Manila, Philippines – Local livestreaming platform Kumu and Google Cloud have announced a partnership in order to build AI tools to assist content creators in terms of entertainment, education, and customer service.
This collaboration between Kumu and Google Cloud aims to encourage more startups and enterprises alike to embrace the power of generative AI and to understand how this technology can best complement and strengthen their businesses.
At a showcase event at the Google office in the Philippines, Rexy Dorado, co-founder and president at Kumu, showcased a live demo of “Crisostomo A.I. Barra”, Kumu’s first AI streamer who can respond to questions about Philippine history (even beyond what’s written in “Noli Me Tangere”, the novel that his character and personality was based on), the Kumu app, and general pop culture. Dorado also gave the attendees a sneak peek into other AI avatars in the pipeline: AI game show hosts, fortune tellers, tutors, tour guides, and customer support agents.
An early adopter of Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities for businesses, Kumu has been building its AI streamer and other AI avatars using Google Cloud’s PaLM 2 for Text and Chat first-party models, Embeddings for text and images, and Generative AI Studio – all of which can be accessed through the Vertex AI platform.
For the company, it has always sought ways to make Filipino content more fun and engaging with innovative technology. They added that as soon as generative AI started gaining traction, Kumu looked to an AI-first company like Google Cloud to explore how the technology could be applied to enhance its live content experiences.
Manila, Philippines – Filipino video sharing and e-commerce social platform Kumu partnered with digital publication platform Ookbee Thailand to launch the new chat-style novel application TypeKita that aims to empower young Filipino readers and storytellers.
TypeKita introduces a chat-fiction format that elevates the digital novel experience and gives readers the feeling of reading from a private chat screenshot.
The novel application is a localized version of the Thai original Joylada and is marketed as a newbie-friendly platform for Filipino readers and writers. It boasts an intuitive and user-friendly chat editor that makes creating stories easier for writers and an immersive reading experience that allows readers to be part of the conversation. The app also allows stories to be shared via social media, email, or messaging apps.
And while the app is mostly free, TypeKita also offers writers the opportunity to monetize their work and make it a side hustle.
TypeKita was officially launched on August 16. The event was attended by Ysabel Yuzon, head of growth at Kumu; Dana de la Vega, vice president of strategic management at Kumu; and Erich Valdevioso, creator manager at TypeKita, to answer questions from attending members of the press about the ins and outs of the new app.
According to Yuzon, “[TypeKita] opens doors even for those who may not have considered writing before.”
Prior to its launch, TypeKita has seen steady growth in terms of users, showing potential for genres such as romance (including sub-genres in BL and GL), coming-of-age, mystery, and fantasy. TypeKita showcases the best of Filipino storytelling, with the majority of its featured stories written by talented Filipino writers.
Rexy Dorado, Kumu president and co-founder, said, “We have always been on the lookout for talent of all kinds, and TypeKita is the space we’re dedicating to the written word.”
“We believe creative people always find their way to each other, but this is where we can also help people find the creativity within themselves, bolstered by a safe community. Both Kumu and TypeKita share a similar moderator system to keep things appropriate and any hate out of the picture,” he added.
Manila, Philippines – Local live streaming app Kumu has announced a month-long initiative called ‘Sound Minds: Exploring Mental Health Through Music’ which encourages users and creators alike to launch online activities that open up conversations and actions online about the importance of caring for your mental health.
Said initiative explores a range of activities for both music lovers and mental health advocates to enjoy– from new programs to watch to product features that facilitate a new donation process in-app.
Moreover, Kumu is opening up new ways for its users to contribute to causes and charities they care about deeply. A portion of the diamond earnings throughout all app activities made through this initiative will go directly to Kumu’s chosen charity of the month.
“For many chronically online Filipinos, social media is still seen as a scary place where you’re easily exposed to hate and negativity on a daily basis. This is why Kumu has dedicated its platform to building safe spaces online where creators can express themselves, meet new people, and share their stories– even of their struggles, in the hopes of helping others cope through hard times as well,” the company has said in a press statement.
Kumu also brought in mental health experts onto the platform to lead the conversation and educate the community about mental health issues and best practices during these tough times.
Manila, Philippines – Local live-streaming platform Kumu has announced a collaborative partnership with Huawei Ads through the platform’s ad agency AVOW to enhance user experience by improving advertising on the platform.
In this campaign, AVOW made use of the various ad solutions offered such as AppGallery, Petal Search and display ads to balance out their ad placements to generate the best results.
Additionally, incorporating HUAWEI Ads multiple targeting options such as location, demographics and user behaviour into Kumu’s ad strategy brought about greater brand exposure to a diverse audience base. These features collectively amplified Kumu’s presence and audience conversion rates.
Furthermore, HUAWEI Ads Data Management Platform (DMP) provided Kumu with insights on the campaign performance through a comprehensive breakdown of key metrics. This information allows Kumu to make targeted improvements that will optimise their future ad strategies, with the help of AVOW.
Alex Tshering, chief growth officer at Kumu, said, “Thanks to the delivery of premium advertisements on HUAWEI Ads, Kumu has grown to be one of the highest grossing applications in the markets. Our partnership with HUAWEI Ads have helped us to generate leads far greater than our initial campaign goals.”
Based on activity data gathered from algorithms across all Huawei devices, HUAWEI Ads identified and recommended potential audiences who fit Kumu’s target profile, which ultimately helped them broaden their target audience and user base. In addition to growing Kumu’s user base and maximising its ad performance, the algorithm detects and filters out fraudulent inventory, effectively countering the issue of inflated ad performance metrics.
Meanwhile, Rei Xiao, director of mobile ecosystem business growth at Huawei Asia Pacific Region, commented, “Our partnership with Kumu highlights our commitment to delivering high quality ads that drive user growth and engagement. We have dedicated teams that work closely with our clients to get the best returns on their investment. We greatly look forward to deepening our strong partnership with Kumu, and to continue working as one team to meet their business objectives.”
Manila, Philippines – Live-streaming platform kumu in the Philippines has partnered with Komiket, the Filipino comics and art market, aimed at empowering the Philippine comics community globally.
Komiket serves as an entry point for first-time comics creators, artists, and readers. It provides accessible markets for creators to showcase their work, discover and nurture new talent, and bridge Filipino comics to the rest of the world through the Philippine International Comics Festival (PICOF).
Through the partnership with kumu, Komiket will be able to bring the Filipino comics community together. Its artists can easily share their work with the entire kumunity, and enthusiasts can meet and interact with some of their favourite comic artists, as well as conversations on comics—from lighthearted ones to more important discussions—will have a space of their own. Beyond that, Komiket will be able to connect with young individuals with aspirations to become comic artists and provide them with the tools and guidance that they need to make their dreams a reality.
Moreover, kumu and Komiket will also be funding ₱500,000 worth of awards and publishing deals to comics creators in the Komiket community. All creators included in various genres published by Komiket in 2022 will be eligible, with the top prize being ₱150,000 in cash and a publishing deal with Komiket for both the Komiket Awards and the Kumu Kumunity’s Choice winners.
The partnership kicked off last 13 February 2022 on the @komiket kumu account with legendary comic artist Whilce Portacio announcing the launch of the Stone Omnibus, an epic revival of one of the 90’s top-selling indie comics. This entire series, which spans eight issues, will be bound together in an ultimate collector’s edition.
Rexy Dorado, kumu’s co-founder and president, shared that local comics, or komiks in Filipino, have historically been one of the cradles of Filipino storytelling and imagination.
“In line with our goals to create the best platform for Filipino creators, we are excited to partner with Komiket, one of the leading organizations in the industry, to make Kumu the best place for fans and creators of Pinoy komiks,” said Dorado.
Kumu said that this is just the beginning of a promising partnership between two organisations rooted in community and culture. It aims to uplift Filipino creators, readers, and budding artists.
Future streams will be announced on the @komiket channel in the kumu app.
We have witnessed momentous and pivotal elevations and hires this year, but kumu’s Chief Product Officer Crystal Widjaja ultimately comes out as our Industry Leader of The Year.
The homegrown and now leading live streaming platform in the Philippines unveiled ex-GoJek Widjaja as an addition to the team in June 2021. Widjaja is a fixture in business and tech, where in GoJek, she took on roles in business intelligence and growth. At kumu, Widjaja is charged to strengthen the platform’s overall product strategy and leverage her extensive experience in helping startups in growth, data, and strategy.
The Filipino platform has earned supercharged traction over the course of the pandemic, becoming the go-to destination for creators and audiences; today, kumu fully realizes its leadership, becoming the partner of Pinoy Big Brother, one of the top reality TV shows in the country.
Here’s our exclusive conversation with Widjaja who shared with us her biggest challenge in the role, the new experiences they’re looking to build, and her forecast into content creation in 2022 – one she sees as authentic and ‘perfectly imperfect’ content making the biggest impact.
Stepping into the role of chief product officer, what has been the biggest challenge for you?
Like everyone else this year, working with a remote team in the middle of a global pandemic! Building and showing empathy to a team who has never seen you in person is challenging, but what’s more is that everyone is going through exceptional hardship. From a pure product standpoint, I think the challenge for newer businesses will be differentiating ‘pulled forward’ covid-era user behaviors from sustainable growth — and knowing which ones are opportunities vs dead ends.
What new products can we expect from the platform?
We’re excited to continue building exceptional consumer experiences as the best place for filipino-friendly creators, aspiring PBB housemates, artists, musicians, magicians, BPO communities… our ‘kumuverse’ is filled with so many creative groups. We plan on building stronger Trust & Safety tools to keep our safe, authentic community healthy as well as new features that help friendships grow. You never know who you’ll meet on kumu!
The platform has been recently hinting on its international expansion, how does this affect your current product development?
The Philippines has often been the testing ground for companies looking to go international. This time, kumu has the homegrown advantage – building in the Philippines for the Philippines gives us the upper hand.
What do you think are the new trends and opportunities in the live streaming space as we approach 2022?
The past few years gave the world an opportunity to see how quick and talented a creative content creator could be with viral trends! I’m encouraged by the democratization of content creation in this semi-crowdsourced format. In the next year, however, I want to pay special attention to the content creators that embrace the ‘build in public’ ethos.
I think there’s a lot less appeal in the overly-manicured, picture-perfect social media – much of it isn’t representative, authentic, nor relatable. And after what a horrible year we’ve all had, it’s rather disingenuous. The beauty of live streaming is seeing it happen for real – building in public – even if that means ‘failing’ in public.
You might see this manifest in broken soldering attempts in a live mechanical keyboard build, an eyeliner that’s out of ink during a makeup tutorial, or a meringue that just won’t look like the recipe book (disclaimer: I’ve absolutely done all three of these in the last year). I look forward to embracing the perfectly imperfect in each and every individual creator out there.
This recognition is based on the results of Google Analytics on the most-read stories of 2021 with editorial validation on the significance of a leader’s contribution, campaigns results, and overall impact.
The penultimate year-end is not backing off on a lighter note. In its own right, the month of November ends with a bang with new marketing leaders inducted in the digital space, a launch of an industry-first partnership, and a massive contest marketing from an e-commerce brand.
In Singapore, a top e-commerce has unveiled its biggest giveaway yet for its campaign on 11.11. Meanwhile, in APAC, a communications firm has revealed in one fell swoop its new digital leaders for its different markets in the region. This month, a media giant’s creative agency has also announced its new MD for APAC.
Still region-wide, a creative and communications network has specially partnered with TikTok to specifically build capabilities for brands to conquer audiences on the platform.
Most interestingly, we have seen, this month, a veteran from the world’s favorite content creator joining a fast-growing live streaming platform in the Philippines.
Regional e-commerce platform Lazada in Singapore, in a bid to further encourage 11.11 sales, has launched one of its biggest giveaways yet: a S$1m-worth condominium unit at the Normanton Park. The initiative, co-sponsored by real estate company PropNex, has concluded with a 70-year-old retiree as the winner, who interestingly just entered the contest with S$3.41 for Aloe Vera Gel and a digital voucher for a Nasi Lemak as investments.
Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Wook Kwon, chief marketing officer at Lazada Singapore, said that through these giveaways, they aim to reel in more customers to go back to their platform.
“The world of e-commerce can bring on an array of possibilities. So in this way, the latest giveaway, we strive to keep our customers going back to our platform, keep them engaged to go back to our sellers on the platform,” Kwon stated.
A major part of the campaign is gamification, where eligibility to enter and win is through collecting ‘golden keys’ on various missions in the Lazada app, and that more keys collected grant a higher chance of winning.
Kwon added, “Gamification is important in customer experience. It’s the best experience that keeps our customers going back to our platform. Gamification is part of our ‘shoppertainment’ strategy to enhance the shopping experience.”
Virtue, the creative agency under media company VICE, has appointed former head of client services at MediaMonks Singapore Lesley John, to be its managing director for the Asia-Pacific region.
Through her new role, John will be overseeing Virtue’s business and teams across the region including offices in India, Indonesia, Korea, and Japan from its Singapore hub.
Regarding her view on the state of content creation within APAC, John told MARKETECH APAC that there is diversity shown across the region, amplified by global cultural phenomena such as K-pop and J-pop.
“If you were to look at streaming platforms like Netflix, they’re starting to surface more cross-cultural content pollination,” she stated.
John also noted various cultural tropes that make the region’s content consumption unique, such as the rise of anime and idol content in homegrown platforms like Bilibili, or how a universal theme such as humor can vary from region to region, just like how Thailand’s approach to humor is ‘deadpan’.
When asked what advice can be given to brands when creating content for APAC audiences, she shared that the first thing is always finding an ‘interesting story’, and then finding the most compelling way to deliver it.
“Don’t be afraid to tap into emerging themes or subcultures if they’re relevant to the theme [or] story you want to deliver. Be authentic, reward your audience intellectually. I guess there’s always a temptation about going to the lowest common denominator, [and] that results to very bland, inauthentic, doesn’t feel like it’s coming from a real point of view,” John concluded.
Global communications firm has unveiled the new executives that will be at the wheel of its digital business in APAC, namely the heads of digital for its India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, and Australia teams.
Speaking with MARKETECH APAC, Matt Collette, Edelman’s APAC vice-chair for digital, shared that the new hires are the firm’s response to brands’ stronger commitment to deliver greater digital experiences over the pandemic.
On the top challenge digital marketers are facing today, Collette specifically cited reduced ad targeting opportunities brought about by stricter privacy features from tech giants such as Apple.
“The implications for that…had been on the quality of data that companies are receiving with respect to how people are engaging with ads specifically; [that] has deteriorated significantly. What we’ve seen [is an] increase in costs for performance campaigns,” said Collette.
Collette said that, hence, this is a major area the communications firm is helping out clients on today – figuring out what other strategies and tactics they can deploy to effectively build first-party data.
“We want to make sure that we have digital teams across all of our markets in Asia-Pacific that are able to engage with the clients in a way that demonstrates deep expertise and knowledge of the digital space,” said Collette.
Creative and communications network dentsu in APAC has unveiled in October a partnership that will see the network building commerce and media capabilities to effectively elevate brands’ presence in TikTok.
Interestingly, within the tie-up is a program called ‘Test with TikTok’ which brings together the performance team from dentsu and product team from TikTok to test several performance and commerce hypotheses on the platform.
In an interview with Sunil Naryani, dentsu APAC’s president for product, commercials & partnerships, he shared that oftentimes, testings within the market ecosystem do not yield in valuable results and insights for reasons such as failure to establish a clear hypothesis on what must be tested and at times, tests’ misalignment to a brand or media’s objective.
“This is what we’re trying to solve with ‘Test with TikTok’. It is essentially a structured way in which we are testing various TikTok products and solutions so we could unlock the full potential of the platform for our clients,” Naryani said.
Naryani further shared that most of all, the whole objective of the partnership is to deliver differentiated value to brands.
“The key discussion that takes place is what is important for our [clients] and we’re looking at the full funnel. At this stage, there is a lot of focus on the mid and the bottom funnel,” added Naryani.
And our top story for the month of November is none other than live streaming platform kumu in the Philippines, with its recent appointment of Anand Roy, former regional director of music and live entertainment for SEA at Disney, to be its new senior vice president for strategy and international.
According to Roy, he first heard about the kumu platform from Open Space Ventures, one of the company’s investors, and at that time, was feeling quite unhappy with the state of social media generally.
In a MARKETECH APAC interview, Roy shared what themes of online content will be the next big thing among audiences.
“One big seismic change which has happened in consumers’ lives for the past two years has been the realization that both work and study can happen online. This is a fact which has been brought to the surface because of the realities around the pandemic, and it promises to be an absolutely monumental change in the way people work,” he said.
Roy believes that over the next period, people will try to find balance between online image and research projection and offline detox and offline unwind.
Regarding his new role, Roy also shared the international plans of the proudly Philippine-made live streaming platform.
“The international strategy will be built on the authenticity of the platform. kumu stands for optimism, hope, positivity, and community; these are values which translate across the planet,” said Roy.
He added, “My endeavor would be to ensure that these fundamental principles get translated in every market we go to, and these guiding principles become the bedrock on which the platform is built.”
Watch our exclusive interviews with the brands themselves on the latest episode of MARKETECH APAC Reports, now live on our YouTube channel.
This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.
Manila, Philippines – Live-streaming platform kumu in the Philippines has appointed Anand Roy, former regional director of music and live entertainment for SEA at Disney, as its new senior vice president for strategy and international.
Roy brings with him more than 17 years of experience from Disney and has mainly worked with international markets.
Roy shared that he first heard about the platform from Open Space Ventures, one of the company’s investors, and at that time, was feeling quite unhappy with the state of social media generally, but with Kumu, he viewed the business as brimming with positivity, optimism, and community.
Roy believes in the field of entertainment and technology,and that there has never been a better time to be in the international marketplace than today.
“In many ways, this should have been what social media is about—bringing out the best of humanity, and not what we are seeing right now. Social media should not be dividing and polarising society. The basic, most vital ingredients are already in place here at kumu,” said Roy.
He added, “What I’m hoping to add to the team is that pursuit of excellence, and an ambition to be the best in the world in what we’re doing. That’s the recipe for global success.”
Rexy Dorado, kumu’s president and co-founder, commented, “We’ve always looked up to Disney as a reference for their work in media, entertainment, and the business of inspiring love and imagination. We’re excited for Anand to tap into his experience leading Disney’s music and content efforts in the region in pursuit of our growing ambitions.”
Manila, Philippines – Following the announcement of the partnership between global platform for user-generated stories, Wattpad, and Filipino live streaming platform, kumu, in July, the tie-up has finally come out with its very first ‘Wattpad Fan Fest’, a virtual event where fans, readers, and authors can engage and celebrate with the Filipino Wattpad Community.
The ‘Wattpad Fan Fest’, which will happen on 31 October 2021, aims to bring exciting shows and surprises to delight the reading and writing community for a full day, starting at 10:30 am until 10:00 pm PHT on the @wattpadPH kumu channel.
Through the event, fans can get a chance to attend multiple ‘Meet and Greets’ throughout the day, play interactive quiz games such as ‘Guess The Story’ and ‘Guess the Star’, and attend a workshop called ‘From Stories to Stars’, featuring writers Loridee DeVilla, Claudia Tan, and Wattpad representatives Aron Levitz, the president of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios and Maria Hall, the international writer lead of Wattpad.
In addition, the virtual fanfest includes a panel discussion on ‘Publishing as a Passion’ by Wattpad authors Greenwriter, TheCatWhoDoesntMeow, Patyeah, heartlessnostalgia, and kissmyredlips, as well as publishing experts Ryan Benitez of Wattpad, and Anvil’s Arlyn Dimayuga and AJ Villamar. It will also feature ‘Wattpad Fanfest Special’, a live reading of excerpts from Wattpad story ‘He’s Into Her and The Four Bad Boys and Me!’.
Kyla Relucio, kumu’s content partnerships director, said, “kumu has always been groundbreaking in its efforts – from its digital capabilities to innovative show concepts, to its culture that celebrates all creative talents. Kumu is the world we’ve always wanted to build, and we’re so happy to be growing along with them every day.”
Chris Stefanyk, the head of brand partnerships at Wattpad, commented that they appreciate kumu as its safe space allows people to directly engage with their readers, fans, and even idols.
“Through the different live streams, activities, and events, the community is able to come together in a new way and build this exciting culture powered by fresh, creative energy. This is what the writing community has always sought to achieve on a deeper level, and it’s been amazing,” said Stefanyk.
For the month of July, the Southeast Asia region once again snitches the spotlight with stories ranging from K-pop research, a fast-food chain’s case study, to an app that aims to cater to a country’s long-standing culture in trading.
This period, we see a very interesting study that has put an official percentage of how much a brand can benefit from web searches upon roping in K-pop group BTS as an endorser. Food delivery is also a highlight this month, with a leading food delivery platform in Asia launching a new offer, and a fast-food brand in Malaysia releasing its case study on a successful 2020 campaign that helped save its delivery business in the face of home cooking-loving consumers.
In the Philippines, we see a live-streaming platform unveiling an ex-Gojek exec as one of its new heads, and from the same country as well as a top story on a commerce enabler that aims to bring digitization to a traditional type of minimart that has been around in the country for years.
With rankings based on Google Analytics for the period of 16th June to 15th July, here are the brands that had you turning with a second look.
Celebrities have undoubtedly been the primary faces of brands, and the new wave of K-pop groups and personalities have just turned to be the novel key to impactfully lift their awareness among consumers. In particular, global superstars BTS; In their multiple stints as global and regional ambassadors, it is no wonder how the latest data from e-commerce aggregator iPrice shows the sheer impact BTS can have on brands when tapping the group as their brand ambassadors.
According to their data, search results for brands can jump up to 50% after signing on BTS as their ambassador, which has long been evident across brands three years ago when the prominence of K-pop brand ambassadors started to materialize.
Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Isabelle Romualdez, senior content marketing executive at iPrice stated that such affiliation can drive up web traffic of the websites of these brands, which can eventually help drive up their sales online.
She also added that ‘BTS’ influence is so strong that they create a lot of ‘noise’ on social media.’
Citing the campaign for global fast-food chain McDonald’s, for instance, she notes that in Vietnam, the fast-food chain was able to sell 10,000 BTS Meals in one day, and that in the Philippines, they were able to sell 3.5 million pieces of chicken nuggets on the day of the launch.
The best possible outcome for brands which I think is also how BTS affects them is that their partnership [with them] can increase their sales. BTS fans are really devoted, they really spend on their merch. They spend around US$1,400 for their merch, tickets, and other things. And so for them to line up and spend for a special meal or product, it’s really no big deal for them.
Asked about what smaller brands can do who might not be able to afford to partner K-pop personalities, she states this:
“One of the challenges for these smaller brands is that they can’t afford big brand ambassadors, so they have this responsibility to be creative with their campaigns but they can still achieve as much success if they create creative campaigns. Another way is to create content that interests the K-pop fanbase, [such as] talking about their behavior.”
Filipino live-streaming platform, kumu, has appointed the former chief of staff and senior vice president of growth at Indonesia’s Gojek, Crystal Widjaja, to now assume the role of chief product officer.
MARKETECH APAC conversed with Widjaja to know more about what kumu products she is looking to develop and prioritize.
“We need to start building out products that really do unlock experiences, better than online and offline experiences,” said Widjaja in the interview.
Widjaja shared that the platform will be developing its creator base, building out the best creator tools so that content creators can host game shows, create amazing vlogs, and have fun, among others.
“I think what’s really important is to actually build an enablement platform, where people who want to be a community builder and to engage one another have the tools and [apps] to do that,” she said.
The core of kumu is beyond just a social network for content creators. It really is a social participatory network, and that means we are highly engaging and we allow users to reward one another.
Widjaja will be leveraging her extensive experience in helping startups with growth, data, and strategy, as well as bolstering the platform’s overall product strategy.
In the same interview, Widjaja bared that building kumu has always been about creating opportunities for people to create their small social spaces and a safe environment, one where they can be themselves with people they admire.
At the start of the Covid in 2020, fast food brand KFC in Malaysia was faced with a dilemma – how does it maintain its delivery business, when consumers, even despite its initial surge, had easily grown tired of ordering take-out? In trying to find a solution, KFC soon found it was not other QSR brands that were the enemy, but the newfound love of home cooking.
In partnership with digital creative agency Reprise, KFC released the campaign KEPCI Kitchen based on this insight, and turned the present trend in their favor – building the excitement of Malaysians to repurpose KFC items in their personal recipes, and therefore, turning their kitchen into a KEPCI kitchen.
Due to a highly engaging integrated campaign which included a dedicated ‘KFC’ cookbook, consistent recipe sharing on Instagram, and also a sponsored cooking show, the campaign soon achieved its target and even more.
In an exclusive chat with KFC Malaysia’s CEO Chan May Ling and Reprise’s Creative Director Eddy Nazarullah, the two both chalked it up to great teamwork and relationship between the brand and agency.
“I think the lovely thing about this case study, I think, is the client-agency partnership, and how fast the team reacted because nobody knew how to react during a lockdown,” Chan said.
“[We’re] very close to our agency partner to uncover the insight and to have a common agreement on how we want to build the brand, and how we want to engage, and I think that’s very important in a relationship; and that’s how it sparked,” she added.
I think what’s key is the collaboration between KFC and [Reprise]. It’s the agency and client relationship that’s definitely made this happen. For us to achieve this, it’s definitely something we can’t do alone, and we definitely need the support from the team.
Philippine-borne business-to-business commerce enabler GrowSari has announced that the company has secured more than US$30m in funding from various companies and venture capitals, which include Gokongwei-led listed Philippine retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) and JG Digital Equity Ventures, as well as Wavemaker Partners.
Other funding participants include Pavilion Capital, Tencent, Saison Capital, ICCP SBI Venture Partners, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is a member of the World Bank Group.
For GrowSari, said funding will help fuel the company’s vision of tapping into sari-sari stores, the Filipino version of neighborhood mom-and-pop stores, which according to GrowSari, has the potential to be the biggest and most accessible distribution channel in the Philippines through driving efficiencies in route planning while collecting valuable insights on store behavior.
In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Maimai Punzalan, chief marketing officer at GrowSari stated aside from creating more offerings and establishing bigger suppliers and market supply for their clients, they envision expanding from their current 50,000 store base across 100 municipalities in mainland Luzon to around 300,000 store bases in the next two years.
She also added that as they started GrowSari in the first place, there were two things that they needed to address in order to aid these sari-sari store owners: access to affordable goods and assortment of goods, ranging from dry goods to basic necessities. Such aspirations stem from the company’s observation of the current status quo of these local neighborhood stores in the country.
We recognize that the sari-sari store segment is such, maybe an underserved channel for the Philippines, despite it’s serving [about] 84% of Filipinos [who] would shop in a sari-sari store, and it makes it relevant for all of the Filipinos out there. There are about 1 million sari-sari stores spread across the archipelago. I think what’s tough for them though is despite being so important to the lives of the Filipino people, they’re barely making enough really to keep running their business.
GrowSari outfits Philippine sari-sari store owners with inventory, infrastructure, and tools to manage and grow their business while generating crucial data and market insights for manufacturers and distributors.
For our top story for the month, we have the leading food delivery platform in Asia, foodpanda, and its recent partnership with Unilever. The digital change for all economies continues to accelerate, especially now that new consumers migrate online for shopping due to the pandemic, and with this, quick-commerce – the super fast delivery of anything to customers in under one hour or often much faster – is becoming the standard of service.
Unilever and foodpanda’s team-up is aimed at offering 24/7 on-demand ice cream deliveries through foodpanda shops and pandamart – foodpanda’s cloud grocery network. This move targets to reach a wider customer base via foodpanda’s q-commerce across Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, as well as Pakistan, and the Philippines.
Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Abhishek Sahay, foodpanda’s senior director of new business, said, “We did find speed as one of the customer insights that [really] people want, and it wasn’t just food deliveries but in every aspect of life. They are becoming much more used to on-demand stuff.”
He adds that the intention behind q-commerce is to provide speed and choice for customers.
Aside from delivering a variety of ice cream, the partnership also includes new product launches, bundle deals, and promotional campaigns, as well as optimized digital advertising and customer engagement on the platform, such as strategic placements of digital banners on the platform, the creative use of in-app notifications, and campaigns on social media.
We are no longer just a food delivery company. We are expanding into new verticals. In terms of future plans, we definitely have a long way to go, specifically on quick commerce. And as we think of expansion, we have three different ways. One is we want more and more stores. Secondly, we think of new country expansion, launching in Japan, Cambodia, and Myanmar. And the third is category expansion,” said Sahay, regarding foodpanda’s future plans.
Watch our live interviews with the newsmakers themselves on the latest episode of MARKETECH APAC Reports, live on our YouTube channel.
This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.
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