Singapore News Archives - MARKETECH APAC

OCBC launches unified brand strategy to leverage ASEAN-Greater China potential

Singapore– OCBC recently launched a unified brand strategy across all of its key regions, highlighting its One Group mentality to fully capitalise on the strong ASEAN-Greater China potential. OCBC wants to grow and create an additional S$3 billion in revenue by 2025, outpacing its current growth path, by narrowing its focus on the ASEAN-Greater China region.

Major subsidiaries have changed their names legally in order to create brand uniformity. OCBC Wing Hang Bank Limited in Hong Kong SAR has changed its name to OCBC Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, and Banco OCBC Weng Hang, S.A. in Macau SAR. Nowadays, it goes by the name OCBC Bank (Macau) Limited. OCBC Wing Hang Bank (China) Limited is scheduled to change its legal name to OCBC Bank Limited in mainland China during the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to regulatory approval.

OCBC has unveiled a unified, updated logo for its banking firms in conjunction with these legal name changes throughout Greater China. In the fourth quarter of 2023, OCBC NISP, OCBC’s Indonesian affiliate, will adopt the same logo. The Bank of Singapore logo remains the same. It is the exclusive private banking arm of OCBC.

The traditional Chinese sailing ship design was retained in the OCBC logo’s 1998 redesign. This recognizable symbol symbolises the pioneering spirit of OCBC’s founding fathers, who constructed residences and companies throughout ASEAN. Since the bank was founded in 1932, it has always been a part of the logo.

Alongside the unveiling of its updated logo, the Bank has introduced a fresh tagline: “For now, and beyond” . The new tagline embodies OCBC’s inherent DNA of consistently adopting a far-sighted approach in its endeavors and investments. It signifies the bank’s dedication not only to the present, but also to the future, as it strives to create a lasting positive influence on the world.

By unifying its brands, OCBC confirms its dedication to leveraging the combined strength of its network and the integrated capabilities of its One Group in the fields of banking, wealth management, and insurance. This tactical action demonstrates OCBC’s commitment to their growth and is intended to increase support for the growing cross-border goals and expansion of both firms and individuals.

Helen Wong, group chief executive officer of OCBC, said, “The flow business between ASEAN and Greater China is not new to us. We recognise its potential. Over the years, we have built a strong franchise and put ourselves in a very good position to capture these flows. The effects of China’s reopening post-pandemic, the rise of ASEAN for the China plus one strategy and other geopolitical factors have amplified this potential,”

“The unified brand that we have unveiled today is yet another strategic move. It solidifies our One Group approach, one of eight core pillars of our Corporate Strategy that was refreshed in 2022. It also furthers our commitment to customers: that when they bank with us, they have the collective strength of OCBC Group supporting them seamlessly across markets. With this One Group approach, our comprehensive ASEAN- Greater China franchise and twin hub proposition of Singapore and Hong Kong becomes even more compelling,”

Singapore – Former global CEO for dentsu’s content and creative, Dick van Motman, will now take the helm as the chairman of the advisory board of Singapore-based pop culture marketing Culture Group.

Through his new appointment, van Motman will advise Culture Group regarding market entry and development, as well as mergers and acquisitions, and executive mentorship.

Prior to his latest position at Culture Group and his past role from dentsu, van Motman has also served as chairman for dentsu in Southeast Asia, and has accumulated more than 30 years of building brands and businesses globally.

Aside from the current role, van Motman is also on the way to launching his own consulting and investment group which will focus on accelerating the growth of disruptive businesses in emerging industries.

Commenting regarding his appointment, van Motman stated that his newest affiliation with Culture Groups speaks more about a “combination of strategy, creativity, production and strong leadership” that places the agency in “a unique position to define how brands leverage pop culture to create business success.”

“In a dynamic region where demographics are skewed younger, digitally adept, and in search for expression and identity, brands that are anchored in pop culture thrive commercially. Culture Group’s uncommon approach goes beyond advertising and seeks to drive brands to consciously forge a connection with the right passion point,” van Motman stated.

Meanwhile, Culture Group’s founder and president Michael Patent commented, “Dick’s unparalleled history in the region and commitment to developing the next generation of transformative businesses is why we’re excited to partner with him as we embark on our next phase of growth,”

Culture Group has been ramping up its senior hires for its advisory board, including Marie Lee who similarly joins from dentsu to spearhead the agency’s insights and strategy function in Singapore; and Jakeena Malli who joins from Mindshare as group account director, as well as Angie Akaraskul who from Brave Bison, to take the role of business director.

Singapore – DIGIX Lab, operated under the services of the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), has officially been opened in Singapore to help app developers drive idea exchange, business growth and collaboration.

The innovation hub works in the way that it offers a space for developers to connect and experience the full range of HMS developer resources, ranging from augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), HMS Core kits and other open technological capabilities. The DIGIX Lab services can also be accessed online, allowing developers across the region to make use of the resources virtually.

DIGIX Labs also operates under a so-called ‘1+8+N’ Seamless AI Life strategy, which is defined when the smartphone serves as One (1) centre, and Huawei’s ecosystem partners connect across Eight (8) supporting Huawei devices to create a fully connected IoT environment consisting of Endless (N) services.

Huawei-Mobile-Services-DIGIX-Lab-Tech-Developer-Inside — HUAWEI DIGIX Lab @ Singapore’s “Experience Zone” showcases Huawei all-scenario products. Developers, partners, and tech enthusiasts can look forward to a series of Residency Programmes like developer workshops, knowledge sharing sessions, and onsite consultation with tech experts hosted by Huawei online and offline. (Photo Courtesy of Huawei)

For Shane Shan, director for Asia Pacific at Huawei Consumer Cloud Service, the strategy system aims to empower tech developers and partners in the Asia Pacific in the mid of 5G rollout.

“The new DIGIX Lab serves as an all-encompassing innovation hub to give developers the boost they need to succeed. Huawei will continue to strengthen our collaboration with partners and institutions in the community and cultivate a resilient, evolving pool of tech talents in the Asia Pacific region,” Shan said.

The DIGIX Lab is divided into three main zones where partners and developers can communicate within the community:

Experience zone: An area for visitors to experience Huawei’s “1+8+N” all-scenario ecosystem. This area displays the latest smartphone models, and eight different types of Huawei devices including tablets, PCs, smart wearables and VR smart glasses. In addition, third party IoT home products supported by HUAWEI HiLink are also exhibited here.
Engage zone: A multipurpose zone with a collaborative area and training rooms to support community building. Developer programmes such as training, workshops, industry and networking events will be held in this area. Meanwhile, tech enthusiasts or individual developers can also book the space to host community events related to mobile app development.
Enable zone: This zone consists of three meeting rooms where developers who are facing challenges while developing an app can meet with Huawei engineers or business teams to get hands-on support. Four debug terminals are also available at the lab to support developers with the resource requirement.

HMS has also recently launched the HUAWEI Developers app, an official open platform for Huawei developers to manage their apps backend system, access the latest developer activities and receive event notifications on the go.

Three community programs are also slated to launch this year, namely the HUAWEI Student Developers (HSD), the HUAWEI Developer Groups (HDG) and the HUAWEI Developer Experts (HDE) to help developers of all levels grow with the HMS ecosystem. Developers in APAC will also be able to sign up for training courses to learn how to deploy HMS development tools into their apps and receive the ‘Huawei Developer Certification’ upon course completion.

Singapore – Varnish Software, a content delivery software technology company, has opened a new regional headquarters in Singapore and appointed Peter Löfling (pictured) as General Manager for operations in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Earlier this year Varnish Software established an office in Tokyo, Japan, and is now taking the next steps in expanding its APAC organization with its new commercial headquarters.

Peter Löfling, joins the business as Regional General Manager for APAC having amassed more than 20 years of experience in building and deploying successful streaming and CDN businesses, with previous roles at the likes of Cisco and Ericsson.

“I am really excited to join Varnish and build our APAC Operations. The company has seen a phenomenal profitable growth of the past few years and has a portfolio of best-in-class content delivery solutions that are highly relevant to help enterprises in the Asia Pacific region create competitive edge and enhanced end-user experience”, says Peter Löfling.

Singapore was chosen as the location for the APAC headquarters due to its impressive pool of technical talent and strong international trade and transport links. By having offices based in Japan and now Singapore, Varnish is able to easily serve customers across the region with locally-based support teams.

“The timing is perfect for Varnish Software to increase its focus on the APAC region. The content delivery market is growing here and the introduction of 5G will change the game completely. Varnish Software is very well positioned to be one of the companies that will help spearhead this change”, concludes Löfling.

Singapore – 15% of people in Singapore turn to live streaming to purchase popular products such as fresh seafood, lipsticks, and earphones. Millennials are more likely to jump onto the bandwagon. 4 out of 5 respondents aged 18-24 years old state that they are likely to purchase products from live streaming.

These are findings commissioned by Shopavision, a live stream focused shopping platform in Singapore. The data was derived from 5,200 online conversations from 9 May 2020 to 9 June 2020.

Research partner Parrot Social extracted these conversations from social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, forum, and online pages in Singapore.

Who is tuning into live streaming?

People in Singapore who purchase items from live streaming are 51.3% female and 48.7% male. In terms of live stream purchases among the different age groups, 55.4% of people aged 18 -24; 36.8% aged 25-34, and 6.4% aged 35-44 purchase products via live streaming.

Despite this, Singapore is slower in the adoption of live streaming as compared to countries such as China and America. 15% of people in Singapore consume live streaming content as compared to 90% of people in China and 38% in America.

Consumers are no longer just browsing through product descriptions, but they are now actively participating in the buying process.
Rachel Pang, Founder, Shopavision

“We saw that live streaming has become such an integral way of life for people in China and wanted to bring it to Asia. Live streaming marries sales with entertainment and provides a direct channel for people to interact with merchants. Consumers are no longer just browsing through product descriptions, but they are now actively participating in the buying process. They can ask questions, get responses live, and get entertained by live streamers, from the convenience of their homes. Live streaming is the future of online commerce,” said Rachel Pang, Founder, Shopavision.

What are people buying via live streaming?

The top three product categories that people in Singapore are buying online are food, make-up, and technology gadgets at 70%, 20%, and 10% respectively.

Some of the food items that people have been purchasing online include bubble tea, seafood, and other meats. People typically spend between $2 – $200 on seafood and fresh meats.

In the category of make-up, lipsticks are one of the most preferred items. This is likely due to the fact that lipsticks are low cost items and often come in bundled deals.

People typically spend between $1 – $40 on lipsticks and lip glosses. One of the top searched items in this category are moisturizing lipsticks.

In the category of electronic gadgets, people typically spend between $5- $25 on earphones. Other commonly purchased electronic gadgets are power banks, which see purchases between $5- $20 on average.

Why do people like live streaming?

9 in 10 respondents who tune in to live streaming like the platform as they can get actively involved.

74% of millennials say they find live streaming videos helpful when it comes to comparing products before they make a purchase.

What are popular live streaming platforms?

Online conversations seem to reflect the dominance of platforms catered to specific interests in Singapore. The top three most popular live-streaming platforms include Twitch; a live streaming app for gamers, V Live; an app that facilitates live chat between Korean celebrities and fans, and Youtube Live.

“We started to explore live streaming to sell our products and services in 2018. Today, our traditional wholesale business relies solely on live streaming as a sales channel. I believe live streaming brings many opportunities to merchants and they should try it. Shopavision is the first live streaming focused shopping platform and its system helps merchants with tedious backend work such as manually collating customer orders. Customers can buy instantly. We are excited to be one of their partner merchants,” said Max Kee, Merchant, Shopavision, and Business Owner, Lian Huat Seafood.

Singapore – GrabFood has officially launched on ShopBack, enabling 1.5 million ShopBack users in Singapore to enjoy cashback on their GrabFood orders. Users can now save a little extra when they are placing a food delivery order from their favorite F&B outlets, including McDonalds, Playmade, and Din Tai Fung.

To access these rewards, users have to first launch the ShopBack app, then type in “GrabFood” in the search bar or click on “GrabFood” under the New Stores on ShopBack section. This will redirect the user from the ShopBack app to the GrabFood app, allowing for the cashback to be tracked. The user should have the latest version of Grab installed.

The pandemic has resulted in many preferring to consume their meals from the safety of home, and this partnership will help to facilitate the shift in consumer behavior from restaurant dine-in to pick up, takeaway, and delivery.
Joel Leong, Co-founder of ShopBack.

“We are thrilled to add GrabFood to our growing line-up of merchants. The pandemic has resulted in many preferring to consume their meals from the safety of home, and this partnership will help to facilitate the shift in consumer behavior from restaurant dine-in to pick up, takeaway, and delivery. We have also received many requests from our users to on-board GrabFood, and today, we are happy to be able to make this a reality and bring even more cashback options for our users,” said Joel Leong, Co-founder of ShopBack.

A recent report by Facebook and Bain & Company found that there has been a shift to value-for-money purchasing across Southeast Asia as conservatism sets in, as 57% of survey respondents cited ‘value’ among their top-three purchasing considerations. This is more pronounced in Singapore, where around 70% cite ‘value’ as a top consideration.

“Singaporeans are passionate about food and appreciate the convenience. Also, true to our kiasu (fear of losing) nature, we never want to miss out on a good deal and we are constantly seeking out value. As such, this partnership with GrabFood has all the right ingredients for success,” added Leong.

“As one of the leading digital lifestyle apps in Singapore, we are always finding new ways to create more value for our customers with every dollar they spend on our products and services. We are therefore pleased to be able to launch GrabFood on ShopBack. At a time when consumers increasingly seek out apps and platforms that empower their digital lifestyles, we are confident that this partnership can serve their evolving needs,” said Gillian Ang, Head of Marketing for Grab Singapore.