Tag: Lion & Lion

Jakarta, Indonesia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has been appointed as the regional digital and social partner for Mars Wrigley’s Doublemint brand, which will be driven by Lion & Lion Indonesia, covering several key markets for the brand in SEA, namely Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. 

In line with the brand’s strategy for the region, Lion & Lion will be responsible for the development and execution of a new activation for Doublemint that will serve to heighten brand awareness and conversion amidst the impact of COVID-19. 

Called ‘The Freshest Lick’, the new activation aims to spread Doublemint’s brand of freshness on digital and social by gamifying the act of sharing gum and mints with friends. 

Michael Panjaito, Lion & Lion Indonesia’s creative group head, shared that to expand their presence and resonate with their post-pandemic gen-z audience on a deeper level, they created a digital brand experience hinging on moments of togetherness with a Play-to-Earn format. 

“The more Doublemint gum players share with their friends in ‘The Freshest Flick’, the fresher rewards they earn together, thus creating a purposeful social connection across a virtual space,” said Panjaito.

Meanwhile, Cheelip Ong, Lion & Lion’s regional chief creative officer, noted that as a creatively-driven, digital-first micro-network with their footprints across SEA, they were able to effectively launch the gamification experience with entertaining localised content for Doublemint across Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand.

“We thank the client for trusting our ideas and approach in creating a digital experience that makes the sharing of virtual mints possible,” said Ong.

Samuel Fung, Mars Wrigley’s brand manager for Asia, commented, “We are delighted to work with Lion & Lion as our digital and social partner as their fresh approach to driving relevance for our brand aligns perfectly with our objective of making everyday moments more meaningful. We’re also excited to see the campaign come to life and how consumers can have an immersive experience on The Freshest Flick website.”

In February 2022, Lion & Lion has also been appointed as the digital and social media marketing partner of ASEAN fintech company BigPay, which is under AirAsia, for its Malaysia and Singapore markets.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Tropicana Corporation, property developer in Malaysia; together with digital-first agency Lion & Lion, has released a new short film to showcase Tropicana’s brand promise and tagline of ‘Redefining the Art of Living’ in a meaningful way to its target audience of potential homeowners.

The 55-second film succinctly elaborates on the fact that homes fulfil the emotional and social needs of the homeowner, which extend beyond the physical needs provided by a house. Lion & Lion said the message aligns closely with Tropicana’s product offerings which focus on nine aspects – accessibility, connectivity, innovative concepts and designs, generous open spaces, amenities, facilities, multi-tiered security and quality. Each residential property of Tropicana is surrounded by amenities such as schools, green spaces, recreational facilities, and commercial or retail outlets to create a sense of community and homeliness.

“We’re excited to be part of this campaign with Tropicana as it’s an opportunity for us to further express its tagline in a more meaningful way. We believe the purpose of this film goes above and beyond, for the brand and its customers, as we want people to not just buy a house, but believe in the brand like never before,” says Adrian Ng, creative group head of Lion & Lion Malaysia.

As the first stage in the agency’s overall branding campaign, the film – launched on Tropicana’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms – will be supplemented with social media content, on-ground marketing materials and digital assets to give a fresh new look to the Tropicana brand that puts its dedication to building homes at the forefront. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – ASEAN fintech company BigPay, which is under AirAsia, has appointed Lion & Lion as its digital and social media marketing partner for its Malaysia and Singapore markets. The agency said that the new partnership strengthens its portfolio in the financial services industry and highlights its strong growth in the region. 

Lion & Lion has developed an integrated creative solution that utilises social media in “bold new ways” to grow BigPay’s digital presence and increase the brand’s share of voice among millennials in the space of financial technology. Building on the theme of BigPay giving users better control of their finances, the campaign will utilise a combination of interactive content developed specifically for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as partnerships with influencers and creators. 

Lion & Lion said the overall goal is to educate millennials on financial literacy, while also positioning the BigPay brand as a trusted partner that understands the lifestyle needs and financial habits of their target audience.

Ham Maghazeh, director of social media at Lion & Lion, shared that their insights have shown that millennials and Generation Z find financial topics boring or difficult to understand, which brings the agency to craft an approach that uses fun and relatable online pop culture references such as memes, entertainment and music in order to resonate with the said target audience. 

“Essentially we are turning fintech into ‘funtech’ in order to bridge the gap between millennials and financial literacy. We then tie this back to BigPay, which as a financial platform, allows users the power to control their spending wisely,” says Maghazeh. 

Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer of Lion and Lion, added “We are excited to enter 2022 with BigPay as our new client. As a fintech company that is committed to democratising financial literacy, BigPay has an amazingly strong product with a multitude of offerings. We are excited to help BigPay drive their product narrative to resonate to a younger audience segment and grow their user base, while building their brand presence in the region with our creative and digital expertise.”

Chris Manguera, BigPay’s CMO said that as a fintech brand, they believe that they have a role to actively educate and advocate financial literacy.

“On top of that, we want our presence to be as fun as our blue card while still keeping true to our mission and vision. Lion & Lion stood out with their creative output and it was highly aligned with the bold direction we’re headed towards, which is to make fintech, ‘funtech’,” added Manguera. 

In August 2021, BigPay secured US$100m in funding to establish itself as a ‘challenger bank’ in SEA.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has launched its new ‘The Chopsticks of Roaring Fortune’, a pair of super-sized chopsticks, specially designed to take prosperity tosses to the next level this Chinese New Year. 

According to Lion & Lion, ‘lo hei’, which means ‘prosperity toss’ in English, is a staple ritual during the CNY gatherings in Malaysia and Singapore, which are performed using chopsticks with Yu Sheng – a salad comprising a mix of ingredients that symbolically represent blessings and good fortune. The aim of the ‘lo hei’ is to mix the ingredients together by scooping them up with one’s chopsticks and raising them as high as possible. Local Chinese tradition said that the higher the toss, the more luck one receives throughout the year. 

At 128 centimetres, the new ‘Chopsticks of Roaring Fortune’ are almost five times longer than an ordinary pair of chopsticks. While some improvisation in tossing technique is needed, the extra-long chopsticks will extend their user’s reach and allow for higher tosses of the Yu Sheng, and a more bountiful Year of the Tiger for the user. 

Each ‘Chopstick of Roaring Fortune’ has a delicate and smooth gold finish, as the auspicious colour may further aid in the generation of good fortune. A roaring tiger ready to pounce graces the base of the sticks, while the character 寅, referring to the Year of the Tiger, is carved onto the caps. The pair of sticks also comes packaged in a red paper sleeve, as the colour red is also considered to be a lucky colour for the new year celebrations.

Moreover, the launch of the supersized chopsticks came with a tongue-in-cheek film by Lion & Lion, which was collaborated with production house Directors Think Tank. The film utilised elements of comedy and suspense to tell the story of the chopsticks, while also delivering a warm new year’s greeting.

Cheelip Ong, Lion & Lion’s regional chief creative officer, believes in finding fresh and fun ways to celebrate key occasions of the year with ideas that engage and entertain. 

“Our super-sized Chopsticks of Roaring Fortune marries our respect for tradition, the festive spirit of Chinese New Year, and our heart for innovation to wish all greater heights of success in the Year of the Tiger,” said Ong. 

Meanwhile, TattHo Chow, Lion & Lion’s creative group head, shared that they thought of building this giant pair of chopsticks to allow the Chinese community in Malaysia and Singapore to ‘lo’ higher than everyone else.

“This fun idea comes from true insight as members of this community, and that ability to turn the insight into a creative expression is important for us in Lion & Lion,” said Chow.

Lion & Lion said that it is also offering a pair of the new ‘Chopsticks of Roaring Fortune’ to a lucky winner. To enter the giveaway, applicants should send a direct message to Lion & Lion’s LinkedIn or Instagram page with a creative ‘lo hei’ greeting. This giveaway will run until 7 February 2022.

Ready? Choose your characters

By now, the word metaverse needs no further introduction. First introduced in 1992 by American science fiction author Neal Stephenson in his novel Snow Crash as a virtual world where humans used avatars of themselves to escape a dystopian reality, it has since become a buzzword in Silicon Valley and in marketing.

As Mark Zuckerberg said, “The metaverse will bring enormous opportunity to individual creators and artists; to individuals who want to work and own homes far from today’s urban centres; and to people who live in places where opportunities for education or recreation are more limited. A realised metaverse could be the next best thing to a working teleportation device.”

Sounds amorphous? There is no denying the immense market opportunity for businesses and brands in this space. Bloomberg Intelligence predicted that the market opportunity could hit USD 800 billion by 2024. In 2021 alone, we have seen a multitude of brands tapping into the metaverse to create brand experiences for their target audiences. Nike’s Nikeland and Ralph Lauren’s The Winter Escape were launched on Roblox, and Luxury Marketplace UNXD will launch a metaverse Fashion Week on Decentraland in March 2022.

With all the hype and potential surrounding this emerging evolution of the internet, how can businesses and brands be active and purposeful players with a first-mover advantage?

Move from corporation-first to community-first

The metaverse cannot exist without the participation of avatars ‒ the digital representation of ourselves. Avatars gather around communities that are formed around interests and ideas.

Brands need to learn to engage with existing communities and hand the power back to them. For example, brands gain more traction when they partner with members of the Roblox developer community in creating items and experiences, allowing communities to drive the creation and rewarding them for their efforts.

Blend the real and virtual with digital-twin experiences

A digital twin could be described as the digital representation of a real world entity that is synchronised with the real world. Simply put, they are digital clones of real world objects.

Digital twins will help businesses connect the metaverse closer to reality by linking virtual experiences with real world experiences.

For example, the blockchain-based game Upland allows users to own digital real estates that are mapped to real-world addresses. Each digital property’s value is also tied to an NFT. Now think of the possibilities in which your business or brand can create a digital replica in the metaverse to unravel new data, learnings, and predictions. For example, if you are in a retail business, having a digital twin of your store will help you in predicting your store traffic, queue time, top-selling products, and inventory planning, just to name a few possible advantages.

Tap into the rise of virtual status symbols and engage through collectibles

Image courtesy of Bored Ape Yacht Club

With the metaverse and NFT, status symbols begin to manifest themselves in novel ways in the virtual. For example, the Bored Ape Yacht Club was created by four NFT novices turned internet rock stars, in which the price of the collection is 52 Ether, above USD 200,000. Adidas has also collaborated with Bored Ape Yacht Club, with Bored Apes decked out in Adidas Stripes. The entire 30,000 NFT collection was sold out in a few hours over two drops.

Brands can tap into the need for authenticity and exclusivity in the digital creator economy and offer limited-edition items or assets that can only be found in the metaverse. ​​Gucci offers The Collector’s Room on Roblox, allowing fans to collect rare and exclusive Gucci items in the metaverse. The creation of virtual products and goods will help brands drive deeper penetration, relevance, and fan-love, be it in the real or virtual world.

Source: blog.roblox.com

Connect through Gamification

The metaverse presents a huge opportunity to redefine engagement through play and a huge component of that lies with gamification. The integration of technology from augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, presents a whole new way to connect and engage with avatars in the metaverse.

The ability to gamify your marketing will align your brand with the play-to-earn gaming models that are gaining massive traction in the mainstream.

For example, Axie Infinity was a breakthrough success in the blockchain-gaming world.

Players on the platform earn tokens by winning battles with their ‘Axies’ against other players. These special tokens can then be sold for fiat money ‒ real cash. But to get an Axie, players have to buy one on the exchange or breed them from existing Axies.

Source: Axie Infinity

For another example that is closer to home on how gamification can apply to marketing in the metaverse, here is a metaverse gaming experience developed by digital marketing agency Lion & Lion for virtual social platform Status-K, where social media, tokens, and real world rewards were integrated.

Source: www.lionandlion.com

Keep on experimenting

At the time of writing, we are still in the very early stages of the metaverse coming into its full potential. There are still quite a few roadblocks on the pathway toward a bona fide metaverse. For example, interoperability. For true interoperability to happen, cross-metaverse bridges need to be enabled, so that millions of users and communities can migrate their avatars and virtual possessions across the metaverses regardless of platforms or corporations.

While these are guiding insights and ideas on how brands and businesses can navigate better in the metaverse, there will always be paradigms that will be disrupted and created. Marketers need to constantly experiment and stay ahead by understanding technology and being open to fresh creative suggestions. The metaverse will allow entertainment, gaming, marketing, retail experiences, and social interactions to converge and evolve in brave new ways and even set the stage for new businesses to arise.

It is an exciting time for both business owners and marketers to explore this space and to constantly rewrite the playbook through unceasing experimentation and invention.

To end off, I will leave with a parting note and reminder from the book Ready Player One by Ernie Cline, “As terrifying and painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real.”

This article is written by Cheelip Ong, chief product officer and regional chief creative officer of Lion and Lion Digital Group.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT. This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.

Singapore – As part of Lion & Lion’s ongoing expansion of their senior team in Singapore, the digital-first agency has Rebecca Lai, former business director at marketing agency Oliver, to be its new business director.

During her stint at Oliver, Lai led the UStudio Singapore and Bayer Southeast Asia teams, specializing in in-house content creation for the clients. Her career in communications spans more than 15 years, with experience leading accounts for international agencies in the WPP and Omnicom groups. Moreover, Lai attributes her success with major blue-chip brands to her strong understanding of business objectives, combined with insightful value propositions

In her new role, Lai will be responsible for driving Lion & Lion’s offerings in Singapore and the region, with a focus on maintaining the agency’s strong momentum in building networks with notable consumer and corporate brands. She will be reporting directly to Fredrik Gumpel, the chief executive officer of Lion & Lion.

Commenting on joining Lion & Lion, Lai said, “I am excited to partner with talented minds in Lion & Lion as we tackle the ever-evolving digital ecosystem for our clients. I think I have joined them at the right time, following the agency’s transformation, and I hope to contribute to our growth in the coming months,” said Rebecca, on joining the agency. 

Meanwhile, John Campbell-Bruce, Lion & Lion’s managing director for Indonesia, commented, “We are extremely excited to have Rebecca on board. She comes with a wealth of experience across all levels and I am confident that under her management, the Singapore office will continue to move forward and continue the agency’s transformation and ultimately achieve great results.”

Cheelip Ong, Lion & Lion’s regional chief creative officer, believes Lai’s experience in Singapore as a seasoned digital-native client servicing leader will prove invaluable to both our regional clients and to our growth in Singapore.

“She will be working closely with Jonn Dogra, our Creative Director and Head of Brand Experience for Singapore to apply digital-first solutions to all clients we serve, to mark a new era of transformation for our Singapore office,” said Ong.

Just recently, Lion & Lion Malaysia has appointed young talent from dentsu, Frederik Rasmussen, as its new client director, who will be responsible to augment the business development department of the agency.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Lion & Lion, the digital marketing agency headquartered in Malaysia, has announced that it has appointed young talent from dentsu, Frederik Rasmussen, as its new client director for Malaysia. Rasmussen is a previous senior consultant at dentsu and will be responsible to augment the business development department of Lion & Lion for the new role. 

Rasmussen holds extensive experience both at the client and agency side of business engagement. Aside from his consultant role at dentsu, he’s held positions as a brand, digital, and sales leader at European emergency services Falck and as a digital account manager for Vizeum prior to joining Lion & Lion. 

At dentsu, Rasmussen’s responsibilities included leading some of the agency’s top-tier accounts like BMW and Burger King. 

For the new role at Lion & Lion, Rasmussen will be responsible for managing the agency’s biggest clients and will be leading business engagements both locally and regionally. He reports to Fredrik Gumpel, CEO of Lion & Lion. 

Rasmussen expressed his delight in joining the agency, “I am excited to take on my role here at Lion & Lion. I took a big leap of faith when I decided to leave Denmark, but in order to pursue my dreams, it felt intriguing to relocate to Malaysia and join Lion & Lion.” 

The young talent also shared, “My goal is to become an active part of two areas in particular – give our clients the best service, and grow Lion & Lion to the next level. I am certain both of these goals require support and backup from my talented colleagues, thus my first plan is to listen and understand the business I’m now settling in.” 

Meanwhile, Gumpel disclosed his thoughts on the agency’s move to sign the young dentsu talent.

“Frederik Rasmussen has joined our team during a momentous phase in our agency’s growth, one in which we are expanding our capabilities, while also building a larger network of regional clients. His digital and strategic experience for big international brands from both a client and the agency side across a broad spectrum of industries will play a crucial role in taking our product to the next level,” Gumpel said. 

Gumpel adds, “As a digital-first agency, his familiarity with new marketing platforms and trends will also enhance our core strengths of marrying data and technology with creativity to deliver impactful solutions,”

Last October, the agency in Malaysia also announced the appointment of Wai Sim Liew as the new business director for the market. The series of appointments, including Rasmussen’s, are part of the company’s development efforts for the region. 

In addition, the agency, which has a presence in Asia, specifically in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Jakarta, has also recently undergone a new brand identity and position, with a tagline ‘Made to Impact’. The agency said it aims to highlight the results it provides for clients. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Following the agency’s initial initiated transformation exercise in 2019 to adopt a more flexible and integrated approach for their business, digital marketing agency Lion & Lion has finally unveiled their new brand position and visual identity, focused on their new tagline ‘Made to Impact’.

The aforementioned tagline highlights the agency’s effect its work has on client brands, audiences and the industry as a whole.

Meanwhile, the new corporate colors of black and red evoke a sense of boldness that suggests the willingness to push boundaries and challenge conventions. These relate back to the Lion & Lion tagline, in which the agency aims to make a positive change in all of its activities, from elevating a client’s brand, to building an inclusive and supportive company culture.

Part of its brand repositioning revolves around the concept of them being an agency that emphasizes holistic strategic thinking, ideas-led solutions, and a flexible business model customized for the digital age.

Fredrik Gumpel, chief executive officer at Lion & Lion, explained that Lion & Lion’s decision to adopt a customizable service model and increase experience in managing regional scopes as well as capability investments, both people and technology, has given the agency a competitive edge that has led to a series of new client partnerships. 

“With technologies evolving at a fast pace, our role as a digital agency has ensured that we are in a position to take advantage of any developments in the communications industry. We have been getting more clients on a regional or global level over the past year, thanks to our expertise in navigating the digital and social space. Nevertheless, we maintain readiness for what the future may hold, especially in the fields of tech, commerce and communications, so we will always be at the forefront of the industry,” he said. 

The agency has recently won various accounts, including Minelab Electronics, L’Oreal Indonesia, KODAK Lens, Kellogg’s, and Carlsberg’s 1664 Blanc brand.

Lion & Lion said its new ‘creatively driven, digital-first’ value proposition as well as its delivery model has allowed the agency to broaden its client portfolio as well as secure a number of new wins both in their local markets, but even more across Southeast Asia, as several regional digital partnerships have been formed.

Meanwhile, Cheelip Ong, chief creative officer at Lion & Lion, commented that they are confident in their new service model and the trust their clients have placed in them. He added that their success drives them to push themselves even harder as they continue to evolve with the industry.

“Our way of working here at Lion & Lion allows clients the benefit of having a synergistic team of functional practice leads handling their business requirements across multiple channels and markets, with a digital-first framing. It also helps that we are experts in understanding the evolution of digital – from social, to e-commerce, to the potential opportunities brought forth by the metaverse, thereby giving us the knowledge to develop proactive and innovative strategies that are hyper-relevant for the present and future-ready,” Ong added.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has been appointed by multinational food company Kellogg’s to be its new social media partner across five markets, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, as well as Singapore, and Thailand, as part of a retainer account.

The partnership will see Lion & Lion helping Kellogg’s elevate its social community presence through a unified social media marketing strategy. The agency will also oversee the market and category research to better understand the brand’s local audience, content planning and seeding, and the development of creative brand assets relevant to each market. 

Jeppe Carlsen, Lion & Lion’s managing director for Malaysia, shared that their responsibility is to drive consumers to see Kellogg’s as a necessity in their grocery lists by delivering the message of the flexibility of usage, the healthy nature of its products, and overall positive appeal to each member of the family. 

“We are applying our expertise in creating meaningful conversations with audiences to increase Kellogg’s brand equity in this mobile and social media-driven world,” said Carlsen. 

Sanjib Bose, the marketing director for SEA at Kellogg’s, explained the importance of the region to the company as a key growth market. 

He shared that they have been strengthening their capabilities in digital commerce with the right partners and are happy to have onboard Lion & Lion, Malaysia. 

“They bring together a strong team of experts with a deep understanding of the market and a tech stack equipped to deliver data-driven marketing solutions to build our brand profitably. We look forward to having Lion & Lion as our partner in our efforts to nourish consumers in Southeast Asia and build a unified and delightful brand experience for Kellogg’s across our social, digital, and e-commerce platforms,” said Bose.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has been appointed to launch global metal detector manufacturer Minelab Electronics to the Indonesian market. Lion & Lion said the partnership, which officially started in September, will focus on raising audience awareness of Minelab’s products and drive visits to the brand’s website for further inquiry.

Minelab is a global company that delivers metal detecting technologies for treasure hunting, gold prospecting, and countermine operations. Promoting a premium product to an entry-level niche market in Indonesia, the agency shared that its winning strategy built upon Minelab’s tagline of “With Minelab, you’ll find performance is everything.”

Using a holistic brand and communications approach, the agency worked with the brand to create a go-to-market strategy that targeted consumers in a niche market. The full campaign will make use of data and analytics to curate strategic content placement in media and creative asset production. 

According to Jerry Soeria, creative director at Lion & Lion Indonesia, the initial launch is designed to build the brand’s presence and prepare a benchmark for future campaigns. 

“As the brand is new here, we are focusing our efforts on driving awareness of the brand and its ranges’ key product benefits so we can position Minelab as a premium, yet accessible brand for new users that offers superior quality products,” said Soeria. 

The agency’s Managing Director John Campbell-Bruce said that with the current positive perception and brand awareness of Minelab, the agency now moved to identify opportunities for Minelab to reach out to hobby treasure hunters in entry-level markets. 

“This is due to the growing trend of amateur adventurers seeking to make treasure hunting a new source of income and who are looking for a product that can make their dream a reality,” he said. 

Campbell-Bruce added, “With our insights on the local market and our agency’s experience in engaging new users through data-led awareness and targeted lead generation campaigns, we are confident Minelab will experience strong growth in Indonesia and beyond in the coming year.”

Jim Kwo, Minelab Electronics’ GM for APAC, also commented, “Lion & Lion impressed us with a quick mastery of our product line, marketing goals, and insights into the local markets. Their team is highly responsive and we are looking forward to establishing a major presence in the Indonesian market.” 

In June this year, the Indonesia team at Lion & Lion has also announced acquiring an extended remit for skincare parent brand L’Oréal to similarly launch one of its brands, La Roche Posay, to the Indonesian market.