Tag: Marketing

Singapore – Consumer intelligence and deep listening company Talkwalker has partnered with digital-first customer engagement software Khoros to provide brands with a world-class social media management, intelligence, and deep listening experience.

Said partnership will equip brands with the tools they need — from insights to action — to remain attuned, responsive, and adaptive to market trends and audience shifts.

Through the partnership, Khoros customers are now equipped with in-depth insights through deep listening. Additionally, Talkwalker customers can now leverage an integrated social media management solution with tools to take action on insights at scale and the ability to thoughtfully engage with and meet customers wherever they are.

Some of those advantages include holistic view of all customer conversations, powering thoughtful engagement, data coverage, actionable insights with leading AI, as well as reporting and strategy.

Lokdeep Singh, CEO at Talkwalker, said, “Having the best of both social listening and customer engagement technologies together means that brands have unprecedented capabilities to understand customers more than any other solution on the market. Marketers can tap into the deepest and most reliable data coverage allowing them to get closer to consumers more than ever before, at every point of the consumer journey.”

Meanwhile, Chris Tranquill, CEO at Khoros, commented, “We’re proud to partner with Talkwalker to help brands stay one step ahead in competitive markets and a rapidly changing digital landscape. Deep listening insights are key to tracking competitor activity and audience shifts, informing campaigns, and providing brand reputation management. Adding this to our digital engagement platform with publishing, content management, and moderation capabilities creates a powerful social marketing solution, and we’re excited to build upon our partnership.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Creative agency FCB Shout has listed around eight new business wins over the course of eight months, which included several high-profile Malaysian, regional and global brands.

Leading the list is Resorts World Genting, where the agency is appointed as the resort’s agency of record. They will be responsible for strategic and creative duties for Malaysia’s premier integrated resort, including Resorts World Awana and Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park.

In addition, some of the other duties include branding and strategic work for Touch n’ Go; campaign conceptualisation for a number of key projects for Sun Life Malaysia; creative implementation for Drypers; and brand launches for healthy snack brand Allswell Frutara.

Other companies that FCB Shout have been working on include Portuguese luxury fashion retailer Sacoor Brother’s Sacoor Blue label; new product launches for multi-level marketing company Amway in Malaysia; and a key regional assignment for McCain KSEAT, a frozen food company.

When asked about the agency’s winning new business approach, FCB SHOUT’s General Manager, Syahriza Badon, said, Accelerating growth via new client acquisitions was a key priority for 2022. Thanks to our earlier investments in talent and our collaborative business approach with key business partners – which allowed us to diversify our capabilities to include media, PR and activation – we were able to hit the ground running once Covid-19 restrictions eased and new opportunities emerged. We’re now well ahead of new business targets.”

Meanwhile, Shaun Tay, co-owner and CEO of FCB SHOUT and The Shout Group, commented, “2021 was one of our best performing years but this year is projected to beat that. Full credit to our leadership team and all the incredible talents within the agency who’ve worked tirelessly to make success happen.”

Singapore – Oftentimes, we honour the collective genius of marketing and creative agencies against the backdrop of a groundbreaking brand campaign, but this time, we want to dive deeper.

The creative collaboration and process that these creative outfits immerse in is no minute feat, and we want to put the spotlight on the driving force that pushes for their success – the leaders.

There’s leadership and then there’s ‘unique’ leadership; and by this, we mean the agency chiefs that choose to let their ingenuity and out-of-the-box thinking influence the way they lead and empower their teams. 

Called ‘Agency Leadership Decoded’, the series will be inviting the top management of leading creative agencies in APAC to share with us how they are innovating their strategies to keep the morale and engagement of their teams in tip-top shape. 

Through each story, we aim to let leaders reveal their distinct leadership philosophies and share how they are letting their passion and prowess in the creative shapeshift into one-of-a-kind corporate initiatives. 

Learn the interesting insights of the following leaders:

Jiravara shares about how she is helping build within teams the ‘Immunity for change’.

Jacqui lets us in on how they are creating meaningful experiences within the agency that enables them to cast meaningful difference for brands.

Virat talks about the challenge of leaders in creating an environment that is resistance-proof to growth.

Madina discusses how strategic and insight-driven huddles can make a difference in teams’ empowerment.

Thomas shares how the agency is creating success from within in order for the team to live out its mission of ‘creating connected brands.’

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Global digital agency DEPT is continuing its Asia-Pacific expansion with the acquisition of Australian digital product studio Two Bulls. The Melbourne-based agency marks DEPT’s expansion in Australia and the wider APAC region, and will bolster its global digital product services offerings.

Founded in 2009, Two Bulls works across multiple industries, with particular experience in health, family and public sector. Its team of over 120 creative engineers have pioneered the Australian digital products market on a mission to solve complex and meaningful problems in simple ways. Some of their clients include Verizon, Hasbro and MailChimp.

Through the acquisition, Two Bulls will continue to operate under the leadership of James Kane, founder and CEO; and Evan Davey, founding partner.

Vishnu Mohan, partner and chief growth officer at DEPT, said, “Asia-Pacific is an important part of our vision of being the best global digital agency in the world. We are working hard to bring the full DEPT® value proposition to life in the region, and joining forces with such a talented, pioneering team like Two Bulls will be hugely beneficial to our clients.”

Meanwhile, Dimi Albers, CEO and DEPT, commented, “We’ve admired Two Bulls from afar for a while now; they really are Australia’s go-to studio for digital product strategy and design. They know how to effectively combine technology and marketing, have long standing relations with their clients and, most importantly, don’t forget to have a lot of fun along the way. I’m sure that their entrepreneurial spirit will help drive DEPT® forward in Australia, the wider APAC region and beyond.”

Singapore – Rokas Sidlauskas, formerly affiliated with Hello Health Group, joins the leadership roster of loyalty platform Society Pass as its chief marketing officer. 

Prior to joining Society Pass, Sidlauskas held several roles at Hello Health Group, including leading its corporate development and handling the roles of head of product business solutions and head of branded services. He spent over two years at said company.

Sidlauskas was also the co-founder of digital marketing agency Lion&Lion and served as its vice president for business development from 2013 before moving to Australian social commerce company ENSOGO in 2014 as its vice president for sales.

Following the closure of ENSOGO’s Southeast Asian operations in 2016, Sidlauskas moved to gym-sharing platform start-up Passport Asia as its vice president for international business development. He then moved to fitness company CMG.ASIA as a director and venture lead, and served there for over two years. Lastly, he served as the chief executive officer and co-founder of home-based healthcare solution company GO.CARE.

Sidlauskas’ recent leadership announcement comes on top of its numerous acquisitions in Southeast Asia, including Philippine delivery platforms Mangan and Pushkart.ph, Thailand-based Thoughtful Media, and Vietnam-based delivery service Handycart under Dream Space.

New York, USA – Global independent marketing consultancy, R3, has launched a new suite of digital tracking services to help marketers assess how their social, influencer, search, and e-commerce marketing measures up against others in their industry. 

The new services, namely SocialTrack, InfluencerTrack, eCommTrack, and SearchTrack, have been developed to deliver business-relevant metrics that help marketers improve performance across four key areas of marketing. Each digital tracking service uses bespoke audits available on a quarterly or annual basis to deliver in-depth reports with customised, strategic, and tactical recommendations.

SocialTrack identifies performance gaps, including which markets are overexposing ads or under leveraging paid ads on social media, while InfluencerTrack analyses influencer quality, competitor performance, and influencer effectiveness on a quarterly basis.

Meanwhile, eCommTrack delivers a quarterly or annual evaluation of brand and competitor experience, product ratings and reviews, SEO visibility, and share-of-shelf, amongst others. And lastly, SearchTrack produces a quarterly report on Search Performance, looking at always-on and tactical search campaigns at a keyword level.

Greg Paull, co-founder and principal at R3, noted that R3’s new suite of digital tracking services presents decision-makers with strong supporting data that supports strategy and investment, and provides insight into key implications for their brand.

“Our approach is different from other evaluations on the market in that they go beyond numbers. Each service delivers quantitative benchmarking of key metrics, success factors for the channel, best practice guidelines, and insight into creative and innovative strategies used by competitors across a variety of digital channels,” said Paull.

The Philippines – MARKETECH APAC‘s What’s NEXT returns this year with a stronger push to bring the industry together through a variety of knowledge-sharing activities. MARKETECH APAC will continue to feature thought-leadership articles written by renowned marketing leaders to cover various marketing areas, as it did last year.

With MARKETECH APAC‘s ongoing push to create relevant video content, we will gather the best in the industry this year and sit down with them to discuss how marketers can prepare for the upcoming year of marketing opportunities and challenges.

On November 3, 2022, What’s NEXT 2023 will kick off with a regional webinar, What’s NEXT: Events in Asia Pacific, in collaboration with event tech platform, Hubilo. On November 8, in partnership with influencer marketing platform Vamp, another regional webinar, What’s Next: Influencer Marketing in APAC, will be held.

True to its mission of creating a well-connected marketing community in Asia Pacific, What’s NEXT 2023 concludes with a two-day hybrid conference, What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific, on February 21-22, with at least 120 physical attendees in Manila and 1,500 virtual attendees from various markets in Asia Pacific.

The conference will spark offline and online discussions about digital, e-commerce, customer engagement, CX, esports, research, B2B, metaverse, and other relevant topics that will help marketers future-proof marketing strategies.

MARKETECH APAC’s What’s NEXT 2023 will be a go-to platform for checking out the marketing industry’s new trends, opportunities, and challenges to be explored in the region through this holistic approach.

Keep an eye on our website and social media pages for updates on the hybrid conference.

Please contact Joven Barceñas at [email protected] if you are interested in becoming a partner.

Singapore – TBWA\Asia has announced today that Mandy Wong, former managing director of TBWA\Singapore, has been named president of TBWA\Singapore. She will be taking the role together with Alrick Dorett, chief operating officer of TBWA\Singapore and Malaysia, and chief pricing officer of TBWA\Asia, as CEO Ara Hampartsoumian resigns from his position, a role he’s held since 2019.

Sean Donovan, TBWA\Asia President, said, “Change is opportunity. Time and again, the agency’s ability to respond to and grow from rapid change has been central to its success. Mandy and Alrick have demonstrated over the last several years that they are the ideal candidates to step up and lead our agency into its next great chapter. We’re thrilled both have accepted their new leadership roles.” 

Wong and Dorett bring together a deep and diverse set of competencies, backgrounds, and business perspectives. Wong’s focus will include client engagement, new business, talent and expanding TBWA’s creative competencies, while Dorett’s focus will include innovation and technology-driven transformation, operations, finance, and commercial strategy. 

Donovan added, “Ara has been part of the leadership team at TBWA\Singapore for eight years, first as managing director then as CEO. We thank him for the contributions he has made to the growth of our people, our clients and our collective. He leaves with our very best wishes.” 

Asheen Naidu, deputy executive creative director of TBWA\Singapore, has been promoted to lead the creative department as executive creative director, replacing Andy Grant who is leaving the agency. Naidu will join the Asia Creative Leadership Gang and continue to work closely with Perry Essig, who returned to Asia as chief creative experience officer. 

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Sabbagh who returned to Asia in July as chief strategy officer of TBWA\Asia will lead the Singapore planning department. Prior to moving to Asia, Emmanuel was chief planning officer at TBWA\Paris and global planning director for the agency’s McDonald’s portfolio. Emmanuel is based out of Singapore. 

Donovan concluded, “We’re fortunate to have incredible depth of leadership, not only within the Singapore agency, but within Asia and globally. This continued commitment and investment in training and developing of our people across all our critical roles [have] ensured TBWA\Singapore is set up for success under the leadership of Mandy and Alrick. We wish them well, and we thank Ara and Andy for their contribution to TBWA\Singapore.” 

With the metaverse industry expanding at a rapid pace much like existing digital trends nowadays, brands and marketers are utilising this new digital realm to create and improve their relationships with their customers–both new and existing. For the third and final instalment of MARKETECH APAC Reels: The Metaverse series, the third episode titled ‘Marketing in the Metaverse‘ discusses features within the metaverse that brands can use to their advantage to upscale business or find new channels to communicate with their customers.

The three-part series first opened with a discussion on the general overview of the metaverse–including the origins and birth of the metaverse space, existing foundations such as non-fungible tokens (NFT), blockchain technology, and cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, the second episode tackled the fundamentals of the metaverse scene, including what is new in the platform, the various opportunities and endeavours brands can expect, and how to utilise them.

As mentioned previously, it is no stranger to us that the metaverse is rapidly growing, thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars invested by entities to create their own metaverse offering or launch campaigns and retention strategies in the metaverse. But what exactly do brands and marketers should expect from the metaverse? And how exactly can they utilise this new space to their advantage? This is what episode three, the last of this series, will tackle.

In this last episode, we’ve sat down with experts and experienced leaders belonging to the marketing, and metaverse spaces to learn more about how to market your brand to the right audience in the metaverse. Furthermore, the latest episode tackles the type of environment and narrative that consumers and/or brands want in their metaverse experience, the challenges that marketers may face throughout their metaverse journey, as well as the potential possibilities brands can use to improve the branded metaverse experience, ranging from diverse avatar usage to gamification.

To sum up, no sky’s the limit for brands and marketers to let their creative methodologies be applied in the metaverse.

To learn more about the marketing opportunities and challenges in the metaverse, head on to the video to learn more.

Hear from Joe Peng, APAC chief digital officer of BCW Global; Zoe Cocker, head of innovation and Creative Studio at Yahoo; and Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer and chief product officer at Lion & Lion.

Singapore – The business of marketing is nothing but a pursuit of innovation that seeks to replace ‘older’ problems with ‘better’ ones. While the internet has blessed us with an ecosystem that generates overflowing data, the ‘better’ problem now is how do we strategically and intelligently translate this marketing data at hand into solutions that are a win-win for both the brand and consumer?

In the recently concluded webinar by MARKETECH APAC and Vase.ai, the latter’s CEO, Julie Ng, gives a presentation to discuss the three things that boggle marketers’ minds the most in the midst of transforming marketing intel into groundbreaking marketing.

These are (1) Ensuring ROI, (2) Getting signals rather than noise, and (3) Conducting consumer research with minimal resources. At the heart of putting in place an effective ‘consumer insights system’ is this simple yet compelling framework which is called the Consumer Insights Loop.

The ‘loop’ is so straightforward that upon learning it, brands can go ahead and apply it right away in their most immediate marketing concerns.

 The Consumer Insights Loop consists of three steps: Feedback – Action – Outcome.

Julie said that the same strategy is being adopted and embraced by top Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Uber. And what these companies have found as most effective is first, treating consumer insights as a feedback mechanism in everything they do (feedback). The second is directing that feedback to tie it to a new business action (action), and then lastly, to close the loop, measuring the outcome of the new action (outcome) and then repeating the process all over again – using the consumer insight extracted from the new action as the baseline feedback to start and develop a new business action.

As an example, Julie uses the case of a telecom whose objective is to look for a promotional campaign idea to increase roaming usage data.

As a starting ‘feedback’, the telecom found that roaming prices are currently a big hurdle to consumers, and that insight revealed that the audience, prone to sharing their experiences online, would use data 71 times more if charged at a lower rate. With this, the telco created a campaign that charged lower roaming tariffs and a messaging that played around the theme of ‘holiday spam’. When measured, the campaign had actually resulted in a 90% increase in the telecom’s social conversation volume and off-the-chart brand metrics.

In the presentation, Julie also shared insights on how to identify and acquire ‘signal’ from ‘noise’ in a trove of overflowing data. She said that in order to successfully distil a ‘signal’, you have to be intentional, targeted, and specific on the type of data you’d like to obtain. 

Furthermore, in order to confidently say that a consumer insight is indeed a signal that leads to an action and is not a noise, we need to meaningfully close at least one round of the loop. However, even if it is indeed a signal, you would need to close the loop at least twice in order to get meaningful business results. 

Learn more about what Julie has to say with regard to refining and optimising your consumer insights strategy through the on-demand webinar. 

The webinar, with the theme Consumer Insights Power-Up 2022, gathered marketing leaders in SEA to discuss how brands are building and implementing their best practices in consumer insights. The industry discussion saw Jia Nina, the Country Marketing Head of BigPay, and Tanushri Rastogi, the marketing lead of Popeyes for APAC gracing the panel, while Neeraj Gulati, partner at Accenture Song, joining the discussion for a fireside conversation. 

Register HERE to get your on-demand access.