Tag: Asia Pacific

Singapore – Creative agency Ogilvy Asia has announced a new slew of hires to bolster its creative team in Singapore and Hong Kong, namely Nikhil Panjwani as regional executive director; Dan Parmenter as creative director; Hugo Suíssas as senior art director; and Tiago Silva as senior copywriter.

The new recruits will primarily work within OpenX – WPP’s bespoke team dedicated to The Coca-Cola Company and its portfolio of brands across Asia Pacific – whilst also supporting Ogilvy’s growing client demand in Asia for cross-capability ideas that generate impact across geographies and cultures.

They join an existing team of other hires including Regional Executive Creative Director for Ogilvy Asia Sarah-Leith Izzard and Associate Creative Directors at Ogilvy Hong Kong Stratos Efstathiou and Soenar.

Panjwani joins Ogilvy Asia as regional executive director, based in Singapore. He brings close to 20 years of creative experience, the last seven as creative director for BBH Singapore. Born and bred in Bombay, Nikhil has led teams across India and Southeast Asia to produce award-winning work for leading global brands.

Meanwhile, Parmenter most recently served as creative director for M&C Saatchi Abel in South Africa, steering the creative output of key accounts including Nando’s, Standard Bank and Lexus. A copywriter by trade, he brings strong strategic expertise in ideating and bringing big creative ideas to life, having previously worked as copywriter and creative group head at Ogilvy Johannesburg between 2008 and 2015.

Based in Singapore, Suíssas and Silva have met at Lisbon-based agency Brandia Central in 2013, and have worked together at agencies across Portugal, including excentricGrey, Young & Rubicam Group and O Escritório, serving clients in the auto, retail and banking sectors.

Reed Collins, chief creative officer for Ogilvy in APAC, commented, “We are blessed with such extraordinary creative talent across the region, with this team being specifically built as a microcosm of that around being the best creative partner for our clients’ growth ambitions globally. Our creative bench has never been stronger and ambition greater.”

Singapore – Tech company Yahoo has announced the promotion of Sebastian Graham, current head of native, to the role of director of native in Asia-Pacific, where he will oversee the strategy for native advertising through Yahoo’s unified ad tech stack in APAC.

Graham’s remit will include strengthening Yahoo native ad product capabilities to suit APAC’s marketing landscape, while building on strategic and technical global partnerships to create value through Yahoo native ads for advertisers and publishers. 

Graham’s elevation comes amidst Yahoo Native’s robust demand and growth, and rising relevance as a central channel in omnichannel campaigns, with its integration into the Yahoo DSP. Yahoo Native now has the creative, data and platform capabilities to deliver full-funnel results for advertisers, even as it helps premium publishers grow their revenue.

In his previous role, Graham drove Yahoo’s native commercial and partnership strategies for Australia and New Zealand.

Paul Sigaloff, vice president and head of APAC at Yahoo, said, “As native advertising gets an upgrade for an omnichannel world, it unlocks valuable possibilities for advertisers and publishers. In his expanded role, Graham brings the right experience and understanding to take Yahoo Native Ads forward, channelling the strengths and capabilities of this versatile product to deliver exceptional value to Yahoo’s advertisers and publishers in APAC.”

Recent changes to Yahoo’s leadership team in APAC include Paul Sigaloff leading Yahoo’s ad tech business in the region, and expanded remits for Dan Richardson and John McNerney.

Singapore – With the global plant-based food market continuing to grow, First Pride, a company that sells plant-based products as alternatives to meat ones, has launched a quirky campaign to promote alternative ways of enjoying meat without harming the environment–through an ad with a dinosaur named Tony the T-Rex.

The ad, conceptualised with UltraSuperNew Singapore, shows the mind-changing experience from the first bite of First Pride plant-based products—symbolising how those averse to plant-based will discover a new taste sensation. And for meat-lovers, if T-Rex loves it, mere humans will too.

Speaking about the campaign launch, Pimphika Rungarpajaratkul, APAC brand manager, at FIRST PRIDE, said, “The real barrier of the plant-based category is taste and texture, causing anyone who enters the category to lapse. We work with a goal to break the stereotype of plant-based, and innovate our products from a unique substrate made from wheat, soy and citrus fibre for a meat-like texture together with 3-step coating innovation to ensure maximum crispiness. 

She added, “We’re extremely confident in our product. So what’s left is a great marketing campaign. UltraSuperNew was able to deliver an attractive, exciting and relevant creative communication platform – even better than we were expecting.” 

Meanwhile, Edric Cheong, senior copywriter at UltraSuperNew, commented, “It’s rare to work on something that is revolutionary as plant-based nuggets, especially with partners who understand the value of creativity, and an actor of Tony’s calibre.”

The ‘NuggetVerse’ ad is currently running across FTA TV and radio channels in English and Mandarin, on OOH media, and across digital and social channels in Singapore and Malaysia. The campaign will run until 31 December, with media handled by IPG Thailand (UM).

Hong Kong – Event SaaS company EventX has announced plans to acquire meeting platform Toasty to enhance its company growth in Asia with a focus on hybrid event management solutions. 

Through this strategic acquisition, EventX will continue to broaden the product range and maximise the capabilities in hybrid event solutions that enable their clients to grow by delivering next generation event technology solutions. 

This will also help accelerate the company’s strong growth across its hybrid event management solution, and its recently launched metaverse-enablement solution to strengthen the value proposition to both Asian clients and partners. 

Founded in 2020, Toasty was designed to bring interactive workshops online and has since become the video meeting platform that is intentionally interactive to incorporate various social capabilities. The platform is used by over 16.5K participants and available in over 25 countries.

Sum Wong, CEO of EventX, said, “The acquisition partnership further cements our position as the leading hybrid event management solutions provider in the industry. We are very excited to enter into this partnership with Toasty to drive further growth and value creation to strengthen our operation in Asia.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Toasty commented, “We believe that we will be in an even better position for the next phase of our growth with our new partner EventX. Together we will bring in next-gen event technology to the industry and better serve our clients in Asia.”

Singapore – Job platform Indeed has launched a new channel on the short video platform TikTok in a bid to aid Gen Z and millennial job seekers to any available job opportunities on the platform. The channel will officially launch on August 23.

Said campaign aims to target the large millennial and Gen Z audience that is active on the social networking platform.

The campaign, called ‘You Better Work, Boss’, is based on research showing that this generation is already changing their relationship with work and expects employers to strive hard to attract and retain their employees.

The initial content will be produced by popular influencers such as JAMIELIMYY, IANJEEVAN and AINLOVESCODE. Their material will include ‘A Day in the Life of’ series, which will show how some professions work, conversations about how to get ready to enter the job market and new jobs. The channel will also dive into the future of work and what it will change for the younger generations.

“The campaign’s key message centres on urging GenZ jobseekers towards employment through Indeed’s seamless and user-friendly job search options. In line with TikTok’s digital learning initiative, which curates life tips, career advice, motivational speech videos, and other educational content, the new campaign encourages the youth to discover their dream job with the help of Indeed,” the company said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Nishita Lalvani, marketing director at Indeed India and SEA, commented, “We want to support the aspirations of Gen Z and Millennials who will make up a large part of the workforce soon. They are set to have a 50–60 year career ahead of them, and we foresee the need to help this group of workers navigate the jobs sector whilst staying true to their beliefs.” 

She added, “Gen Z workers prioritise a positive work-life balance. They seek work environments that are empathetic and diverse, offer learning opportunities, and align with their core values. Indeed’s new TikTok channel is aimed at helping to bridge the gap between Gen Z and PMET employers and help everyone find common ground where businesses and employees can thrive together.”

Singapore – TotallyAwesome, a digital advertising network for kids, teens, and families–has recently announced its fundraising efforts amounting to US$10m, which the company will use to expand its proprietary data-driven managed and programmatic offerings.

The funding round was led by San Francisco-based Partners For Growth and Singapore-based boutique investment growth advisory firm Yefira Group.

TotallyAwesome will also use the funding to solidify its position in a space where it has first-mover advantage, while expanding its footprint across key strategic markets such as Indonesia, Philippines, Japan and Australia.

The ad network enables a youth-safe digital ecosystem by curating the largest supply of media inventory for brands to engage with more than 500 million monthly active under 18-users across APAC, safely. 

Will Anstee, CEO of TotallyAwesome, said, “It gives me great confidence that ‘Venture Capital for good’ is gaining greater traction in our world at large and TotallyAwesome met that brief for both institutions. Additionally, the importance of cultural fit was at the top of my list when looking for both equity and debt partners. To this end, both PFG and the Yefira Group are a perfect match. Exciting times ahead.”

The investment marks the company’s second major announcement in recent weeks, having previously unveiled TotallyPlay, the industry’s largest brand safe gaming platform for brands to engage with Asia-Pacific’s 450 million plus under-18 gamers.

Through this new funding round, the company aims to rewrite the current brand value exchange in the APAC region – by investing in product development to evolve its enterprise advertising platform, ramp up hiring across its sales, data science and machine learning teams, as well as exploring strategic mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth.

Austin, Texas – Content experience platform Contentstack has announced the appointment of Jerry Nott as its APAC regional director, which is a first for the company in Australia as Contentstack increases its investment in the region to better serve local customers.

Nott previously served as regional director at Uniform and sales leader at Optimizely, educating and helping customers implement progressive MACH – or microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS, and headless solutions – technologies. 

He brings more than two decades of experience, including companies such as Salesforce and Sitecore, and will be reporting to Ramon Weterings, vice-president of EMEA and APAC at Contentstack.

Speaking on his appointment, Nott said, “The chance to assist local customers looking to leverage the most innovative CMS in the market is a privilege. The cloud model, enterprise features, and unparalleled customer support make Contentstack the catalyst for game-changing digital transformations.”

Meanwhile, Weterings commented, “APAC’s leading enterprise organisations are adopting MACH principles to modernise and accelerate the way they do business at MACH speed. To help these frontrunners achieve their ambitious goals and to further educate the market, we are doubling down on our local presence and will continue to build the team under Jerry’s excellent and renowned leadership.”

Contentstack will soon expand its Australian presence with sales, marketing, and customer service roles.

Australia – Cloud-based e-commerce solutions ChannelAdvisor has announced the appointment of Darren Fifield as its managing director for Asia-Pacific, where he will lead the company’s regional business strategy development, cultivate successful and valuable relationships with longstanding clients and expand customer acquisition and growth.

Fifield has more than 30 years of experience managing sales teams and customer accounts, including more than 15 years in senior regional and global roles at leading tech companies. Most recently, he served as chief commercial officer for aCommerce in Indonesia and as regional director for Liveclicker in the Asia-Pacific region. He has also held senior roles at Radial Inc., Kelly Services and Lightspeed Research.

In addition, his extensive experience includes managing brand client relationships, overseeing operational expansions, developing new talent and leading teams and departments, providing financial planning and support to fellow executives and establishing and implementing strategies in sales, business and client success.

Speaking on his appointment, he said, “It’s an exciting time to put my skills and background in building and developing business opportunities across the Asia-Pacific region to work at ChannelAdvisor. I share ChannelAdvisor’s vision for excellence and plan to dive right into the challenges and rewards of implementing strategies that envigorate the success of our customers and partners.”

Meanwhile, Paul Colucci, chief revenue officer at ChannelAdvisor, commented, “Darren comes to ChannelAdvisor as a leader in e-commerce with extensive experience in the Asia-Pacific region. In his role, he will actively build on the enormous opportunities presented to brands and retailers. We know Darren will work closely with clients and internal teams and will help strengthen ChannelAdvisor’s international growth and commitment to excellence in our industry.”

Singapore – Ogilvy today announced new senior leadership appointments in Asia, including B. Ramanathan (Ram)’s nomination as chief marketing officer for and Janet Tsai’s promotion as chief communications officer. 

Through the appointments, both appointees will work hand in hand to strengthen Ogilvy’s position as a creative partner for growth, developing and promoting new modern offerings across Ogilvy’s five business units across content, data and technology.

In his new function, Ram will lead Ogilvy’s go-to-market approach in Asia, responsible for accelerating marketing and new business efforts. An agency veteran of 22 years, Ram most recently served in a dual position as chief executive officer for Ogilvy Indonesia and Bates CHI & Partners Indonesia.

Following Ram’s regional promotion, Ogilvy’s operations in Indonesia will now be led by Sieg Penaverde, who previously assumed the chief operating officer role in the country. 

Meanwhile, Tsai’s appointment is added to her existing role as VP for marketing and communications for Ogilvy China and global lead for Ogilvy’s Outbound Practice. In the added role, she will work closely with Ram to elevate Ogilvy’s reputation, promote new offering and services, and showcase the impact of borderless creativity to drive Ogilvy’s clients business growth. 

Tsai is a seasoned leader with PR, brand building, crisis management and integrated content planning experience across a number of industries including technology, finance, auto, entertainment, fashion and luxury.

Kent Wertime, chief executive officer for Ogilvy Asia, said, “Ram has been a terrific leader for our business in Indonesia. He has a huge heart for our clients, for our staff, and for the work we do to help grow our brands make an impact in the world. We are incredibly excited to have Ram at the helm of our marketing and growth function to help our clients push boundaries and make the most of the opportunities in this part of the world.”

Meanwhile, Chris Reitermann, chief executive for Ogilvy Asia and Greater China, commented, “Janet has played an instrumental role in leading corporate communications in China in addition to her client-facing duties for our China Outbound Practice. Her strong expertise and performance in China made her a natural candidate to take the reins of our regional communications as we enter a new exciting growth phase.” 

Singapore – Media and marketing communications agency PHD has appointed Imogen Bourke as its strategy director for Asia-Pacific, where she will be responsible for the continuous development and elevation of the agency’s strategic product and capability roadmap within the region.

Bourke brings with her a blend of skills honed from 16 years of diverse roles across media, technology, and production organisations and expansive international experience having worked in London, Melbourne, and Beijing.

She was previously the head of strategy for PHD Hong Kong, where she was instrumental in supporting the success and growth of the agency – in new business wins, major account retention, and media creativity.

Bourke will also be guiding teams across the region to produce effective brand experiences that deliver business outcomes and positively inspire people, communities, and culture. In addition, she will also be charged with developing industry-first strategies and challenger thinking propositions to future-proof clients’ businesses and drive sustainable growth.

She will be reporting to James Hawkins, CEO of PHD APAC.

Speaking on her appointment, Bourke said, “I could not be more excited by this opportunity to expand my experience and expertise across the APAC markets. It’s a wonderful gig to work closely with the region’s best strategists and planners to champion and grow PHD’s market-leading product, and continue to cultivate a culture of creativity, innovation and collaboration that delivers unparalleled strategic thinking and solutions for our clients.”

Meanwhile, Hawkins commented, “Imogen’s media and strategic expertise paired with her ability to build high-performing teams will help to elevate PHD’s product offerings and drive business results for clients. I am confident in Imogen’s ability to be the driving force in uncovering marketplace opportunities and lead the best strategic planning team in the region.”