Tag: APAC

Hong Kong – Ad-Lib.io, a global creative management platform, has announced that it will be expanding its presence to Hong Kong, and has also added two new members to its regional team as the company expands its focus on the Greater China region to enable further global growth.

Randal Foo takes the helm as RVP of Sales in APAC and Rishima Mohindru as the platform’s client partner for Hong Kong and Greater China.

Foo joins Ad-Lib.io from his previous sales positions at enterprise tag management Tealium and customer engagement company Cheetah Digital, where he served as regional sales and head of sales respectively. He brings to the company nearly 15 years of sales and digital marketing experience in the Asia Pacific region. 

Ad-Lib.io-Hong-Kong-Expansion-Appointment-New-Hires
(Left) Randal Foo, RVP of Sales in APAC; (Right) Rishima Mohindru, client partner for Hong Kong and Greater China.

Meanwhile, Mohindru comes from media company Omnicom Media Group, where she served as lead of APAC recently. She brings to the company her experience in helping brands expand their digital footprint while growing their online business through her deep understanding of the industry spanning from execution to strategy.

Both new hires will report to Rupert Privett, head of APAC at Ad-Lib.io.

“APAC advertisers face huge challenges delivering effective creative for their campaigns due to limited resources to produce and adapt relevant creative across multiple formats, channels, audiences, cultures, and markets,” Privett said.

He added, “To have the most impact, APAC advertisers need tools to simplify their production and targeting processes and we are proud to be uniquely positioned to help them achieve their goals.”

Singapore – Sell-side advertising platform Magnite has announced the launch of a new data center in Singapore, which accompanies the company’s continuous growth in APAC.

The new data center is designed to support the rapid growth in digital advertising services across the region and reinforce Magnite’s global leadership in CTV and omnichannel digital advertising.

As Magnite co-locates its digital television plus (DV+) and connected television (CTV) platforms in Singapore, the new data center will help standardize the company’s operations and provide maximum efficiency for buyers and publishers. The investment also allows Magnite to provide the robust technical capabilities necessary to support increased traffic.

Furthermore, the larger unified data center in Singapore will enable Magnite to better service clients across APAC from India to Australia and Japan. With this step, publishers can expect better performance and new monetization opportunities, as well as increased capacity for inventory. The company expects buyers to see better campaign performance and delivery, and have increased access to new supply.

“Preparing our technological infrastructure in APAC will give Magnite a clear competitive advantage in better servicing our clients and ultimately improve results. By unifying and standardizing our omnichannel platform, we’ll be more agile, proactive, and efficient. Our tech stack needs to evolve with the demands of the industry and we have greater flexibility to scale our infrastructure in real-time as the business scales,” said Tom Kershaw, CTO of Magnite.

Meanwhile, Juliette Stead, head of APAC at Magnite commented the new Magnite data center is a response to the company’s expectation from the entire APAC region to enjoy continued growth and recognizing the importance of investing in the region for the benefit of their clients.

“Investing at scale to optimize our capabilities ensures we will be well-positioned to respond to change. We are also building out our Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure in Singapore to further support CTV growth – including live streaming. Now more than ever, we intend to be at the forefront of the strongest segment of industry growth for the foreseeable future, and ensure our infrastructure is equipped to accommodate these developments,” Stead stated.

APAC – Dentsu has recently been appointed by William Grant & Sons, an independent family-owned distiller and global distributor of Scotch whisky, to be its agency partner. This comes as the company concludes in 2020 the consolidation of its APAC business.

The appointment will see dentsu driving omnichannel marketing for William Grant & Sons, focusing on connections planning, digital acceleration, and driving media effectiveness and efficiency across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

According to Susie O’Donoghue, global head of communication strategy and planning at William Grant & Sons, the company has an established global relationship with dentsu and after engaging with the APAC team during the chemistry meeting, they were impressed with their well-rounded thinking, demonstration of planning capability, as well as expertise in driving omnichannel thinking. 

“Throughout the engagement, dentsu demonstrated an in-depth understanding of our consumer landscape, ever-evolving media, and tech ecosystem. Most of all, we like that they have expertise working with clients in the alcohol and spirits business. We look forward to partnering with dentsu to drive growth for our brands in APAC,” said O’Donoghue.

Meanwhile, Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of Media at dentsu APAC, shared that they have been working with William Grant & Sons globally, saying that they are delighted to have managed to expand their partnership within APAC.

“By understanding our consumers’ world digital-first, we are able to unlock new growth opportunities at every stage of the consumer journey. For William Grant & Sons, this has translated into a full digital transformation project as we look to support them in their omnichannel, ‘people first’ future. We are excited to work on iconic William Grant & Sons brands and delighted to partner them in their omnichannel journey here in APAC,” added Mehrotra.

Singapore – Video game playing in the Asia-Pacific has risen to a new level, with consumers playing more than 9 hours of online games each week in 2020, a report by content delivery network company Limelight shows.

According to the study, the sudden spike in gaming has been driven by some gamers looking for social connections. More than 7 in 10 Asia Pacific gamers (72%) say they have made new friends through online games in the past year and more than one in three (36%) say the ability to interact with other players is extremely important. 

Furthermore, opportunities for interactivity and social engagement are likely drivers for video game adoption with the majority (79%) of global gamers saying they started playing video games in the past year.

Part of the growing numbers in the online gaming community is the high demands for next-generation consoles as gaming performance peaks. About three quarters (74%) of gamers are interested in purchasing a new console, due to updated technology (39%) and faster gameplay (37%. According to the study, gamers in China are most likely to consider upgrading their console (92%).

Such high rise of next-generation consoles comes with a higher demand for faster gaming experiences, as the study showed that five in 10 (51%) of Asia Pacific gamers cite this importance, also emerging as the top-cited significant aspect of game. In addition, 84% of gamers in the region say the process of downloading games is frustrating.

“Asia Pacific is home to some of the world’s most ardent gamers, and they are now looking to video games to provide an interactive, high performance, disruption-free experience that allows them to connect with others and play longer,” said Edwin Koh, director of Southeast Asia at Limelight.

The study showed the average APAC region gamer has played video games consecutively for four hours and 49 minutes. Young gamers ages 18 to 25 have binge-gamed for the longest, at an average of nearly five hours.

Gaming has also become a spectator sport. The report shows that 72% of Asia Pacific gamers say they’ve started to watch others play video games in the past year. The average gamer spends three hours and 36 minutes each week watching others play video games online and gamers in India spend the most time of any country surveyed (five hours and 18 minutes each week). Furthermore, more than three in five (67%) gamers say they prefer to play video games versus watching a movie or TV show.

“This evolution is putting pressure on gaming companies to match this demand with edge-based content and compute to deliver high-quality gaming environments to users across the globe,” Koh stated.

Singapore – Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform Sprinklr has announced its Singapore expansion with a new Research and Development (R&D) center to support its continued business growth.

The company said the new facility in Singapore will strengthen Sprinklr’s position as a CXM provider, affording it an expanded opportunity to support valuable brands in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, including Samsung, Gojek, StarHub, and Changi Airport Group. 

The new R&D center adds to Sprinklr’s two other existing R&D centers, which are located in the United States and India. The new R&D center will start recruiting and investing in engineers, sales, customer success, and recruiting support across APAC.

Ang Chin Tah, vice president and head of Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), commented that Sprinklr’s expansion during these challenging times demonstrates the company’s confidence in Singapore as a strong business hub, with world-class R&D and engineering talent. 

“We welcome the addition of the R&D center to our tech ecosystem and look forward to the exciting job opportunities it will create for Singapore and Singaporeans,” added Ang Chin Tah.

Meanwhile, Pavitar Singh, chief technology officer of Sprinklr, said, “At Sprinklr, we are working to define the future of customer experience management every day. We’re thrilled to open an R&D center in a ‘forward-thinking’ city, accelerating our ability to develop visionary technologies that help brands create human experiences at scale.”

Florian Zenner, senior vice president of Sprinklr APAC and Japan, also said, “Singapore is a global hub for innovation, with world-class talent to help Sprinklr meet the growing demand from enterprise customers for advanced CXM. We’re excited about this R&D center to strengthen our relationship with the Asia Pacific and support our continued international expansion.”

APAC – Global beauty brand Mary Kay has appointed Wendy Wang, its former chief commercial officer, to become the new president for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region team.

The appointment will see Wang providing strategic vision and leadership while working on the company’s growth expansion in the APAC region. 

Prior to Wang’s new position, she worked at Mary Kay’s Corporate Legal Department in 2002 as counsel for the APAC region. Shortly thereafter, she began a multi-year assignment in China and upon her return to the global corporate headquarters in 2012, she was promoted to the position of vice president and associate general counsel, where she was responsible for legal work and compliance in all four regions.

Furthermore, in 2019, Wang returned to China for a new assignment and was promoted to the position of chief commercial officer for APAC in 2020, developing and driving the implementation of commercial strategies, and leading the APAC team in support of sales, marketing, business technology, and operations.

Commenting on her appointment, Wang said, “Supporting Mary Kay’s independent sales force is my greatest honor and it always brings me hope, love, and confidence in our future. We are a people business with a mission to enrich women’s lives and a vision to empower the Independent Beauty Consultant. My team and I are committed to delivering the very best business opportunity, building upon the values Mary Kay upholds as cornerstones of our corporate culture and mission,” said Wang

David Holl, chairman and chief executive officer of Mary Kay, said that the company is thrilled as Wang transitions into her new role as President of Mary Kay APAC, saying that she is passionate about the independent sales force and is a proven leader. 

“During her tenure, she has tirelessly built a strong and talented legal team that created a culture of compliance and compassion for China and the entire Asia Pacific Region. We are thrilled to welcome her as a member of the executive committee as we build on our efforts to enrich women’s lives around the globe,” added Holl.

Mary Kay Inc. which is headquartered in Addison, Texas, U.S.A. has been known for manufacturing cutting-edge skincare, color cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and fragrances.

Singapore – The Asia Pacific arm of global communications agency Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) has announced two key changes in their senior leadership lineup; with Polka Yu appointed as deputy to the APAC president, and Joe Peng as chief digital officer at BCW Asia-Pacific.

Both new appointees will report directly to Matt Stafford, President, BCW Asia-Pacific.

Through her new role, Yu will work alongside Stafford in implementing the next phase of BCW’s three-year growth strategy in APAC built around investments in creative technology, research, and content production; and leveraging the agency’s leadership in reputation management, Asia-based multinationals, and the information and communications technology, consumer and healthcare sectors.

Meanwhile, Peng will spearhead the optimization of the region’s core digital innovation backbone, including establishing new digital platforms of excellence around data analytics and artificial intelligence.

Yu’s background is composed of a decade of work for BCW in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou helping multi-national companies with their China campaigns. After relocating to Hong Kong from mainland China in 2014, she shifted her focus to supporting Chinese companies with their going-global strategies. Since 2018, she has led BCW’s regional integrated communications practice that used insights and creative technology to develop compelling campaigns, many of which have won many prominent industry awards.

On the other hand, Peng has a 15-year work background, which has delivered digital media campaigns for clients across industries including aviation, computer, cosmetics, education, entertainment, finance, semiconductor, and manufacturing. Earlier in his career, Peng led digital innovation at Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe.

Speaking about her appointment, Yu stated, “Our efforts to bring together the best industry talent to tell powerful and precise stories that move people on behalf of our clients, deliver impressive business results despite the COVID-19 disruption, and innovate to set new standards for the future of communications have paid off. But there is still much to do, and I am beyond thrilled to be part of the driving force in this next chapter.”

Meanwhile, Peng commented, “BCW innovated in response to the digital transformation needs of clients brought on by COVID-19 at a scale and speed we never thought possible. Looking to the year ahead, our priority is to maintain the quality and grow the range of BCW’s digital services we deliver at a regional level to help our clients gain a competitive advantage.”

For Stafford, the new roles of Yu and Peng will bring more critical success for BCW, as he has seen the achievement both appointees have shown back when they were mid-level consultants.

“Together with their fantastic teams, they have played critical roles in our company’s evolution to a truly integrated and digital innovation agency in this region. This transformation was a key contributor to the strong growth BCW has delivered in Asia-Pacific over the past three years,” Stafford added.

Singapore – The digital disruption during the offset of the global pandemic has made businesses in the Asia Pacific prioritize investment in improving insight and analytics capabilities, a new report from computer software company Adobe shows.

The APAC-centric report shows around 49% of businesses willing to invest in insight and analytic solutions for their business to achieve their top marketing goals this year. In addition, one third (35%) of ANZ leaders believe their organization has strong capabilities in accuracy, actionability, speed, and access of insights, while Asian leaders are far more pessimistic at around 9%.

With that in mind, leaders in ANZ think their interest in investing to analytic support is a focus on personalized customer experience as 33% of respondents agree to this reasoning, while Asian leaders are committed to enabling digital customer acquisition (35%).

Duncan Egan, vice president of DX Marketing, APAC, and Japan at Adobe commented that organizations with better access to insights are more likely to say their customers are positive about their digital experience compared to their peers with lower levels of insight.

“For brands across every sector, 2020 brought a loss of predictability. Organizations of all kinds were driven online at an accelerated rate, creating a wave of new digital customers with increasing expectations. Customers now have the upper hand in the ‘digital relationship’, with more than half of marketing respondents across APAC reporting unusual changes in customer behaviors and journeys in 2020,” Egan said.

He added, “A company with a strong customer experience (CX) strategy is more likely to achieve long-term growth than its competitors, as they are better positioned to adapt to changeable customer behaviors and markets. This report highlights that organizations need to accelerate their insight and action capabilities by moving to more flexible technologies and cloud-based platforms, as well as a unified and real-time view of the customer journey.”

The report also showed that respondents who are confident about their company’s customer experience feel optimistic about their corporate strategy (63% in ANZ vs. 73% in India vs. 56% in Asia) and their own prospects for career growth (61% in ANZ vs. 70% in India vs. 57% in Asia). In addition, organizations across APAC report three significant barriers that are hampering marketing and experience: legacy technology and systems (51% in ANZ, 37% in India and Asia), workflow issues (38% in ANZ, 33% in India, and 48% in Asia), and a lack of digital skills and capabilities (34% in ANZ, 24% in India and 43% in Asia).

Egan explained that the manifested data has been a result of the current shift to remote work, which in turn has a significant and enduring impact on businesses moving forward, requiring new marketing strategies for reaching and keeping customers.

“Companies have never been more interested in being agile and adding new capabilities for seamless digital execution, with one third (34%) saying they’ve been unusually agile and able to make quick decisions,”said Egan. 

“A hybrid approach to technology – comprising cloud and other data management systems – allows organizations to be flexible and collaborative, letting them work better with existing solutions and quickly integrate new ones. The effects of such an approach within these organizations can be seen in the improved capability in key areas of analytics and insights, added Egan

Furthermore, the report also found that transparency is still lacking with only a small number of leaders (13% in ANZ and 12% in Asia) claiming their organization is effective at communicating how data is collected and used. Also, only 10% in ANZ and 13% in Asia believe they are highly effective at communicating the value offered in exchange for customers’ consent when they first encounter the brand.

Lastly, Adobe reported that most organizations are still a long way from authentically displaying digital empathy. Just over a third (37%) of Indian executives have significant insights into customer mindset, followed by 27% in ANZ and 19% in Asia. Drivers of purchase, friction points, and attribution of how marketing actions relate to customer behavior fare only marginally better.

Singapore – Media company Verizon Media has announced the promotion of former director of content Simon Wheeler as the company’s senior director of content, therefore ramping up the company’s remit in Southeast Asia and India following the success of its Australian-based media brands.

Through his new role, Wheeler will be responsible for editorial strategy in English-language regions including Australia, India, and Southeast Asia. Editorial teams in India and across Southeast Asia will now report to Wheeler under the new structure. 

Prior to his new role, Wheeler has led the editorial strategy in Australia, managing teams to deliver quality content, diversify audiences, and achieve substantial growth. 

According to the company, Australian monthly active users across its editorial brands Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Lifestyle, Yahoo News and Yahoo Sport grew by 8% last year, and logged-in users increasing by 7%.

Commenting on his promotion, Wheeler said, “This is a really exciting time for Verizon Media as we band together with international teams to deliver quality content for our audiences across the wider APAC region. 2020 presented difficult and unexpected challenges for all but we overcame and adapted to interact with our audiences in new ways. I’m excited to be taking on this new role and working closer with our regional counterparts.”

Meanwhile, Marie-Hélène Savard, vice president and head of international consumer at Verizon Media, commented, “We’re thrilled to announce Simon’s promotion to this new role. Having proven success in diversifying and growing audiences over the past few years in Australia, we’re excited to see his expertise in play across the wider region. This new structure will better align our editorial strategy across wider APAC and enable our editorial teams to continue to deliver fantastic content and results for our audiences.”