Tag: Southeast Asia

Singapore – Regional e-commerce platform Shopee and multinational consumer goods company Procter and Gamble (P&G) have recently launched an exclusive virtual home shopping experience, as part of P&G’s ‘Regional Super Brand Day’ on Shopee.

Said virtual home shopping experience aims to include campaign-exclusive deals, on-site visibility, and traffic drivers such as influencer engagement and media. It will also include multi-format touch points including videos, gamification, and localised content in a bid to make online home shopping convenient and engaging for all.

The new virtual home shopping experience is a one-stop shop for household essentials produced by P&G brands such as Olay, Downey, Gillette, where users can browse through items categorised according to rooms. The immersive shopping experience aims to provide consumers with an interactive and elevated online shopping journey that changes the way they discover and browse products, beyond traditional product pages. 

This feature is being rolled out progressively across six countries in the Southeast Asia region. Starting with Malaysia and Vietnam on 10 July, it is being progressively rolled out in July and August across Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Elements of the microsite will be localised to each country with the aim of better resonating with consumers through familiar imagery.

Pavan Challa, director of regional brand partnerships at Shopee said, “We are happy to deepen our long-running partnership with P&G to elevate the digital home shopping experience. This new feature will help consumers immerse themselves into the journey of browsing and discovering new brands and items very much like visiting a showroom.” 

He added, “Deeper engagement with brands will also help to facilitate greater customer loyalty, which is a win-win for our users. As we continue to grow the household and personal care categories on Shopee Mall, we look forward to working closely with brands such as P&G to innovate experiences.”

Meanwhile, Shankar Viswanathan, head of e-commerce for Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa at Procter & Gamble, commented, “With the COVID-19 pandemic causing a surge in e-commerce over the past few years, staying ahead with digital innovation is more important than ever. In partnership with Shopee, the virtual home experience has been carefully curated with consumers in mind.” 

He added, “By leveraging the power of technology and gamification, we aim to provide consumers with the best possible virtual home shopping experience in the new normal. In line with P&G’s belief in constructive disruption, we are certain that this will drive growth and value, shaping the future of e-commerce.”

Singapore – Extending their three-year MOU signed in late 2020, Trip.com Group and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will deepen their collaboration across key markets including Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong, while expanding their partnership to include new markets Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

With pent-up demand being one of the main drivers of the travel recovery, Trip.com Group will accelerate its collaboration with STB to promote Singapore to travellers from key markets through a series of initiatives, including marketing campaigns, public relations activities, KOLs’ reviews, and promotions through Trip.com Group’s brands including Trip.com and Ctrip.

Amongst various initiatives, Trip.com Group and STB will also curate and deliver engaging content via Trip.com’s app and website to showcase the Singapore destination story and position the city-state as a safe and compelling destination of choice for travellers.

Going forward, Trip.com Group and STB will also continue to identify and launch targeted programmes to promote and position Singapore as an ideal destination for various activities, including as a sanctuary for sustainability, a haven for urban wellness, a paradise of evolving flavours and a world of possibilities for travellers to experience Singapore in new and unexpected ways.

Sun Bo, Trip.com’s group CMO, shared that the past two years have been challenging for the tourism industry across Asia, but they are deeply encouraged and appreciative of Singapore’s support for local tourism businesses, which includes the launch of the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers campaign which Trip.com was part of, as well as the timely announcements relating to the reopening of borders such as the previous Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme and the current Vaccinated Travel Framework.

“Trip.com Group is excited to deepen our strong relationship and collaboration with STB to further facilitate and promote travel to Singapore. This is a beautiful country which offers different unique experiences for various groups of tourists, and Trip.com Group will launch specific campaigns and initiatives in the coming months across the key markets where there exists a strong demand for travel,” said Bo.

Meanwhile, Juliana Kua, STB’s assistant chief executive of the international group, noted that they have worked closely with Trip.com Group especially over the last two years during the pandemic to maintain Singapore’s mindshare amongst regional travellers. 

“With the resumption of travel, we are delighted to deepen our partnership with Trip.com Group, which has a growing network of services, users and data. We will tap on these to showcase Singapore’s refreshed destination offerings, and encourage travellers to reimagine travel to Singapore as part of our SingapoReimagine global marketing campaign,” said Kua.

In addition, consumers in various markets can also look forward to attractive travel promotions. These will be rolled out in phases after taking into consideration the respective market’s readiness to travel and prevailing travel policies. For a start, joint campaigns to promote Singapore as an attractive travel destination will be launched in South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines over the next week, including attractive deals and collaborations with travel KOLs such as travel_bellauri and im0gil from South Korea and CHAILAIBACKPACKER from Thailand who will share their insights and recommendations on exciting and unexpected itineraries that visitors can experience in Singapore.

Bo said, “Trip.com Group looks forward to working closely with STB and our local partners to present the beauty of Singapore and its uniquely local experiences to the global community in the coming months.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Islamic bank based in Malaysia, Bank Islam, has officially launched its fully cloud-native digital banking proposition ‘Be U’, a cloud-native solution that is anticipated to be the cornerstone of all upcoming digital banks to be introduced in Malaysia.

The all-new banking app allows users to do their banking transactions seamlessly, without the hassle of visiting a branch, thus broadening financial inclusivity by targeting the digital-native, younger generation. Its engaging and user-friendly interface is intended to help users quickly understand and manage their finances.

In addition, Be U uses Mambu Digital Core as its technology backbone and is housed in Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud. Having zero legacies allows Be U to meet customers’ needs quickly. By leveraging its cloud-based advantage, Be U users can benefit from the agility of the app and enjoy a curated, user-friendly and personalised banking experience.

Mohd Muazzam Mohamed, group CEO at Bank Islam Malaysia, said that Be U is a gamechanger for Bank Islam and the Islamic banking industry, as it is a product that intends to redesign and catalyse Bank Islam’s future growth by leveraging the rapidly changing fintech landscape and further allowing customers access to an affordable and easy-to-use financial solution.

“Through Be U, Bank Islam is shifting from being product-centric to customer-centric in building products that fulfill customer needs. This effort aligns with our five-year business strategic plan (LEAP25), which aims to become the champion in Shariah-ESG total financial solution with leadership in digital banking and social finance,” he added.

He further shared that having taken a holistic approach to meet customers’ needs, the bank has designed the digital bank proposition to be different and complementary to what is presently available in the market. Be U is targeted at the younger generation, offering a savings account that allows zero balance, fund transfer capabilities, and a Nest feature that helps users save for specific goals.

“There will be frequent new functionalities or offerings on the Bank Islam Be U app over the next 12 months, including term deposit, gig marketplace, debit card, personal financial management, micro-financing, micro takaful and much more. We will replicate the learnings from Be U into the entire organisation, which is the bigger picture we’re looking at. We want to turn Bank Islam into an increasingly agile organisation by adopting new ways of working, attracting talents with new skill sets, using the latest technology, and leveraging data and automation. This will, in turn, enable Bank Islam to serve our customers better,” said Mohamed.

Made available to the public since mid-June this year, Bank Islam targets between 350,000 and 400,000 downloads and users of the Be U app within the first 12 months of its operations. With no charge to open a Be U account through the platform, users can download the Bank Islam Be U app free through Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Singapore – To celebrate foodpanda’s 10 years of operations in Asia, the q-commerce platform has launched its new regional headquarters in Singapore. This new headquarters houses 1,200 employees from its regional and local operational teams, plus the company’s global tech hub.

foodpanda said that Singapore has always been a base and test market for innovation and new product development. Amongst the features beta-launched in Singapore were foodpanda’s cloud store network pandamart and on-demand retail marketplace foodpanda shops – leading Asia’s push into q-commerce, as early as 2019. Singapore was also the first market to roll out proof-of-concept drone deliveries in partnership with ST Engineering, as well as foodpanda’s Logistics-as-a-Service feature, pandago in 2020, offering express doorstep deliveries to customers.

Moreover, the platform has launched its ‘PowerUp! Tech Academy’, which aims to enable the next decade of growth, building up a strong tech core. Unlike a localised R&D facility, the foodpanda PowerUp! Tech Academy will use Delivery Hero’s global knowledge base in Singapore to power the tech and innovation ecosystem. It comprises programmes and partnerships to grow the local tech talent pool, upskill riders, and help merchants digitalise.

foodpanda, together with its parent company Delivery Hero’s Delivery Hero Ventures, has also invested more than SG$120m in Singapore-based regional tech start-ups including Toku, Flash Coffee, and Omnistream.

Jakob Angele, CEO of foodpanda, said that Singapore has proven to be a dynamic hub for foodpanda’s operations in the region, and they expect to see more innovations to be launched from Singapore into the regional markets.

“Initiatives like our foodpanda PowerUp! Tech Academy is essential to our long-term plans, as we nurture more of Asia’s tech talent, build the ecosystem and grow Asia’s digital economy,” added Angele.

Singapore – Singapore-based creative agency The Outsiders Co. (TOC) and media agency Cinema Vérité Pictures (CVP) have unveiled a new brand – Superminted – the result of a merger between the two agencies. The newly formed agency specialises in brand building and activation. Its capabilities include public relations, campaign marketing, digital content production and videography.

Superminted’s logo was created with four elementary shapes that reflect the company’s foundational values. The speech bubble denotes communication and understanding, the triangle signifies excellence and growth, the square for trust and stability, and the circle completes the logo to symbolise unity and all-roundedness. Combined, the logo signifies the team’s commitment to understanding clients well in order to create and deliver meaningful, inspiring and impactful work.

Before the merger, TOC and CVP worked together on several projects such as Deliveroo, Sadia, and United Overseas Bank, where both teams found synergy in creative styles and goals. Beyond the two companies’ working relationship, the decision to merge a branding agency with a video production house was based on analysing market trends and forecasting industry changes over the next five years. First is a trend toward the consolidation of services, and second is bold entries into new digital terrains, while the third is the need for a combination of experience (TOC) and in-house video production capabilities (CVP).

Nadine Wu, head of agency at Superminted, said, “There has never been a better time to bring brand-building and production together. We realised that it is important for every company to have a growth trajectory – Superminted was thus formed to not only help brands define their edge, but also to intensify their emotional and sensorial appeal to audiences.”

Meanwhile, Jeremiah Su, chief of relations at Superminted, noted, “Superminted provides an integrated solution to create, develop and maintain brands. By combining our business expertise, we provide end-to-end creative solutions to marketing challenges and projects, fulfilling our existing and prospective clients’ needs.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – To continue inspiring Malaysia to build back what was lost during the COVID-19 outbreak, oral care brand Darlie Malaysia has launched ‘The Flavours of Semangat’ – the third part of its #SemangatTogether campaign, the brand’s ambitious year-long project, with Semangat Hari Raya, a musically driven piece that displays the spirit of Malaysians in conjunction with the Hari Raya celebrations.

The third spot of the campaign features Malaysian food heroes Bruce Wong of Wongka, and Ahmad Munzir Shahril and Nurul Farah Hamizah of Cakoi Krabi. Like many other local food operators, Bruce, Munzir and Farah spent a large part of the pandemic-ridden years selflessly feeding the needy with their signature dishes, despite struggling to keep their own businesses afloat themselves.

‘The Flavours of Semangat’ documents the unexpected help received by these three food heroes as they continued their journey in feeding the needy. In this film, Malaysians who were inspired by the kindness that these operators have been displaying throughout the pandemic joined hands to not only learn how to cook from them, but also help distribute the meals to various underprivileged communities.

Aside from the film, Darlie has also launched ‘The Flavours Of Semangat’ recipe book, which is a collection of recipes created by numerous Malaysian food heroes who have united people through their food. Through these curated recipes, Darlie and the food heroes hope to inspire and empower people with the knowledge to prepare simple meals on their own. The digital copy of the recipe book is made downloadable on Darlie’s official website.

Additionally, during the campaign period, purchasers of the Darlie Twin Pack will get to take home exclusive LINE FRIENDS mugs that are designed to celebrate Malaysian food.

In April 2022, Darlie Malaysia – together with its creative agency FCB SHOUT – has kick-started #SemangatTogether. Then, in May 2022, Darlie has introduced ‘The Art of Semangat’, the second part of the campaign which follows two artists from East Malaysia on their journeys of uniting the people of Sarawak and Sabah respectively through the power of art. 

Ian Chew, general manager of Darlie Malaysia, said that as Malaysians, they are obviously very proud of their amazing food but beyond just how great their food tastes, this campaign has opened their eyes to what Malaysian food can truly do – lifting the spirits of the people in troubling times.

“Watching Bruce, Munzir and Farah work so closely with Malaysians to prepare and deliver these wonderful meals of hope to those who needed them most was truly a humbling and inspiring experience. This journey absolutely captured what #SemangatTogether is all about – people coming together to help others build back what was lost,” added Chew.

Meanwhile, Ong Shi Ping, co-owner and chief creative officer of FCB SHOUT, noted, “They say that food is the identity of a nation. After watching The Flavours of Semangat campaign come to life, I cannot agree more. It absolutely encapsulated what being a Malaysian is all about.”

Darlie Malaysia said that the fourth and final part of the #SemangatTogether campaign is slated to be released in November 2022.

Surakarta, Indonesia – Superapp Grab in Indonesia and the Indonesian Market Management Association (Asparindo) have confirmed a strategic partnership, in an aim to digitise traditional markets through the Pasar programme, an extension of GrabMart that brings local markets’ freshest produce, poultry, meat, and seafood to households.

Aside from Surakarta, the digitalisation program will also continue to traditional markets in and other cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya, Bogor, Bali, Palembang and Medan, targeting around 4,600 traditional market MSME players by the end of 2022.

The collaboration includes a number of initiatives like the ‘Digital Market Activation’, where MSME partners under Asparindo have the opportunity to join the Grab digital ecosystem as Grab merchants and take advantage of digital payment methods using OVO. It also includes ‘Training for MSMEs’, where Grab will be providing digital training programmes, webinars, and education for MSME players in order to improve digital market literacy and help empower digital businesses to increase the value of market competitiveness. 

Additionally, another initiative is ‘Event participation’, where Grab and Asparindo will be presenting various kinds of events held both offline and online.

Gibran Rakabuming Raka, mayor of Surakarta, said, “This collaboration is certainly in line with the mission that is being carried out by the Surakarta City Government in realizing the smart city program. I hope this program can provide education to business people that digitalization in every market is currently very necessary in order to encourage regional economic growth and create skilled and highly competitive resources.”

Meanwhile, Neneng Goenadi, country managing director of Grab Indonesia, conveyed the platform’s commitment to supporting the digitisation of market traders and MSME players in Indonesia. 

“We believe in the potential and superior competitiveness of Indonesian MSMEs. Therefore, we are excited to present the GrabMart Pasar program to facilitate market traders and MSMEs in adopting technology and entering the digital economy ecosystem. We hope that Grab’s support can help Indonesian MSMEs contribute to sustainable regional and national economic growth,” said Goenadi. 

Joko Setiyanto, chairman of the Indonesian Market Management Association (Asparindo), shared that the current pandemic has also encouraged a change in trends for people to shop and do business digitally, and the traditional market is one of the places of business for SMEs that must be maintained and its existence regulated. 

“Therefore, digital adoption is needed for traditional markets in order to adapt and improve services to meet the needs of the community. Through this collaboration with Grab Indonesia, it is hoped that it will accelerate the pace of digitalisation of traditional markets so that they can continue to exist and develop into modern traditional markets that are solid and globally competitive,” said Setiyanto.

Jakarta, Indonesia – TipTip, an integrated platform for content creators in SEA, has now officially launched in Indonesian through the Grand Launch event held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, Jakarta. This event introduced Triawan Munaf as the president commissioner of TipTip, and was attended by various content creators.

The new platform provides innovative solutions to fill various gaps for content creators in developing countries across the region, such as the lack of monetisation opportunities, limited local payment & KYC (know-your-customer) integration, and various technical limitations related to content creation and distribution via low-end smartphone devices.

Albert Lucius, founder of TipTip, described the huge potential of the creator economy ecosystem in Indonesia and how TipTip aims to serve as the go-to platform to support Indonesian content creators to grow and take advantage of these opportunities. 

He said that TipTip provides various novel monetisation opportunities that were previously not available to content creators in Indonesia, without the typical prerequisite of a large audience for content creators to be successful. 

“We realised there is a massive untapped opportunity in the Indonesian creator economy. Although we have a wealth of talents and quality content, unfortunately, their potential was not fully developed due to the difficulty of amassing a large audience base. As not everyone is proficient at building an audience, TipTip serves as a new, unique channel to connect content creators with their fans, while providing direct monetisation opportunities outside of traditional ways of advertising and brand endorsement. We hope that TipTip can unlock new opportunities for content creators in Indonesia and together, we can grow with the rapid progress of the creator economy in Indonesia,” added Lucius.

TipTip said that content creator activity in Indonesia is experiencing immense growth and the market is predicted to reach IDR4 trillion to IDR7 trillion in the future. Based on the Opus Creative Economy Outlook 2020, the creative economy sector contributes IDR1.1 trillion to Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and consists of 17 million workers.

Commenting on this figure, Munaf explained the role of TipTip as a platform that contributes to the growth of the industry, especially as a local player who understands intimately the challenges faced by content creators in Indonesia. 

He further shared that as a homegrown platform, TipTip aims to be a solution for the community to continue to create and capture the enormous opportunities in the creator economy industry.

“TipTip serves as a platform that supports the growth of Indonesia’s creator economy industry, which in turn will promote financial inclusion. Not only as a means for content creators to work, this platform also facilitates public access to educational and quality content. My hope is that the TipTip platform can serve as an avenue for content creators to experiment and create. Our role is to encourage and appreciate the work of fellow Indonesians,” said Munaf.

TipTip is now accessible to the Indonesian public. Both content creators and their fans can visit TipTip’s website or download the TipTip application on the Google PlayStore to register. Apple iOS users will also be able to download the app in August 2022.

Singapore – Digital marketing agency Tug has appointed former head of Reprise Digital, Karen Soo, to be its new managing director for its recently opened fifth international office in Singapore.

Tug, which has offices in Sydney, London, Toronto and Berlin, is a specialist in performance media and uses a smart combination of data, media, content and technology to deliver improved return on investment for brands. The decision to launch in Singapore follows expanding remits from existing and demand from prospective clients for a new approach to digital marketing.

In her new role, Soo will be driving new business across SEA, targeting key categories including software, insurance, and finance. She will also be overseeing Tug’s current portfolio of work and building the agency’s team on the ground.

Soo is an award-winning digital business leader, and has helped clients maximise their performance marketing, across media, content, data, and tech. Aside from her previous role at Reprise Digital, Soo has also served five years as the digital director at OMD, as well as digital-focused roles at Starcom, Mindshare, and ZenithOptimedia in Singapore and China.

Commenting on her appointment, Soo said, “Marketers in the region demand measurability and accountability in their performance media spend and Tug works with leading brands around the world delivering on that. Now we will do the same in South-East Asia. I’m looking forward to building the business across the region and growing the team, presenting a real, effective and integrated alternative to what currently exists.”

Meanwhile, Nick Beck, founder and CEO at Tug, noted that they see tremendous opportunity for a performance media specialist in Asia that effectively uses data, media, content, and technology, to deliver better outcomes for marketers. 

He further shared that the industry is still in its relevant infancy here and there continues to be a large number of operators that make big promises but consistently fail to deliver. Having already built a small portfolio of clients, and following their request for the agency to create a permanent presence, they have recognised the time is right for Tug to bring their many years of global experience to Singapore and the wider SEA region.

“I’m delighted that Karen Soo has joined us to realise our ambitious growth plans. She is a highly respected and proven leader who understands the market and how to optimise Tug’s expertise to maximum effect for our partners. We want to be the best global digital agency and establishing a base in Singapore, joining our offices in Sydney, London, Toronto, and Berlin, is a key step in achieving that,” said Beck.

Most recently, Tug has been tapped by entertainment company Merlin Entertainments to manage search engine optimisation for SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium and drive customer growth.

Singapore – South Korea’s cosmetics and personal care company, LG H&H, and regional e-commerce platform, Shopee, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deepen their partnership in the SEA region, with the aim to scale up LG H&H’s e-commerce business and capture new online buyers.

The MOU is expected to accelerate LG H&H’s growth not only in the premium beauty category but also in the premium personal care category in five key markets, namely Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as well as Thailand, and Taiwan. It also aims to help LG H&H to be in the Top 10 Brand Principal in the Health & Beauty Category on Shopee. LG H&H brands that already have official stores on Shopee include The Face Shop, belif, and su:m37.

Moreover, under this partnership, both companies will be working together closely to accelerate new user growth by bringing more brands under LG H&H onto Shopee, and identifying new collaboration opportunities in areas such as marketing and exclusive product launches. 

In June 2022, LG H&H officially launched the luxury brand, The History of Whoo, on Shopee Mall and Shopee Premium with their first regional campaign across five markets, which are Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam, as well as Malaysia. Designed to introduce customers to the secret of Korean Royal Beauty, the campaign featured the brand’s signature skincare range, the ‘Bichup’ product series. A campaign launch video was also created by LG H&H and Shopee Premium to build awareness and educate about the brand heritage through richer storytelling.

Sean Lee, the head of the overseas business division at LG H&H, commented that they are glad to start this new partnership with Shopee as their key priority e-commerce partner in SEA, and they believe that LG H&H and Shopee together, will be able to accelerate the company’s growth with the help of Shopee’s deep insights on the local market landscape, and especially their expertise on using data-driven approaches to understand consumer behaviours on e-commerce. 

“We are proud to have launched our representative luxury brand, The History of Whoo, on Shopee Premium with our first regional campaign. We are glad to receive a warm response from Shopee users, and hope to further our reach to more customers on e-commerce,” said Lee.

Meanwhile, Terence Pang, chief operating officer at Shopee, shared that as the demand for premium health, beauty and personal care products continue to grow on Shopee, they are delighted to deepen their partnership with LG H&H to bring greater variety and value to their shoppers. 

“We aim to support them in expanding their omnichannel presence in Southeast Asia, especially in reaching the emerging generation of digital luxury shoppers through Shopee Premium. Together with LG H&H and many of our brand partners, we look forward to co-creating more exciting, unique and rewarding experiences for our customers in future,” said Pang.