find true satisfaction.”

Since his debut, Pau-Pau has received immense love from millions of people across the region and has created a positive perception in customers’ minds – making foodpanda their preference for on-demand deliveries. Throughout 2022, foodpanda has also received numerous requests for Pau-Pau merchandise, which highlights his growing fanbase. 

Moreover, Pau-Pau, since becoming the face of the brand, has made his way into customers’ everyday lives through social media collaterals such as Telegram and LINE sticker sets as well as Instagram filters, which are used by many. He is constantly featured in prominent out of home advertisements, and has his own line of plushies and exclusive collectables.

Pau-Pau has also made its way to more hyperlocal campaigns. For instance, in Thailand last year, a giant Pau-Pau mascot visited an underprivileged children’s foundation to celebrate Valentine’s Day with them and also deliver delicious meals and other everyday necessities. In Taiwan, foodpanda launched a Pau-Pau promotion campaign featuring three Pau-Pau statues about 2.5m high while in Singapore, Pau-Pau has his own ice cream flavour and pink cookies.

Speaking about the celebration, Monika Mikusova, senior director of marketing for APAC at foodpanda, said, “The creation of our own brand ambassador, Pau-Pau, allows us to better connect and engage with millions of people who use the foodpanda app daily in a fresh, new way. With Pau-Pau, we now have the unique opportunity and creative runway to launch campaigns that bring to life foodpanda’s brand personality. While Pau-Pau had an adventurous 2022, for 2023, we are very excited for him to explore even more meaningful ways to add value to our customers’ lives.”

Pau-Pau’s philosophy is also reflected in what Mikusova said in MARKETECH APAC’s exclusive feature as their campaign is recognised as the site’s “Branding Campaign of the Year”. In it, she explains that Pau-Pau was made to have a personality that matches foodpanda’s values: a fun-loving and free-spirited panda who advocates environmental sustainability and believes in empowering people.

“As a reflection of our brand purpose, we centred Pau-Pau’s unique personality and passion points on three key values – living life on one’s own terms, the environment, and food and fun. This speaks to our commitment of making food, grocery and essential services delivery accessible to everyone, everywhere quickly around the clock,” she further explained.

Manila, Philippines – Every time a year nears its end, marketing and advertising leaders are always on the lookout for what they must anticipate next. And whilst challenges may be ahead – especially coming from a post-pandemic era – come with them are also fresh opportunities raring to be activated. Nonetheless, for both to be conquered, we would need a deeper understanding of strategies based on the forecasted trends and behaviours in the industry this coming 2023.

As the world begins to open from the folds of the pandemic, marketers need to take in the learnings of the past two years and use it to push forward. But in an industry increasingly shifting due to the fluidity of consumer behaviour, marketers need strategic and intelligent foresight to ensure that the right direction is being coursed through. 

For the first time ever, marketing-centric digital media for APAC,  MARKETECH APAC, launches What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific – its first foray into a hybrid conference. The 2-day conference, which will be held from February 28, 2023 to March 1, 2023, aims at gathering some of the biggest marketing leaders in Asia-Pacific to discuss the various opportunities across a wide range of marketing sub-industries.

What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific is part of MARKETECH APAC’s What’s NEXT 2023, a four-month-long festival that discusses how marketers can prepare for the upcoming year of marketing opportunities and challenges through the perspective of various marketing leaders and through various mediums.

Some of the topics included in the conference are neuromarketing, composable commerce, customer engagement, metaverse marketing, cookie-less advertising, branding strategy, content marketing, and influencer marketing, among others. The first day (February 28) will be held both at Crowne Plaza Galleria in Manila, Philippines and virtually at the same time, while the second day (March 1) will be held virtually only.

The lineup for the marketing leaders that will be speaking at the conference includes:

  • Gino Riola, chief marketing officer at Allianz PNB Life
  • Mary Eunice Lodripas, associate director for marketing at Ascott International Management Philippines
  • Diana Boo; chief marketing officer at Boost
  • Bea Atienza; impactful brand experience lead at Colgate-Palmolive
  • Denice Sy, chief sales and marketing officer at Ever Bilena Cosmetics
  • Sheila Paul, chief marketing officer at Home Credit Philippines
  • Mark Opao, communications planning partner for APAC and META at Kaspersky
  • Waikuan Wong, global head of marketing at Malaysia Airlines
  • Weldon Fung, social solutions lead for Southeast Asia at Meltwater
  • Anna Henwood, chief executive officer at Stickybeak

What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific is sponsored by Carousell, Hubilo, Meltwater, and Stickybeak.

Check out the full agenda of the What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific conference here.

Interested industry leaders may contact Katherine Sy at [email protected] for speaking opportunities and Joven Barceñas at [email protected] for sponsorship opportunities. For general inquiries, contact us at [email protected].

Singapore – To support its growth strategy across the Asia-Pacific region, IT company Fujitsu has named its new head of marketing for APAC, Jezmynn Koh-Turner. This is a comeback for Koh-Turner who previously joined the company back in 1999. 

Koh-Turner will be based in Singapore, joining Fujitsu’s APAC leadership team. She will be focusing on supporting the company’s regional business strategy and building the Fujitsu Uvance brand.

She is expected to bring over two decades of marketing and communications experience in enterprise tech and SaaS companies across APAC, ASEAN, Greater China, North Asia, South Asia, and Australian markets in the new role.

Prior to joining Fujitsu, Koh-Turner was most recently director of marketing for APAC and MEA for SaaS solutions provider Jedox AG. Throughout her experience, she’s also held marketing and communication leadership roles at SingTel, F5 Networks, and Commvault, amongst others. 

When Koh-Turner first joined Fujitsu in 1999, she supported go-to-market strategies at Fujitsu Asia, with a role that spanned for seven years. 

On re-joining Fujitsu, she said, “I am very pleased to have re-joined Fujitsu during such an exciting period of transformation and I look forward to collaborating with the Global Marketing team and the Asia Pacific organization to support Fujitsu’s growth strategy and bring to life our purpose-led strategic direction and focus.”

Graeme Beardsell, chief executive officer of Fujitsu Asia Pacific also said, “With extensive experience in the enterprise technology market across the Asia Pacific region, she is the ideal executive to lead our Asia Pacific marketing team as we look to elevate our position as a trusted digital transformation (DX) and sustainability transformation (SX) company in the region.”

Vice Head of Global Marketing at Fujitsu Dr. Laura Bonamici also expressed her excitement to work with Koh-Turner in supporting the business strategy and financial objectives for the APAC region and building the Fujitsu Uvance brand.

“She is passionate about driving integrated marketing and communications strategies to generate market awareness, shift perception and impact purchase consideration, and will no doubt be a great asset to our company,” Bonamici added.

Fujitsu is a leading business and IT solutions provider, offering services drawn from five key technologies: computing, networks, AI, data and security, and converging technologies.


Manila, Philippines – Global professional and consulting services company Accenture has appointed Louise Sabariaga to the role of chief marketing officer of growth markets, composing the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. 

Sabariaga has confirmed to MARKETECH APAC about said appointment, which took effect in September this year.

She was most recently the global managing director of Accenture’s technology sustainability, marketing and communications. Previously, she also held the role of managing director of technology and ecosystems marketing, communications for APAC, MEA, and LATAM.

Sabariaga has been with Accenture for around 17 years, with a large portion of the time serving the Philippine market, as well as the Southeast Asian region.

Her appointment comes after a slew of acquisitions made by Accenture in APAC, including New Zealand consumer insights business Fiftyfive5 and Indonesian brand experience agency Romp.

Singapore – Edelman has appointed Jenny Granger as the head of strategy for health in Asia-Pacific, which reflects the firm’s strategic focus on handling clients in the pharmaceutical, medical technology and consumer wellness space.

At Edelman, Granger will work closely with client leaders, creative teams and clients themselves to help address some of the most pressing challenges currently facing the sector, in order to provide cut-through communications and marketing strategies. 

Her appointment will further build the foundation Edelman’s health business has built around cross-regional expertise, with teams working across the region to service clients. Granger will focus on integrating creative and strategy with Edelman’s health teams across Asia.

A senior communications strategist and market researcher with more than 20 years of experience in integrated marcoms strategy for prescription and OTC brands, Granger joins Edelman after leading her own strategy and research consultancy with a focus on go-to-market and growth strategies across health and wellness, pharmaceuticals, beverage industries and not-for-profits.

Speaking on her appointment, Granger says, “Edelman’s attraction is its unique set of strengths for knowing how to build ‘Trust through Action’. I’m looking forward to working with some great minds in technology, strategy, and creativity across the APAC region to create impactful health communications for our clients, who themselves are doing extraordinary work for their customers and patients.”

Meanwhile, Will Collie, vice chair of health for Edelman in APAC, commented, “As expectations of the communications and marketing function become more focused on driving real business outcomes, Edelman’s health clients need to know that we are putting strategy expertise at the centre of our consulting. The communications and marketing environment has become complex, so we are deliberately building teams that think broadly around the entire health business ecosystem, providing a focused and strategic perspective to the issues our clients face.”

Collie adds, “We’re building teams with no boundaries, bringing the best minds to our 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.”

Singapore – Real-time data platform Aerospike has named Sharon Koay as its new marketing director for the Asia Pacific region and Japan. 

According to her LinkedIn profile, Koay will be handling Aerospike’s marketing process and campaigns from research and planning to execution and analysis. She will also be managing the marketing budget and goals for APAC and Japan.

Moreover, she is expected to bring her skills in market planning, enterprise solutions, sales, channel management and go-to-market strategies to her new role. 

Koay has sales and marketing experience of about 20 years and has held managerial roles at technology company Dell and software development company One Identity.

Prior to joining Aerospike, she also worked as a marketing consultant for Silver Linings Consultancy. Her clients included Aerospike, Proofpoint, EnterprizID, DT Asia, and Hoonartek.

Aerospike is a data platform that enables organizations to act instantly across billions of transactions while reducing server footprint.

Singapore – As part of expanding their partnership in the APAC region, customer engagement platform Twilio and cloud communication AI provider Seasalt.ai released SeaX, a GTM bundle for Twilio Flex targeted at helping businesses streamline omnichannel communications.

The solution is also expected to streamline the rollout of a complete contact centre for multinational businesses that need to launch solutions in many countries or across multiple geographies and timezones like Southeast Asia, Europe, or different states in the U.S.

SeaX also includes Twilio Flex plugins that will address common contact centre requirements while keeping customization flexibility.

This also supports omnichannel messaging to webchat, SMS, Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, and Google Business Messages, amongst others. SeaX also allows integration with common CRM software such as Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Its customers have likewise reported time and cost savings to deploy all services to production and get agents on calls in less than 10 days.

“We’re excited about the partnership between Twilio and Seasalt.ai to bring SeaX to the market. The launch of this bundle – which leverages Twilio Flex – will empower organizations to build a programmable contact center platform that allows them to build customer engagement applications that fit their business,” said Frankco Shum, director of APJ Flex Partners at Twilio.

J Arnold & Associates’ Principal Jon Arnold also said, “Seasalt AI understands the importance of bringing together conversational AI and the multichannel contact center into the same experience. Twilio has been working with the in-house developers of businesses large and small for many years, helping them create customized customer and agent experiences.”

“SeaX is a way to quickly get Twilio Flex up and running out of the box out of the box and also allows for deep customization,” he added.

Xuchen Yao, CEO of Seasalt.ai, also commented, “The swift collaboration between Twilio and Seasalt.ai greatly accelerated customer’s contact center operations in the APJ region. Most customers wanted an operational contact center ‘yesterday’, and we delighted them with a launching date ‘next week’. This quick launch bundle is well adapted to the fast-paced business demand in APJ.” 

Twilio has also previously launched Twilio Live, a solution that allows businesses to integrate audio and video live streaming solutions into their applications.

Sydney, Australia – Advertising agency company Publicis Groupe in APAC has teamed up with martech company Playground xyz to implement attention measurement and optimisation solutions across Publicis Groupe APAC clients’ digital ad campaigns.

The project expands on an ongoing partnership that has seen Playground help Publicis Groupe APAC clients test attention-based solutions and build a clear understanding of the actual levels of consumer attention their digital display advertising receives.

Next stages of the partnership will look to test how Playground’s attention solutions can be applied to other advertising approaches and channels, including contextual targeting and YouTube video ads.

Playground xyz’s ‘Attention Intelligence Platform’ uses real eye-tracking data from an opt-in panel, fused with AI to deliver attention measurement and optimisation.

Sapna Nemani, chief product and solution officer for APAC at Publicis Groupe said, “Brands have always been in the business of capturing and converting attention. Yet, as an industry, we have found it hard to quantify this, until now. The ability to measure attention meaningfully gives us an accurate perspective on effectiveness, and this is a game changer.”

Meanwhile, Rob Hall, CEO of Playground xyz, commented, “We’re continuing to find that attention time is an incredibly reliable and effective predictor of brand outcomes. It’s capable of unearthing hugely beneficial insights that will undoubtedly help brands more effectively formulate their strategies. Attention data is the missing ingredient in advertisers’ quests to secure maximum ROI and we’re incredibly excited to be helping Publicis’ clients realise its potential.”