Tag: Grab

Jakarta, Indonesia – Superbank announced an additional investment of IDR 1.2 trillion from its shareholders, which include Grab, Singtel, and KakaoBank. This increased investment made by the three shareholders will help Superbank improve services and product developments to fulfil its customers’ different financial demands and lifestyles. 

Additionally, this investment highlights the shareholders’ plan for and backing for Superbank’s future prospects. Superbank is the first bank in Indonesia to enable millions of Grab partners and users to register accounts, save money, and use accounts as a direct payment option within the Grab app without having to download any extra apps. 

Speaking about the investment, Tigor M. Siahaan, president director of Superbank, said, “We greatly appreciate the trust of our shareholders in supporting our efforts to continuously create innovative and relevant digital banking products and services. The ongoing support from Grab, Singtel, and KakaoBank extends beyond investment, as they also contribute their advanced technology, insights, and network assets to help accelerate our growth. This additional investment will strengthen us in expanding inclusive financial services and accessible financing for more underbanked retail customers and MSMEs in Indonesia.” 

He added, “With such strong support from our ecosystem partners, we believe we can further increase our role in driving sustainable growth of the underbanked communities to help improve their productivity and welfare.”

Meanwhile, Neneng Goenadi, country managing director of Grab Indonesia, said, “Grab understands the importance of delivering digital banking technologies with various innovative features that are easily accessible and can help consumers manage their finances better. Grab’s ongoing support for Superbank reinforces our shared commitment in enhancing financial inclusion across Indonesia.” 

Furthermore, Gan Siok Hoon, managing director of Singtel, said, “This new round of investment underscores our commitment to promoting financial inclusion and driving digital transformation across Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. We share Superbank’s vision to serve the unbanked and underbanked and are confident in their strong ecosystem and growth trajectory. We are glad to be part of this growth journey with like-minded shareholders and look forward to further strengthening our partnership.”

Lastly, Yun, Ho Young, chief executive officer of KakaoBank, stated, “As a leading mobile-first bank and financial technology company with a strong global network, KakaoBank understands the transformative power of accessible and secure digital banking solutions. Our continuous investment in Superbank strengthens our dedication in driving innovation and financial inclusion on a global scale, as well as empowering Indonesians with reliable financial services.”

The additional investment follows the inclusion of Superbank services directly into the Grab app. The collaboration enables millions of Grab users and partners to open accounts, save money, and make payments without having to download a separate app. This project significantly advances Superbank’s goal of delivering safe and affordable financial access, thereby increasing financial inclusion in Indonesia.

Singapore – Grab and OpenAI has announced a partnership, as both companies will design and deliver enhanced experiences for Grab users, partners and employees using state-of-the-art AI capabilities. This marks the first time a partnership like this has happened in Southeast Asia.

This partnership uniquely combines the development of AI tools for Grab users and partners with an initial pilot deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise for Grab employees. Moreover, Grab will access OpenAI’s technical and strategic expertise to partner on solutions tailored to the specific needs of users in Southeast Asia.

In terms of accessibility, Grab will leverage the use of state-of-the-art text and voice capabilities to make Grab’s services more accessible to all users, particularly the visually impaired or elderly who may otherwise find it challenging to navigate the on-screen app interface.

Moreover, Grab will explore using AI technology to build customer support chatbots that can better understand user problems and help resolve them faster.

Lastly, Grab will seek to leverage OpenAI’s vision capabilities to enhance its map-making efforts through greater automation and higher-quality data extraction from visual images. This means GrabMaps can be updated even faster, delivering a better experience to consumers and driver-partners.

Philipp Kandal, chief product officer at Grab said, “We’ve been a pioneer of AI adoption in the region, and believe that generative AI has a lot of potential to further transform the way we solve problems for our partners and users. We’re excited to work with OpenAI as a partner to help accelerate the exploration and use of this technology within Grab. Our goal with any new technology has always been to use it to solve real problems, at scale. Equipped with the latest tools, we look forward to building novel and delightful experiences for our customers while improving the way that every Grabber works.”

In addition to developing advanced AI solutions for its users and partners, Grab also intends to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise among select employees through an initial pilot, complementing existing efforts to drive wider use of AI tools across its employee base to boost productivity. 

Meanwhile, Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer at OpenAI commented, “We’re excited to work with Grab and together explore how advanced AI can benefit Grab users, partners, and employees across Southeast Asia.”

This partnership follows a slew of partnerships OpenAI had including with the Financial Times, Reddit, and News Corp.

Singapore – Carlsberg Asia has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Grab for a strategic partnership that will transform how consumers enjoy their beer. This partnership will cover awareness and promotional campaigns on GrabAds across four key countries in Southeast Asia (SEA) which includes Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore.

The partnership will kick off with the launch of an exciting football season campaign featuring Liverpool Football Club and a collaborative Responsible Drinking campaign. The partnership also includes the setting up of a virtual store for Carlsberg on the Grab app in Singapore, to make it easier for consumers to order and have their favourite Carlsberg beers delivered.

Carlsberg has been a principal partner of Liverpool Football Club (LFC) for over three decades and became the club’s official beer in 2010. This football season, Carlsberg will bring football excitement to LFC fans across the SEA region by leveraging Grab’s multiple touchpoints, online to offline. 

Carlsberg will also collaborate with GrabAds, Grab’s advertising arm, on a Responsible Drinking campaign later in the year to promote responsible alcohol consumption and prioritise safety by encouraging GrabCar rides. By tapping into Grab’s extensive ecosystem and hyperlocal insights in the region, Carlsberg aims to expand its digital footprint in the region and make its portfolio of products available to a larger audience.

Arindam Varanasi, vice president of commercial for Asia at Carlsberg, said, “As part of Carlsberg Group’s Accelerate SAIL strategy, this exciting partnership will help us drive digital transformation and growth in the region by going beyond traditional retail channels.”

He added, “With our joint forces, we will be able to introduce more drinking moments to consumers and make it easier and safer for them to access Carlsberg’s portfolio of local and international beers and Beyond Beer brands at their doorstep. This will also be a strong initiative to Carlsberg’s continuous efforts in driving responsibility drinking.”

Meanwhile, Ken Mandel, regional head of GrabAds and brand insights, commented, “It’s truly an honour that Carlsberg, one of the world’s leading brewery brands, chose Grab’s advertising arm, GrabAds, to strengthen their brand equity through purposeful consumer campaigns – the LFC partnership and the Responsible Drinking Campaign.”

He added, “This partnership not only showcases the extensive and impactful reach of GrabAds’ online to offline touchpoints but also attests to GrabAds’ effective engagement with high-value consumers who use Grab to engage or transact with brands and merchants every day.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Grab has unveiled its latest collaboration with Jaya Grocer, Malaysia’s leading mass-premium supermarket chain. Now, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands retailing under Jaya Grocer can leverage GrabAds, Grab’s advertising arm, for a unified omnichannel advertising solution. 

This marks the seamless integration of GrabMart’s online retail presence with Jaya Grocer’s offline presence comprising 50 physical stores across Malaysia. Whether it is about helping brands increase visibility, boost sales or simply build brand, Grab and Jaya Grocer are elevating their commitment through this online-to-offline (O2O) integration to deliver unparalleled value to FMCG players retailing under the supermarket chain.

Amongst the notable brands under Jaya Grocer who have leveraged this omnichannel advertising solution via a GrabAds campaign is leading healthy cheese brand, The Laughing Cow. The brand successfully attributed majority of its offline sales at Jaya Grocer to its online awareness campaign on GrabAds during the campaign period.

Grab and Jaya Grocer in 2021, have been working together to bring the convenience of on-demand grocery delivery to more consumers in Malaysia. In 2022, Grab and Jaya Grocer announced the rollout of GrabPay and GrabRewards across all Jaya Grocer physical retail stores, and the subsequent folding of Jaya Grocer’s loyalty programme with any Grab user in 2023. This integration, which now includes GrabAds, will allow FMCG brands to reap even more benefits from the Grab ecosystem.

Dave Yang, regional head of sales and GTM at GrabAds, said, “As consumers make purchases in stores while maintaining online shopping habits, it is imperative for brands to consider the entire omnichannel consumer journey when closing the loop from awareness to purchase.”

He added, “Retail media networks like GrabAds enable brands to build such O2O advertising campaigns seamlessly, thanks to our comprehensive ad ecosystem – from online search ads to offline fleet wraps. We are only strengthening our O2O capabilities with the integration of Jaya Grocer. GrabAds looks forward to working with more FMCG brands on innovative O2O campaigns.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Teng, deputy chief executive officer at Jaya Grocer, commented, “We are thrilled to see the continued impact of our integration with Grab, particularly for the FMCG brands retailing under Jaya Grocer. The promising landscape of on-demand grocery services in Malaysia, where many consumers prefer a seamless blend of online and offline shopping, makes this partnership more significant than ever. Our collaboration with Grab will allow Jaya Grocer to tap into an active consumer base shopping online and offline, contributing to the growth trajectory of our (Jaya Grocer’s) business in Malaysia.”

Manila, Philippines – GrabFood in the Philippines has recently launched its latest feature ‘GrabFood Group Order’, allowing a group of people to order on their own through a group invite feature and then paying each order on their own without the hassle of calculating their order altogether.

As part of this feature rollout, Grab has tapped creative agency GIGIL to launch a new ad, centred around the dilemma of office mates struggling to do a group order together–with colleagues only relying on one person to take the bulk order–all while making their own requests.

The ad features a quirky meme reference to Kara Mia, a 2019 TV series that featured two-faced twin sisters. For this ad, said meme reference was used to denote that many people who do group order together often have conflicting orders, and more often than not, have way too many specific requests.

MARKETECH APAC recently caught up with GIGIL and Grab Philippines, who have long worked together on both local and international campaigns since 2022.

Cutting through the noise with trust

GIGIL has long been known to always go the quirky route when it comes to doing creative work with their clients. In an exclusive statement, Herbert Hernandez, founding partner at GIGIL stated that while humour still plays a huge role in their campaign, what matters for them is trust being built with clients.

“When GIGIL works on projects, it is always our goal to make clients and their message cut through. And what we have learned is that humor can effectively deliver a message across to an audience. And cut through is only possible if there is great trust and collaboration between the client and the agency,” he told MARKETECH APAC.

In the case of this campaign work, Hernandez notes that the theme is centered around the office being a ‘battleground’ for most Filipino workers, and that they also wanted to represent different personalities with the faces to make the situation more grounded as order-taking experiences in the office.

“Order-taking can become a hassle as it requires the person tasked with doing so to, quite literally, listen to everyone’s voices and take note of their each and every request. This can lead to mismatched orders and mistaken food and drink customizations. We wanted to visualise that problem, humorously but in a way that’s easy to understand. And how better to visualise that than to have a character with multiple faces popping out from different areas of his head?,” he explained.

Hyperlocalisation is at the heart of the campaign

In an exclusive conversation as well with J-anne Aruta, the country marketing head at Grab Philippines, she highlights that for every campaign they do, their primary focus is always on the message and its potential to inspire action among our consumers.

And in the Filipino context, they believe GIGIL is consistent in being an excellent thought and idea partner in the effective delivery of their messages, from relatable, attention-grabbing storytelling to strategic channel identification.

“Having worked with GIGIL for a few years now, we’ve witnessed how they’ve developed a deep understanding of our ecosystem and of our Filipino audiences. This in-depth understanding has allowed us to effectively collaborate on hyperlocal campaigns that are founded on unique, albeit sometimes odd, insights that resonate with our diverse base of consumers,” Aruta stated.

She also added that while Grab is a regional company, they also understand that hyperlocalisation is important to address specific touch points for each local market in the region.

“One of the many factors behind its strong presence across Southeast Asia is hyperlocalisation – a strategy that has empowered us to create solutions that address the various yet specific on-ground challenges our communities face. And hyperlocalisation does not just manifest in the tailor-fitting of products and services we launch across hundreds of cities in SEA. It is also present in the way we communicate with our audiences,” she explained.

When asked about the ad’s humorous direction, Aruta said that humour is but the wrapper, adding that it’s the ‘why’ that is the actual chocolate – the message a brand actually wants to be delivered.

“However, it’s easy to get lost in the plethora of witty punchlines, leading some to go astray from the primary intent. This is why we are always grounded on what we wish to convey. The punchline, the twist, and the mind-boggling ending always come second,” she concluded.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – OMD Malaysia and CelcomDigi have rolled out its first mover in-app campaign with Grab that features CelcomDigi’s logo throughout the user’s journey – from the booking stage to vehicle arrival and drop-off.

Through this strategic integration with Grab, CelcomDigi leveraged the window of opportunity to capture consumers’ attention while they are focused on their phones and anticipating their ride.

In-app display of the integration

This campaign ensures continuous visibility of the CelcomDigi brand throughout the customer journey, fostering curiosity, and maintaining top-of-mind awareness among users, even for intercity cab rides.

Additionally, a CelcomDigi ad shows up at the bottom of the screen and on the homepage of Grab, urging users to upgrade to a worry-free experience with their network.

Grab’s market dominance as Malaysia’s widest ride network aligns well with CelcomDigi’s commitment to connect more Malaysians to its network, making Grab the perfect platform for CelcomDigi to consistently build its presence and brand awareness recall. 

Commenting on the innovative campaign, May Ling Chan, head of brand and marketing services, at CelcomDigi, said, “The recent Grab’s map takeover by CelcomDigi is a great example on how we want to strengthen our brand and reinforce our targeted audience’s connection with us in an innovative way. We look forward to collaborating with OMD to come up with more out-of-the-box ideas that can push boundaries as we continue to widen our reach and presence in Malaysia.”

Meanwhile, Mayank Bhatnagar, managing director, OMD Malaysia, commented, “We are proud to launch this market-first initiative with CelcomDigi to effectively communicate their combined strength in being the widest and fastest network in Malaysia. The client has been innovative and bold in its marketing and branding approach, which is inspiring.

Notably, CelcomDigi is the first telco in Southeast Asia to activate this campaign, which ran from January 31 until March 13, 2024.

Singapore – This Christmas season, Grab celebrates its food merchants across Southeast Asia by featuring their signature meals as the focus of the company’s latest billboard commercial at the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square. 

In this case, Grab has set aside the area to provide 53 domestic retailers visibility on the international scene. The program seeks to show the wide variety of culinary options that visitors can choose from when visiting Southeast Asia using the Grab app. 

The advertisement features a variety of regional favourites, such as Crispy Sisig from the Philippines, Prata from Singapore, Nasi Campur from Indonesia, Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng from Malaysia, and Bánh mì from Vietnam.

Grab has used the billboard space since its launching in 2021 to thank and recognize Grabbers, its community of driver, delivery, and merchant partners that assiduously service millions of customers every day throughout the area.

Although Grab is known for its ride-hailing service, international passengers are also becoming more aware of its food choices. For travellers from North America coming to Southeast Asia, a significant inbound travel market for the area, this peak travel season offers an opportunity to solidify Grab’s lead in the food sector.

In line with this, Grab has created the Traveller Homepage to help travellers plan their trips, particularly in unfamiliar areas. This feature allows users to navigate a city within the Grab app. Travellers can browse for points of interest, peruse the region’s cuisines and restaurants, and save their discoveries to a personalised list, which is available for 33 of the biggest cities often visited by visitors in Southeast Asia.

Singapore –  Ant International, Grab, and StraitsX announced a collaboration to explore the viability of utilising Purpose Bound Money (PBM) in cross-border payments. 

Purpose Bound Money (PBM) is a system that defines the conditions for using an underlying digital currency. PBM, which was first launched by MAS as a component of Project Orchid1, has the potential of lowering payment processing costs and enabling the guided allocation of funds for a specified purpose. 

The goal of this collaborative initiative is to make it easier for GrabPay businesses to integrate with Ant International’s Alipay+ solutions, allowing them to accept payments from a diverse tourist audience. If successful, the expansion of cross-border payment capabilities is expected to increase the use of Purpose Bound Money (PBM), with the goal of launching it in Singapore by 2024.

This cross-border payment project aims to expand local merchants’ customer reach while providing benefits to small and micro-scale businesses. Smaller retailers in Singapore have traditionally experienced restrictions in providing a varied range of payment alternatives to international travellers. This constraint is typically linked to the lengthy process and high expenses associated with incorporating new digital payment methods, which can take months or even years.

By leveraging a distributed ledger infrastructure and Purpose Bound Money (PBM), tiny to micro-scale retailers can more easily serve global consumers. This reduces the complexity involved in integrating cross-border payments by doing away with the need for new system upgrades and manual end-of-day reconciliation between accounting systems.

Singapore – Grab and Heckler Singapore has recently launched their latest sustainability campaign via BLKJ Havas, which brings a trio of finger characters to life and showcases how a mere tap of the digits can empower eco-friendly choices. 

Aimed at raising awareness among consumers about the significant impact their choices can make, Grab’s ‘Wonder Fingers’ campaign with Heckler Singapore showed that scrolling through our phones could be used for better things like tapping for good.

For this campaign, Heckler got to work using Maya and Cinema4D on three short animated films and assets for a personalised digital report, termed the Grab Personal Impact Story, to showcase the positive outcomes of using Grab.

For the environment, Heckler chose to build backgrounds in 3D that looked like they were made of paper. This aesthetic gave the films a playful base to set the action in, along with some intriguing textures. By modelling and rigging photorealistic human fingers to represent different ethnicities and backgrounds, Heckler also gave them human-like characteristics, including playful eyes that used expressions to communicate the impact the fingers were having.

Cody Amos, creative director at Heckler Singapore, admitted that dressing the fingers up was a challenge as the animation team had to re-imagine them as a full human body in order to know where the cut of a tank top would end or where the hem of a skirt would begin.

“The finger characters themselves were modelled in Maya to look realistic, but with googly eyes and stuck on mouths that we animated to bring their emotions to life. All this detail made it feel halfway between a fun animated film and a puppet show,” Amos said. 

“Because the characters are fingers, we wanted to build the world around them in a way that felt like a miniature set that finger puppets could live in. To give it realism, and add some humour, we made it all look like it was made of paper and cardboard, and even put in flying elements on popsicle sticks, held together with sticky tape,” he added. 

Notably, these simple taps on screens using Grab have contributed to diverting over 8,100 tonnes of waste from landfills and the planting of 200,000 trees, bolstering forest conservation efforts across Southeast Asia.

Singapore – Grab has recently announced the opening of its first physical merchant centre in Singapore in order to support local SMEs in their digital growth, as well as offering them a physical space for networking.

The Grab Merchant Centre, located in Grab’s one-north headquarters, is a one-stop shop for small and medium businesses (SMBs) looking to accelerate their growth in the digital economy through Grab’s services. 

This is the first-of-its-kind merchant centre among industry players in Singapore, and the first for Grab in Southeast Asia. 

Said centre first started as a merchant registration counter in April 2020 to help SMBs sign up and activate their Grab accounts during the pandemic. Today, it has evolved into a one-stop shop providing advisory services and solutions for SMBs.

Wee Tang Yee, country head of Grab Singapore, said, “Based on our latest Food and Grocery Trend Report released today, we know that consumers are increasingly reliant on platforms like Grab. This means that there are more opportunities for businesses to engage with them on our app.”

He added, “The Grab Merchant Centre is meant to help SMBs quickly and effectively tap into this growing opportunity through our tailored solutions. Having a permanent space for the SMB community enables us to serve them more efficiently, and gives them the confidence that Grab is there to support them whenever they need.”

Yee also explained, “The Grab Merchant Centre is also a place for SMBs to keep pace with the latest digital tools and practices. That way, they can confidently navigate and grow their businesses using our suite of self-serve digital tools in the GrabMerchant app. These include reading sales performance trends and insights to improve operations, advertising solutions to reach more customers and boost sales, digital lending products to support their business expansion, and more. We will continue to develop new products to provide more comprehensive support for businesses, and help them capture a bigger slice of the market.”