Tag: business growth

Tokyo, Japan – H+, the strategic network formed by Hakuhodo Inc. and Hakuhodo DY ONE Inc., has launched ‘H+ Intelligence,’ a new planning platform to accelerate business growth for companies in ASEAN using sei-katsu-sha–centered planning, which aims at advancing marketing activities and business growth in the ASEAN region.

H+ Intelligence is a new system and structure designed to realise Hakuhodo’s Sei-katsu-sha Insight philosophy at a higher level and to further advance planning. It provides an environment and framework for accessing anonymised and diverse sei-katsu-sha data. By leveraging AI-powered analytical platforms, it enables more vivid sei-katsu-sha insight and facilitates advanced planning.

H+ Intelligence also offers new value by combining the human expertise of highly experienced strategists with advanced AI technology to analyse data on sei-katsu-sha. This approach enables a deeper understanding of sei-katsu-sha insights and uncovers the true intentions behind their behaviors with greater precision. 

Through this innovative fusion, H+ Intelligence provides actionable insights across various domains. It delivers cross-border consumer insights, helping businesses discover cultural and behavioral trends in diverse markets. By leveraging AI-powered brand discovery, it redefines brand identities using cutting-edge technology. 

In addition, generative AI insights open up new perspectives by engaging with virtual consumers, fostering creativity and innovation. Additionally, H+ Intelligence offers data-driven solutions that empower business growth across advertising, owned media, commerce, and CRM, ensuring impactful and strategic advancements.

“H+ Intelligence functions as the core of the H+ Growth Ecosystem. It conducts sei-katsu-sha insight analysis combining Hakuhodo proprietary data, the client’s first-party data, and platform operator data to analyze sei-katsu-sha insights according to the objective. Leveraging the Hakuhodo DY Group’s global network and focusing on the four key areas, we enhance the evolution of companies’ marketing activities and promote business growth,” the network said in a press statement.

Japan – Hakuhodo DY Holdings has announced the launch of Ventures of Creativity Inc. (VoC Inc.), a new entity created to strengthen its in-house venture program by managing its investment operations.

VoC Inc. will support business incubation led by employees across the Group’s global network, including Japan. Its primary role is to manage the investment functions for teams chosen through the program.

The program invites innovative marketing proposals from employees across the global network, offering startup investment and acceleration support to teams selected through a competitive process.

To closely replicate the broader startup market environment, VoC Inc. has designed a range of systems and measures to foster business growth with the selected teams in more challenging conditions. VoC Inc. will also manage the investment functions of the program.

In June 2024, the Hakuhodo DY Group outlined its global purpose, a forward-looking vision centred on its societal role. Ventures of Creativity is one of the key initiatives aimed at bringing this vision to life through the creation of new businesses.

In an official press release, Hakuho DY Holdings said, “We are committed to transforming the aspirations of our employees into new businesses that will form the cornerstone of the Hakuhodo DY Group’s future.” 

Singapore – SleekFlow, a Singapore-based provider of omnichannel conversational AI for customer engagement, has secured US$7m in a Series A+ funding round led by South Korean venture capital firm Atinum Investment, bringing its total funding to US$15 million.

The new funding round is expected to fast-track SleekFlow’s global expansion, targeting key markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The investment will also fuel advancements in AI technology, including enhanced analytics and the development of sophisticated marketing workflows, while expanding communication channels such as calls and emails to better serve its growing international customer base.

The investment round also saw participation from existing backers, including AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, managed by Gobi Partners GBA, and Transcend Capital Partners. Additionally, it attracted a new investor, Moses Tsang, a former general partner of Goldman Sachs Group and chairman of Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC.

Peter Na, regional head of the Singapore Office and director of Atinum Investment, said, “Being at the front of the rapidly expanding global customer engagement market, SleekFlow meets the evolving needs of enterprise customers. SleekFlow’s localised approaches have expanded it beyond Asia, entering new markets in the Middle East and South America. We are fully committed to supporting its ongoing global expansion and are excited for the opportunities ahead.”

Looking ahead, SleekFlow plans to secure its Series B funding within the next 12 months as it continues to solidify its position. SleekFlow’s solutions have already made significant inroads across various industries, serving prominent clients such as Delonghi, Hilton Dubai, L’Occitane, Shangri-La, Hong Kong Broadband Network, Cellini, Khind, TOTO, 7-Eleven, Kimberly-Clark, Awfully Chocolate, and Audi.

Henson Tsai, founder and CEO of SleekFlow, shared, “Since the appointment of our Chief Technology Officer, Gao Lei, a Silicon Valley veteran, we have significantly increased our engineering efforts to be at the forefront of innovative tech and advanced AI. We are more ambitious than ever, with offerings underway for fully automated sales and support journeys in voice, calls, and emails, to deliver unparalleled value to our customers across industries like insurance, healthcare, telecom, service, and retail.”

Malaysia – AirAsia Group has appointed Allenie Caccam as its new head of business growth to bolster its market presence and growth trajectory. With a robust background in marketing leadership, Caccam brings a wealth of experience and strategic insight to her new role.

In an exclusive interview with MARKETECH APAC, Caccam discussed her vision, responsibilities, and plans for driving business growth at AirAsia Group.

Leveraging marketing leadership experience

In her new role, Caccam shared that her team will be responsible for supporting the establishment of business operations and the go-to-market strategy for new markets, targeting specific geographies for AirAsia Group. This involves project management from the initial sale phase through to the inaugural launch, working closely with cross-functional departments such as ground operations, network, route revenue, regulatory, communications, and marketing.

Additionally, her team is also tasked with identifying growth opportunities in terms of channel and customer. 

“We are actively looking into new channels to support underserved markets for AirAsia and interline solutions to increase our reach and feed our Asia and Pacific network, where AirAsia is strong,” she explained. 

Caccam believes that her extensive experience in marketing at AirAsia Philippines has equipped her with a strategic perspective vital for her new role.

“My marketing experience has trained me to strategically look into the different angles of the business and align our strategies with customer insights to determine maximum demand and revenue potential,” she said. 

She also noted the crucial importance of the ability to commercialise a product in her role, ensuring the service is brought to market comprehensively through market research, distribution, promotion, customer support, and operation. For Caccam, this remains a vital skill in identifying growth opportunities and achieving successful implementation in the highly competitive airline industry.

Now, as she leads the go-to-market strategy for new market development, Caccam underscores her clear priorities for AirAsia Group.

“AirAsia’s tagline has always been ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’ and our strength has always been our broad network of over 130 destinations. Serving the underserved underpins our operations. Our focus is to not only fly the most popular routes but also bring in more passengers to our network from markets we are not yet serving or even where no other airline is serving, all the while making sure that it helps build the trade, economy, and tourism of both markets, which is a win-win for everyone,” she emphasised. 

Adapting to the evolving travel landscape 

Caccam foresees the evolving landscape of travel and tourism significantly impacting AirAsia’s growth strategy. She believes that travel will continue to be an integral part of people’s lifestyles, and as more channels emerge to offer customised travel experiences, the industry will become increasingly competitive.

“AirAsia will continue to harp on our strengths: our service, our network, our customer data built up over 20 years, and our affordable fares. We plan to use these huge assets to serve more underserved routes to connect Asia to the world,” Caccam said. 

For Caccam, online channels are reaching maturity, particularly in Asian markets where digital is a top priority. Customers are rapidly transitioning to the generation of digital natives, and online media is no longer considered “new.”

“It is now a game of great raw content and relatability rather than glossy and hard-selling advertisements. In line with this, AirAsia will continue to produce relatable content through our social media channels and our own internal and external ambassadors and use these avenues to remarket our service,” she added. 

“AirAsia’s tagline has always been, ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’ and with this role, I will be able to contribute more to making this vision a reality,” Caccam concluded.

Australia – Sushi Sushi, the fast casual dining brand, has tapped international strategy studio Untangld as its new strategic partner to accelerate its business growth. This collaboration marks the beginning of a comprehensive customer research and strategy project aimed at developing a new growth and brand strategy for Sushi Sushi.

Known for its data-driven and customer-centric approaches, Untangld will utilise its expertise to gather crucial insights to inform the future direction of Sushi Sushi. The engagement will further propel Sushi Sushi during its period of rapid expansion, leveraging innovative strategies to enhance the brand’s appeal and market presence.

This strategic partnership marks a significant advancement for Sushi Sushi as it pursues innovation and expansion. With Untangld’s expertise backing them, the brand is poised to uncover valuable insights and strategies that will guide its development and ensure its continued success in the market.

Danish Chan, co-founder of Untangld, said, “We are thrilled to embark on this journey with Sushi Sushi, a brand that shares our passion for excellence and innovation. Our team is ready to dive deep into understanding the needs and preferences of Sushi Sushi’s customers, crafting a strategy that resonates with them and drives growth. This partnership is a testament to our obsession with delivering exceptional results and fostering long-term success for our clients.”

Stephen Anders, CEO of Sushi Sushi, also shared, “Sushi Sushi is at a pivotal moment in its 26-year journey, and we’re excited to partner with Untangld to redefine our brand positioning. Their expertise in customer research and strategy is exactly what we need to redefine how we think during a time of unmitigated competition and economic pressure. This initiative is crucial for our strategy of continued rapid expansion, and we have great confidence in the work we’ve seen so far.”

Singapore – Despite a tough year for small and medium-sized businesses in the year of the pandemic, SMEs in APAC are showing higher confidence that enterprise will slowly come back on its feet this 2021, new report by CPA Australia showed. 

A survey record low of 46.2 percent of small businesses in the region grew in 2020, down from 65.8 percent in 2019. Further reflecting the challenging environment, 31.3 percent of businesses shrank last year, more than double the 14.5 percent that shrank in 2019.

This year, the survey shows that small business confidence is beginning to return, with 60.8 percent expecting to grow this year, which is noticeably higher than the 46.2 percent that grew last year.

However, for most businesses, it won’t be an immediate return to their pre-COVID-19 level. Only 14.5 percent have already returned to their pre-pandemic levels, while 58.4 percent expect to return to their pre-pandemic levels over the next two years. 

According to the study, optimism is most apparent in India, where a significant 86.7 percent of small businesses expect to grow this year, up solidly from 2020. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s small businesses is the least optimistic, where only 21.2 percent expect to grow, with 49 percent expect to shrink or shut down this year. 

The optimism is chalked up to the expected job creation by small businesses. About 36.1 percent of the region’s small businesses expect to add employees this year.

The poor growth that resulted in 2020 was reflected in higher job losses in the sector, where businesses resorted to retrenchments and downsizing amid the halted operations brought by the lockdowns and closure of borders. In 2020, 14.7 percent of small businesses reduced employee numbers, compared with 6.7 percent in 2019. However, job losses were lower than expected because many governments in the region introduced wage subsidy schemes, like Australia’s JobKeeper, Singapore’s Jobs Support Scheme, and Hong Kong’s Employment Support Scheme.

The report said that innovation along with job creation is what will spur the recovery of businesses. The study saw that younger businesses and businesses from developing markets are more likely to be innovative. This year, the percentage of businesses that are expected to innovate is down slightly from expectations for last year – 23 percent will innovate in 2021 compared to 25.8 percent in 2020. In India, the large jump in the percentage of businesses that will innovate reflects well on its small business sector and government policies encouraging innovation.

What the report found that will stimulate growth the most are five things: selling online, innovating, improving business strategy, investing in technology, and improving customer satisfaction.

Due to limited physical activity and in-person engagements, the period of the pandemic saw small businesses increasing their adoption of technology and finally digitizing their operations. In 2020, 57.9 percent of businesses received more than 10 percent of revenue from online sales, up from 51 percent in 2019. 

Singapore – Data and artificial intelligence company ADA has announced the launch of its new martech-as-a-service offering across Asia-Pacific to help clients optimize end-to-end sales and marketing efforts.

Through the new service, users can analyze a client’s business operations across the sales and marketing funnel by consulting and matching with ADA’s existing expertise to grow and scale. The new service can also help clients choose the right Martech solutions that match the business maturity level and to optimize current stacks.

“ADA has continuously evolved to create new ways for businesses to adopt data-driven marketing. We are excited to offer these new MarTech services that complete the circle for our clients by allowing them to look at their full sales and marketing funnel with an always-on approach,” said Srinivas Gattamneni, CEO of ADA.

Furthermore, ADA’s new solution can act as an extended arm of the client to enable, train, and scale in-house talent to ensure continuity of strategy and execution. Clients will benefit from this new addition to the current suite of products and services, as ADA continues to use existing data analytics skill sets to drive impactful business outcomes.

The new martech solution responds to the greater need of businesses for updated marketing measures. According to Gartner, some 80% of organizations feel they are sitting on an outdated MarTech roadmap, and 67% think their existing technology is not useful. Meanwhile, a study by Harvard Business Review found that 80% of marketers want better tools to measure return on investment.

“ADA’s MarTech services exist to support businesses in unlocking the full potential of their MarTech investments and to drive growth across all their sales and marketing channels. We believe business growth is not driven by one solution, but many tactics and approaches. We want to be there to collaborate with our clients through the entire journey and to grow together,” said Chris Wiseman, head of marketing technology at ADA.