Tag: Southeast Asia

Jakarta, Indonesia – After the opening of its Bangkok office in 2018, Thailand-based advertising agency TJT Creative Lab, with its co-founders Irvine Prisilia and Apiwat Pattalarungkhan, has expanded operations by opening its second office in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

The two co-founders are both creatives with a collective experience of over 20 years working in Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai.

This also serves as a homecoming for Prisilia, who is also the current creative director of the agency. Aiming to give back to her home country, Prisilia brings the agency’s presence in Indonesia to develop its creative and advertising industry.

Since its establishment in 2018, the creative lab was able to work with technology companies including WACOM and Traveloka, electronics company Xiaomi, baking supplies store Bake With Yen, hotel brand Curio Collection by Hilton, gel product Puricas and hair product Dove Haircare.

TJT Creative Lab provides services including integrated marketing communication, performance marketing, campaign localisation, design and branding, and creative production.

Bangkok, Thailand – Thailand-based marketing and mass communication agency Rabbit’s Tale has announced adding Jod Songkran Sethesompobe to its advisory board. As part of the board, the former CEO of Publicis Groupe Thailand will help in strengthening the agency’s mission to create new trends and disruptions in the advertising industry in the local market.

Aside from Publicis Groupe Thailand, he also assumed the CEO position at BBDO Bangkok. He also co-founded Creative Juice/G1, an agency in the TBWA-OmniCom network whilst assuming a managing director position in the agency.

Sunard Thanasanaksorn, CEO of Rabbit’s Tale, highlighted Songkran’s notable experience that he has proven during a time of disruption and transformation in the industry, and said this will be essential as the agency looks to progress as a full-fledged experience agency.

Feeling enthusiastic about joining the team, Songkran commented, “The team at Rabbit’s Tale has a great dynamic when it comes to creativity and is well-positioned to drive growth in this exciting industry.”

Rabbit’s Tale delivers creative services for both brands and consumers through its four business groups, including advertising, public relations, data and interactive, and customer experience solutions.

Hong Kong – Almost all of marketers in Southeast Asia have said that they will be increasing retail media spending within the next 12 months, a new report released by Carousell Media Group and IAB SEA+India reveals.

In the report, around 87% of the respondents intend including retail media as part of their media plans within the next 12 months. Moreover, it is also worth noting that retail media advertising accounts for 1 in 5 advertising dollars spent.

It also noted that around 78% of the marketer respondents will use retail media data for off-platform targeting on new formats such as Connected TV (CTV), while 44% will advertise on a brand-suitable retail media network that does not carry their products.

Miranda Dimopoulos, regional CEO at IAB SEA+India, explained that around 44% of respondents say they will advertise on a retail media network even if they do not have any products listed on that marketplace. 

“For marketers, investing ad spend in a retail media network compatible with their own brand values, and those of their customers, is a major consideration,” she said.

Meanwhile, JJ Eastwood, managing director at Carousell Media Group, commented, “Retail Media allows brands to showcase their products to consumers who have specifically searched for that item, or something similar, providing a seamless consumer experience and, of course, a solid return on ad spend.”

He added, “The fact that 78% of respondents want to use retail media data for off-platform targeting, specifically on exciting new formats like CTV, indicates that Retail Media is moving up the funnel and can provide marketers with both direct response and branding opportunities.”

Eastwood will further be discussing the future of retail media at the upcoming What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia-Pacific conference. The panel, titled Digital Advertising’s Third Big Wave – The Rise Of Retail Media, will further explore how brands can tap retail media and leverage it to their advantage.

Carousell and IAB SEA+India had previously worked together in a report, where they tackled trends in the region regarding consumer purchasing attitudes.

Malaysia – Leading superapp Grab has appointed its ten-year veteran Adelene Foo as its new managing director in Malaysia. In her new role, she will be responsible for overseeing the business strategies and operations of Grab’s businesses in the country. 

Foo brings with her a strong background in launching and scaling regional Grab businesses. Transferring to Grab in 2012 right after her consultant stint in Accenture Management Consulting, she first assumed the country head position of the super app for over 2 years through 2014. After this, she held a regional launcher position in 2013 and became the country head of Grab Indonesia in 2014. 

After leading the Indonesia team for a year, Foo started her regional roles for the superapp, being the head of Grab’s 2 wheels business, grab express, and grab merchant for over six years through 2021.

Russell Cohen, group managing director of operations at Grab, said, “Adelene’s proven credentials and entrepreneurial spirit in scaling and growing Grab across Southeast Asia fits perfectly for this next phase of growth for Grab in Malaysia and I’m so excited to welcome her back to the country leadership team.” 

Meanwhile, commenting on her new role, Foo said, “Grab is committed to the long-term development of Malaysia. I look forward to working with the team to focus on introducing more affordable access to the best of our platform, create more earning opportunities for our partners, help more micro-entrepreneurs digitise and grow, and train more talent to support Malaysia’s growth in the digital economy.”

Aside from new her role at Grab, Foo will continue to lead the Malaysian upscale supermarket chain Jaya Grocer as its chief executive officer.

Singapore – Amidst continuing its growth in Singapore and the broader Asia-Pacific region, marketing technology developer Broadsign has appointed Veronica Ong as its new sales director in Southeast Asia. She will be responsible for supporting the regional sales team in strengthening Broadsign’s partner offering and growing its portfolio of DOOH clients across the region.

Ong brings with her a strong background in OOH and sales. In her previous roles, she led the team of JCDecaux’s strategic and airport advertising accounts where she collaborated with major global brands buying ad space on the OOH leader’s network. She also managed sales for all media platforms for street furniture, retail malls, cinema, and large format advertising in the Singapore region.

Even before joining JCDecaux, she held a range of sales roles across multiple advertising mediums, including publishing at SPH Magazines in the fashion and beauty division.

Remi Roques, general manager at Broadsign, commented, “We’re incredibly thrilled to have Veronica join the team, especially at a very exciting time when we’re expanding our platform’s capabilities to support customer growth in 2023 and beyond.”

Roques added, “Her industry experience and passion for OOH are a tremendous asset to our team, and will help us continue reaching our goals.”

Meanwhile, Ong commends Broadsign for its offering and customer service which she personally experienced on the client side of her former role.

She added, “It has built the best OOH platform available for media operators of any size, and I look forward to working with the team to continue growing the business.”

Philippines – With most of our attention now veered towards digital content, a new global report reveals the average number of hours each audience in a country spends in navigating social media. The said data, which was gathered via a partnership between social media intel Meltwater and creative agency We Are Social, revealed that it’s the Filipino internauts that are the most invested when it comes to vlog content and video game consumption.

The annual report on social media and digital trends uncovered that the Philippines ranked first in terms of the average time allotted for watching vlogs and playing video games. Particularly, 95.8% of internet users in the country play video games on any device, and this cohort is found to spend an average of 1 hour and 29 minutes on gaming each day. This is a few minutes more than the global average of 1 hour and 14 minutes. 

Meanwhile, 55.6% of the country’s digital consumers – those aged 16 to 64 – stated that they watch vlogs each week, and in terms of consumption, the market also bested all markets, ahead of the global benchmark of 25.5%. 

In the same report last year, Philippines also emerged on top with the highest count of users that watch vlogs each week with 60.4%, and likewise topping the global charts with the highest percentage of consumers that play video games on any device (96.4%). 

Overall, from the current year’s data, the country landed in fourth place in general social media consumption, with consumers spending an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes for such activity.

Alexandra Saab Bjertnæs, chief strategy officer at Meltwater said that competitive brands should stay ahead of trends to understand their impact on any industry. She also highlighted that as consumers invest more time on social media, it will affect the decision-making process in their customer journey.

Bjertnæs added, “With more than 5 billion internet users today, it’s becoming more crucial than ever that brands deliver relevant, impactful, and purposeful content to capture attention and create value across digital channels.”

Nathan McDonald, group CEO and co-founder at We Are Social said that social media’s influence affects people’s lifestyles and it continues to grow. McDonald also expressed that users consider the discernment in internet usage, making sure that it’s a time well spent.

However, McDonald also had thoughts for marketers. He added, “Marketers and creators will have to work even harder to attract and retain people’s attention in 2023 – it’s never been more important to understand online culture in order to reach people in a relevant way.”

Singapore – For the Lunar New Year celebration, beer brand Tiger Beer, together with Le Pub APAC, has launched an interesting campaign that is somehow an antithesis of its own brand messaging—but also not quite. Called ‘A Bolder Tomorrow’, it involved passersby stopping and being ‘frozen’ in their tracks. 

In order to convey its message to learn to celebrate the ‘now’, a normal day at Tanjong Pagar in downtown Singapore was disrupted when young professionals who are busy as they can be, suddenly froze en masse. What seems like a deviation from its communication of always being bold is indeed a support for such courageous character – being brave to stop endlessly chasing the next big win. 

Sean O’Donnell, global brand director of Tiger Beer, said that while the brand believes that we all have a ‘Tiger’ inside of us, they understand that sometimes the more we achieve, the further we’re expected to go. 

“This inspired last week’s stunt: by freezing hundreds of people in their tracks in one of Southeast Asia’s busiest downtown areas,” said O’Donnell. 

A report was, in fact, commissioned by the brand in order to understand better the challenging chapters in the lives of Gen Z and Millennials. The research, carried out by YouGov, showed that 90% of Gen Z and Millennial Southeast Asians admit to putting pressure on themselves, with more than half – 58% – feeling pressured to live up to an ‘impossible standard’. Surprisingly, the study also revealed that social media is a factor in such feelings of anxiety. 

On the study, O’Donnell said, “As a brand that encourages everyone to pursue their passions fearlessly, we wanted to understand why young adults in Asia are putting an unprecedented amount of pressure on themselves. We were shocked to discover that many people aren’t stopping to celebrate life’s small wins, which inspired ‘A Bolder Tomorrow’” 

Aside from the stunt, the campaign comes with a film to launch the message globally. Directed by Felipe Mansur of Alice Filmes, the film tackles people who are strongly focused on their pursuit of tomorrow and run straight past crucial moments in their life – such as graduations, victories, dream jobs, promotions and accolades.

Cyril Louis, APAC Executive Creative Director of Le Pub, added, “People spend the year restlessly chasing a better future. But during the festive season, afraid of the judgement of their wider family, they end up building more generic versions of themselves instead of being proud of and sharing their accomplishments and future dreams. By stopping people in their tracks, Tiger Beer is reminding everyone to come together to celebrate their achievements and talk openly about their dreams this year.”

Singapore – Disha Goenka Das, formerly the senior global marketing director at Twitter, has joined property technology company PropertyGuru, as its new chief marketing officer. In her new role, Das will oversee the group’s brand strategy, corporate communications function, as well as the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) mandate.

In addition, she will spearhead experiences across all offline and digital channels for the brand by taking forward the new brand positioning that reflects a strategic evolution in the group’s growth to move beyond property search to offering end-to-end property solutions for consumers, agents, developers, bankers, valuers and city planners. 

Das will report to Hari V. Krishnan, chief executive officer and managing director at PropertyGuru; and will now be part of PropertyGuru’s group leadership team.

During her stint at Twitter, she led the social media giant’s global strategy and built Twitter’s business brand globally. She was also previously the head of ad product commercialisation for Asia-Pacific at Google.

She brings into PropertyGuru a wide experience of strategic marketing and communications teams and cross-functional work streams, working extensively across over 30 markets in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Americas.

Speaking on her appointment, she said, “I am thrilled to join PropertyGuru Group at such an exciting and defining juncture in the company’s journey. Their vision and latest brand positioning, which seeks to be a trusted advisor that guides every step of the property journey deeply resonates with me.” 

She added, “My role is an exciting opportunity to contribute and make an impact on the Group’s role in the Southeast Asia property industry and I look forward to bringing my experience in tech and marketing to help offer solutions that continue to better all our stakeholder experiences.”

Meanwhile, Krishnan commented, “We are excited to have Disha join the team as our Chief Marketing Officer. She brings a strong skill set in technology marketing which is critical as we fuel PropertyGuru’s growth and guide all in the property sector to make confident decisions. Disha’s rich experience will aid the Group in our ambition to be a trusted advisor as we help people find, finance, and own their homes.” 

Das’ appointment follows its recent brand positioning, summarised under the phrase ‘Where every step of your journey will be guided by Guru’.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Daniel Hagmeijer, formerly the chief marketing officer at The Body Shop Indonesia, has moved to MAP Active as its new chief marketing officer. Hagmeijer announced the news on his LinkedIn profile.

In his new role at MAP Active, he will be responsible for overseeing the marketing of the retail group. Some of the brands he will be handling include Converse, Lego, New Balance, among others.

During his stint at The Body Shop, he also served as chief customer officer and chief digital officer. He oversaw back then a team specialising in customer experience, product development, e-commerce, paid media, SEO, CRM, among others.

He was also the managing director of digital agency Mirum, before it was acquired by Wunderman Thompson in early 2019. He still retained said role until he stepped down in December 2020.

MAP Active signed a deal with Atome in 2021 to offer BNPL options to its partner brands, then with Kredivo in 2022. It was also reported that MAP Active in the Philippines will be managing the largest Foot Locker store in Southeast Asia.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has elevated current managing director for Indonesia John Campbell-Bruce to the role of regional managing director of Southeast Asia. He brings with him a wealth of expertise in strategy, account management and delivery.

In his new role, Campbell-Bruce will be leading the client service teams across the region in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to further strengthen the agency’s one-company regional approach, offering the best integrated solutions to client partners.

He will be reporting to Fredrik Gumpel, chief executive officer at Lion & Lion.

After spending 15 years working in Australia across digital, traditional and media publishing, he moved to Indonesia three and a half years ago and assumed the position of managing director for Lion & Lion Indonesia. 

He has worked at some of the biggest companies in the world across a variety of industries, including but not limited to: Microsoft, Hyundai, Kia, PepsiCo, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, American Express, Tourism Tasmania, Unilever, Blackmores, Nokia and Diageo.

Speaking on his new role, he said, “The last 3.5 years have been transformative for me personally and professionally. I am very excited about my new responsibilities where I can drive growth for the Lion & Lion network and effect new ways of working across the current three markets. I feel very at home at Lion & Lion, and I am determined to assist the agency network in achieving our aggressive expansion goals across ASEAN.”

Meanwhile, Gumpel commented, “I’m very happy to see John take this next step in his career. It’s well deserved as John has grown tremendously as a leader over the last 3.5 years where he’s really taking the step from being a marketing leader to becoming a strong business leader.” 

He added, “With John’s positive attitude, his dedication and wealth of knowledge on how to drive client service organisations, I’m excited to see him take this next step into a regional role where we as an organisation can leverage his capabilities and leadership on a broader scale.”

Reporting to Campbell-Bruce will be the newly appointed business directors of Malaysia and Singapore, Amelia Peng and Hendero Fin, who will focus on developing and strengthening client connections as well as unlocking new local and regional brands in their respective regions. 

The new appointment comes after Lion & Lion announced its strategic expansion plans in Southeast Asia centred on strengthening core capabilities, and delivering impact through the integration of data and creativity.