Tag: rebranding

Manila, Philippines – UNObank Inc., a digital bank regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Digital Banking License framework, has rebranded to UNO Digital Bank ahead of its Q2 launch in 2022.

The new name reiterates the digital nature of the bank’s business. Along with the name change comes a new visual identity for the company, which includes a new logo, an updated colour palette, and new iconography.

Manish Bhai, chief executive officer and co-founder at UNOAsia Pte. Ltd. Singapore, shared, “We are a credit-led digital bank that is pioneering an elevated approach to banking: one that makes meeting life’s financial needs simple and accessible for the customer, while also fueling growth and innovation in the industry. These are the attributes that we have mirrored in the new brand.”

Bhai emphasised, “We are not content with functioning on the status quo. Instead, our work is innovation-led and growth-focused, committed to always being numero uno (number one) when it comes to meeting needs and adding value to our stakeholders.”

Singapore – Digital marketing communications agency dentsu in Singapore has fully acquired digital marketing agency, Happy Marketer, which will now be rebranded as Merkle Singapore. 

This acquisition is part of dentsu’s continued realignment of its customer experience management (CXM) capabilities under Merkle, and will see an acceleration of its data-driven transformation offerings into fast-growth strategic industries across APAC.

Merkle Singapore, which was acquired by dentsu in 2019, is an over 80-strong team today, serving clients across industries and markets. Its key clients are ING Bank, Standard Chartered, and NTUC Income, as well as Grab, and SPH. It also holds strong alliances with partners such as Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Tealium, and Insider.

The next phase post-brand will see Merkle Singapore expand into strategic sectors of financial services, fintech, telecommunications, and travel, as well as e-commerce. It will be delivering a complete suite of solutions for transformative customer experiences at scale, and will continue in complementing dentsu Singapore’s creative and media capabilities in bringing more integrated solutions to the market. 

Prakash Kamdar, Dentsu Singapore’s CEO, shared that the integration of Happy Marketer and its rebrand as Merkle Singapore cannot come at a better time as marketers seek for more relevant, compelling and joined-up experiences to win consumer attention and love in the face of an increasingly connected world. 

“Merkle Singapore has transformed our data-driven CXM offerings since its acquisition in 2019 and will undoubtedly continue to reimagine and reshape the future of digital marketing for our clients in Singapore and the region. The team has been a natural fit to dentsu’s culture and integrated approach,” said Kamdar.

Meanwhile, Sanchit Mendiratta, Merkle Singapore’s managing director, said that the acquisition journey with dentsu has been incredible, having grown from strength to strength in the past three years, and this has been made possible because of the unbridled access they have had to the richness and diversity of dentsu’s and Merkle’s heritage in expert knowledge, innovation, and creativity. 

“Our clients continue to appreciate the full suite of offerings that we are able to deliver due to the synergies from our global dentsu network, while our people have been able to grow through more opportunities for cross-collaborations and learning. We are optimistic for where Merkle Singapore will go from here and look forward to bringing our footprint further across the APAC region in the coming years,” said Mendiratta.

Prantik Mazumdar, dentsu Singapore’s managing director of CXM Group, stated that the integration of their acquired brands under Merkle in Singapore has been part of the planned road map to build a more cohesive CXM proposition to the market. 

“We are now geared to extend better support to markets beyond Singapore shores, especially across South East Asia, where we see immense potential for growth,” added Mazumdar.

Most recently, Merkle has also completed the realignment of its portfolio of B2B agencies into Merkle B2B.

Indonesia – Indonesian software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Lummo, previously known as BukuKas, has raised US$80m in its Series C round of funding. The funding round was led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India, and was also participated by other global tech and e-commerce investors such as CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet, NuvemShop CEO Santiago Sosa, and former Lazada CEO Max Bittner.

Lummo was launched in December 2019 as BukuKas, a bookkeeping app for MSMEs, with the objective of empowering and digitizing them. It later expanded its business by launching TOKKO, an online direct-to-consumer commerce builder.

Krishnan Menon, Lummo’s CEO and founder, commented that they are delighted to welcome their new investors to support the startup’s journey to digitise and accelerate the growth of MSMEs

“We offer entrepreneurs and brands the opportunity to sell directly to their customers, and enable them to build a strong and distinctive brand online using LummoSHOP,” said Menon.

Meanwhile, John Curtius, Tiger Global’s partner, said, “We are thrilled to be a part of Lummo’s mission to empower aspiring entrepreneurs and brands to accelerate their growth and to serve their customers by giving them the best technology and partner solutions. Digital-led economic growth, especially in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, is a key investment focus for us.” 

In addition to the funding announcement, Lummo’s flagship product, TOKKO, has been rebranded to LummoSHOP, aimed at cementing its status as a leading software solution to entrepreneurs and brands in unlocking and maximising their business potential through online commerce. 

The name Lummo is derived from ‘lumen’, and the Latin word for ‘light’. This is in line with the company’s ambition to shine the spotlight on entrepreneurs and brands, enabling them to discover all possibilities to develop their business through its D2C SaaS stack. 

Along with the rebranding to LummoSHOP, the company aims to strengthen its direct-to-consumer product offerings through technological innovations like chat commerce, catalogue integration, custom domains, multiple platform management, and personalized features for branding, amongst others.

LummoSHOP’s D2C model ensures a stronger relationship between the merchant and the customer with no third party sitting in the middle. The solution will allow merchants to access their customers’ records, purchase history, and other analytics that are crucial for building and growing an engaged customer base. 

“LummoSHOP will empower them to be strong businesses and at the same time remain customer-focused, which in turn will help manage their customer base and increase repeat business,” said Menon.

Hong Kong – UDomain, Hong Kong-based blockchain solutions provider, has announced a rebranding to reflect its position as a pioneer blockchain solution provider. It has now changed its name to just ‘UD’ and has launched a new branding visual identity and website.

Founded in 1998 in Hong Kong, UD has been a major cloud and cybersecurity solution provider in the Greater China region. Presently, UD aims to help businesses grow by leveraging innovative blockchain technology and providing a one-stop solution that includes consulting services, technical development, and business matching to solution deployment

The company said the rebranding strategy aims to represent both the expansion of products and services of the company from domain services and cloud and security solutions to blockchain solutions, and to mirror “its vision for the future”.

Its new logo is a gradient midnight blue background with “UD” on it, which has been designed to exhibit a strong and distinctive brand image through minimalistic style. The new website, UD.hk, meanwhile, will prominently feature the company’s focus on connecting business to the world of blockchain and metaverse and helping enterprises enter web 3.0. 

The rebranding move is also accompanied by a series of new blockchain offerings to provide strategic business insight and technical support for blockchain projects. The rollout includes blockchain consulting services, NFT solutions, blockchain domain & validator, business crypto wallet, and tokenomics development.

Manila, Philippines – Globe Studios, the Filipino entertainment production company under telecommunications company Globe, has rebranded, to now be called ANIMA.

ANIMA will be under the umbrella of Kroma Entertainment Inc., a new entertainment company backed by the Globe Group of Companies. The former Globe Studios was the one behind the critically-acclaimed Filipino films such as ‘Fangirl’, ‘Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral’, and ‘Dead Kids’, along with series such as ‘Gaya sa Pelikula’ and ‘OTJ: The Missing 8’.

Quark Henares, the head of ANIMA, stated that the new name signifies the changes they will be offering to the public as they venture into a new era of entertainment.

He further shared that it was hard for them to let go of the name Globe Studios because they have done and achieved so much in their five years of existence, but believes they can only go onward and upward with ANIMA.

“We are always on the lookout for how we can tell Filipino stories better – be it through the silver screen, black box, or handheld devices. It’s the stories that matter, and the way we get them to you. We’re doubling down on that with ANIMA, so you can expect more stuff on YouTube, on Spotify, on TikTok,” Henares added.

ANIMA said that viewers can expect more fun and exciting materials. One of the films they can anticipate is ‘Ang Pagbabalik ng Kuwago’, the first Filipino feature film to premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in more than 15 years, and ‘Hintayan ng Langit’ spinoff series ‘Simula sa Gitna’. It is also strengthening collaborations with One Championship, WeTV, and Netflix, as well as HBO Go.

Moreover, the team is raring to experiment with other formats and genres. Content are already visible in the podcasts ‘Nandito Sila’ and ‘Come Home’, while other podcasts started tackling new themes – cryptocurrency, motherhood, and sexual behaviors, among others.

Sri Lanka – SLT Mobitel, leading mobile service provider in Sri Lanka, has rebranded and upgraded its current cloud storage service, SLT Storage, to now be called ‘Eazy Storage’. The telco said the enhanced service is in response to the immense potential in the cloud space, and will be offering customers the ultimate cloud solution with a robust and cutting-edge user interface for cloud applications.

SLT Mobitel offers mobile telephony, broadband services, and roaming and idd services, among others. Its cloud storage, file sync, and sharing solution, Eazy Storage, will have no additional broadband costs. Customers have instant access to all data including all files, photos, messages, contacts, and documents in any format to work and share with others, with real-time collaboration from any device, anywhere.

The telco assures all files are secure with powerful on-server and end-to-end encryption. In addition, the solution is hosted inside SLT-MOBITEL’s state-of-the-art data centers.

Eazy Storage packages range from 5GB to 1000 GB and based on customer requests, 1TB can be offered. With prepaid and postpaid options, rates are priced from Rs 50 to Rs. 4675.

SLT Mobitel shared that it will be unveiling new features in the future, including a family sharing option to be launched soon.

Australia – Independent communications agency Bastion Collective, which has a presence in the US, Australia, and an integrated offering across Asia, has announced its rebranding as ‘Bastion’.

The rebranding will see a newly created world agency model, which caters to most agencies that still cling to an antiquated model fundamentally broken by the digital age. The agency emphasizes that the model is both ‘wide’ and ‘deep’ as it delivers a breadth of communications services and has strong expertise in each service offered.

Bastion said that the move creates one business with many services carrying the said deep expertise in each one, and wide thinking across the communications spectrum. Its service offerings work together in an integrated approach, as opposed to a collection of disconnected individual agencies. 

With the ‘Think Wide’, it will be offering capabilities such as under market research, brand and creative, and corporate and change communications, under one roof including PR and social media, and digital and customer experience, among others.

Jack Watts, Bastion’s founder and global CEO, commented that they are able to leverage the scale of a multinational across its over 250 staff globally, with the care and agility of an independent. 

“We have integrated Think Wide teams that service integrated accounts. Because we are one business, under one name, under one roof, we can actually all work together for the benefit of our clients, and deliver truly integrated work,” said Watts.

Some former Bastion Collective services have also rebranded “to do what it says on the tin” and better reflect each specialty. The ‘Bastion Effect’ has been rebranded to ‘Bastion Amplify’, while ‘Bastion RM’ is now Bastion Reputation, ‘Bastion EBA’ to ‘Bastion Experience’, and lastly, ‘Bastion Banjo’ changed to ‘Bastion Creative’.

In addition, Bastion said that it has joined Bastion Insights, Bastion Data, Bastion Performance, Bastion Interactive, Bastion Asia, and Bastion Films. It has also implemented company-wide initiatives to bake wide thinking into its culture and provide career development opportunities for employees, including the ‘Think Wide Academy’, which offers individual coaching and formal training in effective communication, business strategy, product sets, and process, and a ‘Think Wide Leap’ program, which enables staff to develop careers and broaden skills by working in another part of the business, and ‘Think Wide Giant Leap’, which is a pilot employee exchange program with Bastion in the US.

Watts noted that as their team members increasingly work with colleagues across the business and build their own skills in ‘thinking widely’, they won’t just become better at their chosen communications discipline, they will become better-integrated communications experts.

“Our objectives from here are to build the largest independent that ever existed in Australia, and build the largest independent on the West Coast of America. We see that as an 18-month to three-year journey. The new world needs a new world agency, and that’s what we intend to create here at Bastion,” stated Watts.

Singapore – Southeast Asia’s e-commerce platform, Lazada, has announced the rebranding of its logistics arm – Lazada eLogistics (LEL), which manages the fulfillment and logistics with third-party logistics providers, and Lazada Express (LEX), which handles the parcel delivery to customers – to now be consolidated as Lazada Logistics.

The new Lazada Logistics aims to reflect ‘efficiency’ and ‘reliability’ as Lazada offers the region’s brands and sellers a trusted, one-stop logistics solution for all their business needs.

Along with the rebranding, Lazada Logistics has also announced the launch of its multi-channel logistics (MCL) services, which provide a single stock fulfillment solution to help e-commerce enablers and brands fulfill across all e-commerce channels seamlessly, whether the consumer orders on Lazada or other e-commerce channels, Lazada Logistics will fulfill and deliver all of the orders. 

Under this arrangement, Lazada will be storing merchants’ and partners’ e-commerce products, enabling the efficient handling and dispatch of orders via Lazada’s own fleet, 3PL partners, or channel-nominated fleet.

Through MCL, brands and sellers will also have greater agility and flexibility on inventory control and relieve them of logistics concerns that include high capital and operational expense associated with order fulfillment, which is the need to maintain warehouse infrastructure and delivery fleets. They are also spared the challenges of having to build an extensive network of operations without economies of scale. 

Lazada said that the availability of MCL is a showcase of the platform’s advanced supply chain infrastructure and logistics capabilities, which offers smart inventory and routing solutions powered by data and technology. All brands and sellers will be able to leverage Lazada Logistics’ network of over 400 facilities comprising warehouses, sortation centers, and hubs. They can also benefit from access to the region’s largest fleet owned by an e-commerce marketplace, and Lazada’s competitive advantage of having control over its end-to-end logistics operations.

Chun Li, Lazada Group’s chief executive officer, shared that over the past decade, Lazada’s proprietary logistic network has reshaped the e-commerce landscape in one of the world’s most populous and geographically diverse regions. 

“The logistics capabilities have enabled us to provide best-in-class delivery service to our consumers across the region, as well as hassle-free and end-to-end services to our sellers and partners. This re-branding reflects the significant progress we have made over the years, powered by our people and technology,” said Li.

Meanwhile, Andy Huang, the chief logistics officer of Lazada Group, said that the consumers have grown accustomed to the convenience of a new shopping norm, and of having their purchases delivered to their doorstep – intact and on time, and it is more important than ever that they continue to innovate and introduce new solutions that will help their merchants and e-commerce partners meet the growing demands and expectations of their customers. 

“The rebranding and roll-out of this new offering is a testament to what we have built and a commitment to provide a better customer experience. It also reinforces our mission of powering a healthy and sustainable eCommerce ecosystem for the long term by pairing our logistics excellence with state-of-the-art technologies to achieve cost efficiencies,” said Huang.

Lazada has also announced that its logistics will be improving its end-to-end services, and it will look to roll out more new features that can include incentives for sellers to fulfill orders faster and enhanced same-day order pickup from sellers.

Just recently, Lazada has also announced a new stride for its virtual mall, LazMall. It has named top K-drama leading man, Hyun Bin, as LazMall’s very first regional ambassador.