Tag: Integrated Communications

Singapore – WE Communications (WE) has announced it has been named agency of record for Elastic, a search analytics company, in Australia and Singapore. WE’s appointment follows a competitive pitch.

The communications partnership, effective immediately, will help Elastic promote and protect its brand and thought leadership positioning in Asia-Pacific countries.

Moreover, WE will draw on its full range of capabilities, including corporate reputation and brand purpose, media and influencer engagement, content development, digital marketing, and creative. 

Madge Miller, vice president of global communications at Elastic, said, “Cutting through market noise, to showcase the value of search-powered solutions, is essential to our communication strategy. WE’s strong technology sector knowledge, extensive media relations experience and creativity have motivated us to choose WE as our agency of record in Australia and Singapore.”

Meanwhile, Ayla Fitzgibbon, head of technology at WE Australia, commented, “For years, the Elasticsearch platform has empowered millions of businesses to find the answers that matter in milliseconds with the power of AI and search.”

She added, “WE is honoured to be selected as Elastic’s agency of record for Australia and Singapore, and we look forward to delivering communications strategies that promote the search analytics company’s growth in the region.” 

Lastly, Daryl Ho, managing director at WE Singapore, stated, “Elastic joins WE’s growing technology client roster in the region. Tapping our extensive experience in helping technology brands tell their stories, the team is excited to help write the next chapter of Elastic’s growth as a leading provider of search-powered solutions.” 

Singapore – Redhill, the Singapore-headquartered full-service global communications agency, has appointed Manisha Seewal as its president. In this role, Seewal will work closely with Redhill’s management team to oversee and enhance the agency’s business and operational functions, as the company seeks to accelerate its growth sustainably to become a holistic and integrated communications agency. 

Seewal first joined Redhill as a senior advisor in November 2022, bringing with her over two decades of senior leadership expertise. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated acute industry expertise in terms of marketing, digital transformation and market expansion. This includes leading various ‘Singapore’s first’ digital transformation projects, such as the country’s first ‘Netflix for Cars’ subscription-based programme and first life insurance chatbot. She was also listed amongst World’s Top 100 In-House Communicators and 100 Most Influential Global Marketing Leaders.

“Having worked with Manisha for the past months, I’m happy to welcome her into her new role as President. Especially during our critical growth juncture, I’m confident that she will further strengthen Redhill’s capabilities in the long term,” said Jacob Puthenparambil, Founder and CEO of Redhill. 

Before joining Redhill, Seewal was the chief marketing officer of Gumtree, Carsguide, and Autotrader, where she spearheaded the three brands’ digital transformation of their marketing and editorial functions in Australia. Prior to that, she was the first Group CMO of Southeast Asian car marketplace Carro – where she scaled the company’s marketing team from just three people to over 70-strong across Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. 

Whilst at Carro, Seewal concurrently served as the CEO of Jualo.com, Indonesia’s third-largest e-classified marketplace, which was acquired by Carro. Before joining the startup world, she headed the marketing business of several financial institutions like Tokio Marine, HSBC, and AVIVA. 

“With its 200-person formidable team and a vast global presence, Redhill is the world’s second fastest growing PR agency that is ready for the next stage of growth. It is time we connect our new business acquisitions with a strategic lens to unleash Redhill’s potential as a full-stack communications agency. I’m delighted to be a part of this journey, and I look forward to what comes next for the agency’s continued success,” said Seewal. 

Seewal’s new appointment coincides with Redhill’s rapid growth. The agency officially entered three new markets recently, namely, the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Further to this, the company has also recently inked strategic partnerships with Sri Lanka-based PR Wire and Singapore-based Aroca Consulting Group (ACG) to respectively boost its market presence and competencies in Sri Lanka, as well as its general service offerings in government relations and public affairs. 

Singapore – Circles.Life, Singapore’s fully digital telco, has appointed global marketing agency, TEAM LEWIS, as its agency partner for public relations and influencer engagement.

Taking effect last April 2023, TEAM LEWIS will support Circles.Life in conceptualising, developing, and implementing PR strategies and activities in Singapore. In addition to providing consultancy services, the agency will also be responsible for the creation of relevant and impactful mainstream, online and social media coverage for Circles.Life to further bolster the positioning and messaging the brand has to offer.

The fully digital telco company continues to be a key player in disrupting the traditional notions of a telco service provider, with offerings such as unlimited data, rollover data, and its new travel plan, JetPac, allowing users to roam anytime, anywhere with added features such as airport lounge access.

One of the founders of Circles.Life, Rameez Ansar, commented on the appointment, “As the fourth largest telco in Singapore, we are constantly revolutionising our digital service experience, while continuously reinventing ourselves to stay relevant for our ever-changing customers’ needs. TEAM LEWIS has demonstrated an understanding of the brand and provided a strategic direction in line with our brand messaging.” 

Pamela Tor Das, managing director of TEAM LEWIS Singapore, said, “Circles.Life is known for its making innovative and bold moves that have made waves across Singapore’s telco industry. We are thrilled to be its partner of choice for integrated communications in Singapore and can’t wait to showcase what else the brand has to offer.” 

The appointment followed a competitive pitch for the account last December, with the appointment being finalised in March 2023.

Singapore – Pizza Hut in Singapore has appointed global marketing agency TEAM LEWIS as its agency of record for integrated communications, including public relations as well as social media content creation and management.

The mandate, which started in January this year, will aid Pizza Hut Singapore in amplifying its brand story and bring its passion and celebration of pizzas to life. The agency is also responsible for providing consultancy and handling media relations, as well as content creation for social media while maintaining a prominent and consistent identity across communication channels. 

Jayss Rajoo, director of marketing and food innovation at Pizza Hut Singapore, commented on the appointment, “As the largest pizza chain in Singapore, we remain dedicated to continuously reinventing ourselves to stay relevant to our ever-changing customers’ needs. TEAM LEWIS won by a mile – having demonstrated a strategic understanding of the nuances of the Pizza Hut brand, our customers, and the Singapore market.” 

Rajoo added, “The team delivered creative strategies that embody our needs holistically, and we look forward to working with TEAM LEWIS to weave our brand identity into narratives that will boost our position as a thought leader in the F&B industry and a leading brand in the QSR space.” 

Meanwhile, Pamela Tor Das, managing director at TEAM LEWIS Singapore said, “The food and beverage industry is constantly changing in the face of ever-increasing food options. We are thrilled to partner with Pizza Hut Singapore and look forward to further cementing its position as Singapore’s favourite pizza QSR brand through creative campaigns and storytelling.”

TEAM LEWIS has also handled mandates for HMD Global and Singapore’s National Youth Council.

Singapore – Redhill, the Singapore-headquartered global communications agency, has added a fresh offering to its roster of integrated communications services. The agency has announced today the addition of an end-to-end book publishing service.

The agency, which also unveiled a new metaverse offering months back, said it will be providing in-depth, long-form storytelling options in conventional hardcover or paperback formats through the new solution. 

Ranging from planning, writing, editing to formatting, and publishing to marketing, Redhill said the suite of book publishing services has been exclusively designed to serve clients’ editorial requirements.

“It is with great happiness and excitement that we announce the launch of Redhill Publishing. Our strategic focus has been on consistently developing and advancing our offerings to provide end-to-end integrated communication solutions to meet our [ever-evolving] business environment,” commented Jacob Puthenparambil, founder and CEO of Redhill. 

Under Redhill Publishing, clients will be offered services across all phases of the editorial and publishing processes. The goal is to provide hands-on editorial and marketing counsel and then lead the way to branding.

Redhill said it has a wide team of content writers, creative designers, and developers who are experts in producing high-quality content in various formats across a number of book genres including biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, informative, business, fiction, nonfiction, and ghost-writing services.

Jacqui Hocking, managing director of Studio at Redhill, and founder of newly-acquired VS Story, said, “We are a story-driven communications firm. With our newly expanded Integrated Creative Studio, through the recent acquisition of VS Story and with the launch of this new publishing offering, we can now provide our partners and clients with a one-stop solution.”

“Our Studio team has creatives across the world, specialising in integrated creative and technology solutions; from content creation, video storytelling, branding, web development, and design. We are thrilled to introduce our clients to our expanded capabilities, as part of our mission to reach targeted audiences with data-driven, impactful, and creative storytelling.”

Redhill has, in fact, published its first book under the new publishing arm. Called Nasib Baik: A Person of Good Fortune, the autobiography tells the story of George Sandosham, a distinguished legal personality in Singapore with a career spanning over three decades. The book details the author’s storied personal and professional lives, from being a lawyer and a magistrate to becoming president of Singapore’s exclusive Tanglin Club. 

In a continued momentum of growth, Redhill has also recently brought in marketer and ex-CARRO Manisha Seewal to be its senior international advisor.

Singapore – Global communications agency Redhill has partnered with Pixel Canvas, a leading US-based enterprise metaverse platform, to deliver interactive and immersive brand experiences for clients and brands in the metaverse. 

With an aim to transform customer experience and deliver real business outcomes, Redhill will leverage Pixel Canvas’s platform and technologies into brand campaigns and communications strategies – adding a new dimension to omnichannel storytelling for clients.

Jacob Puthenparambil, founder and CEO of Redhill, said, “The Metaverse is a fast-evolving digital environment that could fundamentally transform how brands interact with their customers and communities at large. We’re already beginning to see the Metaverse open up many new opportunities for brands. Through our collaboration with Pixel Canvas, our Metaverse offering is designed to help our clients understand and capitalise on this next massive wave disrupting businesses and industries and arming them with the strategies and technologies they need to fully capitalise on these new virtual worlds.”

Formerly an award-winning virtual reality (VR) game company, Pixel Canvas began designing and delivering 3D virtual event prototypes to Fortune 500 companies such as Verizon and WarnerMedia. As interest in the metaverse rose and demand grew for immersive and visually appealing virtual experiences, Pixel Canvas pivoted to developing a full platform capable of delivering enterprise-grade metaverse experiences that were highly customisable, scalable, interactive, and accessible.

To date, Pixel Canvas’s library contains over 25 templated environments, 30 minigames and five escape rooms that can all be fully reskinned to meet a brand’s needs, complemented by a full set of networking features such as video and text chat, livestreaming and more. Additionally, these experiences are cloud-rendered for scalability and browser-based to be accessible by any connected device.

“Through our partnership with Redhill, our companies will be able to deliver best-in-class immersive experiences to transform how brands connect, collaborate, and communicate in a fully realized metaverse. With our photorealistic technology and gamified touchpoints, we can build deeply engaging experiences where users can interact with brands in entertaining ways, as well as where brands can use engagement data to inform sales and marketing strategies,” said Joey Lee, founder and CEO of Pixel Canvas.

Metaverse experiences for brands represent the most recent addition to Redhill’s ever-expanding portfolio of diverse end-to-end communications services. Most recently, Redhill acquired Singapore-based Vision Strategy Storytelling (VS Story) as part of the agency’s efforts to further strengthen its sustainability offerings. 

Earlier this year, Redhill has also established a new creative technology and design unit – Redhill Studio – that offers creative design, video and podcast production, and website and web application development. 

Manila, Philippines – Inter-regional integrated communications agency COMCO Southeast Asia has recently announced the promotion and appointment of homegrown managers and talents to key deputy positions in the company.

AC Recio, who began his career as a digital and multimedia arts associate at COMCO SEA, has been elevated to becoming the agency’s partner / digital, social and content administrator pro tempore, and senior digital and multimedia arts manager. Meanwhile, Queenie Resmundo, who was former production and administration associate is now promoted to public relations and communications administrator pro tempore and brand communications manager. She will also become a lead in stakeholder relationship management through COMCO SEA’s MEXINAC (Media, Experts, Influencers, Activators and Communities) program. 

Another homegrown talent given a strategic role in the organization is Harvey Llamosa who has been with COMCO SEA since the Agency launched in 2016. He started at COMCO SEA as an executive projects associate and has been working closely with the company’s Regional Integration and Chief Executive Director Ferdinand Bondoy on various landmark executive and strategic initiatives. Today, Llamosa is not only the senior executive initiatives and communications manager at the agency but is also a partner and the chief of staff to the group chief executive director. 

Finally, Patricia Raña, one of the agency’s most trusted Corporate Services Unit members, has been promoted to special assistant to the comptroller and senior corporate services officer. Raña joined COMCO SEA in 2018 as a finance and administration associate. 

All four had been products of the Camp COMCO Mentorship Program – the intensive, and comprehensive talent incubation, industry linkage, and apprenticeship program of the Agency. The agency said each promotion is “nothing short of special” because the said members have been with COMCO SEA from the beginning. 

Chief Executive Director Ferdinand Bondoy said, “As a hands-on leader of COMCO Southeast Asia, I have had the great pleasure of training and working with our most valued apprentices and witnessing them turn into rock stars of the industry! And for them to obtain the positions and recognitions they have now as well as grow in their craft and in their life as a whole, is my greatest honor, the best award I have ever received.”

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.