Tag: Partnerships

Australia – Global advertising technology company Quantcast and video ad technology company FreeWheel has announced a new partnership that allows advertisers direct access to global premium video publishers.

As part of the deal, marketers working with Quantcast will now have access to premium programmatic video supply across all personal screens and devices, including over-the-top (OTT) and connected television (CTV).

Through the partnership, marketers can also leverage Quantcast’s AI and machine-learning capabilities to drive optimal outcomes by connecting with the right audiences across FreeWheel’s supply of premium video, extending inventory reach beyond native, display, mobile and online video.

“CTV’s rapid expansion and growth is transforming both the digital and TV ad sectors and so, we have to move quickly and nimbly to anticipate shifting consumer behaviour,” said Konrad Feldman, CEO of Quantcast. 

On the partnership, Feldman commented, “Our company has been at the forefront of using AI to interpret media consumption patterns and deliver campaign performance and outcomes. By teaming up with FreeWheel, we can better support our advertisers to reach consumers across even more engagement and connection points.”

Quantcast Managing Director for APAC, Sonal Patel, also said, “We’re thrilled to work with FreeWheel in a partnership that advances our service offering and helps our advertising clients achieve even better outcomes with video.”

Jon Mansell, U.S. head of marketplace demand at FreeWheel likewise shared his excitement over the partnership, as it will help drive incremental demand for sellers across the streaming ecosystem.

“This new partnership enables us to provide a new programmatic access point to FreeWheel’s ad server, a direct connection that helps marketers to further reduce waste and avoid unnecessary exchange redundancy, all while delivering a better experience to consumers.”

The partnership and its accompanying capabilities will be live in market, including Australia and APAC, from Q3 of 2023.

Gurugram, India – Paradise Biryani, one of India’s most iconic biryani brands, has appointed Havas Media Group India, the media expertise arm of Havas India, as its media agency of record.

The integrated mandate comprising offline and digital media duties will be handled by the agency’s Gurugram office and will be led by Roopali Sharma, president-north, Havas Media India alongside Uday Mohan, managing director, Havas Media India.

 As part of the mandate, the agency will drive the brand’s media strategy across all offline and digital media channels, aiding the enhancement of the category leader’s presence and market penetration across the country. 

With the partnership, Paradise Biryani is seeking to further strengthen its positioning in key markets pan India by increasing visibility and reach among its target audience via strategic communication. Havas Media Group India will leverage its expertise to create a highly targeted strategy to resonate with Paradise Biryani’s constantly expanding audience base by amplifying the brand’s messaging.

Talking about the association, Gautam Gupta, managing director and CEO, Paradise Food Court Pvt. Ltd. said, “For a much-loved brand such as Paradise Biryani, the strategy has to be extremely well thought through to tap into the pulse of our target audience. Havas Media Group India with its proven track record, in-depth market knowledge and media expertise stood out for us as the perfect media agency partners.”

Gupta also shared that they are certain that the partnership will enable the brand to meet its future goals and desired outcomes in a manner that is “precise and strategic.”

“We are delighted to lend our expertise to Paradise Biryani, a brand that has been catering to India’s love for authentic biryani for six decades. The key focus will be to leverage our robust media proficiency, helping the brand connect better with evolved consumer tastes and thereby build an even stronger brand presence and loyal audience base,” said Mohit Joshi, CEO, Havas Media Group India.

Mohan likewise remarked that designing customized solutions that fit the stature of such a brand requires skilled new-age capabilities and market comprehension, which is the core competency of Havas’ team of professionals. 

“Havas Media takes pride in partnering with the brand to deliver groundbreaking strategies to further strengthen Paradise Biryani’s extend and positioning across newer markets as they expand their footprint,” Mohan added.

Recently, Havas Media Group India has also been appointed by sports brand PUMA in India as its media agency of record to oversee its entire offline and online media service suite.

Singapore – Adobe has today announced Adobe Firefly’s new integration with Bard, Google’s experimental conversational AI service, along with the expansion of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), to continue the creative journey further in Adobe Express. 

In the coming months, Firefly will become the premier generative AI partner for Bard, powering and highlighting text-to-image capabilities. With the new Bard by Google integration, users at all skill levels will be able to describe their vision to Bard in their own words to create Firefly-generated images directly in Bard and then modify and use them to create designs via Express.

Adobe and Google are approaching this partnership through a creator-focused lens, with Adobe using CAI’s open-source Content Credentials technology to bring transparency to images generated through this integration. This partnership will deliver creator-focused generative AI to millions more people.

“The incredible response to our Adobe Firefly beta demonstrates the power and potential of generative AI to inspire more people to create and the strong demand for a creator-centric, commercially viable approach,” said Ely Greenfield, CTO, digital media at Adobe.

Greenfield added, “We’re empowering millions more people to use Firefly for creative inspiration and design and share standout content with Adobe Express through this integration with Bard by Google.”

Sissie Hsiao, vice president and GM of Assistant and Bard at Google, also remarked, “Generative AI has captured the world’s attention and changed how we think about collaboration and productivity. We’re thrilled to partner with Adobe Firefly, giving our users the power to bring their creative ideas to life, quickly and easily – directly in Bard.”

Firefly is the most differentiated generative AI service that generates commercially viable, professional quality content and is designed to be embedded directly into creators’ workflows both in Adobe’s own applications and now in Bard by Google. Enterprise businesses will be able to train Firefly with their own creative collateral in order to generate content in the company’s brand language. 

Moreover, the integration of Firefly across Adobe Experience Cloud applications will allow marketing organizations to use Firefly to accelerate their content supply chain production.

“At this critical moment in history, as generative AI becomes more powerful and prevalent than ever, people need a way to tell what’s behind the content they’re consuming. Content Credentials will enable creators to tell their stories authentically, while providing easy-to-use tools to verify how a piece of content was created and modified,” said Dana Rao, general counsel and chief trust officer at Adobe.

Recently, Adobe has also inked a partnership with marketing communications company Omnicom Group Inc. to reinvent the creation and delivery of creative content.

New York – Tremor International, the data-driven video and Connected TV (CTV) advertising technology, has announced a global partnership with Scope3, the sustainable advertising catalyst, to apply the latter’s carbon emission measurement methodology to its CTV inventory. 

Through Unruly, the SSP in Tremor’s platform, buyers can access Green Media Product (GMP) curated deals – powered by Scope3 data – across premium display, video and now, CTV, to achieve performance goals while mapping and measuring the carbon emissions of their media spend.

GMPs are media products based on Scope3 data, designed to reduce an advertiser’s carbon footprint by providing them with the ability to map and measure the emissions related to their media spend. By moving spend onto GMPs, advertisers can contribute to potential industry-wide systemic change. 

“At Tremor International, we believe in working collaboratively to drive positive change. CTV plays a key role in the future of our business and the industry at large, so it’s critical that we prioritise sustainability as our technology advances to support the convergence of traditional TV and digital advertising,” said Karim Rayes, chief product officer at Tremor International. 

He added, “Together with Scope3, we are taking a thoughtful approach to supporting the reduction of our industry’s carbon footprint while continuing to optimise our clients’ investments across emerging formats.”

Brenda Tuohig, head of strategy and global partnerships at Scope3, also said, “As investment in CTV grows, it’s important that the industry can measure and understand the carbon emissions associated with it. By expanding Scope3’s methodology to include streaming and CTV, we’re another step closer to getting a full picture of the ad industry’s carbon footprint.” 

Tuohig added, “What’s even more exciting is that we can now use that data to take action to reduce emissions and Tremor is a key part of that. Offering CTV-specific GMPs is just the first of multiple ways that Tremor will be using Scope3 data to help drive emissions reduction in programmatic advertising.”

Tremor International has also previously partnered with media measurement and analytics company Comscore to deliver expanded programmatic CTV audience engagement.

Bengaluru, India – Sports brand PUMA in India has appointed Havas Media Group India as its new media agency of record. As part of the mandate, the agency will be overseeing the entire offline and online media service suite including Digital, TV, Print, Radio, OOH, and cinema mediums for PUMA. 

Under the partnership, Havas Media will be identifying, designing, and executing strategic media engagements for PUMA. Just recently, the agency has also extended its offline media services to PUMA for its campaign announcing Anushka Sharma as its brand ambassador.

Moreover, the account will be managed by the agency’s Bengaluru team, helmed by Saurabh Jain, president – south, Havas Media India. Meanwhile, Uday Mohan, managing director at Havas Media India, will support the team in devising the strategy and ensuring seamless operations.

Commenting on the occasion, Shreya Sachdev, head of marketing at PUMA India, said, “PUMA holds a leading position in sports and lifestyle segment in the country with state-of-the-art product innovations and influence on youth culture.”

Sachdev added, “As a brand, we keep a sharp focus on staying relevant and resonating with our audience across markets and platforms. With Havas Media Group India, we look forward to effectively connect with our consumers at scale.”

Mohit Joshi, CEO, Havas Media Group India, also commented, “PUMA as a brand is known for its strong voice and vibrant spirit. Havas Media Group India has been on an upward trajectory consistently; last year was a landmark year for us as we were recognized as a dominant agency by RECMA and secured second place among all media agencies in the country.”

On winning the mandate of PUMA, Joshi said, “At Havas Media, we focus on designing and delivering impactful media solutions and hence, resonate with PUMA’s efforts to leverage relevant consumer touch points, services and messages that hold immense credibility for its audience. We are excited to make a meaningful difference for Brand PUMA and look forward to a fruitful partnership.”

Recently, Havas Media has also bagged the account of international financial services firm Sun Life for its markets in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Mumbai, India – Following a competitive multi-agency pitch, Tonic Worldwide, the digital-first creative agency, has won the digital creative mandate for L’Oréal Paris, one of the world’s leading cosmetics brands.

Tonic Worldwide has come on board as the digital partner for the brand with a mission of growing the business through optimising consumer journeys across various e-tailer platforms.

Speaking on the new win, Chetan Asher, co-founder and CEO of Tonic Worldwide, said, “We are excited to partner with L’Oréal Paris in its vision to reach relevant audiences for this category. Being a very specialised category, it needs a deep understanding of the consumer need gaps to nudge them with the right communication within various stages of their online journey.”

He also added that Tonic’s specialist arm GIPSI and ecommerce expertise will play an important role in realising this vision.

On the new collaboration, Divya Reddy Shah, general manager of L’Oréal Paris, said, “We are delighted to welcome Tonic to the L’Oréal Paris family. With science, and innovation at the core, we at L’Oréal Paris, strive to create a difference in the Indian beauty market with our differentiated products which are backed by science.”

Shah added, “We are ecstatic to join hands with Tonic to drive our digital strategies and executions and accelerate the beauty revolution in India!”

With the partnership, L’Oréal’s account will be handled out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

Singapore – The Singapore-headquartered integrated global communications agency, Redhill, has entered strategic partnerships with PR Wire, a public relations consultancy in Sri Lanka, and Aroca Consulting Group (ACG), a full-service public affairs and business advisory firm from Singapore.

According to the release, these collaborations will enable Redhill to strengthen its market presence and capabilities in Sri Lanka, as well as broaden its offerings in government relations and public affairs. On the other hand, both PR Wire and ACG will gain access to Redhill’s extensive portfolio of communications and storytelling services, along with international expertise and reach from its global network.

“Expanding and strengthening our market presence and service offerings have always been a priority for Redhill, and we are excited to be partnering with PR Wire and ACG. Sri Lanka has always been an important market for Redhill, especially as our Studio team is on the ground there,” said Jacob Puthenparambil, CEO at Redhill.

He added, “Similarly, with our existing relationships within the government sector, it is a natural next step to deepen our expertise in public affairs and policy. Through our partnerships with PR Wire and ACG, who are both leaders in their respective sectors and markets, we are confident to deliver broader, more dynamic services to our collective clients.”

Meanwhile, Ashan Kumar, founder and managing director at PR Wire said that the partnership with Redhill will create opportunities across various markets in the Asia-Pacific to serve clients with a fully integrated communication strategy, focusing on traditional and digital public relations.

“Together, we can solidify our service offerings through a strong global footprint within Singapore, Sri Lanka, and other APAC offices. It is increasingly important to have a globalised approach to PR and communications while maintaining on-ground, local intelligence including buyer behaviour, business and communication strategy and strong media landscape expertise with an authentic network. This partnership offers exactly that, and we are excited to hit the ground running with Redhill,” Kumar added.

Ozan Ibrisim, managing director for Singapore at Aroca Consulting Group, also shared his excitement over the partnership as it will diversify ACG’s service offerings through Redhill’s integrated communications approach and its specialisation in public affairs and government relations.

“Through our collaboration, we look forward to providing clients with the most effective combination of strategies to build a strong social, economic and sustainability case for them to achieve their business objectives. Public affairs and government relations have evolved to require a more collaborative approach with integrated communications, and we are excited to strengthen our capabilities to provide the best service to clients,” he said.

Previously, Redhill has also entered a partnership with Geylang International Football Club (GIFC) to drive women’s football in Singapore.

Singapore – Integral Ad Science, the digital media quality platform, has announced its enhanced partnership with YouTube to provide advertisers with industry-leading brand safety and suitability measurement across the online video platform. 

Powered by cutting-edge machine learning technology, IAS measurement will now deliver a more comprehensive analysis of video content on YouTube, providing marketers with even greater tools for safety and suitability. IAS’s updated reporting is aligned with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) Brand Safety and Suitability framework, enabling granular campaign reporting for maximum impact.

According to IAS, the platform’s Total Media Quality for YouTube uses a powerful type of machine learning to provide new levels of insight into video content and is currently being used on other social media platforms to analyse millions of videos per year for marketers. 

The IAS YouTube Brand Safety and Suitability Measurement offering will provide machine learning-powered details about video content to advertisers best-in-class brand safety and suitability scoring, a scoring classification that is consistent with the GARM Brand Safety and Suitability framework, daily reporting across the GARM categories and four risk levels, and global accessibility with more than 30 languages available.

“Consumers are spending as much time streaming content on YouTube and other platforms as they are watching traditional TV. As the amount of content on YouTube continues to grow, marketers need sophisticated tech to keep pace. IAS’s ongoing innovation with YouTube and Google is continuously adapting to provide marketers with the tools they need to take control of brand safety and suitability and ensure their campaigns are productive,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS. 

Julie Kandel, senior partner and director of brand safety, North America at GroupM, also commented, “Advertisers require the ability to measure brand safety on platforms like YouTube without sacrificing premium placements or reach. Partnering with IAS enables us to access the power of granular classification to measure brand suitability for our clients and drive better campaign impact and control.”

IAS is certified for both ‘Brand Suitability and Contextual Targeting’ and ‘Brand Safety Reporting’ in the YouTube Measurement Program (YTMP). The YTMP was created to offer advertisers an array of trusted independent solutions for driving and measuring marketing performance on YouTube. 

Previously, IAS has also inked a partnership with Amazon Publisher Services (APS) to provide its Publisher Optimization solution in the latter’s marketplace.

Singapore – One of Southeast Asia’s leading super app, Grab, has announced new in-app travel innovations and partnerships to provide travellers a safe, seamless, and hyperlocal experience as the region embraces a travel comeback. 

According to Grab, the enhanced travel experience was designed to give all travellers the assurance and confidence to explore their destination by empowering them to plan ahead, get a smooth ride the moment they touch down, and experience their destination like a local.

The new app enhancements include the new Traveller homepage, which allows overseas travellers to explore a city within the Grab app as if they were at the destination. Available for 33 of the top cities tourists visit in Southeast Asia, users can check out the Grab services present in the city, search and save places of interest, and explore the food options near their destination.

The app was also made available in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages to deliver a more intuitive experience for travellers from China, Korea, and Japan.

In the second half of the year, Grab will also release translated merchant menus in key cities across Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand into English, as well as a currency converter feature that will automatically display fares in travellers’ preferred local currency so that they don’t have to do manual conversions.

For travellers who prefer not to download another app, Grab has also teamed up with some of the world’s most popular apps such as WeChat, AliPay, Ctrip, Kakao T, Booking.com, and Uber to provide travellers visiting the region access to Grab’s ride-hailing services through these platforms.

“We want to be at the forefront of Southeast Asia’s travel revival, welcoming travellers back to the region with an enhanced Grab experience that is designed to help them travel with ease and peace of mind,” said Russell Cohen, group managing director of operations at Grab. 

He added, “No one knows Southeast Asia like we do, and our goal is not only to deliver the safest and most seamless mobility experience, but also encourage travellers to explore the richness of Southeast Asia like a local through our superapp offerings.”

In support of the revival of travel, Grab also announced new upgrades to its GrabUnlimited subscription package, giving its subscribers access to discounted airport rides at 89 airports across Southeast Asia.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), a government-subvented body tasked to market and promote Hong Kong as a travel destination worldwide, has appointed dentsu as its global media partner for Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, effective immediately.

Under the partnership, dentsu will work closely with HKTB globally to develop global communications strategy, media planning and buying, as well as support HKTB’s head office and worldwide offices.

Additionally, dentsu is also tasked with developing integrated campaigns to drive creative, production and KOL campaigns, utilising different channels to enrich visitor experiences and create business opportunities for travel-related sectors.

“Winning a global account based out of Asia Pacific is a huge testament to the expertise and insight of the local team as well as to our unique offering of a ‘one-stop’ integrated agency with a close network across the globe,” said Prerna Mehrotra, CEO of dentsu Media APAC.

Mehrotra added, “This win follows closely on the back of our recent win of foodpanda in the region – which was expanded from our remit in Taiwan, and demonstrates a steady trajectory of confidence and strength. This is a positive momentum that we will continue to work hard towards to stay on track of.”

Simone Tam, CEO of dentsu Hong Kong, also said, “We are very excited to be partnering with HKTB to promote Hong Kong to travellers around the world. Knowing what we will do will help to contribute to Hong Kong’s reputation and prosperity make it both exciting and meaningful.”

Meanwhile, Anson Hung, digital marketing director of Hong Kong Tourism Board, said that they feel confident that the dentsu team’s extensive industry knowledge and innovative approach will make them an excellent partner to help the board achieve its strategic goals. 

“We are excited to collaborate with them in creating memorable campaigns that truly resonate with our target audience,” Hung concluded. 

The partnership follows dentsu’s expanded remit with foodpanda targeted at supporting its media transformation journey.