Tag: Partnership

Jakarta, Indonesia – Southeast Asia’s e-commerce merchant services technology platform, Ginee, has partnered with fashion e-retailer ZALORA to help merchants drive traffic and maximise revenue on their product-level pages on Ginee. This collaboration is part of Ginee’s mission to integrate with multiple marketplaces and e-commerce platforms to help businesses grow sales and manage their stores efficiently.

Ginee provides a SaaS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform to help online sellers easily manage day-to-day operations and customer relationship management via multiple marketplaces, as well as offering warehouse management services (WMS).

Meanwhile, ZALORA is an e-commerce platform focused on fashion, beauty and lifestyle, carrying products from over 3,000 international and local brands. It has established a presence throughout the region, particularly in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Sely Adelina, brand acquisition associate manager at ZALORA, noted that their easy API integration with Ginee will accelerate digitalisation and e-commerce growth in Indonesia and across SEA, especially post-pandemic. 

“As a leading fashion and lifestyle e-commerce pioneer in the region, we’re excited to help online sellers on Ginee tap into this growing pool of digital, mobile-first shoppers who are looking to buy not just daily necessities but also online fashion, beauty and lifestyle products,” she said.

Meanwhile, Evelyin Wu, Ginee’s head of SEA, commented they are very excited about this partnership with ZALORA, the leading fashion e-commerce pioneer in this region. 

“Through our integration with ZALORA, we enable thousands of online sellers on our Ginee ERP (Enterprise Resource Platform) platform to run and manage their business easily and efficiently through a single platform, from CRM and order/inventory management to sales reports and accounting and even to warehouse management and last-mile delivery,” said Wu.

Just recently, Ginee has also partnered with TikTok Shop to provide a new online shopping experience for brands and merchants to reach their consumers through TikTok Shop, an exclusive and innovative marketplace where entertainment meets commerce that is fully integrated into TikTok, bringing together online sellers, buyers, and creators.

Beijing, China – Integrated communications agency WE Red Bridge has been appointed by Cytel, the provider of statistical software and advanced analytics for clinical trial design and execution, as its communications agency of record in China. The appointment, which will be led by Martin Xu, WE Red Bridge’s director of technology, comes at a time of significant growth for the agency.

As part of the remit, WE Red Bridge will be supporting Cytel’s launch in China, and handling stakeholder engagement and media relations activities. The agency will also be bolstering the company’s position as a statistical innovation leader in the biopharma clinical research sector through thought leadership and experiential programs. In addition, WE Red Bridge will be supporting Cytel’s initiatives in complex and adaptive designs, as well as expanding the industry-leading East and Solara platforms for clinical trial strategy and design.

Jing Ping Yeo, Cytel’s vice president and head of APAC, noted that Cytel’s mission is to help biotech and pharmaceutical leaders unlock the power of data to solve their toughest problems and make evidence-driven decisions with confidence.

“WE Red Bridge’s emphasis on data-driven intelligence and extensive media relations experience makes the agency an ideal partner for introducing Cytel to the Chinese market,” said Yeo.

Meanwhile, Tony Zhang, general manager of Beijing and head of corporate at WE Red Bridge, said, “The intersection of health and technology is at the centre of the global pandemic response, and we have seen how quickly the ecosystem must adapt to change. Martin and his team bring the expertise, strategy and nuance necessary for today’s complex healthtech needs. We look forward to helping Cytel accelerate its growth in China.”

Earlier this year, WE Red Bridge has also been appointed by automotive brand McLaren in China as its communications agency of record. This appointment will see WE Red Bridge supporting the automaker’s growth in China by increasing brand equity and exposure in the country.

New York, USA – The ANA Global CMO Growth Council (ANA), a partnership between ANA and Cannes LIONS that represents over 1,200 chief marketers worldwide, has partnered with global marketing insights company WARC and LIONS, the home of creativity, to launch a unique long-term research partnership that will create a global framework that guides and supports brands in ‘Cracking the Code of Creative Effectiveness’. 

The initial goal of this project is to address both the culture of effectiveness within organisations, as well as the elements of campaign effectiveness. Other fundamentals of effectiveness, aligned with the ANA Global Growth agenda’s Brand, Creativity & Media pillar, will be incorporated into the creation of the roadmap and foundation for the practice.

Using insights from the ANA, WARC & LIONS, and leveraging work from award-winning marketers over the course of the next twelve months, this partnership will work together to create a framework CMOs and brands can follow to establish a culture of both effectiveness and creative excellence leading to long term success for their businesses. The partnership hopes to leverage peer-to peer-learning, case studies, events, and forums to investigate and benchmark the internal beliefs, organisation structures, and creative frameworks that consistently produce the highest level of creative work and effective culture.

As part of the partnership, the ANA and WARC will also conduct an extensive worldwide qualitative study amongst CMOs to identify the elements of a culture of effectiveness and jumpstart the industry moving towards more effective marketing. The study will build on the existing Creative Effectiveness Ladder, developed by WARC and LIONS, a framework to understand how to utilise creativity to drive specific marketing outcomes.

To kick-start the project, on-stage interviews were conducted at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity at the WARC session ‘What Does it Take to Build a Culture of Creative Effectiveness’ moderated by Harjot Singh, global chief strategy officer at McCann Worldgroup with Joan Colletta, global brand marketing and global creative effectiveness program lead at McDonald’s, and Qaiser Bachani, global head of digital COE and Europe consumer experience lead of Mondelēz International. 

The further insights will be presented at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference from 25 to 28 October 2022.

Nick Primola, EVP and head of Industry Leadership and CMO Practice at the ANA, head of Global CMO Growth Council, said, “Creativity is key to unlocking the energy within brands in order to advance business growth and societal good. This partnership activates all the right stakeholders to truly ‘crack the code’ on creative effectiveness and ultimately drive the industry forward.”

Meanwhile, Simon Cook, CEO of LIONS, shared that LIONS powers global best practice in creativity and they know through analysing years of Lion-winning work that creative effectiveness drives business growth and societal change. 

“Through this partnership with WARC and the ANA, we will support the acceleration of effectiveness in creative work, by reaching the broadest breadth of the global industry, underpinned by the data and insights collated through the Creative Effectiveness Lions award and the accompanying Creative Effectiveness Ladder,” said Cook.

Paul Coxhill, CEO of WARC, noted, “The aim of this partnership is to drive a culture of effectiveness in our industry. WARC’s vast knowledge base, proprietary data and extensive experience in marketing effectiveness, combined with the ANA’s work with their Global CMO Growth Council in partnership with LIONS, will help accelerate the practice of effectiveness.”

The project will continue to be activated after Cannes Lions through a tri-branded podcast series of CMO interviews. Starting in early 2023, the ANA, WARC, and LIONS will also launch the business structure for socialising, benchmarking, and recognising creative effectiveness work, as well as the optimal culture of effectiveness.

Singapore – Singapore-based live streaming solutions provider, BeLive Technology, has partnered with Revieve, a personalised digital brand experience company, to bring a new solution for beauty products virtual try-on, delivering a personalised online shopping experience for customers across APAC.

The new solution powered by BeLive Technology integrates Revieve’s AI/AR capabilities into a single platform that offers a seamless customer experience for users. Through this collaboration, brands and retailers can reach out to millions of clients in Asia, enhancing real-time live engagement with their customers before, during, and after a live stream. 

By equipping beauty retailers with a set of AI/AR-driven online experiences, the new platform allows brands to better understand their audience. With the insights provided by AI technology, companies can offer tailored product recommendations based on clients’ unique preferences and skin concerns as they engage in real-time via live streaming shopping. Users can also experience virtual try-on of several skin and beauty products through the platform’s AR capabilities.

Kenneth Tan, CEO and co-founder of BeLive Technology, said, “This collaboration with Revieve will mark a new age for beauty brands and retailers who want to leverage video consumption and streaming content in order to engage with shoppers in a way that’s on-trend with how people consume media. We are delighted to power Revieve’s new platform that will revolutionise the online beauty retail world.”

Meanwhile, Yusuke Mori, Revieve’s country manager for Japan, noted that live streaming is no longer a novelty – live video is changing the way brands interact with their audiences and has already become a preferred way for users to consume new content. 

“Together with BeLive Technology, we empower brands and retailers to build elevated personal experiences and capture shoppers anytime, anywhere, and engage with them more meaningfully than ever before,” said Mori.

In May 2022, BeLive Technology has launched its new Live Commerce Software as a Service (SaaS) solution called ‘Live One-to-Many Retail Application’ (LORA), which is specifically for retail and e-commerce industry players.

Shanghai, China – Programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) adtech Hivestack has extended its partnership with Asiaray Media Group, an out-of-home (OOH) media company with a strategic focus on mega transport advertising media management. This partnership is already active in Hong Kong SAR and Singapore, and now in Mainland China. 

Through this extended partnership, Asiaray will be offering both domestic and international buyers the opportunity to activate programmatic DOOH campaigns via Private Marketplace (PMP) deals through the Hivestack SSP and direct deals via the Hivestack Ad Server.

Moreover, the partnership will be enabling local and global brands, agencies, and omnichannel DSPs to drive additional scale through programmatically activated DOOH campaigns across Asiaray’s premium transport media inventory in major airports including Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Haikou, Xiamen, Chengdu, Kunming, Zhuhai, and Zhengzhou, as well as in key metro stations across Beijing.

Aileen Ku, Hivestack’s general manager for China, commented, “We are excited to partner with Asiaray in mainland China to drive further business growth for brands, agencies and omnichannel DSPs looking to benefit from the power of programmatic DOOH. Through this partnership with Asiaray, we are thrilled to provide more flexibility for advertisers to target audiences at unprecedented scale through programmatic activation via the Hivestack SSP and Ad Server.”

Meanwhile, Troy Yang, Hivestack’s managing director for North Asia, shared that the addition of Asiaray as one of their important media partners in Mainland China was another huge milestone for Hivestack as they continue to drive their business growth across North Asia. 

“The partnership provides domestic and international marketers with the opportunity to further reach audiences across the region with even broader coverage across premium sites leveraging Hivestack’s leading programmatic technology,” said Yang.

Vincent Lam, chairman, CEO and founder at Asiaray Media Group, noted, “We are excited to extend our partnership with Hivestack, the industry pioneer for programmatic DOOH, and offer our clients a way to drive added reach and impact as a part of their omnichannel plans. Through this partnership, we look forward to leveraging the Hivestack platform to accelerate the adoption of programmatic DOOH in Greater China.”

Just recently, Hivestack has announced its official membership to Prebid.org, an organisation that oversees open source prebid programmatic advertising solutions. Through this, Hivestack will be able to further support its efforts in driving the adoption of an open-source unified auction framework for programmatic DOOH and join its peers to help build and shape the ad tech ecosystem.

Vietnam – Global payment and banking infrastructure provider, Episode Six, has announced a new relationship with Galaxy FinX, Vietnam’s newest fintech builder that is re-shaping the future of money and banking in the country. The deal represents two firsts for Episode Six: a partnership in Vietnam as well as with a pure-play virtual bank builder in the Southeast Asia region.

Galaxy FinX selected Episode Six to provide modern cloud-based card and payment processing, which includes consumer credit and debit card services as well as connections to Vietnam’s domestic financial switch services. Just as Episode Six’s Tritium platform helps traditional banks innovate and offer digital solutions, it is also purpose-built to deliver key capabilities to virtual and digital banks. Tritium offers a multi-asset class digital wallet management system that can open gateways to card scheme processing and transfers across bank networks, including ATMs and Point of Sale (POS) devices.

John Mitchell, CEO and co-founder of Episode Six, “Episode Six is proud to be working with Galaxy FinX, which is our first partnership in Vietnam and our first with an entirely virtual bank builder in Southeast Asia.”

Mitchell added, “There is tremendous growth potential for digital-only banking in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia, where millions of consumers and small businesses remain unbanked or underbanked. Our technology is ideally suited to helping pioneers like Galaxy FinX design and deliver products that meet the needs of digitally-native customers in Vietnam and beyond.”

As a virtual-bank builder, Galaxy FinX will offer financial-service products, such as savings, lending, payments, and insurance, digitally to Vietnam’s growing consumer base. Episode Six will provide a market-tested backbone for Galaxy FinX’s card services, allowing the new company to process payments and configure products to adapt to changing market conditions. Partnering with Episode Six also gives Galaxy FinX the flexibility to grow its business and focus on customers and evolving market dynamics rather than on underlying tech developments.

Marcin Miller, CEO of Galaxy FinX, commented, “Episode Six has a proven track record of its payments technology globally and in Asia-Pacific. Vietnam is growing to become a digital economy and Episode Six’s modern cloud-based card and payment processing platform will enable us to develop better digital propositions to serve the needs of the local market and our customers.”

“We look forward to exploring opportunities with Episode Six as we continue to expand our products and services in Vietnam and across other markets in Southeast Asia in the future,” Miller adds.

Bangkok, Thailand – Thailand’s hotel operator, Centara Hotels & Resorts, has partnered with airline Thai Vietjet Air, to bolster its growing airline partnership network, which already includes Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines.

The new marketing partnership offers Thai Vietjet Air passengers a great way to travel, with an exclusive 19% off the lowest publicly available online rates at all participating Centara Hotels & Resorts. 

Travellers have a choice of 13 beach and urban destinations across Thailand, including Phuket, Krabi, Samui, Hua Hin, Pattaya, Trat, Koh Chang, and Udon Thani, as well as Hat Yai, and Bangkok, amongst others. Guests can also enjoy a tropical escape to an overwater villa in the Maldives or take a family holiday at a themed resort with water parks and playgrounds park in Dubai or Southern Vietnam, as well as a choice of staying at participating hotels in Qatar Oman and Sri Lanka.

Moreover, under the Centara and Thai Vietjet Air promotion, guests will receive over 19% discount when logged in as a CentaraThe1 member. This is lower than any publicly available rate and exclusive to airline customers. Travellers who are not yet members of Centara’s loyalty programme can sign up for free in less than a minute, and immediately start enjoying benefits and earning points.

Tom Thrussell, Centara Hotels & Resorts’ vice president of brand, marketing, and digital, commented that as more passengers return to the air, they are excited to partner with Thai Vietjet to welcome travellers back to Centara, The Place to Be.

“With six distinct brands ranging from luxury beachfront retreats to family resorts and affordable lifestyle hotels, we are able to meet and exceed the needs of travellers of every age and lifestyle, and we are delighted to offer exciting benefits to Thai Vietjet’s customers through their communications network,” said Thrussell.

Meanwhile, Pinyot Pibulsonggram, director of commercial at Thai Vietjet Air, said, “With the uplifting of travel restrictions in many countries, Thai Vietjet is more than ready to welcome our passengers back to the skies, with the latest establishment of the partnership with Centara, offering extra benefits and special deals exclusively for Thai Vietjet’s passengers to travel and discover the ultimate beauty of various destinations in the region.”

Singapore – Global media platform Teads and interactive finance platform InvestingNote have announced a partnership which will enable Teads to utilise all of InvestingNote’s inventory across all devices.

The partnership allows Teads to tap into InvestingNote’s desktop, mobile and app inventory for brands wanting to target the niche business and finance audiences in a brand safe premium environment.

Both Teads and InvestingNote focus on offering solutions and community-driven platforms with stringent data privacy and easy access to information and inventory, allowing visitors and users to make more informed decisions. Having similar goals and outlooks help grow the strategic partnership between Teads and InvestingNote. 

The delivery of video and display inRead, Teads’ flagship ad format, will strongly support InvestingNote in creating interactivity within its fast-growing community. InvestingNote attracts advertisers of all categories, not limiting audiences to only the financial category.

Shanison Lin, founder at InvestingNote, said, “We are happy to be partnering on a long term with Teads, over the years we have found them as aligned and respectful to user experience and brand safety advertising as we are at InvestingNote.”

Meanwhile, Julian Fernando, VP of publisher solutions at Teads APAC, commented, “It’s an honour to be able to strategically partner with InvestingNote, a market leader focused on the investor community in Singapore. Shanison and team are focused, responsive and an absolute delight to work with. We look forward to their continued support and a fruitful partnership with InvestingNote.”

Manila, Philippines — Cebu Pacific Air, one of the Philippines’ leading airlines, operated a mobile game-themed flight to introduce Tencent Games’ PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) MOBILE’s newest IP, Phoenix Adarna. An airport and in-flight experience featuring Adarna-inspired costumes, trivia games, and merchandise giveaways made the flight the first of its kind in Southeast Asian aviation history.

PUBG MOBILE players will embark on a series of heroic missions inspired by the Philippine mythological bird Adarna, the fabled creature that heals all ailments. Players must complete missions within a time limit to unlock rewards or purchase in-game currency to become invincible like Adarna, and dress in eye-catching items such as Agent Phoenix Set backpacks, a frame, parachute and even acquire a buggy. Phoenix Adarna-themed items will be available for PUBG MOBILE for keen gamers only until June 30. The flight replicates the adventure a hero undergoes in search of this famed fowl.

Gaming video creators Rojean Delos Reyes and Dexie Diaz represented PUBG MOBILE and Cebu Pacific as official campaign ambassadors. Both known in their gaming circles as adventurous and passionate, the ladies embody the fiery spirit of the Phoenix Adarna.

Candice Iyog, CEB VP for marketing and customer experience, said, “We are excited to create this one-of-a-kind experience for our passengers, and the PUBG MOBILE gaming community. As a proudly Filipino carrier, we continue to look for fun ways to promote Philippine culture and tourism. We anticipated this to be the first of several collaborations with industry partners such as Tencent Games.”

Meanwhile, Benj Dalmacio, senior business development manager for PUBG MOBILE Philippines, echoes this excitement for this first-of-its-kind collaboration in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, “In PUBG MOBILE, we continue to make the game relevant to our target audience: young adults. The Ibong Adarna, our country’s very own phoenix, symbolizes hope and rebirth and holds a significant place in Philippine literature.”

Dalmacio adds, “We are proud for our platform to become a place of appreciation and learning of Filipino culture as well as helping in promoting the Philippine tourism industry. We are honoured to partner with the country’s leading airline as they recognize the growing gaming community and live up to their fun brand.”

PUBG MOBILE will blast a special seat sale exclusively communicated to the Filipino gaming community and raffle free domestic and international round-trip flights, courtesy of Cebu Pacific, in various community events throughout June.

Aside from Cebu, tourist destination favourite Boracay will be the venue of offline events, with the appearance of a pop-up gaming truck for a battle royale game with top PUBG MOBILE players and meet-and-greets. The island will also become the nesting place of Phoenix Adarna, with tourists spotting from afar tour boats, parasails, giant sandcastles, beach flags, kayaks, and gliders bearing the theme.

Thailand – Australian ad tech company Cartelux, has announced a partnership with Ford Motors ASEAN and Google which will see its centralised digital marketing solution rolled out across Ford’s ASEAN dealer network.

Referred to by Google as ‘the future of automotive retail’, Cartelux announced the partnership at Google’s Think Dealer APAC event, where Cartelux presented the keynote, along with speakers from customers, Ford, and MINI (part of the BMW Group).

The program for Ford in Thailand began in late 2021, followed by South-East Asia (SEA). As part of Ford’s ongoing innovation partnership with Google, Cartelux technology allows Ford to drive local innovation by simplifying and automating the ad creation, approval, and media buying processes. Cartelux enables the dynamic personalisation and localisation of creative assets by each dealer while delivering a consistent brand campaign for Ford. Using Cartelux, Ford dealers can create and amplify ad campaigns in 60 seconds, providing the ability to react quickly to changing market conditions.

Saruth Ingkavat, marketing director at Ford Thailand, said that the Cartelux technology allows dealers to easily launch their own, personalised digital campaigns to drive more traffic and leads to their dealerships and websites. 

“It saves both time and money that dealers would otherwise have spent on setting up, producing, and amplifying their own campaigns. Being able to innovate and deliver campaigns quickly will enhance our agility within a complex and highly competitive retail market,” Ingkavat said.

Ingkavat added, “Initial results have been highly encouraging. Beyond the ability, for dealers to create fully compliant campaigns in less than 60 seconds, and regardless of their digital literacy, Cartelux allows the OEM to control advertising in each dealer’s physical territory. We have seen significant search uplift in provinces where we are running Cartelux activity.” 

Irin Khandhajavana SEA & MENA lead, Automotive at Google, shared “Cartelux allows dealers to participate in Google’s global knowledge pool, creating access to campaign professionality in a simple and time-efficient manner. By partnering with Cartelux and Ford, we established a link between Google’s world-class media targeting capability, retail networks, and consumers, together we ensure the message is making the last mile to the right consumer and the right time. We saw search volumes for Ford triple.”

Ford has also introduced Online to Offline tracking (O2O), to measure those exposed to the campaign online who then go on to take an offline action, such as visiting a dealer or purchasing a car. This innovation takes tracking beyond standard media analytics and provides a 360-degree view of campaign performance and how online efforts drive offline action. Allowing professional performance marketing for each individual dealer.

Meanwhile, Patrick Doble, global general manager at Cartelux, commented, “Google’s partnership with Ford is transforming how automotive businesses innovate.”

“We’re excited to partner with Google to enable Ford to further improve customer experiences with differentiated technology and personalised services,” Doble adds.

Initially adopted by the automotive industry, the need to solve video on a global scale has seen Cartelux secure several new multinational clients across a range of verticals. Cartelux is enabling national sales companies and their local area marketers to leverage the power of scalable video on a local, regional or global scale.

The company is seeing significant growth both domestically and internationally and announced key hires to the executive team: Hervé Genin, general manager EMEA, last year, and Kristin Harder, global head of strategy and partnerships, this year.