Tag: anz

Sydney, Australia – Australian AI-powered marketing platform Metigy has partnered with freelance services marketplace Fiverr, to service the growing need of microbusinesses for digital solutions.

According to data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), there had been a 14% increase in new business registrations during the pandemic. With this, comes an increased demand for digital, and both Metigy and Fiverr aim to provide digital marketing expertise by co-creating and launching a stream of free educational resources on their owned channels, helping freelance and small business community upskill in areas of digital marketing and business growth.

The new initiative also gives Metigy’s customers the ability to tap into a broad range of digital services such as photoshop editing, social media design, and copywriting, as well as programming, while generating new business opportunities for the skilled freelancers on Fiverr. In addition, Fiverr’s sellers will be exposed to a larger pool of SMEs actively seeking digital solutions.

Metigy’s CEO and co-founder David Fairfull said that they are excited to partner with Fiverr as both of them are on a mission to support small businesses.

“Amid the pandemic, we saw many small businesses close but this led to the rise of microbusiness owners and freelancers, many of whom made that scary leap to kickstart their own business. Now is the time to be investing in our global small business community, ensuring they have the right tools and technology in place to support growth and reach their full potential,” added Fairfull.

Meanwhile, Liron Smadja, the senior director of global brand marketing and international expansion at Fiverr, commented that the partnership with Metigy is a first of its kind for them, helping to boost exposure and business opportunities for their global freelance community predominantly in Australia but also in Singapore and the US.

“The partnership comes at the perfect time as we continue to build our presence in Australia, expand opportunities for our network of Fiverr sellers and continue championing the small business community. We can’t wait to see what this partnership brings and are looking forward to working closely with the Metigy team,” said Smadja.

The partnership is Fiverr’s first major marketing investment in Australia, while the announcement of the tie-up also comes after Metigy’s recent Series B funding round led by investment banking firm Cygnet Capital earlier this year.

Australia – Galderma in Australia, the pharmaceutical company which specializes in dermatological products, has appointed creative agency Emotive as its strategic and creative partner. 

Galderma carries the portfolio of some of the most well-known cosmetic products such as Cetaphil, Benzac, and Loceryl, and the appointment will see Emotive handling all of the brand’s creative business. 

For its first campaign, it has launched an ad for Cetaphil. The campaign aims to amplify the brand’s status as a top-of-mind product among consumers. While Cetaphil has been a familiar fixture in Aussie bathrooms for decades, its current branding as a ‘medicinal’ product strips it off of the ‘excitement’ factor that is most appealing to younger consumers, hence, the campaign’s focus on the reinforcement of its efficacy and safety in treating skin problems on this consumer group.

With the campaign titled ‘Hype-Free Skincare’, Emotive takes a sarcastic spin on the trend of influencers that are strongest among beauty products. The ad presents a fictitious ‘tell-all’ with an unidentified influencer acting as a ‘Skincare whistleblower’, who reveals to a reporter that while she keeps luring followers to try different skincare products, the ‘truth’ is “all you need is Cetaphil.” 

The tongue in cheek ad is capped off with a comic “So why come forward now?” question from the reporter to which the whistleblower answers, “People deserve to know the truth. Cetaphil face has everything you need.” 

“But while some might think having moisturisers that moisturise, cleansers that cleanse and products that are safe and work for everyone makes Cetaphil boring, when it comes to skincare, boring is good,” said Emotive.

According to Leah Elder, the digital and e-commerce lead of Galderma, the world of social media has influenced what people share and when it comes to skincare if its ‘not ideal for a #shelfie’ or hyped up, netizens are less inclined to share it. 

“Our Hype-Free campaign is a hilarious dramatization of a fictitious influencer having to hide behind a pixel, voice warp, and a protection program to conceal that it’s the trusted, humble brands like Cetaphil that may not make the YouTube glam table but you always have in your actual cabinet or get recommended by your dermatologist. We hope to make people laugh, we hope our closet fans relate and we hope newbies get to know us a little more,” said Elder.

Meanwhile, James Pash, the creative director of Emotive, commented, “Cetaphil was created by a pharmacist decades before social media, and it shows. Luckily for us, the team at Cetaphil was brave enough to let us embrace this truth. ‘Hype-Free Skincare’ highlights just how unpretentiously effective Cetaphil is by parodying the world of ‘skinfluencer’ endorsements and ‘skintertainment’.”

The campaign is now live, and also includes an ‘Influencer Protection Program’ hotline for real skincare influencers who are in need of support.

Australia – Creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson in Australia has announced the elevation of Melbourne team’s General Manager Nick Muncaster, to now assume the role of managing director for the unit.

Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson in 2019, Muncaster has held multiple leadership roles at several advertising agencies, including Ogilvy and Havas Creative in Sydney and Melbourne. He has also worked with brands within retail, telco, finance, and automotive, as well as extensive partnerships with the State and Federal Government, among others.

In his new role, Muncaster will be leading the brand’s vision for the Melbourne office, continuing to build a high-performing culture for talent and drive strategic growth for clients.

Commenting on his appointment, Muncaster said that he is excited by the opportunity and humbled by the support from the agency’s talented team and ambitious clients. 

“I’m looking forward to my next chapter within this dynamic industry and business. I am proud of our continued momentum at Wunderman Thompson and look forward to continuing to inspire growth across our client’s business in 2021,” said Muncaster.

Meanwhile, CEO of Wunderman Thompson ANZ, Lee Leggett, commented that they have met many talented and ambitious people in their ‘extensive search’ for a new managing director, and that the final decision to appoint internally is a testament to Nick’s strong leadership of its Melbourne team and clients for the past six years.

“For anyone who has worked alongside Nick, you will know for yourself how talented he is. Our Melbourne office is in great hands,” said Leggett.

Sydney, Australia – Media and marketing agency Mediabrands in Australia has recently announced the appointment of Maria Grivas as the new CEO of Reprise, Mediabrands’ digitally-led full-service performance agency in the country.

Prior to her new role, Grivas has previously worked as the chief data and technology officer at media agency UM Australia, a role she has had for the past three and a half years, and has been a member of UM’s senior leadership team. She has also been a mentor across the Mediabrands group on digital development.

Grivas’ appointment came after the resignation of CEO Matt Sallis, who cited family reasons related to travel restrictions from his base in Canada. In taking the leadership role at Reprise, Grivas will be playing a key role in shaping the group and will also be joining the Mediabrands Australia Executive Leadership Team.

Commenting on her appointment, Grivas said, “Having already worked closely with Reprise for some time, I am very excited about the CEO role. The business has a large team of very talented people doing great work and my ambition is to help elevate their successes as the industry evolves at pace.”

Meanwhile, Mark Coad, the CEO of Mediabrands Australia, commented that Reprise Australia plays a vital role in supporting the teams and clients with world-class communications solutions, and Grivas is the ideal future leader for the business.

“I’m thrilled that Mediabrands has the talent of Maria’s caliber to promote into such an important leadership position, as well as her high-quality team members. We will find Maria’s successor for her role in UM Australia in due course,” said Coad.

Reprise Australia has more than 150 people and offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, as well as Perth. The business works with many of Mediabrands’ clients across the group and also has independent clients.

Auckland, New Zealand – Creative agency TBWA\ New Zealand and financial institution Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has launched a new campaign to promote its latest brand platform ‘We Do How’, a platform that aims to help improve the financial wellbeing of all New Zealanders by providing them with the resources, support, and products they need.

The 2-minute campaign, titled samely as ‘We Do How’, narrates the story of Ravi and Claire along with their two children Sameer and Tara Sharma. The first story shows the many ways Ravi and Claire set out to improve the financial wellbeing of their family, but that the heart of the story is about father and son as Sameer spends years working towards his dream of becoming a Black Cap, a New Zealand cricket team.

True to its message of ‘We Do How’, Sameer’s dedication in cricket and the persuasion he got from his father led him to an easy path of success, much like how ANZ provides an easy resource for New Zealanders to become more financially-savvy, as best reflected in their eagerness to remind that wealth is more about knowing they can pay for things to help their family thrive, according to an ANZ survey.

Speaking about the campaign, Shane Bradnick, chief creative officer at TBWA\ New Zealand, stated that they aimed that the story be a ‘universal one’ that we can all relate to about why people work hard in New Zealand and how people want their families to enjoy a better, happier life.

“It’s also a modern New Zealand story that reflects our diversity and how our love of family and a desire to help our kids succeed is a ‘why’ we can all understand. The Sharmas show us a range of ways to help us all start to improve our financial wellbeing and through them, we can see that if you have a ‘why’ then ANZ has the ‘how’,” Bradnick stated.

Meanwhile, Matt Pickering, general manager of marketing at ANZ, commented, “Kiwis want to improve their financial wellbeing, but often just don’t know where to start and so it’s the ‘how’ part that’s important. ANZ is committed to giving Kiwis the practical tools and know-how they need to do this, which is why we’ve set up our Financial Wellbeing Programme.”

ANZ has set up a six-step Financial Wellbeing Programme that is available to everyone, not just ANZ customers at anz.co.nz/financialwellbeing. The program starts with calculating a person’s financial well-being score and more than 22,000 Kiwis have already found out theirs.

The ‘We Do How’ campaign is currently rolled out on TV, digital, social, PR, OOH and in-branch. The company is also set to roll out a similar project internally for their staff called, ‘The Deck of How’, which is a deck of playing cards packed with financial well being ‘hows’, and also a digital book for its employees ‘The Book of How’ is also being produced.

Singapore – Media company Verizon Media has recently announced the promotion of Paul Sigaloff, former managing director of ANZ, to now assume the role of vice president of Verizon Media ANZ and INSEA.

Sigaloff brings with him over 10 years of experience in the media industry across the United Kingdom and Australia. He joined the company as the commercial director in 2014, and thereafter, worked as the managing director in 2018, where he led Verizon Media’s portfolio of dynamic digital media and technology brands including Yahoo across ANZ.

In his new role, Sigaloff will be responsible for leading the media company’s teams in Australia, New Zealand, and India, as well as the whole Southeast Asia region. The current sales team headed by Carol Tay, the senior director of sales of Verizon Media SEA, will now report to Sigaloff.

According to the company, the promotion is recognition for Sigaloff’s leadership during a record year of growth for Verizon Media ANZ. In 2020 Monthly Active Users (MAUs) across Yahoo’s editorial brands grew 11%, with double-digit revenue growth despite the headwinds in the wider market.

Furthermore, the company said that Sigaloff’s leadership philosophy and success in ANZ is grounded on the principles of media and advertising acting as forces for good in the world. This approach has leveraged product developments including greater privacy controls for users, and internally through a phenomenal corporate social responsibility program which saw the company donate more than AU$1M in time and value to charitable causes in 2020.

Commenting on his promotion, Sigaloff said that he is fortunate to be building on strong foundations in Singapore with the SEA region being a vibrant and important market for Verizon Media.

“My priority is to take the time to learn from the successful initiatives in those markets and take a strategic approach to apply the most appropriate lessons from our ANZ success story to create meaningful impact here in South East Asia,” said Sigaloff.

Rico Chan, the head of sales of Verizon Media APAC, commented that Sigaloff deserves the promotion coming from an inspirational leadership in ANZ.

“I look forward to working with him going forward to replicate this success across Southeast Asia and India. Southeast Asia is an important market for our business and this new structure enables us to take full advantage of key growth areas in 5G, e-commerce, and responsible business within these regions,” said Chan.

Sydney, Australia – PR and communications agency Anne Wild & Associates (AWA) has announced its partnership with independent media agency Pearman Media to offer clients fully integrated paid and earned media services.

The two companies have been operating from shared premises in Sydney since September 2021, and have already worked on several joint clients spanning on travel and lifestyle, wellness, and professional services sectors.

Through the partnership, the clients can couple PR services such as strategic planning, media relations, and commercial sponsorships, as well as affiliate partnerships, and social media management, among others, with media services, which includes strategic media planning, purchase and management of integrated advertising, and digital campaigns, as well as SEM and SEO, and data analytics, among others.

Furthermore, the partnership will also see the in-house teams of AWA and Pearman take on a series of staff exchanges and up-skilling programs, where team members will engage themselves across all aspects of core business services, providing the opportunity to consolidate the knowledge that will ultimately benefit their combined client portfolios.

According to Anne Wild, the managing director of Anna Wild & Associates, the partnership follows increasing demand from clients to work with a one-stop-shop for strategically aligned PR, strategy, and media planning, as well as buying services. 

Wild further shared that the Australian media space has gone through a period of significant change, and many of their clients are increasingly looking for integrated solutions that can both streamline account management processes as well as elevate the outcomes of their combined PR and media campaigns.

“Clients from across AWA’s two business units – Travel & Lifestyle and Business & Innovation – are already benefiting from the new partnership and we look forward to working more closely with the Pearman team on clients seeking integrated services all under one roof,” said Wild. 

Meanwhile, Dominic Pearman, the managing director of Pearman Media, commented that the partnership will enable clients to streamline PR and advertising activity and benefit from leveraging opportunities and campaign optimizations.

“We’ve been working with the AWA team for some time on some highly successful client projects, and we’ve already seen the significant benefits resulting from the combined services, from campaign strategy through to creative execution. We are seeing real growth in demand for an integrated offering and we are excited about further developing our enhanced service offering to new and existing clients,” said Pearman.

Sydney, Australia – Comparison platform Finder has appointed former head of public relations and communications of its ANZ operations Bessie Hassan to now take the helm as the company’s global head of communications.

Aside from her previous role in Finder ANZ, Hassan has worked as a freelance journalist and public relations consultant, with bylines from various publications such as The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Marie Claire, and InStyle among others. She has also served as communications officer for the Randwick City Council and as vice president for New South Wales at the Public Relations Institute of Australia.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Hassan stated that in her new role, she will be responsible for establishing and leading an integrated communications strategy to grow Finder’s corporate footprint, thought leadership, and credibility across all of Finder’s markets. This will include external and internal communications, corporate social responsibility (CSR), public affairs, employer brand, and risk and reputation management. 

Hassan’s promotion comes after Finder’s recent acquisition of Singapore-born financial services platform GoBear to drive its growth in the Southeast Asia region, months after GoBear announced shutting down its operations.

“As Finder continues to grow, I will work closely with the founders and executive team to establish a brand presence in all its markets. Our goal is to help people make better financial decisions every day – by helping people save, invest and grow their wealth – and we believe we have a strong role to play in doing this in Southeast Asia,” Hassan shared with MARKETECH APAC.

In regards to her appointment, she said, “The last six years at Finder have been a blast and now I’m so excited to be sharing Finder’s mission with the rest of the world.”

Finder has yet to find a replacement to lead the communications branch for ANZ.

Sydney, Australia – Digital media consultancy MightyHive and digital production company MediaMonks sees a new appointment for vice president and head of growth for ANZ as its mother company S4 Capital unveils Tom Braybrook to lead both roles.

Braybrook has previously worked with tech giant Google as head of agencies and partners in New Zealand, as well as with computer software company Adobe, where he served various roles such as APAC strategy and solutions lead and regional product manager for Adobe Analytics Cloud.

Speaking about his appointment he said, “As enterprises march forward with their digital transformation efforts, it’s no secret that the role of today’s marketer continues to broaden – whether it is making smarter use of data, rearchitecting the customer experience or finding new ways to tell brand stories in a digital world. 

He added, “In the midst of this evolution, MightyHive and MediaMonks represent an exciting new breed of marketing services partner who are not only enabling businesses to understand and adopt these technologies but are also supporting their transformation efforts in a much more agile and flexible way.”

Meanwhile, Kenny Griffiths, managing director for Asia Pacific at MightyHive, commented, “Tom’s extensive 15 years’ experience in digital marketing aligns perfectly to not only where we’re at as a business, but where we’re going. His experience from the Agency world, Adobe & most recently Google is unique as it hones in on our holy trinity – data, digital media and content- approach and will be critical in evolving how we go to market across the two countries.”