Tag: Dentsu

India – Following the recent re-organization of the network, dentsu in India has finally named its CEO for the Media division, Divya Karani. Alongside this, the company has also announced a new COO, Kartik Iyer. 

The new appointments are both internal elevations. Karani is currently the CEO of dentsu X India and will have the new appointment as an additional role, handling all media agencies of dentsu in South Asia, including Carat, iProspect, and Posterscope, aside from dentsu X. She is tasked to drive the global media strategy and delivery in the region, ensuring its alignment and relevance to the market.

Meanwhile, Iyer has previously worked as the president of dentsu’s Media Brands and media investment and innovation platform Amplifi. With the COO role, Iyer will be engaging with regional teams, global teams, and all other network brands to ensure the ongoing transformation program. He will also be driving the implementation of dentsu’s new business model within the country. Iyer will be collaborating with leaders and client teams across businesses in the market to change how the network works and inculcate the culture of operational excellence.

Both Iyer and Karani will report to Dentsu India’s CEO Anand Bhadkamkar.

Commenting on the new promotions, Bhadkamkar said, “Dentsu is committed to delivering the best to its clients and Kartik and Divya are veterans in what they do. Kartik is recognized industry-wide for his media expertise while Divya is one of our finest from the industry. Her strength lies in delivering first-class, client-centric results and I am confident that their expertise and experience will only help accelerate the effectiveness, purpose, and performance offered to our clients.” 

Earlier this year, Dentsu India also announced the recent merge of Vizeum and iProspect into one to bring together the former’s media strategy and planning, storytelling, and brand-building capabilities with the latter’s digital expertise. 

Singapore – Dentsu, a media and communications powerhouse with over 11,000 employees in 17 markets in its APAC division, has launched a new initiative called ‘Common Ground’ in the goal to unite its internal expansive network.

The launch is in line with this year’s Diversity Month. The ‘Common Ground’ is a way for employees at dentsu to make connections in other markets and regions based on their common interests, such as food, sports, music, and travel, as well as books, and film. The fellowship is simple: any dentsu employee is able to participate through a matching form, and will then be matched with a ‘dentsu twin’ for a surprise 30-minute phone call. 

“By using common interests as a way to reflect diversity, the company believes its people will shine through,” said dentsu. 

The company said that the team for the initiative, which was led by Dentsu’s DEI lead in APAC, Merlee Jayme, and Gautam Reghunath, CEO of dentsu webchutney, was finding a way to make out something better off the over year-long virtual set up of the workforce, and thought that maybe virtual meetings were an opportunity to bring its people together across APAC, and that the virtual environment can actually become the most unfiltered way to strike a conversation beyond work. 

To find out, the team piloted the program with eight volunteers and had incredible outcomes, deciding then to scale it to the rest of the region.

“We’re thrilled with ‘Common Ground’ volunteers in Japan, Thailand, India, the Philippines, and Australia exchanging Instagram handles and making travel plans to countries already. ‘Common Ground’ has something for everyone at dentsu, and we’re proud to launch during diversity month. I can’t wait to see how it brings people together in new ways across our network,” commented Jayme. 

Meanwhile, Ashish Bhasin, the CEO of dentsu APAC, said that its talents are as ingenious as they are diverse, and that the company has always bet on the serendipitous connections across regions, believing that it’s the kind of organic engagement that’s gonna take it to places.

“In a data-rich world, I’m proud all the pairings will happen based on actual interests and actual people. The team has asked me to be patient before I get to meet my dentsu twin,” commented Bhasin.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Malaysia’s integrated resort Resorts World Genting has awarded its media services to Dentsu Malaysia, effective April 2021. The win came after a competitive pitch where Dentsu participated as an integrated service solutions team, having recently completed a restructure that brings all of the former Dentsu Aegis Network brands under one umbrella.

The appointment aims to strengthen Resorts World Genting’s entire media portfolio to reposition itself to capture growth in the travel sector. Dentsu Malaysia will be responsible for leading the resort’s media strategy, planning and buying, and customer experience management, as well as performance marketing, and e-commerce.

In addition, the partnership will see the agency developing and driving the marketing strategy for the resort, and also the launch of Genting SkyWorlds, the most anticipated theme park in the Southeast Asia region.

“We are excited about launching Genting SkyWorlds to our customers and also enhance the overall experience of visiting Resorts World Genting. In times as unpredictable as these, we wanted an agency partner that would be strategic, consultative, data-driven, and as passionate as us to deliver the customer delight,” said Dr. Nicco Tan, the vice president of marketing at Resorts World Genting.

Meanwhile, Dheeraj Raina, the CEO of Dentsu Media Malaysia, commented, “We are deeply honored to win this business. The brief was to go beyond media agency services and create an agile but compelling marketing strategy. The travel and tourism industry needs a rapid recovery, and we are committed through this partnership to enhance the consumer experience with the use of data, technology, and human storytelling.”

APAC – Dentsu has recently been appointed by William Grant & Sons, an independent family-owned distiller and global distributor of Scotch whisky, to be its agency partner. This comes as the company concludes in 2020 the consolidation of its APAC business.

The appointment will see dentsu driving omnichannel marketing for William Grant & Sons, focusing on connections planning, digital acceleration, and driving media effectiveness and efficiency across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

According to Susie O’Donoghue, global head of communication strategy and planning at William Grant & Sons, the company has an established global relationship with dentsu and after engaging with the APAC team during the chemistry meeting, they were impressed with their well-rounded thinking, demonstration of planning capability, as well as expertise in driving omnichannel thinking. 

“Throughout the engagement, dentsu demonstrated an in-depth understanding of our consumer landscape, ever-evolving media, and tech ecosystem. Most of all, we like that they have expertise working with clients in the alcohol and spirits business. We look forward to partnering with dentsu to drive growth for our brands in APAC,” said O’Donoghue.

Meanwhile, Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of Media at dentsu APAC, shared that they have been working with William Grant & Sons globally, saying that they are delighted to have managed to expand their partnership within APAC.

“By understanding our consumers’ world digital-first, we are able to unlock new growth opportunities at every stage of the consumer journey. For William Grant & Sons, this has translated into a full digital transformation project as we look to support them in their omnichannel, ‘people first’ future. We are excited to work on iconic William Grant & Sons brands and delighted to partner them in their omnichannel journey here in APAC,” added Mehrotra.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Dentsu Malaysia has unified its creative line of service, Lemonade and Isobar, in an aim to enhance and scale its in-house digital experience technology solutions.

Prior to the merge, Dentsu MY tapped Lemonade’s Managing Director Ruhana DaSilva to lead the newly expanded Isobar, as Lemonade’s marketing and social commerce offerings will now reside within Isobar. She will directly report to the CEO of dentsu Malaysia Kien Eng Tan.

During DaSilva’s five years in dentsu, she has played an important role in developing partnerships and effective digital teams driving the growth of Lemonade. She managed to successfully collaborate with international brands Spotify, NBA, Estée Lauder Companies, and Abbott. 

The now expanded Isobar will become the network’s go-to-market brand for experience-led transformation for brands. Dentsu’s modern creativity offering will bring together creative, marketing, and technology services through its new ‘on-demand’ delivery model.

Commenting on her appointment, DaSilva said that with dentsu’s global transformation to simplify and deliver integrated marketing solutions that are data-driven, tech-enabled, and ideas-led, Lemonade was positioned to integrate a hyper-personalized and consumer-first approach to that of Isobar’s global digital experience as a market leader.

“From scaling a team with a variety of clients and partners from sports and entertainment, health and beauty, and more. This represents a meaningful milestone for our teams and partners as we look ahead to forge the way for the new virtual economy,” said DaSilva.

Meanwhile, Tan also commented that the merge is for clients to have easier access to end-to-end creative solutions that are driven by everything from building meaningful brands, driving end-to-end platform experiences, and to innovating products and services, and transformation consulting in an age of inclusive intelligence. 

“Customer experiences have changed in 2020, and we can only expect to see more brands shifting their focus on creating and realizing hyper-transformational customer experiences,” added Tan.

Manila, Philippines – Global communications network dentsu, has announced the appointment of two key business leaders for its operations in the Philippines.

Quad de la Paz joins dentsu Philippines as head of Digital, while Koji Akabane has been promoted and joins the group’s Philippines operations as head of its Media Service line.

De La Paz is a seasoned digital marketing practitioner with over 17 years of industry experience. Quad has been tasked to drive the agency’s digital growth across both the Media and Creative Service lines. Quad’s previous experience includes website development as well as project management with AsiaOnline, and digital services directorship roles in Dentsu Indio and MRM Worldwide. He has also held a digital media director position at Starcom Mediavest as well as taking the helm as regional performance operations director at Adglow. 

Meanwhile, Akabane brings with him 14 years of marketing and communication experience across the Asia Pacific region, with expertise in integrated digital marketing, commerce strategy, data solutions, and tech innovations. Akabane joined dentsu in 2017 and has been driving the digital business for the network in a regional capacity. Prior to joining the network, Akabane spent 10 years with WPP’s GroupM in Japan and Indonesia, where he led the regional client management team on accounts with Japanese-born brands across a wide industry spectrum, ranging from fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), fashion, retail, luxury to automotive, among others.

In his new role, Akabane will be tasked to lead dentsu’s integrated agency network dentsu X, and look after key Japanese client accounts in dentsu Philippines. He will also be responsible for driving business growth and digital transformation of the Media Service line, working closely with the Media leads, and ensure the line’s alignment with regional as well as global teams.

Commenting on De La Paz’s appointment, JC Catibog, CEO at dentsu Philippines, said, “Quad’s professional expertise has always been focused in the digital space, spanning different segments, such as production, customer relationship management (CRM), digital strategy, digital media, search as well as performance marketing. Quad’s approach to digital is dynamic, agile, and data-driven, but collaboration and synergy across all methods, disciplines, and channels have been the constant thread.”

“He is strongly inclined in the usage of data and tools and believes it is a key component for success. There is no one better Quad to take on this role. I have confidence he will do a stellar job in transitioning traditional ways of working, into one that is tandem with the digital era,” added Catibog.

Meanwhile, on Akabane’s appointment, Catibog commented, “We are delighted to have Koji-san join the team. He has a wealth of experience across not only the network but also the region. Koji-san’s sophisticated digital expertise supports our digital ambitions. Without a doubt, I am certain he will take our business from strength to strength.”

The appointments will commence with immediate effect.

Delhi, India – The Indian arm of dentsu’s media agency Carat has appointed Ashish Singh to take charge as Carat India’s new vice president for planning.

Singh will be leading the agency’s digital mandate for North and East. Through his new role, he will be responsible for developing and leading client relationships for Carat in addition to helping the agency deliver enhanced digital solutions to clients.

Prior to his new position, Singh was with Mindshare India where he held the position of Partner for Digital. During his seven-year-stint with Mindshare, Ashish was responsible for driving revenue growth for the network agency. He has been instrumental in leading several client relationships at Mindshare and has actively lead pitches for businesses.

With more than 15 years of experience, Ashish has liaised with numerous clients across multiple categories to build the roadmap to numerous path-breaking digital strategies.

Commenting on his appointment, Singh said, “With continuous change in the media ecosystem, digital is the battleground for all types of businesses where consumers are accustomed to connectedness. Carat is known for its integrated communication planning backed by some of the cutting-edge analytical tools in the industry.” 

He added, “I am delighted to join Carat – the first specialist agency in the country and the world’s first media agency – to contribute my experience to create a meaningful connection for brands in the digital ecosystem for business outcomes. I look forward to this journey where together we focus on growth, expansion, and nurture talent.”

He will report to Anita Kotwani, CEO of Carat India.  

“I have had the pleasure of working with many digital professionals and Ashish Singh clearly stands out as one amongst the best. Ashish will add immense value as part of my core team and help shape the Carat Digital offering. He comes in with the mandate to drive the larger North and East offices for Carat India and help drive value for our key global clients like Microsoft, Mastercard, Phillips and local clients like Havells, DS group, and others,” Kotwani stated.

She added, “With his domain expertise across the changing digital ecosystem and his love for being a lifelong learner, I am confident that our clients will see the best of data, creative and technology amalgamation under his leadership to help drive their business outcomes.”

Singapore – Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), for the roll-out of its global campaign ‘Here for Good’, has partnered with dentsu for the use of its programmatic supply solution, dentsu Curate. 

SCB’s ‘Here for good’ has been piloted in September 2020 in more than 30 global markets, reinforcing the importance of global trade and SCB’s role in driving it. Around the same period, global communications network dentsu has launched dentsu Curate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKMBmDZaMVo

Dentsu Curate is a proprietary programmatic supply solution and is a proudly built-in Asia product. The communications network developed the solution in response to the emerging transparency issues in the programmatic industry, specifically the often-cluttered ecosystem where advertisers had to deal with a myriad of intermediaries and varying auction techniques. With a lot of work already going into demand-side optimization, dentsu Curate is positioned to be a strategic solution for clients’ supply path optimization (SPO) and curation needs, aimed at driving increased media visibility and campaign performance for brands. 

SCB was a marquee client for dentsu in the Asia Pacific region and was an early adopter of dentsu Curate.  

“To achieve the objective, dentsu Curate followed a meticulous planning and execution process; starting with the analysis of historical performance using granular data from existing demand and supply sources to identify and eliminate opaque supply paths and intermediaries. This was followed by curating high-quality video placements directly from publisher partners to drive engagement with complete transparency,” said Sunil Naryani, vice president for Commercials & Partnerships at dentsu Asia Pacific.

Asma Quadri, client partner at dentsu Asia Pacific, said that Standard Chartered has been a strategic client and has always challenged the network to bring constructive innovation in its work. 

“We are appreciative of their trust and openness to trying new solutions and we are delighted with the strong campaign improvements seen with dentsu Curate, highlighting the need and importance of incorporating a strong supply strategy to programmatic, alongside the ongoing DSP buying optimizations,” said Quadri. 

Singapore – Former global CEO for dentsu’s content and creative, Dick van Motman, will now take the helm as the chairman of the advisory board of Singapore-based pop culture marketing Culture Group.

Through his new appointment, van Motman will advise Culture Group regarding market entry and development, as well as mergers and acquisitions, and executive mentorship.

Prior to his latest position at Culture Group and his past role from dentsu, van Motman has also served as chairman for dentsu in Southeast Asia, and has accumulated more than 30 years of building brands and businesses globally. 

Aside from the current role, van Motman is also on the way to launching his own consulting and investment group which will focus on accelerating the growth of disruptive businesses in emerging industries.

Commenting regarding his appointment, van Motman stated that his newest affiliation with Culture Groups speaks more about a “combination of strategy, creativity, production and strong leadership” that places the agency in “a unique position to define how brands leverage pop culture to create business success.”

“In a dynamic region where demographics are skewed younger, digitally adept, and in search for expression and identity, brands that are anchored in pop culture thrive commercially. Culture Group’s uncommon approach goes beyond advertising and seeks to drive brands to consciously forge a connection with the right passion point,” van Motman stated.

Meanwhile, Culture Group’s founder and president Michael Patent commented, “Dick’s unparalleled history in the region and commitment to developing the next generation of transformative businesses is why we’re excited to partner with him as we embark on our next phase of growth,”

Culture Group has been ramping up its senior hires for its advisory board, including Marie Lee who similarly joins from dentsu to spearhead the agency’s insights and strategy function in Singapore; and Jakeena Malli who joins from Mindshare as group account director, as well as Angie Akaraskul who from Brave Bison, to take the role of business director.

Jumping off the icebreaker of the year, the list this February is another group of brands showcasing innovation and over-the-top creativity. Three out of five are marketing campaigns hailing from Malaysia, with one region-wide; while stories of new leadership appointments, with new hires tasked to take the helm of an Asia-wide team, continue to inspire this month. 

Based on Google Analytics from 16 January to15 February, here are the top 5 stories for February.  

Top 5: SUBPLACE’s ‘Founder Story’ campaign 

When SUBPLACE launched in December, it became the first-of-its-kind, offering an all-in-one marketplace for products on a subscription-based service. In order to encourage merchants to hop on the said business model, it rolled out its ‘Founder story’ campaign. 

The unique proposition that SUBPLACE offers pushed it to similarly offer innovative marketing strategies. In the ‘Founder story’ campaign, it roped in the founders and CEOs of five of its partner brands to talk about each of their brand stories and why they chose the subscription model. The brands featured were probiotic drink Yakult, health and wellness retail chain store, Ogawa, and intimate health and aesthetic clinic, Clinic Rui, among others. 

SUBPLACE CEO Mak WH shared to MARKETECH APAC, “We invited our biz partners to be storytellers, to talk about why they chose to adopt the subscription model in these challenging times, and what their inspiration for doing so was. Through these short features, we also introduce the subscription business model to viewers and convey how this model differs from other business models through first-hand accounts from business owners,” said Mak.

Top 4: dentsu announces new chief growth officer for CXM

Global media and marketing network dentsu international is continuously bolstering its leadership, unveiling veteran hires from time to time; and for its customer experience management business in APAC, it has appointed digital and tech veteran, Rachel Ooi, as its chief growth officer.

Prior to joining dentsu, Ooi has worked for professional services company Accenture as managing director for Industry X.0, the firms’ digital and tech solutions for businesses; and for multinational conglomerate General Electric (GE) as general manager for the ASEAN enterprise sales, as well as leading GE’s Ecosystem Alliance for the APAC region.

For her role, she will be responsible for bolstering dentsu’s CXM regional footprint through new business and organic growth, working closely with the leads of the network’s Media and Creative divisions on integrated opportunities. 

In an exclusive conversation with Ooi, she said that the pandemic has turned the CXM landscape around, where everyone is transiting to a ‘Digital Genesis’ era. 

“In the past, database marketing is the way to go, direct marketing is the way to go. [Right now], we’re talking about leveraging not just on technology, data, but also enhanced creativity, working closely with the ecosystem,” noted Ooi. 

“Here in dentsu, even Merkle, we aim to achieve [and differentiate] by giving competitive advantage to brands and clients. We do that by having a different perspective, no longer just advertising, marketing in siloes, sales, and commerce; we look at it as a full perspective [on] how we can be a strategic partner to clients.” 

Top 3: Creative tech development company Adaptis appoints seasoned business development executive Joven Barceñas as head of growth

Joven Barceñas, former head of advertising and sponsorship sales at Lighthouse Independent Media, the publisher of Singapore-based Marketing Magazine, has been named as head of growth at Adaptis. 

Adaptis is a collective of digital development studios strategically located in Europe and Southeast Asia, providing experience-led technical capabilities to global clients. 

With the role, Barceñas will be responsible for growing the business of the firm through business development and marketing, as well as improving processes within the function. 

Having almost a decade of experience in media, marketing, and technology, Barceñas shared that he chose to further focus on the latter as the industry of technology keeps on evolving and that he aims to be in an environment that presents consistent innovative offerings to improve results for clients.  

“In my current role at Adaptis, I was very fortunate to have been working with very talented people in technology development, and I’m learning a lot about UX, UI, and how machine learning or AI works,” he said. 

Top 2:Kingdom Digital delivers 300 personalized digital ‘thank you’ cards for its 2020 wrap up

Social and content agency Kingdom Digital in Malaysia exercised its expertise in social media and digital creatives when it went the extra mile for its 2020 year-ender special, delivering and publishing over 300 personalized ‘thank you’ cards, to clients, media partners, and employees.  

In the form of 8-second clips, the agency curated a sincere and unique message for each receiver, all posted and published on its Facebook and Instagram Stories. 

Its Head of Strategy Edmund Lou let us in on the agency’s conceptualization process for the initiative, sharing that the team decided to push through with it, knowing how digital cards increased in popularity during limited physical contact at the middle of the pandemic. 

Lou said the team had to appoint designated writers and make use of a proprietary system, Digital Creative Automation (DCA), in order to pull off the moving banners which required 170 varied visuals and copy. 

Top 1: Colgate’s ‘Made for Greatness campaign’

The top story for this month can be considered as a dark horse in its own right–Colgate’s ‘Made for greatness’ campaign which was first released a little while back – in November 2020 – and coming through the ranks, garnering the most views for the month. 

The campaign is for its hardworking formula, Colgate Total, where it featured professional climber and Academy Award-winning documentary director, Jimmy Chin. The spot shows Chin climbing an arduous mountain, but succeeding in the end, bringing the message of strength and ‘greatness’ in tandem with the Colgate brand. 

In an exclusive conversation, Lyndon Morant, Colgate-Palmolive’s regional marketing director, shared that the theme of greatness came about in answering the question “Why did we make Colgate Total?”

“The answer is that we designed [it] for those people, for whom the highest grade [and] the highest performance in everything that they use makes [a] difference,” he said. 

Watch the live report of the top stories for the month on our YouTube channel, where we give you exclusive appearances from the newsmakers themselves.

This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.