Tag: Asia Pacific

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Marketing Featured APAC

Edelman unveils senior promotions for SEA, APAC markets

Edelman-Senior-Appointments-SEA-APAC
Edelman-Senior-Appointments-SEA-APAC

Singapore – Global communications firm Edelman has announced the promotion of Adrian Warr as CEO of Edelman SEA, and John Kerr as the vice chair for technology at Edelman APAC, effective by 1 October.

Warr was previously the CEO of Edelman Hong Kong and Taiwan, while Kerr was previously the CEO of Edelman Singapore.

Kerr’s appointment comes at a time when technology continues to play a larger role in daily life, and yet, trust in the technology sector continues to decline. As one of Edelman’s most senior client leaders and with unrivaled experience in this sector, Kerr will navigate Edelman’s teams of technology sector practitioners and clients in Asia Pacific through the fast-changing consumer landscape. 

Meanwhile, Warr’s appointment entails him to lead Edelman’s operations across Southeast Asia, and will be focusing on driving local expertise and cross-border collaboration across Southeast Asian markets, in order to deliver broader capabilities for Edelman’s clients. He will continue to lead the firm’s regional Employee Experience offering as well.

Stephen Kehoe, Edelman’s President and CEO for Asia Pacific, says, “As we continue to advance our plans towards our desired future, we are making important changes to our APAC leadership team today, in order to accelerate the growth of our people and our work, while creating a simpler structure that’s designed around the needs of our clients. 

He added, “Both John and Adrian are renowned leaders with proven track records for developing talent and driving business growth.”

Edelman’s latest appointment follows a slew of appointments by the firm across the region, ranging from updating the lineup for Edelman China, as well as updating its creative team for its APAC team.

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Technology Featured APAC

Xandr boosts APAC presence with new MD appointments

Xandr-Managing-Directors-Asia-Pacific
Xandr-Managing-Directors-Asia-Pacific

Singapore – Xandr, the advertising and analytics division of global telco AT&T, is continuously investing in more talents across their Asia-Pacific (APAC) market by the recent appointments of Masatsune Shironishi as managing director for Japan, and Nicole Prior as managing director for Australia and New Zealand.

Shironishi’s appointment takes effect immediately, while Prior’s appointment will take effect by 1 November this year.

In their new roles, Shironishi will be responsible for building on the early successes of the business, localizing go-to-market efforts and ensuring Xandr is well placed to grow in digital video and connected TV. Meanwhile, Prior’s remit will include overseeing the Australian business operations and continuing the momentum that the team has established in building a premium Australian video marketplace.

Prior to their new roles, Shironishi joined from Amobee Japan where he was country manager and brings deep industry experience and expertise across media agencies, TV, digital media and advertising technology. He has also worked at OpenTable, Elsevier and Microsoft in various senior sales and product roles.

Meanwhile, Prior was formerly the chief media partnerships Officer at IPG Mediabrands’ UM and brings extensive agency and broadcaster experience with executive roles held at MediaCom, Finecast, Ikon Communications, Network 10 and Seven Network.

Both new hires will be reporting to Jerome Underhill, head of global regions at Xandr.

“Xandr has experienced strong growth across APAC as advertiser demand grows for premium, brand and privacy safe environments and publishers and broadcasters seek to meet that demand through partnerships with Xandr. These senior leadership appointments are reflective of the broader investments we are making throughout APAC to allow us to best serve our expanding set of customers,” Underhill said.

The company is also continuing to build its APAC leadership team including a general manager to lead Southeast Asia and India. Xandr has already expanded the leadership team, with Tom Dover having relocated from Sydney to Singapore as director, video marketplace development for APAC. Tom will be responsible for accelerating Xandr’s video-first product adoption delivering creative and differentiated solutions to the region’s largest agencies and advertisers.

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Technology Featured APAC

Programmatic solutions provider Bench expands marketing intelligence platform to APAC

BENCH-Media-Programmatic-Offering-APAC
BENCH-Media-Programmatic-Offering-APAC

Singapore – Bench, a programmatic solutions provider, has announced that it is extending the market offering of Bench Connect, its very own marketing intelligence platform, to clients in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, which was designed to address ad ‘murkiness’ and media inefficiencies that have plagued the industry.

Founded by programmatic media veterans Gil Snir, Shai Luft and Ori Gold, Bench Connect is designed to speed up and scale end-to-end digital media planning, team management and analytics in record time. Bench Connect integrates agencies and advertisers’ existing ad platforms into one seamless dashboard, enabling unrivalled transparency, efficiencies and ROI. 

For Gold, their aim is to help today’s busy digital marketers and advertisers save time and reap the rewards of more holistic and scalable ad management.

“You don’t solve the inefficiencies of our industry with analytics alone. We are transforming the way media is managed from siloed workflows to a fully integrated ecosystem, by unlocking a new and exciting breed of marketing intelligence,” Gold stated.

By automating the manual processes that exist within programmatic media workflow, the Bench Connect platform enables data to be mapped from various platforms, visualized and actioned to speed up digital media management at an unprecedented rate. The end-to-end process on Bench Connect – from initiating the brief to launching a marketing campaign – takes about 30 minutes, significantly less than the industry average of 30 days of traditional legacy models of ad campaign management.

“Up to now, any offerings that promise to connect your media and teams in a seamless workflow could take years to implement, and often the project is left unfinished due to lack of team or technical resources. We are very excited about this launch, especially now with marketers under greater pressure than ever before to interpret data and make faster decisions,” Gold explains, adding that most competing solutions are either too slow or simply rely on manual inputs for the system to work.

Unlike competing marketing cloud providers in the market, Bench Connect removes slow set up times and high implementation martech and adtech costs. Gold says these efficiencies will flow directly to brands and agencies’ bottom line and enable them to take control over their media and transparency across the supply chain.

“We expect this number to more than double over the next five years, as the world moves further towards online transactions and realizes the rapid growth of digital spending across APAC. The time is now to say goodbye to legacy models of adtech and martech, and embrace smarter ways of transforming our industry globally,” Gold concludes.

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Marketing Featured APAC

PR agency Asia PR Werkz marks silver year with major brand revamp

Asia-PR-Werkz-Brand-Revamp-PR-Agency
Asia-PR-Werkz-Brand-Revamp-PR-Agency

Singapore – In commemoration of the agency’s celebration of 25 years in operation, Singapore-based public relations agency Asia PR Werkz undergoes a major brand revamp, including transitioning to a new name, APRW, which is an acronym of the agency’s name.

In addition to the shortened new name, APRW has also unveiled a new agency logo, which speaks to the agency’s new phase of growth and reflects its forward-looking communications approach. Said logo, designed by brand consultancy Evye in Singapore, captures the essence of the firm’s progressiveness while preserving a piece of history. 

Boldly inked, the APRW name represents the firm’s adventurous spirit in challenging new frontiers while placing increasing importance on digital and social media in the area of public communications.

Ginny-Ann Oh, director of APRW, who leads the rebranding efforts, shared that the rebranding has been a year-long exercise for them as the team came together to take stock and reflect on their identity and accelerate towards their goal of becoming the agency of choice in the countries they are in, and beyond.

“The new logo retains our signature orange in the form of a speech bubble, symbolizing our aim to spur inspiring and meaningful conversations and nurture the next generation of communications professionals. The orange embodies our long-held bold and vibrant spirit, and youthful energy that we will continue to carry as we venture into new territories,” Oh said.

Part of the symbolism that plays in APRW’s new logo is the way the letters are stylized. Most noticeably, the letter ‘W’ distinctly charges ahead at a dramatic angle, illustrating the continuous forward momentum of the firm in the years to come. The leading letter ‘A’ pays homage to the firm’s heritage and original logo by retaining the Serif font to evoke enduring tradition and trustworthiness established over the years. 

“Overall, the logo symbolizes APRW’s desire to continuously spark conversations and be at the forefront of the communications industry. It symbolizes the firm’s commitment to engage in meaningful and omni-channel conversations in the world we live in,” the agency said in a press statement.

Established in 1996, APRW has built a strong portfolio of clients across diverse areas like government, public affairs, FMCG, education, health, hospitality, travel and tourism. To date, the agency has also set its sight on the regional market, aiming to enter new markets including Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam within the next five years. The firm is also currently in the final stages of a partnership discussion with one of Singapore’s leading universities.

“It is no mean feat for a local, independent agency to have grown to a team of 50 and counting, with the breadth and depth of expertise in communication across many sectors, in just 25 years. We have evolved with the changing times to develop new capabilities and service rising industries to remain at the forefront of the industry,” said Cho Pei Lin, managing director at APRW.

She added, “Despite the challenges that COVID-19 has posed, we continue to expand our professional networks. We are heartened by the support and trust that our clients have placed in us over the years. As we welcome a new era, we are excited to celebrate our 25th anniversary with our employees, clients, media friends and partners alike.”

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Marketing Featured APAC

Online shopping, promotions and convenience: the trinity of the modern APAC shopping experience

Reprise-APAC-Shopping-Consumer-Behavior
Reprise-APAC-Shopping-Consumer-Behavior

Singapore – The shift in shopping behavior among Asia-Pacific (APAC) consumers has been fixed in three factors: preference to online shopping, frequency of promotions, as well as convenience, new research from Reprise shows.

According to their report, regular ‘a few times a month’ online shoppers are now outpacing their offline counterparts by 42% vs 31%. Those who shop online ‘once every few months’ leapfrog offline shoppers by 66%. 

Meanwhile, promotions and sales are the best way to engage SEA markets, as 61% wait to shop online during the big sales days, vs the 39% ‘anytime’ shoppers. 

Lastly, convenience is the e-commerce ‘trump card’, with the reasonings of being ‘time-saving’ and ‘finding best prices’ are perceived as the two biggest advantages by 76% and 65% of online shoppers. 

“We have seen unprecedented growth in e-commerce in the last 12 months. Many markets in APAC have leapfrogged as much as 5 times, already meeting projections for 2025. This e-commerce acceleration is partly led by platforms that have fast-forwarded their interface roadmaps and advanced their technology. This, along with audience targeting via in-platform ads have played a significant role,” said Ritika Gupta, e-commerce director at Reprise APAC.

Despite pandemic restrictions, consumers’ desire to look and feel good weren’t dampened; as the top 3 most shopped categories online in APAC over the last six months were; clothing and apparel (67%), health and beauty (47%), and consumer electronics (40%). 

However, the shipping fee is the biggest ‘turn-off’ for shoppers. The top 3 perceived barriers to online shopping are ‘shipping fee’ (57%), ‘shipping time’ (55%), and the inability to ‘touch and feel’ products before purchasing (48%). Hence, good reviews go a long way, as the top 3 shopper motivators when purchasing online are ‘good reviews’, ‘promotion/sale,’ and ‘good star ratings’ as voted by 60%, 54% and 50% of online shoppers respectively. 

In terms of advertising relation to e-commerce, online ads are the key driver to engage new buyers. 1 in 2 online shoppers look to online ads for discovering new brands and products when purchasing online. In addition, social media is king, as it is now the top point of research for 42% of APAC shoppers.

“As e-commerce continues to blur the lines between international borders, it’s now more imperative than ever for brands to tailor their marketing strategy to the locality of the region and markets that it serves. It is time to re-think e-commerce as a one-stop-shop, an e-business and a data haven. And perhaps time to re-evaluate the function and value of brick and mortar retail as an experiential step in the e-commerce path to purchase,” the report stated.

The e-commerce economy in Southeast Asia: growth and challenges

Starting off with Indonesia, with being a promising e-commerce market in APAC with a very cluttered landscape encompassing several local and global players; marketplaces are the main online shopping destination for Indonesians. 73% of online shoppers prefer marketplaces to brands’ websites for making online purchases. Despite having tremendous competition, certain marketplaces have stood out as the preferred shopping destinations for Indonesians. Currently, the international marketplace, Shopee, shows the most success in terms of product discovery as 86% of online shoppers engage with a new brand on that platform, followed by 71% on Tokopedia.

Meanwhile, shoppers in Thailand began spending more time on social media platforms, making the country the only market in SEA where 62% of online shoppers prefer to research brands and products on social media. Millennials seek the convenience of returns when shopping online. However, across generations it is the cheaper prices found online that drive shoppers in Thailand to participate in e-commerce.

In Malaysia, product information is emphasized by 46% of online shoppers for making a purchase decision. Optimizing product content on marketplaces has become critical for brands to stand out in the cluttered environment. In addition, Every 1 in 2 Malaysians do their product research online using social media platforms and almost 40% of the online shoppers also refer to online search portals for the same. Shopee deems to be a clear winner in terms of marketplace platform of choice, 92% of online shoppers have used Shopee to discover new brands in last 12 months.

Coming to the Singaporean market, Singaporeans not only shop locally but are avid international shoppers, making convenience the primary purchase trigger for 73% of online shoppers. They are also very price-oriented with 63% of Singaporean shoppers choosing to buy online to access better promotions and discounts. 

The report notes as well that one peculiarity among Singapore shoppers is that 52% access brand websites to gather more information before making a purchase decision. This is almost 50% higher than other markets in SEA. With new restrictions coming in every few weeks, it is understandable that the best performing categories are groceries, restaurant and food delivery services in addition to work from home-focused products including monitors, webcams, and even home office furniture.

In terms of the Vietnamese market, 41% of shoppers in Vietnam shop online a few times a week, compared to 36% who buy online a few times a month. Vietnamese online shoppers spend a large amount of time on the internet, when it comes to researching about new brands or products, 65% shoppers rely on social media and 45% refer to brand websites.

Lastly, the Philippines is one market that has not kept up with the e-commerce growth momentum compared to neighboring countries in SEA. Poor internet connectivity, largely unbanked population and its unique geography all lead to a slower e-commerce growth. Filipinos are less brand loyal and highly price sensitive. Two out of three Philippine shoppers will try new brands they find online, and 57% online shoppers also wait for products to go on promotion or discount before hitting the payment button. 

“The growth we’ve seen from e-commerce in the last 12 months is not unexpected, the impact of COVID has merely accelerated an already apparent trend. This acceleration provides a strong opportunity for brands to engage with consumers in a different way – consumers have proven that they are more open to engage with new brands and products in an e-commerce environment, and brands who recognize this and adjust their digital strategy accordingly – will reap the rewards,” said Pippa Berlocher, president at Reprise APAC.

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SME Featured APAC

Huawei to invest US$100m to the APAC startup system for 3 years

Huawei-Cloud-Spark-Founders-Summit-Startup-APAC
Huawei-Cloud-Spark-Founders-Summit-Startup-APAC

Hong Kong – Global technology company Huawei has announced that it is pledging to invest around US$100m for the benefit of the startup ecosystem in Asia-Pacific for three years, publicized during its recently-concluded HUAWEI CLOUD Spark Founders Summit held simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The company said that the investment would go towards its Spark Program in the Asia Pacific region, which aims to build a sustainable startup ecosystem for the region over the next three years.

Such endeavor reflects the company’s continuous efforts in helping Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand build their respective local startup hubs. 

At the summit, Huawei also announced that this program would focus its efforts on developing four additional startup hubs – in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam – with the overarching aim of recruiting a total of 1,000 startups into the Spark accelerator program and shaping 100 of them into scaleups.

Furthermore, Huawei also launched its Cloud-plus-Cloud Collaboration and Joint Innovation Program, to further ramp up its support for startups around the world. Huawei will devote ongoing efforts and leverage its complete business portfolio in the cloud-plus-cloud collaboration space to foster technological innovation, global and local services, and business ecosystems, accelerating the growth of startups.

Catherine Chen, senior vice president and board member at Huawei, opened up the summit by emphasizing how important startups are to social advancement and what Huawei is doing to support startups.

“Startups and SMEs are the innovators, disruptors, and pioneers of our times. 34 years ago, Huawei was a startup with just 5,000 dollars of registered capital. Recently, we have been thinking: How can we leverage our experience and resources to help more startups address their challenges? Doing so would allow them to seize the opportunities posed by digital transformation, achieve business success, and develop more innovative products and solutions for the world,” Chen stated.

Three more additional initiatives under the Asia Pacific Spark Program were launched by Huawei at the event: The Spark Developer Program, which aims to nurture a developer ecosystem powered by HUAWEI CLOUD in the Asia Pacific region; the Spark Pitstop Program, designed to onboard and support startups on HUAWEI CLOUD to accelerate product development; and the Spark Innovation Program (SIP), focused on facilitating enterprise innovation through the Spark startup ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Zhang Ping’an, CEO of Huawei’s Cloud Business Unit, commented that since its launch in 2017, HUAWEI CLOUD has been the world’s fastest-growing cloud, and has driven the growth of countless startups. He also added that as they launched the Spark Program in Asia Pacific last year, they have been working with local governments, leading incubators, well-known VC firms, and top universities to build support platforms for startups in many regions, which has seen 40 startups participating in the program.

“Starting today, we are stepping up our support for startups through four new initiatives, aimed at cloud-plus-cloud collaboration, continuous tech innovation, global and local services, and high-quality business ecosystems. Today, we launched our Cloud-plus-Cloud Collaboration and Joint Innovation Program, through which we will support startups with US$40m worth of resources. Half of that investment is coming from HUAWEI CLOUD, half from Huawei Mobile Services (HMS),” Zhang stated.

He added, “In 2021, our plan is to support 200 startups in the HMS ecosystem, and share our network of channel resources with developers worldwide who together serve 1 billion Huawei device users. In addition, we will open an HMS Developer Innovation Center to support 100,000 HMS cloud-native developers.”

Stipulated as well in the event was Huawei’s showcase of the latest data on its innovation research programs with startups. The data shows solid relationships between Huawei and more than 2,000 partners from across the Asia Pacific region, with ongoing initiatives to build support platforms in close partnerships with governments, top VC firms, and leading universities in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Huawei rounded off the series of announcements with a plan to build an HMS Developer Innovation Center. Through this center, Huawei aims to cultivate future talent in cooperation with 210 leading universities across the Asia Pacific region.

“For the past two decades, we have remained committed to being ‘In Asia Pacific, For Asia Pacific’. Leveraging Huawei’s global customer base and full-stack technologies, the Spark Program will invest more than US$100m over the next three years, and provide comprehensive support to the establishment of a sustainable startup ecosystem that creates new value for this dynamic region,” Jeffery Liu, president for Asia-Pacific Region at Huawei stated.

The summit was attended by representatives from many prominent Asian startups, academia, various industries and governments, and the media, as well as more than 50 regional top venture capitalists and over 300 startup founders. Speeches and panels at the event focused on the social value of this startup ecosystem and how startups can promote technological and ecosystem innovation, contribute to local communities and drive socioeconomic development.

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Technology Featured APAC

Magnite announces new leadership roster in APAC

Magnite-APAC-New-Leadership-Members
Magnite-APAC-New-Leadership-Members

Singapore – Following the company’s recent acquisition of global video advertising platform SpotX, sell-side advertising platform Magnite has announced a new roster of leaders for its Asia-Pacific team.

They include Gavin Buxton, who has been appointed managing director for Asia at Magnite Asia, and Yogesh Sehgal, who will assume the role of head of partner development at Magnite APAC.

Buxton will oversee the Magnite Asia team from Singapore, growing existing business and opportunities in emerging markets. Previously, he was the managing director for Asia at SpotX where he oversaw the business’ operations in Asia and Japan. He has over 20 years of global experience in digital advertising, having worked in leadership roles at technology, broadcasting and publishing companies, including Microsoft, Turner Broadcasting and LinkedIn, with the last ten years based in Asia building businesses. 

As a leading participant within industry trade associations including the IAB SEA and India and the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), Buxton also plays an active role in the growth and development of the advertising ecosystem across the region.

“I’m delighted to be leading our new Magnite team as we work to integrate our teams and technology. We’ll be focused on helping our clients grow their businesses across OTT and all other formats including video, display, and audio and connecting brands to reach audiences in premium, brand-safe environments,” Buxton said regarding his appointment.

Meanwhile, Sehgal will focus on developing opportunities in the region across identity, data, measurement, and other relevant areas to respond to local market needs. He will also work closely with Magnite’s account and product teams, ensuring the unique requirements of local publishers and media buyers are fulfilled – with an additional focus on new and emerging markets. 

Previously, Yogesh was the regional manager for Asia at Magnite and publisher lead for APAC at Rubicon Project. He brings 15 years of experience in the industry including working with Times Internet and Thomson Press.

Meanwhile, Juliette Stead will continue to lead Magnite across Asia Pacific and Japan in her role of senior vice president, head of JAPAC.

“With Gavin at the helm of Magnite’s business in Asia, the company is well-positioned to support media owners and media buyers in this market as they seek a scaled, independent alternative to the giants that often dominate the media landscape. Although OTT and online video are now as important to Magnite as ever, we are committed to the company’s roots as an omnichannel SSP: a tech partner that makes it easier for sellers to create a great ad experience for audiences, monetize all ad formats, and for buyers to reach engaged audiences all over the world,” Stead commented.

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Marketing Featured APAC

Banking platform Backbase appoints new APAC VP for market expansion

Backbase-Iman-Ghodosi-Regional-Vice-President-APAC
Backbase-Iman-Ghodosi-Regional-Vice-President-APAC

Sydney, Australia – Backbase, a banking platform based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has recently appointed Iman Ghodosi as the new regional vice president for Asia-Pacific, where one of his main responsibilities in the new role is to drive the company’s international expansion, product development, and APAC market growth.

Part of that market growth expansion is centered around small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as in the retail, corporate and wealth management banking sectors.

Ghodosi was previously the vice president and general manager for APAC at enterprise software company Zuora. He has also worked at organizations SAP, Oracle, and Netsuite. He holds an MBA from the University of Newcastle in Australia and a Master of e-business from the University of Southern Queensland.

Speaking about his appointment, he said that he is thrilled to join the company, which enables the disruptors of the banking industry and incumbents alike, as well as offering an end-to-end omni-channel banking platform from the ground up using open standards to support the digital transformation journey of any sized bank.

“With over 120 strong team members in the region, we will continue to ramp up investments in the next several months, hiring for key roles in ASEAN, ANZ, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and India,” Ghodosi said.

He added, “In a platform era of Grab, Netflix and Spotify, people today want the same self-service experience with access to their personal financials, anytime, anywhere. Such consumer habits, compounded by the pandemic have disrupted the financial services industry and nowhere in the world do we see it more than in Asia Pacific. Backbase is primed to address this real need, helping banks to adopt and build modern, cloud-native digital banking platforms to keep pace with changing consumer demands, gain a 360-degree view into banking behaviours, and grow market share.”

Meanwhile, Jouk Pleiter, CEO and founder at Backbase, said, “As we continue to make inroads into the global financial services sector, I’m pleased to welcome Iman to our leadership team and look forward to his team capitalizing on the growth opportunities, while supporting banks in orchestrating seamless banking experiences for their customers and employees.”

Backbase has a team of almost 1,500 people spread across 22 countries and 15 offices, including offices in Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

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Technology Featured APAC

Criteo’s Retail Media APAC expansion marked with new MD appointment

Criteo-Retail-Media-Managing-Director-APAC
Criteo-Retail-Media-Managing-Director-APAC

Singapore – Global adtech Criteo has announced the expansion of its Retail Media offering across 6 markets in Asia-Pacific, which since its regional launch in Japan at the end of 2019, is now available in the markets of Korea, Australia, South-East Asia, Taiwan and India.

To mark this expansion, Criteo has also appointed Taro Fujinaka as the managing director for retail media for APAC at Criteo. In this role, Taro will work to drive the regional retail media ecosystem and deliver value to Criteo’s customers and partners as they continue to utilize Retail Media.

Said service enables retailers and marketplaces to generate new revenue from their brand partners. Brands can also reach shoppers at the digital point of sale and have complete visibility into the impact of media spend on product sales. This has proven instrumental in providing an optimal user experience, with shoppers able to receive relevant ads on the retailers’ own websites, while they shop conveniently online.

Taro brings with him over 16 years of experience in digital advertising, and adtech, including roles at Yahoo Japan and IPG Mediabrands Audience Platform where he was involved prior to joining Criteo. Most recently, Taro was managing director at Integral Ad Science where he spearheaded the direction of the company in Japan and Korea for over five years. Throughout his career, Taro has played a fundamental role in energizing the digital advertising industry in Japan and building high-performing teams to achieve market influence for brands.

Speaking about his appointment, Taro has shared his excitement about leading the retail media business in its next phase of growth, and expanding Criteo’s regional portfolio of customers for the technology. Since joining the team in March, Taro has worked with the team to drive awareness and adoption across the region and supercharge retailers’ efforts to leverage high-value media assets and first-party data on behalf of leading brands.

“As brands prepare for the post-cookie world, Retail Media will play a pivotal role in empowering brands who seek new addressable media opportunities in the evolving identity landscape. Combining a highly differentiated ad inventory with unique first-party data, we are confident that its availability and the strengthened capacity of our regional team will help with driving the industry forward in the years to come,” Taro stated.

Meanwhile, speaking about the service expansion in APAC, Geoffroy Martin, EVP and general manager for growth portfolio at Criteo, commented, “We were quick to expand our Retail Media offerings here in Asia, a key growth market for Criteo. In Q1 this year, our retail media business grew 122% year-over-year, and we are excited to see increasing demand for our technology, especially here in Asia. A key component of our commerce media strategy, Retail Media is also an addressable market expected to grow quickly.”

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Main Feature Platforms APAC

MARKETECH APAC extends content offering with podcast launch

Manila, Philippines – In its continuing quest of providing holistic and integrated content offering, MARKETECH APAC, the dedicated news platform for the marketing and advertising scene in Asia Pacific, has launched its podcast series, adding to its existing content offering of article and video content.

The ‘MARKETECH APAC Podcast’ converts all 13 existing video interviews by MARKETECH APAC into a podcast format to further boost the great content shared by different marketing leaders across the Asia Pacific region.

These include titles such as ‘MARKETECH Mondays’, which brings in marketing leaders to share their career journey to inspire the new generation of marketers, ‘MARKETECH Expert Up Close’ which focuses on the industry experts discussing their journey on leadership and industry growth, their insights and marketing strategies, and ‘MARKETECH Spotlight’ that focuses on the brand or technology and deep dive the conversation on the organization’s journey, milestones, impact on the industry, and what’s next for them.

Speaking about the podcast launch, Shaina Teope, regional editor at MARKETECH APAC, stated, “Podcasts are now a go-to channel for the digital audience, and therefore for brands to be able to reach them. We have been releasing a roster of interviews and conversations since the publication started, and it’s only a natural step for us to eventually venture into this medium to deliver a truly integrated media platform. We’re excited for more people to unlock insightful and novel content catered to the industry.”

Meanwhile, Joven Barceñas, publisher at MARKETECH APAC, commented, “We are very excited to launch our podcast platforms. Aside from providing options for our audience, this also provides our content partners multiple touchpoints to engage our growing audience in the Asia Pacific.”

He also added, “With our podcast launch, we also would like to thank our interns, John Raven Aviso and Lorrenz John Rodriguez of Cavite State University who helped us a lot in launching our podcast channels. We are very privileged to have them on our team.”

The ‘MARKETECH APAC Podcast’ is available on 6 platforms, namely Anchor, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcast, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic.