Tag: Southeast Asia

Jakarta, Indonesia – VICE Media Group has announced its first content partnership with Spotify for the Southeast Asia market. It begins with Indonesia through the release of five original local video podcast series which aim to reflect Indonesia’s vibrant and diverse music, youth and cultural scenes. 

This series of five Spotify Original Video podcasts, created and produced locally by VICE Media’s team in Jakarta, will include three daily and two weekly video podcasts. 

Hosted by some of the best in the industry, these video podcasts will cover a myriad of today’s hottest topics, such as current and emerging Indonesian musicians, artists and movie stars; the latest music news and trends and a look at what young Indonesians think of their country today and their place in society. 

The VICE Spotify Original Video podcast series will be amplified across VICE’s extensive social and editorial network, which has 10 million monthly unique users in Indonesia and 3.3 million combined followers. 

It is expected that more than 86% of the listeners are aged between 16 and 34, with 63% living in urban areas with top cities including Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Makassar and Depok. 

Nilesh Zaveri, managing director at VICE Media Group APAC, said, “VICE is trusted by young audiences to cut through the noise to deliver a distinct perspective on today’s music and culture as well as what’s coming next. This exclusive partnership with Spotify represents a significant opportunity to create distinctive video podcast content for Indonesia’s youth, and we look forward to exploring additional opportunities to bring the VICE brand to more audiences, across media platforms, throughout Asia Pacific.” 

Meanwhile, Carl Zuzarte, head of studios for Southeast Asia at Spotify, commented, “2022 has been an amazing year of growth for us in Indonesia. We introduced new format innovations such as video podcasts, amongst others to further build upon the podcast ecosystem in Indonesia, whilst also expanding on the podcast experience on Spotify for our creators and users to enjoy.”

He added, “Also, we’re always on the lookout for top content creators to work with to deliver best-in-class content for our users to enjoy. That is why we’re excited to partner with VICE Media Group to present this stellar slate of five Video podcasts featuring collaborations with Indonesia’s most current and popular cultural creators, artists and musicians.”

Singapore – Jona Oboza, formerly the APAC senior director of client strategy at Xaxis, has joined adtech PubMatic as its country manager for Southeast Asia and Korea, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In her previous role at Xaxis, she was responsible for the company’s business management, programmatic media buying, and new business development in the region. She also previously served as Xaxis’ general manager in Taiwan, where she led the accelerated transformation in client development, innovation, and operations excellence of GroupM Taiwan’s performance media and programmatic business.

Her other previous roles included head of digital integration and innovation at Publicis Media and head of performance at Omnicom Media Group (OMG), as well as associate director at Innity.

PubMatic recently published a playbook in October this year, where it laid out strategies on how mobile app publishers can capture increased brand spend.

Singapore – Food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced a long-term collaboration with Huawei to launch the foodpanda app on the HUAWEI AppGallery for all Huawei smartphone users. The foodpanda app will also be pre-installed on millions of new Huawei mobile devices across the region.

In addition, Huawei will run a series of integrated advertising campaigns on foodpanda’s adtech platform, panda ads. In turn, foodpanda will also be leveraging Huawei’s Ads platform, which includes Huawei’s own media and third party media channels to reach out to Huawei users.

The online-to-offline collaboration will also span across foodpanda and Huawei’s social media channels as well as foodpanda’s OOH billboards. This campaign will be rolled out in Southeast Asia.

With this partnership, hundreds of millions of Huawei smartphone users can now get food, groceries, electronics, gifts, and more delivered to their doorsteps.

Since 1 November 2022, the foodpanda app has been available to Huawei smartphone users in foodpanda’s 11 markets. 

Kiranjeet Singh Purba, senior director for advertising and partnerships at foodpanda, said, “We’re excited to join forces with Huawei and help it reach millions of foodpanda customers who are digital-savvy and can therefore resonate with Huawei’s latest technologies and advancements. It also opens doors for us to touch the lives of millions of Huawei users who wouldn’t otherwise have access to the conveniences that on-demand deliveries offer.”

Meanwhile, Rei Xiao, director of mobile ecosystem business growth at Huawei for APAC region, commented, “With foodpanda on our AppGallery, we are able to elevate the experiences of our users, increasing convenience and making deliveries accessible to them. Users can continue to look forward to more benefits and enhanced experiences through Huawei’s expanding cooperation with global partners.”

The recent partnership comes after foodpanda’s multiple partnerships this year, including with The LEGO Group, and J&T Express.

Singapore – In celebration of its 10th anniversary, leading multi-category platform for secondhand in Greater Southeast Asia Carousell Group released the Carousell Recommerce Index (10th Anniversary Edition) revealing the sustainability impact its collective community has made by buying and selling secondhand items. 

Over the past decade, the Group’s users have extended the life cycle of millions of items, including: 76.8 million fashion items; 33.9 million electronics; 26.6 million hobby items and toys; 11.1 million home items and furniture; and 10.6 million babies & kids items. 

To further illustrate the impact, if we take the total number of used fashion listings on Carousell, we can provide every single person in Singapore with 13 outfits. Additionally, assuming all used electronics listed are iPhone Xs, the height when stacked together is the equivalent of over 23,500 times the height of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

The Recommerce Index also showed a study conducted by IAB and Carousell Media Group that Singaporeans topped the chart with 44% choosing “saving money” as their key motivations for buying secondhand.

The report also highlighted key trends in each market, specifically for Singapore:

  • Top 3 most popular categories to sell secondhand items are Fashion, Hobbies & Toys, Home & Furniture
  • Top 3 most popular secondhand category to browse are Fashion, Hobbies & Toys, Home & Furniture
  • All-time top 3 most searched keywords for secondhand items: Rolex, AG06 (Yahama Channel Mixer) and Road Bike

Recommerce refers to the selling and buying of previously-owned products, including both new and used in condition. The report covers data from 9 of Carousell Group’s family of brands across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan markets — Carousell, Cho Tot, Laku6, Mudah.my, OneKyat, One Shift, Ox Luxe, Ox Street, and Refash.

Since its inception in 2012 as a mobile-first app to make selling and buying underutilised items easier, Carousell has grown from a C2C classifieds marketplace into a multi-category platform for secondhand goods in Greater Southeast Asia. To accelerate the next decade of recommerce, the Group has been working on additional capabilities to offer more features and services to users that make buying secondhand items as trusted and convenient as buying brand new items.

Ng Chee Soon, managing director at Carousell Singapore, said, “Carousell was founded a decade ago with the mission of making secondhand the first choice. The Recommerce Index serves as a crucial guide to help us better understand the motivations behind our consumers’ behaviour, especially amidst the post-Covid economic uncertainty. With 1 in 3 Singaporeans using Carousell monthly, secondhand is even more accessible to everyone and we are excited to fuel the shift and for Carousell to drive recommerce growth in the Greater Southeast Asia region.” 

The Carousell Recommerce Index (10th anniversary edition) is available for download here.

Singapore – With the aim of empowering businesses and creators with robust Web3 solutions, Singapore-based metaverse agency CGAME, has announced its partnership with Hong Kong metaverse agency INDEX GAME.

The partnership was officialised in the Strategic Partnership Ceremony held at SAFRA@29 Carpenter Street. Key stakeholders and industry players witnessed the signing of the partnership’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

CGAME and INDEX GAME will work on a project to help empower businesses and creators to evolve in the Web 3.0 era by curating a robust suite of commercial solutions. The project is accredited by the internationally acclaimed metaverse platform The Sandbox and will assist its creators and builders’ network for Hong Kong, Mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia markets.

“The Metaverse is an open platform that fosters a new digital economy which will drive millions of jobs and benefit both Creators and Players. We’re just starting to see the early potential of it and pioneers like INDEX GAME and CGAME show that the Web3 ecosystem is both collaborative and expanding rapidly to new regions of the world,” said Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox in his opening speech at the ceremony.

The partnership also aims to spearhead strategic advancements and innovation in Singapore’s Web3 ecosystem in tandem.

Kriskay Choo, co-founder and CSO of CGAME, said “It is vital for Singaporean companies to accelerate their metaverse and Web3 capabilities to meet the needs of the future. With that in mind, our new initiative, The Sandbox Metaverse Experience (S.M.E.), will support 500 small medium enterprises in Singapore on The Sandbox by the end of 2023.”

“We look forward to more companies seizing these opportunities, and planting themselves here to establish roots for the future,” he added. 

Becky Wong, co-founder & COO of INDEX GAME, also said, “The metaverse will open boundless growth opportunities for designers and creators alike to interact and build their own experiences, artworks, and solutions to major issues. For that reason, we are collaborating with institutions in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia to nurture 5,000 creators by the end of 2023.”

CGAME is the first Singapore-based metaverse agency to be officially appointed by The Sandbox and launched the latter’s first artwork in Binance. Similarly, INDEX GAME was also the first Hong Kong-based metaverse agency to receive investment and be appointed by The Sandbox.

Manila, Philippines – The trio Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company has finally released its overview of the SEA region’s digital economy for 2022. Titled ‘Through the waves, towards a sea of opportunity,’ the latest iteration of the annual e-Conomy SEA report projects that the Philippine digital economy is on track to hit $20b Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) by the end of the year. This is a $3b growth from last year’s $17b projected value. 

It is also projected to reach $35b GMV by 2025 and $100b to $150b GMV by 2030.

Despite the partial resumption of in-store shopping, e-commerce accounted for 70% of the overall Philippine digital economy. It is expected to reach $14b GMV by 2022 with a 17% growth from last year and is expected to amount to $22b GMV by 2025 as it continues to steer the local digital economy.

Aside from e-commerce, food delivery and video-on-demand round up the top three digital activities of Filipinos, showing an adoption rate of 88%, 69%, and 58% respectively amongst digital urban users.

Moreover, projections include transport and food delivery reaching $1.9b GMV, travel growing at $1b GMV, online media reaching $3.1b GMV, and digital financial services such as lending and remittance hitting $6b this year.

The report also stated that the Philippines will attract more investors across sectors in the years to come, as its digital investment sector grew 63% from last year. Digital financial services in the country continue to attract investor interest, garnering 56% of total investor funding in 2022. 

“The Philippine digital economy remains resilient despite headwinds and continues to provide boundless opportunities as it is projected to reach $20 billion GMV by end of year. This year’s e-Conomy SEA report also suggests that the country will be a leading investment destination with over 70% of investors expecting deal activity to increase in the period of 2025 to 2030,” said Bernadette Nacario, country director at Google Philippines.

Willy Chang, associate partner at Bain & Company, also said “The Philippines’ digital economy is one of the more attractive investment hubs in the region. Across internet sectors there remains tremendous whitespace for growth as the ecosystem drives greater digital inclusion in the country, particularly outside of metro areas.”

“The seventh edition of the e-Conomy SEA report shows that the digital future of the Philippines is bright as it has the fastest growing digital investments sector this year in the region,” said Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual.

e-Conomy SEA is an annual research programme that combines Google Trends, Temasek, and Bain & Company’s insights and analyses of the digital economies of six countries in SEA: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Bangkok, Thailand – Ogilvy Thailand has elevated Jiravara Virayavardhana, formerly its managing director, to be its new chief executive. She will be overseeing all aspects of business performance, people management, and client relationships for the company, as well as implementing the strategic direction of creativity that will be powered by data and technology. 

Virayavardhana first joined Ogilvy Thailand in 1995 and has been promoted to various senior positions. She brings with her wide experience in handling various blue chip international and local clients across industries, from consumer goods, food and nutrition, retail, health, beauty, fashion, and technology, as well as cooperation with large government agencies and NGOs. 

Throughout the past 27 years that she’s been with Ogilvy, the agency said she has demonstrated a profound understanding of clients’ brands and businesses and has always been able to use creativity, data, and technology to turn challenges into achievements, enabling phenomenal success and impact on clients’ organisations, people, and society.

Commenting on her elevation, Virayavardhana said that she is very pleased and honoured to be at the helm of Ogilvy Thailand. She further shared that for her and all Ogilvy people, what makes them different is their unique ability to use creativity to solve their clients’ problems – from the way they discover insights to the way they produce their works.

She added, “What I aim to do under this new role is to spread this belief to our clients and partners. Faced with today’s challenges, we could not simply rely on the same strategies and tactics to help us get by. We need to differentiate ourselves through our work and transform the ways we do our business.” 

“To help our clients at a challenging time, we will focus on making works that create an impact in three, vital areas – Impact for People: showing how the products and services make people’s lives better and easier. Impact for Planet: demonstrating the brands’ contribution in improving our community, society, and the world we live in. Impact for Performance: while accelerating growth for brands and businesses sustainably. We will be the driver for positive change through this Impact Framework, and we will bring our people, our clients, and our industry forward with us,” said Virayavardhana.

Meanwhile, Nopadol Srikieatikajohn, chairman of Ogilvy Thailand, noted that throughout her time with Ogilvy, Virayavardhana has devoted herself to the growth of the company and their clients’ businesses, and she has fully immersed herself to the challenges and risen above all with effective and sustainable solutions. 

“The works under her supervision did not only shape people’s affections, but also their thoughts and behaviours, and went on to create ripple effects that transformed our society for the better. She is a true female icon who is loved and respected not just within the Ogilvy network, but by the wider communication community. I believe that, with her new, well-deserved role, Jiravara will continue to empower her people and bring our company forward with her unmatched business and emotional intelligence,” said Srikieatikajohn.

In September 2022, MARKETECH APAC interviewed Virayavardhana for theseries ‘Agency Leadership Decoded’, where industry leaders share how they are innovating their strategies to keep the morale and engagement of their teams in tip-top shape.

“Leaders must have the courage – to embrace the unexpected, to try the untested, and to charter the unknown territory – and they will surely conquer the furious tides of change,” she said in the interview.

Singapore – Market research company YouGov releases the 2022 Best Brand Rankings, unveiling Singapore Airlines as the leading brand for the fifth year running.

SIA topped the list with a score of 53.5, remaining the dominant brand among Singaporeans even as businesses evolved amid the pandemic.

Coming in second place is e-commerce platform Shopee with a score of 47.4, followed by clothing brand Uniqlo at 46.5, and tech giant Google at 43.9.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp and Changi Airport took the fifth and sixth spot, both garnering a score of 43.8. Supermarket chain FairPrice ranked seventh with a score of 42.8, while horticultural destination Gardens by the Bay snags the eighth spot with a score of 41.5.

Wrapping up the top 10 is news platform Channel News Asia at rank 9 with a 38.8 score and video sharing website YouTube at rank 10 with a score of 38.5.

Moreover, YouGov also shared the ten most improved brands in 2022. Multi-service platform Go-Jek tops this list with an improved score of +5.7 points. Streaming service Disney+ came in second, as it continued to gain its footing locally following its launch in February 2021.

Instant ramen company Samyang followed with +4.3 points, while social media platform TikTok and local airline Scoot rounded off the top five with improved scores of +2.4 points. Ranked sixth to tenth are Singapore Post with +2.2 points, discount store chain DON DON DONKI with and Apple’s iPhone with +2.1 points each, followed by snack brand Pocky telco SIMBA, both with +2.0 points.

The rankings are based on YouGov BrandIndex’s index score, which measures overall brand health calculated by taking the average of impression, quality, value, satisfaction, recommendations, and reputation.

YouGov has also previously revealed the rankings for the best travel brands in Singapore, which was led by online travel agency Booking.com.

Singapore – Food and grocery retailer FairPrice Group (FPG) has announced an industry partnership with adtech The Trade Desk to provide brands on The Trade Desk’s platform with insights on the impact of their digital advertising campaigns across offline and online sales channels.

In addition, such brands will be able to reach FPG’s customers on the open internet, beyond FairPrice’s owned media platforms. The partnership marks the first time that FairPrice Group’s pseudonymised sales conversion data will be available within a programmatic media buying platform.

The new partnership allows brands to reach an engaged customer base of more than 2 million NTUC Union and Link Members, including over 700,000 FairPrice app users. Brands and media agencies will be able to directly measure how digital ad campaigns are driving both in-store and online sales within FairPrice stores.

Furthermore, brands can make near real-time enhancements to their ad campaigns that can be optimised in a way that was not previously possible. Furthermore, the partnership makes it easier for brands to reach and engage with relevant FairPrice consumers across the open internet, in the fastest-growing digital channels, such as over-the-top (OTT), music streaming, mobile apps, gaming, and websites.

Alvin Neo, chief customer and marketing officer at FairPrice Group said, “Through this partnership, FairPrice Group aims to help brands unlock meaningful opportunities to better connect with our customers. As we enter the era of consent-based marketing, we look forward to working with The Trade Desk to harness the power of retail data to gain better insights to reach and serve consumers in relevant and beneficial​ ​ways.”

Meanwhile, Mitch Waters, senior vice president for ANZ, Southeast Asia and India at The Trade Desk, commented, “Given the complexity of the modern consumer, brands will need to take an omnichannel approach that supports a true shopping experience and navigates the path to purchase with consumers. By integrating FairPrice Group’s retail data available for the first time with The Trade Desk platform, we are helping brands reach FairPrice customers across the open internet, and closing the loop between advertising activity and in-store and online action.”

Singapore – Proptech PropertyGuru has launched its ‘Property TourTalks’ bus tours, comprising specially curated bus tours hosted by PropertyGuru’s experts.

The initiative aims to bring to life PropertyGuru’s new brand positioning, announced in October 2022. The new brand positioning – ‘Where every step of your journey will be guided by Guru’ – reflects the platform’s vision to be a trusted advisor, promising property seekers and sellers ‘We’ll see you home’.

Across two weekends, from November 26 to December 4, 2022, ‘Property TourTalks’ will see PropertyGuru experts, Dr Lee Nai Jia, head of real estate intelligence, data and software solutions at PropertyGuru Group, Dr Tan Tee Khoon, country manager of PropertyGuru Singapore, and Paul Wee, vice president of fintech at PropertyGuru, amongst others, share the latest local property updates, trends, and insights. Each bus tour will cater to different profiles of property seekers including, first-time home buyers, property upgraders, renters, and real estate investors, covering topics from property types, budgeting, and mortgage refinancing to Singapore’s real estate laws.

Remona Duquesne, director of brand at PropertyGuru Group, noted that buying or investing in a new property is an emotional ride filled with complexity and uncertainty, and they are here to guide people throughout their property journey and help them make confident decisions in this complex real estate market.

“It was this thinking that led us to the idea of guided bus tours – where property seekers can learn from our experts, and at the same time experience first-hand the context behind the insights and why they are important. For example, we explain why one area is of higher value than another through a live neighbourhood tour, which seekers can now see – and experience – for themselves,” said Duquesne.

Interested property seekers in Singapore can register for the ‘Property TourTalks’ and select their preferred timeslots through https://seeyouhome.propertyguru.com/tourtalks/.