Singapore – Programmatic consultancy Bidmath has announced the promotion of Rakesh Singh as regional managing director and Jaa Thisirak Pitayagulsarn as country manager for Thailand

Both will play a significant role in driving the integration of digital and data-driven marketing initiatives in Vietnam and Thailand, enabling client development through an agile approach to an ever-changing media landscape.

Singh is a veteran digital marketing and transformation leader with over two decades of experience working with a wide portfolio of brands and global media agencies like GroupM, Omnicom, Publicis and Havas with more than 15 years in leadership roles.

Speaking on his appointment, he said, “The future belongs to businesses and brands that can rapidly scale and embrace data-driven digital marketing approaches. As a result, they are collaborating more closely with new-age digital transformation agencies like Bidmath, which is one of the few agencies where a team of data evangelists in the form of data scientists and digital media planners work together to meet the brand’s digital transformation goals. It’s an honour and privilege to lead a team of highly talented and qualified digital marketing experts, data scientists and analysts.”

Meanwhile, Pitayagulsarn has over 13 years of experience with a demonstrated history of leading automotive, FMCG and e-commerce/CRM initiatives at the advertising agencies Wunderman Thompson and Ogilvy. In her previous venture with Google, she drove Thailand’s digital maturity by helping transform clients’ businesses to meet their desired goals.

“The advancement of technology and the digital transition have altered how Thais consume media and adjust to volatile ways of life. It rose to prominence during the pandemic. We are well aware that traditional media cannot meet all of the needs of today’s consumers, which urges brands to become more resilient, participate, and add value. Thank you to all of our clients for your continued support and partnership,” she added.

Pitayagulsarn also added, “Personally, I am looking forward to collaborating with our talented teams to drive digital maturity and step change growth in the way we serve our customers and clients. It is a pleasure to contribute to our clients’ businesses transparently with a data-driven approach in the rise of the performance marketing era.”

Nate Acton, chief strategy officer at Bidmath, commented, “We are thrilled to announce the promotion of both Rakesha and Jaa. Their exceptional leadership skills, creativity, and deep understanding of our company, people, and industry make them ideal candidates to continue expansion across the region. I would also like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the entire team, who have played a vital role in building the agency’s footprint in Asia Pacific.” 

Vietnam – Transparent programmatic and data-driven agency, Bidmath, has appointed Rakesh Singh, former head of digital, destination marketing and marcom at Hoiana, to be its new country manager for Vietnam and commercial head for APAC.

In his new role, Singh, who will be based in Ho Chi Minh City, will be responsible for leading the new business and solutions in Vietnam, as well as commercial partnerships across the APAC region. 

Aside from his previous role at Hoiana, Singh has also served as the managing director at Havas Media in Vietnam. In his career span of more than 18 years, he has always been associated with the large media and communications companies in the industry, having worked with agencies like Group M (Mindshare and Mediacom), Omnicom Publicis, and Havas Media Group across Asia and Africa markets, with more than 10 years in senior leadership roles. 

On his thoughts regarding the largest opportunity for brands in Vietnam, Singh commented that the share of programmatic advertising in several emerging markets in APAC is much lower than that of mature markets where more than 80% of the digital spend is bought programmatically, and the primary reason for this is the lack of exposure of brands to the several benefits of programmatic advertising and this is largely due to inefficiency and lack of capabilities prevailing within the industry primarily driven by traditional media agencies who are struggling to move from the traditional media buying approach to the new audience buying approach driven by data and technology.

He said, “With the advancement of technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), programmatic is now playing a significant role in the digital marketing ecosystem and with our huge expertise in this area, Bidmath is well placed to spearhead the growth in the region.”

Moreover, Singh also shared the key game-changers that he believes to be the future of online, which includes AI in marketing, the Metaverse, livestream commerce, AR, voice search optimisation, programmatic advertising, chatbots, and marketing automation, as well as micro-influencers, and shoppable content. Meanwhile, lack of resources, skills, and knowledge are amongst the key barriers for brands to achieve personalisation goals.

Singh noted, “I consider myself an emerging market specialist having had the opportunity to work across several emerging markets like India, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, and Vietnam. With the rapidly accelerating technological advances in digital marketing, the recognised value of data and increasing data literacy amongst brands and marketers, I’m looking forward to many more interesting experiences in the near future.”