Singapore – “Turning adversity into opportunity” is the latest stunt of Tiger Beer’s newest campaign and packaging that launches globally next year.

The campaign, titled “Yet Here I Am” narrates the story of how the Tiger Beer brand established its brand presence in Asia, despite difficulties in growing key ingredients such as barley and hops. 

“The world has never been so volatile, and the future so fluid. Tiger is a brand born against all odds as 88 years ago, it was inconceivable that we could brew beer in a tropical climate. And yet, here we are. The video captures the spirit of resilience that the world needs so much of today,” said Sean O’Donnell, global brand director for Tiger

O’Donnell added, “In April, we turned that spirit into action with our #SupportOurStreets initiative, which helped F&B businesses in Southeast Asia cope with the stay-home measures. Together, we showed the world that despite unforeseen hurdles, yet here we are, remaining resilient and full of hope.”

The new packaging unveiled by Tiger Beer, slated for widespread release for next year (Courtesy of Tiger Beer)

Meanwhile with the new packaging, an initial release is slated in Vietnam this year. 

India – Tyre manufacturer Bridgestone, its India arm, has released a sentimental ad, which walks viewers through the journey of one of the front liners during the pandemic – the drivers on the road.

India imposed its first nationwide lockdown in March, and just like most regions, essential workers, such as those whose line of work involves driving trucks and PUVs, are left with no choice but to continue plying the road amid the virus threat. 

The ad revolves around one driver’s perspective who opens the scene, thinking, “I have been driving trucks for years now, but for the first time today, I am scared.”

The ad shows how, more than the virus itself, other challenges are battled out by essential workers such as isolation and the scarcity of basic needs such as food during the height of the lockdown. 

“Since everything is shut now, I have to cook by myself, and sleep in my truck,” the driver narrates. 

Throughout the ad, the driver delivers moving realizations on the pandemic.  

“These days, every mile brings in a new challenge, and everyone is scared to help,” he said. 

He further goes, “To defeat this pandemic, it is important that we win these small battles every day.”

The 140-second spot, which was released in mid-November, has already gained massive traction, with views on YouTube currently at 8M. 

One user said, “I got goosebumps ??❤️?? respect ????” 

Another one commented, “Great thought. Great [film] making, [not] an [ad], it’s a documentary of a century…”

Through the release of the ad, Bridgestone also wants to assert its commitment to customers as a helpful aid during the pandemic, where in the video, the man is shown being given one of Bridgestone’s life-saving kits.

Since the imposition of India’s lockdown, the tyre company has implemented a number of assistance programs such as the sanitation of truck fleets across 22 cities and the distribution of  life-saving kits to truck drivers. In addition, it has also donated health essentials such as PPEs, masks, and meals to doctors and households.

The brand said on its Facebook, “The coronavirus pandemic paused our day-to-day life with a nationwide lockdown. While some of us had the liberty to stay at home, others had to keep driving through. Witness the journey and the triumph of our “Heroes on the Road” and how Bridgestone extended the support to protect them with a sanitization drive of their vehicles in order to serve our nation.”

Australia – Pizza brand Domino’s in Australia has got a new “delivery” service, albeit not novel at all, its new creative spot by agency Elevencom might just inspire in customers a fresh excitement for it. 

The pizza chain is offering a new “car park delivery,” where customers don’t need to get out of their cars to claim their order. In the new ad,  the brand brings home the point of the service’s convenience by imagining the possibility of why customers won’t be able to get out of their cars – such as an approaching dinosaur. 

In the ad, the car park has been turned into a Jurassic-like park, stirring scare among a group of DNA scientists looking to claim their pizza order.

This has been the second installment of the brand’s car park delivery ads, wherein the first one threw in a comic story of fishes not being able to get out of their water-filled cars.

Domino’s new car park delivery combines both pick-up and delivery services. Customers initially make an online pick-up order, and claim it within the store’s parking premises.

Elevencom said the campaign will run in Australia and New Zealand on TV and digital channels.

Manila, Philippines – The Colgate brand has been doubling down on its global-wide advertising campaigns, where its optimism-themed #SmileStrong campaign released just recently in Southeast Asia market Malaysia. Today, another region-bound country, the Philippines, has officially announced its installment of the campaign, where the specific Colgate arm decided to spotlight on the optimistic attitude among individuals with special needs.

Three individuals are the protagonists of the Filipino ad spots – teacher and motivational speaker and born with down syndrome Brina Maxino, local actress Candy Pangilinan who is mother to a son who has ADHD, and Arizza Nocum, peace advocate and entrepreneur who co-founded KRIS, a non-profit organization promoting peace through education.

Much like the Malaysian campaign, the ambassadors in the spot states a recurring statement of “When they say…I smile,” where they share people’s judgments of their capabilities and capping it off with a positive “I smile.”

Colgate Philippines, in a press statement, shared that with the local implementation of the global advocacy, it hopes to make the same big impact that other #SmileStrong campaigns in other key markets have generated, which is “an increase of brand love and loyalty among consumers.”

The country’s Marketing Director Ari Mandelbaum speaks of how the ad aims to break the false positivity in “Filipino resilience” and inspire “optimism in action” instead.

“The common Filipino’s ‘resilience’ has constantly been held up as a shining character trait even in the face of natural disasters, violent conflict, poverty, and a number of deep-seated societal issues,” he said.

However, Mandelbaum added, “A growing number of people are seeing ‘The Filipino Resilience’ as a glorified coping mechanism, seemingly resigned to just powering through adversities with a mindset to live just to survive each day. At Colgate, we believe that it takes more than optimism to power through the challenges of today, thus launching #SmileStrong where we encourage Filipinos to believe and uphold the power of ‘optimism in action.’”

Together with Colgate-Palmolive’s global creative partner Red Fuse, which is advertising and communications company WPP’s integrated global team, the brand in the Philippines has tapped another WPP network – integrated marketing communications firm SOHO Square, its local arm – to bring the local rendition to fruition.

Caloy Sambrano, managing partner at SOHO Square Philippines said, “As an agency, we have developed and implemented various equity campaigns in the past, but we must say that this Colgate #SmileStrong campaign is one, if not the most, important campaign that we have ever done. We wanted each and every Filipino to feel inspired and relate to the stories of our muses especially when they see the contents that we put out.”

Following the global campaign’s wide marketing strategy, Colgate Philippines will be releasing integrated communications across digital and public relations, where activations in partnership with muses Arizza, Candy, and Brina will be run until 2021.

Aside from the #SmileStrong campaign, Colgate-Palmolive has earlier piloted its “Made for Greatness” campaign in Thailand, featuring professional climber and Academy Award-winning documentary director Jimmy Chin. The campaign is said to be progressively rolled out across Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia & New Zealand.

Malaysia – Come September, the Subway brand in Southeast Asia surprised audiences with a unique take on its marketing campaign – that is, a promotional messaging that targets marketing itself: “More meat, less marketing.”

The campaign was launched in the region-bound countries such as Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines, and in Malaysia, the campaign has gained impressive traction within the first month since its launch.

VaynerMedia APAC, the creative brains behind the campaign, shared to MARKETECH APAC, that from the campaign’s release until November to date, digital posts have reached a 7% average engagement rate.

The star of the campaign – Subway’s new Meat Stack – is its sub, packed with chicken strips, tender chicken slices, pepperoni, smokey salami, and fresh veggies. The campaign’s aim is to drive home the message that in order to give the best-valued fresh sub, Subway spent all its budget on cooking up the new item with very little left for marketing.

Much like the long-running joke of “honest movie titles,” and “honest advertisements,” the campaign pokes at the elephant in the room in the business of marketing, where some brands prefer to build on glamorous branding rather than improve the product itself. 

Subway’s “More meat, less marketing” campaign is a 360 marketing initiative. Digital banners and videos have been rolled out on the different markets’ Subway social media channels. On Subway Malaysia’s Facebook page, banners bearing the hashtags #NoBudgetForMarketing #InsertHashtagHere #NoMoneyForHashtag #NoBudgetForTVC are being posted regularly. 

In an October 12 post, Subway Malaysia published a video with the description, “Meat lovers, rejoice! Marketing folks – look away! ‘Cos we’ve spent all our marketing budget stuffing more meat into our all-new Meat Stack.” The video shows a “behind the scenes” editing of the Meat Stack banner, being created in elementary “PowerPoint’” style. 

Meanwhile, another quirky Facebook post shows an image of the new sub with the copy, “You Win Some (meat), You Lose Some (advertising).”

Another post was also published, similarly shining on the battle between good product and good advertising, with a GIF showing a scoreboard, where the new sub gains a point vs no points for marketing. 

VaynerMedia shared that as of current, the campaign has garnered 310k impressions in Malaysia, with a total of 9k engagement of comments, shares, and reactions. Reshares have also amounted to 695.

Of the concept, VaynerMedia APAC’s Executive Creative Director VJ Anand said, “In the marketing industry, we often joke about creating ads using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or MS Paint. We took these jokes and made it a reality because it was a fun approach which made sense with a product like the value-for-money Meat Stack. Add to that the current realities of our industry which has been facing year-long budget cuts, and you have a marketing campaign that’s real, relevant, and talkable.”

A number of Malaysians expressed their appreciation for the marketing move, with one commenting on Facebook, “I love this [idea], more for customer, less for advertiser.”

Another also wrote, “So far, Subway has been the only one calling out what it is. Liking the self-depreciation campaign you’re doing,” alongside enthusiastic emojis of a thumbs-up, and clapping hands. 

Aside from socials, the campaign also takes form in point-of-purchase materials and out-of-home bus ads, particularly in Singapore. In the Lion city, the messaging was adapted in the form of half designed ads, with the catchy copy “[Subway] could only afford half an ad.”

VaynerMedia said the campaign is set to run until early January 2021. 

Hang Ee Laine, Subway’s head of marketing for Southeast Asia said, “We are excited to connect with our guests through a fresh, fun, and light-hearted campaign. We created a delicious sub, and wanted to tell a story in a way that would make people smile.”

India – To promote local businesses in the middle of the country’s annual festival of lights Diwali, Mondelez India launches a hyper-localized ad campaign that will encourage local promotion of local retailers across India.

The ad campaign leverages artificial intelligence to promote geo-targeted visibility of more than 1800 participating local retailers, across over 260 pin codes in the country. 

Initially, the video ad campaign depicts an Indian family rejoicing in the festivity of Diwali, while highlighting the gifts being given are from local businesses. The video campaign ends with the message “When all of us support our local stores, all of us can have a Happy Diwali.” Custom video ads are also produced for certain areas to promote local businesses.

“Throughout festivities exchanging gifts and sweets holds a significant emotional value and embarks the beginning of a new era, and it makes us extremely proud about the fact that we humbly found a place in this small, yet important tradition.  Moreover, this year, than any other warrants for acts that signify new beginnings and the potential  of goodness in an imperfect world, and our recent Cadbury Celebrations campaign infuses this  thought at the back of evoking generosity,”  commented Anil Viswanathan, Senior Director – Marketing (Chocolates), Insights and Analytics, Mondelez India. 

Context video for the hyper-localized ad campaign.

The campaign will run until the 15th of November, a day after the initial observance of Diwali.

Thailand – Colgate has released a new campaign in Thailand for Colgate Total, its high-performance toothpaste product, where the ad spotlights “greatness,” featuring professional climber and Academy Award-winning documentary director Jimmy Chin.

Titled “Made for Greatness,” the campaign comes after Colgate’s recent release of the #SmileStrong campaign in various markets such as ANZ, Philippines, and in Malaysia, where it has been locally adapted as #SmileStrongBersama, where Bersama means together. The said campaign displayed the main theme of optimism amid challenges and prejudices in life.

For the current one, Colgate has decided to move to feature the message of “greatness,” matching the extra hardworking anti-bacterial formula of its Colgate Total. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vSWCjfAxt24

Chin is known for his numerous climbing expeditions in different countries such as China, Pakistan, and Nepal. In 2019, his documentary chronicling a rock climber’s journey won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Displaying the brand’s color palette of Red and White, the ad shows Chin attempting an arduous mountain. In the middle of the climb, he is seen taking a break and refreshing using Colgate Total. 

The creative brain behind the campaign is Red Fuse, global communications company WPP’s integrated global team for Colgate-Palmolive. 

The campaign will be progressively rolled out across Singapore, Malaysia, Australia & New Zealand within the next few weeks.

Colgate’s Regional Marketing Director Lyndon Morant said, “Now, more than ever, people have a stronger resolve when it comes to the world becoming a better place for all. This campaign really shows a turning point – not just for Colgate Total – but for the category as a whole that we can move into a broader, richer territory to connect with people in a way that our category hasn’t done before. Greatness is about demanding more every single day, and that’s the exact attitude we bring to Colgate Total.”

Outside of the film, the campaign also includes integrated communications across out-of-home, digital & eCommerce, and in-store displays.

Hong Kong – Amid the normalized work-from-home setting among businesses and employees during the pandemic, APAC workspace provider The Executive Centre (TEC) has released a campaign reminding people of the perks that workers can enjoy only within a company-managed office. 

The almost four-minute video centers around the message “good to leave, even better to come back,” with it running a number of scenes, comparing how different activities are done between a remote set-up and an office, emphasizing how the latter have ready assistance – whether through a colleague or a provided technology – to carry out work tasks.

The fictional ad features four characters in their first day back to work. The ad shone on the irreplaceable benefits such as proper coffee, better and clearer collaboration with colleagues, IT services, comfortable ergonomic furniture, and admin support.

TEC Founder and CEO Paul Salnikow shared the company had been inspired to explore how the typical workday has changed after most have been subject to a prolonged work from home setup.

“The pandemic has accelerated the shift to flexible workspaces. We are certain that the office, rather than becoming obsolete, will become an increasingly valuable asset, facilitating collaboration, and driving business growth,” he said.

TEC is headquartered in Hong Kong, offering solutions such as private and shared workspaces, business concierge services, and meeting and conference facilities. Its operations span China, Southeast Asia, North Asia, and India as well as Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Australia.

Australia – After a competitive pitch, Australian telecommunications company Amaysim has appointed marketing and design company 72andSunny as its creative partner. 

The ad agency who recently celebrated three years in Australia, will be charged with creative duties for the telco, with a campaign as its first project, set to be released later this year.

Chris Kay, 72andSunny’s CEO said “Amaysim is an incredibly nice, smart, and fun group of people and we’re excited to partner with them. They have huge growth ambition and we’re looking forward to working together to facilitate that over the next chapter.” 

Chief marketing officer of Amaysim, Renee Garner channels the same excitement. 

“We’re very excited about our partnership with 72andSunny. The team was very impressive during the pitch process and we’re looking forward to collaborating together to create impactful and exciting work,” said Garner.

In the past couple of months, the ad agency has also garnered creative appointments for a number of brands such as Kraft Heinz’s Golden Circle, and renewable energy operator Infigen Energy, where projects included crafting brand identity, and launching a brand platform.