Tag: Southeast Asia

Manila, Philippines – SME-centric financial platform Investree in the Philippines has announced that it will be extending its reach beyond Luzon, expanding recently to Central and Western Visayas and Davao Region in Mindanao. 

The move seeks to serve and empower SMEs in the said regions by providing accessible and affordable financing solutions that can help their businesses thrive as the economy reopens. With its expansion in the Visayas and Mindanao, which began this September, Investree Philippines is now fully equipped to support enterprises in the regions’ various industries, including manpower, security services, F&B, school supplies, pharmaceuticals, and medical sectors.

Investree Philippines optimises data and technology to connect businesses with institutional investors that share the same mission of supporting SMEs. Its SME clients, including new ones in the Visayas and Mindanao, can now fulfil larger order volumes, deploy and train manpower, develop their business to cater to new target markets, and implement geographical expansion. They can likewise look to fast-tracking business growth in terms of product and/or service development.

“Our mission since day one has been to support SMEs through accessible and secure financing solutions and, in so doing, contribute to the country’s growth one SME at a time. We are broadening our reach outside of Luzon and are now building relationships with more entrepreneurs in Visayas and Mindanao to help more businesses across the country keep up with the changing times. We at Investree Philippines are here to work and grow with them,” said Kok Chuan Lim, Investree’s co-founder and CEO.

In addition, the company said it has aggressive growth plans for the near future, to further penetrate other regions in the country.

Singapore – Global advertising agency and public relations company Publicis Groupe in SEA has appointed Sujith Rao, former managing director of Reprise Digital, to be its new managing director of Publicis Commerce. This move aims to accelerate the Groupe’s commerce offering in the region and further unlock client growth. 

In his new role, Rao, who will be based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will be working with Publicis Groupe’s network of agencies and practice areas across SEA. He will also be orchestrating a deeper connection between the Groupe’s commerce strategy and solutions with its creative, media, performance, and production capabilities, delivering data-driven end-to-end consumer journeys that are optimised towards sales and business growth for the clients. Rao will be reporting to Ian Loon, who recently expanded his duties as chief transformation officer for Publicis Groupe SEA.

Aside from his previous role at Reprise Digital, Rao also held roles at Travelguru.com, Cbazarr.com, and IPG Mediabrands. He brings a wealth of experience with a proven track record of growing new revenue streams through the launch of innovative products and solutions, rooted in data and analytics. 

Commenting on his appointment, Rao said, “I am excited and honoured by the opportunity to work across multiple markets, brands, and capabilities, driving the evolution of Publicis Groupe’s commerce offering in Southeast Asia. Our global investments, locally relevant solutions, and the Groupe’s Power of One ethos are the perfect framework for crafting bespoke digital commerce innovations, and I am ready to get started on this journey with our clients.”

Meanwhile, Loon shared, “We are delighted to have Sujith captain and grow our highly ambitious Publicis Commerce journey. His credentials as a solutions architect, problem solver, and people connector will enable the Groupe’s ongoing transformation agenda while delivering innovative commerce solutions that marry brand building and conversion for our clients across the region.”

West Java, Indonesia – Indonesia-based e-commerce platform Tokopedia, Unilever Indonesia, and the West Java Provincial Government have partnered to hold a Digital Advanced Women’s Class entitled ‘MSMEs Women Empowered and Forward Digital: Inspiration for Women Dare to Bring Change’, which was attended by hundreds of local MSMEs in West Java, a province in Indonesia, and surrounding areas.

The event is a continuation of the signing of the cooperation between Tokopedia and Unilever Indonesia in the series of B20 Indonesia Women in Business Action Council programmes dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs. Present as a result of the B20 Indonesia presidency, this program also presents the One Global Women Empowerment (OGWE) platform initiative that focuses on expanding access to information, business assistance in the digital era, and technical entrepreneurship training as a preparation to face the challenges ahead.

Emmiryzan, head of the public policy and regional government division of Tokopedia, said, “This is the fourth time that Tokopedia has held a KPMD after being successfully held in Bali and Surabaya. We hope that through KPMD, Tokopedia can help improve the competitiveness of local MSME players, especially female MSMEs so that they are able to become hosts in their own country and become the main choice of Indonesian people.”

Meanwhile, Marini Fabiano, Unilever Indonesia Foundation’s diversity and inclusion lead, noted that in line with the ‘The Unilever Compass’ strategy, Unilever is committed to continuing to contribute to creating a more just and inclusive society which is manifested through their efforts to develop entrepreneurial skills and provide access to mentoring and mentoring for women and MSMEs. 

“Through collaboration with Tokopedia, we hope that women’s MSMEs, especially in West Java, can continue to grow and be competitive,” said Fabiano.

Atalia Praratya, the chairperson of Sekoper Cinta, commented, “We welcome the collaboration of Tokopedia and Unilever Indonesia in presenting KPMD activities in the West Java region. This is also in line with one of our programmes at Sekoper Cinta which provides training in opening up business opportunities so that women can be independent and contribute to the family economy. We hope that through this activity there will be more and more qualified MSMEs from West Java.”

Singapore – Shopping and rewards platform ShopBack has partnered with BeLive Technology, a Singapore-based live streaming solutions provider, to power its video-first commerce efforts. This marks a significant step forward for the live commerce industry in Singapore and Southeast Asia. 

The new solution allows ShopBack live viewers to access exclusive promotions, creative video content, and interactive video features powered by BeLive Technology. It aims to maximise interaction between its hosts and the community, to deliver an entertaining shopping experience.

BeLive Technology said that the first live stream saw its vouchers sold out within minutes of going live. Merchant partners will get access to ShopBack’s live campaigns which are curated specially for them. The immersive experience and interaction between merchant partners and viewers will help build customer loyalty and a stronger community.

Currently, the collaboration is only available to ShopBack’s Singapore users however plans are in place to expand into all of ShopBack’s territories across Asia in the near future. It also marks BeLive Technology’s expansion across Asia as well as the opportunity to explore additional Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) markets.

Kenneth Tan, CEO and co-founder of BeLive Technology, commented that they are delighted to partner with ShopBack and power video-first commerce for one of Asia’s most loved brands. 

“Live video’s authenticity and descriptive nature have great alignment with ShopBack’s ability to help shoppers make smarter purchase decisions. We are incredibly excited to allow help ShopBack’s users discover, research and shop better with our interactive video solutions,” said Tan.

Meanwhile, Fern Nannaphat, country manager of ShopBack Singapore, noted, “We will continue adopting new solutions to win our users over with the best deals and most engaging content. This live stream feature has proven to be a vital addition to the ShopBack ecosystem, where we deepen the engagement with our users and offer our merchants an immersive way to promote their products.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Digital-first agency Lion & Lion has announced the next stage of its transformation after a successful turnaround delivering outstanding financial results for the last three years. This new growth strategy will be pursued by strengthening core capabilities, and delivering impact through the integration of data and creativity.

There are two specific areas of strategic significance in relation to Lion & Lion’s growth plan – ‘Better’ by adding on even more specialised data capabilities, an in-house content production studio and by investing in growing our regional hub in Singapore; and ‘Bigger’, relates to the reach of Lion & Lion’s product as the agency over time, develops more specific ways to apply what they do today within e-commerce and B2B. This refers to both product innovation and dedicated teams.

In addition to its new data and analytics team, Lion & Lion will also launch an in-house content production studio in Kuala Lumpur to expand its integrated creative offerings, optimising growth opportunities with brands who require full creative to digital-film content production services.

Fredrik Gumpel, CEO of Lion & Lion, shared that over the last three years, they have been consistently growing their business and capabilities, and seeing how their current product and regional delivery model are resonating with clients has given them great confidence to invest even more in the same direction. 

“With our dedicated focus on the Southeast Asia region and increasing demand for our integrated solutions, we believe we can generate strong returns from these investments – both in terms of building a competitive product for the future and creating solid financial results. With offset in our successful transformation and the underlying economic growth in Southeast Asia, our investment plan is centred around doing more of what we do today – just better and bigger,” said Gumpel.

Meanwhile, Krishna Kumar, group director of strategy and media, noted, “Our value proposition of making [an] impact will be underpinned by data-driven approaches, be it inputs that make all our functional deliveries better or outcomes that are clear and measurable. With impending changes in the data world that will impact a lot of our audience and media data, our approach will be geared to meet these challenges and help our clients.” 

Cheelip Ong, regional chief creative officer at Lion & Lion, said, “With a new dedicated film and content production team with directing, motion graphics, editing and music creation capabilities; to complement our strengths in creative, social and digital experience solutions, we can facilitate brands’ demands for digital film content that engages. Our new T-shaped talent hires across all operating markets will also help us to blitz scale growth to win in our region, while creating exponential impact for our clients’ businesses.”

As Singapore has become a hub for multinational businesses, with many of Lion & Lion’s clients having a regional scope there, the agency will also be leveraging that momentum in 2023. A dedicated investment will go towards growing the agency’s team in Singapore to drive more local business and unlock long-term regional growth.

Singapore – Market measurement firm Nielsen has announced the incorporation of YouTube measurement in its Total Ad Ratings (TAR) solution across the Southeast Asian markets of Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. This provides deduplicated cross-platform metrics for campaigns that are served both on TV and digital.

Nielsen is providing cross-platform metrics on which media buyers and sellers can transact. This announcement will now allow advertisers to measure YouTube inventory in their cross-media campaigns in a total of seven markets globally — Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, Italy, U.S. and France. 

TAR responds to the needs of advertisers wanting a more holistic view of their audiences, including YouTube, so they can understand the scale of the audience they’re able to reach through campaigns that are served both on TV and digital.

Arnaud Frade, head of commercial growth at Nielsen APAC, said, “In a fragmenting media landscape advertisers need independent cross-media metrics to optimise ad spends and enhance ROI while reaching the right audiences. This is an important milestone and investment toward our global Nielsen ONE strategy, underpinning a strong digital measurement capability which helps with the vision of a true cross-platform that measures across all screens.”

Meanwhile, Gaurav Kapur, managing director at Google, commented, “We are pleased that YouTube measurement within Nielsen’s Total Ads Rating solution is expanding to Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand. We firmly believe independent measurement helps the industry better navigate an increasingly fragmented media landscape. With better tools from measurement partners like Nielsen, advertisers can be more strategic about their investments.” 

Singapore – Global financial services company Mastercard and superapp Grab have joined hands to launch the ‘Small Business, Big Dreams’ regional programme to digitally upskill gig economy workers and small businesses in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This collaboration is part of Strive Community, a global philanthropic initiative developed by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and Caribou Digital that aims to support the resilience and growth of five million small businesses around the world.

The new regional programme includes the launch of two online business courses for Grab’s driver and delivery-partners aspiring to start new businesses, and small business owners seeking to grow in a competitive digital economy. It aims to enable small businesses to reach their full potential by supporting them to digitise their operations, unlock their access to financial services, and more effectively participate in the digital economy.

The two new online courses, namely the ‘Driver Entrepreneurship Toolkit’ and the ‘Small Business Toolkit’, were created based on survey insights from over 34,000 driver-partners and 600 small businesses in the region. Although almost all small businesses surveyed use smartphones for their businesses, 42% still rely solely on paper and pen to manage their businesses.

“Many Southeast Asians working in the informal sector aspire for more, but the reality is that a lot of them do not have the means or the opportunity to access quality training programs. Through our partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, we hope to give gig workers and small businesses a boost to get started. Our ‘Small Business, Big Dreams’ programme will equip them with business knowledge and practical skills through a structured learning journey tailored to their needs and interest areas,” said Cheryl Goh, group head of marketing and sustainability at Grab.

Meanwhile, Payal Dalal, SVP of social impact, international markets, and centre for inclusive growth at Mastercard, commented that they are delighted to work with Grab on this initiative that will boost digital capacity and inclusion amongst aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses post-pandemic.

“Mastercard has globally committed to bringing a total of 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025. Today’s announcement follows the success of Mastercard Academy 2.0 in Indonesia, Business Cell in the Philippines, BSR’s HER Project Digital Wage in Cambodia, and Care Ignite in Vietnam, which have empowered millions of small businesses to access technology, training, mentorship, and financial services,” she said.

Singapore – European-headquartered digital media, gaming and entertainment company Azerion has announced the formal launch of its high-impact ad auction and gaming SSP ‘Azerion’s Improve Digital’ in Australia and Southeast Asia. This follows Azerion’s APAC launch in July this year.

The proprietary SSP enables publishers to sell digital ad inventory across their web, mobile and app-based properties, while allowing advertisers to deliver high-impact creative ads to consumers with a strong focus on brand and performance results.

In addition, it enables advertisers to reach highly engaged and diverse audiences across Azerion’s owned-and-operated web properties, as well as independent digital publishers. The company’s advertising auction platform provides media buyers with high-impact ad formats across publisher sites and game titles through standard display, native, skin and video ads.

As a full-featured SSP, it allows multiple ways of monetising publisher inventory including header bidding, programmatic guaranteed or via private marketplaces. The burgeoning in-game advertising also brings more choice and flexibility for sellers and buyers to connect directly and conduct ad transactions.

Elizabeth Grant, operations and commercial director for JAPAC at Azerion, said, “The cornerstone of Azerion’s advertising auction platform Improve Digital is that by merging in-game advertising with our high impact creative technology, we place attention, brand and performance at the centre of every marketing campaign.”

She also added that the Asia-Pacific market is yet to reach its full potential and presents an untapped opportunity for advertisers seeking to reach gaming audiences, which vary wildly in demographic and cultural background.

“The gaming audience is growing exponentially across mobile, casual and social formats and brands have a unique opportunity to take part in this growth. We expect advertisers to increasingly embark on the journey of deploying our gaming and technology expertise to connect with hard-to-reach audiences across web, mobile and app,” she added.

Singapore – Travel service provider Trip.com has launched a new interactive social campaign called ‘Just Like That’, which leverages the latest traveller preferences and insights to make it easier than ever for consumers to meet loved ones abroad and explore the world again as borders reopen and restrictions ease.

With many COVID-related travel constraints removed, Trip.com continues its journey to make reconnection and rediscovery a snap – especially with many avid travellers already setting out for their next adventure and exploring global destinations ‘Just Like That’.

As part of Trip.com’s first social campaign in Southeast Asia post-pandemic, the innovative travel service provider is collaborating with over 100 KOLs in markets across Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to storytell the emotional aspects of travel, such as reconnecting with loved ones as well as showcasing the ease of using Trip.com for travel bookings. 

The KOLs include @adirasalahudi, @syarif.ig, @widsawaphatiew. The campaign will demonstrate how simple it is to book a fulfilling travel experience that fits each consumer’s needs, be it planning a romantic honeymoon in the Maldives, having an inspiring off-site meeting in Bali, or a culinary trip in Tokyo.

In addition, Trip.com will be running a #MyTripJustLikeThat giveaway on social media from now to 20 November 2022. Trip.com users from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand stand to win prizes worth up to S$1,200, MYR 4,200 and THB 35,000 respectively, including Trip coins, hotel vouchers, tickets and more.

Singapore – Global food company Mondelez International has announced the appointment of Hemant Rupani as its new president of its Southeast Asia business unit. He was previously the managing director of Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam, and replaces Glenn Caton who has moved to a global role.

In his new role, Rupani will be responsible for the SEA cluster of markets including the exports business in the broader Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) region, leading growth and end-to-end business.

Rupani is an accomplished leader with over 20 years of experience working in India, US and Vietnam covering various industries including food and beverage (F&B), telecommunications, and consulting. Prior to joining Mondelez International in 2016, he worked with several leading organisations including PepsiCo, Vodafone, Britannia, and Infosys Technologies.

Speaking about his appointment, Hemant said, “The SEA business has been on an accelerated growth path driven by increasing consumption, digital penetration, talented population, and cultural diversity in the region.”

He added, “We have built a reign as category leaders across segments with our portfolio of iconic global brands and local jewels. Combining our solid team, local-first strategy, and robust investments, we are in a strong position to lead the future of snacking and drive sustainable growth forward.”