Tag: Dentsu

Singapore – NCS, a provider of technology firm services, has appointed Dentsu Singapore as its brand agency of record. The appointment expands dentsu’s remit as NCS’s incumbent lead agency partner since 2021.

As the official brand agency of record for NCS in the Asia-Pacific region, Dentsu Singapore will make use of its B2B solutions and integrated marketing knowledge to innovate for NCS. Dentsu is charged with providing strategic advice and recommendations across all brand touchpoints, and this assistance will be essential in elevating NCS during its upcoming stage.

Speaking about the appointment, Prakash Kamdar, CEO of clients and solutions, SEA, and CEO of Dentsu Singapore and Indonesia, commented, “As a network that takes a people-centered approach to business transformation, we are delighted to be able to support NCS’s vision to harness technology to advance communities and shape society.” 

He added, “This is an enduring relationship that has sparked remarkable brand outcomes in the region, and we are confident of scaling the NCS brand to new heights as we embark on our expanded partnership with this appointment.”

Meanwhile, Abigail Crosby, managing director, Merkle B2B, CXM Group, dentsu Singapore, expressed, “We are deeply appreciative for the opportunity to continue our work with NCS, helping to evolve the brand in the region. The best brand experience can only be delivered when it is thought through every touchpoint of the client journey, agnostic of the platform and content format.” 

“Our dentsu team is able to provide and demonstrate this holistic expertise and consultancy and we are thrilled that this shone through and enabled us to renew the partnership with NCS,” Crosby said. 

India – Carat India, the media agency under Dentsu, has recently named Sanchayeeta Verma as the new chief executive officer. In her role, she will directly report to Anita Kotwani, the media CEO of South Asia, at Dentsu.

Sanchayeeta will be based in Bangalore and be in charge of providing strategic direction to improve the agency’s growth trajectory. Along with this, she will concentrate on coaching the agency’s large talent pool, motivating people to investigate disruptive solutions that provide practical business results that put the needs of clients first.

By ensuring operations, Sanchayeeta will lead the development of new business possibilities and strengthen current client relationships, establishing herself as a dependable partner for customers. Additionally, she will integrate her work with the network’s global brand offering, which will further increase revenue streams in India.

Sanchayeeta is a senior business executive with 27 years of experience in the marketing, media, and advertising sectors. She developed her skills in managing a variety of sectors, including media, content, data, and technology, during the course of her career. Sanchayeeta had senior management positions before joining Dentsu, making contributions across several areas at GroupM’s Mindshare and Wavemaker. Moreover, she has also held roles in businesses like Lintas Media Group, JWT, Kiwi TTK, and others.

Speaking on her new role, she said, “Dentsu and Carat continue to be the front-runner in addressing critical industry issues such as audience attention, brand EQ and sustainable media. They continuously pioneer and lead in digital and CXM. I am very excited to join the Carat-Dentsu family. I look forward to Carat being a fantastic partner to its clients, as well as an ideal place for our employees and the planet at large, by marrying the warmth of ‘creating for people’ with the dynamism of media, content, data, and technology.”

Meanwhile, Anita Kotwani, CEO Media, South Asia, Dentsu, commented, “The network’s focus on strengthening our media businesses aligns with our global ambition. Getting the best people on board is, therefore, very critical. Sanchayeeta’s ethos and the value systems that drive Carat are inextricably linked. Her varied expertise in consumer research, business planning, and client leadership has kept her abreast of the shifting media landscape.” 

Anita added, “She is also dedicated to lifelong learning and staying ahead of the curve, making her an ideal candidate for this position. Carat has increased its scope over the recent year with notable wins such as Tata Neu, Tata Croma, Hero Vida, Times Pro, and others. Sanchayeeta will accelerate expansion and propel the Carat brand to the forefront of the Indian market.”

Singapore – At the 70th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Tencent Marketing Solution (TMS) unveiled its joint business partnership with dentsu.

Ethen Zhang, Tencent Marketing Solution’s deputy general manager of channel sales, shared at the event’s ceremony that they will be harnessing dentsu’s comprehensive strengths and global network resources, and capitalize on the synergies of both their ecosystems. 

“Together, we aspire to offer our clients more enduring and higher return on investment solutions,” he said. 

The partnership will concentrate on four core areas: integrated marketing solution development; copyrighted content cooperation; marketing technology and measurement; and charity and social responsibility.

Dentsu will leverage its resources and expertise in creative, media, and customer experience and capitalize on the Tencent ecosystem to create a platform for sustainable growth for its clients.

Tencent’s ecosystem incorporates a variety of platforms such as Tencent Video, Tencent Sports, Tencent Games, among others, supported by a robust distribution network. Concurrently, dentsu boasts a rich content portfolio and copyright configuration, including animation, cartoons, and eSports. The partners will be exploring potential collaborations in areas such as copyright cooperation, content introduction and expansion into global markets, as well as joint marketing and operations.

Furthermore, by amalgamating Tencent’s measurement and data product, RACE, with dentsu’s profound insights across a multitude of markets and industries, the alliance will facilitate collaboration in marketing measurement, offering a more comprehensive and scientifically grounded perspective to their clients.

In 2022, dentsu launched its ‘2030 Sustainable Development’ plan, which strongly aligns with Tencent’s vision of ‘Tech for Good’. The two companies have agreed to employ their respective resources and strengths to also foster sustainable development alongside their partners.

On June 20th, Zhang together with Rob Gilby, APAC CEO of dentsu, formally inaugurated the partnership by jointly stamping a scroll inscribed with the Chinese characters ‘Lian Meng’, symbolizing ‘Union’. The exchange of ‘Dunhuang’ artwork ornaments – symbols of ‘heritage, innovation, technique, and responsibility’ – marked the commencement of the strategic partnership.

At the ceremony, Gilby shared, “In today’s hyper-competitive and customer-centric world, we need to know the most about customers and harness innovation and resources to continue to manage and meet expectations while also driving growth for business. Today, we are honoured and delighted to be strategically aligned with Tencent, a leader in China to shape the customer experience of the future and cultivate long-standing brand loyalty and trust.”

CEO of dentsu China, Deric Wong, also stated, “Consumers demand quality choices in today’s digitally-savvy market and dentsu’s strategic partnership with Tencent teams us together – leveraging innovations, resources and our leading business positions to help brands predict, plan and move forward for what’s next. At dentsu, we think global and act local, to understand each market better. Collaboratively with Tencent’s unparalleled Internet value added services in China, we look forward to create tomorrow’s experience today.”

Maxxie Qi, dentsu cooperation lead of the channel sales department at TMS, remarked, “We eagerly anticipate fully leveraging dentsu’s robust capabilities in content, creativity, media, and consumer experience within Tencent’s ecosystem. Our aim is to deliver more sustainable and integrated solutions to our global clientele.”

Singapore – Global technology company Lenovo has worked alongside Merkle, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) agency under Dentsu, for its landmark global campaign launch dedicated to its ‘ThinkStation’ product portfolio.

Featuring an emotive creative storytelling approach using a split-screen of strong visuals, the campaign depicts the creative process from inspiration to creation. At first glance the two images look similar – but upon closer look, they reveal the leap of imagination enabled by the Lenovo ThinkStation. 

The placement of the Lenovo ThinkStation product image and wordmark in the centre of the campaign visuals, symbolises the ThinkStation as the bridge between inspiration and creation.

The campaign begun its global rollout in April 2023, and will run for the year, as part of an ongoing three-year campaign. Markets include US, the UK and India markets. It will run on digital media, search, social, programmatic, content syndication, programmatic OOH and print media. 

Describing on the campaign launch, Carter Kersh, executive director for intelligent devices group commercial marketing at Lenovo, said that they needed a marketing campaign that’s customized for innovators’ needs and experiences across various industries. 

“To bring this launch to reality, we saw Merkle B2B as the ideal partner who understands the dynamics of the B2B market. They proposed an innovative, creative solution to make Lenovo workstations matter more, to the people who matter the most to us – our customers, and also demonstrated a deep understanding of our audience and developed a strong creative idea that is linked directly to customer needs. We are thrilled to share the most powerful Lenovo ThinkStations PX, P7 and P5 with our customers and to launch this exciting campaign and brand platform,” Kersh said.

Meanwhile, Farrokh Madon, chief creative officer for APAC at Merkle B2B, commented, “Think Anything Make Everything is a powerful platform idea that builds an emotional connection with creators. It positions the Lenovo ThinkStation as the perfect bridge between inspiration and creation. By doing so, it changes the category conversations that are usually about power and performance to a more empowering one of promise and possibility.”

Lastly, Darren O’Meara, business director for APAC at Merkle B2B, stated, “We know that the B2B industry is in a transformative era, our 2023 B2B super powers Index report highlighted how complexity and increased competition is being driven by customer demand, the B2B performance gap narrowing and the need for buyers to feel safe. While we build brand and establish Lenovo as a trust worthy partner we also need to continue to elevate the customer experience with the same brand message for their customers and partners across all stages of the customer journey to give them a competitive edge. We plan to continue this journey over the next three years.”

Hong Kong – Global Italian beer brand Peroni Nastro Azzurro in Hong Kong has recently partnered with dentsu to take over the Emperor Cinema for its latest campaign. The cinema house is located in the city’s prime location in Causeway Bay and the campaign’s drive is to allow audiences to enjoy motion pictures in style with beer. 

Peroni’s takeover is the first 360-degree branded cinema house domination in Hong Kong. To help audiences fully emerge, Peroni has renamed the cinema house as ‘House of PERONI’, rebranded the 183 seat covers with special design; taking over digital displays, kiosks and TVC. Ultimately, audiences can grab their beers at the tasting booth outside during weekends before the show begins.

Sharing love and passion for movies has always been part of Peroni’s DNA, says the brand. It has long hosted popular outdoor cinema events like ‘Peroni Sunset Cinema’ in Singapore. 

According to the brand, they noticed that their Hong Kong consumers share the same appetite for film culture which pushed them to recreate something that has never been done before in the city and freshen up the brand and prepare for summer.

“We’re excited to make this sponsorship happen. On top of strengthening the brand presence in captive and immersive environment by owning a Cinema House, we also drive a scalable beer tasting experience to build a lasting Peroni impression of Summer Zest with consumers beyond standard media buy. We hope to uplift the summer vibes and position Peroni as summer essentials with this integrated media campaign,” said Kitty Kwan, associate planning director of dentsu Hong Kong.

The campaign has started to run from 11 May and will last until 2 August. 

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

Hong Kong – Dentsu Hong Kong has appointed Tom Wan as its chief executive officer for Greater Bay Area (GBA) solutions. In his new role, Wan will spearhead growth of the newly established business team across borders, realising the group’s commitment to contribute to their clients’ strategic growth in the region and weave capabilities with this important development paradigm for decades to come.

In his new role, Wan will report to Simone Tam, Group CEO of dentsu Hong Kong and work in partnership with the wider leadership team, across dentsu’s capabilities across creative, media and CXM.

Wan encompasses more than 30 years of experiences; beginning his career in New York and Hong Kong before spending the last 20 years in Mainland China. He then joined dentsu Hong Kong in February 2023.

Prior to joining dentsu, he served as the president of experience in Ogilvy China, which he oversaw the relaunch of the agency’s digital transformation and experience unit that covers the martech, data analytic, CRM, e-commerce, UI/UX, and performance media practice. He has also served as the CEO of IPG Mediabrands China and led key positions in the wider WPP Group APAC.

Speaking on his role, Wan said, “I’m excited to return home to Hong Kong after spending [over] 20 years of my professional career in the mainland market, be able to contribute my knowledge and experience to our clients’ growth strategy & initiatives in the GBA region.”

Meanwhile, Tam commented, “GBA is a primary growth strategy for many of our clients for the next decade. With Tom’s deep experience and knowledge of the mainland market, we are confident we can truly offer strong, practical business solutions for clients who are interested in GBA.”

Wan’s appointment follows the recent appointment of Dan Paris as the chief growth and product officer for Dentsu Asia-Pacific.

Singapore – Dentsu Creative in APAC has announced the appointment of Dan Paris as its new chief growth and product officer. Paris will report to Cheuk Chiang, CEO of the division in the region.

In this new leadership role, Paris will focus on driving growth with regional clients and bringing new ‘Modern Creative’ products to market across APAC.

Paris comes from TBWA Group Asia as its regional business development director and head of its specialist agencies and has also held stints previously under TBWA World health and The Integer Group. He brings with him almost three decades of expertise in agency leadership, network client leadership, and leading integrated disciplines across brand and commerce marketing.

“As we continue to drive growth across the APAC region, having someone with Dan’s experience and client connections will help propel us”, said Chiang. “The APAC leadership team and I look forward to working closely alongside Dan as we continue to bring Modern Creativity, our differentiating offering, to clients across the region. His strong strategic mind: proven success in relationship building and creating world-class operating models will help us deliver this.”

Meanwhile, Paris himself commented, “I am extremely impressed by dentsu and DENTSU CREATIVE’s end-to-end capabilities across Experience, Entertainment and Earned.” 

“It’s a true demonstration of its Modern Creative proposition – one of the broadest offerings that I’ve seen. I’m excited to leverage these to create new client connections and drive growth,” he continued.

Based in Singapore for over 20 years, Paris has provided strategic counsel to a diverse host of key international clients, covering a broad cross-section of industries including FMCG, Retail, Automotive, Healthcare, Airline and Travel, and Business-to-Business in the UK and Asia Pacific. Paris is also a regular contributor to industry activities providing keynote speaking engagements and thought leadership sessions in the region and is an avid supporter of the Effie Awards and the Institute of Advertising Singapore.

Paris has joined the business starting in May. 

In February, Dentsu Creative in Vietnam also appointed a new leadership, naming Siddarth Malhotra as its new CEO. 

Hong Kong – Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), a government-subvented body tasked to market and promote Hong Kong as a travel destination worldwide, has appointed dentsu as its global media partner for Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, effective immediately.

Under the partnership, dentsu will work closely with HKTB globally to develop global communications strategy, media planning and buying, as well as support HKTB’s head office and worldwide offices.

Additionally, dentsu is also tasked with developing integrated campaigns to drive creative, production and KOL campaigns, utilising different channels to enrich visitor experiences and create business opportunities for travel-related sectors.

“Winning a global account based out of Asia Pacific is a huge testament to the expertise and insight of the local team as well as to our unique offering of a ‘one-stop’ integrated agency with a close network across the globe,” said Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of dentsu Media APAC.

Mehrotra added, “This win follows closely on the back of our recent win of foodpanda in the region – which was expanded from our remit in Taiwan, and demonstrates a steady trajectory of confidence and strength. This is a positive momentum that we will continue to work hard towards to stay on track of.”

Simone Tam, CEO of dentsu Hong Kong, also said, “We are very excited to be partnering with HKTB to promote Hong Kong to travellers around the world. Knowing what we will do will help to contribute to Hong Kong’s reputation and prosperity make it both exciting and meaningful.”

Meanwhile, Anson Hung, digital marketing director of Hong Kong Tourism Board, said that they feel confident that the dentsu team’s extensive industry knowledge and innovative approach will make them an excellent partner to help the board achieve its strategic goals. 

“We are excited to collaborate with them in creating memorable campaigns that truly resonate with our target audience,” Hung concluded. 

The partnership follows dentsu’s expanded remit with foodpanda targeted at supporting its media transformation journey.

Singapore – Global marketing and advertising agency dentsu has announced the creation of a new cluster for Southeast Asia, alongside the appointment of a team of veteran industry leaders. The newly formed SEA cluster will include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The new appointees at dentsu are Sanjay Bhasin, now CEO of SEA; Prakash Kamdar, now CEO of clients and solutions SEA; and Bharti Agrawal​, CFO of SEA. The three will lead the fast-growing market for the network in the region. 

Prior to the new role, Bhasin was CEO of Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam at dentsu. He is a veteran of the industry with 30 years of experience across APAC and SEA region.

Speaking about his new appointment, Bhasin said, “Personally and professionally, I have also known Prakash and Bharti for several decades and we have built an exceptional chemistry during the years of working together. I could not ask for a better, more collaborative and talented team to embark on this new and exciting era together with.”

Meanwhile, Kamdar brings with him 27 years of expertise in digital marketing and digital transformation and has a strong track record in client-centricity and creating transformative solutions. He joined the digital industry back in 1997 and has been CEO of Singapore and Indoniesia at dentsu.

“I have played various different roles at dentsu in the last 11 years, however my deep love and passion has always been for using the combined power of creativity, design, data, media, and technology to create transformative solutions that help businesses and brands achieve their growth and good ambitions.” 

He also shared his excitement over working with Bhasin, Agrawal, and the rest of the agency’s SEA leaders to transform the fortunes of businesses and people’s lives through its integrated growth solutions.

Agrawal, similarly, is a proven leader with over 20 years of extensive financial experience together with operational, commercial and M&A expertise in listed and private organisations across the UK, Brazil, and SEA. 

Rob Gilby, CEO of APAC at dentsu, also commented, “It’s well documented that SEA is experiencing exponential growth and tremendous transformation. Aligning with this is a natural progression for the business and will support significant investment in and commitment to our people, our clients, our partners and our competitive capabilities in this important growth region.”

Most recently, dentsu International has expanded its partnership with foodpanda to support its media transformation journey and bring closer collaboration across the markets of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.