Mumbai, India — Digital marketing agency Yellophant Digital, an alliance of Merge Infinity Global, has won the digital mandate for 1Rivet India, a tech-based consultancy firm headquartered in the USA. Through the mandate, the brand’s entire social media responsibilities, from ideation to execution will be tasked to YelloPhant. The Mumbai-based digital agency secured the mandate in a multi-agency pitch and will work towards building up the brand’s presence online.

1Rivet is a US-based IT strategy and consultancy firm that helps clients expand their business growth, assist with new talent acquisition and facility management. The agency will manage the brand’s social media reach on different platforms namely Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Yellophant Digital also plans on launching the brand on any new platform that can bolster its presence further.

Harikrishna Nair, CEO of 1Rivet for India, said, “It has been a pleasure to work with Preksha and her team at Yellophant. We have engaged Yellophant Digital to manage our digital presence and we are happy with the way they’ve run the program so far. The Yellophant Digital team is responsive and easy to do business with. It’s definitely worth having a conversation with them if you’re thinking of investing in your company’s social media presence.”

Preksha Seth, co-founder of Yellophant Digital, said, “We are thrilled to be working with 1Rivet India. There is so much commonality between us, especially a shared vision of what the organization should communicate online. With both our teams being young and dynamic, it shall be an exciting collaboration. I’m eager to kickstart the project and elevate 1Rivet India’s online presence.”

Yellophant Digital has also previously acquired other mandates from brands such as Beleaf, CarBoli, Mezaya, and ExpertMFD, among others.

Sydney, Australia — Paris-based AI programmatic marketing firm Scibids has announced that it has launched in Australia and New Zealand. Scibids, which builds artificial intelligence for marketing, has appointed former JAPAC sales director for Flashtalking by Mediaocean, James Whitbread, as country manager for ANZ and has also elevated its former commercial director for India, Mansi Garg, to be the commercial director for ANZ.

Scibids AI supports strategic business outcomes for brands by building customizable algorithms for powerful ad decision making that don’t rely on user tracking and profiling to deliver immediate and measurable results.

Scibids AI is enabled within leading Demand Side Platforms, and helps unify the ad stack between planning and measurement and delivers measurable ROI for a long-lasting competitive advantage.

Rahul Vasudev, managing director for Scibids APAC, said that Australia is a market leader in the adoption of new technology, and given the market dynamics around media costs, desire for transparency and talent, an Artificial Intelligence solution like Scibids is a perfect fit.

“We are excited to be able to officially launch in Australia and New Zealand with two highly passionate and experienced individuals like James and Mansi,” Vasudev said.

Whitbread has more than 17 years of media experience across various ad tech, digital and programmatic businesses including DoubleVerify and most recently at Flashtalking. In those roles, Whitbread has been working with high-value brands and agencies plus collaborating with various DSP’s, SSP’s, and ad server partners.

Meanwhile, Garg holds extensive experience in the marketing and advertising industry. Most recently, Garg worked with Scibids in India and also worked for multiple years for the media company GroupM in Australia.

The hiring of Whitbread and Garg comes at a time of quick expansion for Scibids, who recently announced the hiring of in-market teams in Japan as well as India.

Whitbread commented on his appointment, saying, “Both Mansi and I are very excited to be joining Scibids at such a crucial time for the company’s expansion globally and regionally. Scibids is a unique proposition in the fact that it removes the guesswork. Programmatic businesses get an upfront view of the likelihood of AI improving their results. But in addition to improving media efficiency, Scibids brings a huge amount of automation benefits to the trading units as well. Given the shortage of Programmatic Traders in the AUNZ market, this brings massive efficiency to the operations as well.’’

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.”

Mumbai, India – Integrated marketing agency Chimp&z Inc has announced that it has acquired the digital marketing mandate for two consumer brands – MuscleXP, a premium-quality sports supplement brand, and Man Arden, a male grooming & skincare brand – both from the house of Emmbros Overseas Lifestyle. 

As part of the mandate, Chimp&z Inc will be responsible for amplifying the brands’ social media communication across Facebook & Instagram. Chimp&z Inc will craft social media strategies and campaigns for both the brands to highlight their innovation and offerings.

For more than a decade, MuscleXP has been providing premium-quality sports supplement products, while Man Arden has been curating products aimed at meeting the daily grooming necessities of the modern-day evolved man, introducing products in various grooming segments like face care, hair care, and beard care, among others. 

With the objective to boost digital footfall, engagement, and brand recall, the agency will position Man Arden as a one-stop solution for the modern-day evolved men’s daily grooming essentials while MuscleXP as the most scientifically advanced, safest nutritional sports supplement. The agency said that both brands share a common goal of delivering high-quality products at affordable prices. 

Sahil Mehta, director of Emmbros Overseas Lifestyle, said, “I have always believed that associating yourself with people of good quality always brings the best to you. I am immensely excited to associate with Chimp&z Inc as I know that they are the best ones to take our business a notch higher digitally.” 

Angad Singh Manchanda, CEO & co-founder of Chimp&z Inc, commented, “We’re excited to work with Sahil and his vision for both the brands. The game plan is to create recognizable social and digital strategies which back the brands’ key messages. Over the next few months, the team will be releasing a series of digital and social content plans to reach the brand’s targets which will starlight the brands and their USP to their desired target groups.”

Last December, the Mumbai-based agency announced its global expansion to New York and Toronto.

Mumbai, India – Digital marketing agency Yellophant Digital has recently won the digital mandate for online organic food supermarket Beleaf Organics. Through the mandate, the agency will manage the brand’s overall digital marketing strategy, ranging from executing social media campaigns as well as media spends, SEO, ORM to website hygiene.

Beleaf Organics is an online marketplace that delivers organic edibles to one’s doorstep, and offers a wide range of organic food products from renowned Indian brands that are exclusively curated with good quality of produce.

According to Preksha Seth, co-founder at Yellophant Digital, they are looking forward to increasing the brand’s social media presence by creating robust campaigns and elevating their business to the next level. Seth also added that their team is eager to get the work started with Beleaf Organics.

“As more and more Indians are making a conscious shift towards a healthy lifestyle and putting the onus on their diet, it is brands like Beleaf Organics that are meeting the demands of the customer. That’s why I am super excited to have Beleaf Organics on board. Being an online marketplace for organic edibles, I’m impressed with their inventory and the kind of brands they have on offer,” Seth stated.

Meanwhile, Yash Lalwani, founder at Beleaf Organics, commented, “Seth Godin once said, ‘Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about a story, you tell.’ To be working with Yellophant Digital has been an absolute pleasure. They add so much value with their expertise in directing a start-up in the right direction and also by creatively helping your business grow. I am looking forward to touching new heights with this group of storytellers for sure.” 

Yellophant Digital has recently won various account mandates last year, including CarBoli, Mezaya, and ExpertMFD.

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia – Malaysian-headquartered consumer goods company, Maestro Swiss Group, has partnered with marketing agency Unravel, to revitalize and expand its beverage brand Vico in the digital space.

Maestro produces chocolates and sweets under its brands Vochelle, Vico, and Darry’s that are distributed to over 17,000 outlets across East and West Malaysia, where all products are also exported to more than 20 countries worldwide.

Through the partnership, Unravel will be bolstering Vico’s brand awareness and consideration by utilizing the brand’s digital platforms, as well as other mediums such as radio, print, and even food delivery platforms.

Alwin Yew, Maestro Swiss Group’s director of sales and marketing, shared that the founders of Unravel have put together a terrific brand and leadership team to further accelerate the growth of the Vico brand. 

“Digital marketing has become a crucial component and the pandemic has dramatically accelerated this demand. Partnering with Unravel will enable us to unlock the full potential of digital transformation and further grow Vico’s brand presence in the country,” said Yew.

Matthew Wong, Unravel’s managing director, noted that the partnership is in line with their commitment to pivot their clients’ businesses by leveraging technology to accelerate an end-to-end commerce solution for them. 

“We synergize the best-in-class expertise from e-commerce, media, and communications to create strong end-to-end marketing solutions for Maestro to increase brand awareness and drive higher sales for Vico,” said Wong.

Fraudulent advertising traffic could be costing you more than just lost budget. Any budget lost to fraud is a lost opportunity for engagement.

Invalid traffic is any advertising engagement that isn’t out of genuine interest in the advertised offering. Malicious invalid traffic, or ad fraud, is often difficult to detect until it’s too late, and then little can be done. As a result, it can drain a marketing budget quickly, with no reward in return.

Juniper Research’s report on the future of digital advertising found that advertisers’ total fraud losses will rise to USD $100b by 2023. This figure doesn’t include the unseen losses, which can be difficult to quantify. Advertisers lose out on budget as well as lost time, poor campaign performance, and lost opportunities for engagement.

Moving into 2022, businesses have accepted the fact that they need to develop and execute an in-depth marketing strategy to increase market share but may not be achieving maximum return-on-investment (ROI) from their digital marketing budgets. Organizations looking to maximize ROI must build a business case for ad fraud detection to get value for money in the new year and beyond.

Innovation Equals ROI

Ad fraud and the sophistication of perpetrators have evolved at a rapid pace in the last 20+ years. As budgets for online advertising have grown, so has the lucrativeness of ad fraud as a business opportunity, attracting more sophisticated players to the arena. Now ad fraud is an industry in its own right, evolving and adapting to continue to outsmart marketers. This industry will only continue to thrive as time goes on.

For businesses, it’s becoming harder and harder to add to blacklists and manage increasingly complex rule sets, without catching legitimate traffic in the crossfire. There are significant barriers to detecting ad fraud such as difficulty differentiating between a genuine and a fake click, evolving methods used by fraudsters, and a lack of industry standards against it.

Without proactive measures, the consequences of ad fraud will be exacerbated further. In addition to the wasted media spend already mentioned, fraud will inflate volume metrics, making low-quality sources appear to be high performing. The result will be advertisers unknowingly increasing investment in sources of invalid traffic, compounding losses further.

Fighting Ad Fraud

Fraud prevention will be the best way to beat these organizations in 2022. By stopping the fraud, fraudsters don’t get paid and the business of fraud is made less profitable. To build a successful business case for ad fraud detection, you have to weigh up which options work for your business.

· Blacklists

Blacklists are an important part of any ad fraud defense because they quickly identify sources that categorically don’t have human traffic such as servers. Blacklists are a very basic first step as fraudsters can easily circumvent them by changing the IP addresses of their traffic. Also, when blacklisting IPs that can have human traffic rather than isolating the fraud itself, blacklists can actually result in high volumes of false positives.

· Rule-based detection and mitigation

Rule-based mitigation involves identifying characteristics and thresholds that, when exceeded, block traffic or a traffic source. Rule-based mitigation is appropriate when you know the characteristics that define a particular fraud tactic, such as an impossibly short click to install time. However, it is near impossible to formulate rules for fraud tactics that you have never encountered before. For a rule to be created, a new fraud type must be observed at scale which means it is impacting your budget and taking up time. Rules are reactive – a new fraud type exists, then a rule is created. It is always fraud first, then rule.

· Machine learning

A subset of artificial intelligence, machine learning extracts patterns and relationships from data and expresses them as a formula that can be applied to new data sets. Over time, as the data changes, new patterns are learned by the model without the need to explicitly program them. Because of the scale of data processed, insights can be more valuable and derived much faster using machine learning than by using human analysis alone.

Machine learning can provide more thorough and efficient analysis. In fact, according to research by TrafficGuard, machine learning, by 2022, could save advertisers over $10b a year in ad spend that would have been wasted on fraud. Instead of reacting to fraud as it evolves with new rules, machine learning can be part of a proactive defense that is tactic-agnostic, more accurate, and able to stop fraud before the fraudster gets paid.

Balancing the Business Case

These key options should all be considered in a valuable business case that accurately weighs up benefits, risks, and costs. As digital transformation evolves, ad fraud will only increase in sophistication and severity, impacting advertisers’ efforts to secure a return on their advertising spend.

Ultimately, machine learning provides a win-win for organizations looking to strike a balance between effectiveness and affordability, as businesses can easily access powerful infrastructure on a scalable subscription model. As we progress into the next year, organizations must prioritize prevention, not just detection, if they are to manage the risks to marketing budgets at such a critical time for businesses. 

This article is written by Luke Taylor, chief operating officer of digital ad verification and fraud prevention, TrafficGuard.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT. This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.

Last 2 December, MARKETECH APAC, in partnership with Adzymic, gathered marketing leaders from top brands in the Philippines to discuss the future of personalization in marketing in 2022.

Moderated by Marilyn Romero-Ventenilla, senior director for communications and marketing at Teleperformance Philippines, the panel roped in Allenie Caccam, head of marketing of AirAsia Philippines; Anvey Factora, the head of marketing communications, e-commerce and retail at Canon Philippines; and Mark De Joya, chief operating officer of Max’s Restaurant.

Data – leveraging it to learn and adapt to the nuances of the consumer – this is what all marketers agree as the sureshot personalization strategy that will sail brands in the right direction, no matter what the changes will be in 2022.

Factora of Canon Philippines said in the panel that planning way too ahead would turn counterproductive to the situation at hand since the consumer is rapidly changing in tandem with the fast shifts in the pandemic. Coming up with multiple strategies then would be the best approach.

“I think the best approach or strategy is to come up with multiple strategies that you can realistically activate in this constantly evolving world that we all have right now because at the end of the day, if you plan in advance, maybe a year, it may not be as effective as it could be in the next three weeks or two weeks because of all the lockdowns happening, because of all these pandemic variants coming into the picture,” said Factora in the panel. 

When the pandemic struck in 2020, Canon Philippines greeted a boulder of a challenge with the creative and imaging industry being one of the badly hit industries. Since local travel came to a halt and events all pivoted to virtual, there had been less reasons for people to buy and invest in imaging products. 

Caccam of AirAsia Philippines, on the other hand, shared what the airline industry had to deal with in order to retain consumers amid shut local and international travel. Being a highly regulated sector, Caccam shared that answering to multiple stakeholders became a top challenge for AirAsia. Aside from thinking of ways to keep the airline in consumers’ top-of-mind, it also inevitably carried the responsibility to build up the confidence of travelers as travel gradually reopens.

“So when the pandemic hit, everything was constantly changing; from safety protocols to travel regulations, imagine the coordination that needed to happen for us to personalize our marketing efforts. It was definitely a challenge.” 

Max’s restaurant, a well-known local F&B brand in the Philippines, meanwhile, was thrust fast into digital transformation during the pandemic. Its COO Mark De Joya on the panel shared that from being an analog brand, it has become something that is very much reliant on digital fulfillment.

Leveraging data acquisition in 2022

With the consumer now becoming more unpredictable due to the rapid changes in lifestyle, it demands brands be more granular and targeted in their approaches; and marketing leaders agree that this can be achieved by continuously obtaining real-time data.

Caccam said, “I think personalization based on data will help us offer the right product at the right time [and] at the right price. So this is hard but by listening to customer pain points from different channels and combining it with data trends, I think brands can stay relevant.” 

Moving forward in the pandemic, consumers would be zeroing in on brands that bring greater convenience considering the inevitable distress the current situation is causing them. With this, Caccam also believes being a one-stop-shop for customers would be a crucial determinant of how they choose what brands to trust.

“So it’s really creating that personalized trust and being a one-stop-shop for your customers especially because I’m in the airline industry and you know our product is basically really good service, so I think that’s one personalization strategy that I would stick with coming into 2022 which is a recovery period for our industry,” said Caccam.

This is also something that De Joya agrees with, especially that Max’s is part of a larger group together with local and franchised F&B brands.

“Personalization comes from having more and more parts to stitch together and with the array of brands we have, covering separate cohorts and different territorial strengths [has grown in importance],” said De Joya. 

De Joya adds how the current times present a good opportunity to experiment combining brands, or for that matter, services together in order to create a new value for consumers. 

“We have such a great opportunity here to blend our brands together and make sure that if I’m not eating Sinigang today and I want to eat pizza tomorrow, and I want donuts on the weekend, [we] are able to blend together the branded offerings,” said De Joya. 

De Joya further comments, “So our definition of personalization here is understanding that there is more to life than the dish in front of you or the particular dish that we’re craving. It’s an integrated ecosystem of different brands which leads to several service platforms that we had to come up with…just to be able to make sure that we’re all able to offer that variety.”

While on the maturity of data acquisition, De Joya says, “I think [data] is something that we have truly invested many resources into. We really [are] able to identify the nuances in the behavior of our customers now not just the basic stuff like frequency, recency, [or] basket size but even trying to get the nuances [such as] what sort of dishes do they favor [and] what are the cross-brand usages that they have.”

With this, Factora agrees, “Data remains to be king when you [personalize] campaigns. You have to understand really how your customers are, how the data would be helpful to that campaign. I think the best approach in terms of creating a holistic strategy towards personalization is number one, properly understand your data. Having the right platform is important [together with the] right message and right channel.”

The panel was part of the webinar What’s NEXT: Digital Marketing in the Philippines which was held last 2 December 2021. Register here to gain on-demand access.

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The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT. This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.

Sydney, Australia – Digital marketing agency Tug has been appointed by Australia-based boutique law firm LawConnect, to be its new digital marketing partner.

LawConnect helps users find a lawyer and connect with them online. It also features secure sharing of documents, and the ability to upload, sign, and comment on documents from anywhere.

As part of the remit, Tug will be responsible for driving LawConnect’s consumer awareness across digital channels, including content creation, organic and paid social strategy, and creative, as well as the relaunch of LawConnect across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as Pay Per Click (PPC).

Alexandra Steadman, the global CMO of LawConnect and LEAP Group, believes that the agency is best placed to lead the digital marketing for LawConnect as they look to drive consumer awareness and education. 

“They have demonstrated a strong understanding of our business, its objectives, and how to realize them, and I look forward to partnering with them once more,” said Steadman.

Meanwhile, Charlie Bacon, Tug’s client service director, commented, “We look forward to ensuring the brand features prominently across social media during the Rolex Sydney Hobart yacht race and have already developed some innovative content concepts that we can’t wait to bring to life.”

In October this year, Tug has also announced its acquired mandate for similarly Singapore-based firm Budget Direct Insurance and its sister Thai brand EasyCompare, with an expanded partnership to include content and UX.

Sydney, Australia – The Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) has appointed creative and technology agency CX Lavender to upgrade its digital marketing endeavors, enabling the not-for-profit organization to put more of its resources into cancer research.

Through the account tender, CX Lavender will manage ACRF’s digital and website activity, and are looking to transform the organization’s digital strategy for the foundation with a focus on improving the donor experience.

In addition, by reworking the digital strategy and approach, ACRF will be able to evaluate all of its digital customer touch-points and optimize communication and engagement with existing and potential donors. CX Lavender will provide digital campaign management, UX and UI design and website development services.

The agency, which was first founded in 1984, provides cancer researchers with the technology, equipment and infrastructure they need to find new and improved ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer. According to ACRF, they wanted to raise the maximum amount of funds by optimizing their digital activity enabling more funding to be directed to pioneering cancer research programs.

Carly du Toit, head of marketing, communications and digital at ACRF, said, “We aim to deliver best in sector digital fundraising. Our partnership with CX Lavender will allow us to put more resources into brilliant research, enabling the foundation to give brilliant minds across Australia what they need to accelerate research outcomes.”

Meanwhile, Clint Bauer, senior partner and head of technology at CX Lavender, commented, “The ACRF has supported and funded vital important cancer research for more than 37 years and we are proud to provide our data, creative and technology expertise to an organization that is committed to a vision of one day reaching a world without cancer.”