Tag: Asia Pacific

Singapore – The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) has appointed media veteran Gregory Ho as its senior advisor. Ho was most recently the vice president of corporate communications and marketing for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).

In his new role, Ho will support AVIA CEO Louis Boswell and work closely with the teams in Singapore and Hong Kong, focussing particularly on the curation of AVIA events and conferences as well as membership development and engagement. He will continue to be based in Singapore.

During his previous stint at WBD, he led the corporate communications and marketing for the media and entertainment conglomerate’s entire portfolio of brands, services and businesses as well as Warner Bros., CNN, Cartoon Network and HBO, across Asia Pacific. 

He also had a long spell with Sony Pictures Entertainment – which included leadership roles overseeing marketing, communications, ad sales, research, channel management and operations for its networks in Asia. He began his career with positions at CNBC Asia and Mediacorp Singapore.

Speaking on his new role, Ho said, “I look forward to working with Louis and the small but mighty AVIA team as we continue to support the industry and our members, shining the spotlight on growth opportunities and the most pressing challenges through our events and conferences – sharing, discussing and debating what matters most to us. I’m honoured to have this opportunity to give back to the industry that I love and has been my career for the past 3 decades.”

Meanwhile, Boswell commented, “As our industry continues to evolve during this period of tremendous flux and transition, I’m delighted to have Greg joining the team. His deep experience and understanding of our industry and his extensive network of contacts will be a tremendous asset as we continuously strive to represent and support the industry’s and our members’ needs including the opportunity to share, learn and engage with each other through our various events and conference.”

Singapore – VICE Media’s creative agency Virtue has appointed Chloe Fair as its client services director ahead of the agency’s next phase of growth in the region.

Fair combines creative ideas with measurable business outcomes. She will drive commercial and operational excellence at Virtue, growing the account management team and its capabilities, in addition to developing client partnerships and new business opportunities.

She was most recently the vice president of regional branding at Lazada. Prior to this, she also spent three years as the head of brand marketing at Income, where she expanded her portfolio into segment marketing, piloting new customer journey design, content strategy and personalisation efforts.

Fair also has prior agency experience with BBH and Wunderman Singapore across a range of global brands including Ikea, Xbox and Microsoft. 

She will be reporting to Lesley John, Virtue APAC’s managing director.

Speaking on her appointment, Fair said, “This signals a move back to the agency world for me as I’ve missed the energy and ideas that stem from a creative environment. I’m so honoured to call Virtue my new home, where its culture-led thinking and approach unlock powerful ways we can partner brands to play a visible and valued role inside culture. I am excited to be part of this talented crew to further our growth and prominence in APAC.”

Meanwhile, John commented, “Chloe is a proven leader with hybrid agency and marketing experience that has seen her deliver award-winning, engaging, culturally relevant and effective campaigns across a number of categories. She will ensure our existing and new clients continue to get the best strategic insights and creative thinking and I’m delighted to welcome her to Virtue’s growing regional team at a time when more companies are looking to us to build their brands from the inside of culture.”

Singapore – Dentsu Singapore and SaaS suite Grasp have announced a partnership to offer media excellence in Asia-Pacific. Said partnership will leverage dentsu Singapore’s media expertise and Grasp’s proprietary preventive media and data excellence technology to deliver a comprehensive suite of media excellence solutions including campaign configuration verification, golden rule monitoring, and audience measurement. 

Moreover, the joint offering will serve to meet the evolving needs of brands in the region by optimising ad spend and ensuring that the important aspects of digital advertising strategies are followed meticulously.

Hemant Menon, client partner and performance marketing lead for media group at dentsu Singapore, said, “Dentsu Singapore has been at the forefront of providing real and tangible solutions to help our clients in delivering successful media strategies across the region. As media channels continue to evolve, it is more important than ever to ensure that digital campaigns are delivered with precision, accuracy, and efficiency. With Grasp’s unique proposition of advocating conscious and responsible solutions and dentsu’s experience in media execution, we will now be able to offer unparalleled media excellence solutions for brands across APAC.”

Meanwhile, Stephanie Phua, performance director for media group at dentsu Singapore, commented, “Given the complex and fragmented set up of the APAC digital landscape, our clients will appreciate the efficiency and flawless platform navigation that our partnership with Grasp offers. With Grasp’s pioneering media excellence technology, we will be able to deliver media excellence by mitigating overspend in digital campaigns, ensuring accurate implementation of brand naming conventions in campaigns, and by embedding central governance of campaign set-up standards for seamless campaign execution to extract more value from media.”

Lastly, Jessica Michen, chief operating officer at Grasp, said, “We are thrilled to partner with dentsu Singapore to deliver media excellence in the APAC region. Dentsu Singapore’s reputation as a leading agency in the region and our unique preventive technology in media excellence make this a powerful partnership that will deliver value to brands across the region.”

Singapore – Dentsu has appointed Prerna Mehrotra into the newly-created role of chief client officer for Asia-Pacific. This adds up to Mehrotra’s existing role as chief executive office role for media in APAC.

In this newly created role for the region, Prerna will focus on designing and delivering an elevated client experience across dentsu’s services in creative, media and customer experience management (CXM). 

She also continues her responsibility of overseeing the group’s leading media brands Carat, dentsu X and iProspect, working closely with her leadership team, global and local market teams to deliver value across the media ecosystem on behalf of clients.

Speaking on her added role, Mehrotra said, “Partnering with clients has been the essence of my journey in this industry. In the last two decades, I’ve worked with a diverse mix of clients across many verticals and markets including Singapore, China and India. I find real joy in understanding a client’s business challenge and collaborating with them to solve for these challenges.” 

She added, “One thing has always been clear – my commitment to put forward the best of my agency’s expertise in creating a competitive advantage for the brands I work with. I can’t wait to continue this journey, pooling together the best talent, capabilities and thought leadership to drive excellence for the clients we work with.”

Meanwhile, Rob Gilby, CEO for APAC at dentsu said: “Prerna joined dentsu in 2016 as our Head of Investment and has continued to show her star quality, working across division and clients. This appointment is huge testament to Prerna’s tenacity and growth mindset. She consistently demonstrates outstanding leadership and understanding of the changing client and consumer landscape, innovating products and services to capitalise on new opportunities for growth. I look forward to working close

Singapore – Tech-enabled coffee chain Flash Coffee has announced that they have completed its Series B financing round, raising US$50m in funding. This will be used then to expand its footprint across the Asia-Pacific region to serve high-quality specialty coffee.

Flash Coffee aims to double down its current expansion in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and South Korea, as well keeping updated on their own technology and product innovation and further developing the sales performance of existing stores.

The coffee chain will continue expanding deeper into its most mature market, Indonesia, where the fast-growing middle class is rapidly driving coffee consumption in Southeast Asia’s most populous country. 

Following the company’s successful entry into Bandung – its first expansion outside of a capital city – with 11 outlets across the metropolitan area of over 8.8 million inhabitants, Flash Coffee will be officially launching in the vibrant city of Surabaya in July 2023. 

The funding round was led by White Star Capital, with support from Delivery Hero, Geschwister Oetker, and Conny & Co.

David Brunier, founder and CEO of Flash Coffee, said, “We are grateful to have the continued backing of our shareholders in this financing round. With 100% of our 92 stores in Indonesia being profitable, we have found a solid product market fit and are eager to expand our presence into additional cities in Indonesia to further drive sustainable growth.” 

He added, “Offering a product that people love and following our ongoing trajectory of topline and profitability improvements, we are confident that we will reach our overarching goal of being profitable on a group level next year.” 

Singapore – Global recommendation platform Outbrain has named Amrita de la Peña as its new managing director for Asia-Pacific. In her new role, de la Peña will be responsible for expanding the company’s offerings for agencies, brand advertisers, and publishers in the region.

Prior to joining Outbrain, she was recently the first general manager for Sprout Social in APAC. She also spent six years as the head of global brands for JAPAC at Twitter.

She brings with her over 25 years of experience in the digital marketing, media and advertising space.

Speaking of her new role, she said, “I am excited to join Outbrain at a time when the company is poised for significant growth in the APAC region. More and more marketers are understanding the real importance of trusted, premium content environments and looking to drive measurable outcomes and deeper engagement with audiences. I look forward to helping more brands, advertisers, and publishers leverage Outbrain’s suite of innovative technology and create even more value for all sides.”

Meanwhile, Alexander Erlmeier, chief revenue officer at Outbrain, commented: “Amrita is a seasoned leader with a track record of success in the digital marketing and advertising space. We are thrilled to have her on board as we continue to innovate our solutions to better serve brands, advertisers, and publishers. With her expertise and leadership, we are confident that we can build even more strong partnerships and deliver innovative solutions for our clients.”

De la Peña’s appointment follows recent appointments within Outbrain’s C-suite lineup namely Yonatan Maman as chief technology officer and Andraz Tori as chief product officer.

Singapore – VICE World News, the current affairs channel under digital media and broadcasting company VICE Media, has announced a wave of layoffs globally, including the entirety of its newsroom team in the Asia-Pacific region.

Natashya Gutierrez, who served as the editor-in-chief for Asia-Pacific at VICE World News, tweeted out that she is grateful for the reporting she and her team had done in the region, adding that they will always be proud of the stories they have shared throughout their stay at the company.

Other newsroom members that were affected include Alan Wong, managing editor for APAC; Sahar Habib Ghazi, editor for South Asia; Alastair McCready, editor for Asia-Pacific; journalist JC Gotinga; Greater China and East Asia reporter Rachel Cheung; Japan-based reporter Hanako Montgomery; South Asia journalist Pallavi Pundir; senior reporter Gavin Butler; Southeast Asia reporter Koh Ewe; and Thailand-based journalist Caleb Quinley.

Wall Street Journal first reported that VICE World News looks to sell itself, and recently hired an interim finance chief to commence the media buy-out.

The news comes after a recent wave of media-related layoffs globally, including from BuzzFeed News, sports news network ESPN, business media company Insider, and mass media group Vox Media.

Sydney, Australia – International brand management business Access Brand Co. has announced the launch of its live commerce sales platform with an initial focus in the Asia-Pacific region. The platform is designed to raise brand awareness and drive sales of the company’s portfolio of premium health and wellness products.

This is done by providing top-tier independent influencers with unique brand experiences, combined with an introduction to the iconic Australian lifestyle. The portfolio includes cellular health specialist Science, Research, Wellness (SRW), plant-based nutrition brand eimele, iconic cosmetics company Napoleon Perdis and the global leader in ingestible collagen, Vida Glow, among other leading beauty, health and wellness brands.

The platform has first signed in Nicole Chenyn, a leading Chinese Influencer with a combined social reach of over 1.9 million followers across platforms like TikTok, Douyin, Insta, Facebook and WeChat. The influencer’s initial content sees her being immersed in a range of creative brand experiences in Sydney over five days.

For Livia Wang, chief brand officer at Access Brand Co., the launch of the platform is the next step in the diversification of their retail channels, adding that partnering with influencers like Chenyn enables them to raise awareness of their brands and products in a way that is curated specifically for their particular audience of video shoppers.

“We’ve been impressed by the way that Nicole and her team have worked creatively to build engagement for our brands while keeping the style of her content consistent and authentic. Significantly, she sold over $327,466 AUD of our hero products during her latest live commerce event. With live commerce, you can throw away the rule book on social media and brand marketing, because everything pivots towards what works for that one distinct ultra influencer and their community within a real time context. Working with celebrity streamers, it’s the influencer who is in charge, not the brand managers,” she explained.

She added, “Our role is to facilitate a VIP Australian experience and support their interpretation of our brand stories. Each celebrity streamer will have a very different way of approaching our products and brands, so there’s a natural variation in the direction and style of the resulting content. Live commerce is an amazing and powerful new sales platform, and we are integrating it within our sales and marketing strategy.”

Meanwhile, Amelia Hu, celebrity streamers program manager, commented, “Celebrity streamers is like the Top Gun of live commerce, the best of the best. We are actively looking to build our platform and want to work with the top tier of international Influencers and KOLs. Our wish list includes sizable and engaged communities, live sales credentials, good English language skills, creativity and a strong personal alignment with premium wellness as a category. As online retail merges with live streaming to create live commerce, credibility and authenticity is still at the heart of brand success.”

Singapore – Marcus Pousette, most recently the managing director for Southeast Asia at Channel Factory, has joined Magnite as its senior director for business development in Asia. In his new role, Pousette will be responsible for supporting and accelerating the growth of Magnite throughout Asia by growing new and existing strategic supply partnerships across the Asia region.

His role at Magnite will also specialise in focusing on video streaming and omnichannel partners. He will also play an important role in driving publisher adoption of key platform tools and features, including Magnite Streaming, to enable them to capitalise upon the growing streaming opportunity in the region.

Prior to his role at Channel Factory, Marcus was the country manager for Southeast Asia, Greater China and South Korea at PubMatic, where he spearheaded the company’s operations, growth, and expansion across the Asian region.

In all, Pousette brings with him more than 10 years of experience in the digital advertising space.

Speaking on his new role, he said, “I’m thrilled to join the team at Magnite and to be working closely with Gavin and the wider team in some of the largest emerging digital markets globally. I look forward to bringing the benefits of Magnite’s omnichannel capabilities to Asian publishers.”

Meanwhile, Gavin Buxton, managing director for Asia at Magnite, commented, “I’m excited to have Marcus on board and looking forward to the fresh perspective he’ll bring to the team here in Asia. His impressive breadth of experience and relationships across the industry will be critical in accelerating our growth in the region.”

Singapore – Global logistics brand Toll Group has unveiled its refreshed brand direction ‘Curiosity in Motion’, including a new brand campaign ‘Think Outside the Box’ to show how the company delivers value for businesses in an era of disruption.

The end-to-end brand positioning was done with integrated communications agency VCCP Singapore in line with the company’s new focus on the Asia Pacific region. According to VCCP, the agency has been tasked with refreshing the brand’s strategy to communicate Toll’s ‘Pivot to Asia’.

Toll’s Chief Corporate Affairs and Marketing Officer, Zed Ivankovic, said the new brand positioning and campaigns are a ‘fresh, bold expression’ of how Toll makes an impact on businesses.

“Our new brand and campaign [highlight] how we at Toll push beyond the status quo to find new and better ways to deliver value for our customers… With our new brand identity and campaign, our people play a starring role, bringing their curiosity and spirit of progress to life with curiosity in motion,” said Ivankovic.

On working with VCCP Singapore, Ebrahim Kazi, global head of brand at Toll, also commented, “With the help of VCCP, the new campaign perfectly captures the changing consumer demands and positions Toll as a true partner that will be able to solve business challenges of today while continuously developing innovative solutions for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Hook, executive creative director at VCCP Singapore said that the campaign ‘Think Outside the Box’ is a tangible expression of Toll’s commitment to innovation, and the ‘spirit of curiosity’ that is powering its drive into the APAC region.

The campaign will run across social media in markets covering Australia, Asia, and Europe.