Tag: Marketing

Sydney, Australia – Integrated communications network Havas Group has recently announced its acquisition of Bastion Brands, one of Australia’s leading independent communications agencies focusing on the health vertical. The buy-out is said to be in line with the group’s continuation of its plans for the APAC expansion.

Newly acquired Bastion Brands is no stranger to Havas. The group’s health-focused division, Havas Health & You (HH&Y), has, in fact, been working with the latter since 2019. 

Bastion Brands will now be integrated into HH&Y and will work closely with partners across the network to integrate its business into projects across the region.

Simon Davies, Bastion Brands’ founder & CEO said, “We are delighted to be joining the Havas family. The strength and momentum within Havas Health & You will help us accelerate our strong growth in Australia. Now with access to and support from the Havas network, we will be able to offer deeper and broader services to clients, globally developed insights and specialised health products, and even more exciting learning and growth opportunities for our staff.”

Yannick Bolloré, chairman and CEO of Havas Group also commented, “Bastion Brands is recognized for delivering significant and meaningful results for its strong client base of leading pharmaceutical companies across the world. Adding its capabilities to our global Havas Health & You network will provide specialised health communications for both that region and our clients globally. Bastion Brands also complements fast growth within our health PR business Red Havas in Australia, and we’re thrilled to officially welcome the Bastion Brands team to our Group.”

“Continuing our work with Bastion Brands is a perfect fit for our expansion in Australia and Asia Pacific – a region where our clients have many strategic opportunities. We have partnered with Simon Davies and his team on meaningful, high-profile client assignments for several years, and have built a strong and effective relationship to deliver outstanding outcomes. This more formal relationship is a natural progression and I know it will be a successful one – for our clients, for Bastion Brands and for Havas Health & You,” added Charles Houdoux, CEO of APAC & LATAM at Havas Health & You. 

According to Havas, HH&Y has grown at a rate of more than 20% per year in Asia, and the acquisition of Bastion Brands is aimed at strengthening its position in APAC. 

In addition, as a response to rapid regional growth spurred by increased awareness of health and wellness, the network has made significant investments in its Villages and senior leadership to foster growth across the region. This includes the establishment of a regional hub for Southeast Asia and the strengthening of new talent in Japan and China.

Bastion Brands follows companies like Front Networks in China and Frontier Australia, both have been acquired by Havas Group this year together with many business wins by their specialist entertainment communications agency, Organic Pacific, and partnership with Invictus Blue in Malaysia.

Sydney, Australia – Data-driven cloud security company Lacework has announced today the appointment of Meagen Eisenberg as its new chief marketing officer. 

Eisenberg is a veteran technology marketing executive with 20 years of experience in high-tech and specialises in demand generation, marketing operations and automation, and field marketing strategy and execution.  

She also previously held the CMO role for TripActions from 2019 to August this year, as well as at MongoDB for about four years.

Speaking on her appointment, Eisenberg said, “As a marketing executive, business leader, and advisor I have always looked to identify opportunities with strong, customer-focused products that are loved, and teams that can execute.”

She added, “Lacework checks this box and more, breaking through the noise with a truly disruptive product and a conviction to protect customers by changing the way the industry approaches security in the cloud. I’m excited to join this team of passionate problem solvers as we tackle one of the hardest challenges in the enterprise: securing the cloud.”

Jay Parikh, CEO of Lacework also commented, “With her extensive experience building world-class marketing organisations, enthusiasm for industry disrupting products, and ability to create deep understanding and connection with our customers and partners, Meagen will be a critical part of leading Lacework through our next phase of growth.” 

Seattle, USA – Amperity, the leading customer data platform (CDP) for enterprise consumer brands, today announced the hiring of Megan McDonagh and Seema Kumar to be part of their global leadership roster. Together, the two bring extensive expertise within their respective industries to Amperity’s growing leadership team.

McDonagh will serve as the company’s chief marketing officer, while Kumar will serve as the company’s chief people officer.

“The company is experiencing unprecedented growth, and we are thrilled to welcome both Seema and Megan to the team as we take Amperity and the customer data platform category to the next level,” said Barry Padgett, CEO at Amperity. 

“Both have a successful track record for building and scaling organizations to support rapid growth, and equally important, they share in our mission to help people use data to serve the customer. I look forward to working with them as we elevate our brand awareness around the globe, and continue to demonstrate why Amperity is a great place to work,” Padgett added.

McDonagh is a seasoned marketing executive with a strong track record of innovation, creativity, and growth acceleration with industry-leading tech companies. She is known for building enduring customer-centric brands, driving results-focused marketing programs, delivering rewarding customer and partner experiences, and inspiring high-performing global teams. Most recently, McDonagh served as CMO at RealWear, the leading provider of assisted reality wearable solutions and before this spent over 20 years at Intel in various marketing leadership roles.

“Amperity represents a perfect trifecta with an extremely passionate customer base, differentiated mission-critical technology, and a vibrant culture powered by dedicated employees who love doing what’s right for our customers,” said McDonagh.

“I am incredibly excited about the opportunity at Amperity and the scale the company has achieved to date. I look forward to bringing my experience to Amperity and helping enterprise brands drive exponential impact by realizing the full value we can bring to their business.”

Meanwhile, Kumar brings more than 20 years of people operations and human resources experience to Amperity. In her role, she will oversee all workplace and people operations, including recruiting, benefits and rewards, organizational and people development, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Most recently, she served as vice president, human resources at F5 Networks. In that role, she led initiatives to attract and develop talent and to shape the culture for accelerated business growth and transformation. 

“We’re at a unique point in time where we have the ability to impact and embrace how we think about the future of work, and how we create a truly inclusive environment where we can thrive—both personally and professionally,” said Kumar. “I’ve been truly impressed and energized with the emphasis the executive team places on its people, company values and mission. I’m excited to join at this time of growth, and partner with team members of all levels to ensure Amperity continues to be a place where everyone is empowered to do their life’s best work.” 

Hong Kong – Edelman Hong Kong continues to bolster its integrated creative team with the appointment of Andy Chan as design director and Richard Poon as producer and production manager.

Edelman will leverage Chan’s and Poon’s design and production expertise to further enhance the firm’s ability to deliver outstanding work in full-spectrum service.

Chan brings over 10 years of design experience to the agency, having worked in different design-based companies in the past from product design, graphic design, and advertising art directing to in-house branding at Ogilvy UK and HK, DDB and Cathay Pacific.

Meanwhile, Poon comes from an animation and design background and brings over eight years of experience to the firm. He has worked as a producer, mostly in the broadcast industry, across brands such as Disney, FOX, National Geographic, and CASETIFY. 

Both hires will report directly to John Koay, Edelman’s Executive Creative Director for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to welcome Andy and Richard onboard; they are both very experienced talents in their own fields. The expanded Creative and Digital team of 20 at Edelman Hong Kong offer our clients a focus on truly integrated solutions while the industry transforms its expectations around the role and impact of communications,” Koay said.

The new Hong Kong appointments come after Edelman recently appointed Ex-Straits Times Warren Fernandez as its new chief executive officer in Asia-Pacific.

Singapore – Publicis Groupe in Southeast Asia has partnered with Web3 marketing consultancy Mana Partners to form ‘Publicis Play’, allowing clients to find a single solution to work with from creation, production, and placement to measurement.

Publicis Groupe and Mana see the offering as critical for a generation whose preferred means of social networking, entertainment, and commerce will soon be grounded in Play. The offering does not see gaming and the metaverse as two silo solutions, but as one integrated offer as the content and fandom from gaming are the foundation for metaverse experiences.

In addition, the offering is not just about badging brand presence but a belief that the future’s most successful brands will master Play – behaving authentically and earning attention and love from their communities.

The new offering helps brands discover and define opportunities where they can play in the long term, execute a fan-first strategy by designing purposeful and immersive gaming and Web3 experiences, and establishing robust relationships with key publishers, developers, esports teams, and ad tech partners that ensure an advantage for brands, players, and fans alike.

Publicis Play has already been piloted with several Publicis Groupe clients, including Singapore Tourism Board, McDonald’s, and PepsiCo, among others.

Ian Loon, chief transformation officer at Publicis Groupe SEA, said, “Connecting our Groupe capabilities with Mana Partners, who are intrinsically plugged into this rapidly evolving economy, ensures all our clients are welcomed into the community with access to true expertise. With the launch of Publicis Play, we can immediately deliver new ways to integrate and deliver between Web2 and Web3, provide measurable value, and drive business outcomes for brands.”

Meanwhile, Jamie Lewin, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Mana Partners, commented, “The Play Economy is the new modus operandi. Publicis Play is the gateway for brands keen to explore the full spectrum of opportunities, from gaming, esports, creators, and content, to participative digital experiences underpinned by Web3 philosophies and concepts. Our decision to partner with Publicis Groupe SEA was a real meeting of the minds on how we collectively view the opportunity.”

Lastly, Matthew Zatto, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Mana Partners, said, “In 2021, consumers spent more time watching gaming content on YouTube than the total hours of content watched on Netflix. By the end of 2022, players will have also spent one trillion hours and $200 billion playing games and 25 billion hours watching gaming content. On top of this, ad spends are also forecasted to grow significantly in the coming decade to more than US$214b annually. It is a huge opportunity but one that needs the right partnership between brands, agencies, and fans to create true value.”

Singapore – Citi, a multinational banking company, has recently appointed Lay Fang Tan as its head of marketing and communications for Citi Commercial Bank in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tan has previously worked as Citi Singapore’s vice president for corporate affairs and held the company’s senior VP for corporate affairs role for six years. 

She also held senior positions for IDC APAC’s marketing communications and media relations department for about five years. Prior to that, she also worked in the marketing and public relations department for the manufacturing company Hansgrohe.

Singapore – The massive layoffs by social media giant Twitter has finally reached the Asia-Pacific region, affecting a large chunk of employees across various teams, including communications, marketing, engineering, and sales.

A report from The Straits Times notes that while the number of laid-off employees are unknown, it is understood that employees who were laid off receive said notice on their private emails, while those who have kept their jobs received an email on their corporate one.

Internal email from Twitter states that the lay-offs were part of “an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path.”

Cipluk Carlita, who served as the head of communications for Twitter in Southeast Asia, was one of the people who bore the shocking corporate decision by the social media platform.

“While this is not how I would’ve wanted my journey to end, Twitter will always have a special place in my heart. It’s not just a place to work, but also to learn something new every single day and create lifelong friendships. Twitter is not a place. It’s the people,” she said on her LinkedIn.

The massive Twitter layoffs follow days after billionaire Elon Musk completed the social media giant’s acquisition. It should be noted that key C-Suite executives from Twitter’s global team have been fired, including CEO Parag Agarwal.

Musk’s takeover of Twitter has also caused a massive wave of advertising exodus, with large brands such as Mondelez, General Motors, and Pfizer announcing they have halted advertising on Twitter. In addition, advertising giant Interpublic Group (IPG) has also advised its clients to halt Twitter advertising for the meantime.

Despite Musk trying to appease advertisers to stay and initial reports saying that Twitter has approached several fired employees to come back, Musk’s Twitter takeover has had a rocky start, with rocky issues including the introduction of paid verification status, as well as lessened restrictions on controversial and far-right content.

Hong Kong – Multinational advertising and public relations company Publicis Groupe has launched L’avenir, a leadership and creative development program tailored for high-potential female creatives across its network in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions. 

The program aims to change the gender ratio amongst its creative leaders across the region and to equip high-potential women with the skills needed for creative leadership roles. 

“Globally at Publicis Groupe, more than 50% of our workforce is female and 41% of key leaders are women: we’ve made huge strides when it comes to gender representation overall. Yet industry-wide, the percentage of female Creative Directors remains comparatively low,” said Natalie Lam, chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe APAC & MEA, who is also the key driver and developer of the L’avenir program.

She added, “To lead the change, we’re launching L’avenir, a tailored creative mentorship program that will nurture high-potential female creatives in two ways: career development, and creativity development.”

Publicis Groupe APAC & MEA will be selecting high-potential mid- and senior-level creatives every year to join the L’avenir program.

“We’ll identify our top female creatives, because true diversity makes the work better. L’avenir is a tailored program that pairs mentees and mentors according to specific skills and potential, backing up their positions as future leaders with a strong portfolio of work,” says Lam.

Fifteen female creatives have already been picked for the program over the last two months. They will be paired with 30+ mentors, including Publicis Groupe APAC & MEA’s Natalie Lam, Chief Strategy Officer Ed Booty, Chief Client Officer Anthony Wong, Head of Creative Technology Laurent Thevenet, and Head of Creativity Jason Williams.

They will be joined by top management and C-Suite leaders from Publicis agencies as mentors such as, Kelly Pon (CCO, BBH China), Sally Anderson (Group CD, MetaDesign China), and Ajay Thrivikraman (CCO, Publicis Groupe, Southeast Asia), amongst others. 

Anna Tomasetti, creative community manager at Publicis Groupe further explains, “L’avenir means ‘the future’, and it is a program where our future creative leaders can reach their full potential through targeted skills development and mentorship. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime career development opportunity for our participants that will contribute directly to Publicis Groupe’s creative and leadership base for years to come.”

The program includes 1:1 monthly mentorship meetings, career growth sessions with chief talent officers, tailored creative training sessions, and leadership masterclasses. Participants will also get to use relevant technology and digital tools. Moreover, they will get to partner with one of Publicis Groupe’s biggest clients in the final three months of the program.

Asia-Pacific – Global partnership management platform impact.com has announced the opening of its new office in Tokyo, Japan to further expand its business operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Japan team will be led by Country Manager Ryo Matsuzaki, who brings in a decade of technology, marketing, and sales experience to his new role. Matzusaki previously held senior sales and technology leadership roles at Appier Group and Google/DoubleClick. He was also Media.Monks’ first country manager in Japan for three years before moving to impact.com.

The expansion allows their platform and clients to create new partnerships worldwide, gain further traction in key verticals like fashion in Milan, and hire diverse leaders and market experts all over the world.

“impact.com’s roster of customers in Asia continues to grow at a rapid pace. Our expansion across Asia-Pacific over the last few years is further strengthened by the growth potential we see in the region. This is part of our commitment to broaden our local presence to effectively enable and support the creation and expansion of partnerships in these markets,” said impact.com Managing Director for APAC Adam Furness.

He also added, “We are excited to continue building innovative partnership technology solutions that support the forward thinking brands and creators we work with on a global scale.”

The new Japan team is expected to manage impact.com’s local customers and actively develop a network of top regional publishers and new businesses in the market. The company also aims to further its investment in additional resources to customise and localise its solutions in the new markets.

Furthermore, the APAC team will be assisted by impact.com’s recent senior hires: Country Manager for Indonesia Myre Gustam and Partner Development Manager for Southeast Asia Cris Tan.

With the Japan office launch, impact.com is now represented in 20 locations worldwide – seven in Europe and seven in Asia, including the newly opened offices in Milan, Italy, and Paris, France. The company is also seeing regional growth over the last three years after entering the Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia markets.

Manila, Philippines – Integrated marketing agency MullenLowe TREYNA has announced adding new business accounts, which comes from its extensive product lineup: integrated creative solutions, strategic narrative, user research and experience, PR, and activation.

Qairos, the company under MullenLowe TREYNA’s operations –made through a joint venture with Quiddity Usability Labs –nabbed the user research, experience design, and development duties on telco DITO Telecommunity; Philip Morris’s local subsidiary PMFTC; Nextbank, a cloud-based banking SaaS provider; and RS2, a global payment platform for credit card clients and merchants.

Denise Haak, CEO of Qairos, said, “Winning our clients’ trust in a competitive environment is crucial. I’m glad even global clients like RS2 can see the value and expertise we bring to the table.”

Meanwhile, parent agency MullenLowe TREYNA won the creative relaunch duties on local financial services M. Lhuillier, and projects with brandy brand Emperador Light and e-sports company Mineski Global. After the success of COMELEC’s ‘Magparehistro Ka’ campaign, Google has also awarded business to the agency without a pitch.

Mike Trillana, chairman and CEO of MullenLowe TREYNA Group, commented, “Getting new clients on board isn’t only about the ideas, it’s about the people you get to work with. We committed to a hybrid setup early in 2022, but we also took steps to ensure that we could sustain the elements of a winning agency culture. This is proof that looking after your people brings in the business, and makes business better for our clients.”