Tag: SMEs

Hong Kong – Lalamove, one of the leading on-demand delivery platforms in Southeast Asia, has recently launched a new regional campaign with the slogan ‘Lalamove it!’, that aims to inspire their partners in Southeast Asia and Latin America to get their businesses moving with the help of Lalamove. 

At the heart of the campaign is an ad featuring a playful and vibrant aesthetic, integrated with it a catchy tune using ‘Lalamove’ as part of the lyrics to make the message stick among viewers.

It helps that the platform’s inherent branding centers around optimism, with its bright orange brand color and within its name a workable catchphrase having the word ‘move’.

The ad promotes the company’s on-demand service offerings to a multicultural audience with the message that customers can deliver anything, no matter how big or small, with Lalamove’s wide range of fleets, reliable and affordable services.

Alex Kwan, the marketing director of Lalamove, commented that technology has only accelerated over the last 18 months in the wake of COVID-19, and that the new normal has greatly impacted the local supply chain and movement of goods. With this, Lalamove constantly strives to meet the many different needs of its customers which are both SMEs and individuals alike. 

“We are extremely excited about the ‘Lalamove it!’ campaign, which will help us reach out to new audiences in the southeast markets and boost awareness of Lalamove in the social space. We can’t wait to tell the world that you don’t just move it – you ‘Lalamove it!’,” said Kwan. 

Within the campaign is a TikTok dance challenge that launched in four specific markets today. Celebrities and KOLs all over Southeast Asia have been partnered up to take the lead in the challenge.

For instance, Luis Manzano, Filipino actor and TV host, and Malaysian influencer Wingkeh and her partner Keifth, have been roped in to show off their ‘Lala-moves’ to amplify the ‘Lalamove vibe’ on social. 

Followers can then showcase their spirit and creativity by entering the TikTok challenge, performing their best #LalamoveIt dance with specially designed Lalamove stickers to win attractive prizes. 

The platform shared that the campaign is a joint effort of creative input from creative agency BBDO and produced by production studio Heckler. The TikTok campaign meanwhile was created by global media agency m/SIX.

The campaign’s ad will be shown on traditional and digital media in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, as well as in Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil. The brand campaign at large will be running across TV, digital, OOH, and social advertising, 

Singapore – With more and more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) now migrating towards creating a digital presence, presentable yet simplified video editors are an essential for them to create visual-appealing multimedia for their growing number of online users. Hence, marketing technology software-as-a-service (SaaS) video tool Oneshot has released their latest simplified video editor catered to SMEs looking for easy-to-use video editing tools.

Said video editor tool creates personalized videos using a simple point-and-click interface, without the heavy lifting of tedious video editing. This is further supported by various pre-built and professionally-designed templates to cater to the uses of numerous businesses and industries. 

Oneshot offers three affordable packages to choose from: Lite(S$39) for three videos, Pro(S$159) for 20 videos, and Ultimate(S$120) for 20 videos per month. The video maker does not offer stock images or footage in an effort to encourage brands to use their own assets in creating authentic videos for their various personal or business uses.

With an objective to empower SMEs and small businesses during this time of digitalization, Oneshot offers its service at an affordable price point, to allow anyone to access and create videos for their marketing and advertising needs.

“We realize that many businesses, especially SMEs, are inconsistent in asserting their presence online. Many are still tightening purse strings or fighting to remain afloat, and hiring a creative agency is an expensive luxury. However, cutting down on the marketing budget affects a business’ brand presence and reduces the opportunity to boost online traffic and sales,” said Cindy Chay, co-founder of Oneshot.

She further added that the service aims to bridge the gap of presentable media and affordable video editing strategies, which in turn provides SMEs and other smaller companies access to perfectly optimized videos at an affordable price. She adds that it enables its users, whether complete beginners or individuals with limited video editing knowledge, to create pro-grade videos at their fingertips.

Meanwhile, Christantio Giovanni, co-founder at Oneshot, shared that we are currently met with many different types of videos and advertisements from a wide range of industries, such as F&B, retail, fashion and even education, and that thhis exciting selection of variety has inspired Oneshot to develop hundreds of pre-built and professionally designed templates, as we encourage designers and animators to take full control and add their personal touches. 

“Every aspect of the video template selection is born out of unrestrained creativity, whether it be for creating testimonials, instructional videos or even sales and promotional ads. We take pride in constantly updating the platform and are passionate in developing new video templates that bring forward the persona of SMEs and businesses in every industry,” Giovanni said.

The video templates offered by Oneshot comes in an abundance of choices, all catered for businesses to meet their marketing goals, whether it be to gather attention from the audience, influence higher conversion rates or actively sell products. Furthermore, for video-making beginners or individuals with limited video editing knowledge the tool promises to take care of the heavy lifting such as the design and animation portions in order to save time.

Singapore – SKALE, an all-in-one marketing tool, is launching a one-of-its-kind campaign for SMEs in Singapore that aims to help businesses bounce back from the impact of the pandemic. 

In a nutshell, the campaign will be allowing up to 2,000 brick-and-mortar SMEs to offer deals and promotions to shoppers nationwide via hyper-local digital vouchers, where all marketing costs will be covered. 

Called, ‘Promosnear.me: Voucher Fest 2021’, the campaign aims to increase physical stores’ customer footfall and drive higher sales. As part of the initiative, SKALE will be funding all marketing investments and will be providing full marketing support utilizing SKALE’s very own Digital Voucher solution as well as its solutions for geo-fencing ads and gamification to bring customers back to stores.

The campaign is done in collaboration with The FinLab, the innovation accelerator powered by UOB and SGInnovate. The campaign will be running for three months long, from the period of 17 September 2021 to 20 December 2021.

According to SKALE’s website, the voucher fest is open to all physical stores that are restaurants, fashion stores, spas, or those in entertainment, among others. The campaign is open to brick & mortar businesses that are in need of free marketing support, and SMEs that would like to digitize for free. 

SKALE’s CEO Yuet Whey Siah said that the period of the pandemic has been highly crucial for many SME retailers, especially offline retailers. 

“In the past 15 months, SKALE has worked with many offline retailers to help them recapture lost sales and to rebound from the impact of the 2020 Circuit Breaker. However, the latest tightening of measures presents them with a new reality – that there is an increased importance to digitize and leverage technology to sustain business growth,” said Yuet Whey Siah.

For interested small- to medium-sized physical businesses, SKALE is already live in offering an event brief that would explain the specifics of the campaign and what the program has in store for businesses. By registering on its website, SME owners can pick their convenient schedule for the briefing.

SKALE revealed some of the brands that are already participating which include Four Seasons Durian, Edith Patisserie, Big Fish Small Fish, and also Trehaus.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Live streaming platform Bigo Live in Malaysia has announced the official launch of ‘Bigo Marketplace’, a new e-commerce initiative by the platform to aid local micro-enterprises and small and midsize businesses (SMBs) leverage the platform’s growing user base to increase brand exposure and facilitate sales conversions.

With Bigo Marketplace, Bigo Live has launched a new feature called ‘Shop’ on the Bigo Live app which users and broadcasters alike can access for an easier and convenient shopping experience. Said feature is currently available to vendors who have already signed on to the Bigo Marketplace program and enables them to direct Bigo Live users to their brand or product’s website during their live streaming sessions. 

As the feature is currently in its Beta stage, it is currently available to registered users, broadcasters, and vendors.

“Here at Bigo Live, we are committed to providing our users with engaging and meaningful content that not only entertains but also gives back to the community through curated content that helps Malaysian businesses through this difficult period. With Bigo Marketplace, we not only want to look after our growing ecosystem of content creators but also provide business owners with an additional platform to generate income and exposure for their businesses,” a Bigo Live spokesperson said.

The ‘Bigo Marketplace’ launch follows the success of Bigo Live’s first e-commerce online marketplace event, ‘Bigo Pasar Malam’, where Bigo Live users were able to participate in live stream sales sessions simulating the Malaysian night market experience. Held last 30 July and 6 August 2021, the event saw over 100 Bigo Live broadcasters offering products for sale from their own businesses. These products ranged from clothing, snacks, gadgets, accessories, homeware, as well as cosmetic and skincare products.

“Malaysia is among the top e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia. Following the success of ‘Bigo Pasar Malam’, where the event drew in between around 150,000 to 200,000 views for our vendors during each session, and observing certain vendors who managed to sell more than 100 items within 2 hours, we decided to launch Bigo Marketplace as we recognized the potential of live streaming as a key contributor to Malaysia’s e-commerce industry,” the spokesperson added.

Singapore – Catering to a new age of work based on hybrid and remote workspaces, telco operator MyRepublic and global IT solutions operator Inspira Enterprises have announced the launch of its cybersecurity suite that will benefit small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore.

MyRepublic and Inspira aim to bridge this gap and make it simple for SMEs to adopt up-to-date cybersecurity tools and best practices that can be implemented consistently across their organization. This includes managed services such as managed firewall and managed endpoint, giving customers the peace of mind to focus on their business whilst their company is being protected by a globally recognized security provider.

The cybersecurity suite includes cybersecurity consulting, incident response, data protection, and vulnerability testing. Potential customers will benefit from a free end-to-end assessment to determine their exact requirements and the solutions that are best fit for their operations.

Lawrence Chan, managing director at MyRepublic Singapore, said that as more SMEs shift to remote or hybrid work environments, cybersecurity threats targeting their vulnerabilities will continue to rise.

“MyRepublic believes that all organizations deserve world-class protection no matter their size. Our new cybersecurity solutions bring enterprise-grade protection to small and medium businesses and give them one less thing to worry about, as they continue to manage the impact of the pandemic,” Chan stated.

The announcement comes after data from the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), shows that cybercrime cases accounted for 43% of total crime reported in Singapore in 2020. In particular, there were significant spikes in ransomware and botnet attacks last year. The former rose by a staggering 154%, mostly targeting SMEs in the manufacturing, retail, and healthcare sectors. 

Josef Figueroa, vice president of ASEAN at Inspira, commented, “SMEs are more susceptible to cyberattacks because they may lack the knowledge and ability to deal with such threats. Our experience with SMEs also shows that they may be reluctant to adopt modern cybersecurity tools due to their perceived high cost and complexity.”

The cybersecurity suite solves some of the potential misconceptions SMEs have regarding cybersecurity. For instance, SMEs may think basic antivirus software installed on employee laptops are sufficient protection against today’s sophisticated threats. They might also rely on various business tools riddled with vulnerabilities and incompatibilities of which they are not aware.

“In a digital economy, it’s not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’ you will be targeted. Our suite of cybersecurity solutions are designed to help SMEs get their modern threat protection up and running with minimal hassle. We look forward to contributing a new line of cybersecurity defense to Singapore’s fight against cybercrime,” Chan concluded.

The greater foundations of any successful business or agency nowadays are no longer confined within the spaces of how well the agency clinches large accounts for their work, or how much awards the campaigns and works they made with their clients have acquired. Instead, the modern face of an agency has always been this intrinsic web of ascertaining ‘memorable’ and ‘relevant’ campaigns, creating an inclusive environment for creative talents, as well as keeping in mind its greater role for the betterment of the society, economically and sustainably.

Despite the complexity of these tasks modern agencies would need now to face, there are quite a number of agencies who continue to strive for this modern agency ideology. In addition, many of these agencies add their own flair of strategies and methodologies to live up to these expectations, and truly make a lasting impression not just to clients, but to the society as well.

Such is the mantra of Malaysia-based agency DreamsKingdoms, founded and currently led by Yenkai “Yens” Chong, whose primary objective to date is to aid local small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) to be the next generation of multinational companies (MNCs). For the agency, this includes preparing for BMI or the so-called ‘branding and marketing integration’, enabling them to shift their mindset to be ready and confident in realizing their full potential.

“In the running, DreamsKingdoms will share its creative expertise for the local SMEs to flourish by driving performance-driven branding and marketing skills forward to clients. The company’s expert experience having worked with a broad portfolio of global brands will surely be used as a key instrument in influencing the country’s SMEs, adopting the way a multinational corporation (MNC) markets its brand,” Yens shared in an interview with MARKETECH APAC.

Utilization of gamification strategies to boost team productivity

Gone are the days when the facet of a business management strategy is all about the intensity and number of the outputs, but rather affording a similar value on the need for team members to execute their skills and creative prowess well in order to create campaigns that impress more and last longer.

For Yens, part of that strategy in improving the productivity mantra is creating gamification strategies in order to boost work output from team members not just by the physical count but by the value and the message of the creative work to be embodied by the client. 

For instance, the agency has its own proprietary platform called ‘GamePlan’, which encourages the team to continuously upgrade their skills by being able to collect ‘gems’, ‘coins’, as well client’s ‘love’; these, in turn, will enable the agency’s team members to qualify for the promotion and have them in exchange of rewards as well. 

“It’s like playing a game while you are working. That’s what motivates people from young to old age, to have a clear path of where their performance is and improve on the area that they are behind,” Yens stated.

He believes that success should be implemented in a new way and measured by key results through the genuine creativeness and lasting impression an output leaves for the client and viewers, especially as a thought leader in the creative industry.

“Creatives are always being underrated in the growth of a business. Eventually, we are not being defined as a professional and always being put as the last choice to grow a business. We are building a creative eco-system that combines small individual specific skills that are nothing when viewed individually but integrated together, it becomes a result-driven source of power,” he added.

A self-taught pattern to empower DreamsKingdoms’ clients

Patterns and methodologies are the true core of any agency to succeed, and for Yens, part of the agency’s own pattern or model relies on what he calls the “ABCDE Energy,” which constitutes, Attract Attention, Bold Branding, Consumer Connection, Design Desire, and Extraordinary Experience.

An integral part of the pattern to work it out fully is always think about who gets to react and use it, hence the factor Attract Attention. If you can get audiences’ attention, you would have gained a listener. Attention has become the new currency not only for brand success but with anything they wish to convey.

Of course, part of the reason why audiences stick to a brand is that they find a particular brand to be creating a particular impression on them. With Bold Branding, it explains that people don’t buy what you do, people buy why brands do it. With the audience’s attention attracted, next is to capture their belief in why you do what you do through powerful brand purpose. 

Once the brand establishes a striking impression with their audience, in order for them to stay in the longer run, they need to ascertain Consumer Connection. Listen, understand, connect and engage. The future belongs to those who are able to align and connect with the power of empathy with their consumer, as trust builds relationships, and relationships drive action. 

And while we’re at it, Design Desire is another factor to include, making the product or service inclusive and appealing to the consumer. The motivating force behind raving fans. Consumers buy when they believe in your core purpose and would want to be part of the change you promise to bring them.

Lastly, as with any big brands that have lasted for ages, Extraordinary Experience is dubbed as the ‘extra spice’ to complete the audience-brand relationship. Defined as the lifetime memory that anchors the mind & heart, this is built upon the foundations of endless choices of what’s available and what’s possible getting smaller, consumer expectations are what set the extraordinary from the norm.

Yens believes that every global successful brand becomes successful through a pattern. From years of deep experience, he discovered a pattern that will help shape a brand through achieving more likeability, shareability, and lovability.

“Always practice that ‘CIA’ mentality: Always Curious, Imagineering, and Assessing’. This comes with the constant goal of creating the next breakthrough. Since day one, I have constantly reviewed my capabilities and relevancy to the changes in the industry. For me, there’s always a mission unfulfilled as long as there’s imagination yet to be discovered,” Yens explained regarding the formulation of the agency pattern.

Sharing through digital content: A tale of video series

Agencies don’t just thrive under the fact that they are just all about their craft and output, sometimes its members go the extra mile in ascertaining the vision of their company, which is for the greater benefit of their clients, helping them to create an impact at a larger society level. From creating non-profit organizations catered to help those in the community, creating a network of influencers to spread a certain message, all these strategies are tackled by creative leaders nowadays who wish to not only create an impact but also affect disruption for the greater good. 

In Yens’ case, one of his ways to ascertain that vision of aiding others is through constant sharing, specifically through digital content.

A screengrab on one of the many videos Yens uploads on his personal branded Facebook page.

He currently runs a personal branded Facebook page, where he uploads short video content sharing people various local-centric marketing concepts such as branding, advertising campaigns and migrating traditional business online.

The greater reason that makes these videos so inclined to CSR principles is that Yens’ sharing video content empowers especially local-based SMEs who aspire to be the ‘next big thing’. And as true to the mantra of the DreamsKingdoms’ vision of empowering this sector, , these videos speak truly of their aspirations of aiding SMEs towards their continued growth as a business.

This educational strategy from Yens best reflects his perspective and personality as a thought leader, where he states that “as a leader, entrepreneurs don’t read books, they use books.” He also added that we don’t lack knowledge or information, but, rather, we only lack simplified concepts that could easily be understood and shared to everyone, understandable and shareable.

A vision for the future of SMEs as the next MNCs

Part of the greater vision by DreamsKingdoms and Yens includes developing their mission of assisting 100 potential Malaysian SMEs to achieve excellent brand status. The company believes that this initiative will be able to help elevate the country’s SME sector as a whole, as well as promote good entrepreneurship spirit and product innovation.

Furthermore, the company also seeks to assist more Malaysian services, products, and businesses to thrive in the market by leveraging the company’s knowledge, skills, and expertise in branding and marketing strategy.

“The mission to grow SMEs will be elevated to be a permanent positioning of the company in order to get closer to achieving the status of being the country’s top performance-driven branding consultancy company,” Yens added.

In order to achieve this task, the agency will be sharing its creative expertise for the local SMEs to flourish by championing performance-driven branding and marketing skills. The company’s expert experience having worked with a broad portfolio of global brands will surely be used as a key instrument in influencing the country’s SMEs, adopting the way a multinational corporation (MNC) markets its brand.

Yens believes that to achieve impact, creativity in any brand growth should be simple. One of his well-known quotes is, “Think like MNCs, Act Like SMEs,” which means that businesses should have the insight and a vision big enough like MNCs, while incorporating the speed of SMEs. With this, businesses will be able to adapt to the changes in the environment.

Singapore – Global small business platform Xero has announced the launch of the Xero App Store, its dedicated application store that allows small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers to discover and purchase apps to help run their business. 

Said app store can be accessed via the website apps.xero.com and delivers on Xero’s aspiration for more customers to access and benefit from the power of Xero connected apps, which enables businesses to use services such as automatic bank feeds, invoicing, accounts payable easily as software-as-a-service (SaaS) products.

With improved search capabilities and personalized recommendations powered by machine learning, the new Xero App Store makes it easier for businesses to find the right apps for their needs, based on their industry and unique profile. 

In addition, more detailed app reviews are now front-and-center to help small businesses choose the right apps, and sophisticated analytics have been introduced to support app developers. 

For Steve Vamos, chief executive at Xero, their vision for the app store is to be the place where small businesses go to discover and buy apps that complement Xero.

“Today’s milestone is exciting because better connecting Xero’s platform to external apps — whether it’s to manage inventory, receipts or their customer relationships — is a powerful enabler for small businesses looking to grow, manage their workflows or digitally transform their business. With these improvements, we can better connect small businesses and developers to each other, in smarter and more seamless ways,” Vamos stated.

Meanwhile, Nick Houldsworth, executive general manager of ecosystem at Xero, commented, “We’ve been building towards the Xero App Store launch over the past 18 months and are excited to see the impact of this enhanced experience for our customers and partners. The Xero App Store now provides strong foundations for encouraging greater digital transformation, while democratizing access to technology for small businesses. As Xero scales globally, this is reflected in the calibre of services offered by our [developers] in the Xero App Store,” Houldsworth stated.

Hong Kong – With the pandemic situation in Hong Kong now gradually easing up to open to the local and global economy, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong are also slowly opening up, with business confidence rates seeing a steadfast growth among the local SME sector during the third quarter, new data from the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) shows.

According to their latest index alongside Standard Chartered Hong Kong, the SME Overall Index has risen for three consecutive quarters, this time by 4.4 to 46.6, hitting a three-year high since Q3 of 2018.

All five component sub-indices stipulated in the index also rose in Q3, among which the ‘Global Economy’ sub-index recorded the most significant surge again, from 43.6 to 52.8 which made an impressive leap from the low of 7.9 in the same period last year. Together with the ‘Recruitment Sentiment’ sub-index which rose to 50.9, these are the first two sub-indices to surpass the 50 neutral mark in the past two years. Eightof the 11 surveyed industries have recorded two-year highs in their industry indices. 

The sub-indices of ‘Information and Communications’, ‘Real Estate’, and ‘Social and Personal Services’ are the best performing industries, with their respective indices all over 50.

On investment sentiment in the coming quarter, most SMEs are planning to spend more on ‘Information Technology’ and ‘Product & Marketing Promotion’. While 24% of SMEs plan to increase investment in ‘Information Technology’, 20% of local SMEs would like to boost investment in ‘Product & Marketing Promotion’ – both are one-year highs. Meanwhile, 63% of SMEs surveyed expected an upcoming increase of ‘Raw Material Cost’, which is 5% higher than the previous quarter.

For Edmond Lai, chief digital officer at HKPC, the results of the index reflects the stableness of the pandemic situation in Hong Kong during the survey period, and that the SME sector is bound to its ‘steady U-shape rebound with the outlooks of ‘Global Economy’ and ‘Recruitment Sentiment’ being positive’.

He also noted that the survey showed that SMEs are ‘flexing their muscles’ to pick up their business as fast as possible by increasing investment and expanding staff size.

Meanwhile, Kelvin Lau, senior economist for Greater China for global research at Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, commented that the latest SME Index readings confirm that Hong Kong’s business conditions have not only further improved over the past quarter, but that such positive momentum is also likely to carry over to the start of second half 2021, boding well for more economic recovery ahead. 

He also added that the are seeing confirmation as well of such recovery being broad-based, with all five component sub-indices and eight of the eleven industry sub-indices posting quarter-over-quarter increases. All this, however, is still not enough to push the overall SME Index back above the 50 neutral mark for now, meaning that SMEs are generally still operating below normal levels.

“Looking at the breakdown, the improvement in ‘Global Economy’ sub-index remains the biggest driver of positive sentiment this time, while ‘Recruitment Sentiment’ sub-index also returned above 50 for the first time in two years, boding well for Hong Kong’s unemployment rate to extend its recent nascent downtrend. That said, improving global prospects have not translated into much better confidence among manufacturers, exporters and financial services providers this time; rather, we see prior underperformers such as retailers playing further catchup – probably supported by the continued unwinding of social distancing measures since the first quarter,” Lau explained.

He added, “Our latest survey results also reflect still-high cost pressures, especially those for raw materials; that has in turn pushed prices higher for finished goods and services, confirming that some pass-through of higher costs onto buyers is indeed happening.”

In addition, the survey also explored SME perspectives and planning in response to the economic recovery in 2021. Around 7% of SMEs surveyed said their business fared better than before the pandemic, while 31% of them claimed to be close to returning to the pre-pandemic levels. The business performances of ‘Information and Communications’, ‘Real Estate’ and ‘Financing and Insurance’ industries are the most satisfactory amid the pandemic, with ‘Accommodation and Food Services’ being the most affected – 81% SMEs surveyed reported a setback in business. The most popular actions taken proactively by SMEs to achieve business rebound are ‘Product/Service Improvement’, ‘Market Promotion’, ‘Online Expansion’, ‘Productivity Enhancement’ and ‘Use of Digital Technology’.

Furthermore, the survey found that SMEs are placing high hopes on ‘Global Economic Recovery’, ‘Re-opening of Cross-Boundary Travel with the Mainland’ and ‘Relaxation of Social Distancing Measures; to fully grasp the opportunities from market recovery. Yet they also saw the constraints of a severe worldwide epidemic situation and geopolitical tensions, with 37.3% of SMEs surveyed indicating their intentions to raise prices to cope with inflation and offset cost pressure.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As part of the bank’s digital banking thrust, OCBC Bank Malaysia has announced the roll out of ‘OCBC eBiz Account’, a new type of business account catered to local SMEs, of which they can apply for entirely remotely without the need to step into a branch. 

Such feature is made possible through the bank’s electronic know your customer platform (eKYC), which is supported by CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd (CTOS).

The OCBC eBiz Account is open only to SMEs with two or fewer directors or shareholders, which represents the bulk of OCBC Bank’s typical existing SME customers.

The bank is rolling out the online account at a national scale, following its pilot tests in the Klang Valley in February and then nationwide in April. The account, with a relatively low initial deposit of RM500, comes with complimentary business internet banking services Velocity@ocbc and access to OCBC Mobile Banking.

According to Wong Chee Seng, head of emerging business at OCBC Bank, the move is part of the bank’s overall digital roadmap to meet the growing needs of SMEs looking to digital banking solutions to further enable them while making things that are more quickly accessible as well.

“Remote account opening was previously the mainstay of consumer banking and tended to benefit only individual customers rather than businesses. The OCBC eBiz Account will benefit SMEs significantly at the very outset of their relationship with us. They can skip the queues at the branches and avoid the crowds altogether. In a matter of minutes, they will be able to complete their application for an online business banking account at their convenience and verify their identity via the OCBC SME eKYC app. Thereafter, and if the application is successful, the Bank will contact the customer to share with them their account number and login ID for business internet banking,” Seng explained.

He also added that they are expecting a good take-up from this offering and hope to see at least 6,000 new business accounts through this digital channel by the end of the year. In addition, he stated that the national rollout of the OCBC eBiz Account is timely given the complications and uncertainties surrounding movement beyond one’s home due to the ongoing pandemic.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, businesses around the world are forced to embrace rapid digitalization movements, which led to the majority of SMEs ceasing their operations permanently. Although some businesses have been quick with embracing all things digital, moving one’s entire business model in the same direction is an entirely different level, for a number of barriers stand in the way including cost, security implications, and an overwhelming number of available options. 

With this, Malaysia’s digital marketing platform Peasy.AI has launched a new campaign called ‘#KitaMasihBoleh’, which seeks to support local entrepreneurs and SMEs by offering free lifetime access to its software and academy, enabling businesses to create and run effective marketing campaigns to drive sales with ease.

Peasy.AI is a SaaS marketing platform that infuses AI to automate Facebook, Instagram, and Google campaign planning, management, and optimization. It provides SMEs with lead generation and management system solutions and enables scalable Online to Offline (O2O) sales.

The ‘#KitaMasihBoleh’ campaign will be providing its users two key products – Peasy Marketing and Peasy Sales. With Peasy Marketing, entrepreneurs will be able to create customer acquisition campaigns across Facebook, Google, and Instagram. Peasy’s AI function will automatically recommend the best audience segments, targeting, and bid, as well as channel breakdown for each campaign. 

Meanwhile, Peasy Sales offers a wholesome solution for the sales team to scale their selling via WhatsApp. By integrating WhatsApp with the online campaign, SMEs will be able to achieve 80% more contactable leads, and automatically match the campaign’s budget and bid with the audience’s potential value. With Peasy’s automation and chatbot handling repetitive questions, the sales team will be able to fully focus on closing deals with eligible, qualified leads. 

Additionally, the campaign also provides businesses free access to resources on the Peasy Academy, offering unlimited courses on digital marketing. Through this, SMEs will be able to upskill and learn how to carry out effective digital marketing. An approved partner under the BSN SME Digitisation Grant, applicants of the Grant will receive about RM7,000 worth of Facebook advertising, and a 1-year subscription to Peasy.AI’s full software solutions.

Peasy.AI’s CEO Benjamin Fong said that with the platform’s new campaign, Malaysian entrepreneurs can kickstart their digital transformation with a free helping hand, allowing them to increase productivity and subsequently improve their online business.

Fong further shared that they want to give SMEs the opportunity to win the digital game and to go from merely surviving to thriving amid the pandemic.

“To the newcomer, digital marketing may sound scary, capital intensive, and complex to install and operate. However, it need not be so. Our machine learning solutions will automate complex analysis and optimization, enabling businesses, no matter the size, to afford good and effective digital marketing,” said Fong.