Tag: New office

India – IPG Mediabrands, the media holding company within the Interpublic Group, has unveiled its new global Centre of Excellence in Pune, India, aiming to drive advanced media activation and foster next-generation growth.

Located at the International Tech Park in Kharadi, Pune, the new office will act as a crucial hub for media activation, product development, and engineering, serving over 500 clients worldwide across various industries. It is expected to more than double the headcount over the next two years. 

The new 62,000-square-foot state-of-the-art office features an array of modern amenities, including a rooftop sports area with basketball and tennis facilities, a gym, and a walking track. Additional perks include a crèche for employees’ children, a 24-hour canteen, flexible workspaces designed for collaboration, and dedicated company transportation.

Ankita Agarwal, executive head of global operations at KINESSO, said, “We are thrilled to expand our presence into Pune and create a world-class workplace for our talented team. This office will be instrumental in implementing the highest standards of media activation, enhancing operational efficiency, and delivering exceptional value to our clients.” 

Jarrod Martin, global CEO of KINESSO and Acxiom, added, “We have built a network of global capability centres providing essential services, and India is our single biggest hub market, servicing other countries around the world. By centralising all these capabilities in one location, the Pune GCC will enable us to implement the highest standards of media activation across all campaigns and brands, facilitate shared learnings, and enhance product development. India is a world-leading source of advanced talent, and IPG Mediabrands is committed to tapping into this expertise to elevate our product and service delivery to clients.” 

Meanwhile, Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands India, commented, “The launch of the IPG Mediabrands Pune GCC is a significant milestone in our growth journey, expanding our existing footprint, which already includes offices across Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, and Kolkata. In the last 12 months, we have doubled in size, and with continued growth trajectory, we anticipate India becoming the second largest IPG Mediabrands market by employee headcount over the next two years. This not only underscores our continued commitment to investing in India but also highlights our strategic focus on leveraging advanced talent to drive media innovation.” 

The IPG Mediabrands Pune office is now officially operational and will provide services across diverse areas such as biddable media, analytics, and media operations, with a strong focus on innovation and execution.

Hong Kong – Digital experience platform (DXP) company Magnolia has opened up a new office in Hong Kong, months after its Indonesian office opening. To date, the company has six existing offices in the Asia-Pacific region, namely in Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

Said move will expand the company’s existing efforts in the Asia-Pacific region, strengthen strategic partnerships, establish operations, and accelerate Magnolia’s expansion in the region.

Don Lee, managing director at Magnolia APAC, said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of our Hong Kong office. With a local office, we can take a step up in supporting our domestic and regional clients based in Hong Kong, the Magnolia way.”

Meanwhile, Ben Chen, vice president of consulting for APAC and country manager in Hong Kong at Magnolia, commented, “There is no better time to set up operations in Hong Kong than now. Opening a local office here also provides us the invaluable opportunity to work even more closely with our partners to support our Hong Kong clients such as Livi Bank, SmarTone, Ping An, and many others.”

Magnolia handles several clients in the region, including Toshiba, HiSense, NCS Group, CNN Philippines and SP Group.

Shenzen, China — New York-based creative advertising and digital experience company Stink Studios has opened its second office in China following a period of sustained growth. Located in Shenzhen, the office will be overseen by Ramzi Chaabane, managing director of the company’s Chinese headquarters in Shanghai.

The expansion is due to a deepening commitment to the innovative-focused nature offered by the China market, and the strengthening demand from Chinese tech companies for world-class creative campaigns, design and digital experiences. In addition, Stink Studios also has several high-value clients who have headquarters in Shenzhen, including Tencent, Oppo, and Oneplus.

Being based in New York, the company was early to the Chinese market, first opening its doors in Shanghai in 2015. The creative output of the Shenzhen office will be overseen by Addie Hao, senior creative veteran at Stink Studios, who has relocated to Shenzhen from Shanghai.

Commenting on the opening of the second office in Shenzhen, Stink Studios veteran Hao shared that she’s very happy to bring the good energy from their Shanghai office over to the new location in Shenzhen.

“Being closer to our clients and in the heart of one of the technology capitals of the world is truly amazing. We have been blessed to receive many applications from young designers and developers who were happily surprised to see a leading international creative agency opening in their city,” Hao said.

Bangalore, India – HiveMinds Innovative Market Solutions, the full-service digital marketing and consultancy firm by Madison World, has announced its expansion in Delhi-NCR with a new office in Gurugram.

HiveMinds specializes in performance marketing, display, e-commerce, and programmatic buying. It manages digital mandates for Domino’s, BigBasket, Coinswitch Kuber, and Trell, as well as e-commerce mandates for brands such as Crompton, P&G, and Nivea, as well as Saffola Honey, and Sugar cosmetics, among others.

Following this endeavor, HiveMinds has also appointed its vice president, Mohit Grower, as the new head of the new north branch. Grover brings with him intensive experience across insurance, travel, and entrepreneurial industries.

Commenting on his new role, Grover said “I feel after building businesses in the highly competitive travel industry for over a decade, this will be a great next phase of my career. I look forward to assembling a formidable team and delivering value to our clients in the region.”

Meanwhile, Jyothirmayee JT, HiveMind’s founder and CEO, shared that he is delighted to bring in a leader with high ownership and entrepreneurial spirit as their Delhi branch head.

“With the growing client roster, we feel that a senior team based in the region will be better placed to engage at the strategic level and contribute to overall growth for our clients,” said JT.

Sam Balsara, Madison World’s chairman, said, “With offices opening up gradually, the demand for on-site teams is also coming back. With Mohit at the helm, we’re now poised to expand our presence in North India to attract new clients and service the existing clients better.”

Hong Kong – Superunion, the creative company under WPP, marks its 20-year anniversary in China by announcing the launch of its new office in the city of Shenzhen. Its founding clients will include Tencent, Riot Games, Vivo and Vanke Nantou City, and will be led by Monica Lee, chair of Superunion Asia, and Maggie Chien, business director at Superunion.

The company’s recent works for their Chinese business include partnering with Riot Games to celebrate the 10th anniversary of League of Legends China, and the creative transformation of Nantou City, known as the ancient city of Xin’an and located at the heart of Nanshan District in Shenzhen.

“As the company’s footprint and expertise expand, it is becoming a business not constrained by a specialism, instead acting as a creative partner for the region’s and the world’s biggest businesses across multiple sectors, helping them create meaningful value and change for their audiences and society,” Superunion said in a press statement.

Speaking about their new office in Shenzhen, Lee underpins the technology and innovation in the Greater Bay Area, which will become the region’s version of ‘Silicon Valley’. She added that they have a ‘laser-focused’ vision to build their presence among these new tech companies, who are looking to stamp their name not only in China, but globally.

“They now account for more than 25% of the new tech businesses in the region, and that number is still growing. The common theme with these businesses is their ambition to embrace new ideas. They are no longer looking for traditional agencies who offer standard services – they want partners who can grow with them, and we are perfectly positioned for this,” she stated.

Meanwhile, Benedict Gordon, CEO at Superunion Asia, commented that clients no longer see them as constrained by a specialism, but as a partner that can help them with a wide range of needs in order to create meaningful value and change for their audiences and society.

“Our ethos revolves around being a revolutionary creative company and the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is very much where many of China’s revolutionary creative businesses are born, providing incredible opportunities for us in areas like technology, AI and biotech. Superunion is the first brand company to have a presence across all of Greater China’s major geographies, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and now Shenzhen, so this is an exciting and symbolic milestone for us,” Gordon explained.

He added, “Brands now understand and embrace this change and especially in a post-pandemic world, want to make an impact. Businesses really succeed when they integrate business goals and ambitions with a clear brand strategy that they bring to life. This is where Superunion has really come into its own and where we see the opportunity for further growth, globally.”

New Delhi, India – The Indian arm of digital production company MediaMonks, through a new partnership with video game company Epic Games, has sought in investing for a new office in New Delhi, India, which will help to attract new talents for the company.

The envisioned new office will be a new 8000 square feet studio, with three smaller studios featuring state of the art equipment and facilities to allow COVID-safe shoots. The studio will also have features including a full sensor camera, live tracking devices, and LED Panels for filmmaking with Unreal Engine, Epic Games’ developed game engine.

“We are planning to be at the forefront of the APAC region for high-end shoots as well as shoots using Unreal Engine,” said Robert Godinho, managing partner at MediaMonks.

Through Unreal Engine, MediaMonks’ artists can digitally swap out assets, change backgrounds, color schemes instantaneously creating multiple versions of the same product in a revolutionary turnaround time, without needing to shoot the physical assets. 

According to Tim Dillon, SVP for growth at MediaMonks, the game engine utilization is in response to the increased demand from their clients and partners to explore innovative solutions that enable real-time interactive 3D production using technology like Unreal Engine.

“As our pipeline expands globally, we’re upskilling and scaling our teams around the world to meet client demand in this rapidly expanding category, from product virtualization to virtual production,” Dillon stated.

In line with MediaMonks’ promise of harnessing the power of data and technology to fuel and inform creative content, the global team is reinventing the use of this gaming software to bring real-time filmmaking, visual effects, previsualization, virtual production, and CG animation together. 

Godinho also stated that part of their utilization of the Unreal Engine from Epic Games’ grant is its implementation across clients for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.

“The aim is to take these learnings and apply them to an end-to-end product shoot for a real product with a side-by-side comparison of a virtual production versus a live production. The side-by-side comparison will determine best use cases, ease-of-use/integration on set, visual equality and flexibility; the financial efficiencies; and, most importantly, the final image outputs,” Godinho concluded.

Australia – Allied Global Marketing, America-based global full-service integrated marketing agency, has opened a new office in Sydney, Australia, to support its existing operations and expand its business in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

The Sydney opening emphasizes the importance of APAC to the agency’s global clients, and it will facilitate the development of new business in the market. With Allied Global Marketing now executing campaigns across six continents for many of the world’s major media companies, the new office will also provide the agency’s existing and future global clients with support across all time zones.

Following this endeavor, the agency has also appointed industry veteran Jamie Crick as its new managing director for the APAC team. Crick has previously worked as the head of distribution and analysis at the creative agency Emotive, where he created and delivered innovative and award-winning campaigns for brands such as telecom giant Optus, meal-kit provider HelloFresh, and Amazon’s online audiobook and podcast platform Audible, as well as Google, among others. He will report directly to Adam Cunningham, the chief global strategist of Allied Global Marketing.

Commenting on his appointment, Crick said that he is very excited to help brands in the region take full advantage of Allied’s uniquely focused smarts in achieving measurable business returns.

”The opportunity to partner with clients in verticals I’m so passionate about – and to drive genuine performance across the spectrum of their paid, owned, and earned activity, both strategically, creatively, and via media – is what jumped out to me about Allied,” said Crick.

Meanwhile, Cunningham shared that they are thrilled to welcome Crick to the team as he will be integral in leading the agency’s efforts in the APAC market, saying that Crick will bring strong leadership, a proven track record, and deep relationships, which will prove invaluable as they expand the business in the region. 

“Having him on the ground will provide existing clients with additional local resources and expertise while providing the agency with the opportunity to seek new business and partnerships,” added Cunningham.

APAC – EternityX, a Chinese AI-empowered marketing technology platform, has announced a new office opening in Sydney, Australia, as part of its overall strategic expansion across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

EternityX is a Chinese AI marketing technology platform that uses multi-dimensional audience profiling to understand audience needs throughout the consumer journey, reaching them through premium sites and apps programmatically. The platform helps marketers build a business intelligence strategy targeted at increasing the brand-consumer value and maximizing campaign effectiveness.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, the new Sydney office adds to its current operations, which currently spans Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in China as well as New York and Singapore. The Sydney location will pursue business growth and strategies across APAC, focusing on connecting brands and consumers through cross-border, cross-culture e-commerce and service offering initiatives, such as advanced education, between China and Australia.

The company expansion is led by Richard Andrew, managing director of Southeast Asia and Australia, and will be locally managed by Luke Bussell, director for ANZ. In line with the expansion, EternityX has also appointed Tony Skvarc as the sales director for ANZ to work alongside Andrew and Bussell on Chinese consumers and data-driven campaigns.

Founder and CEO of EternityX Charlene Ree stated that the planning of EternityX expansion in Australia is an important strategic market and one of the key cornerstones in expanding across the APAC region, as 2020 has been a difficult year for businesses of different sizes navigating through the pandemic.

“Australia has a vibrant community of 1.2 million Chinese Australians. With this move, we strengthen our position as the cross-cultural and cross-border bridge connecting regional and global brands with not only the mainland China market, but with local Chinese communities abroad,” she said.

Meanwhile, Andrew commented, “The Chinese media landscape is complex and ever evolving and companies need help staying on top of the best ways to reach their targets.”

EternityX has already performed campaigns for brands such as Richemont Group, LVMH, Hilton, L’Oréal, as well as P&G, and HSBC.

Auckland, New Zealand – B2B data and marketing solutions Selling Simplified Group (SSG) has announced that it will continue its expansion in the Asia Pacific region with the opening of its Auckland, New Zealand office. The latest office marks the sixth new APAC location for the company in three years.

SSG carries a number of proprietary MarTech solutions such as Visionayr, Demandcentr, and Integrated Programmatic, providing demand generation and data enrichment services.

It has been servicing New Zealand clients since 2017 by way of its Sydney location, and the company said that the expansion to Auckland is in line with its efforts to hyperlocalize services, where a fully local staff has been adopted.

VP of Global Sales Charlie Whife said, “The addition of the New Zealand office really brings our plans full circle for the ANZ market as a whole. New Zealand offers excellent talent as well as local customers with a different perspective and ambitions for us to help them achieve,”

According to a press statement, Whife is set to build a fully operational team in the country, bringing in seasoned sales executives by September 2020, and by early 2021, local creative and operations personnel. 

Before the start of 2021, SSG is said to add two more openings to its roster of APAC locations.