Tag: Marketing

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – GO Communications (GO) has been appointed by AppZaloot – an up-and-coming SuperApp set to redefine community interactions – to manage PR, digital and influencer engagements, ahead of its official launch in the second half of 2022. As part of the 12-month contract, GO will facilitate all communications leading up to, during and following the launch in all Southeast Asian markets prior to its global expansion, by activating its regional network of agencies under the GO Group.

The AppZaloot platform, which has been five years in the making, will be first introduced in Malaysia prior to its regional and global expansion. The app combines social media interaction with a game-changing loyalty and rewards programme, which will utilise blockchain and crypto technology, benefitting individual users and businesses. 

AppZaloot’s Founder and CEO, Max Thomas, said, “We are truly excited as we are in the final stages of building the SuperApp, which will be rolled out in stages beginning later this year. Malaysia will be the first market to experience the platform, and we’re certainly excited to be working with GO Communications, leading up to our launch, not only locally but in the region.”

According to Thomas, the GO Communications team has an excellent track record of championing brands and products while developing some truly stand-out campaigns. “In this regard, we see them as the right fit for us, not only as an agency, but a critical business partner as we roll out the platform, which we are confident will benefit communities and small businesses around the world,” added Thomas.

Putting communities at the heart of its operations, AppZaloot has pledged to conduct business in a completely different way, channelling a percentage of its revenue back to communities, funding local projects, which are picked by members of the community. Users are also assured that their data and privacy will be protected at all times to facilitate a truly safe experience.

Speaking of the appointment, GO Communications’ CEO, Peter de Kretser, said, “We have no doubt in our minds that AppZaloot will be a true game-changer in the social and digital space, which will redefine social and community interactions. I would like to thank Max and his team for this honour of working with them, and am confident that with his vast experience and expertise, AppZaloot is all set to energise local communities and the social space.”

Australia – Amplify, the global creative agency specialising in experience and culture has announced a string of senior promotions in a phase of strong business growth.

Amplify also announced its new roster of clients: Canva, PlayStation and Levi’s.

The agency will provide brand experience services to the three global brands with its promise to create authentic, meaningful connections. 

Coinciding with significant new business momentum, Amplify has boosted its team with three senior promotions. Former creative director Tim Baggott becomes executive creative director, after three years. Ex-business director Karina Munoz has been promoted to head of clients, following two and a half years in the latter position, and Claire Hewitt steps up to executive producer, from the senior producer role she held for three and a half years.

The internal appointments come on the back of six additional new hires across creative, production and client management.

Amplify’s Managing Partner, Gareth Davies, said, “We’re excited to partner with these iconic brands to deliver experiences that create authentic and meaningful connections. We’re equally thrilled to be able to strengthen our growing business by promoting from within our own ranks.”

Davies says that Amplify’s creative culture provides a home for exceptionally talented individuals like the recently promoted seniors. “These promotions will extend the impact and influence their thinking and craft has on our business and our work for valued client partners,” added Davies.

Singapore – MARKETECH APAC, the marketing-centric digital media for APAC, launches an in-depth feature on the brands and companies around the world that have decided to take action in line with the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine.

The special feature which is our pilot content under the new MARKETECH APAC Reels of MARKETECH APAC, features the conflicting history between Russia and Ukraine, and brands and companies who finally bid their goodbyes to Russia. 

In a televised speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, an ominous warning hours before the invasion of Ukraine. 

Soon after Putin’s speech, reports emerged of explosions around cities, including Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and the capital Kyiv. The Ukrainian foreign minister called it “a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” Russian troops and tanks had entered the country on three fronts.

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which represents marketers from globally known brands, urged its members to assess and reconsider their media and marketing expenditures in both countries.

“In light of the horrifying events in Ukraine, the global marketing industry must speak out. Every company will have to make its own decision but our recommendation is that media investment and marketing in Russia should end for now,” said WFA CEO Stephan Loerke.

Financial services and large consulting firms also put their operations to a halt. Other industries like retail stores, fashion, tech and consumer brands also pulled out from Russia after their intervention with Ukraine. 

The withdrawal of operations by largely well-known brands resulted in a huge blow to Russia’s economy and is currently creating a job crisis.

As we enter the post-pandemic period, we are now dealing with an entirely new consumer – desires, needs, and motivations that have transformed to adapt to the new phase of the ‘new normal’.

Last April 20, MARKETECH APAC, in partnership with Braze, gathered marketing leaders from brands Astro Malaysia, BigPay, bolttech, Hmlet, Philippines AirAsia, ShopBack, Zeemart, and Zenius. to discover how brands are implementing their customer acquisition and retention strategies in this period of unprecedented changes as well as how they are building a culture of experimentation and optimisation in each of their organisations.

Watch the highlights from the roundtable that roped in marketing leaders from brands Astro Malaysia, BigPay, bolttech, Hmlet, Philippines AirAsia, ShopBack, Zeemart, and Zenius.

Hybrid experiences to deliver high customer engagement 

When during the height of the pandemic, consumers and businesses were thrust to interact entirely in a virtual manner, the less restricted post-pandemic meant that brands now must take into consideration the dynamics of the engagement brought by the physical experience and integrating that with the uncovered powers of the virtual space.

Allenie Caccam, head of marketing of Philippines AirAsia, shared that in order to bring cohesiveness to your customer engagement, it doesn’t stop with what is done in the brand’s app or website, but almost always culminates with an on-ground activation or face-to-face interaction “to personify the brand as a lifestyle.”

“We do drive cross channel customer engagement by identifying the critical points of engagement and addressing it through hyper-personalisation and experiential marketing,” said Caccam. 

Priyanka Nadkarni, marketing lead of insurtech bolttech, echoes this and says that it is important to follow your consumers offline, as in their case, the discovery process for insurance products doesn’t stop within digital bounds. 

“We need to remember that we’re not only digital anymore…for us, it’s really about where [do these] insurance and protection products really make real sense for the customer, and it’s not always online,” said Nadkarni.

Meanwhile, fintech BigPay also agrees with the same marketing direction. Jia Nina, country marketing lead of the brand, said that they don’t rely on the app alone, and remarked that marketing also goes beyond the app.

Raymond Muliadi, head of product at edtech Zenius, shared, “Offline will always be there. And we will not be able to dismiss online or offline. So we want to make sure that we build an ecosystem where the learning is complementing online and offline.”

Tapping into the fundamentals to effectively retain customers

During the roundtable, industry leaders were in unison about how it is to effectively retain customers in this period and that is to bank on the powers of the fundamentals – knowing your consumers inside out, and activating marketing that genuinely aligns what they want and value.

BigPay’s Jia Nina also shared her insights on this and said, “We really listen to customers… effective marketing is always a conversation, it’s not just you talking to people.”

Meanwhile, Astro’s Norsiah Juriani Johari, its VP for product marketing, believes that to keep customers coming back to your product, you have to be able to deliver authentic value exchange. 

She says that we now live in a world of transparency and that customers “can see right through you” and will know when a brand isn’t upfront about what it promised to deliver.

“Listening to the customers and really holding true to our core values at these challenging times has really helped us a great deal as a business and as a brand,” she said. 

Personalisation also came out as a top strategy among marketers for customer retention. 

Edward Tan, the associate director for growth marketing at co-living space provider Hmlet, says that personalised engagement is what is able to draw customers back to the product. 

“One thing we learned when it comes to customer retention, for locals especially, is to shift from purely selling them the co-living experience to the need for consistent and personalised engagement,” said Tan. 

When driving that cross channel customer engagement, he says, “The most important factor to us when it comes to cross-channel engagement is definitely reaching the right customers via the right channel at the right time with the right messages.”

Shopping and rewards platform ShopBack, which is currently an adopter of Braze’s consumer engagement platform, also shared to employ the same strategy, which is leveraging the best channel for customer needs and then finding the right timing and triggers for your communications. 

Its Head of CRM Scott Tan said, “For us, it’s creating a meaningful cross-channel engagement. It’s really about setting up your platform to make sure that you can (1) anticipate user needs, (2) [have] the right channel, and (3) find appropriate triggers and timing.”

Building a culture of experimentation and testing

Now that consumers have increasingly become more nuanced and that the staying power of trends is going away at lightning speed, these have put down greater importance on brands’ practices in experimentation and testing. 

For Zeemart, an F&B procurement platform, and a pre-series A startup, it’s about encouraging a positive attitude toward ‘failing forward’.

“I think the advantage of being a startup is that you’re always building, learning and iterating,” said Tan.

“Develop this attitude of failing forward, because no one really knows the answers…facilitating feedback, gathering results and going out and fixing it, and testing it again,” he added.

Meanwhile, bolttech’s Priyanka Nadkarni summed it up briefly on the topic, “To be a pioneer, own it, link together and think outside in.”

As we move towards the post-pandemic period, virtual and digital are here to stay–but only better. Consumer experiences are set to become even more ingenious and innovative now that the period has enabled us to once again bring back physical engagement and interaction.

Among the insights the industry leaders shared, non-negotiable principles of marketing stood out, agreeing that no matter what the changes, marketing will always be and should remain experimental. We don’t get to the bottom of the ‘AHA’ moment if we stick to what has already been successful or what is deemed to be the best at present, as the future ahead will only become unpredictable and challenging for marketers but also groundbreaking with the emergence of unimaginable digital interactivity. 

Watch the highlights from the roundtable that roped in marketing leaders from brands AirAsia Philippines, Astro Malaysia, BigPay, bolttech, Hmlet, ShopBack, Zeemart, and Zenius.

Take a look at Braze’s latest marketing report, ‘2022 Global Customer Engagement Review’ which shares the top three trends that are shaping customer engagement in 2022 as well as opportunities companies can seize for growth by industry and region. The report is free to download here.

Hong Kong – With the COVID-19 pandemic’s fifth wave gradually subsiding in Hong Kong, financial service giant HSBC has launched a new local campaign to support the local community, conceptualised alongside Grey Hong Kong.

Eighteen designated HSBC branches will become Hong Kong’s photo-worthy spots. To spread positivity and unveil the city’s hidden gems, each branch across the eighteen districts will showcase signature landmarks and sights of the district along with a dedicated, inspirational quote. 

The HSBC Main Building in Central also recently launched the ‘Branching Out Our Support’ light show – urging the Hong Kong community to slow down and enjoy life while capturing new opportunities. 

Luanne Lim, CEO for Hong Kong HSBC, said, “HSBC has been supporting the HK community for 157 years. Launching the ‘Branching Out Our Support” campaign allows us to stay closely connected with the community, which we hope will continue to thrive.”

Meanwhile, Sonic Choy, creative partner at Grey HK, commented, “The people in HK have been making a concerted effort to meet with all the challenges posed by the pandemic. We want to give them the opportunity to experience some joy, and enjoy all the photo-worthy spots, accompanied with inspirational quotes.”

The campaign will be rolled out in HSBC branches and on social media for the Hong Kong market. In addition, HSBC has launched a check-in mini-game on Facebook and Instagram to encourage people to tour different districts of Hong Kong. They will also randomly select 40 lucky winners to each receive an HKD2,000 HKTV Mall coupon.

Singapore – Singapore based integrated communications agency APRW Pte Ltd announced its partnership with India-headquartered PRHUB, a leading integrated communications agency, to launch a specialised communications practice targeted at start-ups looking to expand within and beyond the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. 

The new practice is established under US-headquartered IPREX. It will be led by Anu Gupta, director of APRW and Xavier Prabhu, regional president for APAC, IPREX and founder and managing director of PRHUB. This practice will serve burgeoning communications needs of start-ups looking to grow within and beyond APAC region by tapping upon deep communications expertise of IPREX partners. 

The APAC start-up ecosystem has seen unprecedented growth in the past few years. According to market intelligence firm Preqin, start-ups in APAC have secured US$152 billion in venture capital deals within the first nine months of 2021, matching the previous record of US$152 billion set in 2018. As per Statista research there were close to 200 unicorns in APAC with only the United States possessing a greater number of unicorns. The vibrancy and diversity of APAC’s start-up ecosystem indicates a strong potential for start-ups to expand regionally and beyond through targeted communication campaigns and strategies.

Commenting on the new practice, Julie Exner, IPREX global president, said, “Spread across India, China, Indonesia and Singapore among other countries in the region, there is absolutely no doubt that the start-up ecosystem in the APAC is one of the most dynamic and thriving ecosystems globally.” 

Exner commended that APRW and PRHUB are highly established partners with deep understanding of the ecosystem. “With their expertise and support from other partners in key markets, I am confident that the new practice will be a success and bring start-ups to greater heights,” added Exner.

Anu Gupta, APRW’s director, said, “I am thrilled to be launching this practice with PRHUB under IPREX. As a highly diversified & fragmented region, APAC presents an exciting multitude of opportunities and challenges. APRW has since expanded into Indonesia, which has emerged as a vital market for expanding start-ups, in 2020, as part of our commitment to better serve that market.” 

Gupta expressed that through IPREX, APRW is now able to build an expertise-led practice and offer strategic consultancy across key growth markets including China, Japan & Australia. “We hope to propel more start-ups to achieve greater success within and beyond APAC with this timely initiative,” added Gupta. 

In his comments, Xavier Prabhu, IPREX regional president for APAC and founder & managing director at PRHUB, said, “Many start-ups are looking to scale beyond their home markets and leverage the many opportunities that APAC has to offer. As they grow, they will require communication agencies who can provide holistic regional communications strategies to boost their visibility and strengthen their reputations.”

The specialised communications practice will provide a full suite of communications services for start-ups by leveraging IPREX’s global network of communication partners and tapping upon the expertise of Anu and Xavier. As communications veterans, both bring deep industry expertise coupled with strong understanding of APAC and the start-up ecosystem. They have also worked closely with several regional start-ups located in India and Singapore.

San Francisco, USA – Zero-party data marketing platform Octane AI, announced two new executive leadership appointments. Longtime Octane AI executive Megan Berry has been promoted to Chief Product Officer (CPO), after five years of contributing to Octane AI’s product development, and Alex Gurevich was promoted to Chief Operating Officer (COO) after serving as its Vice President of Finance and Operations for the past year. 

Both strategic appointments will help guide Octane AI as the company prepares to make its leading zero-party data software more accessible for e-commerce merchants of all sizes through machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Octane AI CEO, Matt Schlicht, said, “Our mission is to provide businesses with the tools they need to understand not just what their customers are doing, but what they are thinking. Megan and Alex embody this mission, and their new roles enable them to continue to drive growth, build a world-class team, and help businesses scale with zero-party data.”

As CPO of Octane AI, Megan Berry will lead the product, design, and engineering teams in enhancing Octane AI’s platform to enable more users to create relationships with their site visitors based on real data, and turn them into customers. 

Megan Berry, CPO of Octane AI, commented, “I’ve never been more excited about what we’re building here at Octane AI! We want to empower every e-commerce merchant to have more conversations with their customers and to leverage zero-party data to humanise their shopping experience.” 

According to Berry, merchants know the importance of collecting and owning customer data, but these merchants need solutions that make it easy to use data to improve the full customer journey. “That’s why we are prioritising AI features that will make collecting zero-party data a no-brainer. We are making it incredibly fast and easy for marketers to get up and running with zero-party data marketing,” added Berry. 

After joining Octane AI as the Vice President of Finance and Operations, Alex Gurevich quickly transformed the operations of the company to be in a position to scale both the customer base and the internal team. In the new COO role, Gurevich will oversee internal functions, such as finance and people operations, as well as customer-facing functions, such as account management.

Alex Gurevich, COO of Octane AI, commented, “Since I joined in March of 2021, it’s been really great to see our customer base grow 80%+ and the monthly Gross Merchandise Value these customers generate through our software more than double.” 

On his new appointment, Gurevich said, “Looking at our roadmap and seeing how powerful our software will become with machine learning, I am excited about driving increasing value for our customers and making their businesses more automated, smarter, and personalised.”

Shanghai, China – Global data and measurement-driven media agency Essence, has been awarded digital media duties by automotive manufacturing company Chang’an Ford in China. Led from Essence’s Shanghai office, the agency’s remit includes media planning, media activation and content innovation for digital brand and performance marketing activities across Chang’an Ford’s automobile business, covering all its vehicles and dealers in the market.

Chang’an Ford was jointly established by Ford Motor Company and Chang’an Automobile in China in 2001. Today, it is a large-scale automobile enterprise integrating the manufacture of complete vehicles, engines and transmissions. With production plants in Chongqing, Hangzhou and Harbin, Chang’an Ford’s locally produced car models include Ford Edge, Ford Escape, Ford EVOS, Ford Explorer, Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo.

Benjamin Wei, CEO at Essence in China, said, “Over the past few years, Essence has built a leading reputation in China as a new generation full-service integrated media agency with a digital heritage and analytics DNA, as well as a unified approach to data that brings creative and media closer together.”

According to Wei, they are ecstatic to partner with Chang’an Ford in the dynamic automobile industry to deliver data-focused media and content innovation, improve the value and relevance of its advertising for the benefit of its brands and consumers, and help drive its business growth in the market. 

As part of the partnership, Essence’s activities with Chang’an Ford include a launch campaign for Ford Explorer, sustaining campaigns for Ford EVOS and Ford Explorer, promotional campaigns for Ford Edge and Ford Escape, as well as a car buying festival campaign featuring Ford Edge, Ford Escape and Ford Explorer. 

In a key campaign for the all-new Ford Mondeo, Essence leveraged artificial intelligence tools to create a virtual store to generate awareness and interest for the launch, as well as developed creative content in different angles and dimensions to help consumers visualise their automotive experience.

Chang’an Ford joins Essence’s rapidly growing and diversified portfolio of clients in China, which includes Crocs, Google, Hermès, UPS and War Horse. Since the expansion of Essence’s service offering across Beijing and Shanghai in 2019, the agency has seen an increasing demand by companies for its transformational data-driven approach to marketing, use of media and creativity to deepen relationships with consumers, and expertise in accelerating business and brand growth.

Thailand – German luxury automotive brand Mercedes-Benz partners with Team X Thailand to launch a groundbreaking campaign which aims to end 30 years of harassment directed at Thailand’s booth babe industry, ‘The Pretty’. 

Motor shows are one of the biggest events conducted in the automotive industry, but not all attendees come to see the latest and innovative cars. Many also come to see the ‘booth babes’, also locally known in Thailand as the ‘Pretty’, promotional models who offer products, services and even entertain in these events.

With an aim to stop this abuse and present a new way forward, Mercedes-Benz announced on their screen at this year’s Bangkok International Motor Show to 1.5 million viewers that they would no longer use ‘Pretty’ at car shows. Instead ‘Pretty’ will evolve into “Digital Guides”, a virtual role for both genders, eliminating sexy attire at motor shows and introducing a new and exciting digital interface that creates a safe and enjoyable environment for both male and female car presenters.

General Manager of Marketing Communications at Mercedes-Benz Thailand, Atch Bunyaprasit, said, “Mercedes-Benz has supported diversity for quite a while and will continue to take greater steps in the direction that feel right to us. We have continued to endorse this topic in different aspects. In the past few years, our She’s Mercedes initiative has inspired and empowered women all over the world to discover their full potential.” 

Thailand’s motor shows have been featuring “Pretty” for over 30 years and several of the women have since disclosed the dark truth that comes along with memorising car scripts, wearing short dresses and bright red lipstick, namely verbal and physical abuse. Others have been raped, stalked, and even killed.

The automaker hopes to encourage more car manufacturers to follow. 

General Manager of Marketing Communications at Mercedes-Benz Thailand, Atch Bunyaprasit, said, “Mercedes-Benz has supported diversity for quite a while and will continue to take greater steps in the direction that feel right to us. We have continued to endorse this topic in different aspects. In the past few years, our She’s Mercedes initiative has inspired and empowered women all over the world to discover their full potential.” 

Thasorn Boonyanate, Chief Creative Officer of Team X Thailand, commented, “We talked to a lot of victims in order to find the best way to convey their story and offer a solution to this issue. To eliminate the possibility of any further victims, we came up with the idea to transform the traditional physical role into a virtual one called ‘Digital Guides’, where presenters are trained to provide advice to customers virtually. Our second and third priorities were to make this job gender-neutral and to switch the sexy clothes for smart ones. 

For years numerous news stories were circulating where “pretty” has been the target of sexual harassment. ”We were glad to work on this with Mercedes-Benz; this is a great step on their part, and we hope that other automakers will follow, so we can finally end 30 years of “pretty” harassment once and for all,” added Boonyanate.

Hong Kong — EuroEyes International Eye Clinic Limited, an established ophthalmology brand, has appointed international communications consultancy Hume Brophy as its investor and public relations partner. The appointment aims to enhance awareness of EuroEyes’ distinct vision care offerings and its strong business and financial success as the company continues to rapidly expand globally.

Dr Jørn Slot Jørgensen, founder, chairman and CEO of EuroEyes, said, “Since establishing in 1993 and trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019, we have successfully executed our growth strategy, remained committed to expanding our clinics and services to clients, and continued to capitalise on business opportunities.”

Jørgensen added, “With our continued global expansion, we are now entering a new phase of growth. By partnering with an international communications firm like Hume Brophy, we look to optimise our brand exposure to the broader capital markets community in Hong Kong and beyond, enabling investors to better understand the potential investment value that EuroEyes offer and be part of our growth journey.”

A strategic communications programme will be put in place to increase the number of EuroEyes touchpoints with clients and investors, ensuring proper delivery of the latest and most relevant information about vision correction, business developments, and financial performances at EuroEyes.

Meanwhile, Thomas Kwan, director of Hume Brophy Communications Hong Kong, commented, “We are pleased to become the communications partner of EuroEyes. Our team of communications professionals will help potential clients and investors to better understand the advantages of EuroEyes – from both eye care and investment perspectives – and drive sustainable interactions that could translate to further business success for EuroEyes.”

Currently, the number of EuroEyes clinics around the world is close to 30. The company will continue to capitalise on the growing awareness of vision care, and identify new clinic locations or optimise existing surgical centres to better serve clients and achieve greater business results for shareholders.