Tag: Market Research

Singapore – As more and more e-commerce brands in Southeast Asia ramping up their presence through frequent platform deals such as the recent ‘9.9 Sales’, these brands in the region are highly incentivized with the use of influencers for their sales campaigns, hence pushing the e-commerce industry in the region to a steadfast growth, latest insights from e-commerce aggregator iPrice shows.

Comparing the latest ambassadors of Lazada and Shopee namely K-pop actor Hyun Bin and international kung fu actor Jackie Chan respectively, the report showed that the senior global star received higher engagement for articles published regarding the collaboration. Jackie Chan’s presence in Shopee’s latest campaign garnered 59 articles published, compared to the 53 articles garnered by Hyun Bin’s Lazada campaign.

Despite that, Hyun Bin’s campaign garnered more engagement in social media, receiving 79% of ‘love’ reactions, 19% of ‘haha’ reactions, and 2% of ‘wow’ reactions. Meanwhile, the study found that Jackie Chan’s campaign garnered 62% of ‘love’ reactions, 21% ‘haha’ reactions, and 17% of ‘wow’ reactions on social media.

“It’s clear to see that influencers play an important role in driving excitement for the upcoming sales period. Thus, key e-commerce companies have enough incentive to involve influencers in their campaigns,” said iPrice. 

Meanwhile, overall web visits among e-commerce platforms across the region have increased by 31% this year from January to June compared to the same time frame last year. By average, overall web visits from the aforementioned period this year clocked in 4 million web visits.

The Philippines experienced the most surge by 73%, followed by Indonesia (41%), Malaysia (34%), Singapore (10%), Thailand (9%), and Vietnam (7%).

Specifically, the top two Singapore-based companies, Shopee and Lazada, experienced an increase of web visits by 56% and 10% in 1H 2021 compared to the same period last year.

In terms of consumer behavior, given the uncertain COVID infection rates, consumers will continue to stay at home, and consequently forego holiday travels and family get-togethers. With that given, it is expected that there will be more opportunities for online shopping. iPrice foresees that Southeast Asian consumers would probably spend an average of US$40 on e-commerce by the end of the year.

Furthermore, the insights found out that there was an increase of 26% in average consumer spending in 2020, when consumers spent about US$32 per e-commerce transaction.

“Most purchases will be directed towards the categories of sports and outdoor, home improvements, and electronics. Lastly, even if consumer spending won’t increase as predicted, online retailers can still expect far more online web visits to their platforms this year,” the company concluded.

Singapore – Amid consumers’ online content consumption, in-feed advertisements show up to monetize the traffic it gets from online readers. And with that traffic, online consumers now expect that there should be an evident correlation between the article they are reading versus the in-feed ads they are served, new data from technology company Integral Ad Science and Neuro-Insight, a neuromarketing and neuroanalytics company.

Said data was collected not through traditional survey data methods but rather through examining brain activity in response to contextually matched ads, showing context can significantly impact ad memorability.

According to the report, matching informational ads with an article’s message creates a very strong detail memory response, and drove a 36% lift in detail memory compared to when there was no match. This can be especially relevant for campaigns that focus on a clear call to action that brands want consumers to respond to.

Part of what consumers also get a closer affinity to as well is that endemically matched ads drive higher memorability: Endemically matched ads, or those that align with and match the surrounding content based on vertical, such as auto ads near auto content, drove a 23% lift in activation within the part of the brain responsible for the memory of practical details, which includes key messages, calls to action, and branding elements. These ads also boosted global memory by 27%, or the memorability of broad themes, overarching narratives, or audio and visual elements.

‘Detail memory’ pertains to the type of memory based on specific themes the consumer observes among the advertising being served, whereas ‘global memory’ pertains to the type of memory based on broader topics.

Meanwhile, ads focused on an emotional response are best paired with content themes. Ads that aim to leave an emotional memory, a particular feeling, or overarching brand perception among consumers performed best when placed alongside articles with a matching theme, such as an ad with a seasonal summer theme adjacent to summer season content. The study found that emotive ads drove 40% higher global memory within thematically matched articles compared to when there was no match.

Lastly, consumers recognize ads as part of their online experience, as the vast majority of consumers (63%) viewed ads as part of their online reading, not disruptive or a distraction. Only 36% of participants said they scrolled past an ad without reading it.

“Using the latest neuroscience and neurometrics, this groundbreaking study demonstrates the specific ways that a webpage’s context can dramatically alter how audiences recall and respond to ads. As our industry prepares for a cookieless future and increasingly moves away from audience targeting, advertisers have a significant opportunity to be intentional with contextual targeting tools, such as IAS Context Control, to drive greater campaign outcomes,” said Tony Marlow, CMO at IAS.

Sydney, Australia – National daily compact newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald takes the lead as the most-read newspaper in Australia, new data from media industry body ThinkNewsBrands and market research company Roy Morgan shows.

According to recent data, The Sydney Morning Herald registered 8.4 million readers, both print and on their digital version during a four-week period.

These are followed by The Age (6 million readers), The Australia (5.2 million readers), The Daily Telegraph (4.9 million readers), The Herald Sun (4.7 million readers), and The West Australian & Sunday Times (4.1 million readers).

The report, which is the first release of Total News readership reports, shows that news is holding strong with 20.4 million Australians consuming news in a four-week period, an increase of 1% compared to the same period last year. 

In terms of which medium most readers consume their news from, digital news maintains its position of strength with readership of 19.1 million, 90% of the population aged 14 and up. Meanwhile, print news has seen a 6% increase compared to the same period last year, now reaching 14.1 million people, 67% of the population aged 14 and up. 

“With all of us feeling the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, trusted, timely news has never been more important. This is very clearly reflected in the first release of Total News readership figures which shows news maintaining robust audiences,” said Vanessa Lyons, general manager at ThinkNewsBrands.

Meanwhile, Michele Levine, CEO at Roy Morgan, commented, “We’re pleased to be working with ThinkNewsBrands to measure and report Total News. Since our appointment, we have been busy behind the scenes creating simplicity for channel planners and clearly representing the reach and scale of news among all Australians.”

Speaking about the milestone, Lisa Davie, editor at The Sydney Morning Herald said, “These results show that the Herald’s brand of journalism is rewarding readers with fearless, independent news and analysis, especially as New South Wales goes through one of the toughest periods in its recent history.”

Singapore – Cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, have sparked popularity over these years, thanks to a huge following online. In the case of Southeast Asia, social media users have been active in discussing the sector across various social media platforms, new data from a report by social media monitoring and intelligence company Digimind.

Singapore takes the lead as the most active market where cryptocurrency mentions are prevalent across social media platforms, amounting to 902,225 mentions from February to May 2021 or about 16% of the density against regular social media users. Social media density refers to the ratio of social media mentions for a particular topic against the number of recorded social media users, regardless of what topic they discuss.

This is followed by the Philippines (2,767,413 mentions) and Malaysia (815,523 mentions) who both tallied 3% of social media mentioned density. Indonesia, meanwhile, is the least vocal in the region when it comes to cryptocurrency mentions. Despite having 3,011,790 mentions, it only takes up 2% of social media density, in proportion to the 170m recorded social media users.

As Bitcoin and Ethereum take the lead of what is on consumer’s minds on social media across the region, the cryptocurrencies Dogecoin, Binance, Tether and Ripple also follow suit, signifying the diversity of cryptocurrency choices for consumers in the region.

In terms of most-mentioned cryptocurrency platforms, Coinbase takes the lead, with 41% of respondents saying it’s on the top of their minds. This is then followed by Binance (28.9%), Okex (19.8%), Huobi (8.2%) and Coinhako (2.1%).

“Determining the right cryptocurrency trading platform is akin to frequenting a supermarket store that offers the best services, from discount prices to exclusive membership rates, and convenience. Brands need to be well equipped to detect the most pressing pain points of consumers or users, survey threats to brand reputation and make informed decisions quickly by synchronizing omnichannel information within a single dashboard to stay investor-centric,” Digimind said in a press statement.

For Olivier Girard, APAC head at Digimind, through the lens of social listening, they see the insecurities and motivations of the average investor, as well as the potential for this new technology to be adopted into the mainstream market.

“From the consumer perspective, it is remarkable to see how cryptocurrency is embraced by people from all walks of life and nationalities – fueling the hope of mainstream adoption in the near future. Even in APAC, we can see efforts ramping up to create greater accessibility, and provide regulations within cryptocurrency exchanges that affirm the trust consumers are having,” Girard stated.

Singapore – The Southeast Asian region has seen a steadfast growth in its advertising realm, more specifically in social media which has jumped to 74.29% this year, according to the latest data from a report by customer experience and social media marketing company Emplifi.

Based on their latest findings, said percentage was evident on Facebook and Instagram advertising on a year-on-year (YoY) end basis during Q2. The report noted that SEA brands spend US$2,287.22 per ad account on average per month, registering the advertising cost growth to 85.75%.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, the social ad spend surged to 106% YoY to US$2,162.96 per ad account per month. Under this factor, the e-commerce category accounted for 41.8% of the total interactions of brand pages on Facebook in Q2 2021. On Instagram, the services sector took up the most interactions at 17.6%, followed by the retail category with 16.8%. These industries are mainly service-based, demonstrating that brands are adapting to the modern consumer and providing customer support and customer service through social media platforms.

According to Zarnaz Arlia, chief marketing officer at Emplifi, the ongoing increase in social media ad spend is proving to be more than just a pandemic-related ‘bounce-back’ scenario, adding that more and more brands are relying on social media marketing to engage with their audiences meaningfully and at scale.

“Social commerce and the formats which support it are also becoming more prevalent as the year goes on. As more brands recognize the value of live streaming and start to leverage more live content to cater to users at different stages of the customer journey,” Arlia stated.

Another factor tackled in the report is that Facebook Live videos earned the highest number of organic post interactions and delivered three times the engagement rates of standard videos globally, but account for less than 1% of branded posts. In Singapore, Facebook Live videos and video posts performed the best compared to other formats such as status, photo, and links posting.

On a global scale, global social ad spend saw a 50% YoY jump while the overall worldwide CPC grew by 85.1%. Marketers spent 49.9% more on Facebook and Instagram advertising globally compared to Q2 2020.

“As more and more consumers begin to expect a brand’s social media channels to facilitate outstanding customer experiences across many stages of the customer journey, the importance of engagement and interaction data is taking on a greater significance. What we’re seeing is that an engaging and responsive social media presence is no longer just a ‘nice-to-have’ for consumer-facing brands, it’s a key point of differentiation,” Arlia added.

Singapore – The shift in shopping behavior among Asia-Pacific (APAC) consumers has been fixed in three factors: preference to online shopping, frequency of promotions, as well as convenience, new research from Reprise shows.

According to their report, regular ‘a few times a month’ online shoppers are now outpacing their offline counterparts by 42% vs 31%. Those who shop online ‘once every few months’ leapfrog offline shoppers by 66%. 

Meanwhile, promotions and sales are the best way to engage SEA markets, as 61% wait to shop online during the big sales days, vs the 39% ‘anytime’ shoppers. 

Lastly, convenience is the e-commerce ‘trump card’, with the reasonings of being ‘time-saving’ and ‘finding best prices’ are perceived as the two biggest advantages by 76% and 65% of online shoppers. 

“We have seen unprecedented growth in e-commerce in the last 12 months. Many markets in APAC have leapfrogged as much as 5 times, already meeting projections for 2025. This e-commerce acceleration is partly led by platforms that have fast-forwarded their interface roadmaps and advanced their technology. This, along with audience targeting via in-platform ads have played a significant role,” said Ritika Gupta, e-commerce director at Reprise APAC.

Despite pandemic restrictions, consumers’ desire to look and feel good weren’t dampened; as the top 3 most shopped categories online in APAC over the last six months were; clothing and apparel (67%), health and beauty (47%), and consumer electronics (40%). 

However, the shipping fee is the biggest ‘turn-off’ for shoppers. The top 3 perceived barriers to online shopping are ‘shipping fee’ (57%), ‘shipping time’ (55%), and the inability to ‘touch and feel’ products before purchasing (48%). Hence, good reviews go a long way, as the top 3 shopper motivators when purchasing online are ‘good reviews’, ‘promotion/sale,’ and ‘good star ratings’ as voted by 60%, 54% and 50% of online shoppers respectively. 

In terms of advertising relation to e-commerce, online ads are the key driver to engage new buyers. 1 in 2 online shoppers look to online ads for discovering new brands and products when purchasing online. In addition, social media is king, as it is now the top point of research for 42% of APAC shoppers.

“As e-commerce continues to blur the lines between international borders, it’s now more imperative than ever for brands to tailor their marketing strategy to the locality of the region and markets that it serves. It is time to re-think e-commerce as a one-stop-shop, an e-business and a data haven. And perhaps time to re-evaluate the function and value of brick and mortar retail as an experiential step in the e-commerce path to purchase,” the report stated.

The e-commerce economy in Southeast Asia: growth and challenges

Starting off with Indonesia, with being a promising e-commerce market in APAC with a very cluttered landscape encompassing several local and global players; marketplaces are the main online shopping destination for Indonesians. 73% of online shoppers prefer marketplaces to brands’ websites for making online purchases. Despite having tremendous competition, certain marketplaces have stood out as the preferred shopping destinations for Indonesians. Currently, the international marketplace, Shopee, shows the most success in terms of product discovery as 86% of online shoppers engage with a new brand on that platform, followed by 71% on Tokopedia.

Meanwhile, shoppers in Thailand began spending more time on social media platforms, making the country the only market in SEA where 62% of online shoppers prefer to research brands and products on social media. Millennials seek the convenience of returns when shopping online. However, across generations it is the cheaper prices found online that drive shoppers in Thailand to participate in e-commerce.

In Malaysia, product information is emphasized by 46% of online shoppers for making a purchase decision. Optimizing product content on marketplaces has become critical for brands to stand out in the cluttered environment. In addition, Every 1 in 2 Malaysians do their product research online using social media platforms and almost 40% of the online shoppers also refer to online search portals for the same. Shopee deems to be a clear winner in terms of marketplace platform of choice, 92% of online shoppers have used Shopee to discover new brands in last 12 months.

Coming to the Singaporean market, Singaporeans not only shop locally but are avid international shoppers, making convenience the primary purchase trigger for 73% of online shoppers. They are also very price-oriented with 63% of Singaporean shoppers choosing to buy online to access better promotions and discounts. 

The report notes as well that one peculiarity among Singapore shoppers is that 52% access brand websites to gather more information before making a purchase decision. This is almost 50% higher than other markets in SEA. With new restrictions coming in every few weeks, it is understandable that the best performing categories are groceries, restaurant and food delivery services in addition to work from home-focused products including monitors, webcams, and even home office furniture.

In terms of the Vietnamese market, 41% of shoppers in Vietnam shop online a few times a week, compared to 36% who buy online a few times a month. Vietnamese online shoppers spend a large amount of time on the internet, when it comes to researching about new brands or products, 65% shoppers rely on social media and 45% refer to brand websites.

Lastly, the Philippines is one market that has not kept up with the e-commerce growth momentum compared to neighboring countries in SEA. Poor internet connectivity, largely unbanked population and its unique geography all lead to a slower e-commerce growth. Filipinos are less brand loyal and highly price sensitive. Two out of three Philippine shoppers will try new brands they find online, and 57% online shoppers also wait for products to go on promotion or discount before hitting the payment button. 

“The growth we’ve seen from e-commerce in the last 12 months is not unexpected, the impact of COVID has merely accelerated an already apparent trend. This acceleration provides a strong opportunity for brands to engage with consumers in a different way – consumers have proven that they are more open to engage with new brands and products in an e-commerce environment, and brands who recognize this and adjust their digital strategy accordingly – will reap the rewards,” said Pippa Berlocher, president at Reprise APAC.

Singapore – Programmatic investment and spend is growing at a rapid rate across the Japan and Asia-Pacific (JAPAC) region despite a hugely challenging 12 months in terms of both the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the deprecation of third-party identifiers, which is now 30% higher compared to pre-pandemic levels, a new research from adtech OpenX and market intelligence news site ExchangeWire shows.

According to their latest report, around 64% of agencies, publishers, and brands are increasing programmatic spend or revenue, an evident growth in the sector driven by a surge in digital transformation across agencies, publishers, and brands.

The report highlights as well that 31% of publishers are generating over 40% of their revenue via programmatic. On the buy side, 21% are allocating over 40% of their spend on the channel. 

With that in mind, there has been an observation as well that publishers have matured in their strategic selection of header bidding partners, while the use of unified auction solution Prebid has increased by over 10% market-wide. Compared to 2020, publishers are using relatively fewer providers than in 2020, and prioritizing ease of setup for when existing providers are not meeting expectations.

Such behavior is prevalent in the Indian market, where 32% are now using one to four partners, compared to just 7% last year, and 13% are using 15 or more partners, which has more than halved from the 29% recorded in 2020.

“The programmatic industry in JAPAC is displaying a remarkably strong recovery. We see newly-forged programmatic expertise across both buy and sell sides driven by rapid digital transformation. Agencies, publishers and brands are demonstrating greater confidence in managing their own programmatic activities. As a result, the ecosystem is directing more revenues and spend through the medium compared to other marketing streams,” said Andrew Tu, managing director for APAC at OpenX.

There have been rising concerns within the region over the deprecation of Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) and the third-party cookie. Two-thirds (67%) are concerned about the effect of IDFA and cookie deprecation, with 29% very concerned about these changes. India displayed the most concern, with 87% disclosing some level of concern, followed by Indonesia (71%) and Australia (62%). In Japan, only 49% are concerned, while 50% are not perturbed about the upcoming changes.

Furthermore, brands and agencies are not funnelling money to ‘walled gardens’, and instead favor independent ad tech.

A ‘walled garden’ refers to a limited set of technology or media information provided to users with the intention of creating a monopoly or secure information system.

Only 16% of buyers are increasing walled garden ad spend in response to IDFA and third-party cookie deprecation, whereas 27% are investing in exchange, supply-side platform (SSP), and demand-side platform (DSP) partnerships.

In India, only 2.5% are funneling spend away from independent ad tech towards the walled gardens.

“Despite some fears around the impact of IDFA deprecation and the eventual removal of cookies in Chrome, a majority of brands are maintaining or increasing spend on the independent web and not towards the walled gardens. Instead, they are working together with their tech partners to navigate the nascent privacy-first environment,” Tu added.

In terms of investment, India is more heavily invested in programmatic than its peers. Only 2% are not using the channel, compared to 33% in Japan, 9% in Australia and 6% in Indonesia. Moreover, 12% of respondents within India are generating over 75% of their spend in programmatic, double that of both Australia and Indonesia.

Hong Kong – With the pandemic situation in Hong Kong now gradually easing up to open to the local and global economy, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong are also slowly opening up, with business confidence rates seeing a steadfast growth among the local SME sector during the third quarter, new data from the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) shows.

According to their latest index alongside Standard Chartered Hong Kong, the SME Overall Index has risen for three consecutive quarters, this time by 4.4 to 46.6, hitting a three-year high since Q3 of 2018.

All five component sub-indices stipulated in the index also rose in Q3, among which the ‘Global Economy’ sub-index recorded the most significant surge again, from 43.6 to 52.8 which made an impressive leap from the low of 7.9 in the same period last year. Together with the ‘Recruitment Sentiment’ sub-index which rose to 50.9, these are the first two sub-indices to surpass the 50 neutral mark in the past two years. Eightof the 11 surveyed industries have recorded two-year highs in their industry indices. 

The sub-indices of ‘Information and Communications’, ‘Real Estate’, and ‘Social and Personal Services’ are the best performing industries, with their respective indices all over 50.

On investment sentiment in the coming quarter, most SMEs are planning to spend more on ‘Information Technology’ and ‘Product & Marketing Promotion’. While 24% of SMEs plan to increase investment in ‘Information Technology’, 20% of local SMEs would like to boost investment in ‘Product & Marketing Promotion’ – both are one-year highs. Meanwhile, 63% of SMEs surveyed expected an upcoming increase of ‘Raw Material Cost’, which is 5% higher than the previous quarter.

For Edmond Lai, chief digital officer at HKPC, the results of the index reflects the stableness of the pandemic situation in Hong Kong during the survey period, and that the SME sector is bound to its ‘steady U-shape rebound with the outlooks of ‘Global Economy’ and ‘Recruitment Sentiment’ being positive’.

He also noted that the survey showed that SMEs are ‘flexing their muscles’ to pick up their business as fast as possible by increasing investment and expanding staff size.

Meanwhile, Kelvin Lau, senior economist for Greater China for global research at Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, commented that the latest SME Index readings confirm that Hong Kong’s business conditions have not only further improved over the past quarter, but that such positive momentum is also likely to carry over to the start of second half 2021, boding well for more economic recovery ahead. 

He also added that the are seeing confirmation as well of such recovery being broad-based, with all five component sub-indices and eight of the eleven industry sub-indices posting quarter-over-quarter increases. All this, however, is still not enough to push the overall SME Index back above the 50 neutral mark for now, meaning that SMEs are generally still operating below normal levels.

“Looking at the breakdown, the improvement in ‘Global Economy’ sub-index remains the biggest driver of positive sentiment this time, while ‘Recruitment Sentiment’ sub-index also returned above 50 for the first time in two years, boding well for Hong Kong’s unemployment rate to extend its recent nascent downtrend. That said, improving global prospects have not translated into much better confidence among manufacturers, exporters and financial services providers this time; rather, we see prior underperformers such as retailers playing further catchup – probably supported by the continued unwinding of social distancing measures since the first quarter,” Lau explained.

He added, “Our latest survey results also reflect still-high cost pressures, especially those for raw materials; that has in turn pushed prices higher for finished goods and services, confirming that some pass-through of higher costs onto buyers is indeed happening.”

In addition, the survey also explored SME perspectives and planning in response to the economic recovery in 2021. Around 7% of SMEs surveyed said their business fared better than before the pandemic, while 31% of them claimed to be close to returning to the pre-pandemic levels. The business performances of ‘Information and Communications’, ‘Real Estate’ and ‘Financing and Insurance’ industries are the most satisfactory amid the pandemic, with ‘Accommodation and Food Services’ being the most affected – 81% SMEs surveyed reported a setback in business. The most popular actions taken proactively by SMEs to achieve business rebound are ‘Product/Service Improvement’, ‘Market Promotion’, ‘Online Expansion’, ‘Productivity Enhancement’ and ‘Use of Digital Technology’.

Furthermore, the survey found that SMEs are placing high hopes on ‘Global Economic Recovery’, ‘Re-opening of Cross-Boundary Travel with the Mainland’ and ‘Relaxation of Social Distancing Measures; to fully grasp the opportunities from market recovery. Yet they also saw the constraints of a severe worldwide epidemic situation and geopolitical tensions, with 37.3% of SMEs surveyed indicating their intentions to raise prices to cope with inflation and offset cost pressure.

Singapore – Corporate and brand purpose has become a clear and indisputable driver of tangible business success and commercial returns, with consumers in the Asia-Pacific are 7.9 times more likely to buy from brands who have a clear brand purpose, new insights from global integrated communications agency Zeno Group shows.

According to the insights, consumers are 9.1 times more likely to trust the brand, compared with similar Zeno research that indicated 4.1 times more likely before the pandemic, 9.8 times more likely to recommend the brand to friends and family, up from 4.5 times more likely before. In addition they are 6.6 times more likely to protect that brand in the event that it was to make a misstep or receive public criticism.

In regards to life purpose, 85% of respondents said they consider a brand’s or company’s purpose when considering a job or employment with that brand, with that proportion rising to nine out of 10 among Gen Z and millennials. And 83% of respondents consider purpose in their decisions about making financial investments in a brand or company. 

For the specific APAC market, between 47% and 61% of consumers in China, India and Malaysia said they believe brands to have a strong purpose, up slightly from before the pandemic. But in Singapore, that number declined to only 33%. And in Australia, included in the survey for the first time, it was a scant 28%.

According to Paul Mottram, regional president for APAC at Zeno Group, said results should also be a call-to-arms for any business leader who might think they’ve got purpose covered with the annual ESG report, or token philanthropic efforts, adding that ‘iIt’s time to get serious about purpose’.

“Beyond purchase intent, the research shows the broader – and growing – impact of purpose. Consistent with other key data points in this research, we see an even stronger multiplier effect compared to similar research we published last year,” Mottram stated.

He added, “Because in those same markets [Asian markets], between 88% and 99% of consumers said it’s important for the brands and companies they engage with to have a strong purpose. It’s clear that a purpose deficit persists, between consumer demand for purpose, and brands’ ability to deliver.”

Said research also shows that consumers won’t hesitate to punish brands without a strong or clear purpose, with both their wallets and pocketbooks, and their voices online. Among survey respondents, 28% said they would stop buying from the brand; 30% would start buying from a competitor brand or company that better aligns with their stance; and 27% would discourage others from buying from or supporting that brand.

Singapore – As part of the company’s move to strengthen its presence in Asia-Pacific, particularly on its known market research practice, Kantar has announced the promotion of Ilana Sanborn as the new head of Kantar Marketplace in APAC.

First launched in 2019, Kantar Marketplace is a market research platform that empowers insights professionals, marketers and agencies to build meaningfully different brands with speed and agility.

Formerly leading both Australia’s innovation practice and the Kantar Marketplace growth strategy for Australia, Sanborn will continue leading the Kantar Marketplace portfolio in Australia and remain a member of the Kantar Australia Board.

Speaking about her appointment, she stated that she finds her work incredibly motivating, especially when she shows a client the capability of the platform. She adds as well as part of her work, she also demonstrates how Kantar is evolving into a business that uses technology such as artificial intelligence and technology platforms to better understand human behavior.

“I’m especially looking forward to working with our teams across the region and partnering with our fantastic clients as they test, learn and move faster. As the speed at which the competitive environments of our clients evolve gets faster, Kantar is ready to support them in that challenge. As we launch more products through this platform, Kantar Marketplace will transform the way we engage with, and support, our clients – especially as we navigate out of the pandemic,” Sanborn stated.

She added, “I’m proud to work for a business that has continuously allowed me to grow by investing in my career across multiple roles and markets. I am very excited to have this opportunity to drive growth of the Kantar Marketplace platform across Asia-Pacific to the same heights we are experiencing in Australia.”

Meanwhile, Tim Kelsall, chief client officer for Asia-Pacific at Kantar, commented, “Kantar is continuing to invest in an agile business development and servicing team across the region. Concurrently, we are also investing in wider solutions covering creative and digital testing, concept and innovation testing and on-demand surveys through the Kantar Marketplace platform.”

He added, “I am thrilled to have Ilana work with a wider client base across Asia-Pacific in this expanded role as she leads our commercial growth, product development and client success through Kantar Marketplace.”