Tag: Marketing

Sydney, Australia – Australia’s National Drag Racing Championship(NDRC) has recently launched its latest media campaign aimed at engaging fans and building excitement ahead of its summer championship series, via Murmur-Group. It is the first campaign to market since Murmur was appointed to the business earlier this year.

Spread across OOH, radio, programmatic, YouTube, Meta and BVOD, the campaign reaches NDRC’s fan-base of car and bike enthusiasts for all 16 events, culminating in a thrilling grand final in June 2024.

Craig Sue, media planning director, Murmur-Group, said the agency’s remit was to build a high level of excitement to promote NDRC’s 2023/24 events and to deliver against previous attendance targets. This meant implementing a fully data-led strategy for the first time in collaboration with event organisers, venues and sponsors to seamlessly bring together media and creative.

“We kicked off our first successful NDRC campaign, under the new banner, with the Nitro Funny Cars Golden States campaign that went live in October and currently have the Top Fuel Sydney Xmas Showdown campaign live promoting the event on 2nd Dec. And of course, at the same time we are planning strategically to promote the Aeroflow Sportsman Championship. It is all systems go,” he added. 

“These adrenaline-pumping events are set to captivate motorsport enthusiasts and speed aficionados across the nation and Murmur’s team is pumped to bring high-octane adrenaline to the campaign,” concluded Sue. 

Meanwhile, Andy Lopez, co-promoter of the NDRC, commented, “From the fastest accelerating vehicles on the planet in Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car all the way through to the future stars of the sport, the NDRC is charged with moving the sport one way: Forward. Murmur is the perfect partner to take this motor racing excitement to market and we are confident the fans will flock to the events in droves as a result of the campaign.”

The media campaign is live throughout the NDRC racing season.

Singapore – Freshworks, a cloud-based customer service software company, has formally appointed Mika Yamamoto as its newest chief customer and marketing officer. This appointment comes after her outstanding performance in spearheading the go-to-market strategy for the company’s comprehensive global business software portfolio.

For this new role, Mika envisions introducing the end-to-end customer experience with Freshworks by working with the marketing and customer success departments.

In particular, she believes that doing so would accelerate the company’s growth while also giving their clients the best solutions.

Following this appointment, Mika shared her enthusiasm, stating, “I am excited to join Freshworks to be a part of its journey to become a multi-billion-dollar software company and to focus on a segment of companies and people I have a great passion to serve.”

“My whole career has been spent on transforming go-to-market approaches and customer experiences within global companies to steepen the growth curve. I truly believe that bringing the end-to-end customer experience with marketing and customer success teams together at Freshworks will help accelerate growth while keeping our customers at the heart of all we do,” she added.

Meanwhile, Dennis Woodside, president at Freshworks, said, “Mika’s combined CMO and CXO roles have given her a unique perspective that has ultimately led to innovative, measurable changes for employees, customers, and prospects.”

“She has a long-standing track record of leading global and diverse customer experience teams and delivering exceptional go-to-market results at large public technology companies with multi-domain businesses serving customers big and small. Her know-how and desire to build and scale a large, enduring company make her a great addition to our Freshworks leadership team,” he added.

In her previous role, Mika served as the global vice president and the chief marketing and customer engagement officer and led the company’s data, marketing, digital transformation, and customer experience efforts.

Prior to joining F5, she also formerly worked for SAP as the chief digital marketing officer and CMO of SMB. She has held top positions at Amazon Books, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Stores, Gartner, and Accenture. At the same time, she also became the SVP and general manager of Marketo at Adobe after it was acquired.

Bangkok, Thailand – In pursuit of advancing creativity and personalised digital interactions, Accenture has announced the acquisition of Rabbit’s Tale, a creative and digital experience agency based in Bangkok. This move signifies the inaugural presence across the entire customer lifecycle, specifically the growth in Thailand. 

Through this acquisition, Rabbit’s Tale brings forth a comprehensive portfolio encompassing impactful brand strategies, digital content, and data-driven experiences.

Said initiative integrates digital customer experience solutions, spanning from retail experiences to customer relationship management and loyalty programmes, hyper-personalised marketing to experience designs, and digital platform development.

As it is distinguished among Thailand’s leading advertising agencies, it will also harness the increasing significance of digital ad spending for brand differentiation and customer connection.

In particular, the two are poised to enhance regional creative, brand, and data capabilities for Accenture Song, with the shared goal of assisting clients in constructing and optimising digital experiences, driving growth in Thailand.

Talking about the project, Thomas Mouritzen, Southeast Asia lead at Accenture Song, said, “Consumer and employee expectations have drastically changed, leading businesses to seek partners with the scale and skills for delivering unique yet powerful engagement and connections. They are also looking for creative solutions and transformative programmes to advance growth.”

“Rabbit’s Tale will add more firepower to Accenture Song’s regional market excellence and business strategy, leveraging data, innovation, and creativity. This reaffirms our unwavering investment and commitment in Southeast Asia, enhancing our offerings, capabilities, and talent base to help clients achieve tangible outcomes in their brand, marketing, and experience transformation journeys,” he added.

Meanwhile, Patama Chantaruck, country managing director, Thailand at Accenture, commented, “This acquisition will help Accenture empower local businesses and nurture homegrown talent to create meaningful and highly personalised digital experiences that cater to the unique needs and preferences of the local market. Technology, when integrated with creativity, can significantly enhance how businesses interact with their customers and people, driving differentiation and fostering greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.

“Rabbit’s Tale’s talent and expertise will strengthen our positioning to help grow Thailand’s private sector with unparalleled solutions to some of its most complex challenges. Our combined talent and expertise will propel Thailand as a thriving hub of technological advancement and digital innovation in the region,” she concluded.

Following this milestone, Sunard Thanasanaksorn, CEO at Rabbit’s Tale, also said, “To combine unconventional creativity and breakthrough technology to solve our clients’ problems has always been our aspiration. We are thrilled that our next chapter of growth will be with Accenture Song, where its industry-leading position and creativity-led approach backed by data and technology have helped businesses across industries set new benchmarks.” 

Established in 2010, the Rabbit’s Tale team is set to work together with Accenture Song in Thailand, leveraging the agency’s world-class strategy, design, performance, technology, and large-scale operations capabilities.

Notably, this also marks the third acquisition by Accenture Song in Southeast Asia after Romp and Entropia.

Singapore – Rohan Chandhok, who has served as the head of global integrated field marketing at the omnichannel communications platform MessageBird, has announced his departure from the company. At the time of this writing, he had been with the company for over a year.

Rohan has been an active proponent of building communities, connecting people and facilitating peer learning, rather than executing conventional field marketing programs.

In a recent LinkedIn post, he has expressed his gratitude to those who have supported him and his value-based ideas in his role.

He goes on to express his gratitude to customers, senior executives who joined this community and the APAC team at MessageBird.

He joined MessageBird back in 2022 as its head of marketing for Asia-Pacific and grew to take on a global mandate shortly after. Prior to joining MessageBird, Chandhok was with Oracle, where he held various directorial roles related to marketing, customer experience, and marketing cloud (SaaS) for JAPAC. He had been with the company for over five years.

He also held senior and leadership roles at the IT company Dimension Data and media company IDG Media. Overall, he brings with him 20+ years of experience in the fields of B2B marketing, data-driven digital marketing, and media relations, amongst others.

Sydney, Australia – Market research firm Kantar Australia has recently announced the promotion of Mark Kennedy and Colin MacArthur into the joint role of managing partner, consulting, at Kantar Australia. They will be replacing Dennis Wong who is leaving Kantar after 15 years to pursue his own professional interests.

In their new roles, Kennedy and MacArthur will be leading Kantar’s consulting department together, leveraging the unique set of skills housed within Kantar’s consulting team across its Australia business and clients. 

Prior to his appointment, Kennedy spent his 10 years at Kantar, where he led an extensive portfolio of blue-chip clients in Europe, Asia and the USA, and is respected by his peers and clients for delivering ‘marketing inspiration’ that is simple and actionable, all solidifying his reputation as a strategic leader.

Overall, he possesses 30 years of experience in the design, marketing, and strategy sectors in both client and agency worlds, including global leadership positions at Landor Associates and Blue Marlin Brand Design as well as leadership roles at South African Breweries International and Design Works.

On the other hand, MacArthur has been working in the insight and consulting space of Kantar for over 20 years. Prior to joining Kantar eight years ago, he built his career at Jigsaw Strategic Research and The Leading Edge in Australia, and at Hall & Partners and KPMG Nunwood in the UK. 

MacArthur is also a passionate member of Kantar’s Inclusion, Diversity and Wellbeing Committee and supports not-for-profit organisations on campaigns focused on greater inclusion and diversity and health outcomes for the LGBTGQI+ community. 

Speaking on his appointment, Kennedy said, “I am thrilled and honoured to take on the role of joint Managing Partner for Kantar’s Consulting practice in Australia. The client and consulting landscapes are evolving rapidly, and, alongside Colin, I look forward to bridging these worlds together to drive growth, build connections and shape the future.”

Also commenting on his own appointment, MacArthur added, “In this ongoing period of flux and change in the domestic and global markets that we work in, my excitement of taking on this role with Mark stems from the prospect of bringing my strategic vision, operational expertise, and client-focused approach to drive growth and success for both Kantar and our clients.”

Meanwhile, Jon Foged, managing director for Kantar Australia, mentioned, “I am excited about this partnership as Mark and Colin already have a close and trusted relationship with each other and the wider Kantar team, they have complementary strengths they can amplify together in this role, they are experts that our clients respect, and they are passionate and enthusiastic leaders”.

Singapore – Bonzai, a creative technology platform, has launched BrandStory, a new premium mobile ad format.

In comparison to single-scroll ad formats, BrandStory delivers three times the ad area and 2.8 times longer viewing periods, addressing businesses’ growing demand for more real estate to produce outcomes globally. It combines awareness, investigation, and action in a whole solution.

With 4.6 billion smartphone users worldwide (expected to rise to 5.1 billion by 2028), mobile internet traffic currently makes up about 60% of all web traffic. Recognizing this growth, Bonzai concluded that a large-scale premium mobile ad format was required. Through a scrolling user interface, this format seeks to extend the in-ad experience while simultaneously increasing brand awareness and effectively communicating more product information in a non-intrusive way. 

Building on years of observations, BrandStory is available in Australia, Zealand, and SouthEast Asia. Bonzai’s new, no-code solution does deal with the requirement for integration for current clients. It offers benefits to publishers as well as advertising.

Speaking about their latest offering, Rahul Pandey, Founder and CEO of Bonzai, said, “BrandStory is the culmination of our commitment to pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation in the advertising industry. With the explosive growth of mobile internet users worldwide, we recognised the need for a premium mobile ad format that provides more real estate for brands to captivate their audience effectively.” 

He added, “BrandStory is our answer to this demand, offering advertisers an unrivalled canvas for crafting immersive campaigns that seamlessly integrate awareness, exploration and action.” 

“We are excited to empower both advertisers and publishers with this unique, no-code solution that unlocks new opportunities and revenue streams. BrandStory sets a new standard in the industry, and we’re thrilled to introduce it across APAC, empowering brands to reach their audiences like never before,” Pandey expressed. 

Seoul, Korea – Korean telecommunications provider SK Telecom(SKT) has announced its collaboration with Malaysian telecommunications provider CelcomDigi Berhad, Indonesian game developer Agate, and Philippine IoT platform provider and consumer electronics company Cosmic Technologies, creating mutually beneficial business opportunities through publishing partnerships for SKT’s metaverse platform, ‘ifland’.

For this initiative, SKT recently signed MoUs with Agate and Cosmic Technologies, and will further expand its previous partnership with CelcomDigi to carry out activities to boost ifland through localised content and marketing, and primary customer support.

Through the collaboration, Ifland will be updated with four additional languages, Indonesian, Malay, Filipino and Spanish. The platform will also be equipped with curative services so that it can promote tailored content for users in different countries and SKT will provide the necessary services to improve service quality.

SKT expects the partnerships to bring mutual benefits. The partners will be able to gain experience in the metaverse service without making initial investments for service development, and SKT will be able to offer content tailored to each country or region and conduct effective localised marketing via its partners.

Going forward, the company will provide more administrator rights to its partners to vitalize the use of ifland in each different region, and in the long run, it will seek partners in the U.S., India and Europe to accelerate the global expansion of ifland.

Talking about these partnerships, Yang Maeng-seog, vice president and head of metaverse CO at SKT, said, “We partnered up with three representative IT companies in Southeast Asia and are now able to promote the platform through tailored marketing that will be provided through our partners.” 

“Through these partnerships, we will continue to do our best to provide ifland users with content and services that understand their culture and society by partnering with more local companies,” he concluded. 

SKT began expanding ifland to the global market by launching the service in 49 countries in November 2022. Since then, it has been making efforts to increase ifland’s global presence by discovering a wide range of attractive content and features for global users, such as virtual meetups with K-pop stars.

Singapore – As a key to further advancing the leadership across the region, S4Capital’s digital operating arm, Media.Monks, has appointed Matthew Godfrey as the new executive vice president and head of content for the APAC region.

Having more than 15 years of experience, Godfrey has an extensive background in innovation and creative business management, bringing together the company’s entrepreneurial drive as well as the capacity to develop its aspirations.

For this role, he aspires to position the company towards a new era, introducing “We Are Now” mission, an initiative aimed at driving industries forward, charting a course toward ambitious outcomes, and enabling clients and individuals to unlock their complete growth potential.

He also intends to leverage creative innovation and cutting-edge technology for a more efficient delivery scale, impact, and among APAC’s leading and fast-moving brands. 

Initial plans for his term include the company’s expansion into key markets such as China, Australia, Japan, Korea, and Singapore, which will be supported by content excellence hub offices in Malaysia and India.

Following this remarkable feat, Matthew shared his enthusiasm about this role, stating, “The content industry is now at a very dynamic time. As global leaders in AI, social media, and all digital platforms, Media.Monks is ideally placed to help APAC brands create and orchestrate powerful and efficient communication solutions. The opportunity for innovation has never been greater, and I’m excited to help APAC clients gain a competitive advantage by accessing our incredible talent.”

On the other hand, Bruno Lambertini, co-CEO, content, at Media.Monks, also stressed the importance of Matthew’s appointment, saying, “Matt has everything we are looking for as we reshape our leadership structure at Media.Monks in APAC. With an extensive background in the region and a wealth of knowledge based on his experience in the market, we are confident Matt is the right person to drive the business forward, fostering our client relations.

“He will add a lot of value to our vision, especially when it comes to the single P&L and single brand, along with our mission to shift industries forward by reshaping how businesses interact with the world,” Lambertini concluded.

With this appointment, Godfrey will work with Kenny Griffiths, the managing director of APAC of data, digital, and media, in which they will connect a single global P&L model to the next level in APAC.

Philippines – Chowking, the Chinese-themed restaurant chain under Jollibee Group, has issued a statement responding to the recent viral TikTok video showing one of its staff roaming outside of the restaurant branch just to meet her quota for the day. 

According to the uploader of the viral video, the staff is from Chowking SM Ecoland in Davao City, and is taking orders outside of the restaurant to meet her quota since the sales of the branch was “going slow.”

The staff also stated that during these trips, she would often shell out money for transport from her own expenses, often commuting back and forth to deliver the orders that she gets. 

In response to this, Chowking said that they are taking this matter seriously by instructing the store to place activities such as outside-of-store order taking on hold, as well as reviewing store guidelines to ensure that ethical standards are met.

Moreover, Chowking also said that the staff who was featured in the viral video remains as a valued employee of the store. 

“At Chowking, upholding ethical standards in conducting business is a core commitment, and the safety and well-being of our team members remain our top priority,” concluded Chowking in their statement.

Currently, the viral video has garnered over 3 million views as well as multiple sentiments from netizens online, calling it exploitation with claims of these employees being overworked and underpaid as well as expressing concern over the safety of these employees who go out of their way to take orders and deliver food themselves. 

Singapore – In an ongoing effort to educate the public, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, in collaboration with Ogilvy Singapore, has recently unveiled its latest nationwide campaign emphasising the importance of cyber awareness.

Known as “The Unseen Enemy,” this initiative sheds light on the pervasive and often unnoticed nature of these threats, urging the audience to maintain constant vigilance against the dynamic landscape of the said threats and advocating the adoption of the four cybersecurity tips for a more secure online experience.

Now in its fifth edition, the national cybersecurity campaign also brings together the traditional informational style of public education communication. By using a 60-second spot, the campaign employed a suspense thriller genre with no dialogue to spook audiences about the dangers of cyber threats. 

It also used visuals that were developed across touchpoints such as platform screen doors, wallscapes, bus stop shelter ads, social and digital platforms, as well as a concept train.

Among the key visuals of the campaign are dedicating each to CSA’s four cyber tips, particularly (1) enabling two-factor authentication and using strong passphrases; (2) being aware of phishing scams; (3) updating software promptly; and (4) adding scamshield and anti-virus apps.

Talking about the campaign, Connie Lee, deputy director at communications and engagement office CSA, said, “Our approach to the campaign was to contextualise the pervasiveness of cyber threats and scams for our audiences, nudging them to pay closer attention to how their actions can leave them vulnerable to unseen cybercriminals.

“We also want to reach out to users through our roadshows and engagement efforts to encourage everyone to develop good cyber hygiene habits in our daily lives to protect what is valuable to us,” she added.

Shirley Tay, chief client officer at Ogilvy Singapore, also shared her thoughts, stating, “We wanted to position the cyber tips as digital self-defence that everyday audiences can adopt to protect themselves against cyber threats and scams. Creatively, we wanted to do so in a manner that would leave a lasting impression in the minds of audiences, exposing how vulnerable we all are to cybercriminals.”

Meanwhile, Troy Lim, group creative director at Ogilvy Singapore, said, “Threats that are unseen are always more insidious than those that are conspicuous; bringing the feeling of unease and paranoia of an unseen enemy is how we will motivate potential victims to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves and those they care about.”

CSA also conducted a two-day roadshow, which was conceptualised and executed by Ogilvy at the end of September at the Suntec City Convention Centre.This event encouraged attendees to join the campaign dubbed “Home In On Cybersecurity,” which featured a hacked home and welcomed guests to learn practically how to implement the four cyber tips to protect themselves from cyber dangers and scams. 

The Unseen Enemy campaign is set to run with various mini-roadshows and partnerships until March 2025.