Tag: East Asia

Shanghai, China – Global footwear brand Crocs in China has launched an interactive and playful, physical installation at Taikoo Hui Shanghai, in order to promote the ‘Crocs for Yang Mi’ collection, with global brand ambassador Yang Mi, tapping into the Chinese actress’ enormous fanbase. 

According to Crocs, the creative idea was inspired by Yang Mi’s personal style that a person is neither sweet nor only cool, encouraging fans to discover and show the multi-side charm of the campaign message, ‘Come as you are’.

Created in collaboration with digital production company MediaMonks, the campaign execution will be via an experiential installation at Taikoo Hui mall, where photo booths were set up to capture its campaign theme ‘The Yang Mi Sweet and Cool Style’. 

With three selfie booths that uniquely depict each of the Mi-styles and maintain the key visual aesthetic, the campaign seeks to stay close to Yang Mi’s fans and the Gen Z female consumers, who are split into style-shoppers and true-love fans.

Fans could personalize the photo moment with three shareable booths furnished with interactive photo, sound, and lighting booths. The control panels in front of the booths opt for the visitors to experiment with the set in order to find their own sweet and cool style. 

Furthermore, various Jibbitz charms will be used to personalize the photo moments by putting them on the interactive board. This will activate a real-time personalized soundscape with a fitting lighting setup, echoing Yang Mi’s sweet and cool styles.

Each booth will also have its own soundboard to reflect its interior design. With 10 sound layers on the soundboard and a maximum of 4 Jibbitz charms to move around, there are over 1000 different possible combinations that can be made by users. For each installation, a personal sound or phrase that represents the mood will be created, which urges consumers to record and share on their social media platforms with an incentive that can be redeemed in the Crocs Energy Store in the Taikoo Hui mall.

Currently, over 8,000 people have engaged with the activation, generating 1.79 million impressions with 32% of the installation visitors converting to store visitors.

Hong Kong – The consequences of the pandemic are unprecedented and felt around the world, wreaking havoc across the retail industry. Euromonitor International, the global independent strategic market research provider firm, has revealed its list of the top companies within the retailing industry in the APAC region for 2020, and in Hong Kong, more than half of the leading companies in 2019 are still the ones that ruled 2020.

The majority of the 10 companies on the list maintained their sales growth and rankings in 2020. International health and beauty retailer AS Watson Group has retained its standing, coming out to reign the rankings as the top retailer. This was followed by Dairy Farm International Holdings, the pan-Asian retailer that operates across food, health and beauty, and home furnishings, and restaurants, with Japan-based distribution business firm Seven & I Holdings Co landing in the third spot.

Meanwhile, jewelry company Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group also maintained its sales as well, coming out in the fourth spot, while property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties caps the top five. One of the firms that have also retained growth for the year is convenience store firm Alimentation Couche-Tard ending in the eighth spot.

Two out of the top 10 firms have registered improvement in sales, namely, retail and financial services company AEON Group and multimedia business firm Hong Kong Television Network, landing in the sixth and seventh spots respectively.

On the other hand, jewelry retailer firm Luk Fook Holdings and retail chain company Broadway Photo Supply have dropped sales in 2020.

AS Watson Group, which registered $9.8b in sales in 2020 came out as the 34th leading retailer in the Asia region. For the region, Alibaba Group Holding took the crown with $367b in total sales for the year.

According to Euromonitor, the pandemic has had a significant negative effect on consumer confidence, leading many to rein in their spending, which impacted many retailers adversely enough to exit the market. However, the pandemic has been a boon for grocery retailers and e-commerce and will continue to enjoy strong growth in retail current value sales, as consumers become more interested in home cooking and following a healthier diet.

In 2021, the research firm believes that brick-and-mortar sales will begin to rebound, while retailers that depend on tourism will be the slowest to recover, including stores selling jewelry, watches, and apparel, as well as footwear, and luggage.

Hong Kong – The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), a statutory body that promotes, assists, and develops the country’s trade, has launched the GoGBA one-stop platform, a new business support program that aims to help SMEs tap into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

GBA is China’s project that seeks to foster economic growth by developing technology and innovation, boosting infrastructure, and increasing financial links between Hong Kong, Macau, and nine other cities in Southern China.

Through the new GoGBA one-stop platform, businesses will be able to enjoy its three major services that can help them succeed in the region.

One of the services is the digital information and business tools, which consists of the GoGBA WeChat mini program digital messaging platform, running in collaboration with the government offices of Guangdong province and municipal governments in the GBA. It provides important information on the region including updates on policies and subsidies, listings of related business and trade organizations, and regional guides, as well as information on GBA government services and applications. It also offers practical tools such as weather forecasts, interactive maps, and details of public services, among others.

GBA also offers advisory services and training, where centers organize a series of seminars and workshops, sharing sessions and advisory activities in group or individual formats, equipping companies with the practical knowledge and skill sets needed to succeed.

And lastly, GBA offers online and offline activities, promoting the adoption of the new ‘digital and physical’ format for events and activities. The Council is currently planning to organize a wide range of activities in the mainland, including exhibitions and conferences, to help Hong Kong enterprises promote their products and services, explore business opportunities in GBA cities, and gain practical experience at the same time.

HKTDC’s Chairman Dr. Peter K N Lam shared that the GBA offers huge opportunities for businesses in Hong Kong and around the world. 

“Our GoGBA WeChat mini program is a useful digital tool to complement our physical support centers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and other parts of the GBA through our partners. As more and more businesses look for prospects in the GBA, the HKTDC is here to help,” said Lam.

Hong Kong – Global creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson has appointed Sheungyan ‘Mayan’ Lo, the current head of its APAC unit’s creative team, to be its new chief creative officer in Hong Kong.

Lo has been at the helm of the APAC creative team for more than two decades and will continue to be heavily involved in client work and support the creative team and leadership in the Greater China offices and beyond.

With Lo’s guidance, the APAC unit has been recognized at some of the industry’s best shows including Japan’s AI Manga for KIOXIA and Thailand’s Stay Home Miles Exchange for Thai Airways. 

In addition, his work has received accolades worldwide at award-giving bodies such as Cannes, One Show, and D&AD, as well as Clio, and LIA, among others. Lo has also been regularly invited to be on the other side – as a jury panel to help decide which among the entries are award-winning pieces of work. 

As part of the new role, Lo will be leading the Hong Kong creative department.

Commenting on his appointment, Lo said, “I am delighted to go back home. And I am even more excited to work closely with all the talents in my home market.”

Meanwhile, Matt Parry, the managing director at Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong, vouched for Lo, looking to him as one of the most respected creative leaders in Asia. 

“He has an incredible track record of delivering outstanding creative solutions for some of the most iconic brands in this region. I could not be more excited that Mayan is returning home,” said Parry.

Lo’s appointment coincides with the departure of Carlos Camacho, executive creative director, who is moving to the Amsterdam team.

Hong Kong – To commemorate World Environment Day which was celebrated on 5 June, AXA Insurance in Hong Kong and Macau has launched the first film for its ‘Know You Can’ local hero campaign series. 

The ‘Know You Can’ local hero campaign series is a lineup of videos that aims to promote environmental awareness. It hopes to inspire and encourage AXA customers to support and adopt a green lifestyle. AXA has been active in its sustainability advocacy implementing e-services called Emma by AXA which replaces physical policy documents with eStatements or eAdvices. Through the series, the company also aims to encourage consumers to use said services. 

The kick-off video seeks to make a positive difference in the community by sending the message of the value of protecting the earth through ‘confidence, passion, and action’. The pilot film features Lance Lau, a Hong Kong-based 12-year-old youth climate activist, where he sends across his belief that big change begins with little things, echoing AXA’s strong belief in combating climate change. 

According to Andrea Wong, the chief marketing and customer officer at AXA Hong Kong and Macau, the local hero series was launched as an extension of their global brand campaign in an aim to further reinforce their brand promise ‘Know You Can’ and bring to life their purpose ‘Act for human progress by protecting what matters’. 

“Through such a genuine story of Lance, we hope to inspire people to embrace the future with confidence and combat climate change together. Lance’s video is only the first in our ‘Know You Can’ video series, we will be sharing more stories of local heroes who have demonstrated the power of leveraging confidence to create a better world,” said Wong.

The series is already running across digital, social media channels, as well as the AXA website, where audiences are also reminded of the ways they can join hands with AXA to pitch in the ‘Go Green’ movement.

Tokyo, Japan – Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global digital ad verification company, pushes for the awareness of ad verification by using everyone’s favorite medium – Manga comics. 

IAS launched its first Manga info book titled ‘Understanding Ad Verification with Manga!’ in an aim to raise awareness and deepen understanding of ad verification specifically for Japanese marketers, by introducing the basic concepts and approaches of ad verification.

With an even stronger digital activity today, the presence of fraudulent ads is fast becoming a pressing issue, and proper ad verification is looked to as one of the best possible solutions to combat this. Ad verification is a process that enables advertisers to verify if ads are placed in the right context, such as being situated on the right websites and therefore, displayed among the right audiences.

Digital ad verification is the company’s prime solution. The specially crafted manga series by IAS is an easy-to-understand overview of the basic concepts of ad verification, solutions, and use cases, seeking to support those in the field of digital advertising, as well as those at companies and agencies who are working to optimize and improve the health of their advertising.

It centers around the main character, Rinosuke Adobe, a young digital advertising manager at a fictional automobile manufacturer, and his team member, Tsugumi Suehiro, and their journey in solving problems such as brand risk and ad fraud by using ad verification.

“Although awareness of ad verification as a solution to media quality issues such as brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability in the digital advertising ecosystem is growing in the Japanese market, efforts to understand and implement the solution are still in their early stage,” said IAS.

Takeshi Yamaguchi, IAS Japan’s sales director, said, “Japanese digital ad budgets continued to grow even throughout the challenges of H2 2020, while ad fraud rates have also increased. IAS created this manga comic book to help creatively communicate the importance of ad verification and present the verification solutions in an easy-to-understand format for our partners.”

The new manga booklet is available for free download on the IAS website.

Japan has been bolstering its efforts on creating a safe environment for ad publication. The country has launched the Japan Institute for Certification of Digital Advertising Quality (JICDAQ), a third-party organization that provides third-party certification of the quality of digital advertising. Aside from this, a report by the Cabinet Office’s Digital Market Competition Council has also been released that outlines issues and recommendations for ensuring the fairness of transactions and improving transparency for the sound development of digital advertising.

Taiwan – Top food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced the opening of its new tech hub in Taiwan to scale up product innovation and platform optimization, as it continues to expand and grow across Asia.

According to data from INS Consulting, Taiwan sees more than 10,000 computer science graduates join the workforce each year – making it an ideal center for the launch of a new tech hub. With this, foodpanda has decided to house new Taiwan-based engineering and product teams, and recruitment has already begun for key department roles, including digital innovation supervisors and front and back-end engineers. 

The new tech hub is part of the platform’s NT$610M investment plans for its food delivery business in the market, which was first announced earlier this year. It is slated to begin operations in the second half of 2021, with a focus on R&D in new technologies and enhancements to build a seamless user experience across its mobile and web applications.

Benjamin Mann, the chief technology officer of foodpanda, said that they are excited to launch the new tech hub in Taiwan, as an important base for data analysis and technology development in the food and grocery delivery space. 

“The Taiwan tech hub will offer an exciting opportunity for Taiwan-based tech and engineering talents to be a part of a leading, high-growth digital platform in Asia. We want to not only invest in the growing tech talent pool in Taiwan but also invest in the tech capabilities to support foodpanda’s growth across the region,” said Mann.

The launch of foodpanda’s new tech hub in the country comes after an exponential 2020 growth, as more riders, merchant-partners, and customers turn to online for food and daily essentials. Currently, foodpanda is operating in over 400 cities across 12 markets in Asia.

Hong Kong – As technology plays a big part in the ongoing transformation of the travel industry, RateDock has launched a travel platform that connects demand partners to an array of properties that use different connectivity partners with one simple connection.

RateDock aims to empower connections between hotels and travel agencies. It works as a direct interface between the accommodation provider, connectivity partner, and the demand partner, seamlessly connected through the RateDock platform.

The demand partners of RateDock are travel agents, tour operators, and DMCs, as well as travel SMEs. It supports purely from a technical level to facilitate the connection, and it should be noted that all commercial terms and relationships are managed between the accommodation and the demand partner. 

Furthermore, other benefits of the accommodations also include cost-saving support through business matching and direct partnership, as well as ensuring full control of distribution. Using the existing connectivity partner, the property can increase the number of demand partners with one simple connection which improves speed to market and optimizes revenue generation. 

“By connecting to Ratedock, we want to make it easier for properties to automate rate, availability, and booking management processes. On the other hand, demand partners can receive live rates and availability which will improve their ability to compete in the market,” said Marco Bacchilega, the founder and CEO of RateDock.

Seoul, South Korea – Global insurer Chubb has officially launched ‘Chubb LifeBalance’ in South Korea, a digital health and well-being platform, that encourages people to incorporate healthy routines into their lifestyle.

‘Chubb LifeBalance’ aims to assess the lifestyle of users and provide a holistic view of health to help them objectively measure and manage their own health condition. The app has a coaching functionality that monitors and encourages the user’s goals set within the platform, such as walking 5,000 steps a day, reducing snack consumption, and establishing a sleep routine, among others.

Furthermore, the health platform also tracks and records over 115 different activities, including yoga, swimming, boxing, and meditation, as well as letting the users invite their friends and family to join challenges and compete in the activities together. It connects with a full range of health devices and other apps such as Fitbit, Strava, and Garmin.

The health points, based on activities and goal achievements set on the app, can be exchanged for mobile vouchers at various coffee shops, gas stations, and grocery stores to enjoy varied benefits, which are only available as exclusive incentives to existing Chubb customers.

According to the company, reputable teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) participated in building a credible health score system behind the app, which involved over 2,500 clinical papers and years of clinical data collected from over 300 million people, so that users can effectively monitor their overall health and well-being.

Edward Ler, the country president of Chubb Korea, said, “Chubb LifeBalance was created to offer more advanced and personalized health and well-being services for the customers in Korea who lead busy lifestyles. We believe Chubb LifeBalance will help our customers strive towards a sustainable and balanced lifestyle.”

The app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Tokyo, Japan – Global advertising agency R/GA in Tokyo has appointed Kei Shimada, former associate partner and founding member and leader of the Digital Makers Lab at IBM Tokyo, to be its new managing director, effective this month. The appointment aims to expand R/GA’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shimada will now be responsible for leading the Tokyo office to drive innovation, human-centric work for the company’s local and international clients. He will be tapping into the agency’s deep creativity, tech, and design experience expertise, and will work closely with other regional leads in support of helping clients create a more human future. 

Prior to his new role, Shimada has had a long-standing career of helping companies around the globe. He specializes in redefining existing product and service strategies, and enhancing existing revenue streams, or creating new ones from the ground up. At Digital Makers Lab, IBM Japan’s business-to-business (B2B) workshop, Shimada led the digital transformation of clients and spearheaded the creation of world-first, region-first, and industry-first focused solutions, and business models.

Furthermore, Shimada has worked as the global director of innovation and business development at Dentsu, where he focused on the build-out of dentsu Aegis’, now called as denstu international’s, group wide innovation initiative that created new solutions around wearables, neural technology, locational big data, and crisis management infrastructures. He has also fulfilled the role of chief lab officer of dXLab, dentsu media’s innovation lab spanning eight countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Commenting on his appointment, Shimada said that he is excited to be given the opportunity to join R/GA and lead the Tokyo office. He believes that having such an eclectic mix of people working together serving local and global clients is something very unique in Japan, and one gives them a strong competitive advantage.

“I’m looking forward to further shaping and growing the Tokyo office as we deliver transformative solutions for clients that play at the intersection of bold ambition, creativity, and human truths,” commented Shimada.

Meanwhile, Tuomas Peltoniemi, the EVP and managing director of R/GA APAC, shared, “It’s exciting to have a respected, inventive, and influential leader like Kei onboard. With an ambition to leverage new technologies to help clients create new solutions for a more human future, coupled with an incredible track record of commercial and creative success, there’s no one else better to be at the helm of R/GA Tokyo.”

Shimada’s appointment completes the newly-formed Tokyo leadership team that is poised to work with Japanese and global brands, enabling growth both locally and internationally.