Tag: Marketing agency

Indonesia – Juicebox has been selected as the marketing agency for the Sanur Special Economic Zone project, tasked with positioning Bali as a premier global wellness and tourism destination through cutting-edge design, technology, and strategic marketing solutions.

Spanning 41.6 hectares of the iconic former Grand Inna Bali Beach Hotel and Golf Course, the Sanur Special Economic Zone (SEZ)—also known as The Sanur—is a pioneering project endorsed by Indonesia’s Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) to transform the country’s health and tourism industries.

The Sanur SEZ features state-of-the-art facilities, including the Bali International Hospital, five-star hotels, botanical gardens, a world-class convention centre, and shopping, all reflecting innovation, luxury, and sustainability.

Juicebox’s involvement in the Sanur SEZ project underscores its expertise in delivering impactful design, technology, and marketing solutions for high-profile initiatives across the region. 

With this partnership, Juicebox aims to solidify their reputation as a trusted agency for government, tourism, and economic projects in Indonesia.

Commenting on the appointment, Tarryn West, agency director at Juicebox, said, “Having worked with Bali’s hospitality industry for over a decade, it’s fantastic to see initiatives like the Sanur Special Economic Zone take shape.”

“Following the success of developments like the Icon Mall and other beachfront projects, this new endeavour is elevating the quality of tourism offerings in Sanur and is a first for Indonesia. The Sanur SEZ also delivers significant benefits for domestic travellers and local communities, enhancing opportunities and experiences for everyone,” West added. 

The Sanur SEZ aims to establish Bali as a top medical and wellness tourism destination, catering to both domestic and international patients. With streamlined permits for foreign health practitioners, advanced medical technologies, and comprehensive patient services, the SEZ is set to attract high-value investments and boost Indonesia’s economy.

The project is expected to attract 140,000 patients annually, saving Rp86 trillion (US$5.5b) in outbound medical expenses. It is also projected to generate Rp15-20 trillion (US$1.27b) in investments and contribute Rp80.7 trillion (US$5.16b) to Indonesia’s GDP by 2045.

Singapore – drcom, a global life sciences medico-marketing agency, has announced the appointment of Gwenael Meneux as its new deputy CEO, taking over from founder Didier Roumengas before the end of the year. 

Meneux will be implementing drcom’s strategic plan through his extensive experience and leadership.

The appointment of Meneux demonstrates drcom’s commitment to strengthening its leadership team with expertise, guaranteeing the agency’s ongoing progress in innovation to satisfy the demands of its pharmaceutical clientele. As it grows throughout Asia and beyond, drcom will continue to build solid alliances with leading local businesses and international pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to joining drcom, Meneux held positions at AstraZeneca, including general manager posts in China and France and commercial excellence & strategy. He has experience in FMCG marketing and communication with L’Oréal and strategic consulting with BCG. 

Speaking about his appointment, Meneux said, “I’m thrilled to join such a talented team. For the last 2 decades, Drcom has been instrumental/ in supporting the transformation of pharma interaction with HCPs and with patients. They have pioneered Closed Loop Marketing and omnichannel management into the healthcare landscape in Europe and in APAC region. Nowadays, Life Science player’s needs are evolving with more customised, targeted and highly scientific narratives. Drcom will continue to be at the forefront of innovation to support those critical evolution.”

Indonesia – M&C Saatchi Performance, a global performance marketing agency, has announced the promotion of Nachiket Desai to the position of country director for Indonesia. Desai will continue to report to Roshat Adnani in his new role as country director Indonesia.

As the country director for Indonesia, He will focus on driving company expansion and improving profitability. Among his duties are the creation of services tailored to the Indonesian market, with a focus on direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses, digital transformations, and retail commerce.

After more than six years with the firm, Desai started his career in Mumbai and afterwards moved to Indonesia. He is credited for leading the charge to open the Jakarta office in 2019.

The Indonesia team at M&C Saatchi Performance has grown under Desai’s direction, growing to include more than 70 marketers and contributing to the agency’s overall success. His strategic insight and dedication to quality have not only increased income but also expanded the customer base, allowing to create a firm presence in the Indonesian market.

Speaking about the appointment, Roshat Adnani, managing partner APAC at M&C Saatchi Performance, expressed, “I am delighted to announce Nachiket’s promotion to Country Director Indonesia, a journey that began when he joined as our first hire in 2019 for the Jakarta office. From Sr. Account Manager to a key leader in our 70+ member team, Nachiket has played a pivotal role in not only growing our business but has also been instrumental in shaping a collaborative and innovative work culture. 

He added, “As we expand in the market, we trust Nachiket to take our business to newer heights while making Jakarta a centre of excellence in the region.”

Meanwhile, talking about his appointment, Desai said, “I’ve witnessed in first-person the huge growth that our business has experienced in Indonesia since we first launched. When we opened in 2019, there was only a few of us and today we’re over 70 in the team. The country’s growing economy and fast talent development in the digital industry present us with a dynamic landscape to make a meaningful impact for brands investing in digital media.” 

“Stepping into this role, I’m enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead. Driving our clients’ growth will remain our priority while we leverage the latest performance marketing technologies to innovate. In the long-term, we hope to make our business in Jakarta a centre of excellence for the whole APAC region,” Desai added. 

India – Talented, an indie agency Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya established,have announced the opening of ‘The New Thing’, a new marketing agency with a focus on social and cultural marketing. The addition of Viren Noronha as a co-founder and contributor, who previously oversaw the social charter at Swiggy and Tinder, heightens the anticipation for this project. 

The New Thing’s main goal for their brands is to facilitate the creation of cultural conversations and impact on social media, acknowledging the rarity of brands getting it right, while unhesitatingly adapting to the ever-changing internet landscape.

During the launch of the new marketing agency, Viren Noronha, said, “Getting social right is hard. And, the way agencies and brands look at it needs a desperate refresh. My experience at Swiggy & Tinder showed me evidence of a crucial shift – it’s not about what your brand is saying, it’s about what people are saying about your brand.”

“To keep yourself relevant you need to lean into those conversations. You need to contribute to internet culture with your content. And, you need creators who do that for themselves every day, as part of your team,” Noronha said. 

He remarked, “Look at some of India’s most popular campaigns over the last few years – It’s not that people hate advertising, they just hate boring ads. Great advertising or social doesn’t force your audience to talk about you, it invites them to. And it certainly doesn’t need ‘30 posts a month’ to do that.” 

He added, “The New Thing wants to help brands be in charge of those conversations, whether it’s ‘daily social’ or ‘spike campaigns’. We want to make brands work for the internet, not the other way around. I’m now excited to begin with colleagues and partners who, like me, believe that social done right is a growth function, not a cost centre.”

Speaking of their new agency, Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya founders of Indie Agency Talented, said, “Viren has executed some of the most talked about social-first campaigns in India but we think he’s been masquerading as a brand-side marketer & an agency-side creative these last few years. Now in his avatar as a creative entrepreneur, we simply want to liberate him and his founding team and help them launch the social and culture agency of their dreams.”

“There’s a clear reason why we’re launching this as a separate agency. Right from the kind of talent needed to workflow and processes, it’s become evidently clear that specialised social-first creative mandates for brands have to be run very differently from wider creative mandates. It’s equally exciting to see what an agency staffed & run entirely by creators looks like,” they explained. 

Speaking about their ambition, they added, “This model is how we currently envision scaling Talented & our brand – by enabling creative entrepreneurs their own platform to build from, instead of assuming we can simply incubate a new practice internally by ourselves. At the core of our new  ‘Talented grid of agencies’ will sit Talented itself – an ideas shop, a medium-agnostic creative agency staffed by the brightest creative talent in the market.” 

“Specialised agencies like The New Thing and potentially others in the future will be organised under and report into Talented – therefore having the ability to tap into this grid of shared services, while continuing to run as independent shops with their own unique personalities and specialisation,” they added. 

Noronha also added, “Funnily, The New Thing is both the company’s name and the heart of its business model. The name holds us accountable to our own definition of disruption – to do things so different that it destroys the old methods.” 

He added, “To brands, it offers instant clarity on who we are – a shorthand that communicates that we’re not shy about keeping up with trends and how the internet is moving. “So, our clients shouldn’t be either. The New Thing is going to change how social media can work for brands in India.”

Sydney, Australia – Enero Group, a boutique network of marketing and communications businesses headquartered in Australia, has today announced its acquisition of GetIT, the marketing agency in APAC that specialises in B2B technology. The acquisition is aimed at accelerating the growth of the group’s leading global technology communications consultancy Hotwire.

The group said the inclusion of GetIT in the group will help extend Hotwire’s client services towards digital marketing, brand strategy, reputation management, and public relations through its offices in Singapore, India, Malaysia, and Japan.

In April last year, Enero, via Hotwire, also made an acquisition through the buy-out of McDonald Butler Associates (MBA), a UK-based B2B sales agency. 

GetIT, as part of the Hotwire Group, will be advancing the consultancy’s network of global businesses with a combined team of more than 500 employees and 14 offices around the world. 

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT’s CEO, shared that the two primary motivations for the company to go forth with the acquisition are immediate access to the global platform and the opportunity to expand its service range. 

He also said they “liked the Hotwire/Enero leadership team.” 

“By joining Hotwire, GetIT will continue to drive momentum, particularly in the rapidly advancing markets of South East Asia, Japan, and India. Adding reputation management, brand strategy, and public relations to our sophisticated performance marketing capabilities will deepen our partnership with premier technology companies to help them achieve their business goals, particularly in navigating complex reputation issues, building business-impacting stakeholder relationships, and delivering revenue growth on a larger global scale,” commented Bhattacharya.

Alongside GetIT, the group has also announced its major acquisition of ROI DNA, a leading B2B digital marketing agency, which is seen to further extend and transform Hotwire’s capabilities in North America.

Brent Scrimshaw, CEO of Enero Group, said, “Adding sophisticated performance marketing capabilities in North America and APAC will create a global network of performance marketing expertise. This will unlock further opportunities for Hotwire to deepen [its] partnerships with some of the world’s leading technology companies.”

“Combining world-class communication skills to expedite reputation, relationships and revenue, these acquisitions will continue to accelerate Enero’s growth trajectory and positioning as a creative technology company,” Scrimshaw added.

Meanwhile, Heather Kernahan, Global CEO of Hotwire, commented, “The addition of ROI DNA and GetIT to our portfolio allows us to accelerate our reputation, relationship, and revenue services globally while adding performance marketing to provide a unique marketplace offering, which we believe, is the key to success in the current tech landscape. 

Kernahan adds that the acquisitions mean more than just for the benefit of clients. 

“Enero and Hotwire already attract and retain some of the best talent globally and aim to be the best working experience for all our teams – we are excited to bring this level of commitment to the whole employee to the ROI DNA and GetIT teams,” she said. 

The acquisition of GetIT will launch Hotwire’s owned office network across Asia, including Singapore, India, Malaysia, and Japan with a client portfolio that includes high-profile tech brands such as AWS, Oracle, Fortinet, Fujitsu, Cisco, Google Cloud and Trend Micro. 

Effective immediately, GetIT will operate as a Hotwire Company, and Bhattacharya and the extended leadership team will be continuing in their current roles. The same goes for ROI DNA which will immediately start operating as a Hotwire Company.

Melbourne, Australia – Creative marketing agency BMF has appointed Tom Hoskins to be part of its senior creative department as creative director.

He joins the agency with over 25 years of experience in the industry, and has worked across the UK, US, Asia, and Australia. He has also held senior and creative leadership roles at TBWA, Havas, Y&R, and iris, and worked with a premier suite of world class brands including Adidas, Afterpay, Apple, Diageo, Gillette, Nestlé, Netflix, NRL, Samsung and Sony.

Speaking about his appointment, Hoskins said, “Consistency is a vital ingredient in the best agencies, and BMF has it in spades. I couldn’t be more excited about joining Alex, the creative team and all the talented, gutsy and humble humans at BMF.”

Meanwhile, Alex Derwin, chief creative officer at BMF, commented, “Tom is a world class human with fantastic work and global experience under his belt. He’s already made a huge difference in the short time he’s been here, so we feel very lucky to be able to secure him for the long term.”

BMF has appointed previously new hires in their creative team in November last year, as well as new hires for the agency’s planning team.

Sydney, Australia — Airtasker, an outsourcing company based in Australia, has launched a new brand campaign that shows the ease with which people can get things done using its new platform. The promotion was done in collaboration with marketing and advertising agencies Thinkerbell and UM.

Taking inspiration from Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’, the new brand campaign ‘The Joy of Done’ invites consumers to ‘Get more Dooone Done Done’ with Airtasker.

The idea is born from the insight that people feel a little moment of joy when they complete a set of tasks that they know they need to do. Airtasker’s skilled ‘Taskers’ can help you get more done no matter the occasion or responsibility you have, from hosting a birthday party, moving into a new home, or gardening.

The new omnichannel marketing campaign launches across Australia this week and the United Kingdom later this year and will be rolled out across both markets utilising mass media channels.

Noelle Kim, chief marketing officer of Airtasker, commented, “We are fortunate to work with some of the best agencies across the industry when bringing this new brand platform to life starting from the insight. Our occasion led communication strategy truly reflects the unique value that Airtasker brings and the creative strikes the right balance between the functional message of the breadth of tasks with the emotional benefit you feel when you get things ticked off your to-do list. We fell in love with the audio mnemonic from the moment we heard it and believe it will be a core part of our brand DNA for years to come.”

Paul Swann, executive creative tinker of Thinkerbell, said, “By reinterpreting Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, we’ve leveraged a universally-known and memorable piece of music to create a new sonic brand device. This distinctive device will appear within all of the brand’s communications and also throughout the platform’s integrated product experience. This work is uplifting and distinctive, which we feel captures the experience of using Airtasker.”

Matt Furlong, Sydney strategy director of UM, shared his thoughts, saying that campaign was important to drive the growth and trust for Airtasker. He further added that the company found the creative side fun and UM’s media helped it shine in the right moments, context and mindsets across screens, audio, OOH and some strong integrated partnerships with Nova and Mamamia.

Quebec, Canada — OSF Digital, a global provider of digital transformation service, announced the acquisition of Datarati, a Salesforce partner with expertise in Salesforce Marketing Cloud in Australia and New Zealand, and serves consumers across the Asia-Pacific region. 

Datarati, being one of the established marketing agencies with expertise in Salesforce in APAC, has helped in the digital transformations of companies in various industries namely retail & consumer goods, communications, media, financial services, insurance, and health care. 

The purchase of Datarati further bolsters OSF Digital as a global multi-cloud provider partner of Salesforce, whom they have partnered with for over 10 years delivering digital transformations across different areas of marketing and sales. The digital transformation firm continues to focus on increasing its capabilities as it intends to lead in the area of digital transformation. 

Gerard Szatvanyi, CEO of OSF Digital, commented on the acquisition, saying that as part of the company’s mission to be the leading global digital transformation partner to companies worldwide, the firm will continue to expand with other acquisitions of a Salesforce-focused services leader in the APAC region.

“With additional Marketing Cloud capability, capacity, and Performance Marketing expertise, we are equipped to continue exponential growth in the fast-growing APAC region and beyond,” Szatvanyi said.

Will Scully-Power, founder and CEO of Datarati, commented, “We’re excited to embark on this next phase of our rapid growth of Salesforce Marketing Cloud services and expansion of our Salesforce solutions across Australia, New Zealand, and the wider Asia-Pacific region. By coming together with the wider OSF Digital team, we will now have increased capacity and capability to support the demand from our customers to support their digital transformations.”

The buy-out is part of the global commerce company’s strategy to scale locally and regionally throughout different markets, as well as to increase its Salesforce Digital 360 capabilities. This is OSF Digital’s sixth acquisition in the past nine months, and its second acquisition of a Salesforce-focused services partner based in APAC.

Singapore – Former global CEO for dentsu’s content and creative, Dick van Motman, will now take the helm as the chairman of the advisory board of Singapore-based pop culture marketing Culture Group.

Through his new appointment, van Motman will advise Culture Group regarding market entry and development, as well as mergers and acquisitions, and executive mentorship.

Prior to his latest position at Culture Group and his past role from dentsu, van Motman has also served as chairman for dentsu in Southeast Asia, and has accumulated more than 30 years of building brands and businesses globally. 

Aside from the current role, van Motman is also on the way to launching his own consulting and investment group which will focus on accelerating the growth of disruptive businesses in emerging industries.

Commenting regarding his appointment, van Motman stated that his newest affiliation with Culture Groups speaks more about a “combination of strategy, creativity, production and strong leadership” that places the agency in “a unique position to define how brands leverage pop culture to create business success.”

“In a dynamic region where demographics are skewed younger, digitally adept, and in search for expression and identity, brands that are anchored in pop culture thrive commercially. Culture Group’s uncommon approach goes beyond advertising and seeks to drive brands to consciously forge a connection with the right passion point,” van Motman stated.

Meanwhile, Culture Group’s founder and president Michael Patent commented, “Dick’s unparalleled history in the region and commitment to developing the next generation of transformative businesses is why we’re excited to partner with him as we embark on our next phase of growth,”

Culture Group has been ramping up its senior hires for its advisory board, including Marie Lee who similarly joins from dentsu to spearhead the agency’s insights and strategy function in Singapore; and Jakeena Malli who joins from Mindshare as group account director, as well as Angie Akaraskul who from Brave Bison, to take the role of business director.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Carat, the media and content agency arm of dentsu, has won the account of Malaysia-based property and investment group S P Setia after a competitive pitch across multiple agencies. 

Dentsu has built an integrated team and services capability for Setia group under its agency brand Carat and will be responsible for strategic media planning, integrated media buying, and investment strategy for the group’s brand and marketing and all the business units.

S P Setia has been rampant in the past in developing infrastructure projects in various Malaysian states like Selangor, Penang, Johor, and Kota Kinabalu and also has expanded its reach beyond Malaysian shores to Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, China, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The appointment of Carat is inked for 2 years. 

“We are delighted with Setia Group’s decision to appoint us as their media agency partner. The consumer journey in this industry has tremendously evolved over the last year or so. We are excited to be building an audience experience approach that drives not just brand love and imagery but also growth for the business,” said Dheeraj Raina, CEO of dentsu Media brands in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Adelene Wong, head of group branding and communications at S P Setia said, “Setia group is at the forefront of providing superior customer service and satisfying customer needs through a culture of excellence, and the mechanism of delivering that is extremely digital and data-driven especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. We needed an agency partner that could work with us on that digital acceleration path and enhance the brand experience for our customers in process.”