Tag: Marketing

New York, USA – Interpublic Group (IPG) has announced ‘Interact’, the latest evolution of its revolutionary marketing engine. This platform delivers connectivity and global reach for its agencies and clients, serving as Interpublic’s core technology platform infrastructure.

Following a series of enhancements, this end-to-end framework integrates data flow across the campaign lifecycle, from brand research and audience insights to creative ideation, production, commerce and CRM programs, and earned media, as well as powering media activation and optimisation.

By connecting the entire Interpublic portfolio, Interact establishes a unified set of standards, practices and a technology layer, built on consumer insights at scale fueled by Acxiom’s data and Real ID capabilities. 

This unified marketing platform, powered by industry-leading intelligence, enables Interpublic companies to drive marketing performance in real time for clients across all media channels and touchpoints, while building brands for long-term success. ‘Interact’ is available and being utilised across Interpublic clients.

Developed and hosted by KINESSO, ‘Interact’ is core to every significant engagement across Interpublic, and has helped power recent new business wins for the company, with existing and new clients.

Moreover, the platform unlocks deeper insights into targeting audiences, driving the creation of more compelling content and enabling real-time campaign optimization. This translates to a dramatic increase in speed to market, leading to significant improvements in business performance.

Philippe Krakowsky, CEO of Interpublic, commented, “Interact links the powerful expertise resident within our agencies with our technology capabilities to orchestrate the full range of marketing and sales activity in one place. In media and CRM, we’ve been delivering true personalization at scale with our marketing engine, and these enhancements allow us to do so consistently across all forms of marketing activity. Interact enables end-to-end solutions that help our clients better engage, convert and retain customers through the entire funnel, assessing and understanding the value of their investments across media, marketing and sales channels, in real-time.”

Jarrod Martin, CEO of Interpublic engineering and data companies KINESSO and Acxiom, said, “Interact, AI-enabled with Acxiom data as its foundation, manages the production and dissemination of campaigns, whether on marketing technology platforms, in earned media, or in paid media investments, across all formats and channels. Mass-personalization done right is a meaningful strategic advantage for our clients, and our enhanced end-to-end solution helps our clients better engage, convert and retain customers through the entire marketing funnel.”

Meanwhile, Jayna Kothary, Interpublic’s Chief Solutions Officer, added, “The Interact platform and functionality is better than anything we currently see in the market. The idea of mass personalization has generally been more of an aspiration than a reality, yet Interact makes it real. This platform takes everything we’ve learned from our partnerships and products — across all facets of our portfolio and the fullest breadth of marketing activities — to transform the entire marketing process. Interact can therefore be leveraged by all Interpublic clients to build brands and drive business growth.”

Singapore –  A vast majority of Singaporean travellers (96.4%) are considering sustainable travel, travel service provider Trip.com Group’s report reveals. The figure surpasses the global average of people considering sustainable travel at 92%.

However, while sustainability awareness is high, only a smaller percentage of Singaporeans have acted upon it, unveiling a gap. According to the report, only 64.7% of travellers have practised sustainable travel. This gap highlights the travel industry’s challenges in promoting and meeting the aim of sustainability in travel.

The report surveyed 9,867 travellers from 109 countries, including Singapore. It found that many travellers face barriers such as cost, confusion, and doubts about the authenticity of sustainable options. It underscores the need for the travel industry to provide clearer and accessible sustainable options to meet the growing demand from travellers.

While some travellers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable options, most have limits. In Singapore, 41% of travellers are willing to purchase the premium option. Globally, the figure rises to 42.5%, but with limits. Only 21% are willing to pay up to 5% more, and fewer people are willing to pay 10% or more.

Despite this, travellers increasingly seek sustainable options online. 61% of Singaporean travellers are routinely looking for these options. Consequently, 81.8% of them expect more information about sustainable options from online travel agents while 65.3% prefer to see sustainable tips.

According to the report, the top options for sustainable travel for Singaporeans include greener transportation, sustainable accommodations, single-use plastics, and food waste reduction.

Among Gen Z, 73% are considering purchasing sustainable offers from travel agents, showing their environmental motivation.

Trip.com Group aims to bridge the gap by offering more sustainable options and partnering with sustainability organizations. They also plan to reduce their own environmental impact.

“As we enjoy the planet’s natural wonders, it is our duty and responsibility to protect and preserve these treasures for future generations. We are encouraged by the growing awareness of sustainable travel, and will continue to collaborate with, and empower, our stakeholders in building a sustainable future,” Jane Sun, chief executive officer at Trip.com Group, said.

Philippines – McDonald’s has joined Scoliosis Philippines’ spinal health awareness movement as its bandit mascot Hamburglar joins the #StripesFitCheck campaign. 

After the campaign went viral, viewers found the stripes reminiscent of Hamburglar and tagged McDonald’s Philippines, sparking the collaboration.

In a popular #StripeFitCheck by Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, she wore black-and-white stripes to show how people can detect scoliosis by wearing a fitted, horizontally striped shirt. 

@mcdoph

Replying to @camzchozas Burger lover na, #StripesFitCheck icon pa! Gawin niyo na rin, fam! 🤳 #ScoliosisAwareness #McDoPH

♬ original sound – McDo_PH – McDo_PH

Responding to the netizens’ tags, McDonald’s Philippines featured Hamburglar in a TikTok video to amplify the campaign. Doing the #StripesFitCheck, Hamburglar details how scoliosis detection can be made easy, encouraging more people to try it. 

The collaboration combines Scoliosis Philippines’ medical knowledge and McDonald’s audience to further spread spinal health awareness. 

Other celebrities and personalities have joined the #StripesFitCheck campaign, including Carla Abellana and Inka Magnaye. It encourages early scoliosis detection, aiming the fit checks to lead to check-ups if necessary.

According to Scoliosis Philippines, check-ups may be necessary if people wearing striped shirts find misaligned shoulders, ribs, or hips.

Hong Kong – Uniplan, a brand experience agency, has appointed Judd Christie as chief executive officer for Greater China, reinforcing the company’s commitment to the market.

The appointment is part of Uniplan’s strategy to strengthen its position in the market while pushing for innovation. 

After six years of working at Uniplan, Christie has contributed to driving business results in the region. He first joined Uniplan in 2018 as executive creative director before advancing as managing director. During his stint, he led the team towards growth and innovation.

Amidst Uniplan’s vision of cohesion across its Greater China operations, Christie has also contributed to connecting its offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai.

“I am incredibly honoured to lead Uniplan’s Greater China operations. This region represents tremendous potential for creative and business innovation, and I look forward to driving our strategy forward in uniting top talent and delivering exceptional brand experiences for our clients. As we continue to invest in Greater China, I am confident that we will bring new opportunities and innovations that set us apart in the market,” Christie commented.

Christian Zimmermann, Uniplan’s global chief executive officer, said, “Judd has been an integral part of Uniplan’s growth in Greater China. His creative vision and ability to connect teams across our regional offices have been instrumental in building stronger partnerships and driving strategic change. With Judd at the helm, we are excited to reinforce our commitment to the region and continue delivering the best possible outcomes for our clients.”

Uniplan has been serving in the Greater China market since 1986.

Thailand – Shield Insurance is redefining the value of brokers in a new film campaign with creative agency VML Group Thailand. The film elevates the status of insurance brokers as more than just middlemen in the industry.

The film showcases how the job of brokers is not finished when they have sealed a contract with a customer. It extends to their assistance in future circumstances.

To highlight the responsibility of brokers, the film tells the story of a couple buying car insurance. From the moment of their purchase to an unfortunate car accident, the film empahises the brokers’ role as trusted advisors.

Directed by Teerapol Suneta, the film aims to depict the challenges of buying insurance.

Getting insurance is usually thought to be a tedious process of comprehending policies and comparing suitable options. Finding out if the insurance company can easily be contacted in case of an accident can also pose problems.

Shield Insurance is also known by its Thai name Prakan Tidloh. The name ‘Tidloh’ reflects its mission to protect and support its customers.

Singapore – Sitecore has announced the launch of ‘Sitecore Stream’, which leverages secure, brand-aware AI, enabling enterprise marketing teams to boost productivity and growth.

For the company, ‘ Sitecore Stream’ represents market-leading innovation and fulfillment of its vision for an Intelligent DXP (digital experience platform) that addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by enterprise marketing teams today.

‘Sitecore Stream’ leverages generative AI to simplify marketing workflows and enhance productivity through orchestration, content intelligence, and automated assistance. Sitecore Stream leverages Sitecore’s composable product architecture, enabling full interoperability across a brand’s existing martech stack, with built-in AI guardrails to help preserve brand compliance and data privacy. 

Moreover, it also includes brand-aware AI which helps align marketers’ actions, recommendations, and experiences with the organisation’s brand identity, values, and guidelines.

The platform also has AI-enhanced workflows that automates repetitive tasks to accelerate execution and boost collaboration. These workflows may be creating content, building a website page, or A/B testing a call to action to help marketers stay in a productive flow.

Lastly, it also has generative copilots dedicated for brand, brief, content, and experience creation and optimisation, which will help marketers stay true to their brand and brief as they complete their work.

Dave O’Flanagan, CEO of Sitecore, said, “Together with leading brands, we reimagined the content lifecycle from the perspective of what the customer wants and the marketer needs. Our work with brands such as Nestlé and Microsoft, in combination with Sitecore’s deep understanding of marketing workflows and digital experience best practices, has enabled the development of Sitecore Stream. With it, we’re delivering on our vision of the Intelligent DXP.”

Roger Connolly, chief product officer at Sitecore, stated, “With Sitecore Stream, we’re delivering a smarter, more strategic, and more secure way for marketers to create and manage content and deliver seamless customer experiences. Sitecore Stream leverages customers’ brand architecture to provide brand-aware AI but, critically, does not use your content to train the underlying AI models. With Sitecore Stream and our vision for an Intelligent DXP, we are addressing marketers’ pain points head-on, combining the power of AI with our deep experience helping customers with their digital transformations.”

Meanwhile, Shelley Bransten, corporate vice president of global industry solutions at Microsoft, commented, “As part of our long-standing, strategic relationship with Sitecore, we’ve collaborated closely with Nestlé and other enterprise customers to deliver entirely new AI capabilities to marketers. Leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure AI enables Sitecore Stream to understand an organisation’s brand, campaigns, content, and data – empowering marketers to do their best work.”

Lastly, Aude Gandon, global CMO at Nestlé, shared, “We have partnered with Sitecore and Microsoft innovation teams over the last year to pilot and leverage the power of generative AI with Nestlé brand guidelines and toolkits. Together, we’ve created an innovative new offering: the Sitecore Brand Assistant as part of Sitecore Content Hub with Sitecore Stream. This solution is specifically designed to facilitate brand and category knowledge within our organisation and supercharge our creative partners.”

Singapore – SeenThis, an adaptive streaming specialist, has expanded to Hong Kong as part of its further venture into North Asia. To oversee digital campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan, SeenThis appointed Angel Wong as commercial director.

Wong brings commercial and sales experience through her previous roles in adtech companies MOBKOI and PressLogic.

Wong’s appointment in Hong Kong is an opportunity for brands, according to SeenThis APAC vice president Tom Jones-Barlow. It allows brands in the region to get better outcomes in their video advertising through the company’s technology offerings.

Through the company’s streaming technology, advertisers can distribute high-quality video ads, ensuring rapid load times and optimal performance. With minimal data usage, brands can deliver better customer experience.

“Angel’s substantial experience in North Asia will propel the SeenThis footprint in the region, as brands and agencies increasingly realise that our instant video ad loading technology can deliver significant performance gains for marketers. We see a strong opportunity to create a leadership role in those markets as we are the only technology provider that can deliver ads via adaptive streaming on the open web,” Jones-Barlow said.

“We have worked with all the holding group agencies in the region as well as many technology partners and publishers, but the biggest achievements are the results we’ve delivered for brands. SeenThis is uniquely positioned to help marketers in APAC, where budgets can be tight, creative globally mandated and connections sometimes poor, let alone the fact that APAC is particularly exposed to the impacts of global warming,” Jones-Barlow added.

“We can make advertiser spend work harder, improve creative quality without increasing creative budgets, deliver ads instantly on any device or connection and reduce data use and CO2 while improving results. Next year we are eyeing further market expansion and we will continue to expand our relationships with local market agencies,” Jones-Barlow concluded.

As part of its expansion efforts, SeenThis recently launched its Japan office in September.

Singapore – The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) highlights the country’s Culinary Capital status in the new ‘Made in Singapore’ global campaign. The campaign positions Singapore as a food haven, showcasing the country’s diverse culinary landscape.

The ‘Made in Singapore’ campaign aims to boost awareness of Singapore’s delicacies, inviting visitors to experience its offerings. It aims to spark interest and drive demand in Singaporean cuisine from a global audience.

As part of the campaign, STB released the 30-second song ‘What Do I Eat First?’ featuring vocalist Paddy Ong and local band Club Mild. It showcases a variety of food choices ranging from traditional to modern fusion cuisine.

The campaign leverages the growing interest in Singaporean cuisine. In 2023, food and drinks contributed 15% of Singapore’s tourism revenue, a 63% increase compared to pre-pandemic figures.

“In today’s social-first environment, content creators wield significant power in creating awareness and shaping perceptions. Recognising this, our campaign harnesses their reach to position Singapore as a global Culinary Capital, inspiring foodies to explore our endless possibilities curated by both homegrown and international culinary talents,” Kenneth Lim, assistant chief executive of marketing group at STB, said.

“Their passion and commitment to pushing cultural and creative boundaries continue to enrich our vibrant food scene. Through this approach, we aim to drive greater awareness of Singapore’s diverse F&B offerings, by inviting foodies to explore and share their culinary discoveries,” Lim added.

Singapore – Chevron Singapore, an integrated energy company operating retail petroleum company Caltex, has announced updated rewards for customers along with a refreshed CaltexGO mobile application. The update aims to make customer engagement more convenient, highlighting the company’s commitment to innovation and customer experiences.

To reward customers, offers and vouchers can be found on the app, including a welcome incentive of up to $10 for users transacting a minimum of $20 for the first time. Customers need to install the new CaltexGO app on their mobile devices.

The new app features a redesigned user interface to improve navigation and usability. It focuses on enhancing how users explore the Caltex app, which contains its range of services.

As part of Caltex’s effort to promote the new app, brand ambassador Ayden Sng will be showcasing its features in a Korean drama-inspired TV commercial.

To use the refreshed CaltexGO app, users can download it on both Android and iOS platforms

“We are excited to introduce the refreshed CaltexGO mobile app, which stands as a testament to our unwavering commitment to continually enhance customer experience,” Dean Gilbert, general manager of international products for Southeast Asia and Singapore at Caltex, said.

“With new features, such as vouchers, birthday month bonus and other exciting offers, we hope to streamline and elevate the way customers engage with our services, offering greater control and convenience during their visits to Caltex service stations. We are eager for our customers to embrace the new platform and enjoy the many benefits it offers,” Gilbert added.

Australia – Accenture Song, a technology-powered creative group, has appointed Bronwyn van der Merwe as Accenture Song lead for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) and Matt Michael as chief executive officer (CEO) of Droga5, an advertising agency under the company.

In their new roles, van der Merwe and Michael is set to lead Accenture Song’s ANZ team in driving growth.

Currently the service practice lead at Accenture Song ANZ, van der Merwe’s new position is effective starting Oct. 15, 2024. She was also the design lead at the company for the Asia-Pacific region. Before working at the company, she served as the vice president of design at Culture Amp. She also established Fjord, a design agency, in Australia.

Meanwhile, Michael’s position is effective starting Dec. 1, 2024, while retaining his leadership in the company’s marketing practice for ANZ. Michael was previously the managing director at The Monkeys, which he held for more than 10 years. He has worked with various brands such as Telstra, Qantas, Amazon, and NRMA Insurance.

Mark Green, global CEO at Droga5, said “This is a great moment for two truly brilliant people, both of whom I have had the pleasure to work with for many years. Bronwyn was part of why I was keen to join forces with Accenture in the first place. Seeing what Bronwyn helped create with Fjord in Australia was a brilliant insight into the potential of creativity, consulting and technology. Bronwyn will lead Accenture Song into a new era and the team in Australia and New Zealand are in good hands.” 

“It is great to see leaders grow and expand and it has been a privilege working with Matt Michael for over 14 years. Matt’s elevation to CEO of Droga5 in ANZ is an absolute no brainer and a great reward for someone who has been instrumental in the success of not only The Monkeys but Accenture Song as well. I cannot wait to see where Matt can take Droga5 in ANZ and I look forward to continuing our long partnership,” Green added.

“How lucky to be going from strength to strength in ANZ leadership. Bronwyn’s integrated expertise and perspective, coupled with her deep commitment to both our people and our clients, makes her the ideal leader for this next chapter. At the same time, Matt who has a history of leadership and excellence is uniquely poised to lead Droga5, and will shape a local perspective that will undoubtedly have an impact on the agency and its clients globally,” David Droga, global CEO of Accenture Song, said.

“I feel incredibly honoured to have the opportunity to lead Accenture Song’s next chapter, alongside Matt and the rest of the Song leadership team in Australia and New Zealand. We have incredible talent and capabilities in Song, including our recent acquisitions of Fiftyfive5 and The Lumery. The launch of Droga5 in this market will further strengthen our ability to deliver purpose led growth for our clients,” van der Merwe commented.

“The opportunity to work so closely with David and Mark to re-launch Droga5 in Australia and New Zealand is something I couldn’t back away from. I look forward to building on everything we have done over the past 18 years with The Monkeys to take the business to new heights, here and globally, under the Droga5 moniker. It is an exciting time for Song and I look forward to working with Bron to continue taking our full-service suite of services and bring the provocative thinking and creativity of our outstanding team to our clients,” Michael said.