Tag: Partnership

Mumbai, India – Consumer bank DBS has partnered with Bajaj Finance, the lending arm of non-banking financial services company Bajaj Finserv, to launch its first-ever credit card in India called ‘Bajaj Finserv DBS Bank SuperCard’, which is powered by Visa. This is designed to de-clutter customers’ wallets, eliminating the need for having multiple credit cards.

Through this partnership, DBS Bank India and Bajaj Finance aim to create an end-to-end digital experience and proposition for customers while catering to a large customer franchise across the geographic distribution of Bajaj Finance Limited.

The SuperCard will provide its customers with benefits and rewards across different product categories and exclusive benefits on Bajaj Finserv’s range of products and services available across the country.

Prashant Joshi, DBS Bank India’s head of consumer banking group, stated that this SuperCard is a transformative credit card experience curated to eliminate friction in the payments journey and transparency in billing so that customers can ‘Live More and Bank Less’.

“The credit card space is seeing robust growth. We are confident that the SuperCard developed in partnership with Bajaj Finance will help eliminate the need for multiple cards, widen the access to credit and offer compelling rewards and benefits to our customers, thanks to the BFL franchise network. Our vision is to leverage the strengths of both organisations and offer an end product which guarantees rich rewards and best-in-class customer experience,” said Joshi.

Meanwhile, Anup Saha, Bajaj Finance Limited’s deputy CEO, noted their partnership with DBS bank for this co-branded credit card further strengthens their position to deliver a seamless customer experience.

“The Bajaj Finserv DBS Bank SuperCard, as the name suggests, not only provides various industry-first benefits across lifestyle, travel and subscription categories but also provides exclusive Bajaj Finserv EMI network benefits like cashbacks on ‘No-cost-EMI’ loan down-payments & redemption of cash points against the same. It also has Bajaj Finserv Health benefits bundled into it. Bundling all this together, this card is a clear contender to become the most preferred card in our customers’ wallets,” said Saha.

Sandeep Ghosh, Visa’s group country manager for India and South Asia, said, “As more consumers turn to credit cards for their daily and discretionary needs, they actively seek easier access to credit alongside curated benefits and privileges. The Bajaj Finserv DBS Bank SuperCard has been designed to offer the best of both worlds. We are excited to partner DBS Bank as they launch their first credit card in India and are confident that the card’s unique value proposition will appeal to a large segment of Indian consumers.”

Singapore — InMobi, an established provider of content, marketing, and monetization tech that help businesses fuel growth, has announced the expansion of its partnership with Microsoft Advertising to support enterprise and strategic advertisers in Southeast Asia (SEA).

Via the partnership’s expansion into SEA, InMobi will offer marketers an integrated solution to power their campaigns built on the search and native display capabilities of Microsoft Advertising and the mobile ad tech capability of InMobi’s advertising platforms.

InMobi and Microsoft have been in a strategic partnership since July 2018 to help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation by providing them with insights, audience, and engagement platforms for a connected world. The partnership was expanded in 2019 as InMobi added the Microsoft Advertising products and solutions to its offerings in India.

Nick Seckold, VP of Microsoft Advertising APAC, said, “Over the last 2.5 years InMobi has done a wonderful job establishing Microsoft Advertising’s Indian footprint while doubling revenue over the same period. InMobi’s successful track record in India has led Microsoft Advertising to extend its coverage across SEA where they will be tasked with building close relationships with advertisers and agencies to grow the business in the region.”

As part of the expansion, Rohit Dosi, GM of the Microsoft Advertising business at InMobi, will take up additional responsibilities for growing the Microsoft Advertising business across the SEA market and leading the global relationship with Microsoft.

“The extended partnership between Microsoft Advertising and InMobi will enable marketers to deliver a unified brand experience to customers by bringing together the best of search and native display platforms across both organizations,” Dosi shared.

InMobi will be responsible for the sales, account management, marketing, finance, collection, and billing for Microsoft Advertising customers managed by InMobi, in India and SEA, from now onwards. The direct billing with InMobi is intended to enable a seamless and hassle-free experience for advertisers, from InMobi, as they leverage its services.

Meanwhile, commenting on the effect InMobi and Microsoft Advertising has done on their brand, Ankit Maheshwari, VP of marketing at Angara, an online diamond and gemstone jeweller, said, “The InMobi team is pivotal to the success that Angara witnesses with Microsoft Advertising. Their proactive approach has time and again enhanced campaign efficiency, driven innovation, and delivered healthy returns for the brand.”

Singapore – The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and CapitaLand Investment Limited (CLI) have recently inked a three-year partnership to deliver new retail concepts and drive global awareness of Singapore and CapitaLand malls as must-visit lifestyle destinations.

Said partnership is a first for CLI and is aimed at capturing pent-up demand as international travel recovers. It hopes to enhance Singapore’s destination appeal to international visitors, achieve greater impact with meaningful and differentiated events and retail experiences, as well as drive incremental spending among locals and international visitors.

One of those initiatives they plan to do is to profile home-grown brands locally and in China across selected CapitaLand malls in both countries, with a focus on Singapore malls in tourism precincts such as Orchard Road (Plaza Singapura, The Atrium@Orchard), Civic District (Funan, Raffles City Singapore), Bras Basah.Bugis (Bugis+, Bugis Junction and Bugis Street) and Clarke Quay.

In addition, they also aim at creating unique retail-tainment and lifestyle offerings through innovative cross-industry partnerships in areas such as the arts, lifestyle and sports. These will add to the pipeline of signature leisure events and activities in Singapore.

Yap Chin Siang, deputy chief executive at STB, said, “We are delighted to ink this timely partnership with CapitaLand Investment to enhance and showcase the vibrancy of Singapore’s retail scene to the world. Together, we hope to engage consumers more meaningfully, as we jointly curate inspiring first-to-market offerings and authentic experiences that will strengthen Singapore’s position as a lifestyle destination for locals and visitors.”

The partnership, supported by EnterpriseSG, will also give home-grown brands more opportunities to raise their profile through the various projects to capture growth opportunities in Singapore and China.

Meanwhile, Chris Chong, CEO for retail and workspace in Singapore and Malaysia at CLI, commented, “As Singapore’s largest mall operator with an extensive network of retail partners, we are pleased to partner STB, with support from Enterprise Singapore, to further enhance the vibrancy of our malls, which are popular lifestyle destinations for locals and tourists to meet, shop, dine and play. We are excited to work with new and familiar like-minded partners to present unique immersive retail experiences, fusing concept stores with world class events to delight our shoppers and boost sales for our retailers.”

Japan — Pinterest is launching ads for all businesses in Japan. Businesses of all sizes now have access to multiple types of ad formats and targeting options in Japan to reach new audiences with meaningful, useful content as they discover ideas and plan new projects. Japan is the next country to launch as part of the global expansion of Pinterest’s ad program. Alongside this, Pinterest is also expanding its partnership with e-commerce company Shopify.

On Pinterest, brands are additive to the avid users of Pinterest’s or ‘Pinner’s’ experience. Because of Pinterest’s dynamics for product discoverability, advertisers are keen on the platform’s potential. With Pinterest, ads can inspire the decisions of consumers because commercial content enhances the Pinterest user’s experience. People come to Pinterest looking for products and services to plan their futures and build their lives.

Because 97% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded and consist of 2-3 word queries, the majority of consumers are not typing a brand name into their searches, which is why Pinterest is such an effective place to reach people while they’re still considering their next purchase and haven’t decided on a brand. Pinterest is one of the platforms where it is possible for brands to engage with new customers who are intentional, open and making buying decisions.

The platform recently opened ads to a small group of Japanese businesses as early partners. Brands such as BAYCREW’S and Cowcamo have already seen success using Pinterest Ads to tap into an audience on Pinterest that is looking for what to try or buy next.

Kei Narita, country manager for Japan at Pinterest, said, “Pinterest stands out as a positive environment where consumers come to find inspiration for what to do or buy next. We give businesses of all sizes an opportunity to connect with consumers early in their decision-making journey and we’re proud to expand our global advertising program to Japan. Our advertisers play an incredible role in enabling Pinterest users to turn inspiration into action so they can create a life they love, and we’re excited to enable Japanese businesses to now connect with our engaged audience through ads.”

Pinterest is also launching new features for businesses in Japan to reach people who want to go from finding ideas to making purchases.

Via the launch, businesses in Japan can upload their full catalogue to Pinterest and automatically turn their products into shoppable Product Pins. Enriched with metadata and formatted to let people on Pinterest know that they’re shoppable, Product Pins feature the most up-to-date price, availability and product title and description from your website. By uploading their catalogue of products to Pinterest, businesses can link directly to the product page on their site so Pinners can buy one of their products in just a few clicks. Product Pins are more discoverable in places like Home Feed, search, recommendations like Related Pins, and Lens camera search results.

Pinterest is expanding its partnership with Shopify to Japan. Now, Shopify merchants in Japan have an easy way to bring their products to Pinterest and turn them into shoppable Product Pins that are discoverable across the platform.

The Pinterest channel on Shopify provides frictionless access to Pinterest shopping features including tag deployment, catalogue ingestion, and advertising buying interface, without the need to edit code or deploy resources on their own site.

Small-to-medium-sized businesses with shops on Shopify will have easy set-up and access to distribution across Pinterest either organically or through ads, as well as reporting and results to maximize reach. Thanks to this integration, SMBs will save time to set up shop on Pinterest and will be able to showcase their products to a global monthly audience of more than 400 million people, many of whom come with the intent to shop and discover new products.

Makoto Tahara, country director and head of Japan at Shopify, shared, “By expanding our global partnership with Pinterest, Japanese merchants can now access the Pinterest channel to create targeted, audience-building campaigns all without leaving Shopify. This is particularly important for Japan’s small and medium-sized merchants to help them thrive by creating new opportunities for discoverability among Pinterest’s 400M+ users around the world.”

With the launch of ads in Japan, Pinterest is continuing the global momentum of its advertising program.

Singapore — Agoda has partnered with WWF-Singapore (World Wide Fund for Nature) to support marine habitat restoration efforts as part of the launch of its Eco Deals program. Through Eco Deals, Agoda will work in collaboration with its accommodation partners to offer deals that ‘give back and highlight responsible tourism, environmental or community-led charities and organizations.

In this campaign launch involving WWF-Singapore, Agoda and its hotel and accommodation partners will fund efforts to raise awareness about responsible tourism, enabling the restoration of marine habitats such as coral reefs and mangroves in Southeast Asia, and protecting wildlife affected by floods in Australia.

Agoda’s Eco Deals will first launch with accommodation partners in five countries – Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore – to offer travellers between 5% to 15% discounts on their bookings. For each booking, Agoda will contribute to WWF-Singapore’s marine conservation and flood-affected wildlife protection.

Agoda’s Sustainable Travel Trends Survey (2021) found consumers want to travel more sustainably, and that polluted beaches and waterways ranked as the top concern of Filipino tourists; second for Australians, Indonesian, and Malaysians; and third for Singaporeans. Aside from an Eco Deals badge to support and highlight participating properties, Agoda will develop a dedicated landing page which will be launched to consumers on 8 June 2022, to help consumers quickly find properties that support the Eco Deals activity.

Enric Casals, regional VP of Agoda Southeast Asia and Oceania, said, “In a post-COVID world, people are more aware of their impact on the places and communities they visit when travelling and are actively looking for ways and means to make their ecological footprint smaller. Through Agoda’s Eco Deals initiative we provide consumers opportunities to ‘give back’ as part of our partners’ and Agoda’s social responsibility commitment.”

Casals continued, “We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with WWF-Singapore to allow the Agoda community of travellers, partners and employees to work together to help revitalise marine habitats and protect wildlife across this region.”

Meanwhile, R. Raghunathan, CEO of WWF-Singapore, shared, “WWF-Singapore is well positioned to drive positive change in the Coral Triangle and wider region, home to the world’s epicentre of marine biodiversity. We look forward to working with Agoda in this partnership to support the conservation of marine ecosystems in this region.”

California, USA – Consumer Acquisition, the technology-enabled marketing services company by Brainlabs, joins the TikTok Marketing Partner Program as its official creative partner. Through the partnership, advertisers can work with Consumer Acquisition as a creative partner for in-class TikTok videos for ad campaigns.

Through Consumer Acquisition, their creative development process ensures that creative concepts align with target audience motivations and proven creative trends. Eliminating unfocused ideation and reducing creative waste improves efficiencies and ensures clients can maintain profitable ad spend. 

In addition to its creative studio, the company provides media buying services powered by their proprietary full-stack marketing platform AdRules. Through Brainlabs, clients have access to a full suite of digital marketing services including programmatic, paid search, SEO, CRO, GMP, and data strategy.

Brian Bowman, founder at Consumer Acquisition, said: “Advertisers looking to reach TikTok audiences often recycle ad creative from other channels, but TikTok requires a unique people-first approach to advertising. Our ‘Creative Studio’ offers a global network of experienced storytellers, designers and video editors to help companies scale the volume and quality of their TikTok advertising. Our team are masters of influencer-style UGC creative, live action, post production, 3D animation, motion graphics, and illustration tailored for TikTok.”

Meanwhile, Jyri Kidwell, director of creative partnerships at TikTok, said, “We’re thrilled to welcome Consumer Acquisition by Brainlabs to the TikTok Marketing Partner Program. Their strategic approach to developing creative research and testing is a value to marketers and we look forward to adding their Creative Studio team as a Creative Partner for our advertisers.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Microsoft and the government of Malaysia have announced the MyDIGITAL GovTech Innovation partnership. Building on continued efforts to bolster Malaysia’s economic resilience, Microsoft and key government agencies such as MyDIGITAL Corporation and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) will equip civil servants with digital skills and training, to support the nation’s aspiration for inclusive, responsible, and sustainable development.

The announcement represents the next milestone of the government of Malaysia’s partnership with Microsoft, progressing towards achieving the targets outlined in the 12th Malaysia Plan and Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint. The targets include 80% adoption of cloud storage across the government in 2022 and 100% digital literacy among civil servants as well as 80% end-to-end online Government services by 2025.

The partnership builds on the Letter of Intent (LoI) signed between Microsoft and MyDIGITAL Corporation during the Prime Minister, Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Bin Yaakob’s visit to the United States in May 2022. The LoI identified areas of collaboration including developing cybersecurity capabilities, driving the adoption of digital technologies by the public sector, and nurturing skilled talent to grow the digital economy.

Yang Berhormat Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, minister for economy in Malaysia’s prime minister’s department, shared, “Our long-standing partnership with Microsoft enables the civil service to be more innovative, data-driven, and rakyat-centric in finding solutions as well as formulating effective policies. We welcome Microsoft’s continued contribution as a knowledge and technology partner to Malaysia, including their commitment to training 300,000 people by 2024 with the Human Resource Development Corporation.”

Simultaneously, Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and president for national transformation partnerships at Microsoft, said, “This year marks Microsoft’s 30 years in Malaysia, and we are happy to commemorate the occasion with our partners from the Government of Malaysia. Microsoft will remain steadfast in our partnership to enable Malaysia to leverage its expertise and capabilities in technology to power inclusive economic growth and resilience in the digital era.”

The announcement is in addition to the Cloud Framework Agreement (CFA) signed between Microsoft and MAMPU, to create a trusted cloud network and empower the public sector of Malaysia in its digital transformation journey.

K Raman, MD of Microsoft in Malaysia, said, “This partnership was further cemented during the launch of Microsoft’s Bersama Malaysia commitment last year, where we pledged to establish our first data center region in the country and skill an additional 1 million Malaysians by the end of 2023 while forming the MyDigital Alliance Leadership Council to collaborate on cloud-first and digital-native policies.”

Australia — Mars Food Australia, the manufacturer of MasterFoods, is making its first foray into the D2C space, with ‘MasterFoods Flavour Club’. Clemenger BBDO worked with the MasterFoods team to craft the ecomm product proposition through consumer interviews, prototype development, testing and optimisation, packaging design, and working closely with Mars Food R&D and logistics teams.

The launch campaign features a partnership with multi-hyphenate Flex Mami. The work is built off the insight that social conversation has dwindled post-Covid lockdown, and as Australians begin to entertain again, there is a desire to spice up dinner party conversations.

Each MasterFoods Flavour Club Kit pairs spicy conversation starters with MasterFoods’ recipes and iconic herbs and spices range with four occasions in mind, each kit bringing a new set of flavours and recipes to explore.

Examples of Flavour Club Kits Masterfoods has come up with include ‘Curry night with mates kit’, a selection of ‘essential’ herbs and spices to make the ultimate curry to share with friends coupled with ‘essential’ questions curated by Flex Mami; another one is ‘Your dating essentials kit’, a hot ensemble of MasterFoods’ herbs and spices paired with Flex Mami’s spiciest questions – guaranteed to break the ice on a first date; and  ‘Epic high tea kit’, a sweet curation of MasterFoods’ baking essentials range with sweet and sour question cards to dial up a wholesome tea party, among others.

The questions don’t beat around the bush, with each kit delving into the themes of love, life, death, career and psychology, meaning there’ll be no room for small talk at the dinner table.

Each kit comes with a selection of MasterFoods recipe cards tailored to the included herbs and spices, ‘flavour hacks’ cooking tips and tricks.

Rachel Humphrey, portfolio marketing manager at Mars Food Australia, said, “We’re all about flavouring up dinner times, helping Aussies to create easy, flavoursome dishes they will be happy to share with others.”

Humphrey adds, “For us, a meal is so much more than the food on the table – it’s where you gather with friends and family to talk, laugh and reminisce. Working with Flex Mami has meant we can take this one step further, really getting to know one another over a delicious meal.”

Clemenger BBDO Sydney has been working with MasterFoods for over 25 years.

Brent Kerby, CEO of Clemenger BBDO Sydney, shared, “The MasterFoods team has been ambitious with their push into the direct to customer space, and to leverage the opportunity it presents to create meaningful connections with their consumers. This campaign is the embodiment of the MasterFoods belief that when flavours connect in the kitchen, people connect around the table. We see this project as the first iteration of many DTC future innovations.” 

Beijing, China – Integrated communications agency WE Red Bridge has 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.

McLaren Automotive is a luxury automotive manufacturer. The company’s product portfolio of GT, supercar, Motorsport, and Ultimate models are retailed through over 100 retailers in over 40 markets around the world.

Nicky Wang, CEO of WE Red Bridge, highlighted how the agency’s strong sector knowledge and a passion for the industry were crucial factors in its appointment.

“Our extensive experience in the luxury, lifestyle and automotive industries was a point of differentiation for WE Red Bridge. This new partnership with McLaren will see us combine our sector experience and leading engagement toolkit of integrated communications, creative planning, consumer insights and analytics to fuel the automotive brand’s growth in China,” said Wang.

Mumbai, India – Digital music company Believe has appointed strategy consultancy Pitchfork Partners to be its communication counsel that will manage its brand strategies in India.

As part of the mandate, Pitchfork Partners will be working closely with Believe India to strengthen its brand awareness and engagement for its services across Artist Services, Label and Artist Solutions, and TuneCore, as well as Ishtar with relevant stakeholders across the country. It will also drive and support Believe’s mission to develop independent artists and labels with their unique offerings and solutions, at each stage of their career and development.

Vivek Raina, Believe’s managing director for India, commented that they are excited with their association with Pitchfork Partners, as the agency’s experience and understanding of the industry align with Believe’s objectives and will help them reach emerging independent artists and labels in the digital world. 

“We are focused on building a community in which independent artists and labels will get a platform and partnership to build their fanbase and enhance their revenues in the digital world,” said Raina.

Meanwhile, Jaideep Shergill, Pitchfork Partners’ co-founder, said, “We are delighted to work with Believe India, given its leadership position in this competitive industry. It’s a great opportunity for us to drive their messaging across audiences in the country. We look forward to reaching new heights with Believe.”