Tag: Partnership

Sydney, Australia – Global customer relationship management (CRM) platform HubSpot has announced joining forces with ticketing platform Humanitix to reimagine how marketers and event organisers manage their customers’ ticketing journeys. 

HubSpot users can synchronise their contacts and ticketing information via the new Humanitix integration with HubSpot. The new feature leverages HubSpot’s custom objects to enable event organisers to collect leads and track existing registrations throughout the customer journey, all within the HubSpot CRM platform.

“The partnership will significantly streamline the ticketing process by providing a single source of truth across the attendee and guest experience. Not only will this save event organisers and marketers valuable time, but it will also provide them with access to key customer data to help inform future customer communications and marketing efforts,” HubSpot said in a press statement.

Kat Warboys, APAC marketing director at HubSpot said that with the events industry emerging from the pandemic as one of the hardest hit, streamlined processes are no longer just a ‘nice-to-have’ but critical for the revival of the events sector.

“Just as the pandemic changed the face of the events circuit in Australia, it also altered customer expectations. As a customer relationship management platform, HubSpot is committed to providing event organisers and marketers with the tools they need to surpass these expectations at every stage of the customer journey through thoughtful communications, value alignment and human touch,” Warboys said.

Meanwhile, Adam McCurdie, CEO and co-founder of Humanitix, commented, “Selling tickets to help support disadvantaged children around the world is what gets us out of bed in the morning. Empowering our event partners to maximise that social impact at scale comes part and parcel.”

He added, “The integration with HubSpot is game changing for us. Not only will it allow our partners to seamlessly synchronise customer data across both platforms, but it will also free them up to provide a level of customer service unmatched in the event ticketing industry – not just in Australia, but globally.”

Vietnam – Insurance firm Tokio Marine Insurance Vietnam (TMIV) has partnered with information company OpenText to implement OpenText solutions, aimed at modernising its client communication strategy and enabling rapid delivery of information to customers.

Through the partnership, TMIV will be leveraging OpenText Exstream and accelerating the creation of policy documents by 40%, helping the company to process growing volumes of client requests. Moreover, manual processes will be replaced with streamlined digital authoring and editing tools, cutting production costs and improving customer satisfaction as clients now receive their policy information faster. This solution was also utilised by the company’s Indonesia non-life insurance entity, PT Asuransi Tokio Marine Indonesia (TMI), for policy issuance.

Hideki Maeomote, TMIV’s general director, shared that they needed a solution that would streamline and accelerate their document workflows, which is aligned with their values to ‘Japan Quality’ to their customers. 

“With OpenText Exstream, we have modernised internal processes and cut time spent on preparing insurance documents by almost half,” said Maeomote.

Meanwhile, James McGourlay, OpenText’s executive vice president of international sales, said, “By relying on OpenText, TMIV is transforming standard client communication processes to provide highly effective and efficient client experiences. We’re pleased to continue working with our valued partner Delaware to explore more avenues to help TMIV expand their digital modernisation strategy.”

Singapore – theAsianparent, a parenting content and community tech platform, has partnered with MoEngage, an insights-led customer engagement platform, to better deliver information, expert opinion, and valuable products and services to its wide parent consumer base in Southeast Asia via various communication channels such as web, app, email, social media, and push notifications.

theAsianparent helps young parents have healthy pregnancies and raise healthy families by providing the correct information, knowledge, and skills, and currently reaches over 35 million people in 12 countries. Asianparent’s mission is to reduce stillbirths by 10% throughout the world through education and the availability of useful resources on their web platform and mobile app for newlywed parents in Asia. 

Through theAsianparent’s infrastructure, it helped them provide engaging and customised experiences by allowing them to discover precise groups based on parenting stage and demographic. theAsianparent can integrate all of their communication channels by integrating MoEngage into their infrastructure, allowing them to better manage their customer interactions by tailoring products depending on parents’ wants and needs.

theAsianparent also uses its platform to recommend the right products and services to parents, relevant to their specific concerns thus providing brands and experts a platform to connect with the parents. With the eventual end of third-party cookies in sight, theAsianparent provides brands a platform to leverage customer insights, and connect with the right customer segments through personalized offerings. 

Nadine Yap, chief product officer at theAsianparent, said that mapping out and following the individual user journey is vital for us to deliver relevant information and tools to our community on theAsianparent. 

“Our partnership with MoEngage allows us to not only achieve this, but the data we receive through the platform also allows us to better understand our users and answer their needs more effectively and efficiently,” Yap said.

Saurabh Madan, VP & general manager of SEA and ANZ at MoEngage, shared, “We’re delighted to be a part of theAsianparent’s amazing growth journey. With a local presence across Southeast Asia, MoEngage is able to support theAsianparent’s marketing initiatives across the region.

Madan added, “We look forward to providing them with all the insights necessary to drive personalized communication, in turn aiding young parents and caretakers to nurture healthy and strong families around the globe,” said Saurabh Madan, Vice President & General Manager of SEA and ANZ, MoEngage.”

New Zealand – Fuel distributor Z Energy in New Zealand has partnered with media agency MBM and digital billboard network LUMO Digital Outdoor, to deliver its market-first HTML DOOH in the country. This is part of the company’s newly launched brand platform – ‘Moving with the times’.

Powered by LENS, which deems to be the market’s only live, camera-based vehicle measurement tool for roadside DOOH inventory, the LUMO built HTML creative displays a live daily tally of EV vehicles that have driven passed each digital billboard. The system’s proprietary technology detects the number plates of vehicles as they enter the viewing zone of each roadside digital screen. ‍

Each detection event is cross-referenced against the Waka Kotahi database, in real-time, to determine whether the detected vehicle can be categorised as an EV. If true, the event is added to the daily count and pushed directly to the HTML creative to update a text widget on the creative template. The data supplied is completely anonymous, with simply a make and model reference to determine engine type.

Andy Baird, Z Energy’s general manager of retail, believes that the campaign is an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of the country in which they operate, and for them to lean into the tough conversations, they need to have to achieve a low carbon Aotearoa – showing all New Zealanders how Z is moving with the times.

“Z is already on its low carbon journey with ambitious emissions reductions targets and is committed to actively choosing to invest in low-carbon revenue streams that are better for both our customers and the planet. We are playing in some of these spaces already,” said Baird.

Meanwhile, Jamie Snow, LUMO Labs’ head of digital design, noted that HTML is standard online, but they are only seeing its use sporadically across DOOH, and the more they see in the programmatic DOOH space particularly, the more they will see formats like HTML being the standard.

“DOOH creative has a way to come here in NZ, but it is reassuring that agency partners like MBM understand the capabilities of our network, enough so to help direct client’s towards best practices and executions such as what Z has achieved here,” said Snow.

Kaitlin Mitchell, MBM’s business director, commented, “For Z to be ‘Moving With The Times’, we need an open and collaborative approach from media owners to help us deliver innovative solutions. We are delighted we have been able to achieve that with LUMO.”

The campaign is now live across LUMO screens in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, and Wellington, as well as Christchurch.

Thailand – Global fintech FIS has partnered with tech giant Microsoft to integrate its FIS modern banking platform into the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, aimed at expanding digital online banking to financial institutions in the Thailand market, as well as in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. 

This offering combines the latest advancements in cloud security, monitoring, resiliency, and operational analytics with a modern, cloud-native core. 

The FIS Modern Banking Platform helps banks design, build, and deploy new products and services. Through a platform that’s fully API-enabled, FIS’ real-time solution is cloud-native and provides financial institutions with advanced analytics. ‘Modern Banking Platform’ uses artificial intelligence and component-based architecture and is built to be highly configurable while providing next-level security for financial institutions and their customers.

Andrew Beatty, FIS’ head of enterprise banking, commented that they are incredibly excited for financial institutions in more countries to experience the Modern Banking Platform that is cloud-native through Microsoft Azure.

“Teaming with Microsoft allows us to provide a secure, scalable, and compliant SaaS solution in the cloud that helps financial institutions adapt to complex and changing regulations in multiple jurisdictions. Deployment via Azure also provides our clients with elasticity, meaning banks can quickly update their infrastructure to adjust to the volume of business. It’s a solution that allows us to offer the same high level of support and operations that we currently provide with the FIS private cloud,” said Beatty.

Meanwhile, Bill Borden, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of worldwide financial services, shared that they are pleased to partner with FIS to help more financial institutions modernise their payments and core banking to meet rising customer expectations and drive new value.

“Running on Microsoft Azure, FIS’ Modern Banking Platform delivers a flexible, data-driven solution to deepen customer relationships and roll out products more quickly, while managing risk effectively,” said Borden.

Singapore — Payments platform 2C2P and Ant Group, an affiliate of the Chinese Alibaba Group, have struck a strategic partnership with the aim to accelerate digital payment adoption and innovation in the Southeast Asian region. The partnership, upon completion, will see Ant Group becoming the majority shareholder of 2C2P.

Through the partnership, 2C2P’s extensive pool of merchants inclusive of global and regional brands will be connected with Alipay+, extending its current 250 payment options offering to include even more e-wallets and local payment methods. With this, merchants will benefit from a wider geographical reach, connecting seamlessly to over one billion consumers globally.

Aung Kyaw Moe, founder and CEO of 2C2P, said that digital payment adoption has accelerated rapidly in recent years, spurred by the pandemic, with mobile wallet payments widely gaining momentum across Asia.

Moe adds, “Through this complementary partnership with Ant Group, 2C2P will be connected to a much larger merchant base and be well-positioned to advance our international expansion strategy. I am confident that 2C2P will be able to scale new heights, and build an unparalleled and robust range of payment solutions that will deliver maximum value and impact to our merchants and partners.”

Angel Zhao, president of Ant Group’s International Business Group, commented, “Combining Alipay+ and 2C2P’s secure and comprehensive payment offerings, extensive merchant coverage and deep local knowledge of the region, this partnership is a win-win collaboration built on strengths and the shared vision to accelerate the digital transformation for businesses through innovation and best-in-class payments solutions. We look forward to supporting businesses’ digitalisation together and creating a connected digital ecosystem across markets in the region.”

Introduced by Ant Group in 2020, Alipay+ is a suite of global cross-border digital payments and marketing solutions designed to enable businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, to process a wide range of mobile payment methods and reach regional and global consumers. Leading e-wallets supported by Alipay+ include Touch ‘n Go eWallet in Malaysia, KakaoPay in South Korea, GCash in the Philippines, Alipay HK in Hong Kong and more.

On the back of the partnership, 2C2P plans to further expand its global merchant coverage, in addition to strengthening its technology and product capabilities to better serve merchants across Southeast Asia and globally.

Last March, 2C2P also partnered with ShopeePay to increase access to digital payment options for consumers and merchants in Southeast Asia.

Hong Kong — The game software and venture capital company, Animoca Brands has acquired Darewise Entertainment, a game developer founded by veterans of the AAA games industry that is currently developing a high-quality blockchain MMO game ‘Life Beyond’. Through the buyout, Animoca Brands will be assisting Darewise Entertainment to fast-track development and publishing in the Web3 space.

Darewise Entertainment is a European game studio made up of accomplished game developers with deep experience in various highly successful AAA games, namely Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Fable series, amongst others. The co-founders of Darewise, ex-Ubisoft game director Benjamin Charbit and ex-Ubisoft and ex-Crytek tech lead Samuel Kahn, will continue to operate the company after the acquisition.

The collaboration will facilitate planned growth, accelerate game development, and combine expert AAA video game development with blockchain integration, NFTs, and play-and-earn capabilities.

Darewise Entertainment’s first game, Life Beyond, is currently in development. It is a fast-paced and ever-evolving modern persistent massively multiplayer online game Powered by Web3 and blockchain technologies, ‘Life Beyond’ seeks to pioneer the emerging genre of the play-and-earn MMO. Its guiding principles are the true ownership of digital assets, a player-driven social in-game economy, and decentralised governance.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented, “Bringing on board Darewise Entertainment is incredibly exciting. Its game Life Beyond is an MMORPG of great beauty and scale that will be a strong addition to the open metaverse. Benjamin and Samuel have built a world-class team that is creating a play-and-earn game universe that is intricate, sophisticated, and deeply engaging.”

Meanwhile, Charbit said that they are incredibly proud to join Animoca Brands and add their AAA games experience to the company that has been so instrumental in the development of Web3 gaming.

“Over time it became obvious that we’re a Web3 company at our core and that blockchain offers the means to achieve our vision. It took visionary entrepreneurs like Yat to leap ahead and build such an impressive ecosystem, paving the way for everyone else. As we watched Animoca Brands set out the blueprint of the open metaverse with projects like The Sandbox, REVV, and Phantom Galaxies, we knew that we would benefit enormously from its Web3 expertise and network. We are thrilled to be a part of this endeavour,” Charbit said.

Thailand – Airline companies Thai Airways and Thai Smile, as well as the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), an organization of Thailand under the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, have signed a letter of intent (LOI) to promote Thai tourism in the Indian market at Thai Airways’ head office.

This collaboration aims to boost the recovery of Thai tourism businesses and the Thai economy after the pandemic. In addition to the collaboration in the Indian market, Thai Airways operates flights on over 34 continental and intercontinental routes in its summer 2022 schedule. Passengers may travel further with Thai Smile and Star Alliance member airlines.

Suvadhana Sibunruang, Thai Airways’ acting CEO, shared, “Thai Airways, Thai Smile, and TAT signed the LOI to enhance the travel experience and develop marketing activities for the Indian market, to offer passengers privileges and joint promotions especially for leisure, golfer, visiting friends and relatives, and wedding travellers, and to exchange the information in the tourism industry for sustainable development in the industry.”

Meanwhile, Napintorn Srisunpang, the vice minister of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, said that the Indian market is a significant market in Southern Asia both in market size and tourist purchasing power, and this market is necessary for every country driven by a tourism economy.

“This collaboration is the opportunity to boost the recovery of the Indian market following the Air Travel Bubble agreement between Thailand and India. According to the Economics Tourism and Sports Division, Ministry of Tourism and Sports, in 2019, Thailand welcomed 1,995,516 inbound tourists from India, 24.85% higher, and earned THB86,372.01m, an increase of 27.45%. This reflects the potential of the Indian market,” said Srisunpang.

Tanes Petsuwan, TAT’s deputy governor for international marketing in Asia and South Pacific, said that as part of the ‘Visit Thailand Year 2022’ campaign, TAT will focus on quality inbound tourists from this particular market through celebrities and influencers marketing to the millennial target audience. 

“TAT Delhi and Mumbai offices will also notify local tour agents about Thailand’s immigration measures and new travel products and services to plan the joint promotion activities for luxurious tourists. In addition, Amazing Thailand Wedding EXPO 2022 will be held this month to boost wedding travellers later this year. Meanwhile, TAT is joining the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) 2022 in Delhi from 18 to 20 May 2022 to promote Thailand on its readiness for tourism aspect,” added Petsuwan.

Singapore – Southeast Asia’s digital mental health ecosystem provider, Safe Space, has partnered with FWD Insurance (FWD), a pan-Asian life insurance company, to re-imagine mental well-being techniques on a digital platform. 

Officially launched as a pilot programme in September 2021, the partnership with FWD has evolved to become part of Safe Space’s bigger initiatives in providing support for individuals regardless of their mental health background. Focusing on accessibility and affordability, mental health content and features supported by Safe Space’s expertise will be made available on FWD’s digital platform. 

Through this partnership, Safe Space is also leveraging its strategic insights from a research association with FWD to facilitate a goal-based user journey centred around a holistic concept of well-being. With a large potential for learning and scope for innovation and exploratory solutions, this association supports Safe Space’s endeavours to drive value and positive outcomes through social impact.

Lynette Seow, Safe Space’s co-founder and COO, noted that through this partnership with FWD, they are rethinking user engagement with regard to mental health education and access. 

“Having done extensive research across multiple markets, we are able to understand both the shared issues of key demographics across Asia as well as the local nuances and mental health challenges faced in individual countries. Armed with this knowledge, we can now develop new ways to address the issues that are important to users, for the most impact,” said Seow.

Singapore – Global banking software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Pismo has expanded to Southeast Asia with a new office in Singapore. As part of its expansion, the company has also partnered with OneConnect Financial Technology Co. (OneConnect), the technology-as-a-service (TaaS) provider and an associate of Ping An Group, in order to expand its operations in the said region, as well as in the Middle East.

Through this new partnership, OneConnect’s current suite of cutting-edge technological solutions will be complemented with Pismo’s SaaS platform in order to better serve a broader range of financial institutions.

Moreover, the partnership with Pismo will enable OneConnect to offer SaaS-based core banking solutions suitable for smaller banks. This potentially allows for integration within OneConnect’s existing products, such as its anti-fraud engines and mobile banking applications, which previously targeted top incumbent and large banks looking to digitalise.

Vishal Dalal, Pismo’s CEO for North America, Europe, and Asia, shared that SEA and the Middle East are key markets for Pismo, as one of the highest growing economies in the world

“Our vision is to help banks and fintech [platforms] in their journey into BaaS and cloud for core processing. Our presence in Singapore and our partnership with a highly-accomplished institution like OneConnect underlines our deep commitment to this region,” said Dalal.

Meanwhile, Tan Bin Ru, OneConnect’s CEO for SEA, noted that as a financial technology solutions provider, they are constantly looking out for new technologies and ways for them to bring better value to financial institutions.

“With this partnership with Pismo, we are glad to be able to extend our range of services to now include SaaS, which we envision to be more accessible and implementable for mid-to small-sized banks. This is also where we believe we can bring together the best of the East – best-in-class AI innovations and technology – and the West – a flair in product engineering,” she said.