Tag: Marketing

Taipei, Taiwan – Cross-chain NFT marketplace Lootex collaborates with NFT shopping platform, OneOffs for the “Fashion in the Metaverse” project. 

Lootex was recently invited to help curate the journey through art and fashion with OneOffs at the Breeze Center in Fuxing Taipei. Simply yet deftly labelled, “Fashion in the Metaverse” collected some of the most prominent NFT collections as well as physical art. A breath of newness is being created as the world moves forward in its understanding of the metaverse and what it means to the various artists’ creations. Lootex, filled with accomplishment as the adoption and integration of NFT artwork and GameFi is gaining more traction throughout Asia.

The collaboration with Lootex and OneOffs is a step in the right direction for the first metaverse NFT fashion show in Taiwan. Talented artists from The Sandbox Foundation, An An, TongYangChicken, Nest, Beryll Chen, Carina Chen, and game art designer Nora C. were invited to design a futuristic sci-fi fashion catwalk with the avatars created in The Sandbox’s VoxEdit. Each avatar is casted into a limited-edition NFT and put on the Lootex website for sale. The exclusivity of each avatar will only enhance the collector’s experience in the ever-growing metaverse.  It is still to be given a date but buyers of these avatars can expect some cool perks that will allow them to show off not just the art in the real world but also flex their stylistic choices in the metaverse.

The latest collaboration extends the existing partnership between Lootex and The Sandbox, which started in2018.  This is part of a broader partnership between Lootex and The Sandbox that also adds The Sandbox Co-Founder Sebastien Borget as an advisor and investor of Lootex. 

CEO and Co-Founder of Lootex, Justine Lu, said, “Lootex is proud to be a long-term partner with The Sandbox, and expects to see more game developers and creators utilising The Sandbox to make the next generation of metaverse assets and games.” Lu is the organiser of the Global Blockchain Game Alliance, also co-hosted the VoxEdit NFT creation event and Game Jam game design competitions for The Sandbox. The support from such a huge contributor to the future of the metaverse and its assets makes it clear that Lootex is on the path to not just being pioneers in their field but a major player in NFT marketplaces.

Beyond The Sandbox, Lootex’s player-centric, cross-chain NFT trading platform is constantly updated to reflect the latest developments in blockchain games. The creativity interwoven with both physical and virtual worlds is the reason Lootex is on its way to being the one-stop shop that can’t be denied. Providing their 80,000 active users with a decentralised multi-chain NFT marketplace, Lootex will surely open the path to more impressive projects.  Coupled with the appreciation for the artists that are showcasing their amazing works, we would not be surprised to see more collaborations of this calibre.

Toronto, Canada –  Independent programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) ad tech company, Hivestack, has today announced the launch of a new research division that will focus on exploring in-store, programmatic media activation in the metaverse. Former Microsoft Research managing director and computer vision pioneer P. Anandan joins Hivestack as a special advisor to spearhead the initiative.

According to a recent eMarketer report advertisers spent $31B USD in 2021 in the US on retail media, with a path to $100B in the coming years. The findings of the report showed that the majority of the ad spend went to advertising on Amazon and Walmart’s digital assets. A growing trend is that large, big box retailers are implementing custom ad tech stacks with identity solutions to monetize their online marketplace as well as their physical stores. 

Metaverse stores will enable advertising opportunities for marketers to connect with consumers – in particular, their avatars, at the point of purchase – on virtual in-store walls, virtual digital endcaps, and even virtual in-store audio advertising. Preliminary research shows that consumer engagement in the metaverse will far exceed current online experiences and thus lead to deeper engagement with ensuing greater outcomes for advertisers.

Andreas Soupliotis, founder & CEO of Hivestack shared, “With the launch of our research division, we are prototyping how ad tech can be used to programmatically activate ad opportunities in virtual retail stores in the metaverse. In this environment, the consumer is technically inside their homes shopping via VR headsets, but their avatar is out-of-home. Much of Hivestack’s full-stack technology for digital out-of-home activation and monetization applies to retail metaverse advertising, but some important computer science gaps remain to be addressed. We launched this initiative to formulate the needed technology to make programmatic DOOH a success in the meta as well as the physical world.“

The use of meta and crypto-related concepts to buy and sell DOOH ads is already happening. As an example, Hivestack’s exclusive partner in Japan, LIVE BOARD (a wholly owned subsidiary of NTTDocomo and Dentsu Japan) have already started to experiment selling outdoor advertising space as NFTs, representing the first initiative in Japan to sell outdoor advertising rights as an NFT.

P. Anandan commented on his new role of special advisor at Hivestack, “I am thrilled to be advising Hivestack on this new direction of avatar-based out-of-home advertising. There are some important technology, product and engineering challenges that need to be addressed in order for marketers to benefit from this new generation of advertising.”

According to Anandan, there are many unanswered questions regarding how media payments will be made to metaverse retailers, with cryptocurrencies possibly being used. In such cases, RTB bid requests and responses between DSPs and SSPS would be based on cryptocurrency CPMs. With this, he is looking forward to helping Hivestack grow a research team that will address these new frontiers in ad tech and provide marketers with the solutions they will need to succeed in the burgeoning field of ‘Meta Marketing’.

Kevin McDonald, CEO of Kinetic Canada, commented, “The retail metaverse is opening up a new reality for consumers that blends the sensations of physical, out-of-home shopping with ease of mobile shopping.”

Kevin adds that Kinetic Canada is laser-focused on driving precise measurable outcomes for our clients. As the lines blur between consumers and their avatars, the combination of real-world, retail DOOH and metaverse retail digital out-of-home advertising is an important area of exploration to them and their clients.

Bangalore, India – Independent creative agency Talented brought on ad leaders to join the team, ex SVP at Dentsu Webchutney, Priyanka Borah and ex managing partner at Dentsu Webchutney, Prashant Gopalakrishnan as Founding Partners to lead its business strategy.

In a statement, Prashant Gopalakrishnan, said, “We bought into Gautam & PG’s vision of building an agency centred around talent the moment we heard about it. My experience and my gut tells me that’s what clients expect from their creative agencies too: access to the best talent in the market.“

According to Gopalakrishnan, over the last few years, conversations in the industry have been circling around the looming irrelevance of agencies in the new marketing landscape. “All things considered, the agency experience itself is long overdue for a serious reimagination like Gautam often says. Talented is in many ways an experiment to bring back the love for the agency business, by trying to go about everything we do in a fresh way,” added Gopalakrishnan. 

Gopalakrishnan joined Webchutney in 2015 after stints at Leo Burnett, Contract & Capital. He was named Dentsu Webchutney’s first ever Managing Partner in 2020 under then Webchutney CEO & now Talented co-founder Gautam Reghunath. “Together at Webchutney, we achieved a lot of things we never even dreamed of accomplishing. Personally, I’ve been wanting a new challenge. That, plus the chance to build something again with people we love makes this opportunity even more exciting,” Gopalakrishnan added. 

About her new role, Priyanka Borah, says “Working with Gautam & PG at Webchutney was a rewarding experience. And joining them now as founding partner is as great a privilege, as it is a challenge. Prashant and I are here to ensure that the business itself becomes as successful as it can be. That means structuring ourselves internally to consistently deliver great work for clients. Simultaneously, we’ve got very clear ideas & share the same dream about the kind of company that we want to build together: one that stands for creativity, transparency and respect for talent. Stay true to those principles and I know the clients will follow.”

Borah joined Dentsu Webchutney in 2017 and was last leading the agency’s business team as Senior Vice President. During her five years there, she helped drive work for clients including Google, Uber, Airtel, ITC, YouTube amongst others. 

“In the agency business today, there are systemic barriers to a sustainable work experience for employees that need to be eradicated, so that’s an additional area of focus. We want to be an ambitious, world-class, creative company with a big heart. We want every member to be able to enjoy stimulating challenges rather than spend their times chasing deadlines and following up – the biggest bane of our younger colleagues joining advertising. There is no doubt this search for efficiency will have a positive rub-off on work and client relationships as well,” added Borah.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Southeast Asian eCommerce platform Lazada has released a video campaign in celebration of this year’s Hari Raya Aidilfitri, a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims in Malaysia.

In collaboration with creative and media agencies Ensemble Worldwide and Universal McCann under IPG Mediabrands network, the integrated campaign “Tambah ke Troli, Bertambah-tambah ke Hati” (Add to Cart, Add to Heart) has been localised to make it convenient for Malaysians to shop for their Ramadan and Raya essentials. Each item added to cart represents their needs, interest, passion, and hopeful aspirations to add value, happiness, meaningful moments and elevated experiences when receiving and using it this festive season and beyond. 

The campaign also encouraged customers to extend their generosity through digital giving via Lazada4Good by donating to the NGOs distributing Ramadan assistance to communities in need. In addition, the ‘Lazada Roadshow Bertambah-Tambah ke Hati’ created a unique omnichannel O2O experience through its campaign touchpoints via the use of QR codes to link items featured in the film, videos and roving roadshow to be scanned for real-time purchase on the Lazada app. 

Phang Mei Jeng, managing director of Ensemble Worldwide, said, “We saw a big opportunity for this year’s Ramadan and Raya to be more meaningful and engaging, especially as most have missed out on big celebrations and social gatherings for the past two years. 

According to Jeng, the campaign is more than the sum of its parts as it has managed to connect and build brand affinity with the local Malay community and the younger generation in a way that has been truly missed over the past two years.

For the first time, a Ramadan and Raya offline-to-online (O2O) shoppable showroom on wheels was introduced as part of the Lazada roadshow, featuring displayed items to be purchased. Similar to the campaign videos that feature QR code leading to Lazada’s Raya campaign page, visitors to the bazaars were able to physically touch and feel the products before scanning the code to make a purchase of limited Raya deals on the Lazada app. The roadshows included a host of on-ground activities for the public, and livestreaming for the online audience.

The integrated campaign also featured bite-size videos created to spread awareness on the ongoing Ramadan offers, radio spots, Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH), and interactive quizzes through Lazada livestream.

Australia — The wealth management group, Colonial First State (CFS), is encouraging Aussies to change their perception of retirement, turning it from a perceived ‘ending’ to an opportunity to unleash their ‘second half’. The company has collaborated with their newly appointed creative agency, It’s Friday, to deliver a new brand platform and TTL campaign entitled ‘Unleash Your Second Half’ surrounding this message.

The campaign focuses on asking pre-retirees an important and unexpected inquiry, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” It’s a question normally asked of the young but is given surprising new relevance when put to ambitious Australians about to embark on their second half. Each character we see in the TV spots has a vision for their future that will give them as much, if not more, purpose than their working life.

Todd Stevenson, chief customer officer at CFS, says that the new campaign created by It’s Friday recognises that, for many Australians, retirement isn’t what it used to be and when planned for, it can be an exciting new time of personal growth, achievement, and purpose.

“A time when people often have more freedom to pursue things that are meaningful to them, but not necessarily what they did in their first half. CFS wants to celebrate that and help Australians make it as great as it should be and recognise the important role that a financial adviser can play,” Stevenson said.

More recently, Australian pre-retirees are rejecting their established notion of retirement. Many are entering this new phase of life on their own terms, injecting it with new purpose and a desire for ongoing fulfilment and meaning. To them, retirement is the beginning of their second half.

Vince Lagana, chief creative officer of It’s Friday, added, “It’s exciting to take a category that often feels passive and cliché and inject new energy into it by flipping the traditional Message.”

He continued, “Some retirees may want to sail off into the sunset and take long walks on a beach, and all too often that’s how older people are depicted in advertising, but retirement doesn’t have to be that. It can be a chance to rediscover your youthful exuberance and try new things. Acknowledging this will be a breath of fresh air for many pre-retirees, while repositioning CFS as the brand dedicated to making it happen.”

Philippines — In the Filipino culture, Mothers have often been called the light of the home but they are also every family’s anchor. For this year’s Mother’s Day, Jollibee is putting a highlight marker on the quality that makes moms the best -a mother’s resilience.

Done in collaboration with creative agency McCann Worldgroup, the campaign, entitled ‘Hinga’, celebrates the strength and selflessness of all mothers through a poignant and heartfelt Kwentong Jollibee Mother’s Day special video that shows how mothers continue to bravely face challenges for their family’s welfare. They remain, at all times, strong, resilient, and selfless.

Francis E. Flores, marketing head of Jollibee Global and Jollibee Philippines, said, “Children learn to handle setbacks and struggles from their mothers. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we take our strength from our moms. Through them we learn how to deal with small hiccups and minor annoyances like being afraid of storms to bigger challenges like injuries and sickness.”

Flores added, “With this special Mother’s Day video, we at Jollibee, want to thank our mothers for showing us how to love endlessly and how to be strong enough to face the challenges of everyday life.”

Set to the heartwarming tune of the popular Filipino band Ben&Ben’s “Ilang Tulog Na Lang”, the video, inspired by a true story shows the little things that convey how mothers are always there for their families. It highlights how moms bravely face challenges for their families–and even though they are also afraid, what rises to the surface is the need to ensure their families’ safety and happiness.

Speaking on the project, director Joel Ruiz shared, “Every Kwentong Jollibee may have different stories but at its core it’s the same: it’s all about love and family, and it’s all tied together by true stories and experiences, that’s what makes every film universally appealing. This Mother’s Day video is no different, and yet it’s so much more special because while directing this film, it felt like I was also paying tribute to my own mother and everything she did for our family.”

Ruiz previously directed the Kwentong Jollibee Valentine Series Homecoming in 2018, another episode in 2019 entitled Proposal, as well as the Father’s Day special video that same year.

Meanwhile, Sid Samodio, executive creative director of McCann Worldgroup, commented, “When we think about our mothers we think about their love and how they are the most fearless people we know. It’s with that truth that we created this short film: it’s a tribute to the strength of a mother’s heart, which she passes on to the people she loves.”

Australia – Consulting company Kantar Australia has announced that it is combining the ‘insights and consulting’ divisions in Australia through formal structural integration. 

Turbocharging its ability to drive insight into growth context, and bridge the languages of research, marketing and growth, this announcement marks a realisation of opportunity through structural evolution and propels the company’s combined offer to be unrivalled in the Australian market.

Managing Director Jon Foged of Kantar Australia says, “While we have long collaborated on projects and clients, we have been in steadfast planning towards the invaluable opportunity of fully aligning Kantar Insights and Kantar Consulting as one unified team in Australia. This is an incredibly exciting transformation. The combined pool of world class consulting talent who deeply understand marketing’s evolving role in driving growth is meeting world class researchers with the expertise, tools, global scale and unrivalled benchmarking. We think it’s a game changing and unique proposition in this market.”

Foged added that through this integration, Kantar can turbocharge the innovation and brand strategy domains, as well as adding a cultural insight and futures capability, and world class growth strategy thinking across everything they do. “Ultimately, it is all about giving our clients the right balance of responsiveness with capacity and scaled capability,” said Foged.

Kantar Australia’s Managing Partner of Consulting Dennis Wong adds that the union will amplify and deliver growth in uncomfortable places for Australian clients,

“The market is filled with buoyant opportunities, but in highly competitive markets such as Australia, growth is harder to find than ever before with a totally different backdrop of consumer and market dynamics.”

According to Wong, brands are increasingly trying to do more with less, but at scale. That this requires reframing opportunity, yet retaining ability to deploy at scale. Wong also added that the complexity of the client problems requires genuinely actionable solutions solved and embedded by teams that can cut across silos by linking the languages of insight with those of marketing and growth. “By coming together, our combined expertise will ensure our clients can see it, shape it and do it. By this I mean see the growth beyond categories, but well into the future through the lens of culture. They can shape a compelling offer through portfolio, brand, customer experience and innovation, and not only drive strategy into action but measure against the growth opportunities in ways empathetic to the capability of the business,” added Wong.

Tracey Forbes head of marketing transformation at Diageo Australia says the combined offer has already had immediate impact on clients, “the coming together of Kantar’s Consulting and Insights team has brought greater value to the Diageo Australia business than ever before. It means we can join the dots up, down and across our teams to link the future facing, big picture strategies we build together through to what we see in measurement and everything in between.”

Singapore – Mediabrands, the media and marketing solutions division of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), has announced the appointment of Melinda Po to the newly created position of CEO for the Greater China team.

Po is a modern thinker with a strong advertising and digital marketing background with 20 years industry experience across the Greater China region. Having successfully led Edelman’s transformation from a PR agency into an integrated business solutions partner from 2018 to 2021, Po drew upon her prior experience re-designing the Ogilvy advertising and brand content business model in China, in addition to previous senior leadership roles across Arcade and AKQA. Joining from her most recent role as President of Advertising at Ogilvy China, Po specialises in cultural and organisational transformation using her craft in the consulting space to help companies elevate their strategic relationship with clients. 

In her new appointment as CEO, Po will be responsible for leading the network offering across Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Fully leveraging all the Mediabrands agencies and functions as a future facing media and communications partner to its clients’ business. 

Leigh Terry, CEO Mediabrands APAC said, “With an in-depth understanding of the complex ecosystem in Greater China, Melinda will focus on strategies to transform and futureproof the Mediabrands business across the Greater China region to anticipate the needs of our clients in the short, medium and long term.” 

Terry added that along with Melinda Po’s China digital marketing expertise, “Melinda has a fast-paced, modern outlook, with an open and empowering leadership style proven to be successful in driving transformation and top-line growth.” 

Melinda Po commented, “The ability to drive effective change and create positive transformative outcomes is a philosophy that I am deeply committed to and passionate about. In joining Mediabrands, I am eager to add my expertise and help chart the next stage of development across Greater China, leveraging the network’s strength in data, technology, content and commerce to build new and innovative partnerships.”

Melinda Po’s appointment to CEO Mediabrands Greater China is effective immediately, she will be based in Shanghai and report to Leigh Terry, CEO Mediabrands APAC.

New Delhi, India – India’s small businesses are reportedly the most innovative in the Asia-Pacific region, for the second consecutive year, according to a survey by a professional accounting body, CPA Australia. Combined with a very strong domestic economy, this is expected to make Indian small businesses one of the Asia-Pacific’s top performers in 2022. 

Sixty-two per cent of Indian small businesses reportedly started growing last year, with 46 per cent experiencing very strong growth – the highest result of the markets surveyed. As a result of this, 77 per cent of respondents said that they had hired more employees, outperforming all other markets.

India’s small businesses are likely to be strong creators of new jobs this year, with 83 per cent expecting to increase employee numbers, ranking first among all markets. Sixty-eight per cent of respondents forecast their small business will grow this year.

Leslie Leow, general manager – Emerging Markets, CPA Australia said, “The survey results confirm that Indian small businesses are very ambitious. Despite the pandemic, most undertook actions such as making substantial changes to the product or service and made investments associated with high growth businesses.

Leow mentioned that India’s small businesses take the crown as the most innovative in the region with ninety-four per cent will introduce a new product, process or service this year, surpassing all other markets surveyed for the second year in a row. 

India has a strong and competitive local economy, growing access to skilled workers and government policies such as the recently signed India-UK Global Innovation Partnership is anticipated to trigger a golden era of innovation for the sector according to Leow.

Reflecting their strong innovative culture, Indian small businesses are investing in technology with a very high success rate. Of local businesses that invested in technology last year, 80 per cent reported that such investment had already improved their profitability, well above the survey average of 54 per cent.

To support their innovations, India’s small businesses were the most likely to access external finance for business growth last year, and are the second most likely to expect accessing finance for growth this year. Financing this growth shouldn’t be difficult with 69 per cent expecting “easy” or “very easy” access to external finance this year, the highest result of the markets surveyed.

India’s small businesses are also one of the leaders in selling online, with 83 per cent generating more than 10 per cent of their revenue through that channel. Related to that, they are also one of the leaders in receiving payment through new payment technologies such as PayTM and PhonePe.

Indian small businesses were the most likely to have sought advice from IT consultants (49 per cent), business/management consultants (40 per cent) and accountants (35 per cent). Seeking external advice is a characteristic of high-growth businesses as professional advisers can guide small businesses through challenges and help them take advantage of opportunities.

Leow said, “Policy measures such as the Special Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme are likely to accelerate technology adoption and meet strong demand for external finance. Indian small businesses should make full use of these government initiatives to expand and innovate, however, some may wish to consider whether they are striking the right balance between short-term growth and sustainable development.”

London, United Kingdom – Globally recognized tech platforms are on course to account for 10.0% of all worldwide ad investment by 2030 according to advertising agency WARC’s latest report. 

According to the analysis, advertising expenditure by Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Baidu, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix and Tencent in 2021 totalled $46.6b (+49.4% year-on-year), accounting for 6.0% of all ad investment globally. On the current trajectory, Big Tech’s share of global ad spend is estimated to surpass 10.0% by 2030.

Big Tech’s spending on advertising is also growing faster (+49.4%) than categories such as media and publishing (+34%), technology and electronics (+26%) and retail (+21%). The study also found that Big Tech contributed more than a tenth (10.4%) of all global ad spend growth in 2021.

The report has shown that Amazon becomes the world’s biggest-spending advertiser. In 2009, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos infamously asserted that,

“Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service.” Fast-forward to 2021, Amazon invested $16.9b in ads (+55.0% year-on-year), the most ever spent by a single company within a 12-month period. 

However, Amazon’s expenditure model appears to be self-funding: investment in advertising helps Amazon to draw shoppers to its e-commerce platform, which in turn increases the revenue it gains from retail media ads – as well as ad spend on products like Twitch and Freevee.

The second-largest advertiser within Big Tech is Alibaba, which invested $8.8b (+84.4%) in 2021. Fuelled by China’s flourishing e-commerce market, Alibaba has grown its share of total spend in the Big Tech category from 2.9% in 2014 to 19% in 2021 – exceeding Google-owner Alphabet in total ad investment ($7.9b, +47.0%) for the first time.

Meanwhile, Microsoft shows the lowest commitment to advertising. It invested $1.5b in 2021, a sum that has remained stable since 2016. However, this may change in light of the prospective acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard and Microsoft’s growing ambitions in the metaverse space.

The report also noted that while Big Tech companies are investing vast sums in advertising in absolute terms, these platforms are also growing revenues at a remarkable rate. 

In many cases, Big Tech brands are investing a lower percentage of total sales in advertising. These businesses do not feel bound by rules to maintain levels of ad spend relative to total sales, as one might find in categories such as CPG or automotive.

The notable exception is Facebook-owner Meta, which has accelerated its ad investment. Meta’s ad spend as a percentage of sales has grown from a mere 0.8% in 2017 to 2.5% in 2021.