Singapore – With the Lunar New Year festivities and Valentine’s Day occurring within the same month, Tinder has decided to launch a Lunar New Year pop-astro guide for singles on how each Chinese Zodiac sign matches and chats on the dating app.
Made possible in collaboration with Singapore based second-generation Feng Shui astrologer Clement Lim from Kang Li Feng Shui, Tinder’s guide shares tips and insights for singles to enhance their dating luck during the peak season.
The guide mainly suggests points wherein certain zodiac signs are highly likely to have a specific trait or approach to using Tinder. For instance, the guide claims that the Rooster, Dog, and Pig sign are the most active signs on Tinder.
Furthermore, the guide also goes into detail about more dating app behaviours such as which signs like to play it cool, which signs have popular profiles, which signs are looking for long-term relationships, what signs are figuring it out, and what signs are most likely to match.
Talking about the guide, Lim said, “In the Year of the Dragon, young adult singles can expect their dating journeys to be as spirited as a dragon’s flight. daters should embrace opportunities to connect meaningfully as this year promises compatible matches to those who share common passions as the Dragon’s energetic aura fans the flames of romance.”
“As young adult singles explore the possibilities of romance and relationships, their friends and family can also act as a compass and cheerleaders. With their combined wisdom and insights, hopeful singletons will feel supported whilst navigating their dating journeys,” he added.
Tag: APAC
Singapore – The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) has announced the appointment of Phil Hardman as the new board chairman and Emily Yri and Shonali Bedi as the new board directors.
Hardman serves as the senior vice president and general manager of BBC Studios Asia. He will take over from Clément Schwebig, president of Western Europe and Africa at Warner Bros. Discovery, who will be stepping down from the role.
Meanwhile, Yri and Bedi will join AVIA as its two new board directors. Yri is the vice president of international marketing at Pubmatic, and Bedi is currently the head of strategy for partnerships and insights in APAC at Warner Bros. Discovery.
With the two new additions to the board, AVIA now has four female board directors, or one-third of the board.
Louis Boswell, CEO of AVIA, commented, “The board of AVIA and I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Clément Schwebig, who chaired the board for the last three years, taking over in the middle of a pandemic and helping steer the association to safety through those difficult times. He was a strong and vocal advocate for the industry.”
“The board and I are now looking forward to working with the new chairman, Phil Hardman, to help guide AVIA through what are clearly challenging times. Phil also has energy and passion for the industry, and I am sure he will make a significant contribution to developing the next chapter in the AVIA story,” he added.
Speaking on his appointment, Hardman added, “AVIA stands at the intersection of the diverse challenges and opportunities in the media industry across Asia, bringing much-needed insight, thought leadership, and regulatory and anti-piracy initiatives that benefit its members. BBC Studios has been a long-term Patron Member of the association, and I am honoured to become chairman of AVIA at such an exciting and innovativetime. I look forward to working closely with our board members and the AVIA leadership to help AVIA guide the industry through a time of such transformational change.”
APAC – Aleph, an ecosystem of global digital experts and technology-driven solutions that enable the development of digital marketing, is expanding its partnership with Reddit to support the growth of advertisers and agencies in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Through the expanded partnership, Aleph will be in charge of developing and growing markets for platforms in the digital advertising space. With dedicated sales and support teams who are actively working in many areas, Aleph enables big platforms to expand into new markets and establish connections with regional advertisers.
The move into the Asia-Pacific (APAC) comes a little over a year after Aleph’s original partnership with Reddit. This focus on the APAC strengthens Aleph and Reddit’s partnership and supports Reddit’s growing global sales staff.
The partnership includes an Australian team and uses the platform to connect local advertisers in 13 European countries and seven Central Asian countries.
Speaking about the partnership, Harold Klaje, Reddit chief revenue officer, said, “As Reddit continues to scale internationally, it’s imperative we have the right teams on-the-ground in countries all over the world, who can connect local advertisers with our local audience and drive long term business success. Our Aleph partners are extensions of our Reddit Sales team and our work together strengthens our global footprint, allowing us to reach a more diverse set of advertisers across key regions like Europe, the Middle East and now APAC.”
Meanwhile, Sunny Nagpal, Aleph APAC managing director, expressed, “We are delighted to further expand our partnership with Reddit. Our reputation in the market has enabled the growth of such partnerships and for that, we are grateful. Expanding our work with Reddit into APAC will see our local teams bring decades of experience to drive opportunities for local advertisers and brands across all industries, connecting them with Reddit users in their local market and beyond.”
Singapore – Self-serve programmatic advertising platform StackAdapt has recently announced the appointment of Liam McCarten as VP of sales, APAC.
In his new role, McCarten will be leading operations in the region as it embarks on its next phase of growth, and will have the remit to manage APAC with an initial focus on Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Japan.
McCarten joins StackAdapt with the experience of having worked at Meta for the past nine years, holding sales leadership roles in New York, London and Singapore. Previously he held the role of director for Global Business Group APAC, leading the health, beauty, luxury and technology verticals, where he supported the largest brands and agencies across the region.
Speaking on his appointment, McCarten said that he joined StackAdapt due to the company’s strong growth prospects, innovative technology, and commitment to client and agency centricity.
“StackAdapt has strong momentum and is on track to be a valuable marketing technology partner in the digital media buying market across APAC. We have industry-leading machine learning and AI capabilities, a patented contextual solution, first-party data integration capabilities, and multi-channel marketing offerings, enabling our clients to thrive,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vitaly Pecherskiy, CEO and co-founder of StackAdapt, commented, “As a growing global technology company, we see tremendous opportunity in the APAC market and are excited to welcome Liam to the team to help us scale in the region. The diverse nature of the APAC market calls for a tailored, precise approach to create value, and we are excited to power marketers throughout the region with the performance-driven capabilities of our product.”
Singapore – Nearly half, or 42%, of marketers in the Asia-Pacific region still use AI for content creation while 39% use it for brainstorming, the data from Omnicom Media Group (OMG) showed.
The report from OMG revealed that the AI boom is far from over, with 90% of online information predicted to be AI-generated content by 2026.
While ChatGPT recorded a 10% dip in its users in June 2023, enterprise AI is still thriving and is expected to remain relevant in 2024. This prediction is backed by a 48% increase in AI funding in 2023 and the continuous efforts of tech giants Google and Microsoft to develop and deploy their own generative AI capabilities in 2024.
Moreover, the report showed a rise in the use of visual search in APAC. The function is particularly popular with Chinese consumers, where 84% of the online population in the market now uses visual search at least once a month.
Among the applications leading the charge in visual search are WeChat, AliPay, Baidu, and Tmall. With the function offering a more seamless experience for shoppers in the ‘phygital’ world, visual search is expected to continue its hold in the region in the coming years.
OMG’s report also revealed interesting trends relevant for marketers and advertisers in terms of reaching their audience.
The report showed that connected TV (CTV) still has potential in APAC, as 2023 statistics from GWI recorded CTV and smart stick ownership growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 6.5% in the third quarter of the year.
More than half, or 57%, of APAC marketers also shifted at least 40% of their ad budgets to CTV. With the ability to provide consumers with the opportunity to curate their viewing experience, CTV offers a 13% increase in attention index among its viewers and a six-times increase in conversion from streaming ads compared to those on TV.
CTV is also being viewed as a way to further shape the future of areas such as shoppable media and the way ads are bought and served on the platforms, making it a valuable platform to consider for marketers moving forward.
Aside from CTV, another trend brands should look into is the growing interest of consumers in podcasts in APAC. The report revealed that 70% of APAC consumers report a higher level of attentiveness while listening to podcasts.
In fact, 26% of podcast listeners in the region prefer ads in podcasts that feel organic, and 71% of consumers actually take action after listening to ads on a podcast. It is crucial, however, that brands understand the podcast space and its listeners to avoid the feeling of intrusiveness that can disrupt relationships between consumers and podcasters, and ultimately the opportunity.
However, while technology and innovation continue to show relevant growth in APAC, 2024 is also set to crack down on big tech companies. This prediction is anchored on the new legislation being enacted across the region as a way to control emerging technologies.
The new legislation being introduced by countries across APAC aims to encourage healthy competition, ethical use of consumer data, and enforce transparency. Consumers in the region are also rallying behind these laws, with 60% backing government regulation of social media within their country. This record is more than 49% of the global average.
This crackdown has already reached companies like Meta, which has now launched paid, ad-free versions of its platforms by 2024 to comply with data protection regulations. Companies looking into entering APAC are advised to be wary of these country regulations to avoid lawsuits.
Another interesting trend, however, that marketers should consider and that the report further highlights is the growing cynicism among consumers when it comes to ads, which leads to de-influencing.
Deinfluencing, as the report describes, is where influencers look behind the veil of advertising to examine if a brand, product, or service truly lives up to what it promises or if consumers are better off using alternatives.
This trend pushes consumers to demand authenticity and transparency from companies and brands. Therefore, brands and companies should ensure that their brands and the influencers they employ are consistent with their principles and that they have a meaningful purpose.
It is important to note that OMG’s report emphasised how all eyes are now directed towards APAC as a region for innovation and new stories. Even global brands that used to be the inspiration and standard are now looking into APAC to localise their strategies.
The presence of technology allowed the population in the region to access and share their cultural diversity on a global scale. The modern twist to their rich heritage reflects the trends that emerge in the region, which consumers continue to support.
Nina Fedorczuk, chief enablement officer at OMG APAC, said, “Many of us have spent the last few years trying to minimise risk and loss. But we are now living in the New Normal, and with it come new opportunities for growth, new technologies, and new ways of living. We are seeing this across the entire landscape: brands, agencies, innovators, tech firms, and especially consumers. Our OMG 2024 APAC Trends Report covers a diverse group of trends, but at the heart of it lies the idea that we should not always play safe.”
Singapore – Annalect, Omnicom Media Group’s data and analytics department, collaborated with Meta to implement their advanced analytics (AA) technology. This privacy-focused solution will provide Omnicom Media Group clients with next-generation measuring tools, enabling future-proof insights and maximising campaign efficacy.
Advertisers are empowered by Meta’s Advanced Analytics (AA) to discover significant synergies. With the help of AA, advertisers’ first-party data and Meta’s own ad insights can be integrated, giving analysts a level of flexibility. By combining the data, insights are produced that allow advertising strategies to be adjusted for results.
Fully integrated attribution models are given through Omni, Omnicom’s end-to-end marketing operating system used by all its agencies. This improves the marketing process by providing connectivity from measurement to planning and action.
Activation teams can optimise campaigns using real-time external data because of the actionable insights obtained from these models. Scalability is made by secure server-to-server connectivity. With the help of Annalect’s clean room technology, which directly benefits their clientele.
Speaking about the partnership, Paul Shepherd, president of Annalect, Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific, said, “By enabling next-level visibility in a privacy-safe manner, this collaboration allows our clients to connect data more effectively. It gives them — and our agencies — a significant edge over their competitors in today’s future facing environment.”
Meanwhile, Carl McLean, head of marketing Science, Meta ANZ, stated, “It’s great to see measurement capabilities that create value for advertisers, whilst also being built with privacy at the forefront. This offering will unlock new ways for the OMG network to understand the levers that truly drive performance and demonstrate where Meta can help to drive growth that lasts for our clients and partners.”
Singapore – In today’s competitive business landscape, brands are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) as a potent instrument to elevate customer engagement. The transformative impact of AI technology has reshaped the dynamics of customer-company interactions, delivering personalised and streamlined experiences that significantly contribute to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Given the prevalence of AI in the industry, how can brands and marketers ensure that AI technologies actively promote and enhance meaningful customer interactions?
To explore the impactful role of cutting-edge technology in reshaping strategies for engaging customers, MARKETECH APAC returns with an exclusive webinar this January 24. Titled “What’s NEXT 2024: Customer Engagement in Asia”, the webinar aims to impart valuable insights to marketers to utilise technology to enrich customer interactions, interpret evolving trends and consumer behaviours, and create personalised experiences that deeply resonate with their consumer base.
The webinar will host a panel discussion, featuring some of Asia’s leading industry leaders to impart their thoughts on how brands should take the next step in implementing AI-powered customer engagement strategies for the future. The panel is composed of:
- Jia Ling Lim, assistant head of marketing and partnerships at BeLive Technology
- Rolly Pane, managing director, Indonesia at Clozette
- Saniya Dhingra Agarwal, head of customer experience at foodpanda Singapore
- Chris Martin Alarcon, head of content and community management at Home Credit Philippines.
The group will also be sharing their insights on how AI can be leveraged for following customer behaviour and personalisation as well as how to overcome obstacles in the process of utilising AI for customer engagement.
Moreover, the webinar will also feature a keynote presentation by Ranya Arora, senior strategic business consultant at Braze, where she will discuss how the use of AI technology could lead brands towards meaningful customer interactions.
“In any evolving industry, we are seeing that innovation and success are composed by the harmonious collaboration of human insight and AI innovation. This webinar is a timely event focused on insights of customer engagement with the enhancement of AI, to assist in forging meaningful interactions. Don’t miss this exciting webinar, and hear from expert leaders of top brands in the industry,” said Katherine Sy, regional head of content at MARKETECH APAC.
What’s NEXT 2024: Customer Engagement in Asia is made in partnership with customer engagement platform Braze. Catch this webinar on January 24, 11 AM (SGT) by registering HERE. See you there!
Singapore – Omnicom Media Group’s data and analytics subsidiary, Annalect, has teamed with InfoSum, a worldwide data collaboration platform, to build a neutral clean room solution suited for clients in the Asia Pacific area.
The project tackles issues related to dispersed data sources by emphasising data collaboration that is efficient, sustainable, and privacy-conscious. It seeks to get a thorough understanding of companies’ customers and break down data silos.
Annalect in Australia spearheaded the initiative, and in partnership with InfoSum, formed cooperative alliances with the Australian reward program FlyBuys and data provider Experian. This collaboration sought to develop a complete and practical understanding of customers. Audience profiling is critical in this endeavour because it allows marketers to migrate from asserted data profiles to true customer data.
The incorporation of InfoSum functionalities into Omni, Omnicom Media Group’s industry marketing orchestration operating system, permits the secure use of data across the whole marketing workflow, from planning to activation and optimization.
It is expected that privacy-focused measures, such as the elimination of third-party cookies, will have a major impact on data-driven marketing. This innovative industry step aims to improve measurement accuracy and ensure access to consumer information and segment profiling capabilities to prepare itself for the future.
By combining dispersed insights creation with data privacy and data utility, it goes beyond the conventional use of clean rooms. Instead of moving or replicating the data, this entails relying on mobile code and sharing the algorithm that extracts insights.
The InfoSum platform acts as a neutral clean room and creates a statistical duplicate of the given location, behavioural, and purchase data. By ensuring that no vendor data is copied or imported onto InfoSum’s platform, this procedure protects customer privacy and lowers operational risks. All parties involved can work together while still having control over their data.
By maximising match rates across many data sources, InfoSum, among other things, creates lookalike audiences and finds new prospects for offline advertising purchases based on location-based insights.
In Australia, proof of concepts were conducted in a variety of industries, including FMCG, alcohol, telco, and automotive. The concept will be expanded to additional markets in Asia Pacific.
Through the use of these addressable audience segments, Omnicom Media Group clients may improve their communication strategies and applications like data partnerships, channel selection, and adaptive creative messaging.
Speaking about the partnership, Paul Shepherd, president of Annalect, Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific, said, “This is an important move to ensure data privacy and optimise data utility through the innovative concept of distributed insights generation. This approach offers deeper and meaningful insights into existing and prospective customers from diverse data sources, allowing a holistic understanding of consumer behaviour while safeguarding individual privacy.”
Meanwhile, Richard Knott, InfoSum GM, ANZ, expressed, “We’re excited to see the innovative and compelling use of our technology by Annalect to enrich their clients’ marketing strategies. InfoSum enables organisations to safely scale and leverage their consumer data through privacy-first, multi-party data collaboration. Pioneering organisations like Annalect are leading the industry in this transition, harnessing that concept and turning it into real-world, actionable benefits.”
Singapore – In-game mobile advertisements are leading gamers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) area to stop gaming, according to a new research by Omnicom Media Group (OMG) APAC. The poll included 12,204 people who were asked to rate their attitudes toward advertisements while playing mobile games.
Most of the participants report that commercials often cause them to stop playing games. Respondent preferences include wanting in-game advertisements to rotate within a gaming environment or to be seasonal. Some claim that these advertisements don’t inspire people to make in-person purchases, while others say they remember a brand for future transactions.
It is worth noting that engaging in-game encounters are crucial for drawing in players, and by bringing these encounters outside of the virtual world, businesses can make a bigger impression. When playing games, APAC players indicate a desire for material rewards from the real world, especially when it comes to mobile game advertisements.
Moreover, brands can create their own games, host gaming events, and offer in-game and real-world incentives linked to in-game successes as ways to entice and please mobile gamers. Aware of the potentially large expenses associated with developing original content, companies may decide to take advantage of the released titles like Fortnite and look into ways to create new worlds or distinctive experiences within those well-known gaming environments.
Furthermore, value is a major motivator for over half (47%) of APAC gamers, who want to get the most out of their gaming experiences at the lowest possible cost. This group is more likely to make in-game purchases or microtransactions during sales events (47%) or when they need power-ups (37%). Furthermore, a sizable portion confines their purchasing to limited-edition releases (30%) or sees such purchases as gifts for particular occasions (32%).
Speaking about the research, Nina Fedorczuk, OMG APAC’s chief enablement officer, said, “The gaming universe is an incredibly exciting one and there are numerous opportunities for brands and marketers. We need to understand the different nuances within the gaming ecosystem, including the types of moments gamers experience. For example, they can connect with friends via gaming over the weekends and be fully immersed in the experience but also play a quick puzzle game during a weekday commute.”
She added, “It is no longer enough to treat gamers as a niche audience because almost everyone is a gamer. Brands need to find the sweet spots for this audience, and think hard about how they can add value to the gaming experience, instead of blatantly interrupting it.”
Hong Kong – TUMI, an international travel, lifestyle, and accessories brand, announced the opening of its first flagship shop in the Asia-Pacific area. The recently created store draws influence from the brand’s classic 19 Degree collection and stands as the pioneer of its sort on a global scale. It is located in Omotesando, a prominent luxury fashion hotspot in Tokyo, Japan.
TUMI hosted an exclusive VIP preview event on December 20 to celebrate this accomplishment. Victor Sanz, TUMI’s creative director, Takumi Kitamura, a Japanese actor and singer, as well as TUMI executives, business partners, VIPs, and media and influencers from different regions, attended the occasion.
The ground floor flagship store is more than 2,000 square feet in size and features a design with over 250 aluminium fins and hundreds of LED lights illuminating the distinct curves of the 19 Degree range. Inside, a 19 Degree Aluminum sculpture by Michael Murphy creates the illusion that it is changing into the TUMI “T” logo as people wander around it. It is a perceptual artwork.
Speaking about the launch, Victor Sanz, creative director of TUMI, said, “We are thrilled to unveil TUMI’s newly designed store in Omotesando. Not only is it our first flagship store in Asia-Pacific, but it’s also one of our most ground-breaking store concepts globally. We’ve taken the superior quality, design excellence and technical innovation that defines TUMI and created a completely unique design that is inspired by our 19 Degree collection. From the sculptural 3D facade to the upgraded materials, each carefully planned detail and element speaks to TUMI’s brand DNA,”