Tag: Digital experience

Singapore – Amidst a growing interest from consumers to experience more personalised campaigns for them, marketers in the Southeast Asia region are optimistic about the use of various digital experience media, including generative AI, on their line of work. This was according to the latest data from Adobe.

According to the data, nine in ten respondents believe generative AI will help increase their work volume (93%) and create better content (89%), enhance their creativity (92%), and help reach more of the right customers (88%). 

Strong majorities also believe that generative AI will help better personalise customer experiences (93%), as well as in identifying new audiences and customer journeys (93%).

From the consumer perspective, nine in 10 SEA consumers expect to view products through virtual or augmented reality, and 86% want brands to provide new ways to engage in immersive and virtual worlds.

In response, SEA brands plan to respond with new and innovative digital experiences such as the ability to build virtual products and convert them into physical items (84%), VIP access to virtual influencers and celebrities (84%).

And while both brands and customers are excited for the future of digital experiences, the current economic environment is putting pressure on brands to up-level their customer experiences: Almost two-thirds (64%) of SEA consumers say their expectations are higher when economic conditions worsen. The sea of data and technology companies in the market today also resulted in over half of SEA consumers (58%) expecting more personalised experiences that are tailored to their unique likes and needs.

Simon Dale, vice president and managing director for SEA and Korea at Adobe, said, “As economic challenges intensify, customer expectations for always-on, personalised content will continue to grow. Marketers across SEA recognise this soaring demand, and as such are proactively embracing advanced technologies such as generative AI to maintain a competitive edge. Strategically investing in cutting-edge technologies to transform their brand interactions results in enhanced organisational efficiency and allows for exceptional customer experiences.”

Singapore – Publicis Groupe’s Digitas and Razorfish in Singapore have been appointed by SingHealth to revamp its websites and enhance the brand’s digital experience capabilities.

This revamp aims to improve SingHealth’s digital experience for its patients through its group of websites and enhance its digital web infrastructure to enable personalised user experiences. 

Both agencies will work closely with SingHealth to deliver a comprehensive digital strategy supporting the organisation’s aim to provide holistic healthcare services to its patients. 

Through the appointment, Digitas and Razorfish will be responsible for building a new parent website and migrating individual institution websites to the Adobe Experience Manager platform. 

Moreover, both agencies ran this pitch in collaboration with Adobe Consulting Services, and the win strengthens their commitment and capabilities in the platform world. Digitas Singapore was also awarded the UX/UI project. 

For Kathryn Ng, deputy group chief communications officer at SingHealth, they aim to create a more user friendly and personalised digital experience for their patients, caregivers and the public, and thus help make their healthcare journey more easier.

“We are also working to establish our websites as a rich medical information resource, and HealthXchange.sg, an even more engaging and interactive platform, to empower users to take charge of their health and stay well through the ages,” she said.

Meanwhile, Stefanie Liew, general manager at Digitas Singapore, commented, “We are thrilled to take on this important initiative for SingHealth and are dedicated to creating a digital experience that significantly improves patient care and positively impacts their healthcare journey.”

Lastly, Rakesh Bhandari, senior vice president at Razorfish, said, “Healthcare is shifting towards a more user-oriented design, and the combination of these elements has the power to create a seamless, intuitive, and elevated digital experience for SingHealth’s patients. We are excited to be part of this journey and leverage these elements to propel SingHealth forward.” 

The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), despite being one of the organisations in Hong Kong with a long history, has its own digital experience roadmap laid out for its customers. As we learn from Chirag Desai, head of IT & digital channels solutions at HKJC, the club–founded in 1884–has moved from doing paper-based betting to more modern solutions such as online services and streamlined apps.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC for its What’s NEXT Interview series in partnership with customer experience management company Sitecore, Desai notes that their digital changes correspond to the ever-changing preferences and wants of their customers. He also adds that these changes are done at the pace of what they think their customers want over course of time.

When asked about what advice he could give brands in starting their digital experience journey, he advised them to ‘start small, dream big’. For him, what’s important for a business is to pick a business case and start from there. In his own words, “don’t do technology for the sake of technology”.

“Find a very good business case or a problem, and fix that small problem with a small blast radius. Something that customers love [which] your business partners would say ‘you really solved our solution’,” he said.

When asked how cutting edge digital experience technologies aided them, Desai said, “Sitecore, both as an organisation and its products, have helped us to drive consolidation within our CMS footprint across the Club and build new digital experiences for our customers. Those new experiences are built with self service capability for users that drive the ability to update content quickly for the benefit of our customers across our Wagering & Non Wagering products.” 

“The modular architecture of the platform also enables us to flex between on premise and cloud based components based on our very specific requirements. Sitecore will continue to be a key element of our Digital experience in the coming years and we look forward to working with them on this journey,” he added.

He also advises brands to not do all things at the same time, instead pick up a slice of the problem, build a stack of potential solutions and then move from there.

When asked about bigger plans for HKJC’s digital experience for its customers, Desai notes more seamless and optimised personalised experiences for its ever growing audience.

This interview was conducted in partnership with Sitecore. Sitecore is the leading provider of end-to-end digital experience software; its SaaS-enabled and composable platform empowers brands to deliver unforgettable customer interactions.

San Francisco, California – Global digital experience management platform Sitecore has announced the release of new component capabilities in its cloud-native modern CMS, the Experience Manager (XM) Cloud, which will empower brands to deliver seamless and personalised customer experiences across all digital touchpoints.

XM Cloud Components is a Front End as a Service (FEaaS) composer for marketers to create their brand’s digital style guide and build visual components. With this, components can be created from scratch or can be styled by importing existing HTML, and data sources can be mapped to components to enable dynamic and responsive components that may be reused across digital properties, saving time and creating brand consistency.

With XM Cloud Components, content authors, UX designers, and marketers can likewise work in parallel to speed up the process of creating on-brand digital experiences for their customers. It is fully integrated with XM Cloud Pages, which will create an end-to-end next-generation authoring experience.

“We’re thrilled to introduce this new component capability to our XM Cloud platform, designed to enable marketers, designers and developers to work in harmony,” said Dave O’Flanagan, chief product officer of Sitecore. 

He added, “With the ability to compose on-brand, dynamic page components, brands can remain agile and responsive to customer needs in real-time, which is essential in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. Our modern SaaS-based DXP provides limitless opportunities for brands to plug and play new technologies such as ChatGPT, introducing a new level of flexibility to adapt and respond to technology innovations and the ever-changing customer needs.”

Commenting on their new journey with Sitecore, Amy Kolzow, VP of global digital marketing at Wolters Kluwer, said, “We are proud to provide a unified and modern online experience that brings dynamic thought leadership to our customers and showcases our vast product portfolio. When we embarked on our digital transformation journey, we found it challenging to create web experiences that cater for every marketer, regardless of how mature they were in their use of technology.”

She added, “It’s that balance we found with Sitecore that we couldn’t find elsewhere. Since beginning our partnership, we built 30,000 pages, and now we publish about 100 pages a day, all thanks to the drag-and-drop components capability.”

At DX Europe, the company also announced it has signed over twenty new customers to its XM Cloud platform since Sitecore Symposium, which took place in Chicago in October 2022.

In addition to XM Cloud Components, Sitecore also unveiled a number of other updates to its CX offerings, including improvements in Content Hub One’s user interface, preview capabilities, better content modelling, and developer experience, new AI capabilities for Sitecore Connect and Sitecore Search, as well as new automation and personalisation features for its email marketing solution Sitecore Send.

Hannah Grap, VP of corporate marketing at Sitecore also shared that their integration of Sitecore Search on Sitecore.com to revamp the search experience on their own website saw a 25% increase in click-through rate and doubled the amount of relevant content to its visitors within a month of implementation.

New Jersey, USA – Global advertising technology innovator VDO.AI has announced the launch of its new division named VDO.AI Entertainment which aims to deliver immersive consumer digital experiences in the field of entertainment, gaming, and sports industries.

The new division will be led by Sean Black, who is also the head of North American business. It will be composed of a team of experts that specialises in entertainment, gaming, and sports who are committed to delivering innovative digital experiences. 

Moreover, the team will work closely with clients to create activations that maximises VDO.AI’s AI-powered technology and deliver personalised experiences that are align to the consumers’ preferences on platforms.

The establishment of the new division will also allow brands to access various digital experiences that revolutionises consumer connections across the next generation of digital environments. In addition, it will provide a platform to engage with consumers through immersive placements and intergrated creative solutions.

CEO Amitt Sharma said that the launching of the new division serves as an exciting chapter in the company’s evolution and they are thrilled to offer an innovative way to engage with their audiences and create unforgettable experiences for them.

“We believe that VDO.AI Entertainment has the potential to revolutionize the entertainment, gaming, and sports industries by providing immersive, interactive activations that truly capture the imagination of consumers while creating a story and connection to the brands,” Black added.

VDO.AI aims to build innovative and timely products, which serve as growth engines for both publishers and advertisers.

Singapore – As consumer patience on digital experiences is waning, 73% of consumers in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region warn that they are willing to drop brands if they remain to have poor personalisation in their digital experiences. This is according to the latest data from customer engagement platform Twilio.

The data notes that consumer frustration with inconsistent digital experiences is growing, as 53% of consumers in the region report being frustrated with their interactions over the past year, up from 51% the year before.

It is also worth noting that consumers value precise and real-time personalisation, as it improves customer lifetime value. Around 91% of consumers in the region say that personalised experiences increase their loyalty to brands. Respondents also spend 24% more on brands that personalise – higher than the global average of 21%.

Furthermore, consumers in APJ want more control over their customer data, with identity data being the top priority. Meanwhile, 44% of consumers in APJ have stopped purchasing from a brand after their expectations for data privacy and transparency weren’t met, exceeding the global average of 41%.

On the side of businesses, 40% of engagement leaders reported much higher customer retention rates than previous years, compared to 12% of laggards. In addition, 41% of engagement leaders also reported much higher customer conversion rates than previous years, versus 15% of laggards. 

Joyce Kim, chief marketing officer at Twilio, said, “This research reflects what we’re hearing across our customer base, which is that when brands use first-hand data to personalise engagement with customers, it saves companies meaningful marketing spend and increases lifetime value. For brands facing growing headwinds, this means ROI today.”

The recent pandemic subjected the healthcare industry to a trial by fire revealing loopholes that were otherwise shoved under the rug. If there were one obvious transformation that had to be quickly thrust into reality, it would be the digitisation of healthcare. 

In an interview under the What’s NEXT Interview Series by MARKETECH APAC, one of the leading healthcare services providers in Asia – Zuellig Pharma – shared with us its insights on digital experience innovation. The firm activated incredible pivots within its ecosystem during the pandemic, starting with a B2B e-commerce platform called ‘eZRx’. 

Right off the bat, its Head of Product & Engineering, Digital & Data Solutions, Preetham Nadig, encapsulated in a nutshell what had been the state of affairs over the last two years. 

“I think the pandemic has given us [an] overview of what happens when [we’re] not prepared, and how businesses had to transform overnight,” he said.

“Healthcare has gone [through] a tremendous digital transformation journey, and [with] [Covid], we have really catapulted into the next phase of our transformation.” 

Watch the full interview with Zuellig Pharma’s Preetham Nadig here.

Nadig shared that at Zuellig Pharma, they have seen customers demand more personalised and accessible experiences.

“In our part of the world, in Southeast Asia especially, healthcare is fragmented, [and] we still see the same challenges of having access to better [data], to [better] healthcare, and having the trust in [the] products that we consume.”

Meanwhile, on leveraging Sitecore’s composable solutions for their digital experiences, he commented, “Zuellig Pharma leverages Sitecore CMS across our ecosystem of Digital & Data solutions. Sitecore has helped us to deliver a better customer-centric digital strategy, which leads to driving revenue and conversion, and improving customer loyalty and marketing efficiency, to name a few.”

Nadig cited two crucial things for brands in delivering an excellent digital experience – personalisation and convenience. 

“Personalisation and convenience [stand] out. For that to happen, we need to really look at having composable solutions.”

Further, he believes it’s customer-focused innovation that’s going to be the key differentiator as brands continue to elevate and bring to newer heights their digitisation efforts.

“Continuous investment in [composable] solutions helps us to be prepared, be agile, [and] be very customer-focused.”

He also advised brands, “Start with the customer, understand their pain points, understand their journeys, and contextualise your experiences to your customers’ contexts.”

This interview was conducted in partnership with Sitecore. Sitecore is the leading provider of end-to-end digital experience software; its SaaS-enabled and composable platform empowers brands to deliver unforgettable customer interactions.

Malaysia – Personal transformation company Mindvalley has recently partnered with Storyblok, the enterprise-level headless content management system, to launch its digital experience. According to Storyblok, it has helped the self-help digital platform deliver such experience with a 50% cut in development time as well as a 2x faster time to market in 8 languages. 

Storyblok shared further the dilemma presented by the platform. Although Mindvalley wanted to build its own CMS in order to leverage customisation opportunities, it still turned out to be too difficult to use for non-technical marketers.

“Looking back at our pre-Storyblok days, it continues to amaze me how much the CMS can do, and there is still so much more to discover,” shared Prosper Chiduku, software engineer at Mindvalley.

Storyblok’s case study on how it helped Mindvalley manage its digital experience delivery.

Chiduku added, “The marketing and design teams can do so much on their own now with Storyblok, where there has been a regained freedom in the team’s work and the ability to launch as many new pages and campaigns as they want independently 2x faster.” 

Meanwhile, Storyblok’s Co-Founder and CEO Dominik Angerer said, “When you’re helping millions of people improve their lives through educational content, it’s important that those digital experiences are able to scale very quickly. We’re delighted that Mindvalley is experiencing the productivity benefits that come from headless content management.”

Storyblok’s tech enables content teams to create and manage content independently with drag-and-drop visual editing, custom collaboration workflows, and a ‘world-class’ digital asset manager.

The Mindvalley case study can be read HERE.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has announced the appointment of Desmond Ho as its new group director of creative and digital experience. In the new role, Ho will lead the agency’s Malaysian creative team while driving innovative digital experiences across the region.

He brings with him 19 years of helming creative projects both in-house, and in agencies. His appointment is part of Lion & Lion’s growth plan to further expand their offerings in the digital space, especially with regards to new technologies and developments in the digital, Web3, and social media landscape.

Prior to joining Lion & Lion, he worked internationally in China as head of digital creative solutions for the smart electric vehicle company AVATR. He also previously served as creative director for 180 China, as the e-commerce creative lead for Apple, Nike, and Estée Lauder at Publicis Commerce, and was creative partner at TianYuKong

Ho will report directly to Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer at Lion & Lion.

Speaking on his appointment, Ho said, “My passion is creating unique brand experiences through the combination of insights, technology, and creativity that come together to tell a brand narrative. I am very excited by the strategic, digital, and creative focus of Lion and Lion and having worked under Cheelip’s leadership before, seeing him transform agencies successfully both in China and now with Lion and Lion, I am confident in his vision for growth and am glad to lead new possibilities for clients in Malaysia and the region.”

Meanwhile, Ong commented, “As a creatively-driven, digital-first agency, it is hyper important for us to constantly move the needle forward and meet change where it happens. With the opportunities that are unfolding in the spaces of the Metaverse, Web3, social commerce, and e-Gaming, brands and consumers require new experiences that will engage them. Desmond will help accelerate our creative offerings across all digital frontiers to drive progress for our creatives and our clients.”

Singapore – Bray Leino Splash (BLS) Singapore, creative and technology digital marketing agency, has been recently appointed by Far East Hospitality (FEH), one of the leading hospitality operators in Singapore, as its web development and user experience agency for the next two years. 

The mandate entails enhancing the existing digital experience of FEH customers. BLS said that in accomplishing the project, it will be leveraging its Sitecore expertise in order to create a best-in-class user experience for FEH customers. 

Aside from FEH, BLS has also announced a couple other notable newly acquired accounts. BLS has also been tapped by SG Enable, an agency dedicated to building an inclusive society and enabling persons with disabilities in Singapore, for a remit that includes work in UX and design development for its corporate website.

In addition, BLS will also serve as the digital and social media agency of Far East Organisation (FEO)’s newest luxury development, The Cairnhill. The engagement will see the agency take the lead on establishing and maintaining digital brand awareness and lead generation across Singapore and Indonesia. 

Joshua Lee, managing director of Bray Leino Splash Singapore, commented, “2021 was a standout year for BLS Singapore. We feel extremely privileged to have the opportunity to work with these new brands in creating experiences that serve their customers’ needs well. We remain bullish about 2022 with a great team in place and will continue to be focused on leveraging our enhanced UX and Digital Experience offerings.”