Tag: Digital

Singapore – Singapore-based telecom ViewQwest, has partnered with Hong Kong’s telecom and technology solutions provider HKBN Enterprise Solutions (HKBNES) to both elevate their regional capabilities in providing ICT and digital transformation (DX) services to customers in APAC, especially for large regional retailers. 

By combining ViewQwest’s extensive regional network with HKBNES’ one-stop digital solutions, the two companies will be able to further strengthen their regional capabilities to create win-win-win outcomes with customers.

Moreover, leveraging HKBNES’ competitive ICT and digital solutions capabilities, ViewQwest will be working with HKBNES in deploying digital transformation services in Hong Kong and Macau. Both will be establishing a colocation facility in HKBN’s data centre, providing on-ground technical and engineering support to ViewQwest’s customers in Hong Kong and Macau, including software and hardware installation and troubleshooting services.

Vignesa Moorthy, CEO of ViewQwest, shared that their partnership with HKBN leverages their deep knowledge and experience in the Hong Kong and Macau market, and it will enable them to better serve their customers with regional operations.

“This combined play marks a significant milestone in our journey and mission to help our customers build and transform their network and security architecture with confidence, streamlining operations, driving cost-savings, and enabling business agility,” said Moorthy.

Meanwhile, William Ho, co-owner-to-be and CEO at HKBNES, noted that this is a unique growth opportunity to further enhance their position as one of the most trusted ICT and digital transformation solutions providers, as they can more dynamically meet their customers’ diverse business and strategy needs – like expanding into overseas markets.

“This world-class partnership will strengthen HKBNES’ footprint in Singapore, and provide us with a solid foundation for accelerated development and growth in the Southeast Asia and APAC markets,” said Ho.

Singapore – WPP creative company Superunion has unveiled its proprietary design technology which enables brands to create innovative digital experiences and build meaningful connections with their audiences. This new offering includes generative design and metaverse experiences, in addition to established motion design expertise.

The new creative technology service was developed by the Superunion Asia team across APAC and China studios, led by Jessica Tan, Superunion’s digital director for Asia, and Paola Demichelis, Superunion’s digital designer. By applying technology and digital art, and connected to data, the tools enable brand owners to generate limitless creative assets in record time, within the parameters of their brand identity, giving them creative control, and a platform to express their creativity, over their own brand.

Moreover, the tool has been put to use by multiple Superunion clients to ensure brand innovation and coherence after the creation of brand guidelines. After defining the brand rules with the client, Superunion codifies what makes the design unique, creating a set of design rules. These are then built into a series of algorithms and codes to build bespoke software, along with the UI and UX interfaces integrated into the final tool.

The generative design tool is also complemented by the launch of the Superunion metaverse offer for clients looking at the next generation of digital experiences to engage their employees and external audiences through gamification and creative possibilities of Web 3.0.

With Superunion expanding its portfolio of services, the company will be able to act as a creative partner for the world’s biggest businesses across multiple sectors and geographies.

Tan shared that creative technology is a core aspect of their Superunion proposition, along with digital-first brand creation and the exploration of the opportunities of the next generation of internet experiences. 

“We believe in handing power to our clients and their creative teams, and our creation of these expansive systems enables this. Clients can use the design rules of their brand and create an almost never-ending suite of assets to suit any need over time and let their own creativity free. This is where Superunion has come into its own and where we see the opportunity for growth, globally,” said Tan.

Meanwhile, Ambrish Chaudhry, Superunion’s managing strategy director for Asia, said that their creative technology offer has already changed the way they think of branding and design at Superunion. 

“It’s helped us to think screen -first, be agile around [the] adoption of our work and to play an even more consultative and partnering role for our clients. The opportunities are truly boundless and if client response is something to go by; then we are well poised to write the next chapter of brand and product identities for some of the largest businesses globally and in Asia,” said Chaudhry.

Singapore – B2B marketplace Proxtera together with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has launched an open financial education and action programme for MSMEs in Asia and Africa, which will be called, the ‘SME Financial Empowerment (SFE)’ programme.

The programme is a digital portal operated by Proxtera that aims to help MSMEs build foundational digital financial literacy skills, and gain a good understanding of cross-border financial services relevant to MSMEs, to help them thrive in the post-pandemic digital economy. It was rolled out last 14 June 2022 with market partners in Asia and Africa, starting with Ghana, India, the Philippines, and Singapore, and will benefit more than 400,000 MSMEs across both regions.

In addition, the SFE programme will be covering three key areas as a focus for 2022, namely Essential Financial Digital Skillset, MSME Financial Services, and Digital Economy Access & Growth. It will also be providing two certification courses that were developed in collaboration with UNDP, IFC, MAS, Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and the Global FinTech Institute (GFI), namely Foundational Financial Literacy and Global Financial Literacy.

Saurav Bhattacharyya, Proxtera’s CEO, commented that they are proud to be the exclusive lead partner of the programme, and running the programme office that ideates, manages, and implements the rollout. 

“The SFE programme stays true to our mission of supporting MSMEs, by upskilling them to understand financial services and how best to tap into the digital marketplace effectively and globally. SFE provides that first step for individuals to embark on a journey of digital transformation, where their understanding and digital competencies mature over time, and they become part of an integrated ecosystem that allows them to truly trade business-sans-borders,” said Bhattacharyya.

Malaysia – Malaysian telecom company Telekom Malaysia is making an interesting stride in content marketing with its newest insights hub – its Official TM Blog. The content destination will be providing direct access to thoughts and insights from the group’s top leaders and subject matter experts in the telco and technology sector.

Following the footsteps of some of the world’s biggest tech firms, the blog intends to become a one-stop information centre for key decision-makers, analysts as well as the media, allowing them to get the latest industry happenings, new ideas, analyses as well as trends in digital technologies and transformation, sustainability, organisational culture and various other exciting topics.

Written to engage and inspire an informed global audience, the articles are clustered into four segments namely Ideas, Trends, Achievements, and Insights.

The Official TM Blog is updated monthly, and is accessible from the main page of its corporate website.

Sri Lanka – Despite the turmoil brought by the new COVID-19 Omicron variant as well as the economic issues the country is facing, Sri Lanka’s advertising scene is set to grow by 16% by 2023, which will be dominated by digital formats. This is according to the latest data from Mediabrands’ MAGNA.

According to the insights, Sri Lanka’s advertising market grew by over 10% in 2021. However, it is feared that this growth forecast might change in the near future amidst economic instability in the country, as well as facing a consumer price inflation crisis.

In other mediums, linear formats will also see some growth this year, though on a smaller scale. Meanwhile, television (+3%) and radio (+5%), and OOH (+13%) will see the strongest growth while print will decline slightly (-5%). 

“2023 will bring continued recovery for most linear ad formats, with the exception of print, but over the long term, we anticipate digital will continue to gain market share at the expense of linear media channels,” the report said in a statement.

As evident across APAC, digital is the backbone of growth, with all digital formats expected to see another year of double-digit growth: video by over 52%, social by over 25%, search by over 21%, and display by over 18%. In total, digital advertising revenues will reach US$131m, or a 37% market share regionally.

Digital ad spend on Android devices has soared 23% from 2021 to 2022 reaching USD 2.7 billion in Q1 for APAC alone, according to an AppsFlyer study. This shows both growth and opportunity, which also means more competition for app marketers out there.

To add to the list of challenges, the industry experienced major shifts in privacy policies – such as the iOS14+ update that shook the world in April 2021. Indeed, we are only a few years away from Android’s privacy update coming into play. So, with the growth of the industry coupled with the volatile landscape of privacy, it is extremely important for app marketers and developers to make data-driven strategic decisions that help them stand out from the crowd.

Supporting data metrics to help your mobile app stand out

1. ATT Prompt Opt-in Rate

According to AppsFlyer’s data, in APAC alone, 57% of apps have implemented the ATT prompt and 46% of users have opted-in to the prompt. This shows a generally optimistic response from consumers willing to consent to data tracking.

Despite the region displaying positive sentiment towards data tracking, it is still important for marketers to continuously improve their ATT user consent rate. Using ATT opt-in rate as a KPI for your team would enforce a clear target around how to improve consent. Running A/B tests on both the pop-up and pre-pop up screens could help make a real impact among your user bases. A 1% increase in opt-in rate would unlock at least hundreds to thousands of app users for re-engagement if they churned.

2. Optimising conversion value setting

The SKAdNetwork Conversion Value represents an action performed by users in an app. For example, a purchase within the app, or completing a specific level in a video game. This value is later attributed to the source of install to enable campaign measurement.

There are many ways you can utilize the conversion values. From basic strategies to calculate revenue to advanced combo-split strategies to understand cohort data, deterministic signals, value prediction, and revenue simultaneously; it is important to optimize your conversion value settings to understand your users effectively.

3. LTV & ROAS metrics

In 2022, app marketers are acclimating to the loss of user-specific data. With these shifts, marketers are incentivised to place a larger emphasis on lifecycle marketing to make up for the reduced returns of remarketing campaigns. Acquiring the most valuable users for your app now requires a strong understanding of your highest performing channels, campaigns, ad sets, and creative variations: often measured using LTV and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) metrics.

Privacy-centric methods in attaining data

Beyond the three data points mentioned above, marketers can explore other metrics to navigate the user-centric digital world we face today. A few suggestions include:

1. Embracing more non-SKAN forms of measurement

2. Using probabilistic measurement methods

3. Modeling conversions

4. Incrementality

Keep an eye out for up-and-coming technologies to help measure marketing effectiveness. A prominent example is Data Clean Rooms (DCRs): a sandbox environment to help marketers collect, analyze, aggregate, and share data of all kinds, across both internal and external stakeholders.

Maintaining your user retention rate above industry benchmarks is a key success indicator for today’s mobile-first businesses. Modern technology delivers a lightning-fast user experience, helping marketers successfully execute the coveted ‘consumer is king’ approach. Another key factor fueling off-the-chart retention numbers is the ability to connect existing data with a holistic view of every user journey across platforms, channels, and devices. Technology is the foundation of every marketing tech stack, cementing its place as the source of truth for marketing data.

This article is written by Naval Handa, marketing analyst of AppsFlyer for APAC.

Belgium – Selligent Marketing Cloud, the omnichannel marketing and customer experience platform, has released a report unpacking the critical issues brands need to address to effectively engage Generation Z (Gen Z) customers.

Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2010) is finally emerging in the consumer marketplace. Having grown up with more access to technology than any other generation before them, Gen Z sees technology as less of a ‘shiny’ object and more of an extension of modern life.

As such, Gen Z’s relationship to data is also different, and privacy isn’t much of a priority. In fact, the report reveals that only half of Gen Z respondents say they have control over their personal data.

This generation is also rewriting the rules when it comes to consumer engagement in areas like technology, shopping, media and brand loyalty. The report finds:

● 75% of Gen Z respondents say they shop on smartphones, compared to 69% of millennials

● 49% of Gen Z respondents say they obtain news and information from YouTube, compared to 37% of millennials

● 55% of Gen Z respondents want to wait until technology is proven to work before they adopt, compared to 47% of millennials

Going forward, it’s vital marketers forge a new toolkit aimed at reaching and engaging with Gen Z exclusively. By learning and understanding this generation’s motivations, behaviours and preferences, they can better create strategies that drive this significant consumer segment to action.

‘Phygital’ retail experiences matter to Gen Z

For retailers, having a presence across digital and physical channels is no longer enough to reach the youngest generation of consumers. Gen Z expects technology to enhance their physical experiences rather than replace them.

Interestingly, this age group shows a clear preference for in-store shopping over millennials in several categories, including electronics (43% vs. 37%) and clothing (43% vs. 40%). Gen Z also visits physical stores more often than any other age group: 59% visit a store at least once a week, the report reveals

Retailers, therefore, need to reinvent the shopping experience, merging the physical (brick-and-mortar) with the digital (online/web) in a way that appeals to Gen Z – a process newly coined as “phygital”. This term often goes hand in hand with “digitalisation at the point of sale” – the fusion between eCommerce and physical stores.

An educated, skeptical audience wants more from media

Rather than turning to traditional media brands, Gen Z is more likely to seek information on social-media platforms than older generations. In fact, almost half (49%) say they are more likely to make a purchase after seeing a post or ad on social media than through any other channel (SMS, website or email). When searching for information, Gen Z turns to influencers on platforms like TikTok (23% – twice as many as other generations) or YouTube (49% compared to 37% for millenials).

“This generation was raised with social media and can, therefore, adapt to various formats and types of content more easily. For this reason, companies have a unique opportunity to merge advertising and content strategies for this audience, as well as create and integrate different touchpoints with their consumers,” said Anne Jarry, marketing director for Europe and North America at Selligent.

“In a trusted environment, delivering highly relevant messages, such as personalised videos embedded in a newsletter or a live-streamed event on TikTok, is much more appealing to Gen Z than other generations. This generation requires an entirely new approach and opens up opportunities to brands that are worth capturing,” added Jarry. 

“The Gen Z transformation is upon us, and marketers must be ready. Those who haven’t evolved their marketing strategies to connect with this consumer segment are already falling behind. Gen Z’s behaviour and motivations are different from their predecessors. They consume information, interact online and even shop differently, therefore, it’s critical for marketers to adapt. As a generation that desires control, brands need to empower Gen Z to effectively capture their unique preferences and form relationships, especially as third-party cookies phase out entirely, making personalisation even more vital to reaching Gen Z,” said Ramses Bossuyt, global VP of client success at Selligent.

India – The Indian video market grew 37% in the past year and stood now at U$S3.8 billion, according to the Future of Video India virtual conference organised by Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) in April 2022. 

Mihir Shah, VP of Media Partners Asia in India, one of the keynote speakers, opened the conference with an outlook on India’s video market, which showed a sharp rebound in the TV advertising market, after a depressed 2020. According to Shah, with a total video market worth US$12 billion and growing at 9% CAGR in the next 5 years to US$20 billion, the AVOD market was also predicted to remain buoyant and triple in the next five years, with SVOD tripling as well. 

Manoj Gurnani, CTO & head of strategy for India, Nokia, also one of the keynote speakers at the conference, shared that a new generation of technology was going to bring more capabilities and more efficiencies. With 5G bringing on fixed wireless capabilities, it was going to be a great enabler, which would lead to the enhancement of the quality of experience. 

Avinash Kaul, CEO, Network18, managing director, A+E Networks TV18 summed up the optimism for the industry in his closing keynote and said, “The future of video has always been bright and will continue to shine brighter and brighter.” With the online video ecosystem having opened up, funding and content had also poured in, with money coming into the ecosystem from all sources.”

Kaul added that having opened up the online video ecosystem, funding and content had also poured in. With greater investment in technology and data, content was also getting shaped because of analytics and there was also a new future for data driven companies to tap into funding.

Adelaide, Australia – RiskRecon, a security assessment provider under Mastercard, has entered into an Australian-first partnership with Openly, a privacy-tech startup based out of the Stone & Chalk innovation hub in Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen, to provide organisations with a complete view of their supply chain privacy and cyber risk posture.

As a part of Mastercard’s Global Cybersecurity Alliance Program, Openly has integrated RiskRecon cyber risk data into its platform. Openly Vendor Monitor customers can now view RiskRecon cyber risk ratings for every vendor in the platform based on continuously updated data.

Openly Co-Founder Jay Gilden said “As we see progress toward significant privacy law reform in Australia, senior business leaders are placing more weight upon the importance of privacy for long term business health… this is driving up the appetite for investment in innovation.” He also mentioned that the announcement, which comes at the start of Privacy Awareness Week, highlights that Australia can lead the way in global privacy innovation.

Gilden said the catalyst for partnering with Mastercard was the uptake of its new product, Openly Vendor Monitor, across global markets.

“When we launched Openly Vendor Monitor in mid-April, we saw more than 200 businesses join in 72 hours. We planned to launch softly into the Australian market, and suddenly we had customers in 37 countries.”

Openly’s ‘Vendor Monitor’ bolsters transparency between buyers and suppliers through continuous privacy risk monitoring. The platform watches and updates more than 19,000 vendor profiles daily, and can detect changes to key business information, privacy documentation, terms of service agreements and public records.

Kelly White, founder at MasterCard RiskRecon said that the addition of RiskRecon’s cyber risk ratings into Openly Vendor Monitor provides an added layer of critical information for buyers when assessing and managing supply chain risk.

“By combining Openly’s innovative approach to continuous privacy risk monitoring with RiskRecon’s cyber risk ratings, organisations now have access to enhanced visibility of their risk profile across their supplier relationships. We are excited about partnering with Openly to simplify an increasingly complex supply chain risk landscape,” White said.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – New streaming platform sooka, releases its latest campaign together with Reprise in commemoration of this year’s Raya celebrations, the festival of the ‘breaking of the fast’ celebrated by Muslims in Malaysia. 

The film titled ‘Krisis Social Media Anis’ (Anis’ Social Media Crisis), directed by P. Prem Anand Pillai of ‘Love Child’, features the trials of social media wannabe, Anis, as she laments the loss of two followers the day before Raya. Her family, who happens to share a similar obsession with social media and calls each other by their social handles, rallies together with a social media guru for tips and insights to help her gain back lost followers, urging more followers for Anis through their own social media accounts. All to no avail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddDwbm3gTKw&t=1s

Head of Brand & Communications of sooka, Hilda Shamsul Bahri, said, “The idea came from a series of real stories on the challenges of this generation who see ‘Likes’ and ‘Followers’ as their social currency. But it’s not always about the ‘Likes’. We want younger Malaysians to know that your self-worth is not dependent on social media perception. Rather, it is about giving thanks, and improving connections with our family and loved ones this Raya. We love the freshness of this festive film by Reprise for us as it falls very much in line with what we stand for as a brand.”

Kevin Le, executive creative director of Reprise Digital, said, “The film was inspired by millennials, who crave social validation. This quest to belong on the social sphere through the best content, more likes, and followers sometimes comes at the cost of what’s real. This Raya, we wanted to show that the best followers are your family, so embrace your true selves and appreciate the people who have always been supportive of you.”Le also added that the central character of Anis is relatable to the younger generation, whether they celebrate Raya or not.