Singapore After inaugurating its APAC headquarters in Singapore last year, advertising agency Le Pub appointed Hanh Kanssen as its general manager and Cyril Louis as its executive creative director.

Kanssen brings with her experience in connecting brands and consumers. She has worked with brands from Asia, Europe, and North America where she helped in driving their significant growth. 

Meanwhile, Louis brings expertise in designing products, crafting brands and businesses, creating physical and digital experiences and developing humanitarian initiatives. In his last stint, he was with creative company Elephant as global group creative director.

Amrita Randhawa, chief executive officer at Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia, said that with Kanssen’s expertise in several Asian markets and latest cultural trends, combined with Louis’ creative hybrid and passion for technology, they will bring something special to the agency.

Kanssen commented that joining Le Pub is extremely refreshing and exciting, given that the agency helps to build brands in culture.

“Personally, I feel very proud of the world-class creative talent we have on the team, all handpicked to focus on building the next generation of brands that have a strong presence at the table of culture,” she added.

Earlier this year, Le Pub crafted a campaign for beer brand Tiger Beer as part of the lunar new year celebration.

Singapore – Global food and beverage company PepsiCo has appointed Publicis Media as its media agency in Southeast Asia. As part of the mandate, Publicis Media has created PLUS+, a bespoke business solution.

PLUS+ is a dedicated business unit, creating an ecosystem of media, creativity, and technology for positive impact on business outcomes. In addition, it unlocks growth in the dynamic marketplace with consumer centric solutions and transformational, data-driven capabilities. 

“The purpose-driven operating model is people-first, with positive shared values underpinning a modern way of working,” the agency further describes it.

Lilly Yip, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo APAC, said, “We would like to thank the incumbent team at Mindshare for their years of work as well as our agency partners that participated in the review. Publicis Media was selected after a very thorough and competitive pitch process. Their expertise in the areas of importance to our business, like data, digital, analytics and commerce saw them emerge as our partner of choice.”

Meanwhile, Amrita Randhawa, CEO of Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia, commented, “We are excited to be appointed PepsiCo’s media partner in this very dynamic and fast-growing region. We really respect the process that PepsiCo ran for its thoroughness and desire to discover the best from the agencies participating. Our entire team is incredibly motivated by the opportunity to create industry-leading work for these iconic brands in the future.” 

Hong Kong – Global programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) adtech company Hivestack has been selected as programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) partner by a couple of global advertising and media companies including GroupM, Xaxis, Publicis, Havas and dentsu International Hong Kong.

Through these partnerships, Hong Kong-based advertisers will now be able to capitalize on the benefits of programmatic buying, activating against premium programmatic DOOH inventory through the Hivestack DSP via open exchange and Private Marketplace deals.

To date, programmatic DOOH is one of the fastest growing channels in Hong Kong and provides crucial opportunities for media buyers to plan and deliver contextualized, targeted and measurable campaigns at scale across premium DOOH inventory in the region.

Troy Yang, managing director for North Asia at Hivestack, said, “These partnerships are a testament to continued growth of programmatic DOOH opportunities across North Asia, we are delighted to have the opportunity to work with such influential leaders in media and advertising to pioneer programmatic DOOH in Hong Kong.”

Kenny Ip, head of investment for Hong Kong at GroupM, said, “It’s great to have partnered with Hivestack who continue to drive programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) in Hong Kong.”

Andy Chung, managing director at Xaxis and INCA, said, “We are pleased to recognize that Hivestack is the pioneer and specialist in this area, capable of advanced solutions & features. We look forward to working with Hivestack and bringing these benefits to our GroupM clients.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Cawte, managing director at Havas Media Hong Kong, commented, “Thanks to our partnership with Hivestack, we at last have the opportunity in Hong Kong to buy premium programmatic DOOH inventory, at scale. This is game changing for advertisers here.”

Hivestack has seen significant growth in 2021 following several global expansions including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan earlier this year, most recently onboarding new premium supply side partnerships in Hong Kong.

Tammii Pang, head of PMX at Publicis Media Hong Kong, said, “This is an incredibly exciting time for the DOOH market in Hong Kong. We look forward to collaborating with our new partners at Hivestack to leverage their market leading programmatic technology and offer our clients a way to precisely engage audiences outside of the home.”

Meanwhile, Anna Chan, CEO of Media LoB, dentsu International Hong Kong, commented, “As an integrated solutions provider, we are glad to partner with Hivestack to offer a more seamless and innovative consumer journey for our clients, as DOOH is becoming an increasingly vital media touch point.”

Vietnam – In celebration of the Mooncake Festival in Vietnam, which is celebrated on 21 September, Mondelez Kinh Do, the Vietnam arm of snacking company Mondelez International, has partnered with marketing agencies Publicis, Spark, and Digitas, to launch a new genealogy platform that brings old family photographs to life for Kinh Do mooncakes, which is a brand that is synonymous with the festival.

The Mooncake Festival has been around for more than 2,000 years and is the second most important festival in the country after Lunar New Year. It is a time when families come together to celebrate the full moon.

The festival has been losing its sheen in recent years as Vietnam moves towards a digitally-driven economy, and with this, Kinh Do aims to take the responsibility for keeping meaningful Vietnamese traditions alive, which means reaching a new generation via digital and social channels. 

Through the new genealogy platform, consumers can now see their ancestors smile, blink, and turn their heads as old photos come to life. The experience is made possible with deep learning artificial intelligence from D-ID, the technology company based in the United Kingdom and Israel and the creator of web services platform MyHeritage. 

In addition, the platform makes it possible to relive family memories amid the lockdown.

Simon Crowther, Mondelez Kinh Do’s marketing director, shared that Kinh Do stands for meaningful Vietnamese traditions that bring the family together and keep the culture alive, and with the pandemic lockdown situation in the country, the festival atmosphere that used to line up the streets with stalls of mooncakes was not attainable this year. 

“Through technology, we are able to bring the spirit of the festival online – a testament to the fact that nothing can stop Kinh Do in keeping cultural traditions alive,” said Crowther. 

Publicis Vietnam’s deputy managing director, Anish Kotian, commented, “This is a coming together of head, heart, and hand in one idea. Activating the Power of One, we formed a group of experts across Publicis Groupe from creatives, data, technology, and media to bring the magic of Trung Thu to life.”