Tag: Advertising

India – The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has announced that it has updated advertising guidelines for educational institutions, organisations and platforms. Said guidelines have also centred on putting the mental health and physical well-being of students in focus.

ASCI has noted that the education sector has been amongst the top violative sectors for the past few years when it comes to advertising. In its Annual Complaints Report 2022–23, classical education ranked second among the top violative categories with 13.8% of total ads that did not adhere to ASCI’s guidelines.

Public consultation for the guidelines started on March 14, 2023, and was concluded on April 15, 2023.

While ASCI’s existing education guidelines require educational entities to substantiate any claims they make in their advertisements with relevant evidence, this latest update ensures that the advertisers are also mindful that their ads consider the students’ mental and physical well-being. 

The amendments state that ads by educational institutions, including universities, colleges and schools, coaching classes, edtech platforms and others that offer education and training programmes should not stereotype students based on their gender, or appearance, nor portray those who score low as unsuccessful or failures. 

Shri Rohit Kumar Singh, the secretary for Ministry of Consumer Affairs said, “Education advertising touches almost every citizen in the country. Ensuring the sanctity of advertising in this sector is an important task. The ASCI guidelines address the various issues that plague the sector and we hope that the industry will follow these in letter and spirit. I would like to reiterate that misleading ads are also a violation of the Consumer Protection Act and all necessary steps will be taken to keep our citizens safe”. 

Meanwhile, Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general at ASCI, commented, “In addition to ads not being misleading, the updated guidelines also provide for the physical and mental well-being of students, particularly school students. While fierce pressure in education is a reality, advertising must not perpetuate this problem. normalise it or exploit student and parental vulnerability.” 

She added, “Based on our Ed-Next study, such issues were identified, and post extensive consultation with different stakeholders, we are now issuing the updated guidelines. ASCI remains deeply committed to consumer protection, and we will continue to update our Code to reflect contemporary and emerging concerns in advertising content.”

Australia – Global advertising technology company Quantcast and video ad technology company FreeWheel has announced a new partnership that allows advertisers direct access to global premium video publishers.

As part of the deal, marketers working with Quantcast will now have access to premium programmatic video supply across all personal screens and devices, including over-the-top (OTT) and connected television (CTV).

Through the partnership, marketers can also leverage Quantcast’s AI and machine-learning capabilities to drive optimal outcomes by connecting with the right audiences across FreeWheel’s supply of premium video, extending inventory reach beyond native, display, mobile and online video.

“CTV’s rapid expansion and growth is transforming both the digital and TV ad sectors and so, we have to move quickly and nimbly to anticipate shifting consumer behaviour,” said Konrad Feldman, CEO of Quantcast. 

On the partnership, Feldman commented, “Our company has been at the forefront of using AI to interpret media consumption patterns and deliver campaign performance and outcomes. By teaming up with FreeWheel, we can better support our advertisers to reach consumers across even more engagement and connection points.”

Quantcast Managing Director for APAC, Sonal Patel, also said, “We’re thrilled to work with FreeWheel in a partnership that advances our service offering and helps our advertising clients achieve even better outcomes with video.”

Jon Mansell, U.S. head of marketplace demand at FreeWheel likewise shared his excitement over the partnership, as it will help drive incremental demand for sellers across the streaming ecosystem.

“This new partnership enables us to provide a new programmatic access point to FreeWheel’s ad server, a direct connection that helps marketers to further reduce waste and avoid unnecessary exchange redundancy, all while delivering a better experience to consumers.”

The partnership and its accompanying capabilities will be live in market, including Australia and APAC, from Q3 of 2023.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Germ protection brand Dettol in Malaysia has launched its latest campaign in celebration of Parents’ Day. The campaign was conceptualised by Dettol’s newly appointed digital agency, Kingdom Digital, and produced by Imagineers Film.

Titled ‘A Parent’s Promise: Keeping Our Children Protected & Loved’, the 3-minute film highlights the journey of new parents as they navigate the challenges and excitement of parenthood. The film features two sets of new and young parents — Reuben Kang and Kelly Kang, as well as Alam Wakaka and Alisya Najwa. 

Through fun and relatable questions about their roles at home, such as who’s the stricter parent and who’s the chief hygiene officer, the film showcases the challenges that these new parents face in raising a little one while also highlighting the joy and rewards of parenthood.

Commenting on the campaign, Tiffany Tang, marketing director for health and hygiene of Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam of Dettol Malaysia, said, “We’re excited about this latest initiative for Parents’ Day. We believe our consumers who are new parents and going through the same thing will find the stories relatable.”

Tang added, “At Dettol, we understand that things may not always go according to plan in parenthood, so our hygiene solutions are designed to make it easy for them to feel protected, confident, assured, and have the peace of mind to take on whatever the day may bring.”

Edmund Lou, head of strategy of Kingdom Digital, also said, “We understand that new parents often turn to social media and influencers for advice and tips on navigating parenthood. That’s why we based our campaign concept on this human insight, featuring two pairs of young parents who are also content creators to share their experiences via an engaging online film.”

The campaign will be running for one month and the online film is now available to watch on Dettol’s social media channels and the influencers’ Instagram pages.

Mumbai, India – Godrej Interio, one of India’s leading furniture brands for in-home and institutional segments, has launched its new digital campaign to promote its ‘Summer Carnival’. 

Conceptualised and executed by SoCheers, an independent creative digital advertising agency, the 20-second film weaves a relatable and engaging narrative. The ad highlights Godrej Interio’s extensive range of furniture available at the sale, from sofas to beds, all at discounted prices. 

The film opens with a couple returning home to find children making a mess of things, leaving the mother in a state of panic. However, the film takes an unexpected turn, revealing that the father had asked the children to destroy the furniture so that he could replace it with new ones from Godrej Interio’s Summer Carnival sale. 

The campaign film, which went live on 9th May, leverages multiple digital and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. While the ad will be showcased primarily in Hindi, it has been further dubbed into Tamil and Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, and Malayalam to cater to regional audiences. 

Speaking about the campaign, Dr. Dev Sarkar, senior vice president (B2C), Godrej Interio, said, “With this campaign, our goal was to highlight the extensive range of products available at Godrej Interio’s Summer Carnival, from sofas to beds to many more, all at discounted prices.

Sarkar added, “The 20-second film seamlessly conveys this message while keeping the audience engaged throughout. Through this campaign, our primary objective is to expand our audience base and boost product sales. And, SoCheers’ expertise has successfully helped us in portraying our brand’s identity while keeping the entertainment element intact.”

Jitendra Hirawat, director of SoCheers Films, also said, “Our goal was to create an engaging and unique ad that showcases the furniture collection at the Godrej Interio summer carnival sale. We strategically used humour and storytelling in the 20-second film to capture the audience’s attention and convey the brand’s message effectively.”

He also added that the ‘clever and relatable’ scenario in the film gives the viewers a sneak peek of the products at discounted prices, further enhancing the objective of the campaign.

The Philippines – At least seven in every 10 employees are exploring job prospects with other companies regardless of how satisfied they are with their current employers, while six out of 10 see themselves working for another employer in the next two years, according to the 2022 Happiness Study commissioned by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of the Philippines (4As Philippines).

In the study, Gen Z (57%), Xennials (69%), and even Gen X (73%) expressed high levels of satisfaction, while Millennials represented the least satisfied group, with only 41% admitting to experiencing ‘happiness’.

“Arriving at a time when employers are attempting to balance the convenience of working from home with mandatory in-office days, the 2022 Happiness Study was commissioned to gain insights into current advertising employees, 74% of which joined the workforce during the pandemic,” said 4As Chairperson Golda Roldan.

Moreover, at least seven in every 10 employees cited a lack of long-term mentorship or training as their main reason for leaving, with at least seven in every 10 employees seeing their supervisors as friends and allies rather than long-term trainers. Furthermore, only four in 10 reported that they received adequate mentorship after the first year.

The study also unveiled that four out of 10 respondents stated their desire to seek greener pastures in the form of compensation and incentives.

The study also showed a generation gap when it came to the relationship between one’s loyalty to their company and that with one’s peers: While 66% of Gen Z respondents expressed affinity with their peers and only 45% with their companies, respondents in the higher age ranges were more likely to find belongingness with their companies over their peers.

“All told, the study found that, while happiness was irrelevant to whether or not employees stayed, overall satisfaction could be increased,” Roldan added.

She also said that for Gen Zs, being the newest members of the workforce, purpose and meaning were major factors in considering a workplace. As for achieving employee satisfaction, incentives, adequate, ongoing training in an environment where they can grow professionally were key.

The 2022 Happiness Study was commissioned by the 4As to determine the happiness levels and sentiments of talent within the advertising industry. A quantitative online survey was conducted for the study from August 24 to October 24, 2022, which involved 38 advertising agencies.

Singapore – Global advertising platform MGID has announced a partnership with Petal Ads, a mobile marketing platform tailored for Huawei devices and Android mobile users. Through the partnership, MGID’s advertisers will be provided with a possibility to reach around 730 million engaged and high-value new customers across the Huawei ecosystem.

The integration with Petal Ads will allow MGID’s exclusive roster of premium advertisers to scale their campaigns globally, to a high-content addressable user base with premium placement options.

Moreover, programmatic display ad units, including native ads, will be enabled alongside MGID’s extensive targeting capabilities for efficient and optimised ad placement, powered by unique first and third-party data sets in a cost-effective manner.

Sergii Tymoshenko, head of programmatic at MGID said, “This collaboration will sync our list of premium advertisers with Petal Ads’ capabilities to deliver smooth ad experiences to Huawei users. The efficient format of programmatic ad buying will enable superior opportunities for high levels of engagement, fostering positive long-lasting impressions via efficient audience targeting and real-time optimisation, sure to drive revenue growth.”

Meanwhile, Kevin Zang, head of Petal Ads at Huawei APAC region, commented, “We’re building a leading mobile ad platform that is foremost focused on transparent and quality traffic. In doing so, we’re responsibly opening up opportunities for ad partners and premium advertisers to leverage our first-party data for effective branding and data-driven campaigns. We’re working hard to ensure that end users get the best optimised ad experiences, without compromising on their privacy.”

Singapore – Integral Ad Science, the digital media quality platform, has announced its enhanced partnership with YouTube to provide advertisers with industry-leading brand safety and suitability measurement across the online video platform. 

Powered by cutting-edge machine learning technology, IAS measurement will now deliver a more comprehensive analysis of video content on YouTube, providing marketers with even greater tools for safety and suitability. IAS’s updated reporting is aligned with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) Brand Safety and Suitability framework, enabling granular campaign reporting for maximum impact.

According to IAS, the platform’s Total Media Quality for YouTube uses a powerful type of machine learning to provide new levels of insight into video content and is currently being used on other social media platforms to analyse millions of videos per year for marketers. 

The IAS YouTube Brand Safety and Suitability Measurement offering will provide machine learning-powered details about video content to advertisers best-in-class brand safety and suitability scoring, a scoring classification that is consistent with the GARM Brand Safety and Suitability framework, daily reporting across the GARM categories and four risk levels, and global accessibility with more than 30 languages available.

“Consumers are spending as much time streaming content on YouTube and other platforms as they are watching traditional TV. As the amount of content on YouTube continues to grow, marketers need sophisticated tech to keep pace. IAS’s ongoing innovation with YouTube and Google is continuously adapting to provide marketers with the tools they need to take control of brand safety and suitability and ensure their campaigns are productive,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS. 

Julie Kandel, senior partner and director of brand safety, North America at GroupM, also commented, “Advertisers require the ability to measure brand safety on platforms like YouTube without sacrificing premium placements or reach. Partnering with IAS enables us to access the power of granular classification to measure brand suitability for our clients and drive better campaign impact and control.”

IAS is certified for both ‘Brand Suitability and Contextual Targeting’ and ‘Brand Safety Reporting’ in the YouTube Measurement Program (YTMP). The YTMP was created to offer advertisers an array of trusted independent solutions for driving and measuring marketing performance on YouTube. 

Previously, IAS has also inked a partnership with Amazon Publisher Services (APS) to provide its Publisher Optimization solution in the latter’s marketplace.

Australia – Leggo’s, the Australian-made pasta sauce brand, has launched a new campaign via Wunderman Thompson Australia celebrating all the unique twists and spins Aussies have been adding to traditional Italian cuisine.

Titled ‘It’s How We Do Italian’, the campaign encourages the audiences to embrace all the creative ways Aussies do Italian, even if it means breaking spaghetti to fit in the pot.

“Our new campaign is all about celebrating the way Aussies do Italian,” said Katie Saunders, general manager – marketing at Simplot. 

She added, “Leggo’s celebrates experimentation and fun in the kitchen. We want people to feel empowered knowing that no matter how they do Italian or which ‘rule’ they’re ‘breaking’, we’ve got them covered with tasty, quality products.”

João Braga, chief creative officer at Wunderman Thompson in Australia, also commented, “It’s no secret we love to break the rules when it comes to Italian food, so Leggo’s is giving Aussies just that extra dose of encouragement to get out there and add more pineapple to their pizza, parmesan to their seafood pasta, and share their delicious inventions with the world.”

The campaign is launching across various platforms, including OOH, social media, television, Trade and POS.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Beauty and wellness brand Beauté Library has released its humorous advertisement titled ‘Oooh-mazing Raya’ that captures the essence of Raya celebrations in a refreshing and playful way. 

The advertisement revolves around the main character, Wani (played by actress Riena Diana), and her family, as they celebrate Raya together. The ad starts with the narrator’s playful interaction with Wani and her family, showcasing how they are amazed at the way she manages to look flawless despite the hectic day they have had. 

The storyline takes a humorous turn as Wani reveals her secret to looking fabulous, Beauté Library’s PicoSpot treatment.

“We are thrilled to present our ‘Oooh-mazing Raya’ advertisement, which offers a fresh and humorous take on Raya celebrations while highlighting the beauty and wellness solutions that Beauté Library provides,” said Wilson Lee, CEO of Beauté Library. 

Lee added, “In fact, this is our first major Raya campaign for the brand. As a talented actress with a dynamic personality, we are confident that Riena Diana’s involvement will help us reach a wider audience and achieve our campaign goals.”

As part of its Raya campaign, Beauté Library will be promoting the PicoSpot Pigmentation Treatment through paid advertising, social media channels, radio ads, billboards, print ads, and roadshows.

Tokyo, Japan – Media technology group Moving Walls and local OOH company jeki have teamed up to launch the platform ‘MASTRUM’ to automate out-of-home (OOH) advertising across the country. This follows a previous partnership between the two companies to see jeki’s advertising screens being activated.

‘MASTRUM’ is an impression-based digital OOH advertising platform that provides ad space trading, ad serving, and programmatic DOOH advertising to meet domestic and international demand. 

This will enable highly efficient, high-value-added buying of digital signage and other types of OOH advertising across Japan. Moving Walls has also customised jeki`s implementation to ingest first-party data that will be used for planning and effectiveness measurement.

With this launch, jeki plans to expand the scope of media they handle to include other railways and outdoor media. The Moving Walls platform includes solutions for the buy side – planning, activation, and campaign measurement. The company also provides supply side solutions including inventory and campaign management through their subsidiary Location Media Xchange (LMX).

According to Ryoji Akaishi, president and representative director at jeki, they selected Moving Walls as their ideal technology partner to create a large marketplace for all types of OOH.

“By customising Moving Walls’ platform, jeki will be able to offer new services based on its long-accumulated expertise in transportation advertising and its unique perspective. We aim to become one of the largest marketplaces in Japan with an abundant inventory while networking nationwide, including OOH in the city, beyond the railroad domain. We also believe that through the automation of advertising transactions we can provide opportunities for efficient and visible advertising transactions,” Akaishi explained.

Meanwhile, Srikanth Ramachandran, founder and group CEO of Moving Walls, commented, “We are very proud that Moving Walls has been chosen as the technology platform to help launch what will be jeki’s largest automated ‘all-OOH’ market.” Moving Walls has created a dedicated project team to localise and customise our technology, including delivery on a private cloud instance, guaranteeing the highest level of service to jeki.”