Tag: platform

Singapore – Kid-centric digital advertising platform TotallyAwesome has recently launched its largest brand-safe gaming platform ‘TotallyPlay’ in Asia-Pacific, allowing brands and advertisers to connect with gamers in Singapore and in the region aged under 18.

Through the platform, it bridges the gap between greater content utility for brands and the experience of play with gamers through managed and programmatic offerings within specific youth audience segments. 

TotallyPlay’s mission is to provide an unbiased and science-backed approach, with a focus on human interpretation, best-in-class exclusive media partnerships, and brand safety. Whether it’s a hand-selected in-game marketing deployment, rewarded video in a mobile game, pre-rolls on around popular gaming YouTubers, a custom integration within a virtual world, or an in-stream placement during a gaming tournament, the platform enables marketers to meaningfully connect with the industry.

TotallyPlay’s gaming platform is able to deliver the largest and best-in-class media supply across APAC without the need for third-party online data, giving marketers a platform to navigate industry sea changes such as Google’s plans to disable third-party cookies next year.

This supply includes safer advertising formats in-game, whether that’s in the form of an in-game banner and rewarded video formats, exclusive branded character skins, or even an official partnership with a brand or developer. Then, it’s about partnerships and collaborations with creators, influencers and other media around the game. And lastly, thinking beyond the game, it’s the partnerships and curated experiences with partners like official esports tournaments, athletes, or in forms of brand experiences built in other virtual environments.

Will Anstee, CEO of TotallyAwesome commented on the launch, “TotallyPlay is about providing the advertising backdrop for positive gameplay to thrive, collaborating with interested brands, and backed by media metrics to prove or disprove each channel’s effectiveness for their campaigns. In short, we’re the only agnostic player in the game, forgive the pun.” 

He added, “Beyond creating highly curated age-appropriate, brand-safe environments, we’re fully invested in the mission to support a safer online future for under-18s and are fascinated by the future of gaming and the possibilities for safe and responsible gameplay to flourish. As we know the region’s biggest brands feel the same, our role is to connect them with this multi-hundred billion-dollar industry with meaning and utility at scale, with the best ROI their media dollars can buy. It’s now a no-brainer.”

Singapore – Regional e-commerce platform Shopee and multinational consumer goods company Procter and Gamble (P&G) have recently launched an exclusive virtual home shopping experience, as part of P&G’s ‘Regional Super Brand Day’ on Shopee.

Said virtual home shopping experience aims to include campaign-exclusive deals, on-site visibility, and traffic drivers such as influencer engagement and media. It will also include multi-format touch points including videos, gamification, and localised content in a bid to make online home shopping convenient and engaging for all.

The new virtual home shopping experience is a one-stop shop for household essentials produced by P&G brands such as Olay, Downey, Gillette, where users can browse through items categorised according to rooms. The immersive shopping experience aims to provide consumers with an interactive and elevated online shopping journey that changes the way they discover and browse products, beyond traditional product pages. 

This feature is being rolled out progressively across six countries in the Southeast Asia region. Starting with Malaysia and Vietnam on 10 July, it is being progressively rolled out in July and August across Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Elements of the microsite will be localised to each country with the aim of better resonating with consumers through familiar imagery.

Pavan Challa, director of regional brand partnerships at Shopee said, “We are happy to deepen our long-running partnership with P&G to elevate the digital home shopping experience. This new feature will help consumers immerse themselves into the journey of browsing and discovering new brands and items very much like visiting a showroom.” 

He added, “Deeper engagement with brands will also help to facilitate greater customer loyalty, which is a win-win for our users. As we continue to grow the household and personal care categories on Shopee Mall, we look forward to working closely with brands such as P&G to innovate experiences.”

Meanwhile, Shankar Viswanathan, head of e-commerce for Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa at Procter & Gamble, commented, “With the COVID-19 pandemic causing a surge in e-commerce over the past few years, staying ahead with digital innovation is more important than ever. In partnership with Shopee, the virtual home experience has been carefully curated with consumers in mind.” 

He added, “By leveraging the power of technology and gamification, we aim to provide consumers with the best possible virtual home shopping experience in the new normal. In line with P&G’s belief in constructive disruption, we are certain that this will drive growth and value, shaping the future of e-commerce.”

Hong Kong – Innity Hong Kong, a digital advertising solutions company, has announced it has launched Innity Premium AdHub, a new self-serve advertising platform that allows brands and SME advertisers to run campaigns more openly on their own terms. The new self-serve advertising platform enables businesses of all sizes to tap into Innity’s network of more than 250 quality publishers and reach over 12 million active devices in Hong Kong with precise targeting.

With Innity Premium Ad Hub, advertisers can set campaign budgets, monitor results, and adjust content in real-time, all from an easy-to-use online platform. The platform is backed by rich 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party audience data, enabling the delivery of branding and performance campaigns in a brand-safe and transparent environment. 

The self-serve platform also lets advertisers build and design their own ads directly on the platform with minimal effort. Advertisers are also able to run Innity’s high-impact mobile ad formats like Mobile Spin, Mobile Cards, and more that aim to deliver the highest viewability and engaging ad experiences.

Andrew Lim, managing partner, Innity Hong Kong, shared, “We’re excited to enable advertisers to easily and quickly create and upload their own campaigns that they can push live to 12 million active devices in Hong Kong in a fast and effective way. Our mission with the Innity Premium AdHub is to create a high-quality premium marketplace to offer a transparent, brand-safe, and high-viewability advertising platform, and we are very happy to be on track to deliver this to all our advertisers.” 

Innity is currently powering the self-serve technology for two premium publisher co-operatives in the region – The Online Premium Publishers Association (OPPA) in Thailand, and Malaysian Premium Publishers Marketplace (MPPM) in Malaysia and continues to encourage the adoption and education of self-serve automation in the region’s digital media industry.

Singapore – Online freelance marketplace Fiverr has announced the launch of its new platform ‘Togetherr™’, where creative teams can be connected to leading global brands and agency clients for creative works.

The new platform uses the proprietary technology ‘Creative Genome’ to construct teams from an exclusive group of creative talent. These teams will be curated and matched to support brands and agencies on specific projects and campaigns.

‘Togetherr’ builds on Fiverr’s mission of revolutionising how the world works together. This new platform puts talent and creativity at its core and uses technology powered by an AI engine to help leading brands engage with and manage teams of top-tier independent creatives to meet their project goals.

Amir Guy, general manager at Togetherr, said. “The agency-of-record (AOR) model, based on hefty retainers, bloated head-counts, overheads, and complex processes, is not meeting today’s client needs. Clients need a lot more for less, and faster. Trying to meet these needs without changing our industry’s complex system resulted in broken spirits, lack of bravery, lack of excitement, and short-termism.”

He added, “We lost our creative icons, our magicians, our storytellers. Creatives were driven out of our industry, and clients are now looking for them elsewhere. The last two years taught our clients that they can find creativity elsewhere, and produce campaigns better and faster.”

Brands will no longer be bound by bureaucracy, agencies-of-record, and long request for proposal (RFP) processes to bring campaigns to life. With Togetherr, the platform obtains the brief from the client, and the powerful AI engine will build a team specifically curated for that particular project. They get access to world class talent – to enhance the capabilities of their in-house creative teams – a space we see a lot of brands building out – or to build an entire freelance creative team to deliver new ideas or test new approaches.

Meanwhile, Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr, commented “Togetherr is a platform that aims to enable and accelerate new ways of working in the creative industry. When you allow yourself to look beyond the old system and challenge the way things have been done forever, you realise that talent can be found everywhere, on a global scale.” 

He added, “You also find that diversity, which is so essential for creativity, becomes truly possible when you go beyond old constructs. Leading brands today often build their own creative capabilities in-house, and they need easy ways to augment them with outside independent talent and micro agencies on a project-by-project basis.”

Lastly, Greg Hahn, co-founder and COO of Mischief and advisor at Togetherr. “I’ve worked with big agencies and small agencies and founded a boutique small agency that does things differently. There’s no right or wrong way to unlock creativity, however, by putting talent and ideas over profits, you remove the pressure and make way for beautiful, bold, and diverse ideas. This is what Togetherr is all about – using technology to unlock people’s creativity and putting talent first. I am thrilled to have been a part of building this incredible platform and am excited to tap its potential myself.”

Manila, Philippines — TikTok, a leading destination for short-form mobile video, celebrates this year’s Pride Month by promoting inclusivity. The platform aims to champion individual expression while also spotlighting the strength of the LGBTQIA+ community.

To officially kick off the month of June, TikTok launched this year’s pride month campaign with the official hashtag, #PrideTogetherPH.

TikTok continues to serve as a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community where users can engage and build relationships with key figures and advocacy organisations. For interested users, they can join in on the discussion and catch the Sama-sama tayo #PrideTogetherPH live stream on June 15, 17, 22, and 24.

The live broadcast will compose numerous prominent LGBTQIA+ creators including Show Suzuki, Roanne and Tina, Rica Salomon, and Miko Esjay together with various music artists like Paul Pablo, SILVY, and Anne Marie.

In addition to the jam-packed events, anticipate a well-rounded discourse with a specially curated digital content series named #QueerTalk with OxfamPH and #ATBPride with LoveYourselfPH. Both are video series expounding more about LGBTQIA+, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression Equality Bill, and different gender identities in the LGBTQIA+ community.

New York, USA – Pinterest and modern media company Tastemade has announced a first-of-its-kind, multi-million, global strategic partnership to scale creators, content series, and live streaming on Pinterest. The multi-year partnership commences immediately, with initial programming launching in Q3/Q4 of 2022 and throughout 2023.

Under the terms of the deal, Tastemade, will produce 50 new shows that will debut exclusively on Pinterest via new content franchises and Idea Pins, Pinterest’s multi-page video Pins. Co-developed by Pinterest, this series will feature talent from both the Tastemade and Pinterest creator communities from around the globe and will be produced in at least eight different languages from Tastemade’s global studios across the U.S, LATAM, Europe, and APAC.

Tastemade will also produce hundreds of hours of new live streaming programming for Pinterest TV. Shot on location and in Tastemade’s studios, the live streams will aim to increase total viewership, drive repeat viewers, test shopping behaviors, and encourage community engagement. Tastemade’s experience with live streaming commerce will prove valuable in activating creators, brands, and consumers alike.

Pinterest’s Chief Content Officer, Malik Ducard, shared, “As one of our largest video partners globally, I’ve been so impressed by how Tastemade has expanded their platform, consistently delivers engaging content, and builds value on Pinterest,” 

“This is a natural extension of our existing partnership as we scale our content and creator efforts at Pinterest, and I’m thrilled to build something even bigger to inspire Pinners in more languages around the world,” Ducard added.

By partnering with Tastemade, Pinterest is further scaling its creator ecosystem with a pioneer in the native mobile video to drive high-quality video content and engagement on the platform, which allows for a truly unique offering for creators to collaborate with Tastemade and Pinterest on a global basis. While Pinterest began its creator efforts by focusing on “rising stars” and “homegrown” creators, this newly expanded partnership with Tastemade will also bolster Pinterest’s native-first content approach with programmers and publishers as premium content creators.

While Tastemade has historically focused on the passion-led content verticals of Food, Travel, and Home & Design, this partnership will expand its programming to other high-value categories including Beauty, Fashion, Health & Wellness, Fitness, Parenting, Pets, and more – leveraging Tastemade’s robust global video platform and creator community to bring greater quality and scale to Pinterest’s video ambitions and to produce an even wider array of programming to inspire Pinterest users around the world.

Tastemade’s Co-Founder & CEO Larry Fitzgibbon, commented, “Consumers have undeniably embraced video as the preferred content medium, and one that is especially powerful in inspiring consumers to take action to create a life they love.”

“The biggest trends in media are now in video, creators, and live streaming – and this partnership addresses all three at global scale. We have a long track record of deeply engaging the Pinterest audience and are excited to take even more Pinners from inspiration to realization through video storytelling,” Fitzgibbon adds.

As a part of the deal, Tastemade will also host a series of in-person creator events at Tastemade studios around the globe (Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Jakarta, Mumbai, São Paulo, Buenos Aires) in many of Pinterest’s key international markets. Creators from both the Pinterest and Tastemade communities will come together for community-building activities, creator activations, and training sessions focused on catalyzing more high-quality video storytelling and overall engagement on the Pinterest platform.

Manila, Philippines – Zoho Corporation, an India-based technology company, is bringing the Zoho Creator 2022 Roadshow to Manila from June 23rd to the 24th of this year. Through this event, the company is looking to enable the digital transformation of non-profit organizations and local businesses to work better, faster, and more efficiently using Zoho Creator, the proprietary low-code platform.

According to the business management consulting company, KPMG Philippines, the ‘need for speed’ in today’s environment is forcing businesses to quicken innovation in an ever-changing environment, and low-code platforms are the key to helping businesses discover simple and fast solutions that can be automated. In fact, the report also stated that the number of C-level executives naming low-code platforms as the most important digital investment has tripled.

Gibu Mathew, VP and GM of Zoho APAC, said, “We are deepening engagement with Philippine enterprises interested in low-code developments, and we hope to bring an affordable and easy-to-use solution to help businesses stay nimble and meet present-day challenges.”

Mathew adds, “The roadshow brings together Creator developers, industry experts, and thought leaders to provide local businesses with tips and tricks on how to customize solutions to meet digital transformation needs quickly and eliminate pain points through a low-code platform.”

The two-day roadshow is expected to help businesses leverage the enhanced all-in-one solution to bridge the gap between business users and IT teams to create applications without the need for deep technical know-how. The event will host workshops to help businesses address practical challenges, analyze business data and deploy applications to meet mission-critical needs at minimal costs using Zoho Creator’s simple drag-and-drop interface.

Mathew shared that business users with specific digital challenges can schedule a dedicated one-on-one session with their creator consultants to deep dive into their current setup, and receive advice on overcoming their status quo with low-code solutions.

Interested attendants can visit and register their interest on Zoho’s dedicated event website.

Mumbai, India – India-based Upturn News Network, has announced the launch of moneynomical.com, a financial news portal for news readers across the world. The platform aims to provide news from a range of verticals, including crypto, stock markets, banking, technology, funding and money management.

Vipul Sipani, founder of the Indian news group Upturn News Network, said the internet landscape is constantly changing and evolving, with the news segment being one of the strongest drivers of the world wide web.

“In such a dynamic time and age, it is imperative for news portals to provide data which is not only timely, relevant but also helps the reader grow in knowledge, as well as in matters of life. As times and technology change at a fast pace, our portals, editors, journalists and photo-editors intend to keep ahead of the curve,” he said.

Sipani further said, the news network will soon be releasing a mobile app which will cater to the subscribers of the portal. Users will be able to access the Moneynomical website without any charges, though select sections will be premium, available only via monthly subscription. The portal will also publish comprehensive research-based content for their subscribers.

Mumbai, India – Kiya.ai, an innovative digital solutions providers serving financial institutions and governments globally has announced the launch of India’s first-ever Banking Metaverse – Kiyaverse. The platform will enable customers to use their personalized avatars on digital banking units, mobiles, laptops, VR headsets and mixed reality environments. 

Kiya.ai said that Kiyaverse will bring banking services from the real world to the virtual world and vice-a versa, interacting with a relationship manager’s avatar creation and customisation, AI-based digital customer interaction, portfolio analysis, wealth management, co-lending, and corporate banking. Kiyaverse provides 3-dimensional analysis of data for Banks including CMO Insights, Product Performance, Risk Analysis and Channel Analytics.

Kiyaverse pioneers use cases of merging real-world banking with Metaverse banking through an avatar (virtual humanoid) based interactions. In the first phase, Kiyaverse will allow banks to extend their own Metaverse for clients, partners, and employees, through services that will include Relationship Manager & Peer Avatars and Robo-advisors. Kiyaverse plans to have tokens as NFTs and support CBDC to enable open finance in a Web3.0 environment. Kiyaverse will interface its Open API connectors with Aggregators, and Gateways to enable a Super-App and Marketplace on the metaverse. With the introduction of Haptics enabled Headsets, Kiyaverse will provide a near real-world interaction using the internet of senses.

Kiya.ai’s MD and CEO Rajesh Mirjankar, said that while digital banking is functionally interdependent and inclusive, it is all too often seen as being emotionally detached. Metaverse allows banks to use cutting-edge technology with a human touch which will significantly deepen and personalize customer interaction.

“Kiyaverse offers meaningful applications in the Metaverse that apply to relevant business use cases in the real world. It will enable banks to harness the potential of enhanced UX to bring out the best outcomes for data visualization and gamification of processes and procedures,” Mirjankar said..

Mirjankar added, “Kiyaverse provides cross-functional multi-experience using personalized avatars across real world, mixed reality & virtual reality environments. Our product roadmap includes integration with CBDC and interoperability with other Metaverses to enable open finance in the Metaverse.”

Jakarta, Indonesia — Astro, a platform that enables 15-minute grocery delivery to customers, has raised US$60m in a Series B to continue its mission to make people’s life easier by developing a modern, on-demand platform. The new round was led by Accel, Citius and Tiger Global bringing the total investment to more than US$90m since Astro started in Sep 2021. Existing investors also participated namely AC Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, and Lightspeed, among others.

The funds raised will be used to reach more customers and enrich product capabilities to provide an even better customer experience, as well as to expand the team size in 2022.

Today, Astro’s 15-minutes delivery service is operating in nearly 50 locations across Jakarta Broader Metro Area. Since the last round of Series A, the company revenue has grown more than 10 times as well as achieving much higher efficiency to deliver to customers. The team has also grown significantly with more than 200 people, whom they refer to internally as ‘Astronauts’ while enabling work from anywhere setup to accommodate flexibility during this pandemic environment.

Factors like positive consumer reception and organic growth of cohorts result in a high-growth momentum for the company.

Vincent Tjandra, co-founder and CEO of Astro, said, “Our mission at Astro is to make people’s lives simpler and easier. Our Astronauts have continuously served customers when they need us the most, especially during the last Omicron COVID-19 spike where Indonesia experienced an unprecedented number of cases.”

Tjandra adds, “We are excited to partner with Accel, Citius and Tiger Global to accelerate our meaningful mission. We will continuously focus on building a great company with great talents across Indonesia and delivering a great customer experience.”

For Astro, this is just the beginning as groceries in Indonesia is one of the biggest retail sectors, however digital penetration in the sector is one of the lowest at 0.4% compared to the 10% penetration of e-commerce. With the pandemic driving digital adoption, the opportunity is large with e-grocery in Indonesia and is poised to become a US$6b opportunity by 2025. This represents a billion dollar opportunity being unlocked every single year.