Tag: Asia Pacific

Singapore – As consumer patience on digital experiences is waning, 73% of consumers in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region warn that they are willing to drop brands if they remain to have poor personalisation in their digital experiences. This is according to the latest data from customer engagement platform Twilio.

The data notes that consumer frustration with inconsistent digital experiences is growing, as 53% of consumers in the region report being frustrated with their interactions over the past year, up from 51% the year before.

It is also worth noting that consumers value precise and real-time personalisation, as it improves customer lifetime value. Around 91% of consumers in the region say that personalised experiences increase their loyalty to brands. Respondents also spend 24% more on brands that personalise – higher than the global average of 21%.

Furthermore, consumers in APJ want more control over their customer data, with identity data being the top priority. Meanwhile, 44% of consumers in APJ have stopped purchasing from a brand after their expectations for data privacy and transparency weren’t met, exceeding the global average of 41%.

On the side of businesses, 40% of engagement leaders reported much higher customer retention rates than previous years, compared to 12% of laggards. In addition, 41% of engagement leaders also reported much higher customer conversion rates than previous years, versus 15% of laggards. 

Joyce Kim, chief marketing officer at Twilio, said, “This research reflects what we’re hearing across our customer base, which is that when brands use first-hand data to personalise engagement with customers, it saves companies meaningful marketing spend and increases lifetime value. For brands facing growing headwinds, this means ROI today.”

Singapore – To set its growth path, digital agency ADK Connect announces the appointment of Rie Otsuka who will simultaneously work as its chief executive officer for Singapore and emerging countries and chief growth officer for ADK Global.

In her new role, Otsuka will be responsible for unlocking the value of the markets in Australia, India, Singapore, and other emerging markets while maintaining the network’s continued success.

Her appointments are also a part of the agency’s commitment to address the post-pandemic communication landscape and prepare itself as a future-ready communications partner. 

Otsuka brings with her an experience in CRM, digital, and global marketing. Before joining ADK, she led the digital and CRM practices at McCann Worldgroup, particularly the global teams for Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, and Panasonic. 

Yasuyuki Katagi, chief executive officer at ADK Global, said that they need a leader who will oversee the transformation and structure the change management processes to make it possible.

“With Rie Otsuka’s pedigree in agency leadership and her rich experiences in digital, her dual appointment makes perfect sense. Singapore remains a prime market for many clients as a regional hub,” he added.

Meanwhile, Otsuka added, “Teamwork is a crucial strength of the ADK network. It may not be a new buzzword, but it is an old adage that is challenging to upkeep. We must focus on fostering and empowering great talent to move forward in our highly competitive marketing industry.”

ADK Connect specialises in digital, creative and performance media. It partners with clients in solving marketing challenges by providing innovative solutions.

Singapore – Popular online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has launched a new campaign called ‘Double Tips, Double Love’, aimed at spotlighting the importance of delivery partners’ role in the delivery ecosystem. 

Said campaign is currently live in the Philippines and will be launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia throughout April, and is estimated to impact more than 124,000 delivery partners. 

During the campaign period, foodpanda will match every dollar delivery partners receive in tips from customers on the app, so they earn twice the amount of tips. As with all tips that customers give to delivery partners through the app, all of the tips earned will be fully credited to delivery partners’ accounts. 

Bhavani Mishra, director of logistics for APAC at foodpanda, said that with their delivery riders being the backbone of their operations, their welfare is extremely important for them.

“The ‘double tips, double love’ campaign is one of the many ways that foodpanda shows appreciation for our delivery partners. During this period, delivery partners have the opportunity to earn double the amount of tips from customers – and all tips go fully to the delivery partners. Through this, we hope that our delivery partners feel supported and motivated – we really can’t thank them enough for their hard work daily,” Mishra said.

First introduced in 2021 at the height of the pandemic, the tipping feature on foodpanda was a safe and convenient way for customers to show their appreciation for delivery partners. 

“The ‘double tips, double love’ campaign adds on to the ever-growing list of initiatives that we organise for our delivery partners to create a positive working environment for them. Through this, we want to spotlight the dedication and effort that they continuously give for each order, and make it known that we, together with our customers, see and appreciate all that they do to make on-demand shopping possible,” Mishra added.

Singapore – Wunderman Thompson has announced three new key appointments across its technology and content teams across Asia-Pacific. They include Hasan Hasnie as chief technology officer, Geoff Smeaton as head of technology, and Nicholas Yeam as head of content.

Hasnie was recently the managing director at Accenture Song, and has spent 19 years with the company serving roles in digital and technology consulting. In his new role at Wunderman Thompson, he will work closely with clients as a strategic partner helping enable growth in their organisation, as well as focusing on deepening the agency’s current technology capability set.

“I am very happy to be joining Wunderman Thompson at this juncture of our growth journey. I hope to truly immerse myself in the exciting world of advertising, relying upon my experience of commerce and marketing technology delivery in a scaled and distributed fashion. We have amazing clients in diverse industries, and I hope to learn a lot from them as well as my talented and experienced colleagues at Wunderman Thompson,” he said.

Meanwhile, Smeaton still retains his role as chief technology officer for Australia as part of his expanded role. He has extensive experience providing technical and architectural leadership on highly complex projects with varying scales of size and complexity. 

“Being able to help our markets deliver world class technology solutions for clients across APAC is a fantastic challenge and opportunity for me to be taking on, alongside our fantastic team of leaders and practitioners all through the region,” he stated.

Lastly, Yeam previously led the production and operations as executive producer at Huge and spent time at Media.Monks and Hogarth Worldwide. In his new role, he will continue to drive growth for the agency’s studio by delivering content solutions and operations for clients – bridging the gap between inspiration and execution for brands.

He commented, “It’s an exciting time to be joining the team, as we’re observing a period of transformation in the content landscape. There’s an ever-growing demand for scale, efficiency, and quality, and I’m confident that Wunderman Thompson’s borderless approach to production excellence will allow us to continue to meet and exceed the needs of our clients.”

Wunderman Thompson recently announced the appointment of Emily Chang as CEO of West Coast region, as well as the appointment of a new chief growth officer and chief client officer for South Asia

California, USA – Global advertising technology company Quantcast has announced three new appointments to strengthen its operations in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia, including Sonal Patel as its new managing director for APAC, Daniel O’Connor as commercial director for Australia and New Zealand, and Rueben Vijaratnam as its sales director for Southeast Asia.

Patel brings with her an experience in technology and media industries. Some of the notable roles that she previously held covering APAC markets include director of Display Platform Strategy at Yahoo, president for programmatic services & product at dentsu, and managing director and Vice President for APAC at AppNexus. In her new role, Patel will oversee Quantcast’s presence across Australia, New Zealand and entire Asia.

Meanwhile, O’Connor also brings with him a working experience in technology and media industries. Prior to joining Quantcast, he was with IAB SEA and India as programmatic committee member. In his new role, O’Connor will now lead the sales team in Australia and New Zealand whilst reporting to Patel.

Moreover, Vijaratnam also brings his expertise in technology and media. Before joining Quantcast, he was a head of programmatic at technology company Oath. In his new role, Vijaratnam will lead the sales teams in Southeast Asia to develop the company’s presence in the region and will also report to Patel.

Konrad Feldman, CEO at Quantcast, said that they are looking forward to continue the company’s breakthrough in digital advertising as they establish this strong leadership team and relationships with brands and agencies across these regions.

Patel said, “It’s both an exciting and interesting time to expand my remit to include Australia and New Zealand. The region here is incredibly dynamic, with new privacy legislation, expanded legislative powers for both the ACCC and ACMA to keep the tech giants in check, and explosive growth in CTV and retail media, as well as volatile consumer behaviour post-COVID.”

O’Connor added that he’s thrilled to take the new role in the company whilst looking forward to lead the company’s sales team in its transformational phase.

Meanwhile, Vijaratnam commends Southeast Asia’s vibrant digital economy and its huge opportunities for further growth which makes him excited to expand their presence in the region by delivering more value to clients.

Quantcast focuses on programmatic advertising using its patented AI-powered audience platform to provide rich consumer insights, reach audiences, and drive performance and business outcomes for brands, agencies, and publishers.

Singapore – Full-service media agency Mindshare and partnership management platform impact.com have both announced strengthening their partnership to continue developing the affiliate and partnerships industry in the Asia-Pacific region. 

With both teams running local operations in key markets like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and Japan, they are now able to provide influencer and content expertise as a unique value-add to clients beyond traditional online advertising channels.

Mindshare was also the first official, fully certified agency for impact.com across Asia Pacific. All APAC members of Mindshare’s specialised affiliate marketing unit underwent intensive training completing impact.com’s Partnerships Experience Academy (PXA), with online courses covering industry fundamentals and advanced product training to continue sharpening their skills and expertise on the channel to best serve their clients.

For Mark Turner, head of affiliate at Mindshare and GroupM APAC, as the affiliate channel and ecosystem prevails as a thriving growth opportunity for brands in the region, they have seen exponential growth.

“We’ve seen exponential growth, having gone from a specialist capability in Neo Media World serving two of Neo’s largest global brands to a service that is now embedded in Mindshare and engaged across the entirety of GroupM on a multitude of brands and markets. GroupM and impact.com’s collaboration brings together a world class partnership technology with the only APAC-wide and most established partnership agency. It is an extremely harmonious relationship which we greatly value and look forward to deepening our engagement,” Turner said.

Meanwhile, Antoine Gross, general manager for Southeast Asia at impact.com, commented that their mission as a company is to transform the way businesses are able to create, manage, scale and optimise an ecosystem of partnerships, creating a new customer acquisition channel for brands and expanding their marketing capabilities. 

“We’re delighted to deepen our relationship with Mindshare & GroupM APAC, as such partnerships allow us to supercharge our growth in Asia and in turn support more brands at a time when the online advertising landscape continues to evolve and create new challenges and opportunities for marketers,” Gross said.

Singapore – Global social media monitoring and competitive intelligence company Digimind has appointed Josh Drasta as its new general manager, APAC. 

In the new role, Drasta will be working on growing Digimind’s team and clients in the APAC region with best-in-class social media intelligence and monitoring solutions for the company’s APAC clientele.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Drasta shared his excitement over the new role. “Be it an SDR role, closing the deals, managing accounts, caring for customers’ success, generating insights out of data, or proposing new marketing strategies – I have touched pretty much every side of the roles of our team. This makes me very excited to be hands-on across these areas, get a feel for the business, and find avenues to expand our activities,” he said.

Prior to joining Digimind, Drasta held the sales lead role at Google, where he helped increase its advertising business and product adoption growth by educating, and promoting solutions to its customers, amongst other responsibilities.

Talking about his experience at Google, he shared that the role gave him the chance to work alongside incredibly talented people and on challenging projects such as working with Google’s highest potential agencies and their C-suite, as well as with business owners of the EMEA region’s most promising businesses.

He added, “At the same time, I was very intrigued about the opportunity to help to grow Digimind and Onclusive in the APAC region at a very special time, given the integration and the future product roadmap. The size and operations of Google and Digimind & Onclusive cannot be compared, but fundamentally, the goal is the same – delight the customers, push the limits of what’s possible to deliver with our products, and grow the team. This is exactly what is close to my heart, and I am very excited to make this my [day-to-day] activity.”

Moreover, he said that the experience at Google gave him the opportunity to learn, adapt, A/B test, and execute a plethora of projects, which he will be bringing forth to his new team at Digimind.

Drasta was also previously a sales director for APAC at consumer insights platform Linkfluence. He also has a wide experience in business development and marketing from companies such as Isentia, Socialbakers, and Groupe PSA.

Last year, Digimind onboarded media monitoring company Onclusive with the goal of delivering a complete suite of market-leading global media monitoring, measurement, and management solutions to PR and communications teams.

Bangkok, Thailand – Nissan has announced the promotion of Isao Sekiguchi as president of Nissan in the ASEAN region. The appointment is targeted to transform Nissan’s business in the region in accordance with its long-term vision, Nissan Ambition 2030.

Currently, Sekiguchi holds the regional vice president of marketing and sales, for Nissan’s ASEAN region and president of Nissan Motor Thailand roles. In the new role, he will oversee Nissan’s operations in the ASEAN region while continuing his current role at Nissan Motor Thailand.

Sekiguchi will likewise oversee the Japanese automaker’s business performance and brand development in 22 markets, including the ten ASEAN member states, and manage all functions in ASEAN. This includes manufacturing, purchasing, supply chain management, research and development, marketing, sales, and other supporting functions. 

He will also be responsible for driving Nissan’s ASEAN growth strategy, which includes positioning Nissan as a leader in the era of electrified mobility.

Sekiguchi brings with him more than 20 years of diverse international experience in the automotive sector. He joined Nissan in 2014 as managing director for Nissan North Africa and Egypt and has served as president director of Nissan Motor Indonesia since 2018. 

Prior to Nissan, he worked with a major Japanese trading house, Sumitomo Corporation, with experience in leading and managing automotive companies based in the US, Germany, and Slovakia.

“We are confident that Sekiguchi-san will lead our ASEAN business to sustainable and profitable growth with his deep understanding of the ASEAN markets and his proven leadership. Nissan aims to continue providing value beyond mobility to customers and society in this region, as well as to lay a solid foundation for long-term growth,” said Junichi Endo, senior vice president of marketing and sales, Japan-ASEAN, at Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

Sekiguchi’s appointment will be effective on April 1, 2023.

Singapore – With more consumers embracing the culture of the metaverse, latest consumer research by Yahoo reveals the expectations of consumers towards the phenomenon – from the aspects of virtual social communities, avatars, immersive entertainment, and creative freedom.

The survey covered 15,000 respondents from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, which are mostly Millennials and Gen Z that make up the ‘metaverse generation’.

The study found that Gen Z and Millennial demographic want distinctly different things from the metaverse whilst aiming to enhance and upgrade experiences. In addition, both generation sees different realities or digital avatars, which gives a cue for marketers that free creation is essential. 

Furthermore, the study found out that the said cohort of consumers focus on the appeal of digital assets, embracing virtual collectables such as artworks, profile pictures, gaming goods, limited-edition cards, videos, and music pieces. With these, the metaverse generation is also more receptive to brands that aren’t afraid to jump into the metaverse for their marketing or advertising campaigns and, therefore, pay more attention to a brand’s events and products.

Moreover, security is also a concern of these consumers where they try to find for a safer and more accessible space to protect their privacy and personal information in the metaverse.

Zoe Cocker, director of innovation and creative studio at Yahoo, says that despite the hype towards Metaverse, there is less knowledge about the expectations of consumers.

“This hyperlocal level of detail and insights goes beyond wider trends you are seeing in the press, making them actionable for brands wanting to build in this space and create real value for divergent audiences,” she added.

Singapore – Global public relations agency Golin has launched an AI incubator called ‘SPARK’ in order to help the agency conceptualise creative content using AI platforms. Said incubator is designed to diversify ideation, elevate storytelling, and mobilise content delivery for the agency across APAC.

Initiated by Golin’s Creative Intelligence Unit in Singapore, SPARK explores artificial intelligence platforms including ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Dall.E as a starting point for strategic planning and creative ideation.

The team is also working with custom artificial intelligence (AI) platform developers in Asia to explore the potential of this technology for the communications industry.

With prior experience harnessing AI for sentiment analysis and predictive analytics, the Creative Intelligence Unit’s newest initiative expands the role of AI technology across three core areas namely ideation diversification, storytelling elevation, and content delivery mobilisation.

The Creative Intelligence Unit is composed of data storytellers and creative technologists across Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Taipei that work closely with client teams and integrated media teams.

Shouvik Prasanna Mukherjee, who was appointed as chief creative officer for Asia-Pacific at Golin, and heads the agency’s Creative Intelligence Unit, said, “Artificial Intelligence is the latest tool that’ll frame the next chapter of our evolution and how we utilise it will define our future. When stones or ideas collide, there is a spark that ignites the drive for change. SPARK will shape our ‘future of work’ in creative intelligence that is both hi-tech and high-touch.”

Meanwhile, Darren Burns, president for Asia-Pacific at Golin, commented, “SPARK unlocks impact for us as an agency but also for our clients, people and the industry. Brands come to us wanting to create change that makes an impact, and that’s exactly what SPARK stands for – being on the front line of innovation around AI.”