Tag: Singapore

Singapore– Automobile manufacturer Audi in Singapore has recently appointed communications consultancy RICE as its new public relations (PR) agency partner for the next three years.

The partnership will see RICE using communications to drive Audi’s brand presence. RICE will also be handling the brand’s strategy and planning, media relations and activations, and content development.

Moreover, RICE will be focusing on supporting Audi’s brand growth in the premium segment and realizing its vision to bring premium electric mobility to Singapore. Leading the charges are the latest Audi e-tron GT and RS e-tron GT, which deems to be the first high-performance electric sports cars from the brand, which are available for pre-orders in Singapore.

Rudi Venter, Audi’s head of marketing for Singapore, shared that they are experiencing one of the most exciting times in automotive history, and they want to play an instrumental role in shaping the transformation as they head into a new age of mobility.

“During the pitch process, RICE demonstrated a clear alignment with us on this vision, as well as their strategic and creative thought process and ideas. We are excited to embark on a new journey with them as our PR partner,” said Venter.

Meanwhile, James Brasher, the managing partner at RICE, commented they are really looking forward to building brand love for a brand that they already love. 

“Not just through the Audi cars, but also through driving experiences, and participating in conversations in the wider mobility space,” said Brasher.

In June this year, RICE also announced its partnership with IWG in Singapore and Hong Kong, two of IWG’s key hubs in Asia. The agency was selected as IWG’s partner after a comprehensive review of its communication partners worldwide.

Singapore – In response to the evolving health journeys of Singapore, healthcare technology company, Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), has selected global experience management (XM) provider Qualtrics for its customer experience (CX) program, to continually refine and optimize the CX on its digital health portal HealthHub and mobile app.

IHiS’ HealthHub offers a nationwide suite of digital health services and personalized advice and has emerged as an anchor service for Singapore residents to access their COVID-19 vaccination records and test results, alongside a range of evidence-based health information topics and e-services across public healthcare.

With the rapidly growing user base and the surge in the use of its services in recent years, IHiS believes that its health portal needed a listening engine to capture the voice of the customer in a timely manner. By using Qualtrics’ predictive intelligence capabilities, the platform expects to now easily collect and aggregate feedback from its users across mobile and online channels in real-time to analyze user sentiment, identify critical feedback, and pinpoint emerging trends. 

Moreover, the insights collected will enable IHiS to understand how current capabilities and new innovative features in HealthHub are meeting the evolving needs of its users and delivering meaningful customer experiences. 

Mao Gen Foo, Qualtrics’ head of Southeast Asia, shared that experience management is now critical, and believes that with the new tie-up, they will be able to help IHiS enhance its capabilities to more efficiently listen, understand, and act on feedback to ensure HealthHub delivers meaningful and long-lasting value to users across Singapore. 

“The recent opening of the Qualtrics data center in Singapore, alongside our plans to hire 1,200 new employees in the region, is a game-changer for local businesses and governments embarking on experience transformations. Organizations will benefit from local access to the Qualtrics Experience Management Operating System and our industry-leading experts, equipping them with the insights, capabilities, and support to quickly and confidently respond to our changing world,” said Foo.

Qualtrics said that IHiS is one of the first organizations to use the new data center located in Singapore, which opened in mid-2021.

Singapore – The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech), which operates under the premise of delivering the government’s digital services to the public, has recently appointed Reprise, the global performance marketing network under global advertising company IPG, to be its social content agency, effective immediately.

Reprise, known for its full suite offering of crafts designed to deliver customer flow, will lead the strategic social content development for GovTech across their digital platforms. 

“At Reprise we are focused on providing a holistic Flow throughout the entire digital customer experience. We are beyond proud to partner with GovTech, an innovative and transformative brand that focuses on building effective solutions for both citizens and businesses across Singapore” said Karen Soo, head of Reprise Singapore.

Reprise has been active in various appointment and brand campaigns in the region. Just recently, in celebration of the upcoming Merdeka or the Malaysian Independence Day, they have worked with chocolate drink brand MILO for a new campaign. In addition, Reprise has also worked with Ford in Malaysia for a new video campaign about ‘seeking the outdoors’ soon.

All of these activities come after Reprise has also recently appointed Pippa Berlocher as the new APAC president at Reprise.

Singapore – Carousell, the listing platform in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong for pre-loved consumer goods, has awarded its integrated media agency of record duties to Essence, the global data and measurement-driven media agency.

The Singapore-born classifieds marketplace is present in eight markets across Southeast Asia. Carousell offers a diverse range of products across a variety of categories, including automobiles, property, and home services, as well as electronics, and fashion accessories.

Led out of Essence’s Singapore office, the agency’s scope of work for Carousell includes brand and performance marketing in Singapore, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Essence’s offering covers media services such as media planning, media activation, automation, and media technology, alongside its specialist capabilities such as consulting, analytics, data strategy, ecommerce, experience, strategy, and advertising operations.

As part of the partnership, Essence’s first activities with Carousell include a campaign to build brand awareness among its target consumers in Hong Kong, a campaign to establish the brand’s versatility across products and service categories in Singapore and the Philippines, as well as conducting the agency’s Essence Media Health Check consulting service with Carousell’s team on its performance marketing campaigns.

“As one of the world’s leading classifieds platforms, we are so excited to have found such great partners in Essence, who enable us to establish meaningful ways to connect with our users at scale, no matter which part of the funnel they are at,” commented Cassandra Leong, Carousell’s director for brand. 

Meanwhile, Monica Bhatia, Essence’s senior vice president of client partner for APAC and managing director for Singapore, said that Carousell is an inspiring brand that believes in using technology to solve meaningful problems at scale and always improving in crafting the most seamless user experience for people to sell what they do not need and find what they need. 

“Likewise, through Essence’s data-driven approach to media, consulting, commerce, and content, enhanced by technology and a commitment to constant improvement, we are excited to help Carousell deliver the most valuable experiences for its consumers, as well as accelerate marketing transformation and business growth for the brand in this region,” said Bhatia.

Most recently, Essence has also announced the launch of its newest consulting service called ‘Essence Data Health Check’, with the aim to aid brands in getting value from collected audience data, which in turn can optimize business impact and consumer brand experience.

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.

Singapore – As the first half of 2021 is still spent with how the rest of the world embattles with the ongoing global pandemic, digital engagement has been relevant more than ever, as a new report from unified customer experience (CX) platform Emplifi unveils how Singapore statutory bodies and ministries have leveraged social media to build their online presence.

According to the report, Twitter accounted for the most of social media content posted by these government bodies during the first half of the year, amounting to 15,403 tweets or 54.47% of social media content. This is then followed by Facebook (8,470 posts or 29.95% of overall content), Instagram (2,745 posts or 9.71% of overall content), and YouTube (1,661 posts or 5.87% of overall content).

Despite these numbers, Facebook takes the helm as the social media platform where most followers of these gubernatorial bodies engage the most, accounting to 2.53 million interactions or 75.66% of overall social media interactions. This is followed by Instagram (682,555 interactions or 20.39% of overall interactions), Twitter (71,848 interactions or 2.15% of overall interactions), and YouTube (60,529 interactions or 1.81% of overall interactions).

Collectively, statutory boards produced three times more content than ministries in H1 2021. However, ministries received better engagement, with over 1.7 million total interactions versus 1.6 million interactions received for statutory boards. This trend began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as ministries increased the frequency of content, including pandemic measures from the Ministry of Health (MOH), along with announcements from various ministries on budgets and assistance schemes.

Similar to 2020, the audience remained highly engaged with Singaporean gubernatorial bodies, as over 50% of all content related to government entities was generated by individual users, totaling close to 30,000 of user-generated pieces. There were also 3.35 million interactions across all government profiles in H1 2021.

Despite these engagements, there has been evident social media fatigue across these ministries and statutory bodies in the country. Known for previously engaging only online through Facebook and Twitter, they have been slowly engaging in Instagram as well to attract younger audiences. Instagram was notably the most engaging platform with an engagement rate of 1.19% while share-of-voice grew from 59.44% in H1 2020 to 72.83% in the same period this year.

In response to these social media fatigues, ministries and statutory boards were encouraged to revisit their content approach, utilizing short-form videos, which were also notably the best performing content pieces. For instance, Workforce Singapore leveraged YouTube videos in their campaigns, which skyrocketed in views, increasing by 23 times (388,911 views in H1 2020 to over 9 million views in H1 2021). This made them the top-performing government body by YouTube video views.

For Zarnaz Arlia, chief marketing officer at Emplifi, social media is proving to be an increasingly important channel for the public sector as Singapore’s governmental authorities focus on keeping their inhabitants engaged and informed during the pandemic. She added that frequent communication is key and there really is no other alternative to social media when it comes to reaching and engaging with people at scale.

“The pandemic has encouraged a more humanized approach to social media. This has led more government bodies to focus on revitalizing their social media strategies through relatable and inspirational content presented in engaging formats. The need to understand which platforms and content types work best on social media is no longer just a concern for brands. More and more we see the public sector leverage social media channels to connect with their audiences on a deeper and more meaningful level,” Arlia said.

Singapore – HUMAN, the cybersecurity company that protects enterprises from bot attacks to keep digital experiences human, has announced its new partnership with InMobi, the global mobile marketing and advertising platform provider. This is part of their continued efforts to disincentivize cybercrime by building a transparent and fraud-free in-app advertising ecosystem with real-time visibility and active protection against malicious bot activity.

HUMAN deems to be the first solution in the space to be fully accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for end-to-end coverage against sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) for desktop, mobile web, mobile in-app and connected TV (CTV). This includes accreditation for pre- and post-bid detection and mitigation of SIVT, which is challenging to detect as fraudsters attempt to mimic genuine user behavior. 

The new partnership, which includes a direct integration with HUMAN’s MediaGuard solution, ensures that customers and partners will be protected from emerging forms of SIVT–background ad activity, hidden ads, and app misrepresentation/spoofing, measurement manipulation, among many others, while guaranteeing always-on fraud filtering and measurement across the platform, covering 100% of the inventory available on InMobi Exchange.

Moreover, InMobi will be joining ‘Human Collective’, HUMAN’s newly launched initiative that brings together players throughout digital advertising to create a collectively protected ecosystem. InMobi will be responsible for boosting HUMAN’s mobile detection presence.

Kunal Nagpal, InMobi’s senior vice president and general manager for publisher platform and exchange, said that InMobi is committed to transparency, trust-based relationships, and delivering optimal business results to advertisers globally. 

“We are the first in-app marketplace to have the entire inventory verified by an independent MRC accredited vendor, and this partnership reaffirms and enhances that commitment,” said Nagpal.

Meanwhile, Tamer Hassan, the CEO and co-founder of HUMAN, believes that to sustain its growth, digital advertising needs a trusted marketplace built through global collaboration and strong partnerships

“With its global command of the mobile in-app market, this partnership with InMobi strengthens HUMAN’s ability to fight sophisticated cybercrime and creates a more trusted environment for digital advertising,” said Hassan.

Singapore – ​NTUC U SME, the NTUC unit that seeks to support SMEs in their business needs, has recently launched a new initiative called ‘NTUC In Your Workplace’, to help bring additional personalized benefits worth up to S$2,300 per worker into the SMEs’ workplaces.

‘NTUC In Your Workplace’ is NTUC U SME’s first foray into equipping and supporting local SME businesses and workforce by tapping on the products and services of the NTUC Social Enterprises (SEs) and partners. Eligible partner SMEs will be able to provide attractive savings and benefits to ensure that their workers’ daily needs and livelihood are covered. This is in line with NTUC U SME’s key focus to support the SMEs and enhance the lives of their workers.

The new initiative will be made available to eligible NTUC U SME partners to help them innovate the way they manage their workforce’s health and well-being. As the first SME recipient of the initiative, 60 workers will enjoy up to S$140,000 worth of total savings and benefits per year, which is inclusive of total NTUC Membership savings. This ranges from daily grocery savings to personal training, family care support, and support from the NTUC Membership savings, as well as the company’s regular staff benefits.

To participate in the initiative, the partner SME will have to achieve at least 80% NTUC membership coverage of its workforce and attain NTUC U SME’s 3B criteria – Better Workplace, Better Worker, and Better Job (Annex A). Currently, 10% of 400 partners SMEs have been assessed to be eligible for this initiative and NTUC U SME will be working with more SMEs to help them achieve the 3B criteria to ultimately bring better welfare, savings, and benefits to SME workers.

By achieving the 3Bs, eligible SMEs will be enjoying savings such as a sponsored refrigerator with pantry snacks from NTUC FairPrice, a free online learning LHUBGO account with more than 75,000 online courses, and complimentary trials at NTUC Health Senior Care Centers for staff, who require assistance for respite care. This is on top of the benefits that workers will be enjoying when they sign up for the NTUC Membership. 

“As NTUC’s representative to support local SMEs and their workers, NTUC U SME has come a long way in its engagement of SMEs and introducing win-win initiatives that will give partner SMEs an added support to hiring and retaining workers; and help SME workers enjoy better work prospects. I am pleased to share that NTUC U SME has surpassed their 400 SME goal and is on track to reach 500 by the end of 2021,” said Chee Meng Ng, secretary-general of NTUC.

Meanwhile, Wan Ling Yeo, NTUC’s director for U SME, commented that they are delighted to bring ‘NTUC In Your Workplace’ to their partner SMEs as this initiative will serve as a big support for them and help create ‘happy’ and ‘resilient’ SME workers. 

“As one of Singapore’s oldest manufacturers of local breakfast and snack delights, Lim Kee has worked with NTUC U SME to transform their staff welfare and business marketing needs to meet the demands of the market. With their positive feedback on this initiative, we look forward to helping more partner SMEs and their workers,” said Yeo.

Singapore – In a first-of-a-kind music collaboration in Asia, Singapore-based singer Benjamin Kheng has recently published its newest music video called ‘WORLDS’, with virtual influencer Rae also taking part in the video, signaling the creative merge of reality and virtual talents.

Rae’s singing is made possible by her latest text-to-speech (TTS) technology that allows audio content to be generated almost instantly. The technology also allows Rae to express her bold personality through a new medium, deepening her engagement with her followers in the digital world and online communities. As a virtual being, Rae speaks in an alto tone with a slight robotic pitch, and is effectively bilingual in English and Mandarin, opening up room for more versatility and creativity in content formats for collaborations.

Speaking about her participation in the music video, she notes that her presence at ‘WORLDS’ was a way to ‘find her voice’, and that it symbolized the natural extension of their interactions across two different realms.

“To create a new experience, we experimented with an electronic treatment for my voice, in contrast to Ben’s vocals. I enjoyed every bit of the co-creation process, from the recording to the filming of the music video. For me, the song expresses the friendships and rapport I’ve established with every individual across our universes. It’s about how our worlds, while different, can converge and connect. I hope that fans will enjoy checking out the video and listening to the new release,” Rae stated.

Meanwhile, Kheng commented, “The song was written about a loved one who passed on, and how I missed her so much I’d dream of lifetimes with her. I was so curious as to how working with Rae would be, but finally meeting ‘her’ was a blast. She might be virtual but she, her team and the whole process felt real ‘real’ to me.”

Rae, as seen on one of her promotions with the new Audi R3 Model last May.

Rae, who debuted last October 2020, has worked closely with local and international brands as their representatives, including working with Audi Singapore for the promotion of the new Audi A3 Model, as well as launching her own non-fungible token (NFT) series collection called ‘TAKE A BYTE’ in July this year.

Virtual influencers, both the human-like and caricature ones, have been recently popping out in support of brand campaigns. For instance, South Korean insurance company Shinhan Life has tapped virtual influencer Oh Rozy for their latest brand campaign, done in collaboration with creative agency TBWA\ Korea. In the caricature realm, ‘VTubers’ or virtual YouTubers have proliferated, from Sony Music Japan announcing auditions for their large-scale VTuber project, to AirAsia debuting their first-ever virtual idol Aozora Kurumi.

Singapore – InMoment, the software application provider for customer, employee, and business experiences has announced the launch of its new Singapore data center, strengthening its presence in the APAC region. 

InMoment said that the establishment of the new data center is in line with its aim to accelerate growth in the Southeast Asia region and support its expanding client base in the region. 

InMoment’s provision of experience clouds dabbles in customer, employee, market, and product experience. Its flagship Experience Intelligence (XI) Platform brings together intelligence from customers, employees, and the market with the objective to drive real and actionable business value.

The XI Platform is cloud-native and helps brands move beyond managing experiences. As a first-of-its-kind in-region, InMoment said that its hyper-modern technology focuses on improving experiences so clients can prove the business value, impact, and ROI of their customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) programs.

The new Singapore data center will be providing commercial and government clients a safe and secure environment, meeting data sovereignty and security requirements in the region. InMoment said that this investment will allow more clients across the region to leverage the XI platform to power their experience improvement strategy. 

In the last two years, InMoment has opened four new offices in the APAC region – in Singapore, Shanghai, Melbourne, and Auckland. 

In April, experienced Technology Sales Executive Carl Kimball joined the Singapore office to lead sales in the region. The company shared that due to the strong demand for its services, teams in Singapore and China have increased, and therefore sees in the future a movement into a new state-of-the-art office facility in Singapore to cater to the ongoing growth. 

“Our Singapore presence has grown exponentially over the last twelve months as we have seen unprecedented demand for the new XI Platform,” said David Blakers, InMoment’s managing director of APAC. 

He adds, “We are thrilled to partner with so many of the leading brands across the Southeast Asia region, ultimately helping them to realize the benefits of CX-led business transformations.”