Tag: Partnership

Manila, Philippines – Following the announcement of the partnership between global platform for user-generated stories, Wattpad, and Filipino live streaming platform, kumu, in July, the tie-up has finally come out with its very first ‘Wattpad Fan Fest’, a virtual event where fans, readers, and authors can engage and celebrate with the Filipino Wattpad Community. 

The ‘Wattpad Fan Fest’, which will happen on 31 October 2021, aims to bring exciting shows and surprises to delight the reading and writing community for a full day, starting at 10:30 am until 10:00 pm PHT on the @wattpadPH kumu channel. 

Through the event, fans can get a chance to attend multiple ‘Meet and Greets’ throughout the day, play interactive quiz games such as ‘Guess The Story’ and ‘Guess the Star’, and attend a workshop called ‘From Stories to Stars’, featuring writers Loridee DeVilla, Claudia Tan, and Wattpad representatives Aron Levitz, the president of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios and Maria Hall, the international writer lead of Wattpad. 

In addition, the virtual fanfest includes a panel discussion on ‘Publishing as a Passion’ by Wattpad authors Greenwriter, TheCatWhoDoesntMeow, Patyeah, heartlessnostalgia, and kissmyredlips, as well as publishing experts Ryan Benitez of Wattpad, and Anvil’s Arlyn Dimayuga and AJ Villamar. It will also feature ‘Wattpad Fanfest Special’, a live reading of excerpts from Wattpad story ‘He’s Into Her and The Four Bad Boys and Me!’.

Kyla Relucio, kumu’s content partnerships director, said, “kumu has always been groundbreaking in its efforts – from its digital capabilities to innovative show concepts, to its culture that celebrates all creative talents. Kumu is the world we’ve always wanted to build, and we’re so happy to be growing along with them every day.”

Chris Stefanyk, the head of brand partnerships at Wattpad, commented that they appreciate kumu as its safe space allows people to directly engage with their readers, fans, and even idols.

“Through the different live streams, activities, and events, the community is able to come together in a new way and build this exciting culture powered by fresh, creative energy. This is what the writing community has always sought to achieve on a deeper level, and it’s been amazing,” said Stefanyk.

Sydney, Australia – Leading accommodations platform within the sharing economy, y Airbnb, has appointed independent public relations agency, Thrive PR, as its sole PR agency for the ANZ region.

The appointment will see Thrive supporting Airbnb’s consumer and corporate public relations work, and initiating a number of major projects throughout the year. Led out of Sydney, Thrive will be boosting Airbnb’s strategy and creative duties, with specialist support across key locations including Melbourne, Brisbane, and Gold Coast, as well as Perth, and Auckland.

Leilani Abels, Thrive’s founder and managing director, believes that both companies share the same entrepreneurial spirit and passion for community and creating memorable experiences. 

“I’m excited for our consultants to have the opportunity to work with Airbnb’s first-class team, on an incredible brand and with a world leader in its category. We have begun our journey to deliver great value, innovative thinking, and business impact to Airbnb,” said Abels.

In August this year, Thrive has announced the appointment of two new senior hires, namely Natanael Bloch, the new group account director for Melbourne, and Taryn Silver, the new account manager for Sydney, to lead its specialist business team called Business, Purpose, and Brand Reputation.

Singapore – Esports media company ONE Esports has shared in a press release that it is planning to launch an esports talk show by 2022, in partnership with Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International’s travel program.

Aside from the talk show, the partnership will also see Marriott Bonvoy focusing on expanding its reach to engage esports fans in Singapore and Malaysia via local Mobile Legends: Bang Bang community tournaments.

Aside from the global hotel brand, ONE Esports has also forged a tie-up with top insurance company FWD, to sponsor its Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational 2021 in Indonesia, where the top teams across SEA will compete to be the region’s best. 

Through this, the esports media company will also feature the insurance company on its website, as well as create custom content for the brands’ flagship app, FWD Moments.

ONE Esports has been bolstering its media collaborations. The said partnerships follow the company’s recent tie-up with top online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda, to create a new multi-part docuseries on esports called ‘Heroes of the Game’, which tackles the ‘ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major’ event held in March this year.

Carlos Alimurung, ONE Esports’ CEO, noted that these partnerships will grow the esports ecosystem, and reaffirm ONE Esports’ commitment to scale esports globally with the world’s best brands. 

“We are thrilled to have these partners join us in our mission to share and celebrate the stories of esports heroes who ignite the world with strength, hope, dreams, and inspiration,” said Alimurung.

Meanwhile, Julie Purser, the VP of marketing, loyalty and partnerships at Marriott International APAC, shared, “Marriott Bonvoy has evolved from a rewards program to an immersive and inclusive travel program, and we look forward to collaborating with ONE Esports to bring our expression of good travel in both virtual and physical settings to gamers across the region.”

Mumbai, India – Zimmi.com (Zimmi), the global search engine hub that helps businesses expand their reach, has appointed strategy consultancy Pitchfork Partners, to be its marketing and communications partner for its India office.

Zimmi is a US-based company that brings buyers and sellers together to the exclusive B2B marketplace built to deliver verified global search results through proprietary AI verification. Its search platform currently hosts more than 20 million verified suppliers from 200 countries with more than 64 million unique searchable keywords, which will help Indian exporters reach the global market.

The latest partnership will see Pitchfork Partners building and driving the brand presence of Zimmi, enabling it to expand operations in the country.

James Thomsen, Zimmi.com’s CEO and co-founder, believes that all B2B buyers deserve to procure the best products, services, and vendor partnerships on a global scale, and the businesses listed on their search engine would be verified by Dun & Bradstreet, the global provider of B2B data, insights, and AI-driven platforms. 

“Pitchfork Partners shares our passion and beliefs. Its expertise will play a key role in the success of our communication agenda. We see a huge opportunity for sustained growth in India and Pitchfork has the credentials to assist us,” said Thomsen.

Meanwhile, Daniel Malina, the co-founder and senior vice president of Zimmi.com, commented, “We are excited to be part of the country’s economic march. We partnered with Pitchfork Partners to communicate our mission and vision to connect sellers in India to verified buyers from 200 countries.”

Jaideep Shergill, Pitchfork Partners’ co-founder, said, “Zimmi spans the B2B marketplace, challenging the status quo to bring fair and equal access to all businesses. It is a great opportunity to bridge the gap and help Zimmi achieve its vision through strategic and insights-driven communication.”

In September this year, Pitchfork Partners has also been appointed by Intellimation.ai, the enterprise AI company in India that uses proprietary natural language processing and machine learning methods in the BFSI sector, to be its new strategic communication partner.

Sydney, Australia – Streamotion, the digital B2C streaming and technology firm, will be continuing its partnership with independent full-service agency, The Hallway, to develop the name and brand identity for Foxtel’s Group’s news streaming service, Flash.

Flash is a first-of-its-kind dedicated live news streaming service, featuring more than 20 local and global live news sources at launch, providing a convenient way for Australians to stay informed by bringing together a diverse range of local and global television news sources live and on-demand.

Through the extended partnership, The Hallway created the streaming service’s name and brand identity. It will also be managing the creative, media, channel planning, and brand identity development for BINGE, which launched in May last year and now has more than 730,000 paying subscribers.

Julian Ogrin, Streamotion’s CEO, stated that The Hallway has demonstrated its expertise in creating and growing consumer-facing technology brands. 

“We worked closely together on the launch of BINGE and are delighted to have teamed up with them again for Flash, the third streamlining service we have launched,” said Ogrin.

Meanwhile, Simon Lee, the partner and executive creative director at The Hallway, commented they are delighted that Ogrin and his team placed their trust in the agency to create the name and identity for the new service. 

“We are confident that together we’ve created another truly effective brand that will join BINGE in making a strong contribution to Foxtel Group’s bottom line,” said Lee.

Singapore – In one of Asia’s largest virtual brands partnership, online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda and Indian restaurant company Rebel Foods have partnered to roll out Rebel Foods’ flagship brands and new jointly-created offerings in more than 2,000 outlets within Asia through an initial five-year partnership, starting in six markets.

Through the partnership, Rebel Foods will extend its culinary works, standard operating procedures and food tech innovations to F&B outlets in Asia through foodpanda. With a brands-as-a-service (BaaS) model, the partnership allows foodpanda’s restaurant partners to easily plug-and-play Rebel Foods iconic brands to grow additional revenue streams.

Meanwhile, foodpanda enables hundreds of thousands of restaurant partners and cloud kitchen operators to plug-and-play virtual brands into their current operations to grow additional revenue streams, at little to no start-up costs. 

“This foodpanda-Rebel Foods partnership introduces a new digital-first F&B format to Asia. foodpanda is always seeking new, innovative ways to change the way F&B businesses operate in a hyper-digitalised economy — we want to push our ecosystem further into the future,” said Pedram Assadi, COO at foodpanda.

He added, “Most importantly, these virtual brands will give our restaurant partners, especially SMEs, new opportunities to earn additional revenue.”

In the first phase of the partnership, which began in December 2019, Rebel Foods introduced four brands across six markets — Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines through the foodpanda network.

“Over the years, we have built some category leading brands in its current markets and a full-stack operating system which integrates culinary expertise, efficient SOPs and technological innovations together. We are glad to partner with foodpanda and scale our iconic brands with localized offerings across their network in Asia”, said Kallol Banerjee, co-founder at Rebel Foods.

India – Due to the uncertainty and fears brought about by the pandemic, there has been a decline in people’s mental health, and with this, Indian insurance firm Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has launched a new campaign to emphasize the need for helping friends, family, and colleagues struggling with anxiety. 

In partnership with WATConsult, the digital marketing arm of hybrid digital agency Isobar, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance’s ‘Unloop the Loop’ campaign highlights the psychological phenomenon of constantly being stuck in a negative thought loop. The 4-film campaign aims to create empathy for the ones undergoing such loops every other minute of their lives. Each loop video is centered around a different pain point – relationship, work, and general wellbeing, and the notable pace of copy clubbed with looping visuals seeks to nudge the audience to act upon the call to action.

The campaign leads audiences to a downloadable kit with a step-by-step guide to initiate the mental health conversation, simplifying the process of reaching out.

Tapan Singhel, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance’s CEO and managing director, said that people have been anxious and uncertain because of this virus which has affected millions across the world, and as a brand, they needed to step in and say that they do care and so do the people around.

“I’m sure that this mental healthcare kit will act as a guide and make people open up, but most importantly restore hope to emerge stronger from this and every crisis we face in the future,” said Singhel.

Meanwhile, Heeru Dingra, the CEO at Isobar India, said, “All of us have been stuck in the loop of negative thoughts at some point in our life. But the intensity varies for each one of us. It is imperative to welcome these life-saving mental health conversations and act as a safe space for each other.”

Sahil Shah, WATConsult’s managing partner, commented, “I believe that empathy is an understated value. It can bridge the gaps between the listener and the worrier. Just this one simple act has the most powerful effect on the one who has been struggling to unloop the loop themselves. And I believe we have taken one big step forward through this campaign.”

Sydney, Australia – Given the growing demand by SMEs for international payments, financial services company KVB Global Capital has partnered with Xero, the global small business platform, to offer multi-currency cross-border payments with competitive exchange rate advantages and a global payment network.

The partnership aims to simplify cross-border payment processes and improve financial workflows for SMEs by combining Xero’s capabilities and the advantages of GCFX, which is its global currency trading and settlement service provider,  further reducing the costs of engaging in global business.

Business users only need to connect their GCFX account with Xero to enjoy two major benefits, namely automatic bank feeds, which synchronize transactions conducted through GCFX to the user’s Xero account daily without the need for re-entry of data, simplifying the reconciliation process for the finance team; and the express FX payments of bills, where users can manage payment instructions by currencies, recipients or due dates, and enjoy a competitive exchange rate to cater for their different business and geographic needs by using the GCFX app.

Ning Sun, KVB Global Capital’s executive director, commented, “We are pleased to work with Xero in empowering SMEs engaged in global businesses, and reducing the time and money spent on cross-border settlement for them, along with enjoying an efficient and convenient funds transfer experience.”

KVB Global Capital said that the integration with Xero will be initially launched in Australia and then connected to other countries and regions later.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Understanding that health and digitalization are the foundation of the society and economy, Grab, together with telco EMTEK and e-commerce Bukalapak, has recently launched an accelerator program called, ‘City of the Future’, aimed at targeting 10,000 MSMEs in small cities throughout Indonesia and help them on vaccination, adoption of digital platforms, and empowerment through training and mentoring for business development.

‘City of the Future’ will start in Kupang and East Nusa Tenggara, and will continue gradually in Solo, Gowa, and Malang, as well as Pekanbaru until the end of December 2021. MSMEs who will be joining this program can reach millions of Grab and Bukalapak consumers in the country. They will also be getting new income opportunities by having digital stores so as to maintain the stability of their business even during the pandemic. 

Through the program, Grab, Emtek, and Bukalapak will combine their expertise to train and assist MSMEs in order to improve their ability to be ready in joining the digital economy. Around 100 selected MSMEs in Kupang and Solo will also receive special training on business management mentored by Grab and Bukalapak, free assistance for one month from the design, packaging to marketing through social media and influencers, and free advertising on Grab and Bukalapak platforms. Moreover, five selected MSMEs will be receiving publication on the Emtek Group media network.

Neneng Goenadi, the country managing director of Grab Indonesia, commented, “We believe big futures also exist in small towns. We hope that the program can open the door to a wider market for MSMEs in small cities without having to move locations, and in the end, will have a comprehensive impact on the regional economy.”

Meanwhile, Sutanto Hartono, EMTEK’s managing director, said that the digital ecosystem collaboration owned by EMTEK and Grab will provide more complete access to MSMEs on our platform, from logistics to financial inclusion, through the Mitra Bukalapak and GrabKios platforms, for example.

“The EMTEK media network will play a role in increasing awareness for both customers and MSME players on the maximum use of digital platforms,” said Hartono.

Rachmat Kaimuddin, Bukalapak’s president director, noted that this joint collaboration continues their commitment to support the development of MSMEs in Indonesia through digitalization. 

“The Future City Program, which prioritizes tier 2 and 3 cities throughout Indonesia, is in line with our mission to create a fair economy for all with the main focus on empowering MSMEs and serving underserved segments.”

Singapore – ONE Esports, the esports media company, has partnered with top online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda, to create a new multi-part docuseries on esports called ‘Heroes of the Game’, which tackles the ‘ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major’ event held in March this year.

The new docuseries features exclusive never-before-seen footage, including behind-the-scenes strategies, victories, and secrets, as well as challenges that the esports heroes had to face during the tournament in the Dota 2 series. The two-part documentary follows three teams as they compete as the ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major, namely Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, and OB Neon.

Moreover, the viewers will be getting a behind-the-scenes look from inside the ‘bubble’ at the Fairmont Hotel in Singapore. It includes exclusive interviews with players, coaches, and industry veterans telling the story of the highs and lows of their journey through the tournament, which had a prize pool of US$500k. 

ONE Esports said that the Singapore Major is one of two majors that enables teams to qualify for The International, which will be held in Romania in October 2021 with a prize pool of over US$40m.

Carlos Alimurung, ONE Esports’ CEO, commented that they are delighted to continue their partnership with foodpanda, and they are not only immortalizing the iconic ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major in film through the docuseries but also giving viewers an inside look at what it takes to compete at the highest level of esports. 

“Ultimately, compelling storytelling is the key to opening esports up to a wider audience and enabling them to appreciate the diligence, uniqueness, and achievements of its athletes. Heroes of the Game is a perfect example of this effort to broaden the appeal of the sport,” said Alimurung.

Idan Haim, foodpanda’s vice president of growth and marketing, said, “We are thrilled to be teaming up with ONE Esports to connect with foodpanda users in the esports arena. As Asia’s largest food and grocery delivery platform, we are the go-to partner for gamers to refuel with their favorite food and snacks, delivered straight to their doorsteps.”

The docuseries has already been released on ONE Esports’ social channels including Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube, and will soon be premiering on regional broadcast channels including eGG Network, One Sports Philippines, PPTV HD36 Thailand, and Astro, as well as RTM Sports Malaysia, and Eleven Sports Taiwan.