Tag: Southeast Asia

Singapore – Insurance company AXA has released a short film, titled ‘Pam’s ‘Perfect’ Life: A Bumpy Ride’, which presents the realities of mothers’ pregnancy journey. , This comes after the recent launch of AXA EmpoweredMum, which is Singapore’s first prenatal plan.

In the short film, the viewers are taken to the journey of pregnancy through main character Pam. In the film, the progress and milestones of pregnancy are initially narrated from an idealistic view, which is then broken by her own practical and honest account about the realities of pregnancy, putting to light its hardships that are not often known by others. 

“Life is full of interruptions. What’s important is to be prepared for tough times so we can ensure a better life for ourselves and for our child,” said the film. 

AXA said the ad aims to portray a realistic description of the pregnant life and to raise awareness on the importance of long-term financial planning in raising a family.

AXA’s first prenatal plan provides an early delivery by cesarean section benefit for mothers and a free first-year health insurance cover for newborns.

Singapore – In honor of the late Dr. Yong Pung How, Singapore’s former chief justice and Singapore Management University’s (SMU) third chancellor, the university has announced that its School of Law will be renamed as ‘Yong Pung How School of Law’, effective on 11 April 2021. The said date would have been Dr. Yong’s 95th birthday.

The late Dr. Yong was a respected figure in the legal profession, as he transformed the country’s judiciary via key reforms that drove progress and excellence. Dr. Yong was also known in the higher education scene and was involved in the development of SMU’s School of Law.

SMU said in a statement that Dr. Yong played a significant role in the development of its School of Law curriculum. He facilitated the close relationships between the school, the legal profession, and its stakeholders. He also established the Yong Pung How Professorship of Law in 2007, creating an excellent faculty.

Furthermore, he established the Yong Pung How Bursary in Law in 2013, which provides financial aid for less privileged students at the School of Law, and later in 2016, the Yong Pung How Bursary, which supports needy students across the university.

Yong Ying-I, daughter of Dr. Yong said, “My family is deeply honored and touched by the recognition that the SMU and the Singapore Government have given my father. He was greatly committed to the education of the next generation and this honor will enable his legacy to be remembered and built upon.”

Meanwhile, Ho Kwon Ping, SMU’s Chairman, commented that SMU has been privileged to have a deep association with the late Dr. Yong Pung How, as he was the university’s pro-chancellor and then chancellor, who offered leadership and guidance. 

“Dr. Yong was a force of wisdom and his legacy will continue to positively shape the growth of our University and the School of Law. We are humbled and privileged to honor Dr. Yong by naming our School of Law after him,” added Ho Kwon Ping.

Similarly inspired by Dr. Yong’s vision in legal innovation, the School of Law has also created in 2014 the Center for Cross Border Commercial Law in Asia (CEBCLA), which has today been renamed the Center for Commercial Law in Asia (CCLA). It has now four legal research centers, focusing on A.I. and data governance, computational law, cross-border commercial law, and international dispute resolution.

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Singapore – E-commerce platform Lazada has announced its first-ever local ambassador in Singapore, choosing celebrity Michelle Chong to represent the brand in the country. The company said this is part of the platform’s continued strategy to engage more with younger shoppers and promote Lazada’s key campaigns.

The ambassadorship will see Chong connect with various audience demographics, and hype brand campaigns in Singapore, starting with Lazada’s ninth birthday celebration on 27 March until the ‘9.9 Big Sale’ in September. 

Michelle Chong is a multi-hyphenate and a ‘familiar face’ in Singapore’s entertainment industry, serving as a producer, writer, director, actress as well as a local entrepreneur who is known for her ability to create memorable TV characters, such as Barbarella, The Noose, and popular online personalities such as Ah Lian, as well as school girl Chiang Ying Wen, among others.

During Chong’s key campaign promotions, she will introduce her three popular characters, namely Ah Lian, Chiang Ying Wen, and Sonia, whom local audiences are familiar with. Lazada believes that this strategy will help them better connect with all consumers on the platform, from households to young millennials and Gen Z shoppers, who shop for daily essentials and quality goods from LazMall and RedMart. 

The engagement activities will cover various touchpoints, including radio and television broadcast, outdoor media, and social media platforms on Lazada Singapore, as well as Chong’s own platforms, and Lazada’s live streaming channel LazLive.

Commenting on her ambassadorship, Chong said that being Lazada’s first local ambassador is a dream come true for her and expressed that she is honored to be associated with such a forward-thinking brand that has great taste and foresight.

Meanwhile, the Chief Marketing Officer of Lazada Singapore, Wook Kwon, said that the company is thrilled to have Chong as Lazada’s first ambassador in Singapore, saying that Michelle is one of the nation’s top comedic talents, and easily the most recognizable female comedic actress in the country, having created memorable characters that have resonated with a diverse audience.

“She will be able to effectively reach the younger generation with a relatable sense of humor, which ties in well with our strategy to connect more with shoppers on LazMall and RedMart as well. Beyond that, she has built a successful career and business for herself, and shares the same entrepreneurial spirit that Lazada supports,” said Kwon.

Furthermore, Kim Hoon, business development director of entertainment agency Left Profile, said, “We are excited about this collaboration and are humbled by Lazada’s recognition of Michelle’s talent and versatility in creating and personifying characters that entertain and touch different strata of audiences.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Dentsu Malaysia has unified its creative line of service, Lemonade and Isobar, in an aim to enhance and scale its in-house digital experience technology solutions.

Prior to the merge, Dentsu MY tapped Lemonade’s Managing Director Ruhana DaSilva to lead the newly expanded Isobar, as Lemonade’s marketing and social commerce offerings will now reside within Isobar. She will directly report to the CEO of dentsu Malaysia Kien Eng Tan.

During DaSilva’s five years in dentsu, she has played an important role in developing partnerships and effective digital teams driving the growth of Lemonade. She managed to successfully collaborate with international brands Spotify, NBA, Estée Lauder Companies, and Abbott. 

The now expanded Isobar will become the network’s go-to-market brand for experience-led transformation for brands. Dentsu’s modern creativity offering will bring together creative, marketing, and technology services through its new ‘on-demand’ delivery model.

Commenting on her appointment, DaSilva said that with dentsu’s global transformation to simplify and deliver integrated marketing solutions that are data-driven, tech-enabled, and ideas-led, Lemonade was positioned to integrate a hyper-personalized and consumer-first approach to that of Isobar’s global digital experience as a market leader.

“From scaling a team with a variety of clients and partners from sports and entertainment, health and beauty, and more. This represents a meaningful milestone for our teams and partners as we look ahead to forge the way for the new virtual economy,” said DaSilva.

Meanwhile, Tan also commented that the merge is for clients to have easier access to end-to-end creative solutions that are driven by everything from building meaningful brands, driving end-to-end platform experiences, and to innovating products and services, and transformation consulting in an age of inclusive intelligence. 

“Customer experiences have changed in 2020, and we can only expect to see more brands shifting their focus on creating and realizing hyper-transformational customer experiences,” added Tan.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – BlackBixon, the food and beverage (F&B) arm of Ni Hsin Resources has partnered with redONE Network, a mobile virtual network operator, to market and retail Ni Hsin’s new energy coffee under the ‘BlackBixon’ brand name. 

The BlackBixon coffee is said to have been composed to provide the benefits of caffeine and the patented Bioenergy Ribose. It is aimed at strengthening the human body’s natural process of energy synthesis while at the same time lessening fatigue and boosting the mental alertness of an individual. 

The coffee product also contains a nutritional coffee variant enriched with acai berry extract for a good source of phytonutrients and antioxidants, which enhances immunity while providing anti-aging benefits.

Managing Director of BlackBixon, Khoo Chee Kong, said that they are delighted to have the collaboration with redONE as BlackBixon sees a lot of synergy in terms of how they can leverage redONE’s reach to market the products. Kong believes that redONE’s network can strengthen the coffee brand’s marketing efforts and reach the target consumers, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer.

“We see our entry into F&B as strategic for the future of Ni Hsin as this new business will enhance the earnings of the company given the interest in energy and coffee drinks, as well as the increased demands for home coffee consumption. As for convenience, we provide coffee machines for our consumers to use in their home or workplace without any charge subject to terms and conditions. Ni Hsin has other plans in the pipeline to grow the F&B business, with Malaysia being the initial market, and the regional market in our next step,” said Kong. 

Meanwhile, the Chief Sales Officer of redONE, Ben Teh, said, “redONE is proud to collaborate with Ni Hsin in a win-win partnership where our 100 Premier Shops nationwide will attract more footfall while letting our subscribers enjoy a refreshing cup of BlackBixon coffee as they are waiting to be served. This is a good gesture and adds value to our customer experience.”

The partnership comes after Ni Hsin’s collaboration agreement with Fiatec Biosystem last August 2020, which was for the development and formulation of health and bioenergy products, marking the company’s move into the F&B business. 

Meanwhile, in January 2021, the company has also entered into a ‘supply-and-technical-assistance’ agreement with Global Coffee Resources, being appointed as Ni Hsin’s coffee beans and coffee powders supplier.

Singapore – Global SaaS analytics platform AppsFlyer has appointed Sanjay Trisal as its general manager for the teams in India, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand (INSEA/ANZ) to strengthen regional collaboration for greater market optimization.

Trisal will be responsible for AppsFlyer’s regional growth over multiple markets across INSEA/ANZ, improving cross-border collaboration and ensuring smoother efficiencies across teams. As Trisal is currently based in India, he will first oversee, plan, and coordinate operational strategies. For his new role, Trisal will also be playing a critical role in strengthening AppsFlyer’s commitment to the ANZ region, as the expansion only happened last November 2020.

Prior to his promotion, Trisal was AppsFlyer India’s country manager for almost six years and has grown AppsFlyer’s presence in India across all verticals and domains. During the shift to work-from-home in early 2020, he has set up a strategy that ensured good productivity results and one that retained backend processes intact for the team in India.

Before joining the AppsFlyer, Trisal has had more than 20 years of strong sales, new business development, and management experience in the IT, high-tech, and consulting sectors. He spent almost three years as head of sales at mobile ad platform InMobi and was responsible for expanding the LATAM market.

Commenting on his appointment, Trisal said that the regional collaboration will continue to be the key to their success, saying that he is excited to be in a position to work across core markets to drive business objectives and grow to meet the demands of the region alongside a high-performing team.

“AppsFlyer’s solutions help marketers to work smarter and fuel data-driven initiatives in a market that is constantly evolving. I look forward to tapping into the numerous opportunities INSEA/ANZ offers,” added Trisal.

Meanwhile, Ronen Mense, the president and managing director of AppsFlyer for APAC region, said that they are very pleased that Trisal is taking on a broader role in AppsFlyer, as the company has been growing over the last year. He further shared that with the opening of the latest APAC office in Sydney, Trisal’s remarkable talents will surely bring cohesive collaboration across their core markets.

“Sanjay’s notable accomplishments in India make him a perfect fit for this new role and we have full confidence that he will play a critical role in spearheading a successful collaboration between regions,” said Mense.­­

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Airline airasia has launched a new program called ‘Project Kavvaii’, which aims to discover and develop the next big virtual idol – a streaming content creator in the SEA region who uses a digital avatar.

The new program seeks to provide potential talent with full resources to be the best virtual idol in the region and represent ASEAN on the world stage through charting a career trajectory, searching for potential clients, providing marketing support, tracking monetary channels from their streams, and supporting the business side of streaming.

The open audition will commence today 10 March until 28 March 2021 in ASEAN and the rest of Asia. Participants must submit a 5-minute video to introduce themselves. 

The winner of Project Kavvaii will get full access to a support team, receive a complete streaming setup, and secure a one-year contract with airasia as a paid content creator.

Rudy Khaw, the chief brand officer of airasia Group, said that the company has transformed from an airline to a lifestyle brand with the airasia super app, and now, they continue to innovate and be a game-changer as a virtual talent producer, believing that this is an opportune time to fast-track airasia’s growth leveraging on their digital capabilities, such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition.

“Certainly, the success of a virtual idol is about talent, not just the technology behind it. So we are looking for those who are multi-talented, creative, and have a larger-than-life personality to connect with virtual idol fans across ASEAN and beyond! This is your chance to be a full-fledged virtual idol and a part of a creative team that will shape the future of streaming content in the region,” said Khaw

airasia’s first virtual idol was created by a renowned illustrator artist in the virtual idol community, Yueko, and the character will be rigged and animated by industry veteran Iron Vertex to fit the personality of the virtual idol. Project Kavvaii’s first virtual idol is expected to start streaming in the second quarter of 2021.

Singapore – Parenting-focused platform theAsianparent which has presence all over Southeast Asia, has launched its VIP Parents platform (VIPP), which comprises of its most vocal and influential parents, enabling brands to engage directly with this segment of parents across the region.

The VIPP platform has been officially launched six months ago, and according to theAsianparent, the VIPP has a base of over 40,000 moms and dads, giving marketers the opportunity to tap this audience. Brands can use the platform to let parents participate in surveys or polls, create original and meaningful content, and even have them review their products and attend brand events, with the possible opportunity of bringing parents on board as official brand ambassadors.

On the side of parents that are part of the platform, VIPP provides an opportunity for them to learn and earn. The women-led VIPP team has a training program for registered VIPP moms and dads to help them increase and maximize their social capital. 

Founder and Group CEO of theAsianparent, Roshni Mahtani Cheung, commented that the reality of parenting such as messy homes, spit-up, tantrums, and eyebags are rarely reflected in ad campaigns that target the mother audience, saying that engagement begins with “understanding.” 

“With VIP Parents, brands can get direct feedback from our parent community at their convenience, whether that’s a quick poll to gather first impressions on a new product or a massive survey that could help fine-tune a local campaign. Enlisting our moms and dads, who are already talking about these brands anyway, to both amplify and ground their campaign messages, is that sought-after authenticity every digital marketer talks about,” said Cheung.

Singapore – Singapore’s transport company ComfortDelGro has added a new line of service – a non-emergency transportation service aiming to cater to the mobility needs of the elderly and persons with disabilities (PWD). 

The latest service offering will be provided by its newly-formed subsidiary, ComfortDelGro MedCare, which specializes in the medical escort transport business for the elderly and PWDs. ComfortDelGro will be rolling out a whole new fleet of wheelchair-accessible minibusses. 

Lim Tien Hock, the CEO of ComfortDelGro MedCare, commented that accessibility is a challenge faced by people with mobility issues, such as the elderly and those with disabilities, and that in response, ComfortDelGro MedCare was formed with the aim of not only expanding the company’s transport solutions but also adopting inclusive practices to serve this under-served community in Singapore. 

“ComfortDelGro MedCare will ensure that people with mobility issues can get from where they are to where they want to be, safely and reliably. With such transport options, we can help enrich their quality of life and enhance their connectedness to the broader society,” said Lim.

The minibusses will come with raised roofs and are retrofitted with automatic hydraulic lifts, safety retractors, and forward-facing seats to ensure both wheelchair users and their caregivers can sit comfortably. Each minibus is said to accommodate up to three wheelchairs and five seated passengers.

The new medical transport service is not the company’s first venture into non-emergency patient transport, where in 2018, it acquired Australia-headquartered National Patient Transport (NPT). The company said that now that it has brought the service to the Lion City, it will be leveraging the Group’s experience in Australia. 

ComfortDelGro MedCare ensures that its drivers are trained who can administer first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, as well as operate an automated external defibrillator (AED). The company also said that staff are trained to help wheelchair users and passengers with dementia. Furthermore, the drivers are put through a driving assessment by the company’s own Driving Centre. 

ComfortDelGro inititally has 10 minibusses for the new service, with more to be added as demand grows. Healthcare or daycare centers, medical institutions, social service agencies, and members of the public can book the entire minibus for one-way or two-way trips, or at an hourly rate ranging from S$63 to S$75, depending on the time of their booking. 

During the peak periods, which are weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. SGT and 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. SGT, a one-way transfer is priced at S$113 , while the fare is S$225 for a two-way transfer. Meanwhile, off-peak bookings are available on weekdays from 11:01 a.m. to 2:59 p.m. SGT, which is priced at S$95 for a one-way transfer, and S$189 for a two-way transfer.

All bookings must be made two days in advance via its website or WhatsApp. The payment for the services can also be made online or via PayNow.

Manila, Philippines – Video-sharing app TikTok has recently launched a new fact-checking prompt for users’ content, and the feature is now available for Filipino users. 

The platform announced the new feature in February in an aim to counter inauthentic, misleading, or false content shared by users, which was first rolled out in Canada and the US, and to be integrated into TikTok platforms globally over the coming weeks. 

TikTok will now be checking if a certain content shared by a user is factual, and will be delivering necessary prompts and implementing appropriate actions to notify users accordingly. 

When a video has been reviewed but that its content cannot be conclusively validated, a prompt in form of a banner will appear in the video. If a viewer attempts to share the flagged video, they will see a prompt reminding them that the video has been flagged as unverified content.

Meanwhile, if it is finalized to be false content, the video will outrightly be removed from the platform. In the event that content is not able to be confirmed by the fact checks, the video will be ineligible for recommendation into the app users’ ‘For You’ feed, helping limit the spread of potentially misleading information. 

The platform said that the additional step requires for people to pause and consider their next move before choosing to ‘cancel’ or ‘share anyway,’ which is exactly what TikTok aims to do, to help users “be mindful about what they share.”

For the new feature, TikTok has partnered with fact-checkers at PolitiFact, Lead Stories, and SciVerify to help assess the accuracy of contents. It also shared that the feature has been initially tested with Irrational Labs, a behavioral science lab.

TikTok has previously launched a series of educational videos called ‘Be Informed’ which was created in partnership with the National Association of Media Literacy Education. TikTok said the new fact-checking feature is part of its ongoing work to advance media literacy.