Tag: Singapore

Singapore – Around 3 out of 4 Singaporeans have said that they are now more confident in recognising scam calls and SMS than they were 12 months ago. This is according to the latest data from cloud communications and customer experience (CX) software company Toku.

An overwhelming 91% of respondents believe that organisations are making an effort to educate the public about scams, empowering them with the knowledge to identify and thwart scams effectively.

An example of a government initiative that made a noticeable impact is the SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR). In early 2023, the SSIR made it mandatory for organisations to register their brand names with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to verify their identity when they use SMS.

According to data, 87% of Singapore consumers said the SSIR has made it easier to identify the legitimacy of the SMS they receive. 63% also noted that the SSIR has resulted in them receiving less spam or scam messages.

Thomas Laboulle, founder and CEO at Toku, said, “Over the past 12 months, consumers in Singapore have shown a clear shift in their awareness of scams and a rise in their confidence in dealing with them. his has had an impact on the levels of trust they have for the communication channels they use, leading to changing preferences and behaviour in how they interact with brands.”

Despite scam SMS still being prevalent, around 73% remarked that they are more confident in recognising them. Less than a quarter of consumers clicked on URLs in these messages over the past 12 months, and only 13% encountered monetary loss as a result.

The same confidence is also reflected when it comes to scam calls. Around 75% expressed confidence in their ability to identify scam calls, and the number of consumers who picked up a scam call in the past 12 months fell by 19%.

Despite being digital natives, more than a third (36%) of millennials willingly click on suspicious SMS links even if they’re marked “Likely-SCAM” – the highest proportion amongst all the age groups. In contrast, only 8% of those aged 18-24 and 13% of those aged 45-54 are likely to click on these suspicious SMS links.

Labouelle added, “This result may be surprising, but it’s in fact in line with numbers from the Singapore Police Force. Data released by the police in September 2023 showed that those aged 20 to 39 were the most likely to be cheated in scams, making up more than 50% of all victims.”

The data also uncovered how many Singaporean consumers have clear preferred channels for communication from brands. For instance, SMS remains highly preferred by Singapore consumers for OTPs (79%), bank alerts (76%), and appointment reminders (72%). At the same time, WhatsApp gained popularity for marketing messages (47%) and order updates (55%). 

Meanwhile, approximately 3 in 4 consumers are inclined to contact an agent over the phone when confronted with urgent matters pertaining to payment or finance. Similarly, 2 in 3 will reach out to a phone support agent to resolve issues associated with products and service faults.

“Our research shows that Singapore consumers have varying levels of trust and preferences for different channels and types of communication. Organisations should pay attention to these preferences to meet customers where they want,” Laboulle said.

He added, “The rise of generative AI gives companies an unprecedented opportunity to reinforce consumer trust and build more personalised customer experience. AI can take over repetitive and tedious tasks while empowering human agents with the right information and context to further improve their customer service.”

Singapore – IPG Mediabrands, the media holding company within Interpublic Group, has announced the official launching of My Bot, its latest AI chat assistant today, November 16. 

This innovative tool aims to optimise the internal productivity of the workplace as well as their employees’ workstyles through gen AI technology powered by Google Cloud. 

In particular, the assistant is set to streamline day-to-day tasks, enabling easier management of multiple projects and workflows for IPG Mediabrands employees.

Some of its features include an intuitive task management support which covers the project brainstorming to agenda-making for meetings. With a dedicated space for human creativity and strategy development, it also responds efficiently to user needs with time. 

Meanwhile, its capacity to understand 38 different languages enables smooth communication in various contexts and promotes inclusivity.

Speaking about this launch, Graham Wilkinson, chief innovation officer at KINESSO, said, “We couldn’t be more excited to launch our first of what will be many products leveraging gen AI, with the support of Google Cloud.”

“My Bot will take our workplace capabilities to new heights without compromising the humanity and thoughtfulness of our client-centric approach,” he ended. 

My Bot comes after IPG Mediabrands recently partnered with Google Cloud to integrate gen AI technology into product development. 

It is developed by the product team within KINESSO which works with Google’s PaLM 2 language model and boasts enterprise-level security to protect intellectual property throughout the workflow. 

Singapore – In an effort to bolster their communications and storytelling engine, Singapore-based cloud data platform for decisions Human Managed has recently announced its current partnership with communications agency Milk & Honey PR. 

The collaboration intends to appoint a leadership role for the communication agency in organising their press office activities, thought leadership initiatives as well as fostering its brand awareness. 

This is in line with their mission to revitalise the enterprise service model tailored to the current trends in digital businesses that operate with complex data, siloed technologies and legacy architecture. 

As a platform for decision, Human Managed serves organisations of all sizes such as essential services sectors like finance, healthcare, education and government. They also offer outcome driven services, end-to-end accountability, speed and a cost-effective pay-as-you-go flexibility with its modular Intelligence Decision Action (I.D.E. A) platform. 

Following this significant milestone, Karen Kim, CEO at Human Managed, shared her thoughts on this affiliated appointment, saying “As we enhance our offerings, expand our product features and grow our portfolio of customers, we have an equally ambitious communications goal. We needed a PR partner that can translate our expansive products and services into media and customer-friendly messaging as well as build our communications and storytelling engine.” 

“The Milk & Honey PR team really took the time to understand our business, developed a strategy that will nurture our brand and bring the Human Managed story to life,” she added.

Meanwhile, Meilin Wong, partner and CEO at Milk & Honey PR Singapore, commented, “We’re very excited and proud to be supporting a company that puts innovation and impact front and centre of everything they do. We love that Human Managed is all about empowering their customers do better business, an ethos that aligns well with Milk & Honey’s own.” 

Headquartered in Singapore, the self-funded five-year-old tech start-up currently has a team of over forty employees and offices in the Philippines, India, and Hong Kong.

Singapore – The Land Transport Authority (LTA) in Singapore has awarded to Stellar Experience its road assets advertising operator (AO) tender, effective for 10 years starting from January 1, 2024.

Through the tender, Stellar Experience will be managing and operating the advertising spaces at LTA-owned bus and taxi shelters as well as designated pedestrian infrastructure, with an option to extend for another six years.

LTA has been appointing AOs to manage the advertising spaces, as well as the general maintenance (such as cleaning) of bus and taxi shelters since 1999. This approach allows LTA to select best-in-class AOs to manage these assets and introduce creative campaigns to boost advertising revenue, which is then shared with the Government through a concession fee model.

This mandate marks the first time that LTA has consolidated the advertising concessions for bus and taxi shelters under our purview into a single contract. Bus and taxi shelter advertising spaces were previously tendered out as two separate AO contracts, specifically to Clear Channel Singapore and JCDecaux Singapore, and will expire in December 2023 and March 2025 respectively.

“Consolidation of bus and taxi shelter assets, and the inclusion of additional advertising assets into single contract will provide the AO with greater scale and enable the AO to sell across multiple platforms. This will help to boost advertising revenue, and in turn the concession fees,” LTA said in an online statement.

LTA had received a total of seven proposals from four tenderers for this tender. Proposals were evaluated on their quality, whether tenderers are able to maintain the bus and taxi shelters per LTA’s requirements, as well as their ability to generate non-fare revenue from these road assets.

Singapore – Mindshare, the media services company that is part of GroupM and WPP, and sustainability platform decarbonising media and advertising Scope3 joined forces to create a bespoke emissions scorecard that helps clients understand the carbon emissions of their digital media campaigns.

The new ‘Mindshare Emissions Dashboard’ will allow Mindshare’s clients to gain near-real-time carbon emissions insight into their digital media activity at both a macro and micro level. It will enable marketers to make informed decisions on balancing the need for greener media with the need for positive business outcomes.

Additionally, the emissions dashboard is also created as part of Mindshare’s ‘Report, Reduce, Remove Initiative,’ which aims to optimise investment for greener choices across the media supply chain while ensuring minimal disruption to business needs. It is expected to report emissions from digital media activity, pioneering emissions reporting tools for brands.

Mindshare has been working with Scope3 to fine-tune the dashboard to ensure that they can put into practice their reduction efforts without compromising on performance.

The creation of the new emissions dashboard comes as the media services company upholds its responsibility to address the impact of its digital media on the environment.

Dhruv Menon, director at Mindshare, said, “By giving marketers a 360-degree view of the carbon impact of their digital media activity, the dashboard enables change-making conversations and discussions with advertising and publisher partners. More importantly, it will also empower media practitioners to make sustainable media buying choices with the goal of eventually reducing 50% of all digital emissions by 2030.”

June Cheung, head of JAPAC at Scope3, also noted that the collaboration with Mindshare to create the Emissions Scorecard was a great example of how Scope3’s emissions data can be harnessed to drive meaningful change.

She shared, “Scope3 emissions data pinpoints exactly where marketers can take simple, yet meaningful, actions to reduce the carbon footprint of their digital advertising. It simultaneously helps the industry more clearly see and defund waste across the ad ecosystem. This type of industry-wide change is only possible if marketers have the tools that allow them to make informed decisions. By being able to access emissions data directly alongside campaign data, like the Mindshare Emissions Dashboard, sustainability is no longer an afterthought; it becomes a valuable lever for improving campaigns.”

Singapore – Grab has recently announced the opening of its first physical merchant centre in Singapore in order to support local SMEs in their digital growth, as well as offering them a physical space for networking.

The Grab Merchant Centre, located in Grab’s one-north headquarters, is a one-stop shop for small and medium businesses (SMBs) looking to accelerate their growth in the digital economy through Grab’s services. 

This is the first-of-its-kind merchant centre among industry players in Singapore, and the first for Grab in Southeast Asia. 

Said centre first started as a merchant registration counter in April 2020 to help SMBs sign up and activate their Grab accounts during the pandemic. Today, it has evolved into a one-stop shop providing advisory services and solutions for SMBs.

Wee Tang Yee, country head of Grab Singapore, said, “Based on our latest Food and Grocery Trend Report released today, we know that consumers are increasingly reliant on platforms like Grab. This means that there are more opportunities for businesses to engage with them on our app.”

He added, “The Grab Merchant Centre is meant to help SMBs quickly and effectively tap into this growing opportunity through our tailored solutions. Having a permanent space for the SMB community enables us to serve them more efficiently, and gives them the confidence that Grab is there to support them whenever they need.”

Yee also explained, “The Grab Merchant Centre is also a place for SMBs to keep pace with the latest digital tools and practices. That way, they can confidently navigate and grow their businesses using our suite of self-serve digital tools in the GrabMerchant app. These include reading sales performance trends and insights to improve operations, advertising solutions to reach more customers and boost sales, digital lending products to support their business expansion, and more. We will continue to develop new products to provide more comprehensive support for businesses, and help them capture a bigger slice of the market.”

Singapore – With the success of the campaign’s first phase, Grab’s regional advertising platform GrabAds, alongside their collaboration with Japanese digital marketing solution provider Media Bank has recently announced the second phase of their tourism campaign for Japan Tourism Agency (JTA). 

For this phase of the campaign, they plan to engage Grab users across both offline and online touchpoints, from in-app ads to fleet car wraps and hangers.

It will be called ‘Discover the Incredible Gems of Japan,’ which highlights the country’s best-hidden secrets such as the picturesque landscapes of Awaji Island, Nagasaki, Hokkaido, and Aso in Kumamoto. 

Part of this project includes an in-app branded challenge, where a lucky winner can have the chance to receive a ticket to one of these incredible destinations. 

Previously, the two had already started the campaign earlier this year by featuring another side of Japan beyond its traditional tourist hotspot which includes scenic hiking trails and historical samurai districts. 

The said the project garnered a strong user engagement across four SEA markets with rates surpassing GrabAds’ regional marketing benchmarks. 

Talking about the success of the project, Patrick Ngan, director at Media Bank Inc. said, “We are delighted to see that the first phase of our campaign, designed for JTA, has resonated positively with travellers in Southeast Asia.”

“The campaign that leveraged GrabAds’ full-funnel ecosystem and hyperlocal insights has been effective in reaching high-value and ready-to-travel individuals across Southeast Asia. We are excited to further deepen our collaboration with GrabAds as we launch the next phase of the campaign that creates awareness of Japan’s secret gems,” he added.

Meanwhile, Dave Yang, regional head of sales and GTM at GrabAds shared, “We are humbled to receive the recognition and support from JTA and MediaBank to continue with the second phase of our partnership. The success of our campaign with JTA reflects the strength of GrabAds’ ecosystem, powered by Grab’s hyperlocal insights and offline-to-online retail media capabilities. The positive results demonstrate the promise of GrabAds as an advertising solution for travel and hospitality brands looking to tap into the Southeast Asia market when it comes to leisure travel.”

“Insights from our 2023 Southeast Asia Travel Insights report tell us that Grab’s high-value audiences remain eager to travel, including to Japan. It’s not too late for brands in the travel category to capitalise on the opportunity with GrabAds,” he ended. 

Following its success, GrabAds and MediaBank are determined to establish a significant stride in the same four markets: Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Singapore – VCCP Singapore has announced that Ismail Jooma has been appointed as its new head of planning for APAC. 

Jooma has a diversified career journey through several network agencies, bringing a knowledge and perspective on Asian culture and trends. His history includes positions at Ogilvy and TBWA, and he was most recently the head of strategy at VMLY&R Singapore. Prior to this, Ismail was the chief strategy officer at South Africa’s independent agency Brave Group. 

His professional experience includes technology (Apple, MTN), automotive (Hyundai), FMCG (Coca-Cola and Colgate), broadcast (DStv Africa, SuperSport), banking (HSBC, Standard Chartered), fast-food restaurants (KFC, Nando’s), and fashion retail (Nike, Edgars).

Speaking about the appointment, Katya Obolensky, managing director of VCCP Singapore, said, “We could not be more delighted to have Ismail join our leadership team as we continue to strengthen our VCCP offering in Singapore. His wealth of experience, sharp intellect and dynamic approach to problem solving will augment our ability to challenge the categories our clients operate in.”

Meanwhile, Jooma commented, “I’m incredibly excited to be joining an agency with a rich planning culture, one that truly places strategy at the heart of everything it does. Katya and the team are building something special here and I’m keen to bring VCCP’s challenger spirit to more ground-breaking work for our clients across the region.”  

Singapore – Following the momentum of a two-year Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed in April 2023, as well as their previous partnerships, experience and travel services platform Klook and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) have decided to scale up partnership efforts with joint investments of over S$2m to drive inbound tourism to Singapore.

Through this initiative, Klook and STB launched an integrated events marketing campaign to raise awareness of the diverse range of leisure events in Singapore, and will be rolling out a second initiative anchoring on STB’s latest brand campaign ‘Made in Singapore‘.

With a vast array of events to occur in Singapore such as the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium, Jumptopia, ZoukOut, and Singapore Comic Con, Klook introduces unique product bundles to enhance the overall experience and facilitate further discovery to encourage visitors to explore Singapore in a more holistic way, in turn driving strong returns for the local tourism and economy.

For the second initiative, the marketing and tactical partnership between STB and Klook in Southeast Asia will focus on digital content powered by Klook’s network of ‘Klook Kreators’, which are micro and nano content creators and affiliates that aim  to drive engagement and conversion.

By using its Kreator channel to create authentic content, Klook is planning to leverage the power of social media to connect travellers to the best of what Singapore has to offer. From beauty and fashion to food, this digital-led campaign aims to engage and inspire social media-savvy travellers in Southeast Asia to experience the unique local Singapore flavour for themselves.

Talking about the partnership, Sarah Wan, general manager of Klook Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, said, “Singapore has been a key destination leading travel recovery within Southeast Asia, and we’re excited to once again partner STB. We aim to inspire travellers by highlighting how Singapore makes unexpected, diverse and unique experiences possible.”

Meanwhile, Terrence Voon, executive director, Southeast Asia of STB, said, “We are delighted to team up with Klook to strengthen Singapore’s position as a compelling travel destination and leading events hub in Southeast Asia. Our new initiatives aim to drive tourism recovery and highlight distinctive experiences that make each journey to Singapore memorable. They will also complement STB’s new Made in Singapore campaign, which showcases how our city transforms ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences.”

Singapore – Global marketing and communications network Publicis Groupe, Singapore Management University (SMU), and communications technology group Singtel have joined forces to organise an AI-driven storytelling workshop for students.

Using as many as five AI tools, 37 undergraduate students from SMU created engaging video stories on Singtel’s impact on digital inclusion.

The student participants were given the project brief to utilise the latest AI storytelling tools such as Runway Gen2, Meta AudioCraft, ChatGPT, ElevenLabs, Lexica, DreamStudio, and Clipdrop to come up with a compelling story focused on digital inclusion.

Given this challenge, students were exposed to the latest artificial intelligence tools and technology readily available for their use. However, it also challenged them to conceptualise and create engaging, impactful, and memorable stories and characters for various audiences and media. Furthermore, the workshop aims to provide students with the skills they’ll be able to apply to real-world client projects.

As part of the workshop, five undergraduates with the best short films were also awarded with full-time, 12-week summer internship opportunities at Singtel and Publicis Groupe, where they can put their newly acquired skills to use. Meanwhile, the top 10 selected films were showcased in a mini-festival at SMU. 

The project brief for this AI storytelling workshop was created by Leo Burnett Singapore, a part of the Publicis Groupe. This is also the second time Publicis Groupe Singapore has worked with SMU to provide students with hands-on experience with AI tools. 

Something new in this project, however, is the involvement of a real brand, which is Singtel. The jury panel for the storytelling project included Bill Ang of Singtel; Jean-François Thery, head of growth at Publicis Communications, Singapore; and Tommy Tan, head of strategy at Publicis Media, Singapore.

The workshop was part of a 13-week SMU-X course titled ‘Storytelling for Organisations and Brands’ offered at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB). It was led by LKCSB Professor of Communication Management Mark Chong and Laurent Thevenet, head of creative technology for APAC at Publicis Groupe.

Bill Ang, director of brand marketing at Singtel Singapore, said, “A.I. is already transforming many facets of life. At Singtel, we are leveraging this technology to ideate and co-create in ways that will enhance customer experiences and drive learning. It’s great to see the energy and creativity in the work from the SMU students. Their submissions have been incredibly inspiring and have given us much food for thought.”

Speaking about the workshop, Professor Chong also explained, “As a telecommunications leader, Singtel knows how important it is for students to take new risks and try new processes using the latest technologies. It has been an honour partnering with the largest mobile network operator in Singapore to encourage a new generation to embrace AI. and push the edge of new possibilities.”

Thevenet also added, “This collaboration with Singtel has given a new cohort of 37 SMU students an advantage in the future workplace. AI is fundamentally changing the creative process, and although human creativity is more important than ever, learning how to partner with machines to create something out of the ordinary will become an essential skill for graduates.”

Meanwhile, Thery said, “Singtel has always been at the forefront of pushing the best in technology for Singapore, so it’s been an incredible experience working with SMU students to help prepare them for the future workplace—we’re thrilled with their creations.”