Tag: Expansion

Australia – Livewire, the global gaming marketing and gametech company, has officially launched its operation in EMEA, with its first office in London. This move comes after its launch in APAC six months ago,

The expansion aims to provide opportunities for brands who are understanding the importance of marketing to the gaming audience through a range of diverse opportunities, engaging a generation that is turning off traditional forms of media. 

Through this, Livewire will be able to provide gaming marketing and gametech solutions to EMEA brands and clients through the company’s experience, partnerships, and proprietary assets across research and insights, gaming strategy, esports, gaming talent, and in and around game advertising, as well as gaming audience solutions, and direct publisher opportunities.

Following this endeavor, Livewire has also announced the appointment of former Dentsu leads Luke Aldridge and Peter Jacobs as the new directors to lead the EMEA region. 

Aldridge and Jacobs the integrated gaming division DGame for global media agency Dentsu in London. They have a rich gaming and digital marketing experience, working with major clients including Kellogg’s and Mondelez. Both have delivered successful gaming campaigns for their roster of clients across gaming strategy, in-game advertising, talent, and esports.

Commenting on his appointment, Aldridge said that Livewire has a deep understanding of the entire gaming ecosystem and how to approach it like a marketer, which makes it exciting for him to join.

Meanwhile, Jacobs commented he is thrilled to join Livewire in helping marketers in EMEA navigate it successfully.

“We are now seeing some of the biggest brands in the world take advantage of the many opportunities gaming presents to engage audiences in unique and immersive ways. It is a complex and fascinating world – massive audiences, unparalleled engagement, and full of sub-cultures,” said Jacobs.

Indy Khabra and Brad Manuel, the co-founders of Livewire, shared that the opportunity and timing to launch Livewire EMEA with their first office in London allows them to bring their approach to clients in the region. 

They said, “Globally, gaming and esports is now a priority on the marketer’s agenda and brands are looking to form a holistic gaming strategy to connect with the next generation of consumers who are getting harder to reach through the typical media mix requiring expertise. Gaming and esports are growing exponentially across EMEA, and brands at the forefront of this trend will win in the attention economy.” 

“We’re excited that Luke and Pete will lead our EMEA expansion. They are experienced gaming marketers who understand the importance of gaming ecosystem strategy, coupled with great content and gametech,” Khabra and Manuel added. 

In August this year, Livewire has also announced the launch of its new ‘Gaming Audiences by Livewire’, a new suite of gametech solutions that helps customers access end-to-end planning, insights, and measurement tools, activating unique gaming audience segments in ANZ.

Manila, Philippines – Growsari, a first-of-its-kind e-commerce enabler for the Filipino ‘sari-sari store’ or the mom-and-pop neighborhood stores spread all over the region, has just announced its expanded presence across the Luzon region, aimed at serving 100,000 sari-sari store owners to maximize earnings and get access to best prices. 

‘Sari-sari stores’, which are hyper-proximal stores of sundries situated in the country’s neighborhoods, have been an economical staple in the Philippines. As such, they are considered the backbone of the country’s retail. 

The expansion follows Growsari’s concluded Series B funding in June this year, where it has secured more than US$30m in funding. 

The Growsari app enables sari-sari store owners to quickly order goods, while also providing essential services such as microfinancing support and assistance, and other e-services including telco, bills payment, and remittances.

With the expansion widening its presence to 100 municipalities across Luzon, Growsari aims to add more in the months to come. Among the new provinces where Growsari will now be available are Batangas, Bulacan, La Union and Camarines Norte and Sur in the Bicol region. Growsari expects to cater to almost 220 municipalities across Luzon by the end of the year.

ER Rollan, Growsari’s CEO and co-founder, shared that with their fresh funds, they aim to more than double GrowSari’s existing coverage and service more than 100,000 mom-and-pop-up stores by the end of 2021.

“This will also help us broaden our supplier marketplace with new third-party partners and scale our financial service pilots,” said Rollan.

Sydney, Australia – Global audience and local intelligence company Adsquare is ramping up its presence in Australia and New Zealand by setting up a new office in Sydney, as well as appointing Jason Podgoetsky as Adsqure’s sales director for ANZ.

Podgoetsky’s expertise will allow Adsquare to work hand in hand with clients in both markets to better serve them with data-driven solutions for their targeting, measurement, and OOH campaigns, which shows his strong track record of client management and deep knowledge of the Australian and New Zealand markets. 

Before joining Adsquare, he had successful experiences at companies such as cinema advertising network Val Morgan and content platform CarsGuide. More recently he has served with advertising intelligence and digital media Exponential and adtech VDX.tv as sales manager.

“I am excited to join Adsquare and to drive innovative change in the Australian and New Zealand markets. I can’t wait to leverage Adsquare’s sophisticated technology and positive momentum in APAC to create meaningful relationships with new and existing clients and to help them grow their business, in the new era of consumer privacy,” Podgoetsky said, regarding his appointment.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Méar, general manager for APAC at Adsquare, commented, “I am thrilled to have Jason on board. Adsquare is expanding the team in APAC with several strategic hires and Jason will be a key asset to develop further the footprint that Adsquare has already established in the area as a leading audience and location intelligence company.” 

He added, “I’m looking forward to seeing our Australian and New Zealand partners leveraging our cutting edge data-driven solutions for all digital channels, including DOOH.”

Singapore – Bench, a programmatic solutions provider, has announced that it is extending the market offering of Bench Connect, its very own marketing intelligence platform, to clients in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, which was designed to address ad ‘murkiness’ and media inefficiencies that have plagued the industry.

Founded by programmatic media veterans Gil Snir, Shai Luft and Ori Gold, Bench Connect is designed to speed up and scale end-to-end digital media planning, team management and analytics in record time. Bench Connect integrates agencies and advertisers’ existing ad platforms into one seamless dashboard, enabling unrivalled transparency, efficiencies and ROI. 

For Gold, their aim is to help today’s busy digital marketers and advertisers save time and reap the rewards of more holistic and scalable ad management.

“You don’t solve the inefficiencies of our industry with analytics alone. We are transforming the way media is managed from siloed workflows to a fully integrated ecosystem, by unlocking a new and exciting breed of marketing intelligence,” Gold stated.

By automating the manual processes that exist within programmatic media workflow, the Bench Connect platform enables data to be mapped from various platforms, visualized and actioned to speed up digital media management at an unprecedented rate. The end-to-end process on Bench Connect – from initiating the brief to launching a marketing campaign – takes about 30 minutes, significantly less than the industry average of 30 days of traditional legacy models of ad campaign management.

“Up to now, any offerings that promise to connect your media and teams in a seamless workflow could take years to implement, and often the project is left unfinished due to lack of team or technical resources. We are very excited about this launch, especially now with marketers under greater pressure than ever before to interpret data and make faster decisions,” Gold explains, adding that most competing solutions are either too slow or simply rely on manual inputs for the system to work.

Unlike competing marketing cloud providers in the market, Bench Connect removes slow set up times and high implementation martech and adtech costs. Gold says these efficiencies will flow directly to brands and agencies’ bottom line and enable them to take control over their media and transparency across the supply chain.

“We expect this number to more than double over the next five years, as the world moves further towards online transactions and realizes the rapid growth of digital spending across APAC. The time is now to say goodbye to legacy models of adtech and martech, and embrace smarter ways of transforming our industry globally,” Gold concludes.

Singapore – India’s startup-focused PR agency, Value 360 Communications, has announced that it will be expanding its market to Singapore, to unlock growth opportunities in the country’s burgeoning start-up space.

Value 360 Communications handles various brands across industries such as fintech, proptech, lifestyle, and hospitality, among others. These brands include e-wallet Paytm, motor marketplace Droom, and car rental company Zoomcar, as well as healthcare platform Practo, and home services firm UrbanCompany.

The strategic expansion is driven by SEA’s growing stature as a hotbed for high-growth start-ups. Through this, Value 360 Communications will be tapping into its client base and identifying Indian partner brands operating in Singapore. In addition, the agency will be investing S$2m to develop and strengthen its presence in the new market.

In line with this endeavor, Value 360 Communications said that they had already spoken with some of its clients about offshoots in Singapore, which will lay the foundation for disrupting the region’s start-up ecosystem over the next few months.

Kunal Kishore Sinha, Value 360 Communications’ founder and director, commented that they are delighted to announce their foray into Singapore, especially since their very first steps in this new market will be in tandem with the brands that they have helped build in India. 

“As the Southeast Asian economy is witnessing the emergence of several promising start-ups, it makes Singapore the perfect avenue for our strategic international expansion and we foresee hyper-growth on the horizon for Value 360 as well as its partner brands,” said Sinha.

Manila, Philippines – HUAWEI‘s video streaming platform, HUAWEI Video, has just announced the expansion of its on-demand streaming service, offering a wider array of premium local and international video content for its users in the Philippines.

Through the expansion, HUAWEI Video has added content offerings from various media companies, namely, ABS-CBN, Paramount Video, CJ E&M, and The Explorers, among others.

The new content offering includes Filipino series such as ‘On the Wings of Love’, ‘One More Chance’, and ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’, as well as ‘My Ex and Whys’, and for avid western movie lovers, the app features titles such as ‘Star Trek’, ‘No Strings Attached’, and ‘Transformers’, as well as ‘A Thousand Words’, among others.

Meanwhile, fans of Korean dramas can now watch ‘What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim’, ‘Reply 1988’; ‘Search WWW’, and ‘Familiar Wife’. They can also enjoy a wide selection of documentaries produced by a team of explorers, media professionals, scientists, and artists.

And lastly, the app has also added Chinese and Cantonese series such as ‘Unforgettable Love’, Use for My Talent’, ‘Stop! Miss Hua’, ‘Healing Hands’, ‘Virtues of Harmony’, and ‘Line Walker’, as well as ‘War and Beauty’, and ‘Triumph in the Skies’.

“HUAWEI’s vision is to bring connectivity to everyone, and we are thrilled to expand our HUAWEI Video offerings in the Philippines, connecting customers to even more quality entertainment and a better viewing experience, all at their fingertips,” said Shane Shan, HUAWEI’s director of consumer cloud service for APAC.

HUAWEI Video has also announced that during the limited period between 8 and 15 August, users will be enjoying the HUAWEI Video+ subscription plan at a discounted price of ₱8 for the first month. Subsequently, they can renew their subscription at ₱210 each month. 

In addition, the platform will be rolling out a ‘Free Movies Weekend’ promotion, which offers a curated list of western and local movies for free over the weekends during the month of August.

Sydney, Australia – Global location-based analytics firm Meshh has announced a new office opening in Sydney, Australia, as part of its APAC expansion. This will be under the leadership of Meshh’s Managing Director Duncan McIntyre.

Meshh is a SaaS platform that aids event organizers, venues, and brands to accurately measure engagement and interaction in physical spaces. It also delivers insights to marketers on how customers behave in real-world environments so they can deliver richer and more immersive experiences.

As part of the expansion, McIntrye will be returning to his native Sydney to help brands and agencies accurately monitor and plan their physical campaigns across retail, exhibitions, events, and properties, creating richer and more effective experiences.

Commenting on the announcement, McIntyre said that Australia has a legacy of leading the world in physical brand experiences and that the market aims to further this leadership.

“However, until now, marketers and agencies have been hamstrung in their ability to provide consistent engagement data to analyze and demonstrate the impact of such marketing endeavors. Launching Meshh in Australia provides a robust ‘spatial intelligence’ solution to that problem, as we continue to offer advanced data and behavioral insights across the APAC region,” said McIntyre.

Most recently, Meshh has announced its acquisition by global marketing and technology business Limelight Platform. Through this, Limelight and Meshh’s combined client lists, products, and active and passive data collection and analysis will be laying out the roadmap to the future of live events and activations worldwide.

Japan – TotallyAwesome, the largest kids-safe digital advertising and content platform in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, has announced that it will be expanding its market presence in Japan to further reach the hard-to-get audiences.

Following this endeavor, the business has also hired Mikio Kudo, former country president of toy brand Mattel, to be its new country manager in Japan. He will be supported by new senior appointments at TotallyAwesome in the coming months.

Kudo brings with him 20 years of experience in marketing and media. He has previously worked as the executive director for commercial broadcasting company Turner Japan KK and media sales manager for financial software giant Bloomberg LP. Kudo specializes in managing licensing deals, original content sales, and advertising sales.

Commenting on Kudo’s appointment, Will Anstee, the CEO of TotallyAwesome, said that this is a huge strategic win for TotallyAwesome as Kudo is a rare talent who understands both the client and publisher sides in a complex market like Japan, enabling the business to execute superior engagement strategies for our clients’ competitive edge. 

“I couldn’t be more excited and optimistic for the future of the business, but more importantly, our continued ambition to make the internet safe and compliant for brands and Japanese youth online,” added Anstee.

The digital platform is an advanced forum for kids, teens, co-viewing families, and brands to safely interact across thousands of apps, games, and websites, enabling a youth-safe ecosystem across APAC. In Japan, TotallyAwesome has an audience of 17 million internet users aged six to 18 years old, as well as two million families that view the internet as a family unit.

Penang, Malaysia – Airasia’s food delivery platform airasia food has announced its market expansion in Penang – Malaysia’s food capital – and is now calling on Food and Beverage (F&B) operators across Penang island to join the platform.

Airasia food was first launched in Klang Valley, Malaysia. It aims to disrupt the food delivery scene by offering a seamless solution for merchants at an affordable and business-friendly commission rate. 

F&B operators in Penang who are interested in joining airasia food will only need to fill up a form, and they will be contacted within 48 hours by the airasia food team. Once set to onboard, merchants will be able to receive support from a dedicated account manager who will assist in bringing the F&B business online, provide system support on data analytics, and monitoring. Merchants can also leverage airasia’s extensive marketing effort and periodic campaigns to drive publicity and sales.

The platform is supported by airasia’s ecosystem where BIG Members can earn and pay with their BIG Points. Consumers can also get the lowest delivery fees with no hidden charges or minimum order fees.

Ben-Jie Lim, the head of e-commerce at airasia Super App, said that there is no doubt that Penang is a foodie’s dream come true, being a place that boasts an abundance of local flavors, as well as world-class cuisines.

“Airasia food offers the lowest commission rate in town at only 15%, enabling merchants to earn more while having full control over their menu, pricing, and easy access to data aside from being able to communicate directly with their customers. We welcome all F&B operators to register with us and look forward to serving the foodies of Penang with delicacies from their favorite hawker stalls and F&B outlets,” added Lim.

Airasia food has also expanded in Singapore earlier this year, offering an online solution for Singaporean merchants in maintaining their F&B business, and at the same time offering a new alternative for consumers in the country.

India – Global marketing and advertising company Zoomd Technologies and its subsidiary Zoomd, the marketing technology user-acquisition and engagement platform, has launched their sales operation in India, to promote its online advertising and user acquisition services in the new market.

Following this endeavor, the company has also appointed Parthiban Vairamudi as its business development manager for its India and SEA operations. Vairamudi has previously worked as the chief executive officer of the marketing and advertising company DigitalOOH. He brings with him over 18 years of experience in the digital and business development sectors. Vairamudi will now be responsible for Zoomd’s growth in the Indian and regional markets.

Zoomd seeks to position itself as a viable player in the country’s advertising industry. According to a report by Business Standard in February 2021, the Indian ad spend is expected to rise by 23% for the year after experiencing a 21.5% drop in 2020.

“The strong market recovery we have seen in this quarter made it a final decision for us. We intend to onboard new customers and publishers over the course of the year and become a meaningful player in the Indian ad space. We welcome Parthiban to lead our efforts in this region,” said Ofer Eiten, the CEO of Zoomd.