Tag: East Asia

Hong Kong – ViLab Limited, a Hong Kong-based metaverse service provider, has formed an exclusive partnership with Actoplus Holding to develop virtual idols and other metaverse technology, with the goal of capturing opportunities from the transformation of digital brand marketing in Mainland China.

According to consultancy iiMedia research, the size of the virtual idol market in China has reached US$540m in 2020, a 70% jump from a year earlier and was expected to reach US$17b in 2021.

Since the founding of ViLab, the company and its partners have been developing and upgrading virtual human and background technologies such as face-shifting, lip synchronization, and voice cloning.

Through the new collaboration, ViLab and Actoplus will be working together on the creation and maintenance of virtual idols. These characters can be deployed for an array of commercial functions, such as brand endorsement, live-streaming broadcasts, and both online and offline marketing campaigns.

Ric Wu, ViLab’s chairman and founder, commented that they are delighted about this collaboration as virtual idols have been a dominant feature in their metaverse vision since the company’s founding. 

“Access to the world’s biggest consumer market where digital marketing is seen as one of the next frontiers will give us the perfect platform to test and launch many of our ideas and technology,” said Wu.

Meanwhile, Vincent Lau, Actoplus’ chairman, shared that the collaboration with ViLab will make use of Actoplus’s expertise in digital marketing and e-commerce to jointly develop business in Mainland China. 

“At the same time, Actoplus will connect ViLab with existing and potential partners in the metaverse space, to further explore the range of possibilities presented by the new digital era and reinvent business models for the future,” said Lau.

Shanghai, China – Edrington’s whiskey brand Macallan has launched what it says its largest consumer engagement experience – an immersive and artistic exhibition called ‘The Macallan Experience’ sitting on 4,000 sqm exhibit space of the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (MoCA) in Shanghai, China. This new on-ground activation aims to ride on the rising appeal for premium whiskies among the new generation in APAC. 

‘The Macallan Experience’, which was created in collaboration with Chinese art curator, Bao Dong, and three other acclaimed Chinese contemporary artists, is a new engagement experience for consumers who want to explore the origin and vision of the whiskey brand. It includes three designated exhibition areas, which depicts the origins of the brand, showcases the brand’s value and DNA, and highlights the brand’s outlook on sustainability.

Visitors to the exhibition will be greeted by the massive forest photography installation, executed by installation artist, Ji Zhou, on the exterior of MoCA, which is a tribute to the Speyside scenery where The Macallan Distillery is located.

After entering MoCA’s exhibit space, visitors will experience The Macallan’s tribute to nature, culture, and heritage. The journey will begin as visitors walk through the River Spey, making their way through the vast barley field that leads to the legendary oak forest. Contemporary Artist and Professor Chen Qihad reimagined the River Spey to bring about an immersive sensorial environment, brought to life by audio-visual digital work.

Meanwhile, moving up the sweeping ramp that leads to the second level of MoCA, visitors will uncover the full collection of The Macallan Fine & Rare, while at the end of the ramp, the visitors will be greeted by the iconic The Macallan’s spiritual home, Easter Elchies House, manifested through the interpretation of Sculptor & Artist, Cai Lei. Continuing onto the second level, visitors can also explore a number of rare and limited-edition expressions, and to conclude the immerse experience on the third level, visitors will have the opportunity to savor The Macallan single malt whiskies to further discover the details of the brand’s creations and experience.

Francois Saurel, Edrington’s regional managing director for APAC, shared that the brand wanted to offer the Chinese consumers the opportunity to discover Macallan’s legacy, and to explore some of its collaborations and whisky expressions. 

“With The Macallan Experience – Shanghai, we want to recognize and celebrate the essentiality of China for our brand in Asia Pacific and beyond. And we aim at building deeper connections and affinity with our Chinese consumers and audience,” said Saurel.

Meanwhile, Coral Gill, Edrington’s regional marketing director for APAC, said, “As the biggest event of its kind ever, The Macallan Experience presents a state-of-the-art opportunity to discover the legacy, history and traditions of the brand, which not only include an incomparable approach to the outstanding quality and craftsmanship, but a leading commitment to sustainability.”

The exhibition was opened to the public last 3 December 2021 at MoCA Shanghai, and will be running until 16 January 2022.

Aside from the exhibit, Macallan has also launched its new ‘The Harmony Collection’ brand in Shanghai, which represents the brand’s commitment towards sustainability. ‘The Harmony Collection’, which is done in collaboration with world-renowned pastry chef, Jordi Roca, is encased in recyclable and biodegradable packaging, made using natural products from the chocolate-making process.

China – Integrated communications agency in China, WE Red Bridge, has elevated Nicky Wang, former managing director and head of strategy, to be its new CEO for China. 

Wang joined the agency in 2009 as managing partner where she spearheaded the agency’s integrated capabilities expansion in creative, digital, insights and analytics, and planning. Wang has also led teams within the agency that deliver creative, integrated campaigns that drive business results.

Commenting on her new role, Wang said that operating in this dynamic and competitive market requires constant evolution, and she is absolutely honored to lead the team to relentlessly push the boundary of communications.

“I look forward to building on our momentum as the go-to integrated communications partner for brands in China,” said Wang.

Coinciding with Wang’s promotion, Penny Burgess, WE Red Bridge’s former CEO, will step into the role of executive chairman for China. Burgess will support Wang and the agency team through the transition, handing over day-to-day business operations, and continue as a senior advisor to WE Red Bridge clients.

Burgess said, “I am incredibly proud to hand over the reins to Nicky to take the business into the future. Together, we grew the agency from humble beginnings at my kitchen table to the remarkable team we have today of over 120 across Beijing and Shanghai.”

Meanwhile, Kass Sells, WE Communications’ global COO and president of international, commented, “I look forward to the continued partnership with Nicky and her leadership team as we strive to be the best agency in China.”

The elevation of Wang and Burgess will be effective from 1 January 2022.

Hong Kong – Travel and leisure booking platform, Klook, has announced its joint venture with ZA Tech, the technology venture founded by online insurance ZA International, with the aim to accelerate the availability and accessibility of travel-related insurance to consumers across the globe.

The joint venture will synergize Klook’s global presence and hyper-localized go-to-market strategy alongside ZA Tech’s experience in insurance innovation and technological know-how, ensuring global consumers to have seamless access to a broad selection of travel-related insurance policies at competitive prices.

As part of the agreement, insurers will be able to partner with Klook to feature their insurance products on travel and leisure platforms. Klook will also work closely with insurers to design products that address the pain points of consumers in the new normal. 

C.S. Soong, the vice president of corporate development at Klook, said, “With this, we can further simplify customers’ travel journey, enabling them to discover, book, and purchase all they need during their travels from travel-related insurance to experiences.”

Meanwhile, Young Yang, ZA Tech’s general manager for SEA, commented, “Combining ZA Tech’s cutting-edge solutions and Klook’s extensive market coverage, we are confident we can redefine customers’ travel experience by providing the right insurance product in the right place in a hassle-free way. More exciting developments are to come.” 

Klook will be kickstarting travel-related insurance products on its platform by the end of this year, with a focus on APAC. In addition to the said partnership, ZA Tech will also empower Klook’s platform by exporting its proprietary solution Fusion, to create a seamless digital experience for travelers and the ecosystem partners. 

Moreover, Klook will be leveraging ZA Tech’s customer insights to various markets to strengthen product innovation, customer engagement, and increase insurance penetration.

Hong Kong – As part of HSBC’s commitment to helping consumers get closer to their next trip abroad, the financial institution has launched an immersive 3D innovation campaign, aimed at highlighting its EveryMile Credit Card.

HSBC’s EveryMile Credit Card offers cardholders various spending benefits and rewards when traveling. It is also the bank’s first credit card in Hong Kong made from 85% recycled plastic.

The new campaign, which is created in collaboration with creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson and media company PHD Hong Kong, brings comedy legend Dayo Wong Tze Wah, superstar Ronald Cheng Chung Kei, and musical phenomenon Mirror’s Lokman and Tiger together for a fun-filled adventure through space. Titled ‘Takes You Further Every Day’, the campaign extends the TVC narrative to the rest of the multi-channel and innovative campaign.

Its storyline also continues with a series of interactive OOH marketing, starting with a first-in-the-industry 3D TV ad of HSBC’s spaceship flying using naked-eye technology.

HSBC said, “The EveryMile Credit Card campaign leverages new technology to attract, engage, and interact with customers but more importantly, the campaign is appealing to a wide range of local audiences with culturally relevant content and generational talents embracing their roles as Space Rangers and ambassadors for EveryMile Credit Card launch.”

The advertisement is currently displayed on a 3D TV screen in the high-traffic district of Causeway Bay at 3 Matheson Street in Hong Kong. 

In addition, HSBC is also inviting audiences to take part in an ongoing interactive game, where participants will be searching for three pieces of the Space Rangers’ flying saucer scattered around the city with a chance to win RewardCash if they succeed in retrieving the displaced parts. 

The locations of the pieces are hidden in the series of integrated takeovers including the 3D installation displayed at Queens Road Central, the 3D TV, and the light show outside HSBC’s main building.

Shanghai, China – Chocolate brand Dove in China has launched a new campaign aimed at driving top-of-mind awareness and a new consumption occasion by targeting an area where pleasure is too often forgotten – in the workplace.

Led by advertising agency BBDO Shanghai, the campaign was produced with neuroscientist, Paul Zak, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, in order to incorporate expert consultation at the storyboard and planning stage, specifically the use of immersion neurological response testing to make iterative choices for the final two films.

Titled ‘Put Pleasure First’, the campaign is composed of two stories that were set against two low emotions– ‘disappointment’ and ‘stress’ in the workplace. It features Dove’s brand ambassador, Zhou Dongyu, who finds herself on these occasions, but rather than being let down, playfully decides to create an ‘oddly pleasurable’ video out of the things that made her disappointed or stressed.

The brand experience is completed by a series of special packs, featuring five different taglines that express pleasure attitudes towards low emotions at work, giving shoppers instant encouraging messages to have a piece of Dove and put their ‘pleasure’ first. 

Harry Chen, BBDO Shanghai’s group planning director, shared that workplace low emotions are becoming such a ubiquitous phenomenon in China as the competition and pressure have intensified in recent years.

“Dove has always been a brand that stands for pleasure, so we felt we had the opportunity and responsibility to help Chinese people cope with these low emotions a little bit better and experience more pleasure,” said Chen. 

Meanwhile, Arthur Tsang, the chief creative officer at BBDO Shanghai and the global creative lead at Mars, noted about the campaign’s strategy of banking on videos for the campaign, that while Chinese office workers don’t look to chocolate as a stress-reliever, they do on videos.

“We asked ourselves, can we interrupt their break sessions with videos that can make them feel the pleasure of chocolate directly? That’s what we call ‘Oddly Pleasurable’ videos, short audio-visual experiences that can scientifically bring a pleasurable feeling of satisfaction and relaxation, much like the sensation of eating Dove chocolate,” said Tsang. 

On social media, Dove has also released a behind-the-scenes documentary, chronicling the making of the whole ideation, production, and neuro testing process, while on Douyin, a re-edited Zhou Dongyu film was released to encourage consumers to experience the content. 

Moreover, Dove has launched more videos that leverage the actual chocolate product with influencers on Weibo and Douyin, which also encouraged consumers to create their own oddly pleasurable videos.

Hong Kong – PluginHive, the e-commerce shipping solutions company based in India, has partnered with carrier service provider Hong Kong Post, to boost e-commerce merchants in Hong Kong. This move comes after its recently signed agreement with FedEx, to launch a new campaign across the APAC and MEA regions.

The recent partnerships aim to provide e-commerce merchants with automated shipping solutions for free when using e-commerce platforms Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. It also comes with added benefits for the Hong Kong-based small e-commerce merchants, as the partnership offers up to a 75% discount on the shipping cost on successful signup with FedEx.

Ahammed Mirdas, PluginHive’s CEO and founder, believes that Hong Kong is a budding market for e-commerce in 2021, and this integration is aimed to boost the small and medium e-commerce business across the country by bringing together reliable shipping services from Hong Kong Post, with the reach and quality of service that FedEx provides in more than 220 countries across the globe. 

“PluginHive is excited to be the catalyst in driving this partnership and believes e-commerce merchants will take advantage of it in the upcoming weeks,” said Mirdas.

In addition, PluginHive has ensured a streamlined carrier account sign-up process that involves a single click account registration and a smooth merchant onboarding, with the help of dedicated shipping experts that will be available 24/7 via multiple channels.

Hong Kong – Creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson in Hong Kong has announced Maggie Wong as its new CEO. Wong is formerly the managing director of Publicis Worldwide and Leo Burnett Hong Kong.

The move comes after former managing director Matthew Parry makes the move to Australia, joining Wunderman Thompson Sydney to assume the same MD role. 

Wong brings with her more than 17 years of experience. She has worked with established international brands across various industries, including Expedia, Lexus, and Pizza Hut, as well as HKT, and Standard Chartered.

Aside from her previous role in Publicis, Wong has also worked as the managing partner at marketing communications agency The Gate, and the business director at architectural design firm Alan Chan Design Co.

Commenting on her appointment, Wong said, “Wunderman Thompson HK has established an excellent base with a diverse blend of talents and capabilities to turbocharge the next chapter of growth. I’m hugely excited to be joining the wonderful team and by the prospect of what we can achieve together.”

Meanwhile, Ewen Sturgeon, Wunderman Thompson International’s CEO, shared they are very excited to see Wong join them and bring her own brand of leadership, as she has the right focus on creativity, data, and experience to continue growing the Hong Kong office.

“Matt leaves to Maggie a strong and successful agency, with a great team and clients. And I’m thrilled that Matt continues to grow his career in the Wunderman Thompson network,” said Sturgeon.

Shanghai, China – Automotive manufacturer BMW in China has launched ‘The Convenience Store’ on its flagship store in e-commerce TMall, in order to deliver a completely new brand and product experience for a younger generation of car enthusiasts. 

The concept, which was created in collaboration with creative agency TBWA’s Juice Beijing, has been designed to remove traditional barriers associated with purchasing a car, making the experience as seamless as buying the latest pair of sneakers. 

Moreover, ‘The Convenience Store’ integrates popular culture, technology, and service with a brand-led approach, which includes door-to-door delivery, online bidding, car customization, and lifestyle collectibles.

Through door-to-door delivery, customers can now view a model and reserve a test drive with door-to-door delivery without ever stepping into any physical store, while the online bidding is for limited edition cars, where customers can bid to get hyper limited-edition models immediately, avoiding a long waiting list. 

Furthermore, the car customization will enable customers to customize exterior color, wheels, and interior materials for key models enabled by BMW Visualizer tech. And lastly, the lifestyle collectibles will allow customers to purchase a full set of limited edition designed collectibles.

In addition, the initiative includes the BMW pop-up ‘The Convenience Store’ in Huaihai TX, which is the latest street culture landmark in Shanghai. The real-world pop-up provided a complementary sensory experience including Yee’s crafted miniature art cars and collectibles on display, and different art installations to represent the different service experiences in an avant-garde style, mirroring the virtual store.

BMW China has appointed Chinese singer Jackson Yee as its new-generation ambassador to introduce ‘The Convenience Store’ across phygital channels Yee’s creative process in crafting unique miniature BMW art cars, T-shirts, and paintings became the highlight of the lifestyle collectibles.

For customers to gain access to the pop-up, they will simply register at BMW TMall Store to become members.

Hong Kong – HDcourse, the SEO optimization services and training provider, has launched free online SEO courses to help SMEs increase their organic SEO traffic.

HDcourse offers courses that cover SEO, WordPress, email marketing, and digital marketing. It supports short video teaching and is suitable for people who are studying on mobile phones and busy with work.

HDcourse shared a case study where one of its students from Malaysia had only 53,500 impressions and 1,240 clicks on Google, and following its classes, said impressions have grown to 583,000 and clicks to 15,000.

HDcourse said that through the free SEO teaching courses, anyone can have a jumpstart, promoting its classes to have 10 integrated factors that can improve the SEO of the clients and obtain organic traffic.

One of the factors is ‘Search Intention’, that helps businesses to know consumers’ intentions behind inputting certain keywords. Second is ‘Index’, which is having the search engine index the content of the customer’s website one by one. Next is ‘Backlinks’, which mainly refers to how many other people’s website links point to the customer’s website.

Meanwhile, ‘User Experience’ is the time the user stays on the website, and ‘Uniqueness of Content’ is the deep and rich content, allowing content optimization. ‘E.A.T.’ or ‘Expertise, Authority and Trustworthy’ is also a factor to improve SEO, which is enabling experts to write content to increase authority and professionalism, while ‘Freshness of Content’ is writing up-to-date news.

Furthermore, the ‘Click-Through Rate’ is adding numbers or attractive words to the title, which will help the search engine, while ‘Website Speed’ is the time to load the website should be within 2-4 seconds. And lastly, ‘Responsive Design’, which allows users to easily browse the same website regardless of the computer, tablet, or mobile phone.