Tag: Marketing

Australia – Designed to promote healthy conversations about men’s health, Kimberly-Clark has recently announced its partnership with Elmwood, a global design consultancy based in Australia.

This collaboration introduces an initiative addressing the sensitive themes surrounding bladder weakening among adult men. In particular, the launch of DEPEND’s latest underwear product lets men go about their everyday lives without worrying about bladder leaks. 

For this product, the campaign features a blend of humour and colloquial expressions, relating to an iconic movie for the intended audience, which was derived from a thorough and deep understanding of Australian and New Zealand cultural nuances. 

Talking about the campaign, Jason Braddy, creative director at Elmwood Singapore, said, “The DEPEND brief offered a unique challenge. How do we place the brand into a consideration set for an audience who doesn’t want to talk about the issue and doesn’t really know where to start?

“Our response was to develop an idea that would be both relatable through humour while building memory structures by celebrating the brand’s distinctive assets,” he concluded.

Devki Khosla, senior account director at Elmwood Singapore, added, ”The consumer is at the centre of our approach. Once we mapped out the motivators and barriers of our target, we combined these messages with best practices across platforms to drive performance and results.”

Leah King, DEPEND Brand Manager at Kimberly-Clark, said, “Together, we have created a brand campaign that will encourage open conversations and help combat the stigma and silence, which are still often associated with discussions around men’s health today.”

For over 35 years, DEPEND has been the trusted partner to millions of men and women worldwide in caring for their bladder leakage, enabling them to confidently reconnect with the life they aspire to live and make the most of it.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – SEEK, the parent company of Southeast Asian career platforms JobStreet and JobsDB, has recently welcomed Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim as its newly elected non-executive director during the company’s annual general meeting.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim is the first Asia-based board member in SEEK’s history, aligning with the pivotal role Asia plays in the company’s future growth strategy.

This appointment comes as SEEK sets the foundation for growth of its Asia business through the unification of its three online employment marketplaces – namely SEEK (in Australia and New Zealand), JobStreet (in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore), and JobsDB (in Hong Kong and Thailand). The three-year long investment program is set to complete in the 2024 financial year.

For this role, Ibrahim brings over 40 years of experience in the Southeast Asia region, including over 16 years in information technology and 23 years in telecoms. He also served the Malaysian government in various roles, including being appointed in 2020 by the former prime minister of Malaysia as a member of the then Economic Action Council and of the Digital Economy Council.

Currently, Ibrahim serves as the chairman of government-owned Prasarana Malaysia Berhad, Malaysia’s public transport owner and operator, and chairman of privately owned QSR Brands Holdings Bhd and AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd. He is also a non-executive director of publicly listed Sunway Berhad.

Furthermore, his executive experience also includes being the chief executive officer of Axiata Group Berhad from 2008 to 2020, and as chief executive officer of Maxis Communications Berhad for over eight years prior to that. He also has executive experience with multinational companies, including IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation.

Speaking on his own appointment, Ibrahim said, “I’m honoured to join SEEK’s esteemed board of directors, and am excited to be part of the technology company’s continuous growth journey in Asia. This role is especially meaningful to me as SEEK’s purpose of helping people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and helping organisations succeed aligns with my passion and values. I look forward to contributing my expertise to help SEEK advance its ambitions and make a positive impact on millions of talent and employers in the region.”

Meanwhile, Peter Bithos, chief executive officer of Asia at SEEK, also commented, “Tan Sri Jamaludin joins the SEEK Board at an opportune time. Once our three core online employment marketplaces – SEEK, JobStreet and JobsDB – are unified into a single platform next year, we will have the ability to scale efficiencies and unlock vast growth opportunities across APAC.”

“With Asia being a key market for SEEK, Tan Sri Jamaludin’s vast expertise in the technology sector, as well as his astute understanding of the region’s business landscape will be valuable in guiding us in our journey forward,” he added. 

Lastly, Graham Goldsmith, chairman of SEEK, mentioned, “Tan Sri Jamaludin’s experience in the information technology and telecommunications sectors in Asia and his various current roles, are a valuable addition to the expertise and views on the Board, and supports the achievement of SEEK’s continuing growth aspirations in Asia.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Pos Malaysia, a prominent national postal and parcel service provider, has recently announced the expansion of its second retail store in Kuala Lumpur today, November 17.

Strategically located in Brickfields, the recently inaugurated shop covers approximately 1,100 square feet of retail space and is merged with the existing Pos Laju Brickfields.

A notable addition to the establishment is the Pos Kafe, which provides customers with a variety of freshly cooked, ready-to-eat cuisine and beverages for dine-in or takeout. This can be accessed by the public this year, following the May 2023 launch of its first branch in Medan Tuanku, Kuala Lumpur.

Sumesh Rahavendra, group chief transformation and digital officer at Pos Malaysia, said, “We were heartened by the positive feedback received from the opening of our initial Pos Shop in Medan Tuanku. We are confident this second outlet will be equally embraced by the community. With the introduction of Pos Kafe within Pos Shop, customers will now be able to enjoy freshly prepared food and beverages daily, providing a convenient grab-and-go meal option amidst their busy schedules.”

“As Pos Malaysia continues on its transformation journey, we are committed to delivering innovative retail concepts that add value for our customers. We are enhancing our extensive retail space to offer more services and greater convenience to the rakyat,” added Sumesh.

“As an organisation that is passionate about building trust to connect lives and businesses for a better tomorrow, we are looking forward to serving the community beyond the confines of traditional postal transactions,” he ended.

Leveraging its wide reach and retail footprint, Pos Shop is set to inaugurate nine additional stores in Pahang, Selangor, Johor, and Melaka by the end of the year. This move is aimed at providing customers with an immersive in-store experience and retail convenience across Malaysia.

Singapore – IPG Mediabrands, Interpublic Group’s media and marketing solutions group, announced the appointment of Paul Waller to the newly created job of chief investment officer MAGNA for APAC. Waller will report to Leigh Terry, CEO of IPG Mediabrands APAC, and will be based in Singapore. His appointment is effective immediately.

Waller in his new position of chief investment officer MAGNA APAC, he will be responsible for leading investment performance throughout the IPG Mediabrands group’s agencies in the Asia Pacific area. MAGNA, the network’s global media investment and intelligence firm, will help to aid this endeavour. 

Waller has joined the IPG Mediabrands group, bringing with him trade and investing experience from positions held at GroupM and Omnicom in Singapore, China, Australia, and the UK. He comes to this post after serving as EssenceMediacom APAC’s chief media solutions & investment officer, where he was in charge of overseeing the department throughout 16 markets in the area. 

Speaking about the appointment, Leigh Terry, CEO of Mediabrands APAC, said, “We are very excited to welcome Paul to the IPG Mediabrands network. His track record of executional excellence and delivery, perfectly position him to help drive exponential growth for our client base through optimised trading efficiencies and services.” 

Meanwhile, Waller commented, “I’m thrilled to be joining the team at IPG Mediabrands and collaborating across such a diverse and future focused portfolio of advertisers. As leaders in data management, I believe that MAGNA are perfectly positioned to harness the technology-driven evolution of media and consumer behaviour. I look forward to building on the network’s impressive work in the responsible media communication and sustainability space.” 

Singapore – Singapore Airlines has unveiled their latest campaign, which features a new stop-motion animation across social media, aiming to capture the essence of a wanderlust experience with their sonic identity comprising three instrumental tracks played on board SIA flights and in SilverKris Lounges.

Titled ‘The Sound of Singapore Airlines: A melodic journey awaits’, the new 30-second film captures the SIA Business Class cabin in a charming, handmade music box that takes the shape of a suitcase, bringing viewers on a trip through scenic landscapes and vibrant cities, accompanied by the airline’s signature melodies to evoke fond memories of travelling with Singapore Airlines.

Created in collaboration with Copenhagen-based director Marcus Møller Bitsch, the film’s handmade music box is inspired by the airline’s Business Class cabin. Each prop, including the iconic SIA cabin crew sarong kebaya uniform, was carefully hand-crafted and integrated into the film’s storyline.

Speaking about the project, Bitsch shared, “When I got the brief, I immediately thought it was a fantastic opportunity to use stop-motion animation to show the attention to detail and dedication that Singapore Airlines strives to bring to their customers.”

Meanwhile, Loo Yong Ping, deputy executive creative director of TBWA\Singapore, commented, “With the world embracing the wonders of AI, we wanted to do things differently by reviving the art of craft making to weave a sensory experience through music. We’re thrilled to witness this film come alive.”

Singapore – Leading multi-attraction pass provider Go City has officially signed a memorandum of understanding with Weixin Pay, a widely recognised payment function in the Weixin app, in an event today at the Capitol Kempinski Hotel, Singapore.

Such first-of-its-kind collaboration marks a significant milestone for the two as it will boost the global tourism sector in the country, allowing Chinese tourists to immerse themselves in a wide variety of visiting places across 30+ cities in Go City’s portfolio.

This also includes a three-year joint marketing plan in which both parties will allocate resources to adopt the usage of both the Go City Weixin mini programme and Weixin Pay.

Neville Doe, group chief financial officer of Go City, shared his enthusiasm for this partnership, stating, “This exciting partnership with Weixin Pay is a testament to Go City’s commitment to revolutionising the travel experiences for our customers. We’re incredibly excited to team up with a world-class leader in digital payment solutions to better serve our Chinese customers.

“Our mini program is already enhancing the purchase and usage experience for these customers, and this partnership takes this incredible proposition to greater heights. Together, we’re set to open up a world of fresh possibilities, such as special deals and unique experiences, for these travellers across Southeast Asia and beyond,” he added.

Following this remarkable feat, Etienne Ng, regional director, Southeast Asia for Weixin Pay, commented, “We are excited to collaborate with Go City, a pioneer in the tourism industry. This partnership aligns with our aim to provide Chinese users with seamless and secure payment options, enriching their travel experience in Singapore and the rest of the region, and represents a significant step towards achieving that vision for our users.”

Meanwhile, Dawn Jeremiah, vice president, marketing and e-commerce at Go City, also said that the establishment of Go City last September has already brought exponential revenue growth from Mainland Chinese consumers month after month.

“We’ve seen a 1.5x growth in September and October versus 2019 and a 2x growth this month versus 2019. exponential growth particularly to Singapore, followed by London, Sydney, Bangkok, Oahu, New York, Barcelona, and Paris. This year’s Golden Week saw our pass volume sales grow to 4x, average basket size grow by 25%, and lower refund rates, all compared to that of 2019,” she ended.

For the next few months, this strategic partnership is expected to revolutionise the exploration of Singapore’s top destinations, ensuring affordability, accessibility, and an authentically enhanced experience.

Australia – Storyblok, a content management system (CMS) category leader, has announced its recent affiliation with Bynder, a global digital asset management company, today, November 16.

Said partnership aimed at addressing several pain points marketers face on a daily basis to ensure brand consistency across a number of channels. It also intends to enhance market time and ease of distribution of assets from their DAM platform, directly in the CMS.

In relation, Storyblok conducted a global survey of 500 marketers, which revealed that an increased amount of assets and channels they are supporting leads to time-consuming asset management tasks and content mistakes.

Specifically, the findings showed that an average of 55% managed more than 1,000 digital assets in their asset manager. Only 8% support just one channel with their assets, 37% support 5–10 channels, and 18% support more than 10 channels.

In terms of asset management, 37% also spend 5–10 hours each month, and 27% spend more than 10 hours.

Meanwhile, managing access rights is the biggest pain point of asset management (24%), followed by finding and organising files (19%). 48% made a mistake in their asset manager that caused content problems (broken links, wrong versions of files, etc.).

With the increased demand for new content, 64% use AI to help create digital content very regularly or regularly, and only 11% never use it. 53% connect their asset manager to other marketing platforms, with 41% connecting it to 5–10 of them. 

Brad Kofoed, SVP of global alliances at Bynder, said, “Storyblok’s survey highlights the challenges that organisations are facing in managing the growing volume, variety, and speed of content that needs to be created and distributed to support digital commerce. Increasingly, content is seen as a strategic business asset that enables organisations to deliver exceptional content experiences across complex omnichannel buyer journeys.

“Our partnership with Storyblok is a key integration that will aim to help teams with exactly that – providing content consistency, ease of distribution, and faster speed to market by making on-brand content directly available in the CMS,” he added.

Meanwhile, Barry D’Arcy, VP of Partners at Storyblok, also shared his thoughts about this, saying, “Assets serve as the fundamental building blocks for crafting digital experiences. Our collaboration with Bynder seamlessly integrates their top-tier enterprise digital asset management solution with Storyblok, enabling businesses to effortlessly leverage their entire asset library and restore order within the realm of content chaos.”

Through this integration, it has allowed seamless reuse of Bynder managed assets, has been released on the Bynder marketplace, and is also available to install through Storyblok. In addition, the teams will also be able to solve the complications of omnichannel asset management and content governance.

Japan – Global creative and media agency VaynerMedia has recently announced its appointment of Kota Murakami as its new country manager for Japan.

In his new role, Murakami will be responsible for shaping the footprint and business expansion for VaynerMedia in the Japanese market, with a focus on growing the agency’s portfolio and ensuring the delivery of business solutions that build clients’ brands while fuelling maximum business impact and cost advantage.

Kota’s expertise lies in seamlessly integrating global innovation with local market insights, holding a proven track record of propelling business growth in the realm of advertising and digital media. Recognised as a trusted advisor to leading brands worldwide, Kota is also adept at steering clients and organisations to challenge industry norms while driving impactful changes.

Prior to joining VaynerMedia, Murakami was with Essencemediacom for over seven years, with his most previous role being the managing director for Japan, wherein he co-led the agency and played a pivotal role in winning key pitches for clients such as Uber and Tiffany & Co. during his tenure. 

He also holds a remarkable track record of successful engagements including leading the Google account at Essence Japan, serving as Global Account Director at Tag in New York, and partnering with renowned brands like Uniqlo, Bayer, and DIAGEO.

Speaking on his own appointment, Murakami said, “I’m really excited about joining the team during this period of growth. VaynerMedia is truly a one-of-a-kind agency; our talented people, empathetic culture and independent mindset allow us to continue our relentless pursuit of consumer attention. This allows us to help marketers deliver unwavering relevance through our modern approach to creative, media, and analytics, or all of the above as a full-service solution.”

“I just know that this will be a game changer for brands in Japan to evolve their marketing, and succeed in the social-first era and beyond. I am looking forward to solidifying VaynerMedia as a key partner for businesses in Japan, enabling them to achieve relevance with consumers, and to meet their business goals for both the present and the future,” he added. 

Meanwhile, Tim Lindley, managing director at VaynerMedia Asia Pacific, commented, “Kota is a fantastic business leader. His unique accomplishments, ambition, and empathetic leadership style excited me from the first moment we met. He possesses amazing insight into the Japanese market, a sharp, global perspective, and a holistic marketing approach that will take us from strength to strength as we continue to bring media, creative, and analytics back together to drive real business impact for our clients.“

“He has an incredible passion for innovation, a track record for nurturing world-class talent, and an unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional results. He’ll definitely be a catalyst for our growth in Japan and an exceptional business partner for our growing clientele there. I’m looking forward to building with him, and learning from him, as we continue to grow in Japan and across the Asia Pacific region,” he concluded. 

Murakami will be assuming his role effective immediately and will be reporting to Lindley.

Singapore – Grab and Heckler Singapore has recently launched their latest sustainability campaign via BLKJ Havas, which brings a trio of finger characters to life and showcases how a mere tap of the digits can empower eco-friendly choices. 

Aimed at raising awareness among consumers about the significant impact their choices can make, Grab’s ‘Wonder Fingers’ campaign with Heckler Singapore showed that scrolling through our phones could be used for better things like tapping for good.

For this campaign, Heckler got to work using Maya and Cinema4D on three short animated films and assets for a personalised digital report, termed the Grab Personal Impact Story, to showcase the positive outcomes of using Grab.

For the environment, Heckler chose to build backgrounds in 3D that looked like they were made of paper. This aesthetic gave the films a playful base to set the action in, along with some intriguing textures. By modelling and rigging photorealistic human fingers to represent different ethnicities and backgrounds, Heckler also gave them human-like characteristics, including playful eyes that used expressions to communicate the impact the fingers were having.

Cody Amos, creative director at Heckler Singapore, admitted that dressing the fingers up was a challenge as the animation team had to re-imagine them as a full human body in order to know where the cut of a tank top would end or where the hem of a skirt would begin.

“The finger characters themselves were modelled in Maya to look realistic, but with googly eyes and stuck on mouths that we animated to bring their emotions to life. All this detail made it feel halfway between a fun animated film and a puppet show,” Amos said. 

“Because the characters are fingers, we wanted to build the world around them in a way that felt like a miniature set that finger puppets could live in. To give it realism, and add some humour, we made it all look like it was made of paper and cardboard, and even put in flying elements on popsicle sticks, held together with sticky tape,” he added. 

Notably, these simple taps on screens using Grab have contributed to diverting over 8,100 tonnes of waste from landfills and the planting of 200,000 trees, bolstering forest conservation efforts across Southeast Asia.

Australia – Kantar has announced the launch of its new proprietary attention framework. Marrying Kantar’s decades of creative evaluation expertise with the latest technology, the approach uses facial coding to uncover how well advertising content captures the attention of viewers on a second-by-second basis, an essential tool in marketers’ arsenal.

Part of the expansion of Kantar’s creative testing portfolio, the new attention framework gives advertisers a summary of an ad’s ability to capture viewers’ attention, gain a comparison to norms, and access a second-by-second trace to diagnose where attention is retained and lost.

The norms and benchmarks for this new framework are built using Kantar’s expertise in measuring attention and database of 50,000 attention ad tests. The attention framework uncovers whether people pay attention to ads in different media contexts and what creative strengths drive attention, giving advertisers the insights that they need to optimise their ad to improve its ability to engage viewers. 

Said framework is available in LINK+, Kantar’s automated, self-serve or serviced solution for testing and evaluating creative; and Context Lab, Kantar’s digital media optimisation solution.

As part of the newly-launched framework, Kantar is deploying significantly improved attention measurement. The upgraded facial coding technology now includes gaze monitoring components making it more accurate. Advertisers receive measures of both active and passive attention, giving them richer and deeper understanding of how their ads will perform in context. 

Ted Prince, global chief product officer at Kantar, said, “The race for attention is one of the defining challenges of our time for modern marketers. How to capture the attention of viewers amid the myriad of distractions is something that keeps many awake at night. At Kantar, we are using the latest technology in combination with our decades of expertise to tackle these thorny questions.”

He added, “With digital ad spend continuing to rise, it is key that marketers understand how their creative will perform in digital channels. The era of repurposing a TV ad and hoping for the best is over.”

Meanwhile, Sharon Hilton, head of media at Kantar Australia, commented, Attention is a big topic of conversation in Australia as local marketers continue to grapple with ensuring that campaigns cut through.”

She added, “Our 2023 Australian Media Reactions study found that the attention economy was in the top three list of priorities for marketers in 2024 with 41% stating it was a key priority. Almost half of marketers say that attention is an important industry debate (47%) and nearly three in five said that channels where consumers pay more attention was the key factor influencing how to allocate media budget (58%).”

Lastly, Irene Joshy, head of creative at Kantar Australia, stated, “The content maze that we live in has amplified the problem of ‘selective’ attention. Selective attention impacts creative effectiveness adversely. To help marketers navigate this, the development of this new attention metric built into in-context digital testing is revolutionising the way that we measure the relationship between playback, attention and engagement to drive stronger digital ROMI.”