Tag: Product Launch of The Year

The year 2022 was indeed a year of innovations – from advertising solutions to revenue management suites, many products have been launched to prove that their respective industries will continue to evolve in the years to come. However, only one bagged MARKETECH APAC’s Product Launch of the Year recognition: the launch of foodpanda’s adtech solution ‘panda ads’.

To learn more about the solution, we spoke to Kiranjeet Singh Purba, senior director of advertising and partnerships at foodpanda. Through the interview, he shared what motivated foodpanda to venture into the adtech space, how their partner brands have leveraged the solution, and what we can look forward to from it.

Why foodpanda ventured into adtech

Being in the food delivery industry for more than a decade now, foodpanda saw how its digitally savvy customers’ lives evolved, as well as their needs. This resulted in the launch of various offerings, such as its grocery delivery suite ‘pandamart’ and marketplace ‘foodpanda shops’. 

Apart from these, foodpanda also saw the increasing demand for retail media advertising and the opportunity to help different brands across Asia – hence the takeoff of panda ads, its advertising technology ecosystem.

“[W]e see panda ads in a unique position to help brands reach and engage millions of digital-native customers beyond traditional channels. This further, allows for our customers to access relevant advertising of products and services that are intelligently targeted to be specific to their daily needs,” Purba explained.

Initiatives and partnerships

Since its launch, panda ads has bagged partnerships with major brands such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Amazon, Netflix, Heineken, Tiger Brokers, and Huawei, amongst many others. Speaking about how these brands have leveraged the offering, Purba commented that they created campaigns tailored to meet these brands’ unique objectives.

“The uniqueness of partnering with panda ads is the amount of flexibility and campaign- control that brands receive. For instance, a campaign can be designed with the objective of either driving traffic to a particular product listed on foodpanda’s platform or to any other channel as required,” he added.

More specifically, Purba mentioned their partnership with Huawei, which leveraged both the foodpanda platforms’ ecosystems and panda ads for brand campaigns. One initiative they have done for the brand was its campaign for the launch of Huawei’s latest mobile phone. 

“Based on these objectives, the partnership was designed to: first, launch the foodpanda app on the HUAWEI AppGallery, making on-demand deliveries accessible to millions of Huawei smartphone users across 11 markets – this includes pre-installing the foodpanda app in all new Huawei smartphones,” he explained.

Moreover, he likewise mentioned that panda ads are being used to promote Huawei’s latest flagship products and user incentive campaigns for Huawei’s AppGallery and other HMS products to millions of foodpanda customers.

On collaborating with GroupM

Initially introduced as a proof of concept in 2021, panda ads have evolved into an actual adtech suite, thanks to foodpanda’s partnership with media investment company GroupM. 

According to Purba, their collaboration with the company covered four key facets: growing joint clients, enabling agencies using panda ads to be self-sufficient, industry thought leadership and joint research, and future development.

“As a commerce partner, GroupM has enabled its clients to tap into foodpanda’s AdTech ecosystem and benefit from being able to run more targeted and relevant mobile ads beyond traditional social media channels,” he said.

He further explained that with the creation of panda ads, GroupM’s clients also had the flexibility of tailoring their campaigns to incorporate a variety of solutions: from in-app advertising to digital marketing channels.

More from panda ads

The launch of panda ads has enabled brands to reach foodpanda audiences with billions of impressions. As Purba mentioned, they see strong repurchase rate behaviours from their partners, and more brands are partnering up with them to benefit from this suite. But what more can we expect from it?

To this, Purba said that foodpanda still sees an ample opportunity for them to enhance and innovate panda ads’ offerings to meet the needs of their partner brands. This ranges from offering more in-app placement options and improving their audience targeting capabilities to providing more data insights to the brands.

“Finally, we’re pushing the boundaries in innovation in exploring opportunities in offline to online attribution and first party data leverage,” he concluded. 

This recognition is based on Google Analytics results on the most-read stories of 2022, along with editorial validation on the significance of a leader’s contribution, campaign results, and overall impact.

2021 was a year of innovative and one-of-a-kind product launches amid brands responding to the highly-fluid times that we have now; through it all, it’s ADA, the marketing company that delivers data and AI-driven solutions in Asia, that emerges as our Product Launch of The Year for introducing its end-to-end solution for eCommerce this year.

The company launched the solution in March 2021 – a time where brands are cementing their resolve that the way to win the consumer this pandemic is to elevate their presence in eCommerce. 

Since launching the solution, ADA has made significant strides such as merging with eCommerce enabler Awake Asia and announcing its new regional head of eCommerce. 

We caught up with Srinivas Gattamneni, ADA’s CEO, who shared with us what ultimately made them put up the new solution and the changes that have occurred in the offering since the merger. Gattamneni also imparts his top three pieces of advice for brands to stay ahead of the eCommerce game in 2022.

What made you establish the new end-to-end eCommerce solution?

Since our founding, ADA’s focus has been to drive real business impact through outcome-oriented solutions and digital marketing transformation. When it comes to eCommerce, we noticed that the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) sector typically operated in silos especially with media, creative, and analytics. But to drive real business impact, integration is key. We saw that as an opportunity for ADA to acquire eCommerce enabling capabilities and offer an end-to-end solution that combines analytics, technology, media, and creative. 

Of course, COVID-19 was a big factor that expanded our serviceable obtainable market. While the adoption of digital solutions started prior to the pandemic, we observed a drastic boost in online shopping demand for segments such as groceries and home goods throughout these past two years, which is likely to persist. 

You have merged with e-commerce enabler Awake Asia shortly after you launched the solution. What has changed in your services since then?

The merger with Awake Asia has allowed us to expand our eCommerce solutions across all 10 markets in South and Southeast Asia. We’ve since launched our Digital Shelf tool for eCommerce insights and integrated analytics, built a regional Content House to do creative at scale, expanded our ecosystem with platforms such as Shopify and Magento, and signed strategic partnerships with brands like TikTok to expand our eCommerce offerings. 

Today, our team serves countless brands from a wide range of industries, addressing different business challenges through data-driven solutions. I’m proud to highlight that our work has been recognized by The APPIES Malaysia. With our eCommerce revenue doubling year-on-year, we’re optimistic the new year will bring even more opportunities to seek innovative solutions for clients.

Your markets expand Southeast Asia and South Asia; what has been the most challenging market in helping to elevate in eCommerce?

All of ADA’s markets are growing at a heightened rate thanks to the continued uptake of digital commerce. The challenge will be to stay ahead of the curve to deliver the best end-to-end eCommerce solutions for our clients.

How do you think brands’ demands for eCommerce will evolve as we move forward in 2022?

Efficiency becomes critical in a year when growth is leveling off. The big question for 2022 is how to optimize from the top to the bottom of the customer funnel as eCommerce growth normalizes. Brands will also need to take another look at their operating models, warehouse logistics, share of wallet, and platforms, and consider how they should invest in marketplaces, Brand.com, and social commerce.

As a TikTok Marketing Partner, we’re riding the wave of social commerce through TikTok’s efforts in Indonesia. With brands increasingly buying into social commerce, we expect the growth curve to steepen over the next 6-12 months. Beyond that, brands are looking into the metaverse. Whether it’s VR shopping, minting an NFT for Roblox or Meta, or transacting in cryptocurrency, the possibilities of this new realm are endless – and I look forward to seeing how the region transforms.

What are your tips for brands in order to win in e-commerce in 2022?

Three things: efficiency, agility, and falling in front of new trends. 

First, be efficient with your resources and invest in what gives you the best return, whether it’s your marketing campaigns, strategic partnerships, or the various eCommerce platforms. Automation is also key to optimizing your eCommerce operations in areas including content production, customer service, and fulfillment.

Next, be agile in the face of an ever-changing market. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that the market can change at the flip of a switch, so brands must be able to adapt and pivot. 

Lastly, it’s always better to fall in front than to fall behind when it comes to emerging trends such as social commerce and the metaverse. Stay in the know and dare to experiment while everyone else is still figuring it out. 

This recognition is based on the results of Google Analytics on the most-read stories of 2021 with editorial validation on the significance of a leader’s contribution, campaigns results, and overall impact.