Tag: Partnership

Manila, Philippines – Global marketing and communications company Stagwell has added Octopus&Whale, a Philippines-based game and brand experience design agency, to its growing Global Affiliate Network to bolster full-service and specialty digital solutions for clients across Asia-Pacific.

The partnership comes as Stagwell accelerates its commitment to growth across Asia, anchored by its regional offices in Singapore and Malaysia, and over 25 affiliate partners in Asia to date.

This partnership also coincides with Octopus&Whale’s fourth year, having expanded its client base to include some of the Philippines’ most iconic names in business, such as SM, Meralco, NutriAsia, Unilab, and Philippine Airlines.

As the country’s only brand experience agency with a focus on gaming, they aim to complement the full-service of creative, media and digital services offered by Stagwell.

Talking about the partnership, Joey David Tiempo, founder and CEO of Octopus&Whale, said, “Through our partnership with Stagwell, we see endless opportunities to amplify our creative vision and reach untapped markets that could benefit from our specialty digital capabilities. We are excited to collaborate with other players in this tech-first network and be the guide for businesses who want to explore the gaming space.”

Meanwhile, Randy Duax, managing director, Asia-Pacific for Stagwell, commented, “Tiempo and the entire Octopus&Whale team strive to exceed client needs while pushing boundaries across immersive experiences. We’re pleased to partner with them and bring their expertise in the fast-growing gaming and experience space to larger clients in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.”

This addition of Octopus&Whale serves to reinforce Stagwell’s offering of agile global solutions for clients, with Stagwell further aiming to partner with more regional experts to scale marketing capabilities to new regions.

Singapore – Global PR and social media agency W Communications has announced its latest appointment by VP Bank, strengthening its banking and finance portfolio in Asia.

Following a competitive pitch, VP Bank will now consolidate its PR and social media scope across Singapore and Hong Kong with W Communications, ensuring a refined approach to building and reinforcing the brand’s story and positioning.

As part of the brief, W Communications will continue to amplify the bank’s key narratives and thought leadership content to increase the brand’s share of voice and engage the relevant audiences of financial intermediaries and private clients.

The engagement will also further solidify W Communications’ corporate offerings, building on its past and present partnerships with some of the most notable corporate institutions including Tricor, Microsoft’s Xandr, Crossbridge Capital, BASF and more.

Talking about this acquisition, Kenneth Chew, account director, W Communications, said, “In the highly competitive wealth management space, it is critical for pure play banks such as VP Bank to demonstrate their agility and customised approach to clients in order to stand out and be the bank of choice for financial intermediaries and high net worth individuals.”

“Our team’s experience in the financial sector provides us with this nuanced understanding of the markets, enabling us to communicate the bank’s key messages to its stakeholders through a well-rounded approach that encompasses market technicalities and overall branding”, he added.

Australia – Eyeota, a Dun & Bradstreet company and a global data source for digital marketing, has announced a partnership with Vistar Media, a global provider of programmatic technology for digital out-of-home (DOOH). Buyers using the Vistar DSP will be able to use Eyeota audience data to create and target DOOH campaigns, increasing outreach and maximising media investments.

Advertisers may now improve campaign targeting across Vistar’s extensive network of outdoor digital inventory by integrating Eyeota audience segmentation into the Vistar DSP. This includes bus stops, airports, street furniture, billboards, and a host of other venues that allow advertisers to connect with consumers several times during their everyday lives.

Marketers working with Vistar Media and Eyeota audiences now have the opportunity to expand their audience-targeting efforts into a broader programmatic environment. Through this agreement, advertisers can effectively reach their target audience and maximise their DOOH investment through a holistic omnichannel digital marketing experience.

With the Vistar DSP, advertisers may leverage Eyeota’s vast audience data, which covers more than 30 verticals and seasonal events, to obtain insightful and practical targeting choices. By doing this, advertisers may align their DOOH campaigns with specific ownership, interest-based, behavioural, demographic, or employment sectors. This allows them to target the right audience with relevant messages at the right time.

As the industry increasingly adopts audience targeting strategies, Eyeota and Vistar Media lead the way, enabling advertisers to capitalise on the potency of data-driven insights and execute more effective and impactful DOOH campaigns. This partnership represents a significant milestone in the evolution of programmatic DOOH advertising, allowing advertisers to seamlessly activate Eyeota audience segments within the Vistar DSP.

Speaking about the partnership, Trent Lloyd, head of APAC at Eyeota, said, “Brands can now easily streamline audience targeting efforts, delivering personalised messages aligned with specific demographics and behaviours. It’s truly a game changer for advertisers to make the most out of their DOOH ads and drive engagement with the right customers in today’s fast-changing world of outdoor digital advertising.” 

Meanwhile, Ben Baker, Vistar’s APAC managing director, expressed, “We are thrilled to partner with Eyeota to provide our clients with best-in-class audience data for their DOOH campaigns. With Eyeota’s comprehensive audience targeting capabilities, advertisers can now optimise their programmatic DOOH campaigns, driving greater engagement and ensuring their messages resonate with their intended audiences.” 

Singapore – Vonage, a worldwide cloud communications company that helps organisations accelerate their digital transformation and a subsidiary of Ericsson, announced today a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This collaboration seeks to speed up the availability of innovative solutions to millions of developers on AWS Marketplace.

In this partnership, Ericsson’s 5G network capabilities and AWS services will combine with Vonage’s platform, which offers communications APIs and network APIs that interact with CSP networks. Customers will be able to use the network for innovation and improve their overall customer experience thanks to this connection, which will enable AWS and Vonage to develop a variety of solutions. 

Vonage Fraud Protection will soon be available on the AWS Marketplace and will consist of multiple parts. These include the Fraud Defender solution powered by AWS generative artificial intelligence (AI) services, the Vonage CAMARA-based API SIM Swap (which will be in alpha upon release), and the Verify and Number Insights APIs paired with Amazon Rekognition. Vonage hopes to accelerate the market rollout of network API capabilities by continuing to build solutions such to this one with this improvement. 

The SIM Swap network API is intended to allow developers to determine, among other things, whether fraudulent behaviour was engaged in the recent SIM card transfers of a phone number. Vonage’s new Fraud Defender API is designed to identify fraud signals in advance, and its Verify API makes secure, silent authentication easier. The Vonage Number Insights API also has the ability to score fraud.

With the use of AWS generative AI services, our solution’s fraud detection skills will be further improved. Businesses will be able to improve customer satisfaction while strengthening their defences against mobile fraud thanks to this connection. 

Speaking about the partnership, Kathrin Renz, vice president of AWS Industries, said, “AWS and Vonage have a shared passion for helping customers deliver innovation and value. Working together with Vonage, we aim to drive new industrial and enterprise applications across industries that combine 5G networks and technologies like generative artificial intelligence to fuel new products and enhance the overall customer experience.” 

Meanwhile, Niklas Heuveldop, Vonage CEO and head of business area global communications platform for Ericsson, stated, “By working with AWS, we will accelerate our ability to embed communications and network APIs in applications and deliver new product offerings for AWS and Vonage customers. With network APIs, we are exposing new capabilities from within the 5G network that have never been available before, allowing existing applications to be enhanced with network information and enabling the development of a new class of applications.” 

Speaking about the fraud detection, Nick Laidlaw, chief technology officer at Voicify, said, “Voicify already integrates Vonage’s communications APIs into our conversational AI experiences tailored for the restaurant industry. With the new Fraud Protection Solution that includes AWS and the addition of network APIs, such as SIM Swap, we can enhance the level of security we offer for SMS and telephony, ensuring transactions are secure and valid and reinforcing our commitment to providing a trusted conversational AI service.”

Singapore – The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and travel platform Traveloka have signed a new one-year Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC), renewing their longstanding partnership to elevate visitor experiences across Southeast Asia.

The MOC reflects both parties’ commitment to innovation and regional travel recovery, moving beyond the confines of marketing campaigns and placing focus on data sharing, new product introductions, and enhancement of visitors’ travel experiences across multiple SEA markets.

In this new partnership, STB and Traveloka will work on targeting consumers through insights and data sharing. Both parties will exchange insights to develop more targeted promotional campaigns and tailored travel experiences that can drive impactful outcomes.

Additionally, both parties will also explore the introduction of new Singapore products and experiences on Traveloka’s platform.

STB’s MOC with Traveloka further underscores its commitment to promoting its ‘Made in Singapore’ campaign that highlights the unique and unexpected experiences one can only encounter in the country.

Through the partnership, STB will introduce new avenues for personalised and tailored experiences that elevate travel experiences and showcase Singapore’s diverse offering to a wider audience.

The MOC signing marks a joint commitment between STB and Traveloka to invest in marketing initiatives that focus on Indonesia and expand to Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Among these marketing initiatives are hosting influencer familiarisation trips and developing video assets for digital and social media production.

The signing ceremony was officiated by Melissa Ow, STB’s chief executive, and Caesar Indra, president of Traveloka.

Speaking on the partnership, Indra said, “Singapore holds a prominent position as one of the top outbound destinations, as we saw a notable rise in search and transaction for all products from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines of nearly 80% during 2023 compared to the previous year.”

“We are excited to continue our partnership with STB to bring greater value to our customers. We are committed to providing more benefits and fulfilling consumers’ holiday aspirations, including their Singapore vacation plans, and this collaboration marks an exciting chapter in enriching experiences for our customers,” he added.

Terrence Voon, executive director of Southeast Asia at STB, also said, “Traveloka has been an important and valued partner since our first collaboration in 2019. As travel continues to recover in the region, our partnership will help to unlock the rich tourism potential of Southeast Asia, help us understand our customers better, and strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading destination for regional travellers.”

Prior to this partnership renewal, STB previously partnered with Traveloka and Trans Digital Media in 2022 for its ‘SingapoReimagine’ recovery campaign that welcomes Indonesian travellers to Singapore after the pandemic.

Sydney, Australia – News Corp Australia has signed a new multi-year agreement with technology platform Outbrain to elevate audiences’ online news experience across the news publisher’s digital properties.

News Corp Australia will leverage Outbrain’s Smartlogic, an AI-powered recommendation technology, to improve the online content discovery experience and how audiences explore and consume media across their digital platforms.

Outbrain’s advanced publisher suite, including its monetisation, audience development, and total revenue optimisation technology, will be integrated into News Corp Australia’s expansive online portfolio to enhance the content recommendation experience on high-traffic sites like news.com.au and taste.com.au.

Through this collaboration, advertisers can also gain new opportunities to reach a more diverse and engaged audience with Outbrain’s network for content discovery.

Combining News Corp Australia’s premium publisher content with Outbrain’s expertise in predicting engagement, the agreement aims to deliver enriched digital experiences to audiences that also drive sustainable, year-round revenue growth.

The collaboration builds on Outbrain’s market-leading network of publishers in Australia, which includes major Nine Entertainment properties, Daily Mail Australia, and Australian Community Media, further solidifying its position in the Australian market.

Eve Solomon, vice president and managing director of publisher business development at Outbrain, commented, “This collaboration with News Corp Australia is a monumental milestone for Outbrain. It epitomises our commitment to innovating and growing alongside leading media houses.”

“We are thrilled about the opportunities this opens up for advertisers aiming to reach premium audiences. Our advanced predictive technology, combined with News Corp Australia’s extensive online footprint, will usher in a new chapter of digital excellence and audience engagement, creating meaningful experiences for readers and advertisers in the Australian market,” she added.

Also speaking on the deal, Paul Blackburn, director for commercial data video and product at News Corp Australia, explained, “Outbrain’s sophisticated technology, experience, and focus on audience engagement complement our vision for growth and innovation. We are delighted to be working with them and eager to see the positive impact it will have on our digital platforms.”

Australia – Brand Metrics, a global technology company that specialises in digital advertising for publishers and broadcasters, has announced a collaboration with Paramount ANZ. The partnership aims to introduce brand lift measurement technology on a large scale, meeting the demands of a rapidly changing media landscape. 

Paramount ANZ has chosen to integrate Brand Metrics’ measurement platform to improve the validation and amplification of connected TV (CTV) advertising within the broader marketing mix. Marketers who use Paramount ANZ channels may now use Brand Metrics’ new solutions to validate and improve the effectiveness of their CTV advertising campaigns.

The brand impact study, which was conducted in collaboration with the independent advertising platform Innovid, is expected to provide valuable insights into brand and business key performance indicators (KPIs) obtained from connected TV (CTV) commercials broadcast on Paramount ANZ channels. Viewers interact with the campaigns by delivering real-time survey replies and feedback via their remote controls.

Rod Prosser, chief sales officer at Paramount ANZ, said, “Proof of performance is a key pillar in our strategic approach for 2024. The industry is shifting towards an outcome-based approach, so there’s an expectation that effective marketing is built on understanding what’s driving results.” 

He added, “We’re closing the loop for marketers by providing more meaningful metrics that demonstrate the role and power of CTV advertising within their marketing mix and empowering them to respond to trends and insights to achieve business outcomes.”

Meanwhile, Elwin Gastelaars, chief revenue officer at Brand Metrics, stated, “Paramount ANZ is committed to delivering measurement at scale, with consistency and methodological accuracy – arming its team with data-led evidence to inform planning. Using such tools to measure effectiveness sets Paramount ANZ apart, providing a unique opportunity for advertisers to drive efficiencies and deliver on brand outcomes.” 

“Brand lift data can help to open up additional opportunities which speak to the many wants and needs of audiences. We are delighted to work with such a prestigious partner; empowering it to gather independent data which enables its team to measure uplifts in awareness, consideration, preference and action intent,” Gastelaars added. 

Philippines – Goodday, a cultured milk drink brand owned by Asahi Beverages Philippines which is distributed by Universal Robina Corporation in the Philippines, partnered with Appetite Creative, a creative technology firm, to create a vibrant and engaging linked packaging experience. 

The partnership allows the web app to track interactions in real time, including purchasing patterns, product preferences, average engagement times, location, scan rates, number of visits, number of return visits, and social media shares. Through the process, personal data that comply with GDPR is collected, enabling the business to enhance its marketing tactics and obtain a more profound understanding of consumer behaviour.

Additionally the partnership unveils a web app-based connected experience accessed through QR codes, registered customers of the Goodday drink smart packaging campaign can win instant rewards. One winner (out of three total) will be selected from each of the campaign’s major draws, and they will each get an all-expense-paid trip for four to Japan, which includes round-way airfare, lodging for four days and three nights, a one-day tour package, and spending money. Additional prizes include a Nintendo Switch Lite, fifty Goodday gift pack winners, P10,000 in GCash Credits, and P1,000 in GCash Credits.

Every Goodday 80ml and/or 350ml bottle variety, which is distributed in supermarkets, convenience stores, and sari-sari stores around the Philippines, is eligible to enter the prize draw. Goodday’s Facebook and Instagram social media accounts also provide access to the QR code. The campaign is expected to last through the end of March.

Speaking about the campaign, Hemalatha Ragavan, CEO at Asahi Beverages Philippines, said, “This campaign is designed to reward our customers with some amazing prizes. Goodday is always looking at creative and fun ways to engage and reward our consumers and this partnership with Appetite enabled us to do just that.” 

Meanwhile, Jenny Stanley, managing director at Appetite Creative, said, “Connected packaging offers brands fun ways to interact directly with customers. From instant rewards and competitions to education and inspiration the opportunities are truly unlimited. It’s great to see the Goodday brand tap into this versatile media channel.”

Singapore – FairPrice has launched a new campaign in time for the Chinese New Year celebration, which brings to life the story of the ‘Dragon in the Great Race’ to portray FairPrice’s role in Singapore’s Chinese New Year celebrations.

FairPrice and creative agency Homeground United bring back to life the story of the Great Race from ancient Chinese mythology. They represent the generosity, sharing, and inclusivity of the Dragon spirit in their campaign, displaying a touching parallel.

The campaign film tells the story of the Dragon in the Great Race in an attempt to commemorate those who contribute to the feasts and reunions, the movie aims to capture the helping essence of the dragon. It invites viewers to welcome in the New Year by embracing and spreading the Dragon spirit.

The Great Race, a story from Chinese mythology, tells of twelve animals racing to meet the Jade Emperor and claim their places in the Chinese calendar. These twelve animals eventually became the twelve zodiac signs that are used today. Though the Dragon was meant to take first place, the real victory was demonstrated by deeds of kindness and giving, which brought the Dragon to fifth place.

Speaking about the campaign, Loo Yong Ping, deputy executive creative director, TBWA\Singapore, stated, “FairPrice as a brand has always been dedicated to extending a helping hand to make lives better for the people. The brand’s role in the community has always been significant, and especially so during festive seasons. When we dove into cultural truths of Chinese New Year, it was inspiring to find similarities between the Dragon and FairPrice.” 

Meanwhile, Joyce Chen, managing director, eg+, expressed, “We are proud of the close partnership between FairPrice and Homeground United which fuelled this 360 campaign. From cultural insights to execution, the campaign story was crafted to reconnect audiences to FairPrice’s brand ethos. The trust and strong collaboration between client and agency were the building blocks of this success, breathing life into a message that’s both relevant and impactful for audiences this Chinese New Year.” 

Furthermore, Alison Ee, director and head of customer and marketing (retail business), FairPrice Group, said, “As Singapore’s leading homegrown retailer, FairPrice stays committed to our social purpose in easing consumers’ cost of living and serving the community. The Dragon spirit resonates well with our everyday purpose to serve Singapore with essentials at great value in the hope that we give every one more reasons to celebrate this Chinese New Year.” 

China – JD.com (Jingdong) has announced its partnership with UK-based parcel delivery company Evri to empower and enable the further growth of British and European businesses in the Chinese market.

The newly-inked partnership aims to assist European businesses selling their products on JD.com’s marketplace.

JD.com will enhance its pick-up service to European and UK businesses, including local pick-ups, warehousing, international transportation, access to Chinese bonded warehouses, customs clearance, and comprehensive delivery across China.

Additionally, JD Logistics will leverage Evri’s local distribution network and their self-operated overseas warehouses to provide integrated warehousing and comprehensive delivery solutions to their clients in Europe.

Combining JD.com’s advanced e-commerce capabilities with Evri’s extensive delivery network, this partnership is set to offer a more seamless and efficient gateway for European businesses to access and promote to customers in China.

Moreover, Evri’s partners will also have access to valuable insights on the Chinese market. This includes data on consumer behaviour, marketing and pricing strategies, product selection advice, and online operational strategies that are only specific to this market.

The partnership will initially focus on areas where JD.com has substantial insights in terms of customers’ shopping preferences, such as in the beauty and apparel sectors.

David Saenz, chief growth officer at Evri, said, “This is an exciting partnership between Evri and JD.com and a powerful testament to the growing synergy between the UK and Chinese economies. By combining our expertise and resources, we’re supporting the growth of British businesses in new markets and also fostering sustainable growth for both Evri and JD.com. We’re confident that this collaboration will pave the way for a vibrant future of innovation and collaboration in the e-commerce landscape.”

Meanwhile, Qun Xue, vice president of JD.com and head of JD Logistics International, shared, “By integrating Evri’s extensive delivery network with our cutting-edge e-commerce and logistics solutions, JD.com is enhancing our service capabilities in Europe and simultaneously offering European brands a direct and efficient pathway to the expansive Chinese market. This partnership underscores our dedication to building a robust global logistics network and our commitment to the success of international brands.”