Jakarta, Indonesia – GOX, an Indonesian game streaming platform, has announced a partnership with Tencent Cloud, the cloud computing service of Chinese entertainment conglomerate Tencent, to bolster its live streaming and esports solution offering. GOX said this is part of their aim to become an integral part of the burgeoning entertainment market in Indonesia and Asia.
The four-year collaboration will allow GOX to leverage Tencent Cloud’s streaming service and content delivery network to offer low latency, seamless and stable gaming content to millions of viewers in Indonesia and Asia.
Jack Lontoh, founder at GOX, said that with their collaboration with Tencent Cloud, they are confident that they can accelerate the growth of GOX while maintaining the highest quality of streaming services.
“When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, the number of GOX active users has grown more than 16 times, benefitting from the social restriction, as more people started to go online. GOX has positioned itself to take advantage from the early wave of people turning to streaming as a full-time job. As the pandemic continues and the gaming industry further grows, GOX will solely focus on making streaming a ‘sexy’ occupation to have,” Lontoh said.
GOX will continue to look into deeper collaboration with Tencent Cloud in terms of more interactive platform features and gaming resource collaboration, to benefit both viewers and streamers.
Meanwhile, Poshu Yeung, senior vice president at Tencent Cloud International, commented, “Tencent Cloud highlights its commitment to address the ever-evolving demands of people around the world, and how global enterprises can cover all their needs. Through our collaboration with GOX, we look forward to empowering the local entertainment business, particularly in the field of e-sports and game live streaming, via our high-quality, high-performance, stable and secure technology.”
Singapore – APRW, one of Singapore’s earliest and largest integrated communications agencies, has announced the expansion of its local team in Indonesia with Debora Prescillia, former head of marketing & corporate communication of MNC Life Assurance, joining as new associate director.
Aside from roles in MNC Asset Management and MNC Life Insurance, Prescillia joins APRW with a long career journey of more than 10 years of corporate experience, including with Pertamina, McDonald’s Indonesia, Eculine Indonesia, and Pos Logistics Indonesia. She was also a former journalist in Koran Jakarta and MNC Media Group.
Cho Pei Lin, APRW’s MD, said that the addition of Prescillia to the team is part of the firm’s commitment to serving the Indonesian market, believing that a strong foothold in Singapore combined with the local expertise in the Indonesian market will play a vital role in unlocking the potential of the clients from a communications standpoint.
“Debora will focus on leading the operations in Indonesia, ensuring that the agency continues to provide strategic communication consultation, and to oversee the business development opportunities,” said Cho Pei Lin.
Prescillia comments on her appointment, “I’m excited about leading the APRW Indonesia team and furthering the role that APRW plays in supporting and being a reliable communication partner for our clients in Indonesia. It is also important for us to build camaraderie with the team to have fun, grow and be fruitful in the work that we do and the projects entrusted to us by our clients.”
APRW said the Indonesia team will continue to work closely with its counterpart in Singapore, to be overseen by Anu Gupta, Director of APRW, to provide expertise and support to clients in the startup and technology industry.
Last September, APRW announced a partnership that seeks to empower future comms professionals for its 25th anniversary. The tie-up was with Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (NTU WKWSCI) in Singapore with APRW-NTU WKWSCI Student Development Fund at the center of it. The fund aims to help students fund their final-year projects at the school and recognize and celebrate the best ones.
Jakarta, Indonesia – Kopi Kenangan, a local-based retail F&B chain known for its coffee products, has recently concluded its series C funding amounting to US$96m, officially making it unicorn. Said funding will help the company accelerate the expansion of its new brands, Cerita Roti, Chigo and Kenangan Manis across Indonesia, and will continue to build the network and broaden its footprint internationally.
The funding round was led by Tybourne Capital Management, with participation from existing investors including Horizons Ventures, Kunlun, and B Capital, and new investor Falcon Edge Capital. The funding round comes as Kopi Kenangan is seeing strong domestic demand for its expanded product offerings such as its bread brand Cerita Roti, its ‘chicken on the go’ brand Chigo, and soft-cookies brand Kenangan Manis, as well as the continued rapid growth of its home-grown coffee brand including the latest topping addition, Sultan Boba.
The company, founded in 2017, targets the gap in the market in Indonesia between the high-priced coffee served at international coffee chains and the instant coffee sold in the country’s many street stalls. Customers are offered the convenience of ordering through an app and either having coffee delivered to their doorstep or picking it up at one of Kopi Kenangan’s many stores across the country.
Edward Tirtanata, co-founder and CEO at Kopi Kenangan, said, “The continuing support of our investors, as well as the new backers in this funding round, is a testament to our continued focus on increasing store productivity and using technology to create the best user experience for our customers.”
He added, “Our mission is to be the most-loved consumer brand in Southeast Asia and, as part of our five-year vision, we remain committed to rapidly expanding our footprint to thousands of stores across Southeast Asia and broadening our offerings.”
Jakarta, Indonesia – Online video adtech startup Pancast has officially launched in Southeast Asia, marking it with its first office in Indonesia. In addition, Pancast has also appointed Miranti Herwinda as the startup’s country manager in Indonesia.
Pancast has already started working with some of Indonesia’s online publishers. These include publishing conglomerate Kapanlagi Youniverse, streaming platforms Vidio, WeTV, and True ID, as well as sports platforms ESPN, One Football and Football Co.
Speaking about their services, Alex Prior, CEO at Pancast, said, “Premium video inventory delivers highly-engaged audiences at scale, in a safe and transparent context, offering advertisers targetable and quantifiably real viewers across multiple screens.”
He added, “Our partnerships with leading publishers, scale of premium inventory, audiences and ad impressions, and Miranti’s extensive industry experience and familiarity with the region, puts us in a strong position to meet marketer’s growing digital ad appetite.”
Herwinda, with over 14 years of industry experience, was previously affiliated with Collab Asia as the commercial director for Indonesia. She also had experience as head of digital development and growth for MRA Media, and co-founder and managing director of Glitzmedia.
Speaking about her appointment, she said, “I am excited to join Pancast and take on the challenge of leading the operations in Indonesia. I look forward to introducing the uniqueness of Pancast to publishers and advertisers. I believe this complements the increasing online video viewers in Indonesia. I am delighted to take on this opportunity and play a role in shaping the online video advertising industry.”
Pancast offers a fully transparent marketplace in terms of quality inventory and revenue model, unlocking the true value of video inventory for publishers and delivering access to scalable, targeted audiences for advertisers. With Pancast, advertisers also have access to a wide scale of premium videos from publishers through a single deal.
“The foundations of the Pancast marketplace are privacy first, content and behavioral data strategy. The company’s unique and ever-evolving deep data solution delivers value to publisher partners and advertisers searching for reach and [relevance]. Pancast is continuously expanding its capabilities, working with its tech partners, to offer greater audience identification and in-depth data insights,” the company said in a press statement.
Jakarta, Indonesia – The Ministry of Communication and Informatics of Indonesia (Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informatika), alongside with the National Digital Literacy Movement, has announced a collaboration with local pop bank HIVI! band to promote digital literacy, targeting Gen Z audiences. The band consists of Ilham Aditama, Nadhia Aleida, Febrian Nindyo, and Ezra Mandira.
Through this collaboration, HIVI! band wrote and produced a campaign song titled ‘Cerita Dunia Maya #MakinCakapDigital’ to send messages to Gen Z to use the internet for positive activities as well as educate them to be brave and responsible in exploring themselves through digital content.
Furthermore, the collaboration has produced easy listening music that aims to raise young people’s awareness in using the internet for good purposes. The campaign also aims to avoid negative impacts that might be harmful, especially to the mental health of young audiences.
With the lyrics “Di dunia maya kita semua punya cerita, di dunia maya kita semua bisa berkarya!” (We all have stories in the digital world, we all can be creative in the digital world), the song calls on all young people to use the internet for positive and productive activities as well as be the change that they wish to see in the world, starting from themselves.
The ministry cites data from online media company Katadata that the country has over 200 million people who have been actively using internet platforms to maintain their social interactions and also to stay productive while staying at home due to social and economic restrictions.
“However, digital technology also has negative impact when it is used for circulating hoaxes, cyber-bullying, radicalism, and even terrorism. Thus, equality in digital literacy is crucial as it will encourage young people, in particular, to use the internet wisely,” said Rizki Ameliah, coordinator of Digital Literacy Kemenkominfo.
Rizki added, “Music is a universal language and it enables people to relate their life with any particular song, so it will be easier to penetrate the messages of the digital literacy campaign to young people and wider attention across the nation.”
The song is available for streaming both on YouTube and Spotify.
Jakarta, Indonesia – Digital Telco Indosat Ooredoo in Indonesia has partnered with Out There Media (OTM), the mobile advertising and data monetization firm, to adopt its proprietary mobile engagement technology platform, Mobucks. The telco will be leveraging OTM’s network of brands and brand agencies to strengthen its digital advertising strategy.
With OTM’s Mobucks technology, Indosat Ooredoo aims to bring subscribers targeted and interactive messaging campaigns from its chosen brand and agency partners. Mobucks will be leveraging Indosat Ooredoo’s analytics and understanding of the market, allowing its platform to combine precise targeting and personalization with reach, enabling ‘micro-targeting at scale’ for its future brand clients for better engagement, response, and conversion, as well as ROI.
Ritesh Kumar Singh, Indosat Ooredoo’s chief commercial officer, said that they are looking forward to delivering interactive mobile advertising campaigns that go beyond the reach of traditional advertising channels available today.
“This is an exciting time for Indosat Ooredoo, and we look forward to announcing our initial campaigns in due course,” said Singh.
Michael Jahotsen, Out There Media’s sales director for Indonesia, commented that brands today are always looking at new ways to engage with their customers, while at the same time, operators want to keep offering relevant products and offer to their subscribers from brands they love.
“We’re looking forward to launching some exciting campaigns with Indosat Ooredoo’s brand partners to demonstrate just how transformative and powerful Mobucks can be for the operator and brand world,” said Jahotsen.
Indosat Ooredoo has also joined the humanitarian initiative led by Out There Impact, OTM’s impact division committed to using the power of mobile technology for the greater good.
Together with several other global mobile operators, Indosat Ooredoo will take part in an educational mobile campaign launched by Out There Impact on behalf of the World Health Organization, to help contain the ongoing spread of COVID-19. The campaign is being distributed to more than 300 million global citizens via OTM’s global network of mobile operators.
Singapore – Global action star Jackie Chan was recently announced as top e-commerce Shopee’s newest ambassador in August which was launched as part of the platform’s 9.9 campaign. Shortly after, Chan makes a comeback to viewers’ screens for the platform’s 11.11 campaign.
In light of the backlash from some advertising and creative professionals on Shopee’s current ad for 11.11, MARKETECH APAC reached out to social listening platform Digimind to learn about how the mass audience perceives the latest campaign.
On October 25, just a few days after Shopee released its 11.11 ad with the international star, Singapore-based marketing expert Richard Bleasdale stirred quite a conversation on LinkedIn by sharing a post about the ad, describing it as the “worst ad ever made.” Soon, the post drew quite traction, serving as an invitation for other creative and marketing leaders to share their verdict on the ad–which was a unanimous disappointment over Shopee’s chosen creative direction.
The general audience, meanwhile, had been split on their perception of the ad. According to Digimind’s analysis, some had found the 11.11 campaign endearing, while a fraction showed displeasure over the latest campaign mixed with some neutral liking.
The main narrative of the ad in question was Jackie Chan fighting off bad guys ‘magically’ through the power of Shopee’s ‘big discounts’. For every press of the actor on his phone, discount bubbles pop up such as “$60 CASHBACK ALL DAY,” sending an enemy down and defeated.
Screenshots from Shopee’s latest 11.11 ad
Apparently, the negative sentiment by the mass audience drew some parallel with professional opinion, which is Shopee’s seeming failure to leverage Chan’s martial arts prowess. Following Bleasdale’s post, MARKETECH APAC formally reached out to some of the advertising professionals that commented on the post.
A consensus among the creative leaders was Shopee’s perceived faulty decision to favor a fictional story of ‘powerful’ discounts rather than spotlighting the ambassador’s renowned action-comedy branding.
A leader from ad agency Cheil Singapore described the ad as an “orange mess,” while an advisory board member from martech DAIVID said the ad could have been an opportunity to have “some whacky martial-arts impossibility” performed by the ambassador.
Digimind had rounded up some definitive comments which had been in agreement with the said professional flak.
Negative and neutral comments on Shopee’s 11.11 ad gathered by Digimind
One tweet said, “I guess Jackie Chan beating up people with a tap of a button is all [we’re] going to get in a Shopee ad.”
While another wrote on Twitter, “[Jackie Chan] did a [Shopee] ad, my life is ruined.”
Other hostile comments pointed out other ‘less-than-perfect’ elements of the ad such as Chan’s seeming wrinkle-free appearance and how the ad looked like a ‘deepfake’, which is the digital alter of a person’s face.
“I’m laughing, they [airbrushed] Jackie Chan’s wrinkles…,” one netizen tweeted.
While another one said, “Tell me why I’m so convinced that the Shopee ads with ‘Jackie Chan’ [are] [deepfakes]…”
According to the report, there were a total of 309 mentions in Southeast Asia, excluding promotional content, about Shopee’s 11.11 ad from the period of October 17 – 31 across leading social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
The study found that Malaysia conversed the most around the campaign with 40% of the mentions coming from the market, followed by the Philippines (30%) and Indonesia (20%).
Information from the study also showed that the inaugural Shopee ambassadorship of Chan for 9.9 in August garnered higher traction on social media than the sophomore campaign of the star for 11.11. There had been a 4530% fall in the total volume of mentions for the newer campaign compared to the previous 9.9 over the same period from August 19 – 31.
Shopee’s 11.11 ad was released on YouTube on October 18 across its covered markets in Southeast Asia. Thai viewership of the ad eclipsed the platform’s other markets, registering over 39 million views as of writing.
Digimind’s analysis covered the markets of Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and India.
Jakarta, Indonesia – The Indonesian market takes the lead in producing K-pop related videos on the short video platform TikTok, according to the latest data from the platform itself in collaboration with Kpop Radar, a K-Pop fandom data service operated by music start-up Space Oddity.
Indonesia takes up 16.4% of all K-pop related TikTok videos made outside of South Korea. This was closely followed by the Philippines (13.5%) and the United States (8.7%).
Overall, around 92.8% of these K-pop related TikTok videos were made outside South Korea.
Both the huge popularity of the short video platform TikTok and the rise of ‘Hallyu’ or Korean wave has resulted into over 97 million TikTok videos related to K-pop, thrice the previous 33.5 million K-pop-related TikTok videos made in 2019.
Jay Bae, head of global business development at TikTok Korea, said that TikTok has certainly made its mark in the music industry, joining the ranks of LPs, radios, and television
“We are grateful to be a part of this ongoing movement to support the genre and its community,” said Bae.
Bae adds, “TikTok has changed how people consume and experience K-pop, with fans, from Korea, Singapore and across the globe, now having the space and tools to re-create and re-imagine their favourite content. As K-pop is so well-loved by the global TikTok community, we will continue to drive initiatives to support both the artists and the fans.”
Singapore – Redhill, the global full-service communications agency headquartered in Singapore, bolsters its senior leadership team with key hires for its Malaysia, Indonesia, and India teams.
Umesh Nair (leftmost in photo) has been named as deputy managing director and will lead Redhill’s technology practice and operations in Malaysia. Nair brings with him 15 years of experience in digital marketing and corporate reputation across technology, banking, aerospace, and telecom. Before joining Redhill, he was managing partner at Publicis Groupe’s PR firm MSL Malaysia, and also served as head of reputation at Edelman Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Pavan Sahu (rightmost in photo) has been elevated to the role of deputy managing director, and will continue to accelerate Redhill’s growth in Indonesia and India.
Sahu joined Redhill in 2019 as senior director and has played a crucial role in leading communications strategies across India, Indonesia, and Singapore, while leading crisis communications and brand reputation management for Redhill’s office in India. Some of the key clients Sahu has worked with include Danone, Truecaller, Crayon, Builder.ai, and GudangAda.
Aside from the key appointments in APAC, the agency has also unveiled leadership for its market in the Middle East and for helming the agency’s accounts in the government, public and corporate sectors.
Seasoned communications expert Anit Kurian (second from left in photo), who carries with him nearly two decades of experience, will be managing director for Middle East and Africa. Meanwhile, Charu Srivastava (second from right in photo), like Sahu, has been promoted to deputy managing director.
For the role, Srivastava will lead the agency’s business within the government, public, and corporate sector. Srivastava joined the agency in 2019 as director, building the company’s government and corporate practice to include a diverse portfolio of clients.
On the appointment of Kurian and Nair, Pranav Rastogi, Redhill’s managing director,commented,“We are delighted to welcome Anit [Kurian] and Umesh [Nair] to the Redhill team. Both Anit and Umesh bring decades of management and communications experience to the table across multiple countries and verticals.”
On Sahu and Srivastava, Rastogi continues, “Charu [Srivastava] and Pavan [Sahu] have performed exceptionally well in growing their respective verticals exponentially despite the challenging environment due to the pandemic. Even as we hire externally, we are also investing in our current senior leaders. Charu and Pavan have proven track records and a wealth of experience and expertise to keep up with our rapid growth. I am confident that Anit, Umesh, Charu, and Pavan will help take Redhill to new heights in the coming years.”
The agency recently celebrated its seventh anniversary in October this year. In June, Redhill entered MARKETECH APAC’s Top 5 Stories for welcoming its new MDs, Marienelle Castelino and Tavy Cussinel.
In an exclusive conversation with its CEO and Founder Jacob Puthenparambil, he shared the agency’s philosophy in building and growing its team.
“It’s extremely vital for our growth that we have people who stay with us for a very long time because it’s a people-based industry, especially PR. A lot of the company culture is based on the long-term people that we have. You can’t write those things down or learn from a textbook,” said Puthenparambil.
Indonesia – To engage with a younger audience and create interest in writing and reading, independent agency network M&C Saatchi Indonesia has partnered with Twitter Indonesia to launch a new social media activation, where people could contribute with stories in a single Twitter thread.
The initiative is in line with Indonesia’s annual literary festival, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, under the theme ‘Mulat Sarira’, which in English translates to ‘self-reflection’.
According to M&C Saatchi, the new social media activation has handpicked 70 contributors and curated over 270 tweets into a book, titled #TheThreadStory. It aims to promote the importance of reading to Indonesians, as the changing media habits of youngsters, especially the adoption of social media and streaming content, have further reduced their interest in reading.
Anish Daryani, M&C Saatchi’s founder and president director for Indonesia, shared that the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival has been trying to encourage writing and reading for eighteen years, but their voice doesn’t seem to be heard, which made them decide to change by harnessing the popularity of microblogging.
“We’re thankful to Twitter Indonesia for their support in coming onboard as a partner and to the hundreds of people who contributed to the first-ever crowdsourced book of tweets. We hope #TheThreadStory may have inspired many young netizens to pick up their first book and fall in love with reading,” said Daryani.
Meanwhile, Janet De Neefe, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival’s founder, noted that this initiative is drawn from a local philosophy, and is the spiritual principle of examining people’s actions, thoughts, and values to ultimately build the deepest sense of ‘self-understanding’, ‘wisdom’, and ‘interconnectedness’ in pursuit of Dharma, or “the truth”.
“I am thrilled with the outcome of #TheThreadStory and hope that we can continue to join hands with young writers and readers across Indonesia. Maybe on the way, we will also discover many new voices that need to be heard, fulfilling our dream to provide opportunities for the future writers and readers of this extraordinary archipelago,” said De Neefe.
Dwi Adriansah, the country head of Twitter Indonesia, commented, “Through #TheThreadstory, we encourage people to share their creativity in creating a book using a new way, which is through Threads. We hope this initiative helps people to rediscover their passions in literature.”
The book launch was live-streamed from Indus Restaurant in Ubud, Bali, on Ubud Writers and Readers Festival’s Instagram page.
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