Tag: Media agency

Australia – Regional food company Goodman Fielder has expanded the remit of media agency Initiative to now include retail marketing business, traditionally the domain of the business’ sales division.

Previously, Initiative was the media agency of record for Goodman Fielder, where it focused on the company’s above the line (ATL) media, including strategy, planning, buying, implementing and reporting. 

Work on the retail marketing side of Goodman Fielder’s media account commences immediately with first campaigns expected in market by the middle of the second quarter.

Jo McAlister, managing director at Initiative Sydney said the fundamental shift in the way Goodman Fielder is approaching its brand and retail trade marketing is a gamechanger; and Initiative’s team is thrilled to have the ability to take a more universal approach to investment, allowing best practice of having ATL, at-shelf and at-home to seamlessly work together.

“Combining brand and retail has been proven to provide Goodman Fielder with the strongest integrated media product possible. The work we collectively delivered for the widely recognised ‘Wonder Recycling Rewards’ campaign shows the closer these two worlds are, the stronger the results,” he explained.

McAlister also commented that it has also astounded them that less than 5% of retail media investment is managed via media agencies, a statistic Australia is lagging behind mature markets, and they feel it’s an untapped opportunity for brands to create an unfair advantage.

“We will harness the full capabilities of Cartology, Coles 360 and others, while leveraging our ATL media partners, to create a true consumer-first end-to-end solutions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Christine Fung, chief marketing officer at Goodman Fielder, commented, “Taking a holistic approach to our media and retail investment strategy has proven to deliver results for us, and we are delighted Initiative is our partner on the next stage of our growth journey as we accelerate our approach. We can’t wait to see what amazing results we can achieve as a team.”

Singapore – Global brand publishing agency Green Park Content (GPC) has recently rebranded to Greenpark, with its rebrand effort focused on purpose and performance-driven content.

The new update comes in line with the agency’s goal of gearing up for hyper-growth of its business, talent, and clientele in the global market, as well as being able to help more brands explore and fully embrace their purpose through its data-driven, omnichannel approach to drive quality consumer engagement, spike conversions, and achieve commercial objectives.

Parallel to its rebranding effort, Greenpark’s innovation and strategic diversification now extend to the latest in artificial intelligence. Its generative AI creative solution enhances content output while delivering time and cost savings for clients. By marrying state-of-the-art marketing tech with human expertise, Greenpark cements its status as a brand publishing pioneer—and a purveyor of award-winning content.

Moreover, the agency has also built a dedicated insights division integrated with its established SEO expertise to drive impactful strategies across search and social to deepen cross-platform audience insights.

For Sven Lung, founder and CEO at Greenpark, the rebrand effort aims at strengthening their competitive brand proposition.

“By leveraging our creative, strategic and technical expertise to double down on purposeful content that makes a difference in people’s lives, we can help more brands live their purpose through digital channels to drive quality engagement with consumers, higher conversions and achieve commercial objectives,” Lung said.

He added, “As a business culture, we strive and act together in our ambition to make a positive impact for the people and brands we serve, we do everything with kindness at the core – these are the values that guide us at Greenpark.”

Australia – Home appliance brand Bosch has appointed Mediahub as its new media agency of record for Australia and New Zealand, with strategic planning across both markets commencing immediately with the first campaigns expected in the market by mid-year.

Through the mandate, Mediahub will be responsible for all media strategy and buying across all platforms for Bosch’s entire appliance portfolio, including kitchen, dishwasher, and laundry appliances.

Mediahub’s Executive Director for APAC, Andrew Livingston, said Bosch was ‘drawn to the agency’s highly strategic approach to brand growth, combined with its global-scale tools and technology.

“In our solutions we always look to push further, perform better, delivering media experiences that influence behaviours and create an emotional connection with customers. Bosch aims to continue its journey of digital transformation and was seeking an agency to help leverage all digital platforms in more innovative and intelligent ways, which is exactly the proposition we offer here at Mediahub,” he said.

Livingston added, “Bosch and the BSH family of brands is a highly respected global company and we are excited to be partnering with them on the next phase of their marketing journey.”

Meanwhile, Roberto Finamore, head of marketing at parent company BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, commented, “We were wholly impressed with the team’s strategic thinking, collaboration, and approach to our brief plus the agency’s extensive experience in running multi-market campaigns in APAC and specialised expertise in New Zealand. We are looking forward to working together and watching how their expertise translates through their media systems and processes to take our business forward.”

Pakistan – Telecommunications firm Telenor in Pakistan has appointed Mindshare as its media agency for both traditional and digital marketing. With the partnership, Telenor will be leveraging Mindshare’s expertise in media, digital, and buying.

Agha Zohaib, managing director at Mindshare Pakistan shared his excitement over the partnership. “We are truly honored to be appointed as Telenor’s media agency in Pakistan. This provides us with an incredible opportunity to work with one of the most robust telcos,” he said.

He also added that the partnership seems “promising and passionate” with both companies’ tech-driven and agile mindsets.

Meanwhile, CEO of Mindshare Asia Pacific Helen McRae also commented, “Our ambition of connecting data to good growth for our clients is at the heart of our partnership with Telenor. We look forward to propelling Telenor to even greater heights.”

Mindshare is a part of GroupM and one of the largest media buying house in Pakistan. The company was also previously appointed by MasterKong Beverage as its agency of record in China.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Media agency Wavemaker has won the mandate for Danone’s specialised nutrition business in Malaysia. This follows after the agency also scoped the global media account from the global food company last year.

Yee Pek Kuan, marketing director for Malaysia and Singapore at Danone, said, “Overall, Wavemaker Malaysia stood out in every aspect of our ask, from their strategic approach to understanding our business to their robust media pricing. We’re excited to partner with Wavemaker.”

Meanwhile, Sheley Lim, general manager at Wavemaker Malaysia, commented, “This was special for us, our approach was to provocatively think of the needs of the client and business and build tailored solutions to those needs. We will continue to push the boundaries and evolve the business together.”

Lastly, Gordon Domlija, CEO at Wavemaker Asia-Pacific said, “What a fantastic way to start the year! We pride ourselves on being a genuine partner to our clients, supporting their current and future business ambition. Through this pitch process we were inspired by the strong collaboration and openness to our passion and ideas, we are now excited to bring this to life through tangible business results for Danone across South East Asia.”

Most recently, Wavemaker Asia-Pacific welcomed Jenny Pham as its new APAC media lead for Colgate-Palmolive.

Singapore – Initiative, the media agency under IPG Mediabrands, has appointed Niranjan Singh as its new head of communications in Asia-Pacific. In his new role, he will champion the application of best-practice approaches, techniques and solutions for modern experience design.

In addition, he will drive the connected communications design practice across key clients and sectors for Initiative APAC.

Singh will report to James Smyllie, president of Initiative APAC and is currently based in Mumbai, India prior to transitioning to the Initiative APAC regional headquarters in Singapore. His appointment is effective immediately. 

He has more than 16 years industry experience in strategic media planning and buying, and was previously the head of AOR at Mediacom Indonesia, leading the P&G business for three years.

Prior to that, he spent six years at GroupM, working across leading brands such as Colgate Palmolive, GSK and FrieslandCampina in India and Vietnam.

Speaking on his appointment, Singh said, “I’m thrilled to join Initiative APAC. Initiative’s unique proposition of achieving Cultural Velocity™ in the media-fragmented world to deliver real business growth and success for brands, was the big pull factor for me. I’m super excited to become a part of the team that has been winning Global businesses back-to-back.”

Meanwhile, Smyllie commented, “We are delighted to be attracting talent like Niran to Initiative. This hire reinforces our key focus on enhancing our Craft capabilities across APAC, and driving a consistently world class product throughout the region.”

The new Initiative appointment follows a slew of appointments made by agencies under the IPG Mediabrands company in APAC, namely the appointment of MBCS’ Olivia Warren to its Australia executive team, as well as of Sarah O’Leary and Tom Cumberworth for Initiative’s Rufus, the dedicated media and communications for Amazon.

Singapore – Global food and beverage company PepsiCo has appointed Publicis Media as its media agency in Southeast Asia. As part of the mandate, Publicis Media has created PLUS+, a bespoke business solution.

PLUS+ is a dedicated business unit, creating an ecosystem of media, creativity, and technology for positive impact on business outcomes. In addition, it unlocks growth in the dynamic marketplace with consumer centric solutions and transformational, data-driven capabilities. 

“The purpose-driven operating model is people-first, with positive shared values underpinning a modern way of working,” the agency further describes it.

Lilly Yip, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo APAC, said, “We would like to thank the incumbent team at Mindshare for their years of work as well as our agency partners that participated in the review. Publicis Media was selected after a very thorough and competitive pitch process. Their expertise in the areas of importance to our business, like data, digital, analytics and commerce saw them emerge as our partner of choice.”

Meanwhile, Amrita Randhawa, CEO of Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia, commented, “We are excited to be appointed PepsiCo’s media partner in this very dynamic and fast-growing region. We really respect the process that PepsiCo ran for its thoroughness and desire to discover the best from the agencies participating. Our entire team is incredibly motivated by the opportunity to create industry-leading work for these iconic brands in the future.” 

Melbourne, Australia – Winemaking company Accolade Wines has appointed Havas Media Melbourne as its media agency, and will be managing its wine brands such as Grant Burge, Hardys, Petaluma, St Hallett, Croser, Houghton, Jam Shed and Yarra Burn.

The scope of work covers media strategy, planning and buying across the entire portfolio of brands and includes planning and buying for global campaigns off the back of early exceptional results from the agency.

Jack Glover, marketing director at Accolade Wines, said, “As we continue to stretch our marketing and digital capability at Accolade Wines, it was vital that we found a strategic media partner who intrinsically understands the complexity of today’s media market.” 

He added, “We were impressed by Havas’s ability to apply our own category insights with their audience and market expertise and tools to deliver unique and forward-thinking strategic solutions. We are incredibly excited about this partnership and look forward to delivering some game-changing campaigns with the team at Havas Media.”

Meanwhile, Naomi Johnston, general manager at Havas Media Melbourne, commented, “We’re incredibly thrilled to be working with Accolade. From day one of the pitch process, we were blown away by the thorough briefing process and collaborative approach to planning led by a clearly very talented marketing team. Since being appointed we’ve felt very much the trusted partner whose experience and expertise in the category has been incredibly valued.”

She added, “We’re looking forward to a long and collaborative partnership, delivering great business results across Accolade’s prestigious portfolio of brands both locally and internationally.”

India — Carat, the media agency from dentsu India, has bagged the media mandate for Croma, an Indian retail chain of consumer electronics and durables from the house of Infiniti Retail. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced from the agency’s Mumbai office.

As per the mandate, Carat India will oversee the brand’s media planning and buying rights – including traditional and digital. The agency will also partner with the larger teams at dentsu India to drive the full-funnel marketing needs of the client, further driving outcome-based solutions for the next phase of their exponential growth, keeping customers at the core of its planning and execution.

Commenting on the win, Anita Kotwani, CEO of Carat India, said, “We are backed by a consumer understanding proprietary framework, Designing for People, which is strong and always relevant. It is inspired by design thinking which enables us to help brands with an in-depth understanding of their consumers.”

She adds, “Our single-source consumer-connected system is the key differentiator in the Indian market. It has the ability to drive full-funnel client outcomes. Our ability to stay ahead of the curve in the tools and tech space by showcasing a unified holistic view of the consumers has been a key tenet that helped us clinch the business.”

Meanwhile, Shibashish Roy, chief business officer of ecommerce and marketing for Croma – Infiniti Retail, commented that they are expanding their presence in India by strengthening their omnichannel proposition with digital initiatives and aggressive store expansion plans. Roy adds that they’re looking forward to working with Carat India as their media planning partner to build on the Croma brand further.

Mumbai India — With increased competition across dominant social platforms like Facebook, resulting in a higher cost per lead (CPL), automotive brand ŠKODA AUTO India tapped PHD – its media agency partner and part of the Omnicom Media Group network – to optimize campaign efficiencies and generate a higher number of average daily leads at reduced CPL from its Facebook campaigns.

ŠKODA AUTO hoped to reach a broader and more profiled set of audiences via Facebook – car owners, first-time car buyers and enthusiasts alike, to generate qualified leads that can be converted down the consumer journey. The automotive brand faced a challenge with its objective of optimizing performance in terms of cost per lead efficiently. Manoeuvring on Lifetime Budgets at CBO instead of Daily Budgets at ABO was a hurdle it was looking to overcome whilst optimizing daily lead count and maintaining scale.

To streamline efficiencies across campaigns, the two companies collaborated with Pixis – whose powerful AI infrastructure helps make marketing effortlessly intelligent, agile and scalable for brands. Pixis deployed its Governance AI system, which uses AI models trained with billions of data points to allocate the bid budget on a daily basis dynamically.

With its data-driven recommendations, Pixis’ AI supported PHD Media in delivering sharper results on ŠKODA AUTO’s KPIs – helping the auto brand make the leap in its performance marketing campaigns. Upon implementing the recommendations to optimize lead generation, ŠKODA AUTO India was able to reach the desired high-quality audiences at the right time.

The results outperformed the quality of leads coming into the system, increased savings in terms of prospects, increased the average daily leads by nearly 17% for ŠKODA Superb and improved the CPL by approximately 10%. Similarly, the campaign around ŠKODA’s avant-garde Octavia also gained a 28% increase in average daily leads with Pixis’ AI infrastructure helping scale the campaign by almost 25%.

Speaking of the collaboration, Bharat Khatri, chief digital officer for Omnicom Media Group APAC, said, “With innovation and creativity at its core, PHD Media believes that the key to a cookie-less future lies in leveraging the right technology stack and interpreting a combination of different approaches to support all the key tasks around audience selection, targeting, governance, personalization, and most importantly, measurement.”

Khatri added, “With Pixis’ AI, we were able to bring down our acquisition cost drastically while maintaining scale. Pixis’ easy-to-use AI plugin helped our team deploy advanced people-powered, supervised AI and ML models that improved our cost per lead by 10% and also increased average daily leads volume by 17%.”

Meanwhile, Tarun Jha, head of marketing for ŠKODA AUTO India, shared, “With an infinite number of customer touchpoints today, reaching out to the right people at the right time remains imperative. We’re pleased with the campaign results and look forward to exploring more such opportunities with Pixis, guided by the counsel of our partners – PHD Media.”

Speaking on the collaboration, Neel Pandya, CEO of Pixis for Europe APAC, said, “We’re extremely happy to see how PHD Media leveraged the Pixis AI infrastructure to garner incredible performance on ŠKODA AUTO’s latest marketing campaigns. It’s a moment of true excitement and honour to continue working with PHD to facilitate greater business growth for ŠKODA, and other clients, through our AI systems.”