Tag: Singapore

Singapore – Advertising firm Ogilvy in Singapore has announced that over 20 people has been hired by the firm to beef up its creative department. This follows the firm’s recent growth from more than 25 pitch wins across categories such as technology, retail, financial services, and healthcare.

According to an Ogilvy spokesperson, the roles are a mix of integrated, conceptual, content and experience creatives and craft specialists.

The new hires are namely Bruno Andrade, Cheong Wen Xuan, Chun Sim, Clara Wong, Dana Lim, Dinah Nordin, Faith Low, Izz Bachtiar, Jamie Lim, Jerome Toh, Joseph Lim, Julia Batrisya, Maggie Michella, Rachel Chew, Sandra Tan, Sonali Ranjit, Toan Mai, Troy Lim, Winnessa Ho, Zac Tan, and Zi Wei.

Chris Riley, chairman of Ogilvy Singapore and Malaysia, said that the new hires will elevate the firm’s focus on integrating their skills in creative concept, design craft and content services all under single leadership, adding that they are well-placed to partner their clients with their growth objectives.

“As we emerge from the worst of the pandemic, we have seen an eagerness from our clients to accelerate their marketing transformation and related ambitions. The significant investment in our talent ensures we have all the creative firepower required to drive [a] bigger and bolder creative impact for our client’s customers, communities and importantly the environment in which they operate,” Riley stated.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Courant, chief creative officer at Ogilvy Singapore and Malaysia, commented, “This is an exciting time for us as creative energy is at an all-time high. Our client partners want to make a difference and they know they can only do it by connecting with their audiences in more meaningful ways. For us, it’s the opportunity to continue building a unique creative company that combines creative thinking, tech, data, content and commerce and become the most trusted partner for brands.”

Singapore – Peer-to-peer lending platform MoolahSense in Singapore has announced the launch of its newest platform GreenMoolah, which is focused on accelerating green and sustainable financing in Singapore and the region for SMEs.

This is in response to the growing global demand for green and sustainable financing among regional and local authorities, including businesses, that are scaling up efforts to support the reduction of emissions, yet poses a problem for SMEs who are on the search for affordable loans.

The goal of GreenMoolah is to provide a crowdfunding platform to assist SMEs who have been left out to understand and embark on projects within the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) framework, as well as to showcase to investors on how sustainable financing can be profitable.

“This not only provides positive contributions to the environment, but also helps investors to embrace the idea of sustainable financing. Such efforts are consistent with commitments under the Singapore Green Plan 2030 to advance Singapore’s national agenda on sustainable development, and places emphasis on the importance of driving high-integrity green finance,” the company said in a press statement.

Leveraging on the GreenTrust Framework, a digital utility spearheaded by MoolahSense as the key underlying technology for interoperability and verification, end-to-end financing for SMEs on the GreenMoolah platform can be instantly authenticated, digitally processed and provenance tracing obtained simply by scanning a QR code that’s embedded into the digital certificates.

For Andrew Quek, investment director at MoolahSense, he believes that most SME owners will want to play their part in the efforts towards sustainability, and yet as business owners, their primary focus would be on profitability. He also added that with limited resources in both manpower and finance, and insufficient related experience, it makes embarking on transformation even more challenging for them

“Through MoolahSense, the green framework we have developed and in the near future digitized with the use of technology like blockchain and IOT, it makes understanding assessments and reporting easier,” Quek stated.

The introduction of the GreenMoolah platform also aims to facilitate the adoption of more sustainable projects within society. With its integration and digitization processes, GreenMoolah is able to reduce the steps needed for applications and at the same time, educate businesses owners on an easy to adopt and transparent process, so that they are able to return and use the GreenMoolah platform in the future.

Singapore – While a privacy-first internet is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, advertisers and companies are not withheld from disclosing the real pains of transitioning and adapting to a cookieless digital space when Google dropped the news of cookie deprecation in 2020. 

Advertisers were, however, granted a breather, when the cookies phase-out, originally eyed by the tech giant in 2022 had been delayed a bit further into 2022.

Shortly after the announcement, data solutions provider Lotame released a poll among 200 Singapore-based senior decision-makers in digital media and marketing to further learn their sentiments on the future of cookieless internet. 

First off, half, or 55%, said they were happy with Google’s decision to delay citing that they needed “more time to prepare.” 

A top concern among digital media professionals is losing revenue amid weakened ad-targeting opportunities, where about 57% of marketers believe in reduced ad-targeting opportunities, with over two-thirds (66%) expecting a 10% to 25% drop in revenues as a result of the loss of third-party cookies. Meanwhile, almost 60% (57%) of publishers anticipate a reduction in the workforce brought by revenue loss. 

In adopting new identity solutions, the primary reason for Singapore-based marketers is to support audience targeting (59%), while among publishers, 64% would foremost adopt identity solutions for data privacy. 

With the optimal number of ID solutions, 36% of Singapore marketers were open to using any number, while 35% of publishers cited two, with 30% saying three.

“A cookieless future is closer on the horizon and whether or not the industry ‘feels prepared,’ the end result is inevitable,” said Luke Dickens, Lotame’s managing director for ANZ.

Dickens adds, “Digital advertising is changing, and identity solutions will be part of that new future. Addressability and connectivity are at greatest threat in the post-cookie world.”

With a stronger call for privacy, Apple, aside from Google, had digital media players also rethinking their ad strategies with an update on its privacy features earlier this year.

Apple’s new iCloud Private Relay has been designed to protect users’ privacy by ensuring that when browsing the web in Safari, no single party, including Apple itself, can see a user’s identity and the sites he or she is visiting.

The same survey found that 53% of Singapore-based respondents are concerned about their ability to monetize the email channel amid Apple’s new privacy feature, while 46% said they are concerned for the impact on email hash identifiers.

Relatedly, email-based identity solutions (69%) were the most popular choice when asked what types of ID solutions marketers and publishers were planning to test in the next six months to one year. Contextual (44%) was in second place, followed by cohorts (33%) and probabilistic (27%).

The current report ‘Beyond the Cookie: Identity Solution Adoption & Testing Among Marketers and Publishers’ is part two of Lotame’s cookie-focused study, where the pilot study was released in February and examined how organizations are beginning to plan for the phase-out of third-party cookies.

Singapore – Following the departure of Vivek Kumar from retail giant NTUC FairPrice as its director of strategic marketing and omnichannel monetization, Kumar is immediately announced by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Singapore as its newest chief marketing and communications director. 

As he brings in more than 20 years of diversified experience in management and strategic communications, Kumar will be leading WWF-Singapore’s campaigns, focusing on conservation and climate change goals such as deforestation, haze pollution, food security, plastics, sustainable finance, sustainable consumption, and illegal wildlife trade.

The role takes effect immediately, and entails him to work closely with communities, businesses and governments to advocate for positive change.

At NTUC, Kumar helmed the marketing of over 160 Cheers and FairPrice Xpress convenience stores across Singapore, as well as setting up the FairPrice Group Media.

He also held various roles in the Singapore Labour Movement since 2010, and was assistant director-general (ADG) and director of the membership services division of NTUC.

He shared that his leadership style centers around “peer-powered learning” that will help to foster meaningful connections among team members.

“As a leader, it is important to have empathy so that we can support our peers and colleagues. I am excited to be joining a driven, highly capable and diverse team at WWF-Singapore. I hope to engage individuals and companies in creating greater awareness through human-centric angles that support our mission and Singapore’s Green Plan 2030 goals,” Kumar said.

He also added that his interest working with the organization started out as a donor to one of WWF-Singapore’s initiatives and soon became his dream job to join the organization.

“I have always been driven by a sense of purpose, from volunteering in my college days, to my recent role with the Singapore Labour Movement supporting union members. As the 2021 IPCC report highlights, there is really no time for us to lose when it comes to the health of our planet,” Kumar said.

While still in his position at NTUC FairPrice, Kumar graced the recently-held roundtable of MARKETECH APAC ‘Business Growth Levers from Acquisition to Retention’ in September where he shared how the organization’s convenience store Cheers adapted to the changes in the pandemic which included doubling down on good consumer research and offering innovative products. 

“We can’t wait for the customers to come to us. We can create the right occasion [as long as] we understand the customer’s needs. We must give them very friction-free shopping experiences where they can complete their mission – you can’t leave it midway,” Kumar said in the roundtable.

Singapore – Financial services company Aviva Singlife has partnered with global experience management (XM) provider Qualtrics to improve capabilities and insights for better customer experience (CX).

With Qualtrics’ CustomerXMTM, the company’s listening engine, predictive intelligence and analytics, and full closed-loop actioning capabilities, Aviva Singlife will be able to deliver premium financial services support and products aligned to the customers’ changing needs. 

It will also standardize its CX and create a new, continuous listening platform, which will allow to make regular, targeted, and meaningful improvements to the customer journey, and interact with its 1.5 million customers at key moments across a number of different engagements and channels – such as when buying insurance products or making a claim.

Moreover, Qualtrics will be helping Aviva Singlife to rapidly resolve issues and close the loop with every customer. Intelligent, automated workflows will immediately alert the customer service team of engagements requiring their attention. Qualtrics will also help in conducting deeper analysis to help guide Aviva Singlife’s growth.

Lara Truelove, Aviva Singlife’s head of customer experience, shared Qualtrics will equip them with intelligent capabilities to continually develop and deliver products, services, and support, aligned to the customers’ changing needs.

“Importantly, the rich insights will also help us remove the complexity and confusion often associated with insurance, empowering our customers to make confident decisions,” said Truelove. 

Mao Gen Foo, Qualtrics’ head of SEA, said that by standardizing and taking full control of its customer experience with Qualtrics, Aviva Singlife will be able to get to know and service customers better at every touchpoint. 

“This is a significant ability, helping the company create a world-class customer experience helping it attract and retain customers in the financial services industry,” said Foo. 

Qualtrics said that Aviva Singlife, partnered with Qualtrics Research Services, has also conducted a large market research study into changing consumer needs and expectations in the industry, to further strengthen the propositions being brought to market. The findings from the study have been made available throughout the organization, equipping every department with valuable insights to guide and inform future decisions – from product innovation to the type of advice provided.

Singapore – Esports media company ONE Esports has shared in a press release that it is planning to launch an esports talk show by 2022, in partnership with Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International’s travel program.

Aside from the talk show, the partnership will also see Marriott Bonvoy focusing on expanding its reach to engage esports fans in Singapore and Malaysia via local Mobile Legends: Bang Bang community tournaments.

Aside from the global hotel brand, ONE Esports has also forged a tie-up with top insurance company FWD, to sponsor its Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational 2021 in Indonesia, where the top teams across SEA will compete to be the region’s best. 

Through this, the esports media company will also feature the insurance company on its website, as well as create custom content for the brands’ flagship app, FWD Moments.

ONE Esports has been bolstering its media collaborations. The said partnerships follow the company’s recent tie-up with top online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda, to create a new multi-part docuseries on esports called ‘Heroes of the Game’, which tackles the ‘ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major’ event held in March this year.

Carlos Alimurung, ONE Esports’ CEO, noted that these partnerships will grow the esports ecosystem, and reaffirm ONE Esports’ commitment to scale esports globally with the world’s best brands. 

“We are thrilled to have these partners join us in our mission to share and celebrate the stories of esports heroes who ignite the world with strength, hope, dreams, and inspiration,” said Alimurung.

Meanwhile, Julie Purser, the VP of marketing, loyalty and partnerships at Marriott International APAC, shared, “Marriott Bonvoy has evolved from a rewards program to an immersive and inclusive travel program, and we look forward to collaborating with ONE Esports to bring our expression of good travel in both virtual and physical settings to gamers across the region.”

Singapore – With remote work now grounded as the norm, ‘workplace horrors’ have taken on entirely different forms. This is the spotlight of BBDO Singapore’s new in-house campaign for Halloween. 

Titled ‘WFHalloween’, the campaign aims to let employees share their horror stories ever since the work-from-home setup has become their day-to-day. The campaign creatively uses creepy imagery formed through staple objects found in a remote work setting. 

For example, a Dracula formed by paper clips and a phone, which represents the anxious experience of getting a text from the boss in the middle of the night. Another is a Spider formed by messy computer wires. And lastly, ‘Scream’, a worn-out ominous electricity socket which stands for the intense fear employees get every time they put a plug, “only to realize it doesn’t work when your laptop shuts down in a crucial meeting.”

Singapore – With borders reopening across the world, Singapore Airlines (SIA), the flag carrier airline of Singapore, has launched a new global campaign, which is its first since the beginning of the pandemic, marking a significant step forward for the airline industry’s path to recovery.

Created in collaboration with creative agency TBWA\Singapore, the new campaign aims to capture the ‘freedom’ and ‘weightlessness’ of being able to finally travel again, encouraging people to turn their anticipation into action.

Titled ‘Look forward to flying again with Singapore Airlines’, the campaign features travelers literally floating through their day, leading up to their first flight out with SIA, from the moment they wake up to traveling to the airport and boarding the plane. 

In order to capture an authentic flying experience on camera, the airline shared that its team worked alongside a professional stunt crew who are masters in coordinating gravity-defying performances.

Lau Hui Ling, the general manager, brand, and marketing at Singapore Airlines, shared, “The campaign highlights how SIA’s renowned world-class service and experience allows customers to enjoy their first post-pandemic flight and start looking forward to being in the air once again.”

Andy Grant, TBWA\Singapore’s ECD, said that they wanted the ‘blissful liberation’ on screen as travel resumes.

“We made the magical and distinct experience of flying with SIA visceral throughout the film – focusing on the sense of warmth, calm, and peacefulness people encounter from the moment they wake up to when they step onboard,” said Grant.

Beyond Singapore, the campaign was also launched around the world in high-profile media placements such as New York Times Square, Japan’s Shibuya Crossing, and London Cromwell.

Singapore – As part of the platform’s new campaign to boost reach of the upcoming 11.11 sale, e-commerce platform Lazada in Singapore has launched its newest giveaway which is none other than a new condominium unit at Normanton Park, valued at S$1m.

Said giveaway has been co-sponsored by PropNex, a Singapore-based real estate agency. To boost the campaign, Lazada will be rolling out the marketing campaign across various platforms to publicise the giveaway, including TV, radio, digital ads, Out Of Home (OOH), social media platforms and more.

To enter the giveaway, shoppers must collect ‘golden keys’ through various missions on the Lazada app. Up to 34 golden keys can be collected in total through the app from 1 November onwards, by completing missions, playing games and more. The more keys collected, the higher the chances of winning.

James Chang, CEO at Lazada Singapore, said that they wanted to inject something new and more exciting for their shoppers to look forward to, adding that with PropNex as a co-sponsor, they are thrilled to be able to up the ante for this year’s million-dollar giveaway.

“Our key focus to support our sellers to thrive in the online space has never wavered, and to thank our shoppers for supporting us, we went and looked for the biggest reward we could find in the market, to show that e-commerce opens up all kinds of possibilities,” Chang stated.

Meanwhile, Ismail Gafoor, CEO at PropNex, said that a way to increase chances in winning the million-dollar prize is to fulfil the task of purchasing their PropNex edition of the popular board game Monopoly at the Lazada store. Said limited edition of the board game is specially curated with Singapore real estate rules and the winner is declared in an hour, with in-depth knowledge of real estate investment.

“We are delighted to co-sponsor this prize – Normanton Park in collaboration with Lazada, and bring about a new excitement to the shopping experience on Singapore’s biggest annual sale event, and we could not have asked for a better platform to collaborate with. It is part of our branding campaign in building our brand equity and we are thrilled to be part of this mega event this year,” Gafoor said.

He added, “We hope that shoppers who purchase it will enjoy the game, and we are thankful to have the opportunity to work closely with Lazada in value-adding to customers.”

Singapore – With Black Friday sales fastly approaching and planned by various brands, around 54% of Singaporean adult shoppers say they are willing to shop during these sale drops, only if the discounts given are ‘enough and right’, found a survey from global comparison platform Finder.

The latest survey found that Singaporean adults need an average discount of just under half price or 48% from the original price to partake in the shopping event. Furthermore, 15% say they’ll need a whopping 90% discount for them to shop the sales, while 13% say they’ll buy something in the sales if it’s half price with 8% willing to shop if it’s discounted by 25%.

By age group, the survey found that 18 to 24 year olds are much more likely to shop during the Black Friday sales, with 65% saying any type of discount could catch their eye, with 41% across 45 to 54 year olds, and 46% of those aged 65 and above stating the the same.

The survey also notes that Singaporean men are more likely than women to have their interest piqued, with 58% of men saying they’ll shop if the discount is big enough compared to just 48% of women.