Tag: official launch

Bangkok, Thailand – Today, the airasia Super App has officially launched its e-hailing service, airasia ride, in Bangkok, Thailand. The debut comes shortly after airasia ride announced that it will expand its operations in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the coming quarters. Thailand becomes the second country for airasia ride’s ASEAN expansion, and will offer taxi rides as part of its first phase of entry into the market.

The latest ride in town was officially launched by Amanda Woo, CEO of airasia Super App, Ben-Jie Lim, Head of Delivery airasia and Nirada Tuckawarut, Head of airasia ride Thailand today with a flag-off of airasia ride’s taxi convoy. 

There are currently 3,000 drivers registered with airasia ride in Bangkok, with plans to recruit more as the service expands across the city. 

In line with the aim to capture the international tourist riders market, the next provinces which airasia ride aims to expand to are holiday destinations such as Phuket and Chiang Mai. 

Amanda Woo, CEO of airasia Super App commented, “We are very excited for the launch of airasia ride here in Bangkok today, as it completes the whole airasia Super App ecosystem. Now, an airasia Super App user arriving in Bangkok will have the full end-to-end experience, where they are able to book their flights, hotels and ride to their final destination all within the convenience of one single platform. Since our successful super app launch here in February, we have seen an increase of 53% in new users, mainly driven by our OTA platform, which is our core business and we expect continued healthy growth of new users with the launch of airasia ride today. 

“Congratulations to the whole airasia ride team in Thailand for working hard to get this service up and running by this quarter, and we look forward to serving more provinces across the country soon,” added Amanda. 

Nirada Tuckawarut, head of airasia ride Thailand, shared, “As we are starting off with taxi service for airasia ride, we are targeting to capture 70% of international tourists arrival into Bangkok, especially with the reopening of borders and resumption of travel post-pandemic.”

“The differentiation that airasia ride will offer is the option for passengers to have options to book our English-speaking drivers community and a fleet of new taxis which will ensure a pleasant travel experience for tourists in Bangkok while using airasia ride. And of course, we also prioritise the drivers’ income opportunity and are happy to share that airasia ride taxi drivers take 100% of the fares they earn, as we do not impose the booking fee on drivers. Furthermore, passengers can be confident when booking airasia ride as our fares are transparent, so come and experience an airasia ride and see you on one of our rides soon,” Tuckawarut added. 

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Chiew Shan Lim, Regional CEO of airasia ride, shared how airasia ride looks to disrupt e-hailing as it marks regional expansion, Lim said that the company isn’t looking to compete with other competitors like Grab and Gojek in Indonesia, but rather they aim to disrupt the market by filling in the gaps that current players are missing.

“Our mission why we started is we see opportunity in the market and we see that the drivers’ welfare [is] not really really taken care of and customers are being thrown with crazy prizes during traffic jams,” Lim said.

Sydney, Australia – Former Havas Co-maker’s founder, Tim Rasbash, and Adhesive PR’s founder and managing director, Mike Maurice, have joined forces to launch a new ambassador, advocacy, and influencer agency, Yellow.

Rasbash, who is responsible for co-founding One Green Bean and Havas’ social influencer division, met Maurice while working on mutual client Dyson ANZ. Years later after identifying a gap in the market, the duo set out to redefine the often grey area of influencer and ambassador marketing with their latest agency offering. 

The new influencer agency, which was launched with foundation clients Sony Electronics and employment marketplace SEEK, aims to combat inauthenticity in the social influencer and ambassador space. It was created with the objective to combat the increased lack of trust within the social influencer industry. Moreover, Yellow will be setting out to facilitate deep, multifaceted relationships between brands and talent, creating partnerships that seek out genuine brand fans.

Rasbash noted that their agency sets out to offer bespoke solutions to brands that help them harness the full potential of social influencers, creators, and talent by ensuring they are the real deal. 

“We called ourselves Yellow as it is the color of friendship. This is exactly what we’re driven to create between brands and their partners. We want them to step away from the one-off highly scripted and transactional-based agreements, into richer, more mutually beneficial relationships,” said Rasbash.

Meanwhile, Maurice commented, “We’re witnessing a steady rise in the social commerce space, and by designing an agency that is anchored in authenticity and true relationships we’re setting a new benchmark for what client success can look like in this area.”

Yellow announced that it will operate independently from Adhesive, while working collaboratively across a number of shared clients.

Singapore – The automobile giant based in Germany, Audi, has just announced that it will be virtually launching its ‘Skysphere’ concept, the brand’s first member of its new family of three concept cars, at the ‘Celebration of Progress’ online broadcast, which will be held on 11 August 2021 at 1:00 am SGT across Audi’s social media pages. 

According to Audi, the new ‘Skysphere’ concept’s electric-powered, convertible roadster reveals what the future holds for the brand’s design, while its interior is an interactive space, and the vehicle is an experienced device itself – embedded into a digital ecosystem.

During the online broadcast, Hildegard Wortmann, the board of management member for sales and marketing at AUDI AG, will be providing a look at how Audi is driving the brand’s transformation and shaping the world of premium mobility. 

Meanwhile, Henrik Wenders, Audi Brand’s head, will be explaining the focus on the interior concept and the holistic digital ecosystem for a new onboard vehicle experience. 

And lastly, Audi Designer, Gael Buzyn, will be offering insights into the design process and explain the details of the Audi ‘Skysphere’ concept at the world premiere from the company’s recently opened design studio in Malibu.

The ‘Celebration of Progress’ online broadcast will be running in several channels, namely, progress.audi, Audi YouTube channels, and The AUDI AG LinkedIn page, as well as Audi China channels.

Sydney, Australia – Agnes Media, the measurement-first media agency, has recently launched in Australia, with global payment and shopping service Klarna as a foundation client. The new agency is founded by Charlotte Ward, former marketing consultant at marketing analytics company Insighten.

Agnes Media specializes in working with clients that have aggressive growth and measurement goals, helping them optimize their digital marketing campaigns and improve return on investment and advertising spend. The new media agency offers performance media strategy, planning, buying, and campaign management, as well as analytics, SEO, and creative design services.

Fintech giant Klarna has been working closely with Agnes Media on performance media management since 2020, with a specific focus on co-branded retail activity and shopper insights. Besides Klarna, the new media agency is also working with various brands both locally and globally.

Its founder Ward has previously worked in media across Australia, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. She previously held roles at advertising platform Amobee, airline company Qantas, and media agency DWA Sydney, as well as marketing company OMD, among others. Ward decided to launch Agnes Media after a period of freelancing and building her own client base.

Commenting on the newly launched media agency, Ward said that having consulted across a number of businesses, it was clear to her that there was a real opportunity to zero in on performance media and maximize digital media campaigns’ effectiveness. 

Ward further shared that her goal is to help clients realize their digital marketing objectives, and she said the agency is a fully transparent one where clients own their data. Where Agnes Media comes in is providing them real-time reporting dashboards that pull in platform data from a range of sources for reports that align campaign performance and actionable insights that can be shared across the business.

“We’re delighted to have been working with Klarna to provide performance media and analytics. They’re such a dynamic brand; and being able to create truly flexible, scalable, easily-optimizable campaigns has been a massive benefit to their business. The best part, we’ve been able to provide our clients with meaningful, actionable insights that they’re now using to iterate and define future campaigns,” added Ward.