Tag: Advertising

Singapore – Global socially-led creative agency We Are Social has announced its appointment of Omar Sotomayor as its regional executive creative director in Southeast Asia.

In his new role, Sotomayor will oversee the agency’s creative vision and strategy in the region, lead creative excellence, and manage a creative team of more than 30, in locations including Singapore and Indonesia.

He will collaborate with clients, including Samsung Mobile, Netflix, and Google, to deliver innovation and effective creative solutions, while spearheading creative efforts across We Are Social’s specialist offerings in the Southeast Asia region. This includes the agency’s future-tech and innovation arm, .XYZ, which is led by the team in Singapore.

Sotomayor brings 18 years of experience in the advertising industry, and previously was executive creative director & regional community lead at Edelman Singapore, where he helped lead the transformation of the creative department and integrated solutions while driving growth through new business wins.

Speaking on his appointment, Sotomayor said, “I’m excited about We Are Social’s in-house capabilities, talent, and innovative spirit. They have a unique socially-led vision that combines tech and culture, opening doors to creative possibilities. I look forward to learning from the team and helping to reimagine our clients’ businesses.”

Meanwhile, Christina Chong, CEO of We Are Social in Southeast Asia, commented, “I was immediately drawn to Omar’s approach and dedication to his work, his way of thinking, and more generally, his passion for innovation and creativity.His exceptional knowledge and creative experience, alongside his deep understanding of the social and digital landscape, will be invaluable to our clients.”

“His leadership will take our creative teams in Singapore and Indonesia to the next level, all while driving forward the creative offering for .XYZ and in new markets for We Are Social in Southeast Asia,” she added.

Singapore – Global outdoor advertising enterprise software provider Moving Walls has announced the launch of its environmental, social, and corporate governance initiative called ‘Moving Hearts’. This initiative aims to connect charities and community organisations to last minute OOH media inventory in an automated manner.

According to Moving Walls, ‘Moving Hearts’ seeks to break through with the power of out-of-home media to spotlight social and humanitarian causes. Often, charitable organizations face difficulties in gaining visibility, while owners of OOH media have unused inventory that could be leveraged to create a lasting impact. 

This initiative presents a mutually beneficial opportunity for all parties involved, allowing philanthropic campaigns to flourish and reach a wider audience.

‘Moving Hearts’ uses Moving Walls’ advanced technology to automate the matching of registered charities to last minute DOOH inventory and also the DOOH content serving.To begin, causes are recruited on the Moving Hearts website and are validated individually. Participating publishers then have the discretion to select the causes they support. 

Srikanth Ramachandran, group CEO of Moving Walls, said, “Moving Hearts enables access to the widest reaching media channel to those who need exposure the most. With Moving Hearts, we bring social sustainability to the forefront of our work in the DOOH ecosystem.”

He added, “Moving Hearts has been consistently achieving the goal of reaching 100,000 hearts (impressions) for every CSR campaign it has amplified. We look forward to working with all our media partners to reach a billion hearts.”

Singapore – Nearly 4 out of 5 APAC consumers agree that companies should do a better job at capturing Asian people’s true lifestyle and culture in advertising, a report from Getty Images revealed.

The new research showed that stereotypical and inauthentic visual representations of various Asian communities are still present in the Asia-Pacific advertising scene.

According to the data, only less than 10% of the most popular visuals for Australasia, Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan accurately represent Asian people and their lived experiences. Instead, the findings revealed that the most commonly used imagery tends to lean heavily towards perpetuating common stereotypes.

The common stereotypes in the Asian advertising scene include depicting Asians as youthful, slender, having lighter skin tones, and predominantly portrayed in work-related contexts. Furthermore, popular visuals all portray the same underlying messages, styling, and emotion, which is often overly happy and has little to no connection to each culture.

Getty Images’ research report also showed that nearly 4 out of 5 consumers across APAC agree that companies also need to do a better job at capturing people’s true lifestyles and cultures. They felt that simply increasing the representation of individuals from diverse ethnicities, backgrounds, and appearances within advertising and media was insufficient.

Additionally, a striking 3 out of 5 also shared that they’ve felt discrimination based on body size, lifestyle choices, race, ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and sexuality.

The report identified a number of representation gaps that are specific to APAC, which include disparities in depicting cultural specificities, underrepresentation of older adults, a lack of diversity in gender representation, limited portrayals of Asian working life, a prevailing preference for Eurocentric beauty standards and body types, and an absence of individuals with disabilities, among others.

The representation gaps and lack of diversity in imagery limit the opportunity to showcase Asia-Pacific’s extensive span of cultures and demographics.

These concerning findings underscore the importance for the media and advertising industry to recognise the intricate diversity and multidimensionality inherent in Asian cultures and align their strategies with consumer expectations to deliver authentic and meaningful portrayals of Asian identities.

Yuri Endo, creative insights manager at Getty Images, said, “Despite the region’s diversity, everyday images and videos that aim to capture Asian experiences often fall short, perpetuating harmful stereotypes or missing the mark entirely. This misrepresentation and underrepresentation in TV shows, social media, and advertising has led to significant gaps in consumers’ understanding of the region’s realities.”

“By sharing these guidelines, the report takes a significant step towards helping brands serving APAC customers promote accurate and respectful portrayals of Asian communities, ultimately contributing to a more inclusive and equitable visual landscape,” she added.

Seattle, USA – Amazon Ads has launched image generation in beta—a generative AI solution designed to remove creative barriers and enable brands to produce lifestyle imagery that helps improve their ads’ performance. 

For example, an advertiser may have standalone images of their product against a white background, like a toaster. When that same toaster is placed in a lifestyle context—on a kitchen counter, next to a croissant—in a mobile Sponsored Brands ad, click-through rates can be 40% higher compared to ads with standard product images.

According to the company, the solution is helpful for advertisers of all sizes—enabling those that do not have in-house capabilities or agency support to more easily create brand-themed imagery, while also supporting bigger brands, who are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient around creative development. 

In the Amazon Ad Console, advertisers simply select their product and click Generate, with the tool leveraging generative AI to deliver a set of lifestyle and brand-themed images, based on product details, in a matter of seconds. The image can then be refined by entering short text prompts, while multiple versions can be quickly created and tested to optimize performance.

According to Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president at Amazon Ads Products and Technology, with the launch of their image generation capability, any advertiser can now use a simple tool to create unique, lifestyle creative assets that make their campaigns more compelling, and at no additional cost.

“Producing engaging and differentiated creatives can increase cost and often requires introducing additional expertise into the advertising process. At Amazon Ads, we are always thinking about ways we can reduce friction for our advertisers, provide them with tools that deliver more impact while minimizing effort, and ultimately, deliver a better advertising experience for our customers,” she said.

Aubrey added, “Providing tools to make image generation simple and easy is another way for us to support advertisers while also making the ads our customers see more engaging and visually rich. It’s a perfect use for generative AI—less effort and better outcomes.”

India – Outdoor advertising company Times Innovative Media Ltd. (Times OOH) has announced its successful acquisition of exclusive advertising rights for Chennai International Airport across all the terminals.

The contract will run for seven years and marks a significant milestone for Times OOH’s growth journey. This strategic addition reinforces the company’s commitment to providing a metro airport network that covers all regions of India.

Times OOH’s contract includes exclusive rights for all of the airport’s four terminals. It would include an inventory offering covering multi-media options both inside and outside each terminal.

Chennai International Airport is among India’s busiest airports, handling over 18 million passengers every year. It serves as a hub for a diverse and captive audience base, from business travellers to tourists and locals.

With this advertising partnership, Times OOH can offer brands a remarkable platform to connect with and engage with their target market. This is in line with the company’s commitment to providing world-class quality in media assets at the airport.

The contract acquisition underscores Times OOH’s long-term vision of delivering high-impact advertising solutions that captivate and influence audiences within the airport premises. It will also strengthen their position and reputation in the airport advertising space.

Shekhar Narayanaswami, president at Times OOH, shared, “We are thrilled to embark on this journey of strategic collaboration with Chennai International Airport. It paves the way for innovative, engaging, and memorable campaigns that connect brands with their target audience. It represents a significant transformation in the airport advertising landscape, and we are committed to establishing new benchmarks in this field.”

Hong Kong – Advertising agency DDB Group Hong Kong has named Izmael Crespo as its new creative director to bolster the agency’s creative firepower.

In his new role, Crespo will work on multi-market projects across DDB’s varied client base. He will report to Alejandro Canciobello, the regional executive creative director.

Crespo is an art-based creative director who has worked with major brands on projects across the globe. His experience brings not only talent and fame but also a multicultural perspective to his new role with DDB Group Hong Kong.

He moved to Hong Kong from Colombia this month and comes into the agency with an extensive list of major accolades to his name, not least of which include an impressive ten Lions. Crespo is notably a part of the team responsible for the Corona Lime campaign that gave China its first-ever Titanium Lion win.

Additionally, being a gaming streamer himself, he is known for creating campaigns that bring brands to gaming environments.

Crespo’s appointment is the second major hire in DDB Group Hong Kong’s creative department this year. He follows the appointment of Alejandro Canciobello last April, to whom he will report directly now.

These hires underscore the agency’s ambition and commitment to significantly elevate its creative offering and the hope of becoming world-class. This is a goal that Andreas Krasser, CEO of DDB Group Hong Kong, has publicly voiced.

Commenting on the new hire, Alejandro Canciobello said, “Recently winning HKMA’s Agency of the Year for the second year in a row, having won Hong Kong’s 2023 Grand Effie, and with a string of notable creative campaigns this year, the agency has some great momentum. Adding someone like Izmael and his immense passion to create campaigns with the power to move people and culture is going to help us propel forward in our pursuit for even better work and greater impact.”

Also in his new role, Crespo shared, “I’m a big believer in an agency environment where everyone has the freedom to express their own creative voice and inspires each other to roll up their sleeves, and I know DDB has created this culture. I am excited to be here in Hong Kong and feel especially excited about going into an agency that is emerging on the global stage. I can’t wait to play a role in the next chapter of that story.”

Singapore – Unified customer experience management platform Sprinklr has announced the integration of TikTok Video Shopping Ads directly into the Sprinklr platform. This enables international brands to optimise ad performance and create a variety of TikTok Video Shopping Ads kinds. 

These advertisements can target and captivate both new and returning audiences, allowing brands to boost engagement, increase TikTok sales, and maximise their return on ad investment.

Any activity that a user or customer performs on their website or app can be recorded using data connections. With more knowledge of the shopper’s user journey, which includes holiday planning, gifting, celebrating, indulging, sharing, and more, the system is able to reach users with holiday messaging and Video Shopping Ads that will resonate with them.

To maximise the benefits of data connections, brands should set up both TikTok Pixel and Events API before the start of Q4 to ensure the ad delivery in preparation for the holiday season. This not only allows for integration between the platform and the user’s systems, but it also improves TikTok Ads Manager’s ability to precisely determine the optimal timing and placement for ad delivery, increasing the potential for the conversions. 

Sprinklr signed on as TikTok’s first advertising partner in 2020, and in 2022 it grew by adding a content marketing specialty. Sprinklr has recently added video shopping ads, to be able to help marketers manage, carry out, and optimise campaigns for both organic and paid content on TikTok.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian outdoor media association Central de Outdoor and Adsmovil OOH has tapped Moving Walls to launch ‘ECOSS OOH’, a new platform bringing robust data intelligence, audience measurement, and automation solutions to the out-of-home (OOH) advertising space.

The solution is powered by a customised OOH technology solution deployed by Adsmovil OOH, part of Adsmovil which runs an audience-first platform for programmatic buying for the Latin American market. Moving Walls has developed and customised the software for Latin American markets.

The ECOSS OOH platform consolidates planning, buying, implementation, and measurement tools onto a single platform, streamlining OOH ad management for agencies, planners, advertisers, and exhibitors. The platform provides direct access to the inventory of over 100 Central de Outdoor member companies nationwide.

Through the platform, agencies and advertisers have access to performance and audience data for a given point, such as how many people are impacted per month, audience reach and profile, and information on the point of interest, such as its location, who owns the inventory, the format and size available, operating hours and latest photographs and environment information of the location.

Fabi Soriano, executive director of Central de Outdoor, said, “The members of Central de Outdoor present throughout the country now can integrate the stages of planning, programmatic selling, buying and execution, through a single platform.”

Meanwhile, Marco Muñoz, regional business director at Adsmovil, commented, “With ECOSS OOH, it’s now possible to implement the same quantification and qualification for digital media. Adsmovil OOH’s audience intelligence and OOH software complements Central de Outdoor’s rich inventory and will enable easier access for advertisers.”

Lastly, Srikanth Ramachandran, founder and group CEO at Moving Walls, stated, “The partnership between Central de Outdoor and Adsmovil OOH is significant because it enables digital transformation across all its OOH media owners. This is the most difficult step before automation and measurement can be applied to drive greater efficiency for advertisers investing in the medium.”

Singapore – The advertising arm of Samsung Electronics, Samsung Ads, has expanded into Southeast Asia in an effort to facilitate the wider deployment of native advertising solutions across millions of Samsung-powered smart TVs.

The company claims that native ad formats can now, for the first time, be integrated into the Samsung Smart TV experience, allowing marketers to use Samsung Ads’ first-party device data for improved targeting, measurability, and insights.

Samsung Ads will now be operating in the countries ofIndonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam in Southeast Asia.

Speaking about the expansion in SEA, Alex Spurzem, managing director of Samsung Ads ANZ & SEA, said, “Connected TV penetration is above 50 percent in several key markets across Southeast Asia. By bringing our native advertising solutions to market, brands and advertisers can now reach households as soon as they turn their TV on.”

Singapore – Integral Ad Science has revealed ‘Made for Advertising; (MFA), an AI-powered site detection and avoidance product. The company’s MFA site technology is aimed at increasing transparency about advertiser campaign quality, pinpointing ad expenditure allocation, and providing insights for optimising campaigns to reduce inefficiencies on MFA sites.

When used for advertising purposes, MFA sites, which are web pages designed to display advertisements alongside poor content and frequently tuned for conventional metrics like viewability, frequently fail to deliver significant results, such as conversions or brand enhancement.

IAS’s latest product, which makes use of AI technology, efficiently identifies MFA sites on a large scale, allowing advertisers to regain control over their media quality and reduce inefficient spending. IAS provided extensive campaign analysis during alpha testing, demonstrating exceptional MFA site recognition for some of the global advertisers and agencies.

IAS’s product is in line with the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) most recent definition of an MFA site, which uses factors like ad-to-content ratio, ad refresh frequency, and traffic source to identify MFA sites. 21% of all measured advertising impressions were found to be delivered on MFA sites, according to the ANA’s Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study.

Speaking about the launch, Yannis Dosios, chief commercial officer, Integral Ad Science, said, “Our MFA product was built to deliver unprecedented transparency to advertisers and provide them with the ability to both detect and avoid MFA sites in order to redirect their ad spend to publishers that drive a return. The industry faces a significant challenge in combating MFA sites. By leveraging AI, we have developed a scalable way to identify these low quality sources of inventory and improve overall campaign performance.”

Meanwhile, Bill Duggan, executive vice president of ANA group, commented, “Advertisers should recognize that MFA websites can account for a significant portion of their overall campaign and should determine, independently, if MFA sites fit with their brand suitability standards for content and user experience. We applaud IAS for taking action after we released the findings from our programmatic transparency report and for supporting our definition of MFA.” 

He added, “We have found that awareness of MFA sites among the ANA community of media professionals to be limited – which is surprising. We look forward to further developments from IAS around MFA site identification and ad spend optimization to help better educate and inform buyers.”