Tag: Dentsu

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Multinational Malaysian telecommunications company Axiata has recently appointed advertising company dentsu in Malaysia as its creative agency of record, effective by December this year.

The agency was tasked by Axiata in building its brand equity aligned to its strategic purpose of ‘Advancing Asia’, which is the company’s objective of being the best in the region in terms of innovation, connectivity and talent. Furthermore, dentsu will be providing end-to-end communications support for Axiata to strengthen its reputation with key stakeholders across the region.

Axiata’s appointment of dentsu Malaysia comes in retrospect of the need to elevate its growth as a trusted regional brand, its brand plans will require a targeted mix of campaigns focused on technology and innovation thought leadership, employer branding, good governance, credibility, sustainability, diversity, nation-building, and digital inclusion.

Kunal Roy, CEO of dentsu Creative, said, “We feel deeply honored and privileged to partner with a client that is so alike in our values and our purpose; we look forward to bringing alive Axiata’s purpose of ‘Advancing Asia’ with meaningful innovation and experiences. As Axiata continues to champion progress across Asia, dentsu is committed to partnering with Axiata using creativity as a force for lasting good everywhere, in every way.”

Meanwhile, Dato’ Izzaddin Idris, president and Group CEO at Axiata, commented, “As one of the largest diversified telco groups serving emerging markets in Asia, Axiata is well-positioned and anchored to support digital inclusion and progress in a time when governments, businesses, and societies turn to technology and digital innovation to drive recovery and growth. We look forward to dentsu’s best work to support our regional momentum and aspirations as The Next Generation Digital Champion by 2024.”

For Kien Eng Tan, CEO of dentsu Malaysia, they are thrilled to win Axiata’s mandate, which is not only a recognition of their creative excellence but a demonstration of how the agency can deliver impactful ideas, through a strong collaboration with their client.

“We look forward to leveraging our inclusive Consumer Vision 2030 to unlock opportunities for growth through integrated solutions that are real-time, data-driven and tech-enabled. I am proud of our team, the work we do is our people’s mission and pride — each employee at dentsu is fearless in embracing the invitation to the never before,” Tan concluded.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Global advertising network dentsu in Indonesia is adding customer experience management (CXM) services to their new business offerings with the launch of Merkle, a data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that drives people-based marketing strategies and helps brands in creating competitive advantage through hyper-personalized experiences across platforms and devices. 

With this launch, dentsu Indonesia now has three service lines with multiple agency brands, alongside their existing creative and media offerings.

To kickstart Merkle’s operations in the country, 30 experts including data scientists, engineers, developers, and consultants will be established for reimagining the Indonesian customer journey and strengthening customer experience through CX consulting, digital transformation and data transformation.

For Maya Watono, CEO of dentsu International Indonesia, there has been no better time to launch Merkle in the country other than this time, noting that CX has become a critical component of businesses in Indonesia.

“Many Indonesian companies in multiple industries have started their CX strategies to boost their standing in the market and future-proof themselves to the demands of consumer experience in the digital world. Merkle Indonesia is ready to help brands innovate and map out their CX strategies to stay ahead of the curve,” Watono said.

Meanwhile, Zhengda Shen, president of Merkle APAC, commented, “The Indonesian consumers and business community are making the world envious with their innovative digital solutions. We are extremely excited to launch in-market and bring our world-class capabilities, experiences, and research into the country. We look forward to helping drive the future growth of the digital economy in Indonesia.”

Merkle creates competitive advantage through people-based customer experiences that are hyper-personal, informed by data, powered by technology, and delivered through creativity.

“By adding Merkle to the network, dentsu Indonesia has taken one step ahead towards the future of customer experience management. The importance of data management for business is now crucial as consumers demand a seamless and connected experience,” dentsu Indonesia said in a press statement.

Singapore – Advertising and public relations company dentsu has announced a partnership with cross-channel experience platform Insider which combines dentsu’s integrated capabilities in client support and execution with Insider’s AI-powered cross-channel marketing platform in delivering personalized customer experience journeys at scale.

Through the partnership, brands will be able to seamlessly access a holistic understanding of their online audiences, across different channels and platforms. This will allow marketers to anticipate audience behavior and deliver personalized online experiences at scale to fully address the needs of customers, while reducing the cost of customer acquisition, activation and retention.

For Prantik Mazumdar, managing director for CXM Group at dentsu Singapore, their company’s data-led and technology-driven approach to building omni-channel personalizations is etched in their company DNA, and that their end goal is clear: they are laser-focused on helping their clients cut through the data noise to drive meaningful customer journeys that build brand love.

“As such, we appreciate the complementary value that Insider’s AI-backed model for connecting data, predicting behaviors, and individualizing experiences brings to dentsu’s integrated capabilities. By unlocking these offerings, we will be able to even better collaborate with our clients to help them deliver captivating customer experiences faster and with precision,” Mazumdar said.

Meanwhile, Patrick Steinbrenner, managing director for APAC at Insider, commented that they look forward to collaborating with the team at dentsu to bring more enhanced customer service experience for their clients.

“Having the right recommendation algorithms powered by AI will help enterprises deliver precise individualized cross-channel recommendations and uncover their full revenue potential. Dentsu’s strategic client support and data-led execution with Insider’s platform capabilities will take marketing to the next level,” Steinbrenner said.

The partnership offerings will be available in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Pizza Hut in Malaysia has awarded its overall media buying and planning services to Dentsu Malaysia. The remit will see the agency assisting the pizza brand’s transformational e-commerce journey towards in-home dining, driving sustainable business growth in a digital world. 

As part of the mandate, dentsu will also be responsible for creating meaningful end-to-end media experiences through data-driven marketing and in future-proofing Pizza Hut for a cookie-less ecosystem. In addition, dentsu will be putting together team Red Roof, a unit that will bring resources to implement a seamless agency model.

Dentsu’s CEO of Media Dheeraj Raina commented that they are excited about the opportunity to work with a brand that is loved by millions and this gives them the opportunity to push their innovation further.

Meanwhile, Emily Chong, the CMO of Pizza Hut Malaysia, said, “Sharing the same vision and commitment in making transformative step-change is key to win fast in this new frontier, and Team Dentsu has clearly demonstrated these through the acceleration and scaling of data-driven tech-enabled media capabilities for Pizza Hut.”

Kien Eng Tan, the CEO of Dentsu Malaysia, noted, “We will be completely focused on Pizza Hut to further strengthen its leadership. This win is a result of radical collaboration and the speed at which we have built a technological and data-driven spine to cater to clients’ flexible needs.”

In the latest MARKETECH APAC’s Top 5 Stories, Dentsu entered the list for the announcement of its three new key appointments. 

Inviting Raina in an exclusive interview, he said, “The new lineup that you’re seeing of the leaders [is] primarily [for] creating capability centers of excellence within the organization so that as the agency partners with our clients, we are in the best position of solving their marketing challenges.”

Singapore – Despite the decline in the advertising industry last year due to the pandemic, it proved to be less severe as they continued to roll out into this year, as new findings from advertising company dentsu projects the industry to see significant growth by 2022 at a rate of 6.3%, including within the Asia-Pacific region.

While 2020 remains the weakest performing year since the global financial crisis, the decline in growth has been raised since dentsu’s January 2021 forecast from -8.0% to -5.2%. In 2021, the market is seeing an 8.0% growth recovery, an improvement of 2.1% points on January’s prediction. Looking to 2022, recovery is set to continue when spending is likely to reach US$243.6b.

The forecasted growth of the advertising industry is highly attributed to the increase in ad spending among brands agencies, both regionally and globally.

According to the report, ad spend in APAC is expected to grow by 8.0% or US$17b to US$229b. In the region, Australia and India are forecasting particularly high growth rates in 2021, with 2021 growth expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in China.

The report also noted that in APAC, the 6.2% rise in digital spend last year is forecast to grow by 12.8% in 2021 to reach US$124.5b, representing a 54% share of total ad spend globally. Forecasts for social and video will increase by 33.4% and 10.8% respectively, as well as within the search advertising space, targeted at a 7.8% increase, therefore reaching digital spend to US$23.1b in 2021.

With restrictions lifted on social activity, out-of-home (OOH) advertising will see a bounce back post impact of the pandemic, rising 7.5% in 2021 in the region. Cinema has a slightly longer recovery, with a decline to 5.0% in 2021, yet expected to bounce back in 2022. Radio will also see growth by 4.3% in 2021.

Regional live events such Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Games have continued to be a significant driver of growth in linear TV ad spend in APAC, which has noted 3.9% increase in 2021 to reach US$59.2b. Data suggests a shift towards connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) media and audiences moving more towards digital media consumption mean linear TV spend will remain below pre-pandemic levels until beyond 2021.

“It is promising to see a return to growth in the APAC region with two of our markets in the top five contributors of ad spend growth; China and Japan. While China continues to see strong levels of growth driven by digital and OOH, Japan’s growth will be buoyed by events like the 2020 Olympic & Paralympic Games, and the House of Representative elections [in Japan] and the advertising spend associated with it, particularly in TV,” said Ashish Bhasin, CEO for APAC at dentsu international.

He also added that Australia and India are two of the top year-on-year growth markets, forecasting a surge in ad spend. 

“Australia has had a stronger economic recovery after the pandemic particularly in TV and Digital where the government focused much of their COVID-related campaigns, while India is expected to see a resurgence in Digital advertising spend though TV is still the main contributor with a 40.9% share,” Bhasin added.

Meanwhile, Prerna Mehrotra, CEO for media in APAC at dentsu international and managing director for media in Singapore at dentsu, commented that they are optimistic that the region will bounce back to positive growth in ad spend, with some channels likely boosted higher than pre-pandemic levels. She also noted that the main driver behind the growth is economic recovery, with the APAC GDP set to increase by 7.3%, and a stronger-than-ever push to digital marketing.

“Serving as a stimulus the pandemic has accelerated digital adoption. Digital media will continue to drive ad revenue growth this year with a strong performance in social (+33.4%) and video (+10.8%) and the majority of spends in mobile. We will also see more investments diverted towards addressable and the digitalization of OOH channels,” Mehrotra stated.

She added, “Programmatic DOOH will also be a key growth driver in the future. With the growing numbers of supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-side platform (DSPs) partnerships and increasing demand for location-based solutions to ad-reaching consumers in these times of uncertainty, advertisers will benefit from the speed, flexibility and targeting capability that the medium will provide.”

Manila, Philippines – To commemorate Pride Month this June, creative agency Dentsu in the Philippines has launched TheUnlimitedLoveLanguage.com – a website that aims to teach people how to appropriately converse and speak with people from the LGBTQIA+ community – one with respect and sensitivity. 

We’ve come so far in terms of where the society stands towards the LGBTQIA+ community, with different platforms adapting their views and stands to become a more inclusive community. We have been seeing governments declaring the first-ever LGBTQIA+ officials, and also bills being passed for the greater good and welfare of the community. 

In terms of the baseline on the other hand – the everyday conversations and dealings we have with people from the community – there is still so much to learn and be more of. Companies and even common individuals have taken it upon themselves to practice the appropriate use of pronouns in accordance with a person’s identified gender – but there is so much more to it. On Twitter, we hear normal people and celebrities alike still share incidents of microaggressions, and this is what dentsu Philippines aims to solve. 

‘The Unlimited Love Language’ website presents a list of various hyperspecific statements often heard among people when conversing with those that identify as LGBTQIA+. Examples are “I support lesbians. But why do you look like a normal girl?” or some Tagalog statements like “May boyfriend ka? Respect, pare. But I have to say ‘di ko akalain. ‘Di ka naman mukhang bakla!” which in English, translates to “You have a boyfriend? Kudos, bro. I have to say it doesn’t look like it. You don’t look gay!”.

When visitors click on each statement, they will be directed to an expanded explanation of why such is a microaggression and provides insight on how it ought to make an LGBTQIA+ individual feel and what can be said instead if one wants to send across their ‘unlimited love’.

The website is Filipino-dedicated with a mix of English and Tagalog statements. On the right, it translates, “So you are apparently a lesbian? Good for you! But sucks for us guys. It’s a pity, you’re beautiful.” Just one of the examples of microagressions thrown at lesbians.

In addition, the website also provides free Zoom or video call backgrounds for people to further show their support to the community.

Dentsu Philippines’ Connections Strategy and Research Lead Roki Ferrer shared that about 48% of LGBTQIA+ people experience some form of discrimination within the family.

“People think that not being bluntly homophobic makes them supportive. But tolerance is not acceptance. That’s why we need to condition people’s minds towards unconditional acceptance by heart,” said Ferrer.

Meanwhile, JC Catibog, the country CEO at Dentsu Philippines, commented that they believe that true acceptance is only possible when there’s empathy, that is why showing how LGBTQIA+ people feel, and having a two-way conversation is so important. 

“As our own Dentsu Consumer Vision 2030 trends show, sexuality and gender will soon be less determined by birth. Hence, if we aren’t already, we need to start learning how to love unlimitedly,” said Catibog.

The website is now live and provides an option as well for people to be ‘teachers’ of the love language.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Dentsu Malaysia has recently appointed three new leadership hires to strengthen its media service line executive committee.

The new hires are Asha Nair, the new managing director of media investment and platforms, Jing-Wen Foo, the new e-commerce director, and Hemanth Jayaraman, the new partner and agency brand lead of DentsuX.

The initiative is part of the evolution of dentsu’s recent rebranding and transformed organizational design, building a powerful end-to-end marketing and communications offering that connects consumer understanding, data, ecommerce, and technology with media, creative, and customer experience management.

Nair brings with her over 20 years of media solutions expertise in digital marketing and advertising. Prior to joining Dentsu Malaysia, she has previously worked as the managing director of media company Xaxis and marketing agency INCA, where she led the growth of AI-powered programmatic and content marketing solutions for GroupM Malaysia. 

Nair has also worked at various media agencies such as MediaCom Malaysia, where she was the head of interaction, and Starcom Malaysia, where she was the digital lead. She has also driven results for clients such as Mars Food, P&G, and Telekom Malaysia, as well as Volvo, and Nespresso, among others. 

In her new role, Nair will be responsible for managing client media investments, trading, and platform activation across offline and online channels for the entire media service line.

Meanwhile, Foo joins Dentsu Malaysia from Shopee and Shopback, where she consistently drove growth for more than ten consumer product verticals by using advanced technology to make online shopping experiences delightful, rewarding, and effortless. 

Prior to that, she has supported the global roll-out of BMW’s digital content model out of Munich headquarters and spearheaded BMW Malaysia’s digital marketing campaigns amongst younger consumer groups.

Foo will now be responsible for scaling and growing dentsu’s end-to-end ecommerce capabilities across marketplace and direct-to-consumer commerce.

And lastly, Jayaraman, who has previously worked as the senior brand manager at Hennessy VS and Hennessy VSOP, where he maintained market share leadership and share of voice for Moët Hennessy Diageo Malaysia’s core brand portfolio. 

Before joining Hennessy, Jayaraman worked at food and beverage company PepsiCo Malaysia, where he drove volume and share growth for Lipton Iced Tea and oversaw the brand growth strategy for Tropicana juice brands for eight APAC markets. He has also founded and sold his own events and activation agency, Switch Strategies, which managed top brands such as Audi, Lamborghini, and UOB, as well as Hong Leong, and Johnnie Walker Malaysia.

Jayaraman will now be leading Dentsu X, which helps brands create integrated and personalised marketing solutions to deliver ‘Experience Beyond Exposure’.

Dentsu Media Malaysia’s CEO Dheeraj Raina shared that they are building a technical and data-driven marketing spine that goes end-to-end in our business that will chart new frontiers in our industry. 

“I am excited that Asha, Jing-Wen, and Hemanth will join me in unpacking all our dynamic, data-driven tech-enabled media capabilities towards meaningful progress for clients,” said Raina.

Sydney, Australia – Integral Ad Science, a global digital ad verification company, has announced a new partnership alongside the ANZ arm of advertising and public relations company dentsu to make IAS’ Total Visibility product more accessible to local advertisers.

‘Total Visibility’ allows advertisers to see not only the percentage of wasted media but also the financial impact, allowing them to optimize campaigns toward paths and publishers that are delivering cost-efficient and quality media. 

Using a single tag, Total Visibility provides access to the cost of video impressions that were partially viewed, mostly viewed, completely viewed or not viewed at all. Advertisers can then refine verification settings to reduce waste and better utilize every media dollar.

Dentsu is the latest to partner with IAS, furthering its commitment to deliver a comprehensive set of programmatic transparency solutions for marketers who need their campaigns to be highly effective and cost-efficient. Dentsu will now be able to combine the power of IAS’s Quality Impressions™ metric, with programmatic cost and the supply path data to inform and optimize their programmatic buying strategies while also driving media cost efficiencies for their clients.

Angela Tangas, CEO at dentsu ANZ, stated that advertiser clients want greater visibility on the full programmatic supply chain and to understand where their money is being invested end-to-end, just as consumers want to know how their products are made, where they are sourced from, and whether ethical and equitable practices are used in the supply chain.

“We’re committed to driving trust and transparency across all our media and digital advertising practices. Partnering with the IAS, a market leader in digital ad verification, to offer our clients access to a tool like Total Visibility is an important step to building trust and credibility in our industry,” Tangas stated.

Meanwhile, Jessica Miles, country manager at IAS ANZ, commented, “Programmatic advertising growth in Australia and New Zealand continues to surpass expectations, and with this partnership, we are bringing even greater transparency to dentsu’s programmatic buys, which is a win for advertisers across the region. 

She added, “With Total Visibility, dentsu ANZ can better understand the percentage of wasted media and the financial impact in real-time, enabling them to optimize client campaigns toward paths and publishers that deliver the highest quality media and cost efficiencies.”

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.