Chicago, USA – Mondelēz International has announced that it has teamed up with Publicis Groupe and Accenture to launch of a new platform designed to improve its global marketing capabilities while optimizing consumer experiences through expanded use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI).

The company’s new platform will enable faster, more efficient creation of personalised text, images and videos – helping the company’s brands stay a step ahead of rapidly changing consumer tastes and interests.

Building on its long partnership with Mondelēz, Accenture established a strong digital core enabling the company to collect and process real-time data — using GenAI to create new, contextualised insights — that can be easily accessed, shared and used by decision makers across the company. Going forward, Accenture will help scale and activate this platform through employee training and adoption strategies.

Meanwhile, Publicis Groupe will be responsible for leading execution and building the GenAI foundation that will power creative assets. Both organisations will work closely with Mondelēz marketing teams to realise the vision of redefining consumer goods marketing.

Jon Halvorson, senior vice president of global consumer experiences and digital commerce at Mondelēz, said, “Harnessing the power of gen AI will empower our people to play a proactive role in how our brands show up in the market. This drives real value for the business through creating, personalizing and distributing on-trend creative not only at pace, but also safely, securely and with brand integrity.”

Meanwhile, Venky Rao, Americas & AI lead and global client account lead for Mondelēz at Accenture, stated, “As curators of some of the world’s most iconic brands, Mondelēz marketers will be able to tap into the power of data, AI and gen AI to drive innovation, gather audience and market insights, improve behind-the-scenes processes, turbocharge measurement, conduct near-real-time testing and facilitate higher degrees of personalization at every consumer touchpoint.”

Lastly, Scott Hagedorn, global chief solutions architect at Publicis Groupe, commented, “Publicis is proud to be a transformation partner in this journey, as part of our broader Power of One solution for Mondelēz, and shares this same holistic approach – bringing the best capabilities together to deliver a truly game-changing solution, underpinned by best-in-class data and technology.”

Singapore Accenture has formed a partnership with Adobe to jointly develop industry-specific solutions. They intend to help enterprises create content at scale and alter their content supply chains by leveraging Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s family of creative generative AI models. 

Accenture intends to include Adobe Firefly Custom Models in its Accenture Song marketing services. With the help of this integration, clients will be able to use their proprietary data and brand guidelines to train customised models with the industry-specific insights that are needed. Designed for commercial use, Firefly is accessed through Adobe Creative Cloud and Experience Cloud apps, as well as APIs via Firefly Services. 

Marketers can create particular campaigns by producing content that matches their brand’s aesthetic and visual language. Then, by utilising effect analysis and performance statistics, these programs may be continuously improved. Iterative strategies reduce the need for manual modifications and streamline the process of creating content. 

Accenture’s data and AI engineering skills will be leveraged by the new solutions, which are first aimed at the automotive, retail and consumer goods, financial services, and health industries. They will also integrate Accenture’s strategy for creating cohesive brand experiences with its approach to responsible AI.

Through the integration of these solutions with Adobe’s wider range of generative AI-powered tools and client systems, businesses can gain the benefits of content that is industry-specific, locally relevant, and internationally consistent. In addition, Accenture engineers will receive specific training in Adobe Firefly so they can help clients with generative AI initiatives. 

Accenture will use Adobe Firefly in its marketing division as part of the partnership to help staff members create creative material effectively. Accenture is able to customise content for each of the 19 sectors it services by using a Firefly Custom Model that is adapted to its unique brand style and design language. 

Speaking about the partnership, David Droga, chief executive officer, Accenture Song, said, “Brands today are looking for ways to go beyond experimenting with generative AI to achieve real impact. Whether it’s consumer goods companies scaling their product data and images in e-marketplaces worldwide, or healthcare providers ensuring brand standards for patient safety, the demand for scalable generative AI solutions is increasing. By bringing together Adobe technology with Accenture Song’s tech-powered creativity, we can help democratize the ability for teams to develop creative assets and accelerate content supply chain transformation.”

Meanwhile, David Wadhwani, president, Digital Media Business, Adobe, stated, “Businesses have an unprecedented opportunity to leverage generative AI to deliver truly personalised experiences that connect with their customers. Firefly is an enterprise grade solution that powers a full suite of generative capabilities – from content generation to editing to assembly – through our industry-leading applications and enterprise automation APIs. We are excited to partner with Accenture to define and implement solutions that empower organisations around the world to harness the power of AI.” 

Furthermore, Jim LaLonde, lead of the Accenture Adobe Business Group, commented, “In recognition of our technology and industry experience and decades-long relationship, Adobe has selected Accenture to help develop and deliver industry-specific generative AI capabilities that will give organisations the tools they need to unlock new value. Together with Adobe, we’re continuing to invest in the talent and technology needed to drive next generation experiences for our clients.”

Singapore Accenture has agreed to buy Jixie, a media and marketing technology company. Accenture’s integration of Jixie’s intelligent digital marketing platform and team intends to improve the firm’s marketing transformation capabilities and resources.

This strategic move aims to help Indonesian clients provide more individualised experiences. It is facilitated by Accenture Song, the company’s tech-powered creative group. Increasing client involvement is the aim in order to achieve long-term business growth.

Jixie, based in Singapore, offers a wide range of monetization and marketing growth tools, with a focus on Indonesian clients. The company’s platform serves as an advertising ecosystem that makes it accessible to publishers and brand owners to work together to co-create solutions that are grounded in consumer data. This transformation makes marketing a strategic focus instead of a dispersed, uncontrollable process, improving accessibility and safeguarding consumer privacy, brand safety, and data.

Publishers may maximise advertising revenues by using Jixie’s platform to access monetization capabilities such as performance marketing and header-bidding solutions. On the other hand, brand owners can improve and safely include content without the need for middlemen, utilising insightful data to create unique and significant brand interactions.

Speaking about the acquisition, Jayant Bhargava, country managing director, Indonesia, at Accenture, said, “The convergence of marketing, data science and technology creates opportunities for businesses to redefine their customer engagement model. Jixie’s intelligent digital marketing solutions complement our technology expertise, providing a winning proposition for businesses to bring a higher level of personalization and effectiveness to their marketing efforts. 

“This acquisition will allow us to better serve our clients in navigating complex marketing challenges in this era of interconnected digital world, which is crucial in driving long-term growth,” Bhargava added. 

Meanwhile, Vincent Martin, co-founder and managing director, Jixie, said, “Jixie has seen proven success in its marketing performance capabilities that boost publishers’ revenue and the formation of an ecosystem that has attracted advertisers to run successful campaigns. The next step for us is scale. We’re thrilled to be joining Accenture and contribute to shaping a more sustainable media industry, helping companies leverage their data in a trusted and advantageous manner in service of their customers.”

Joseph Tan, Indonesia lead for Accenture Song, stated, “The value of data in today’s rapidly changing digital economy is immense, and the digital media ecosystem has seen much disruption, including the impending loss of third-party cookies. Jixie is an impactful platform that amplifies publishers’ perspectives and simplifies the digital marketing experience. This investment extends Accenture Song’s data-led commerce and marketing transformation work in Indonesia, empowering clients with highly relevant and results-driven solutions for sustainable business growth.” 

Bangkok, Thailand – In pursuit of advancing creativity and personalised digital interactions, Accenture has announced the acquisition of Rabbit’s Tale, a creative and digital experience agency based in Bangkok. This move signifies the inaugural presence across the entire customer lifecycle, specifically the growth in Thailand. 

Through this acquisition, Rabbit’s Tale brings forth a comprehensive portfolio encompassing impactful brand strategies, digital content, and data-driven experiences.

Said initiative integrates digital customer experience solutions, spanning from retail experiences to customer relationship management and loyalty programmes, hyper-personalised marketing to experience designs, and digital platform development.

As it is distinguished among Thailand’s leading advertising agencies, it will also harness the increasing significance of digital ad spending for brand differentiation and customer connection.

In particular, the two are poised to enhance regional creative, brand, and data capabilities for Accenture Song, with the shared goal of assisting clients in constructing and optimising digital experiences, driving growth in Thailand.

Talking about the project, Thomas Mouritzen, Southeast Asia lead at Accenture Song, said, “Consumer and employee expectations have drastically changed, leading businesses to seek partners with the scale and skills for delivering unique yet powerful engagement and connections. They are also looking for creative solutions and transformative programmes to advance growth.”

“Rabbit’s Tale will add more firepower to Accenture Song’s regional market excellence and business strategy, leveraging data, innovation, and creativity. This reaffirms our unwavering investment and commitment in Southeast Asia, enhancing our offerings, capabilities, and talent base to help clients achieve tangible outcomes in their brand, marketing, and experience transformation journeys,” he added.

Meanwhile, Patama Chantaruck, country managing director, Thailand at Accenture, commented, “This acquisition will help Accenture empower local businesses and nurture homegrown talent to create meaningful and highly personalised digital experiences that cater to the unique needs and preferences of the local market. Technology, when integrated with creativity, can significantly enhance how businesses interact with their customers and people, driving differentiation and fostering greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.

“Rabbit’s Tale’s talent and expertise will strengthen our positioning to help grow Thailand’s private sector with unparalleled solutions to some of its most complex challenges. Our combined talent and expertise will propel Thailand as a thriving hub of technological advancement and digital innovation in the region,” she concluded.

Following this milestone, Sunard Thanasanaksorn, CEO at Rabbit’s Tale, also said, “To combine unconventional creativity and breakthrough technology to solve our clients’ problems has always been our aspiration. We are thrilled that our next chapter of growth will be with Accenture Song, where its industry-leading position and creativity-led approach backed by data and technology have helped businesses across industries set new benchmarks.” 

Established in 2010, the Rabbit’s Tale team is set to work together with Accenture Song in Thailand, leveraging the agency’s world-class strategy, design, performance, technology, and large-scale operations capabilities.

Notably, this also marks the third acquisition by Accenture Song in Southeast Asia after Romp and Entropia.

Singapore – Global professional and consulting services company Accenture has announced its strategic investment in generative AI platform Writer under ‘Project Spotlight’, their engagement and investment program that aims to help enterprises create and shape content more efficiently.

This investment allows Accenture to further provide marketing and communications professionals with Writer’s features to generate written content, synthesise various content and align writing to voice and brand guidelines.

Accenture started using Writer in 2021 to augment its writing proficiency and is now scaling Writer’s generative AI capabilities internally, while also preparing to offer them to clients as part of its existing capabilities.

This investment is also a part of Accenture’s announcement in June 2023 that the company would invest $3 billion in its Data & AI practice to help clients across all industries rapidly and responsibly advance and use AI to achieve greater growth, efficiency, and resilience.

Baiju Shah, chief strategy officer at Accenture Song, said, “Our continued investments in generative AI platforms will empower clients across all industries to transform how they create, personalise and distribute content at pace, but also safely, securely and with brand integrity.”

“We’ve entered a new era of tech-powered creativity and believe Writer’s enterprise-ready platform is a strong addition to Accenture’s comprehensive set of generative AI capabilities, tools and expertise, helping our clients capitalise on a wide range of uses across marketing and sales,” he added.

Meanwhile, May Habib, CEO and co-founder of Writer, commented, “Joining Accenture’s ‘Project Spotlight’ program will enable Writer to benefit from Accenture’s expertise from decades of deploying AI across industries and functions, and help us grow by driving broader awareness of our capabilities.” 

Notably, Writer is the latest company to join Accenture’s Project Spotlight, which offers extensive access to Accenture’s domain expertise and its enterprise clients, helping startups harness human creativity and deliver on the promise of their technology.

Singapore Changi Airport Group has made its debut to the metaverse by showcasing ‘ChangiVerse’, a metaverse experience created to help audiences connect with Singapore Changi Airport and explore its notable sights through the digital space.

Created with global professional services Accenture, ChangiVerse is the first virtual experience created by an airport that has debuted in Roblox, a global shared experience platform with millions of daily users.

Changi Airport’s debut in the metaverse is also an effort to reach a wider group of digital users and fans who are interested to explore more travel destinations differently.

Moreover, the said platform digitally represents Changi’s physical airport where visitors can access fun activities, social experiences, and interactable spaces such as bustling café or festive glamping tent and minigames whilst earning unique collectibles to give their digital avatar some extra flair.

Hung Jean, group senior vice president of Changi Airport Group’s enterprise digital ecosystem & business division, said that the creation of ChangiVerse aims to strengthen the idea that the airport is more than just a transport node, but it’s also a fun and magical destination to create memories.

“ChangiVerse is also about engaging our customers and serving them better through innovation and experimentation, in line with our belief of customers being at the heart of everything we do,” Jean added.

Wee Wei Ng, Southeast Asia market unit lead for Accenture, added, “We are privileged to collaborate with CAG to drive digital-physical convergence through ChangiVerse. By combining digital and physical worlds, ChangiVerse can simulate the airport environment, creating immersive experiences that elevate human interactivity to new dimensions, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation.”

In 2022, Changi Airport Group has dealt with Accenture to extend its partnership for the enhancement of travellers’ experience when visiting Changi Airport in Singapore.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Google Cloud has announced new artificial intelligence (AI) innovations dedicated to retailers to aid in their in-store shelf checking processes and enhance their e-commerce sites with natural online shopping experiences for consumers. It has also integrated its technologies with Accenture’s ai.RETAIL platform as part of its expanded strategic partnership.

The first on the list is Google Cloud’s new AI-powered shelf checking solution that can help retailers improve on-shelf product availability, provide better visibility into what their shelves actually look like, and help them understand where restocks are needed. 

Built on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Vision and powered by two machine learning (ML) models—a product recognizer and tag recognizer—the shelf checking AI enables retailers to identify products of all types, at scale, based solely on the visual and text features of a product, and then translate that data into actionable insights.

The company has also announced a new AI-powered browse feature in its Discovery AI solutions for retailers. This capability uses ML to optimise the order of products (i.e., which products the shopper sees first) on a retailer’s e-commerce site once shoppers choose a category, such as ‘women’s jackets’ or ‘kitchenware’.

Other Google Cloud announcements include more personalised search and browsing results with machine learning (ML), and the ‘Recommendations AI’ solution uses ML to help retailers bring product recommendations to their shoppers.

Meanwhile, Accenture’s ai.RETAIL is an integrated solution that helps retailers better utilise data and AI to optimise common systems and programs, such as customer acquisition, pricing and promotions, assortment, and supply chains. Retailers can now deploy the ai.RETAIL platform on Google Cloud, meaning it is extended to Google Cloud’s trusted infrastructure and is integrated with multiple Google Cloud products and capabilities.

For Megawaty Khie, country director for Indonesia and Malaysia at Google Cloud, the upheavals in the past few years have reshaped the retail landscape and retailers are now seeking new ways to be more efficient, more compelling to shoppers, and less exposed to future shocks.

“The leaders of tomorrow will be those who address today’s most pressing in-store and online challenges with the newest AI tools. Our work with Accenture will also help local retailers quickly adopt integrated solutions that amplify the true benefits of AI, so that they can holistically understand their business across functional boundaries and continuously optimise their offerings and operations to thrive in a complex retail environment,” Khie said.

Sridhar Subramanian, managing director of Accenture’s Google Business Group in Asia Pacific, commented that with shifting consumer buying habits, now more than ever, retailers need to invest in building a digital core – which includes a solid data foundation, ML, and AI. 

“With the best of Accenture’s integrated ai.RETAIL platform and Google Cloud technology, companies can now access products and capabilities to help improve consumer engagement and conversions, and make their supply chains more sustainable,” Subramanian said.

Google Cloud and Accenture are also collaborating on a broad, new initiative to address complex challenges facing retailers today, including applying intelligence from ai.RETAIL to help businesses optimise their customer, workforce, and storefront experiences, and utilising other technologies and offerings from both companies.


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.

Sydney, Australia – Accenture has announced it has bought Fiftyfive5, a customer insights and advisory business. The company said the move will strengthen the ability of Accenture Song, its marketing arm, to help clients in tapping data insights and performance marketing to accelerate growth and innovation across the Australian and New Zealand market.

Founded in 2010, Fiftyfive5 specialises in opportunity identification, brand strategy and positioning, innovation, category strategy, pricing, CX and experience measurement, and brand comms tracking. The company works extensively with clients across health & public services, consumer goods & services, financial services, communications & media, travel, digital and technology. 

The acquisition is in line with Accenture Song’s strategy to deepen its broad, scalable set of capabilities across product innovation, commerce, marketing, sale, and service. 

Mark Green, Accenture Song’s Australia and New Zealand lead, describes Fiftyfive5’s addition as timely as clients struggle to keep up with the pace of change today and are looking for creative solutions and strategic insights for growth. 

“The team boasts powerful insights and deep customer understanding, which will significantly enhance Accenture Song’s customer intelligence capability. Importantly, Fiftyfive5 brings top talent, and we cannot wait to see what they can add to our growing team,” he said.

Fiftyfive5’s team of more than 200 people across Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and London will join Accenture Song.

Mark Sundquist, managing partner of Fiftyfive5, said, “Accenture Song is one of the most interesting businesses that’s emerged in our space – a combination of creativity, technology and data. We have a shared belief in the importance of customer insight and intelligence to underpin strategy, creativity and execution to fuel growth for our clients. Joining Accenture Song creates an exciting new opportunity for our team and the chance to deliver greater commercial impact for clients given the enhanced range of capability we can bring to the table.” 

Jatinder Singh, Accenture Song’s global head of data and analytics, commented, “Clients globally are reevaluating how they grow and they are increasingly challenged by the speed of change. Intelligence will become the engine brands need to become relevant to their customers. Having insights that can support brand creative, content, and experience strategy and operations will be essential. Fiftyfive5 adds to Accenture Song’s credentials to help our clients drive growth through customer data and insight.” 

It was in April of this year that Accenture Song unveiled its new name, which was formerly Accenture Interactive. Accenture has also recently made buyouts in other markets, such as Indonesia, to similarly boost Accenture Song’s offerings.

 

Singapore – Changi Airport Group has extended its partnership with global professional services Accenture for the next three years to further transform operations and enhance the experience for travellers visiting Changi Airport in Singapore. This partnership began in 2019 with the establishment of a digital factory, known as DIVA — for digital, innovation, ventures, and analytics — designed to enable CAG to develop, experiment and launch new digital products and services.

Through the extended partnership, the two organisations will be leveraging innovative technologies such as extended reality, machine learning, Internet of Things, and edge computing to enable Changi to seamlessly engage travellers at various touchpoints, from before they arrive at the airport to after they leave. There will also be knowledge and skills transfer to the CAG team.

Adopting a customer-centric approach based on rapid prototyping, both organisations will be jointly designing and rolling out new digital products across Changi, which includes a new loyalty platform that will enable customers to earn points for both spending and travelling, redeem loyalty points across channels in one place and provide more redemption choices, encouraging customers to stay engaged and connected. By integrating data from various sources, the platform will allow Changi to understand its customers better, as well as enable the company to provide them with highly personalised communications, experiences, and offers.

Moreover, Accenture will be implementing a centralised identity and access management solution to help improve data security and privacy. This will eliminate the need for customers to sign in through multiple accounts to access different applications.

Jean Hung, group senior vice president for Enterprise Digital Ecosystem & Business at CAG, shared that in this next phase of their digital transformation journey, how they deliver the unique Changi experience, whether offline or online, to their customers remains key. 

“Our vision is to build deeper relationships with our customers and strive to serve them even better through innovative and interactive digital solutions. We are happy to extend our collaboration with Accenture, who has proven to be a valuable partner with the ability to combine innovative design capabilities with technology and industry expertise,” said Hung.

Meanwhile, Wee Wei Ng, Accenture’s country managing director for Singapore, said they have been working closely with CAG to implement digital enhancements and infuse a culture of experimentation. 

“As the line between the physical and digital continues to blur, organisations have the opportunity to address issues like trust, sustainability, safety, responsible access and use, diversity and more, helping set the stage for the future. We see many new possibilities to bring even more immersive collaborative, personalised and meaningful experiences to CAG’s customers,” she added.

Divyesh Vithlani, senior managing director and SEA market unit lead at Accenture, commented, “We aim to leverage emerging technologies such as Web3 to help Changi connect its customers, partners and their workforce to give everyone greater choice and control over how they work, live, play and learn while building a greater sense of community and culture. Facilitating knowledge and skills transfer to Changi’s employees will also enable Changi to be more self-sufficient to achieve better business outcomes.”