Tag: initiative

Sydney, Australia – After a competitive pitch, media agency Initiative has retained its media remit for distillery company Pernod Ricard to work across the entire brand portfolio including all Pernod’s wine, spirit, whiskey, champagne, RTD and ‘new to world’ brands, focusing on Australia and New Zealand market.

Since its sealed partnership in 2019, Initiative has helped the company to propel into culture, with notable highlights including challenging gender bias through The Glenlivet Break The Rules campaign, tackling regional inequality through Absolut Pride Relay, and launching major brands like Malfy Gin and Altos Tequila into market. 

Jo McAlister, managing director at Initiative, said that the agency is excited for another 3 years of partnership with the company to continue its journey in leading ANZ’s competitive alcohol beverage markets across all brand categories.

“This is phenomenal news and we are so proud to continue our partnership. For the past three years we have grown together as brands, collaborating via a truly open and transparent relationship and enjoying an agency/client bond that I’ve rarely seen in market,” McAlister added.

Eric Thomson, CMO at Pernod Ricard Winemakers, added, “The chemistry between Initiative’s team and ours was evident from the start of our relationship three years ago and it has not waned. We are delighted to continue our partnership as we both push forward to produce effective and creative work that connects and engages our customers in an increasingly complex market.”

In January, Initiative also retained its media business remit for energy networks owner Jemena Limited, extending its 10-year relationship with the brand. 

Sydney, Australia – As Super Bowl 2023 draws near, media agency Initiative is bringing back its popular Super Bowl ad betting competition via the Marketing-Multi platform. The competition is open to all ad industry experts who want to test their power of prediction.

Built by Initiative’s Cultural Analytics department, marketing-multi is crowdsourced by industry experts across Australia and internationally to provide the most eclectic multi-market with odds updating live every day.

Currently, ‘Chat GPT created spots’, ‘spot featuring the British royals’, and ‘appearance of Nepo babies’ are amongst the odds industry pundits are betting on through its website, marketingmulti.au.

In the competition, punters can only bet if an outcome will occur (yes or no), and how many times they predict the outcome occurring. Scoring will be based on probability with the final odds from each day added to a punter’s daily score calculation.

Similar to last year, there will be no money involved but the participant with the highest cumulative score will earn an official ‘Marketing-Multi Super Bowl Ring’ and industry ‘bragging rights’.

“Arguably the world’s biggest advertising platform, Super Bowl sets the stage for the biggest benchmarks in creativity where brands open their wallets and take a punt showcasing their brand, in often outrageous ways, to win the one true ad-attentive environment,” said Chris Colter, chief strategy and product officer at Initiative.

Ryan Haeusler, head of communications design and architect of the platform also explained, “The aim of the game is to get as many legs right, with no penalties for a wrong punt, whoever strings together the most correct answers takes home the ultimate prize: water-cooling bragging rights and the lofty title of this year’s Super Bowl Nostr-AD-Amus.”

Launched on February 8 last year, Marketing-Multi is targeted at helping industry experts predict the best and most hilarious ads of The Super Bowl.

Australia – Media agency Initiative has announced the appointment of David Cook to the newly created national role of head of marketing and IQ. As the head of IQ, Initiative’s consulting division, Cook is tasked to deliver high-level strategic media recommendations to C-suite leaders. Within the role, he will also be leading the agency’s marketing program and supporting the agency’s focus on industry thought leadership and progression.

Prior to joining Initiative, Cook has previously held various strategic roles for different media outfits. In the past, he was a communication strategist for ZenithOptimedia and also assumed the strategy director position at Ikon Communications previously. In 2014, he became a strategy consultant for Match Media and was the strategy director of Bohemia Group for 2 years through 2016. 

It was in 2020 when Cook started handling marketing roles. Before officially joining Initiative, he was the head of trade marketing at broadcast media production Nine for 2 years. 

For the new role, Cook will be reporting directly to Initiative’s chief strategy & product officer Chris Colter and the agency’s national managing director, Sam Geer.

Commenting on Cook’s appointment, Colter said that Cook’s industry-wide reputation for sharp thinking and collaborative approach is essential for the growth agenda of the agency’s consulting division.

Colter added, “We are thrilled to have David join our team to expand Initiative’s IQ division which has experienced exponential growth since its launch in 2021.”

Meanwhile, Cook said that he is impressed with Initiative’s consulting proposition and its ambition to produce best-in-class client work. 

“I look forward to using my experience to date, and applying it through a slightly different lens. I can’t wait to get started,” he said.

Sydney, Australia – After a hotly contested pitch, media agency Initiative has retained its media business remit for energy networks owner Jemena Limited, extending a 10-year relationship with the brand. The win also comes with Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS), a media-fueled content practice of Mediabrands, expanding its creative remit for the same brand.

Initiative will be responsible for all national and local broadcast media buying, print, outdoor, radio, cinema, digital, search, social and addressable, and other media buying such as strategic and communication design responsibilities. Meanwhile, MBCS will handle all creative and production services and executions.

Melissa Fein, CEO of Initiative said that she is thrilled in re-signing a valued long-term partner. She also added that her team is energised in increasing Jemena’s customer base as it expands the network across regional and urban centres throughout New South Wales.

Fein added, “Jemena walks our talk; they are passionate about their customers, ambitious in their plans to decarbonise their networks and totally committed to a sustainable future, all traits Initiative values deeply. And our relationship has just got better with MBCS now on board, they’re an incredibly talented team and our cross-agency collaboration will help us continue to elevate the outstanding work we do on Jemena.”

Retaining its creative remit, Olivia Warren, managing director of MBCS expressed, “Jemena is a fascinating business with so much creative potential. Potential that is greater unlocked by having creative and media harmoniously working together under one roof. It makes collaboration easier, encourages new and gutsy perspectives and ultimately produces world class results for our clients. We can’t wait to get started.”

Meanwhile, Sandra Centofanti, head of strategy & marketing at Jemena Networks added, “Year-on-year Initiative brings fresh, exciting media thinking to the table; they understand our business intimately and deliver consistently strong results. We’re pleased to expand this relationship and onboard MBCS as our creative partners. Their connected approach to creativity and energy for our business was magnetic and we look forward to creating big things together.”

Sydney, Australia – Global media and marketing solutions group IPG Mediabrands has appointed Geoff Clarke as its chief operating officer for Australia. Clarke will retain his chief operating officer role and business growth development responsibilities for Initiative, a global media agency that is also under Mediabrands.

In his expanded role, Clarke will be responsible for driving operational and organisational improvements across the entire group. He will also continue to lead IPG’s transformation agenda throughout APAC while leading the operational integration and working system of Australian businesses. Clarke will also collaborate across the company’s entire client portfolio.

Mark Coad, CEO of Mediabrands Australia said that the expanded leadership role is a timely and well-deserved recognition for Geoff who has successfully led the Group’s transformational agenda.

Coad added, “Geoff is an outstanding leader. While still keeping his fingers 100 percent on the pulse at Initiative, he successfully positioned Mediabrands as an industry leader in the use of automation and BOTs considerably reducing repetitive and menial work and significantly improving the way we work across the entire group.”

In his three-decade media industry career, Clarke has established a background in investment, planning, and media buying. He worked for various agencies in London and eventually obtained a managing director position in Australia in 2013.

In 2015, Clarke started his role in Initiative as a client partner and later on promoted to chief operating officer. He has been instrumental in the agency’s growth and development in Australia.

For his new responsibilities, Clarke commented, “I am going to be busy, but it is an exciting time to be in the industry. My goal is for our clients to engage Mediabrands’ agencies knowing the unique business solutions we offer are fully effective and designed for ambitious growth.  This can only happen when the best operational and procedural innovations are in place and the most talented teams are available to service clients.”

Manila, Philippines – Maya, the newly rebranded and one of the leading financial superapps in the Philippines, has named IPG Mediabrands’ media agency Initiative as its media agency of record. The win followed a multi-agency pitch in October 2022. 

Initiative Philippines will be heading Maya’s integrated media mandate. This includes business analytics, audience understanding, media strategy, planning, offline, and full-funnel digital performance activation for the consumer and business segments of the total Maya portfolio.

“2022 was a tremendous year of brand and business growth as we relaunched from PayMaya to Maya, but the work has only just begun. With even greater ambitions in 2023, we must ensure that all our capabilities across the board are on the cutting edge,” said Pepe Torres, chief marketing officer of Maya.

He also added that Initiative proved to be the right media partner for Maya for being just as invested in its success as they are and being philosophically aligned with their “cultural velocity proposition.”

Paul Atienza, managing partner at Initiative Philippines also said, “Maya is a bold tech maverick that continues to stretch the limits and defy conventions in helping Filipinos make bolder financial choices. We could not be more thrilled to partner with them, driving Cultural Velocity to further protract growth for the Maya brand in years to come.”

Melody Laogan, managing partner at Initiative Philippines added, “This win is a testament to Initiative’s culturally driven and outcome-focused approach to integrated strategic planning. We share the same values with Maya, of being fearless, bold, and progressive. We are excited to raise the bar together.”

Initiative Philippines’ appointment is effective January 2023.

Last May, Paymaya rebranded as Maya with the aim to be known as an all-in-one finance platform for individuals and enterprises. 

Maya Bank’s parent firm Voyager Innovations has also previously boosted its total valuation to unicorn plus status.

Singapore – Initiative, the media agency under IPG Mediabrands, has appointed Niranjan Singh as its new head of communications in Asia-Pacific. In his new role, he will champion the application of best-practice approaches, techniques and solutions for modern experience design.

In addition, he will drive the connected communications design practice across key clients and sectors for Initiative APAC.

Singh will report to James Smyllie, president of Initiative APAC and is currently based in Mumbai, India prior to transitioning to the Initiative APAC regional headquarters in Singapore. His appointment is effective immediately. 

He has more than 16 years industry experience in strategic media planning and buying, and was previously the head of AOR at Mediacom Indonesia, leading the P&G business for three years.

Prior to that, he spent six years at GroupM, working across leading brands such as Colgate Palmolive, GSK and FrieslandCampina in India and Vietnam.

Speaking on his appointment, Singh said, “I’m thrilled to join Initiative APAC. Initiative’s unique proposition of achieving Cultural Velocity™ in the media-fragmented world to deliver real business growth and success for brands, was the big pull factor for me. I’m super excited to become a part of the team that has been winning Global businesses back-to-back.”

Meanwhile, Smyllie commented, “We are delighted to be attracting talent like Niran to Initiative. This hire reinforces our key focus on enhancing our Craft capabilities across APAC, and driving a consistently world class product throughout the region.”

The new Initiative appointment follows a slew of appointments made by agencies under the IPG Mediabrands company in APAC, namely the appointment of MBCS’ Olivia Warren to its Australia executive team, as well as of Sarah O’Leary and Tom Cumberworth for Initiative’s Rufus, the dedicated media and communications for Amazon.

Sydney, Australia – Rufus, the dedicated media and communications agency by Initiative for Amazon’s range of services, has announced new senior leadership appointments namely Sarah O’Leary as managing director and Tom Cumberworth as head of partnerships.

O’Leary has a strong media investment background garnered from 15-years in senior management and director roles both agency and marketing-side. 

Previously with Atomic 212 as Head of Client Service and Planning, O’Leary’s strengths lie in her leadership qualities and deep understanding of how media agencies operate within the ANZ landscape.

Meanwhile, with nearly 15-years of global and local experience, Cumberworth was previously group trading director at OMD Sydney where he led the Suncorp Group business, overseeing the investment strategy and decisioning for the entire portfolio across all media. 

Previously he was with Mindshare and MEC in the UK commencing in 2008 as a TV buyer and moving to an account director role working on clients such as Nike, News Corp, 3 Mobile and Kimberly Clark to name a few.

Melissa Fein, CEO at Initiative Australia said after a robust search and selection process she was delighted to welcome both Sarah and Tom to Rufus, who together bring specialist skills to the table and are charged with delivering high performance outcomes for Amazon.

“Sarah has a proven track record of leading senior stakeholder relationships and delivering business growth in today’s complex and fast-moving market. We’re delighted she has accepted the opportunity to lead Rufus at a pivotal time in the agency’s growth and momentum,” she said.

Fein added, “Tom is an outstanding team leader with a raft of global and local experience managing and leading specialist buying teams across all media platforms, inclusive of TV, VOD, OOH, Radio and more. He will play a leading role in Rufus, Amazon and our media partners’ future successes.”

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia – As the saying goes, not all superheroes wear capes, and this holds true for this year’s superhero search by Grab Malaysia. This annual initiative called ‘Grab Lejen’ looks to honour and reward exceptional driver and delivery partners who have gone above and beyond their call of duty to serve Malaysians. 

In conjunction with Grab’s 10-year anniversary, the initiative seeks to find an everyday superhero amongst its community of partners that will be entirely crowdsourced, which means that Grab users will be able to submit their heartwarming stories of choice as nominations.

Until 30 September 2022, Grab users will be able to submit their heartwarming stories of choice as nominations at https://grb.to/grablejen2022. They will then be able to vote for their favourite ‘lejens’ who won the hearts of Malaysians beginning 15 October until 15 November 2022.

Rashid Shukor, director of country operations and mobility at Grab Malaysia, shared that since its inauguration last year, they’ve seen incredible acts of kindness from their driver and delivery partners, and heartwarming and compassionate stories like these are a breath of fresh air and a true testament to the incredible selfless nature of their partners, who despite enduring hardships in their everyday lives, still find it in themselves to be unselfishly kind to those around them. 

“As a homegrown company striving for positive social impact, we are encouraged by our partners and want to continue to recognise and further enable these exemplary acts of service for many more years to come,” said Shukor.

Grab Lejen is part of Grab’s commitment to positive social impact. In addition to honouring exemplary partners who have shown extraordinary acts of service, Grab continuously finds ways to help all partners to save and grow through the platform with the GrabBenefits programme. GrabBenefits is a programme aimed at enriching the lives of Grab’s partners through three main categories; protection, savings, and academy. Together, these benefits such as petrol rebates, vehicle maintenance discounts, insurance coverage, and upskilling programmes allow them to save on everyday expenses, get the necessary protection and equip themselves with knowledge while they earn. 

Shukor added. “For the past 10 years, our community of partners has been the heart of everything Grab does and we are committed to continue supporting them as they persevere to earn on the Grab platform. GrabBenefits is one of our ways of supporting our dedicated partners and empowering them with resources to hopefully make their lives a little easier. And through Grab Lejen, we aim to honour the real-life superheroes that deserve recognition. We hope to continue building a healthy partner community that touches the lives of people around them, and by doing so, empower them to become an enabler of positive social impact. This is truly how legends are made.”

Singapore – To celebrate foodpanda’s 10 years of operations in Asia, the q-commerce platform has launched its new regional headquarters in Singapore. This new headquarters houses 1,200 employees from its regional and local operational teams, plus the company’s global tech hub.

foodpanda said that Singapore has always been a base and test market for innovation and new product development. Amongst the features beta-launched in Singapore were foodpanda’s cloud store network pandamart and on-demand retail marketplace foodpanda shops – leading Asia’s push into q-commerce, as early as 2019. Singapore was also the first market to roll out proof-of-concept drone deliveries in partnership with ST Engineering, as well as foodpanda’s Logistics-as-a-Service feature, pandago in 2020, offering express doorstep deliveries to customers.

Moreover, the platform has launched its ‘PowerUp! Tech Academy’, which aims to enable the next decade of growth, building up a strong tech core. Unlike a localised R&D facility, the foodpanda PowerUp! Tech Academy will use Delivery Hero’s global knowledge base in Singapore to power the tech and innovation ecosystem. It comprises programmes and partnerships to grow the local tech talent pool, upskill riders, and help merchants digitalise.

foodpanda, together with its parent company Delivery Hero’s Delivery Hero Ventures, has also invested more than SG$120m in Singapore-based regional tech start-ups including Toku, Flash Coffee, and Omnistream.

Jakob Angele, CEO of foodpanda, said that Singapore has proven to be a dynamic hub for foodpanda’s operations in the region, and they expect to see more innovations to be launched from Singapore into the regional markets.

“Initiatives like our foodpanda PowerUp! Tech Academy is essential to our long-term plans, as we nurture more of Asia’s tech talent, build the ecosystem and grow Asia’s digital economy,” added Angele.