Tag: Singapore

Singapore – Food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda have entered into a strategic partnership with TADA, the blockchain-based ride-hailing platform, to introduce new user benefits for customers in Asia, starting with Singapore and Cambodia.

As part of the partnership, both foodpanda and TADA users can enjoy savings, discounted fares and loyalty programme subscriptions across both quick-commerce and ride-hailing platforms.

According to the release, up to 30,000 TADA users in Singapore can opt-in to receive a complimentary pandapro subscription which gives them easy access and cost savings to on-demand deliveries under the partnership

In addition, corporate customers of either foodpanda or TADA in Singapore can also utilise the combined food delivery and ride-hailing benefits through joint corporate bundles via foodpanda’s exclusive service for corporate customers, foodpanda for Business.

“On-demand deliveries and [ride-hailing] have become a big part of our daily routines, so we’re constantly thinking of ways to make these conveniences more accessible and affordable for customers,” said Jakob Angele, CEO of foodpanda, APAC. 

He added, “Joining hands and offering even more customer benefits with TADA is a natural next step to bring more choices and greater value for customers who use these services every day.”

Meanwhile, Sean Kim, CEO of TADA Mobility, said, “Partnering with foodpanda marks another exciting phase for TADA’s growth across the region. After seeing a rapidly growing user base in Singapore, and being one of the most downloaded apps in Cambodia..”

Kim also added that the partnership will introduce TADA to a larger community relying on ride-hailing and food delivery.

Angele concluded, “We expect that our partnership will only grow stronger as we continue to tap on each other’s networks and leverage our complementary services, offering customers the added convenience for all our customers across Asia Pacific.” 

Recently, foodpanda has also launched a 24/7 pandamart O2O concept store in Hong Kong, its first O2O concept store in APAC.

Singapore – Cryptocurrency firm Luno has announced that it is exiting the Singaporean market, with its services no longer available by June 20 this year. According to the company, the market exit is part of Luno’s evaluation of their global strategy and presence.

Luno also added that they have also informed the Monetary Authority of Singapore of their intention to withdraw their license application to operate in the country.

In a statement published in their website, the company expressed that while the announcement may come as a shock to their local customers, the decision to exit the market wasn’t taken lightly considering the rising cryptocurrency market in Singapore.

“As a key financial hub in the region and an innovator in financial technology, Singapore has the potential to lead the way in using crypto to build a fair and robust financial system. We can’t wait to watch its journey and are proud to have been a part of it,” they stated.

Moreover, they have expressed their gratitude to the thousands of Singaporeans who have supported them on their crypto journey, ever since they first entered the market in 2016.

Luno has asked its Singaporean customers to withdraw all of their local currency and cryptocurrency by June 19.

The exit also comes after Luno announced that is laying off around 35% of its workforce globally in January this year.

Singapore – The industry had a roller coaster ride in 2022. We have witnessed numerous incidents of layoffs from brands in the region and companies that suffered financial losses. However, amidst these challenges, brands still emerged to lock in successes that serve as an inspiration to the industry in transforming uncertainties into strategic opportunities.

In light with this, MARKETECH APAC invited Singapore-based industry leaders to come together for a CMO roundtable to share how they weathered market shifts and industry changes to remain solidified as a brand and as a business. Ultimately, the event aimed to serve as a platform for industry leaders to share their unique experiences and learn from one another.

Said roundtable hosted around 16 marketing leaders across some of the top brands in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region.

Marketing leaders who attended the event include: [Some attendees are not listed here as requested by them]

  • Rilla Roesell, vice president of marketing at Cialfo
  • Kean Yew Li, global director and head of Asia Pacific social media and consumer engagement at The Coca-Cola Company
  • Dawn Lee, director of corporate marketing division at Health Promotion Board
  • David Harling, managing director at MoneySmart Group
  • Lavina Tauro, vice president for marketing and country manager at Viu
  • Kaushal Pilikuli, vice president of ShopCash and loyalty at Wego
  • Vivek Kumar, chief marketing officer at WWF Singapore
  • Devendra Shivhare, head of martech for APAC at The Coca-Cola Company
  • Katharina Pohl, marketing director for e-commerce at Disney
  • Jason Huan, chief marketing officer at Endowus
  • Roberta Biandolino, head of brand at foodpanda
  • Caitlin Nguyen, head of digital and e-commerce at Philips APAC
  • Emily Ong, head of loyalty at Razer
  • Triveni Rajagopal, senior director, personal care, and global digital marketing experiences at Unilever.

The session started with Danielle Ong, Head of APAC at MessageBird sharing her perspective on how we all as consumers live in the world of now. Everything we need is available at our fingertips. From food, grocery, transportation, travel and tourism, to financial services and many more. This access to “in-the-now” is transforming every industry and impacts businesses of all sizes. She then shared ideas on how brands can keep up tp this constantly changing customer and the expectations that come with this dynamism. Examples from Grab, Uber, Guzman Y Gomez, Booking.com, Glovo were just some of the many that triggered ideas for CMOs to learn from.

Industry leaders were eager to share how they managed to lock in growth even amidst a downward business climate. For instance, MoneySmart’s Managing Director, David Harling explained how they were able to grow their group business last year, and have now kicked off a process to list at the Singapore Exchange (SGX) through a US$161m reverse IPO deal.

Meanwhile, college application platform Cialfo had a focus on growth and brand awareness in the higher education space in the United States in 2022. Rilla Roessel revealed that they were excited by the awareness gained from the target audience.

Meanwhile, for WWF-Singapore’s Vivek Kumar, the challenges that his organisation faced in 2022 included raising awareness around the rapid degradation of nature and biodiversity. For example, he shared that since the last lunar year of the tiger in 2010 three countries in the ASEAN region have lost all their tigers in the wild. As the apex predator, protecting tigers means protecting the whole natural habitat with its biodiversity. With this pressing challenge, the WWF team came-up with a novel initiative to combine art and conservation to raise awareness on the plight of tigers in the wild and to raise critical resources to protect them. Tiger Trail brought together renowned artists from around the world, leveraging both physical and AR arts, and generated the highest PR values ever achieved by the office. 

In terms of his priority for this year, Vivek said that he will be focused on climate change, as one of the most pressing issues facing mankind today. Vivek and his team conceived and launched the first-of-its-kind WWF Earth Hour Summit on 2 March 2023, which brings together the science, policy, and practice of climate change to discuss how society can together move forward to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions. It is an uphill task, but Vivek believes that we must build a shared learning curve towards it since achieving Net Zero is only possible if we act together.

This event was made possible alongside omnichannel communications platform MessageBird and Escomedia.

Singapore – WPP’s media investment group, GroupM, has announced the launch of its advanced digital out-of-home (DOOH) solutions and technology suite Sightline in Singapore. 

Developed by GroupM Nexus, Sightline enables advertisers to take advantage of intelligent data-driven DOOH planning capabilities and an in-house studio that delivers ‘highly impactful’ programmatic creatives.

With Sightline, GroupM Nexus aims to help brands harness data insights such as audience movement patterns to create targeted campaigns that reach ‘the right audiences at the right time’. The end-to-end DOOH suite also allows brands to measure and optimise their campaigns in real-time and at scale to make it easier to adjust ads, creatives, and targeting as needed. 

In Singapore, Sightline has also recently supported StarHub to raise awareness of their live cricket offering amongst cricket fans through cost-efficient DOOH that avoided wastage. Relevant screens were precisely activated which resulted in an optimised campaign that yielded a higher target audience reach.

“We’re thrilled to officially launch our innovative DOOH technology to serve businesses across Singapore,” said Josh Quek, managing director of Sightline Singapore at GroupM Nexus. 

He added, “Our proprietary technology is designed to help brands make the most of their advertising budget by providing them with the insights they need to create cost-efficient and impactful campaigns that drive tangible results.”

This follows GroupM’s launch of its addressable TV solution, Finecast, in the Philippines.

Singapore – InMobi, a leading provider of content, marketing, and monetization technologies, has announced the appointment of Susannah Llewellyn as its vice president of agency partnerships for Asia Pacific to drive its strategic growth with key media agency partners whilst holding companies in the region.

Llewellyn brings with her an experience working across media, technology and digital space. Before joining InMobi, she worked as business agency director at Google. She has also served as international and regional business director at media agency MEC.

Rishi Bedi, managing director for Asia Pacific at InMobi, said that Llewellyn is appropriate for the role due to her adtech and agency background, which is an advantage to drive their growth in APAC through localised go-to-market strategies across our global platforms.

“My depth of experience across the various facets of the media industry including AdTech, agency, and digital marketing will bring valuable insight to my new role at InMobi,” Llewellyn added.

Last month, InMobi also named Aditya Varadarajan as its regional head of the newly expanded Microsoft business in Southeast Asia.

Singapore – TRIPTK, a brand transformation studio within Havas Group, has expanded its regional expertise and global innovation capabilities through the opening of a new APAC regional hub in Singapore.

TRIPTK Singapore will be led by Louise Newson who joins as Principal for Singapore with 14 years of expertise in innovation, foresight, and growth strategy across Asia and Europe.

Meanwhile, Laura Tan and Alyson Ho join the Singapore team as associate strategy directors. Tan has experience in trends, foresight, and business strategy for clients in APAC whilst Ho brings with him background in brand and innovation consulting for global and regional B2B and B2C brands.

Havas said TRIPTK serves as a transformation partner for brands “in search of bold change and meaningful growth.” It was founded in partnership with Havas in New York in 2017 and has expanded globally, with a data and analytics hub in Amsterdam, a design studio in Mexico City, and a Europe regional hub in London. Its multi-disciplinary global team offers data and insight, strategy, innovation and design capabilities to help brands be more purpose-driven, consumer-centric and culturally magnetic. 

TRIPTK has already been delivering work in the APAC region for blue chip clients and TRIPTK Singapore is seen to deepen TRIPTK’s global innovation expertise for its existing partners, which include Netflix, VF Corporation, Diageo, Estee Lauder Companies and Marriott International. The regional hub will also serve a dynamic and growing market of APAC headquartered clients. 

Speaking about her new role, Newson said, “APAC is amongst the fastest growing and innovative regions in the world; by 2040 it is predicted to top 50% of the world’s GDP and drive 40% of global consumption. As Asia rises as a centre for innovation, brand leaders increasingly need a partner that can decode the market and develop culturally relevant propositions. It’s towards this huge opportunity that I’m thrilled to join such a dynamic and capability-rich firm as TRIPTK. The team in Singapore has a strong working relationship forged over many years and we’re already exploring some fascinating client briefs. We’re excited for the future, and look forward to partnering with brands to drive bold change and meaningful growth.” 

“The appointment of this highly talented and experienced team in APAC is one more step on our journey to being a truly global brand transformation partner. The strategic importance and complexity of the APAC region demands a team with deep local and regional expertise who can decode ever-changing market dynamics and develop new strategies, products and services for our clients. I am thrilled to be welcoming Louise and the team into the business,” said Sam Hornsby, TRIPTK Founder and CEO. 

In September, Havas Group tied up with Malaysia-based comms agency Invictus Blue. The partnership between the two aims to provide media and integrated requirements for Havas clients.

Singapore – Creative agency BLKJ Havas has announced the promotion of Guilherme Machado as its executive creative director to strengthen the agency’s creative offering whilst pursuing more clients and campaigns on a pan-regional level.

In his new role, Machado will work closely with the leadership team to further drive the creative work by combining advertising with authentic storytelling and unique perspectives.

In 2021, Machado joined BLKJ Havas as an associate creative director where he was able to deliver critically acclaimed works for the agency. Before joining BLKJ Havas, he also worked as an associate creative director at agency McCann Australia.

Rowena Bhagchandani, CEO and co-founder at BLKJ Havas said that as the agency expands its regional remit with clients, it will continue to strengthen its position as the APAC Havas creative flagship of the region.

Meanwhile, Machado added, “Creating work that doesn’t look like traditional advertisements has been a key motivator since I started my career, and I can’t think of a better place to continue pushing myself creatively and nurture a team with shared ideals.”

BLKJ Havas is a creative agency that works with brands in culture, entertainment, and media.

Singapore – Months after Hong Kong launched its ‘Hello Hong Kong’ travel campaign, awareness of the campaign’s ads spiked to 25.2% points on March 2 from 6.3% on February 2, the month the campaign was announced before dipping to 24.9% by March 20. This was according to the latest data from YouGov.

As part of Hong Kong’s tourism revival initiative, the local government announced in February that they are giving out 500,000 free airline tickets to their territory. As a result, many airlines in the Asia-Pacific region have reported their websites being swamped by online visitors, with long waits awaiting those who want to get their free tickets processed.

According to the data, consideration of Hong Kong as a travel destination rose by 2.4 percentage points ten days after the campaign’s announcement – from 12.6% on February 2 to 10.2% by February 10 – before declining until late February.

Moreover, Singaporean travel consideration to Hong Kong started on an upward trend, reaching 14.3% on March 2 (start of campaign) – up 4.1 percentage points from when the campaign was first made public. By March 20, when the campaign winners were revealed, consideration of Hong Kong as a travel destination gained another 1.2 percentage points to reach 15.5%.

In terms of what Singaporean travellers think of first when travelling overseas, paying a reasonable price for holidaying at a destination that is easy to reach and safe are the top considerations, followed by transportation availability, and safety measures.

Singapore – Whether navigating a hybrid, virtual, or purely physical work set-up, attaining work-life balance will always be a challenge for employees. This is why beer brand Heineken, which can be considered a mainstay in workers’ happy hours, has launched a simple but true-to-point ad about the struggle of employees to be ‘present’ in their social lives. 

In collaboration with advertising agency Le Pub APAC, the beer brand’s 48-second clip titled ‘The Ghosted Bar’ shows a group of friends having a fun time at a bar. Shortly after, paranormal activities take place where glasses of beer move on their own as well as a chair – with no person on it – sliding from one place to another. Towards the end, it is revealed that the movements are indeed manoeuvres of their friend who is currently stuck at the office but is still present in spirit – as a ghost – amongst them. 

And as if the brief narrative couldn’t get more exciting, it is graced by Heineken ambassador, Korean actor Park Hyung Sik. In the end, the beer brand reminds to don’t ghost your friends and to work responsibly.

Prior to releasing the ad, Park Hyung Sik shared an Instagram video of the said spooky encounters which served as a teaser for the said campaign. It seemed to have piqued fans’ curiosity with it garnering more than 4 million views in 24 hours.

Bram Westenbrink, global head at Heineken Brand, said that Heineken has always encouraged socialisation and healthy human connections where workers have a balanced social and leisure time.

“We’re thrilled to bring this platform to Singapore and Malaysia as a reminder to leave your duties on time and not let your social life fall behind,” Westenbrink added.

Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of Le Pub, added, “Heineken’s Ghosted Bar campaign reminds us to leave the office after an honest day at work to live your social life at its fullest. This is what #WorkResponsibly is all about.”

Park Hyung Sik also expressed his thoughts, saying that employees must enjoy social life and not let work impede their leisure time.

“Through this meaningful project by Heineken, we want to encourage employees to start working responsibly,” said the Korean actor.

‘The Ghosted Bar’ is, in fact, partially attributed to findings by a YouGov study which revealed that almost half of the employees in Singapore and Malaysia are guilty of ‘ghosting’ their friends. 

This latest campaign by the brand is the third ad released under its #WorkResponsibly campaign. It follows the launch of The Closer and The Office Cleaners which were both unveiled in 2022.

Singapore – Changi Airport Group has made its debut to the metaverse by showcasing ‘ChangiVerse’, a metaverse experience created to help audiences connect with Singapore Changi Airport and explore its notable sights through the digital space.

Created with global professional services Accenture, ChangiVerse is the first virtual experience created by an airport that has debuted in Roblox, a global shared experience platform with millions of daily users.

Changi Airport’s debut in the metaverse is also an effort to reach a wider group of digital users and fans who are interested to explore more travel destinations differently.

Moreover, the said platform digitally represents Changi’s physical airport where visitors can access fun activities, social experiences, and interactable spaces such as bustling café or festive glamping tent and minigames whilst earning unique collectibles to give their digital avatar some extra flair.

Hung Jean, group senior vice president of Changi Airport Group’s enterprise digital ecosystem & business division, said that the creation of ChangiVerse aims to strengthen the idea that the airport is more than just a transport node, but it’s also a fun and magical destination to create memories.

“ChangiVerse is also about engaging our customers and serving them better through innovation and experimentation, in line with our belief of customers being at the heart of everything we do,” Jean added.

Wee Wei Ng, Southeast Asia market unit lead for Accenture, added, “We are privileged to collaborate with CAG to drive digital-physical convergence through ChangiVerse. By combining digital and physical worlds, ChangiVerse can simulate the airport environment, creating immersive experiences that elevate human interactivity to new dimensions, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation.”

In 2022, Changi Airport Group has dealt with Accenture to extend its partnership for the enhancement of travellers’ experience when visiting Changi Airport in Singapore.