Tag: Omnichannel

Taipei, Taiwan – Digital out-of-home (DOOH) media owner Solmate Media has tapped programmatic DOOH adtech company Hivestack to be its partner to distribute programmatic DOOH in Taiwan, offering local and global brands, agencies and omnichannel demand-side platforms (DSPs) the opportunity to purchase and activate DOOH inventory.

The partnership, a first for the Taiwan market, will be instrumental in driving adoption of programmatic DOOH in the Taiwanese market. Solmate’s advanced and interactive digital screens will benefit agencies and omnichannel DSPs in monetizing their premium DOOH inventory leveraging custom audience and omnichannel targeting via the Hivestack SSP.

To date, Solmate currently has 6,000 premium digital screens in high-end hair salons across Taiwan, with plans to increase this to over 10,000 by the end of 2022. In addition, Solmate screens are enabled and integrated within the customer mirrors at leading hair salons, meaning dwell time is upwards of 60 minutes, which gives advertisers an opportunity to target audiences with non-skippable video content.

Yaw Ren Tsai, CEO at Solmate Media said, “We are very pleased to be partnering with Hivestack in Taiwan and look forward to expanding our DOOH presence in the local market. By leveraging Hivestack’s market-leading technology and our network of premium DOOH screens, we can raise awareness for the programmatic DOOH channel and connect better with the global marketplace.”

Meanwhile, Troy Yang, managing director for North Asia at Hivestack commented that this partnership is an exciting moment for them in time to be announcing their first Supply Side Platform (SSP) partnership in Taiwan – the initial step in the firm’s market launch. 

“Solmate Media is an ideal partner with their network of screens in premium hair salons, offering unparalleled targeting capabilities for both local and global advertisers. Hivestack is pioneering the Taiwan market for programmatic DOOH and we are thrilled to be increasing premium inventory supply, providing our demand partners the opportunity for outside-in buys into Taiwan from around the world, globally,” Yang said.

Toronto, Canada – Global advertising marketplace Index Exchange has announced a brand refresh, revealing a new logo as well as significant updates to its visual identity. The company said the changes signify a new direction for Index, repositioning the company as an efficient omnichannel exchange. 

Together, the updated logo and visual brand communicate the idea of growing collectively with the industry, with a mission of accelerating the ad technology evolution towards total market efficiency, and further connecting media owners and buyers in a seamless fashion. 

“Throughout our company’s history, we’ve consistently led change and embraced the ability to pivot towards what’s next, leading our industry in delivering transparency, safety, and control to our customers. This evolution of our company will bring those same efforts to additional channels and formats, and our updated exchange and brand are reflections of this next step in our story,” said Lori Goode, chief marketing officer at Index Exchange.

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Part of the brand refresh as well is a restructuring of the company’s entire exchange architecture, debuting a modern, scalable exchange that provides increased efficiency for the company’s customers, as well as an ability to scale and innovate in new channels and formats. 

Layered within the platform is a newly rebuilt predictive intelligence engine, enabling Index to better align supply with the right demand and minimize wasted volume to benefit media owners, buyers, and DSPs. The modernized exchange will also allow Index to accelerate the development of omnichannel solutions for its media owner and buyer customers. 

“Our transformed exchange architecture is a critical step in accelerating the industry, especially as we prepare for a world without third-party cookies and accelerate into new channels and formats. The stakes have never been higher, and we remain committed to helping our customers not only embrace, but lead change for the long-term as we navigate the continued evolution of our industry,” said Andrew Casale, president and CEO at Index Exchange.

The updated exchange will allow the company to deploy features for Index’s customers faster than ever before and seamlessly handle the billions of transactions the exchange processes daily. Layered within the platform is a rebuilt predictive intelligence engine, enabling Index to better align supply with the right demand and minimize wasted volume to benefit media owners, buyers, and DSPs. The modernized exchange will also allow Index to accelerate the development of omnichannel solutions for its media owner and buyer customers. 

Index Exchange’s presence in the Asia-Pacific include Tokyo, Japan and Sydney, Australia.

Singapore – CREA, the one-stop omnichannel solution for brands established by Lazada co-founders, has recently secured a US$25m investment from SuperOrdinary, the global distributor of leading beauty brands. SuperOrdinary will be taking a minority stake in the SEA-based commerce enabler, and within this, the two announced that it will be developing a new cross-border global platform network.

SuperOrdinary’s portfolio includes beauty brands Drunk Elephant, Malin + Goetz, The Ordinary, and Supergoop!, among others. The new global platform network will allow each company’s respective portfolio to expand into new markets. 

The partnership means consumers in Thailand and Southeast Asia will have an increased choice of global beauty brands to choose from when shopping. CREA said that brands will also benefit from easier regional market entry via a single solution. 

Aimone Ripa di Meana, CREA’s co-founder, said that Southeast Asia presents a unique opportunity for global brands with young digital-savvy consumers increasing their consumption power and avidly engaging with global trends through digital media. 

“Entering these markets with a digital-first approach is key and CREA is uniquely positioned to enable this opportunity with an omnichannel strategy,” di Meana said. 

CREA Co-Founder Alessandro Piscini added, “CREA has built a unique value proposition through our proprietary technology, CUSP, logistics infrastructure, and a world-class team that makes entering Southeast Asia simple for global brands.”

CUSP is CREA’s omnichannel technology platform which carries business insight, order management, purchase management, and catalogue management capabilities. 

Julian Reis, CEO and founder of SuperOrdinary, commented, “Digital commerce in Southeast Asia is experiencing an unprecedented boom and CREA’s team has played an integral role in allowing its portfolio of more than 70 prominent lifestyle brands to capitalize on this trend.”

CREA started in Thailand in 2019 with current presence expanding to Malaysia and Singapore. The company said it’s eyeing to open in Vietnam, Indonesia, and The Philippines in the near future. 

Singapore – Global media and tech company Yahoo has delivered its first ever digital out-of-home (DOOH) omnichannel campaign for global asset and wealth management company Schroders. This marks the first time both brands have tapped into programmatic DOOH for their omnichannel campaign in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

The campaign, called ‘Beyond Profit’, leverages programmatic DOOH complemented by mobile retargeting capabilities over Yahoo’s omnichannel demand-side platform (DSP) to increase brand awareness, engage the right audiences, and influence consumer behaviors.

The campaign was launched across digital screens in Orchard and the Central Business District (CBD). Leveraging Yahoo’s omnichannel DSP and programmatic tools, the campaign sought to increase exposure and awareness for Schroders’ sustainable investment products and capabilities. 

“Programmatic DOOH is shaping the future of OOH, bringing the benefits of digital channels to the traditionally place-based medium and significantly lowering costs and barriers to entry typically associated with OOH media buys. Now, advertisers can combine the high impact of DOOH, in high-footfall locations, into omnichannel campaigns that are agile and scale quickly, reaching their audiences in hyper-targeted ways that seamlessly complement their daily habits,” shared Carol Tay, senior director sales for Southeast Asia at Yahoo.

Tay also added that as people in Singapore venture out and movement patterns evolve, advertisers are looking for the ability to buy across multiple channels, formats, and screens, to reach and connect with the right audiences effectively. She also said that they look forward to working with advertisers on omnichannel, data-driven, hyper-targeted, measurable, and flexible campaigns that leverage the power of DOOH.

Meanwhile, Jerry Low, head of marketing for Southeast Asia at Schroders, commented, “At Schroders, we are always looking for fresh and innovative ways to connect with our audiences as we seek to make an impact through sustainable investing. Working with Yahoo on our first DOOH-led omnichannel campaign has allowed us to connect with our target audience effectively and impactfully – ensuring that they hear our message. The omnichannel campaign from DOOH to mobile provided quality and meaningful connections, through an integrated experience, that was easily scalable for growth.”

The omnichannel campaign utilized mobile retargeting to close the loop and drive click-throughs to Schroders’ website where audiences could find out more about their sustainability products and capabilities. Audiences at 38 DOOH screens across key locations in Singapore that would have seen Schroders’ DOOH ads were also served native and display ads through Yahoo’s DSP.

Singapore – CapitaLand Investment, the leading global real estate investment manager with a strong Asia foothold, and Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, today announced the launch of the second edition of the ‘CapitaLand x Shopee’ 11.11 campaign. The inaugural edition of the campaign was launched in 2020 similarly for the 11.11 sale event of Shopee, and the two aim to replicate the project which had driving the omnichannel model at its heart. 

In 2020, CapitaLand and Shopee launched an integration of online and offline shopper engagement for the campaign to drive sales, traffic, and engagement for six CapitaLand malls through gamification. Following this, in early 2021, Capitaland also launched the virtual shopping mall of its outlet giant IMM on Shopee, making it the first virtual shopping mall from Singapore on the platform. 

For this year’s 11.11 sale event, both partners will be recreating the omnichannel experience for 29 retailers in eight CapitaLand malls over a period of three weeks, from 22 October to 11 November 2021. CapitaLand and Shopee are also bringing back the popular co-branded games from last year’s 11.11 campaign, where shoppers can participate and win attractive vouchers that can be used in-app and at participating physical stores including Toast Box, LiHO, Etude House, and Giordano.

On the continuation of the partnership, Chris Chong, CEO of retail & workspace for Singapore and Malaysia at CapitaLand Investment, said, “This will allow us to enhance retailers’ consumer outreach and further engage with their customers digitally while driving footfall to their physical stores through online marketing efforts.”

From 22 October to 11 November 2021, S$125,000 worth of ShopeePay Scan and Pay vouchers, Shopee vouchers, and eCapitaVoucher will be given in the CapitaLand Lucky Prize game on the Shopee Singapore app. The ShopeePay Scan & Pay vouchers can be redeemed at eight CapitaLand malls, namely Bedok Mall, Bugis+, Bugis Junction, IMM, Funan, Plaza Singapura, Westgate, and JCube. 

Shoppers visiting any of the eight malls can simply scan the QR code at participating merchants and malls to play the ‘CapitaLand x Shopee’ Lucky Prize game and win ShopeePay Scan & Pay voucher to pay for their purchases using ShopeePay at 29 participating CapitaLand merchants’ offline stores. 

Shoppers can also try their luck in the ‘Guess the Weight’ campaign every weekend over the campaign period to win up to S$22,000 worth of eCapitaVoucher and Shopee vouchers. To participate, shoppers can proceed to the atrium of three shopping malls on selected weekends – Bugis+ on 23 and 24 October, Westgate on 30 and 31 October, and Plaza Singapura on 6 and 7 November – to guess the weight of five unexpected combinations of products, where one of them is the combined weight of a Dyson vacuum and a feather. Contestants must get the closest answer to qualify for the prizes.

Zhou Junjie, Shopee’s chief commercial officer, commented, “Following the success of last year’s CapitaLand x Shopee 11.11 campaign, we are excited to join hands with CapitaLand once again to support even more retailers under CapitaLand’s network by digitalizing the shopping experience.”

Zhou Junjie adds, “Shopee has always been passionate about empowering our sellers and brand partners to unlock the full potential of e-commerce to succeed in today’s digital economy. Through this omnichannel integration, we hope to help retailers deepen engagement with new customers, through an exciting and rewarding experience.” 

To find out more about the campaign, shoppers can head to the campaign’s microsite which will go live on 22 October. 

Sydney, Australia – Market measurement firm Nielsen in Australia and adtech PubMatic have recently announced a new data collaboration, which now makes Nielsen’s audience data now available to PubMatic’s Audience Encore™ product, allowing advertisers to buy premium omnichannel inventory layered with quality data for precision targeting and better performance.

PubMatic’s Audience Encore™ is an audience platform designed for marketers to transact on unique, addressable audience data across premium omnichannel inventory.

Through the data collaboration, brands can benefit from PubMatic’s extensive reach, enabling advertisers to engage audiences wherever they may be across all digital channels. Furthermore, brands may now access Nielsen’s premium audience data, along with insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and purchasing decisions. 

Nielsen’s rich audience data has a unique breadth and depth and includes proprietary fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) data, credit card transaction data, psychographic data, intent, and interest data.

For Daisy Smith, associate director for Nielsen Marketing Cloud at Nielsen Australia, brands are constantly competing for consumers’ attention, hence audience data and insights play a significant role in engaging consumers when they are most receptive to advertising.

“With the widespread adoption of premium programmatic deals, the need to package high-quality datasets with premium inventory is bigger than ever. The partnership between Nielsen and PubMatic provides marketers with a high level of consumer intelligence while optimizing their advertising investments across all the touchpoints on the consumer journey,” Smith stated.

In a statement, Nielsen stated that their data layered onto PubMatic’s Auction Packages or private marketplaces (PMPs) may benefit advertisers by giving them the ability to leverage data and contextual targeting across premium inventory. 

“This can enable advertisers to identify and buy media with the publishers that attempt to attract the most suited, addressable audiences for each brand. This gives advertisers the opportunity to reduce wasted ad spend and focus budget on premium inventory, maximizing the effectiveness of campaigns,” the company said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Peter Barry, regional director for ANZ and head of audience for APAC at PubMatic, commented, “With Nielsen data available through PubMatic’s Audience Encore, our clients can expand their media campaigns and reach new, highly targeted audiences. Our goal is to fundamentally change the way marketers and data owners transact on audience data by giving more control to the data owner and better return on investment (ROI) for the advertiser. For retail brands, this provides an exciting opportunity to engage consumers in the run-up to key shopping periods, such as Black Friday and the run-up to Christmas, to ensure they are top-of-mind when consumers look to purchase.”

The data collaboration recently follows the partnership between NielsenIQ and experience management (XM) company Qualtrics in aiding to create comprehensive brand experience solutions for brands.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – SleekFlow, the Hong Kong start-up that provides an omnichannel social commerce platform to companies, has announced that it will now be expanding its business to SEA markets Malaysia and Singapore. This follows its recent funding that has raised a 7-figure MYR in a Pre-A round investment from Gobi Partners China (Gobi), the investment manager of Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund (AEF).

SleekFlow helps companies manage communication channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, as well as Line and Live Chat, among others, through an all-in-one social messaging platform. It helps streamline sales, customer support, and marketing workflows while integrating with over 2000 tools, including e-commerce platforms and payment gateways, to automate the whole customer journey with ease.

According to Henson Tsai, the founder, and CEO of SleekFlow, there are about 8-10 unicorns in Hong Kong but very few selling SaaS products. Tsai said that SleekFlow aims to be a world-renowned Hong Kong SaaS brand which is why it has decided to first expand to Southeast Asia first and “then to the world.”

“SleekFlow is missioned to realize the full potential of social messaging for business all over the world,” said Tsai.

He adds, “First, I would like to express my gratitude towards the Gobi for believing in SleekFlow. Aiming to scale the height in the Southeast Asia Market, we will set up new teams in Malaysia and Singapore, where people rely heavily on WhatsApp.”

According to the platform, it has, within a year helped users across over 20 countries, with annual recurring revenue of 7-digit USD.

2020 was the year when Direct to Consumer (DTC) achieved mainstream status, with renowned brands like Adidas, Kraft, Heinz, and PepsiCo shifting to a DTC-first model. The appeal of DTC is not only that it puts control back in the hands of brands but it also allows brands to have a 360-degree view of the customer, at every touchpoint, offering more opportunities to connect through tailored and personalized customer experience. Powered by the rise of e-commerce platforms, social media, connected devices, and channels, digitally native brands now have multiple pathways to build customer loyalty.

According to GlobalData, the e-commerce market in Australia has been on a high growth curve for the past few years, and the COVID-19 outbreak is further set to boost e-commerce sales in the country with the e-commerce market value predicted to grow from $47B in 2020 to over $77B by 2024.

The rising appetite for online shopping is driving brands to increase their digital presence, and the increasing demands have also raised expectations when it comes to customer experience (CX). About 73 per cent of consumers expect brands to understand and cater to their individual needs.

If brands want to adopt a DTC strategy, and do it well, data-driven CX has to be at the core of their marketing strategies.

Achieving real impact through CX

In traditional retail, wholesale manufacturers sell through retail distributors with little control over how the product is sold – where exactly it is placed in the store, how much information salespeople share about the product, and whether the customer is satisfied with the overall shopping experience. The brand experience is no longer standalone but instead depends on the retail experience. If the latter is unpleasant, the customer’s frustration will likely get projected on the brand itself and may even prevent a sale.

In contrast, a DTC approach allows brands to have complete control over their product lifecycle, marketing, and every moment of engagement. Since they are so close to the process, they have first-party data to connect with prospects and customers on a one-to-one basis, at every touchpoint. Customers expect DTC brands to use that data to enhance and personalize CX, regardless of the channel that they are using at any given point in time.

Those touchpoints live in a vacuum, and marketers have the advantage of leveraging customer data to guide changes to their marketing strategies and create a frictionless experience for the customer. DTC players know when, where and how consumers engage with their brands and the effect of each touchpoint. In other words, they have the information necessary to power ultimate personalization.

Managing omnichannel transitions

However, DTC isn’t the be-all and end-all of success. Consumers are demanding a holistic omnichannel experience, and this includes traditional, bricks and mortar retail. The demand for an omnichannel experience fits with the nature of convoluted modern shopping and ever-changing consumer behavior as around 73 percent of people now demand the convenience of an omnichannel approach for their shopping journey.

Moreover, from a business and sales standpoint, giving the consumer more flexibility drives revenue growth and retention from the added convenience of a consistent omnichannel experience such as allowing customers to visit a retail location before purchasing online or giving them the option to buy online and collect in-store. According to research by V12, retailers with omnichannel strategies have a 91 percent greater annual customer retention rate.

If brands choose to go this route, it is imperative for every step of omnichannel journeys to contribute to a positive and seamless overall experience – including the physical ones. This can only be achieved when all systems and marketing programs are communicating with each other to ensure that each interaction informs, and is informed by, every other interaction in real-time.

However, brands won’t be able to create touchpoints that are deeply engaging, one that demonstrates attentiveness to customer needs and preferences, and one that rewards loyalty with increasingly compelling experiences, unless they invest in their data. Data holds the keys to defining customer journeys, discovering pain points, and optimizing and integrating experiences across channels, in real time, to better understand and serve customers.

As consumers globally continue to live with uncertainty amid the pandemic, their purchasing behavior becomes more unpredictable. Adopting or transitioning to a DTC model, while delivering consistent and exceptional data-driven CX will help brands and marketers accommodate unforeseen consumer behavioral changes and capture more market share.

Brands that want to capitalize on this eCommerce boom need to engage directly with their consumers to future proof their businesses against the evolving market, changing trends, and the impacts of the pandemic.

This article was written by Robin Marchant, head of marketing at Shopify for APAC.

Shopify is a global commerce company, headquartered in Canada, which provides tools for businesses to start and grow their brands.

Sydney, Australia – The Australian arm of out-of-home (OOH) advertising company JCDecaux has announced a new programmatic offering across its clients, in which the offering will be supported by the company’s newest hires and appointments.

The new programmatic offering called ‘JCDecauxPROGRAMMATIC’ will offer brands access to OOH with control and flexibility. Advertisers and agencies can execute and optimize campaigns in real time, with the company guaranteeing supply for programmatic advertisers, setting aside at least 5% of its digital networks to be published via its exclusive supply side platform (SSP), VIOOH.

JCDecaux’s sights are set on programmatic making up 2% to 4% of digital revenues in 2021 and 15% by 2023.

“Programmatic out-of-home is now part of the broader digital universe, sitting alongside programmatic online in omnichannel buying platforms. This gives us an opportunity to take a share of the US$9.5B invested in digital media in Australia each year,” said Steve O’Connor, CEO of JCDecaux ANZ.

As part of the wider programmatic offering, JCDecaux Australia has also announced new appointees namely Cassandra Cameron, who has been promoted into the expanded role of executive general manager, revenue strategy and operations; Brad Palmer as national programmatic director; and Kasey Climpson as programmatic operations manager.

Prior to their new positions, Cameron has worked with media company APN Outdoor as national training director and as a member of the DOOH council of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Meanwhile, Palmer has worked as the national programmatic manager at both digital publisher Allure Media and youth media group Pedestrian Group, and Climpson has worked with APN Outdoor as well as campaign delivery executive.

“Programmatic out-of-home used to be just an idea, now it’s a reality and we are excited to be the pioneers in Australia. Our business is primed and ready to change the conversation, giving advertisers a solution for buying out-of-home that’s as easy, and as sophisticated, as web or mobile audience buying. By reducing operational barriers, we anticipate a range of new advertisers will leverage the power of this valuable channel,” Cameron stated.

In regards to their appointments, O’Connor said that these changes align the talent’s organization’s aim to deliver on their business strategy.

“Our unique programmatic offering changes the way advertisers can plan and transact out-of-home and reflects our strong commitment to growing the Out-of-Home channel and leading through change,” O’Connor stated.

“Today, more than ever, our clients look to us to understand the future, and the future is now. Advertisers can be confident that when they plan a programmatic Out-of-Home campaign with JCDecaux they will have access to Australia’s most desirable outdoor formats and locations, whenever they choose to be active,” Cameron added.

APAC – Dentsu has recently been appointed by William Grant & Sons, an independent family-owned distiller and global distributor of Scotch whisky, to be its agency partner. This comes as the company concludes in 2020 the consolidation of its APAC business.

The appointment will see dentsu driving omnichannel marketing for William Grant & Sons, focusing on connections planning, digital acceleration, and driving media effectiveness and efficiency across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

According to Susie O’Donoghue, global head of communication strategy and planning at William Grant & Sons, the company has an established global relationship with dentsu and after engaging with the APAC team during the chemistry meeting, they were impressed with their well-rounded thinking, demonstration of planning capability, as well as expertise in driving omnichannel thinking. 

“Throughout the engagement, dentsu demonstrated an in-depth understanding of our consumer landscape, ever-evolving media, and tech ecosystem. Most of all, we like that they have expertise working with clients in the alcohol and spirits business. We look forward to partnering with dentsu to drive growth for our brands in APAC,” said O’Donoghue.

Meanwhile, Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of Media at dentsu APAC, shared that they have been working with William Grant & Sons globally, saying that they are delighted to have managed to expand their partnership within APAC.

“By understanding our consumers’ world digital-first, we are able to unlock new growth opportunities at every stage of the consumer journey. For William Grant & Sons, this has translated into a full digital transformation project as we look to support them in their omnichannel, ‘people first’ future. We are excited to work on iconic William Grant & Sons brands and delighted to partner them in their omnichannel journey here in APAC,” added Mehrotra.