Tag: Advertising

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Within half a year since its establishment, Lion & Lion’s in-house film & content studio has unveiled its showreel to showcase its growth as an emerging studio and highlight its creative endeavours. 

The showreel not only demonstrates the team’s proficiency in film production, motion graphics and content creation, but also offers a peek into the behind-the-scenes creative process driving projects for its growing domestic, regional and global client portfolio.

The showreel takes viewers on a visual exploration of the studio’s portfolio, revealing their process of revitalising brands and crafting engaging narratives. With a dedication to evoking emotions, purpose and engagement, each work underscores the team’s commitment to excellence. 

Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer at Lion & Lion, said,  “We’re thrilled to unveil our showreel, a testament to our team’s expansive capabilities across film, content and production. In less than six months, we’ve been entrusted to work on nine different brands, a positive indication of market demand and client trust.” 

“We’re immensely thankful for this enormous proof of market validation. With our in-house team of filmmakers working hand-in-hand with our creative experts, we’re poised to deliver cutting-edge film content designed for the digital age,” he added. 

Under Ong’s vision and direction, the team has grown to add more capabilities such as motion graphics, scriptwriting, brand narratives and rebranding initiatives for clients spanning domestic, regional and global across industries such as FMCG, insurance and fintech.

Meanwhile, Chien Chiang, managing director of Kodak Lens, Signet Armorlite AMERA, mentioned, “With a clear understanding of our industry and category challenges, and with our target audience segments in mind, Lion & Lion’s strategic vision and out-of-the-box ideas provide cost efficiency in bringing creative and production cost under one roof.”

Lastly, speaking on the studio’s performance, Carrie Leong, assistant manager, corporate marketing & loyalty program at Tropicana Corporation Berhad, commented, “Lion & Lion’s Film & Content Studio consistently delivers quality content with new and fresh video directions and editing treatment.” 

Australia – Real estate agency Domain has launched a new campaign with three films starring actors Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. 

In partnership with Howatson+Company, the films introduce the new brand platform ‘Know what we know’ which reflects Domain’s commitment to provide customers with confidence in their property journey.

In the films directed by Australian director Trent O’Donnell, Byrne and Cannavale play a couple who go to extreme lengths to try and uncover information that will help them find the right property.

The situations in the film are resolved by Domain’s brand new search experience, including exclusive features such as ‘Search by School Zone’, ‘Recently Sold Prices’, and ‘Suburb Insights’.

Talking about the campaign, Rebecca Darley, chief marketing officer at Domain, said, “In an era where information is the most valuable asset, ‘Know What We Know’ bridges the gap between the experts and the seekers. As a data and tech-powered business, Domain is on a journey to leverage its assets to guide Aussies through every step of their property journey.”

“Many Australians can relate to that feeling of property obsession, going above and beyond in their property search to feel confident they are making the right decision. This proved fertile ground to bring to life the new re-imagined search experience in the Domain App, and stretch the brand into a lighthearted and entertaining territory. With Domain, gone are the days of undercover suburb stakeouts and uninformed decisions, you have the power to know what the experts know, empowering you to navigate your property journey with confidence,” she added. 

Meanwhile, Richard Shaw and Jeremy Hogg, executive creative directors at Howatson+Company, added, “Since day one, Rebecca and the Domain team have spoken of their ambition for the business and the brand — you can see that ambition in this first campaign. We couldn’t be more excited to launch ‘Know what we know’ for Domain and continue to build the platform together.”

The campaign includes TV, Online, OOH, Radio, Social and sponsorship of Allianz Stadium.

Bangkok, Thailand – Global beverage company Coca-Cola officially unveils its new online film that brings to the forefront the unifying power of shared meals and the authentic connections forged at the dining table. 

The feel-good film is part of Coca-Cola’s ‘Recipe for Magic’ campaign, which aims to explore the enchanting bonds created when loved ones gather for a meal, complemented by the refreshing taste of Coca-Cola drink. It casts the spotlight on the importance of family mealtimes in creating and sharing those ‘pause-refresh-and-cherish’ moments. 

The ‘Recipe for Magic’ campaign embodies ‘Real Magic’. The Coca-Cola global brand’s philosophy is entrenched in the belief that, whether it’s every day or a special occasion, moments can become magical and extraordinary experiences when they are enjoyed together. All it takes is combining the right ingredients: good company, delectable food, and an ice-cold, refreshing Coca-Cola drink.

Coca-Cola also collaborated with their ASEAN brand ambassador, Win Metawin, for the online film. The film articulately captures Win’s journey to prepare his very own home-cooked pizza. 

From meandering through supermarket aisles in search of inspiration and soliciting cooking suggestions from his fans to the moment he surprises his siblings with a mouthwatering, hand-crafted pizza, the story culminates in a beautiful family gathering over slices of pizza and glasses of Coca-Cola, where laughter and love are the main courses.

The online film will be launched across Southeast Asia, from Singapore to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Baron Magtanong, regional marketing manager for Coca-Cola Trademark, said, “Our ‘Recipe for Magic’ campaign aims to bottle up those precious moments of connection. With Win’s inherent warmth and energy, we’re hopeful that the experience inspires others to explore their very own ‘recipe for magic’, turning mealtimes into priceless memories.”

Meanwhile, Win shared that he was excited with the project and that he took on board his fans’ suggestions on what to cook for the film. 

“I have many fond memories that involve me and my siblings, hungrily waiting for a pizza delivery while sharing a Coke. So, fast forward to the ‘Recipe for Magic’ campaign, I jumped at the opportunity to recreate those personal moments of happiness. Given how Coca-Cola has been part of many of our family occasions throughout my life, this campaign was truly close to my heart,” he shared. 

Win further added, “This was a priceless experience to have all my siblings on set, and in fact, created another unforgettable and treasured family moment etched in my memory, courtesy of Coca-Cola.”

Indonesia – McDonald’s Indonesia has revealed its new J-Pop advertisement jingle titled ‘Nihon No Fureeba’ written fully in Japanese, to promote the relaunch of McDonald’s ‘Taste of Japan’ burgers.

‘Nihon No Fureeba’ is a full, untranslated Japanese pop song made to promote the comeback of McDonald’s Taste of Japan burgers in Indonesia. The song’s lyrics talk about crispy nori and yakiniku sauce, ingredients highlighted on the fast food chain’s Japanese flavoured-inspired burgers. 

Written in a completely different language, the message the advertisement jingle aims to highlight is that even though some might not understand McDonald’s onigiri-looking burgers, they’ll love the taste anyway. Just  like they love Japanese songs. 

Advertising agency Leo Burnett’s cultural findings on Indonesians’ adoration for Japanese pop songs propelled the idea of creating the jingle. The agency tapped Indonesian-Japanese singer Ica Zahra to create the song, which was released as a Japanese single without subtitles.

Within one week, the music video was watched more than three million times. The song became the talk of the radio, and hundreds of covers and TikTok dances were made. 

Soon after, the agency and the singer revealed that the song, which most people didn’t understand but still listened to, was actually an untranslated ad to promote McDonald’s product relaunch. The jingle has topped the country’s music charts and become the #1 search on music search application Shazam causing a huge jump on the burger’s first-week sales. 

With the launch of ‘Nihon No Fureeba’, people’s curiosity towards the burgers spiked so fast that first-week sales surpassed those of the past 3 years. 

“Because no one knew that it was an ad. The lyrics were in Japanese, untranslated, and  people thought that it was just a nice feel-good J-Pop song!” explains Ravi Shanker, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Indonesia on how an ad became a popular favorite pop song in the country. 

“Japanese pop culture is strong in Indonesia. People love Japanese pop songs and put  them in their playlists, sing along, even wearing cool t-shirts with Japanese letters—all  without understanding what they mean,” he continued. 

Meanwhile, Michael Hartono, marketing director at McDonald’s Indonesia, said, “At the end of the  day, the campaign is making people love not only the burgers but also the brand. Even after people realized that it was an ad, they still continue doing karaoke with it, and  the song–I mean the jingle–is now in thousands of Spotify playlists to this day.” 

Singapore – New research from WARC in partnership with ID Comms has highlighted the key trends across three different areas of programmatic advertising: the search for solutions in the post-cookie era, digital wastage in the programmatic supply chain, and the emergence of new addressable channels. 

The report suggests that a majority of marketers and advertisers fall short in programmatic advertising with overlooked privacy regulation changes, digital ad spend wastage, and below average confidence towards data, analytics, and insight systems within emerging channels. 

According to the report, about 58% of marketing leaders seem unaware of the impact of privacy regulation changes on their systems, tools, and business. In response, advertisers are actively seeking alternatives for targeting and measurement such as the use of first-party data, data partnerships, employing cookieless target methods, and exploring persistent identifiers as an alternative to tracking users across multiple platforms and devices.

Despite some improvements, the report states that nearly a quarter of the annual $88 billion spent on programmatic advertising still goes to waste. To reduce this wastage, advertisers include supply path optimization (SPO), wherein they streamline routes to advertising inventory by eliminating unnecessary intermediaries in the supply path. They also adopt in-house capabilities to enhance programmatic trading, and even engage in sustainability measurement, with some advertisers striving to minimize their carbon footprints.

Data also shows that CMOs report allocating a quarter of their entire marketing expense budgets to marketing technologies, yet marketers utilized just 42% of their martech stack capabilities in 2022, down from 58% in 2020.

Furthermore, there are new addressable channels such as gaming, connected television (CTV), programmatic audio, digital out of home (DOOH), and retail, but there is still a challenge as 62% of advertisers express only moderate confidence or less in their data, analytics, and insight systems. This confidence gap poses several obstacles to the expansion of these channels such as the need for holistic and standardized data, the pervasive issue of ad fraud, and the delicate balance between open web and walled garden Demand Side Platforms (DSPs).

However, the report mentions that marketers can still future-proof programmatic activations and improve business capabilities by establishing well defined business objectives, identifying and mapping one’s current capabilities, perform a gap analysis and identifying future business use cases, reviewing current programmatic maturity and future areas of progression, producing the final roadmap for their efforts, and activating their workstreams with the right support. 

Paul Stringer, managing editor for research & advisory at WARC, said, “The efficacy of programmatic – automation, real-time measurement and sophisticated targeting – are being threatened by the growing push for data privacy and the demise of the third party cookie.

“While programmatic advertising may have failed to live up to its early promise, change is afoot and a new wave of growth and development beckons. In this report we explore key shifts across the programmatic landscape and how they are impacting advertisers,” he added. 

Malaysia – The Malaysian Association of Accredited Advertising Agents (4As) is offering scholarships for the IPA Foundation Certificate to Malaysian tertiary lecturers specialising in Advertising and Marketing Communications until August 25, 2023.

Open to Malaysians who are full-time lecturers in advertising and marketing communications, 4As scholarships for the IPA Foundation Certificate are focused on improving competency of teaching for the respective fields.  

Khairudin Rahim, CEO at 4AS Malaysia, acknowledges the growth of the advertising industry and the increasing number of interested students, which calls for more lecturers who teach advertising and marketing communications who possess practical experience of the industry.

“The IPA Foundation Certificate offers them a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of the practical day-to-day work of marketing communications, from understanding the advertiser’s business, writing strategy and briefs, media, ideation, creative development up to campaign effectiveness. These basics never change. Get them right and the rest will fall in place,” he added.

Previous scholarship recipient Heidi Tan from Multimedia University said, “I felt that my students were able to benefit from her participation in the IPA course. The case studies provided in the course were my favourite and I have been sharing these with my students so that they can see how strategies and effective design work hand-in-hand to create successful campaigns.”

Developed by the Chartered Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the IPA Foundation Certificate is the world’s premier professional advertising qualification, which is recognized by 4As as a practical requisite, offering scholarships for advertising educators since 2017. 

Bangkok, Thailand – In line with Thailand’s Mother’s Day celebration on August 12, Insurance company Thai Life released their latest entry in a long line of sentimental ads that they have produced over the years.  

The 3-minute ad, entitled  ‘Live Life to the Fullest’, offers viewers a mother-daughter story that highlights the value of being able to love now before it’s too late.

In ‘Live Life to the Fullest’, the company tells a story about a mother and her daughter spending their remaining time together, turning otherwise normal days into special days as there is not much time left and shared by both in their lives before.  

The ad showcases Thai Life Insurance’s core principle of ‘Love for Life’, allowing viewers to reflect upon the values of life, values of love and people, sparking healthy discussions among audiences over the years.

In a press release regarding this ad, Thai Life Insurance stated, “We hope to inspire people to appreciate the transience of life, encouraging them to not wait for an opportunity or a special occasion to express their love. Every day is a special day – only through this revelation can people truly live a meaningful life.”

Singapore – Vistar Media, the global provider of programmatic software and digital signage solutions for out-of-home (OOH), announces a partnership with Ten Square, the largest outdoor LED display in Singapore. 

Vistar Media will serve as Ten Square’s supply-side platform (SSP) partner for programmatic DOOH transactions. And with this partnership, advertisers across Southeast Asia and around the world can now access Ten Square’s groundbreaking 3D anamorphic screen via Vistar’s SSP. 

“As we double down on our investment in programmatic DOOH across Southeast Asia, I’m excited to forge such a strong partnership with Ten Square, bringing advertisers one of the most unique out-of-home formats in Singapore for their advertising efforts,” said Ben Baker, managing director, APAC, at Vistar Media.

He further shared that “Partnerships like these are crucial to our efforts at Vistar to accelerate the overall adoption of pDOOH, and I’m confident this will help advertisers continue to recognise the unique value the channel can bring to an omnichannel media mix.”

The iconic Singapore Ten Square is an eye-catching digital billboard that stands at 305 sq m.tall and boasts high-resolution images with a 10mm pixel pitch and more than 3 million pixels, including anamorphic content on three sides.

Being the first of its kind in Singapore, it offers an immersive experience for onlookers passing by a high-traffic shopping hub in the city. It is situated on the facade of the iconic one-stop car vending machine in Singapore’s bustling CBD.

Ten Square also includes an event space that can be utilized for brand activations, launches, and promotions.

Franck Vidal, director for Southeast Asia sales and partnerships at Vistar Media, shared that they are thrilled to welcome an innovative partner like Ten Square to join their robust network of digital inventory in Southeast Asia. 

“Ten Square’s unique screen truly leans into the future of programmatic out-of-home, and the immense creative potential that comes with the channel. I’m excited to witness firsthand how advertisers tap into this unique canvas for their advertising campaigns,” he continued. 

Meanwhile, Gary Hong, founder of Ten Square, comments on the partnership, saying that, “We are thrilled to partner with Vistar Media to help brands execute iconic pDOOH campaigns across our standout, “state of the art” screen that sits on the façade of the eye-catching car vending machine.” 

“With these innovations, we hope to elevate creatives and branding to new heights, captivating audiences even in the darkest of nights through our mesmerizing 3D anamorphic “ready” billboard. The seamless fusion of technology and artistry empowers brands to make a deep and lasting impression on passersby,” he added. 

New York, USA – Integral Ad Science (IAS) has announced an exclusive partnership with X, formerly known as Twitter, for brand safety and suitability optimisation controls for advertisers to launch ads in the X platform.

IAS’s pre-bid brand safety and Suitability product provides marketers with greater control and optimization of quality media investments. IAS will now provide valuable third-party affirmation that brands running ads on X are appearing in brand safe and suitable environments as defined by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) framework.

Moreover, IAS’s data-backed brand safety and suitability products help ensure high quality media placements, further demonstrating IAS’s commitment to bringing even greater trust and transparency to all aspects of the digital measurement landscape.

Lisa Utzschneider, CEO at IAS, said, “By activating IAS’s pre-bid optimization solutions, marketers can ensure their campaigns prioritize only quality inventory that is brand safe and suitable. We’re proud to be the first and only pre-bid brand safety and suitability partner with X and look forward to furthering the company’s commitment to transparency by giving marketers greater control through solutions that safeguard a brand’s interests and drive brand equity.”

Meanwhile, Linda Yaccarino, CEO at X, commented, “At X, balancing free expression and platform safety is our number one priority – and we are proving these two things are not at odds. Growing our partnership with IAS offers brands a new level of protection and transparency as they continue to grow on X.”

It is also worth noting that that global food company Mondelez has also returned to do advertising on the platform. X noted that it has extended its industry-leading partnerships and capabilities of’Adjacency Controls’ to help all advertisers achieve their unique suitability needs in a more scaled and automated way. These new capabilities will work together to unlock an extended level of adjacency protection for X advertisers.

Jon Halvorson, SVP for consumer experience at Mondelez International, said, “X has made tremendous progress in building brand safety tools that empower advertisers to leverage the power of their platform while curating the context in which the ads appear. Adding pre-bid meets a critical commitment made by their leadership and we are eager to implement this new feature going forward.”

Available in the coming weeks within the X Ads Manager, X also introduced ‘Sensitivity Settings’, an automated solution that will help brands establish the right balance between reach and suitability when it comes to ad placement on the platform. 

The ‘Sensitivity Settings’ solution will use machine learning to reduce adjacency to varying levels of content according to a brand’s sensitivity threshold in an upcoming campaign. Brands can then select their preferred environment that best meets their individual campaign objectives.

Manila, Philippines – Advertising technology company Location Media Xchange(LMX) has announced its partnership with Digichive Philippines Corporation, the advertising concessionaire for Ninoy Aquino International Airport(NAIA) Terminals, Clark Lipad International, Bacolod-Silay Airport and Kalibo International Airport. The partnership will enable the activation of campaigns leaning towards programmatic advertising for the aforementioned airports.

Under the partnership, Digichive and LMX launched the first programmatic guaranteed campaign at NAIA International for a BPO company, marking the Philippine’s first-ever indoor programmatic-enabled screens.

Digichive will also now be able to cater to DSP buyers such as Google’s DV360, Trade Desk TTD and MAX, using LMX’s supply-side platform, giving advertisers the opportunity to deploy programmatic advertising enhancing the airport experience.

Norman Davadilla, CEO of Moving Walls Philippines, said, “The introduction of programmatic advertising at Ninoy Aquino International Airport gives clients greater flexibility in their out-of-home campaigns in terms of audience targeting, measurement, optimization and real-time playout triggered by data. We do not doubt that this new offering will enrich the airport experience and open up NAIA’s airport media space to even more brands and partners.”

Meanwhile, Ann Margaret Ngui, VP sales of Digichive Phils, commented, “This partnership will enable us to leverage LMX’s cutting-edge technology and expertise to enhance our products and services, and to offer our customers more value and convenience. We believe that this collaboration will create new opportunities for growth and innovation for both parties and will strengthen our position in the competitive market. We look forward to working closely with the LMX platform to deliver the best possible outcomes for our stakeholders.”