Tag: Southeast Asia

Malaysia – Electricity giant Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), who is known for its memorable festive advertisements, has just launched a new campaign for the Chinese New Year celebration, aimed at highlighting great fortune and even greater misfortunes.

In collaboration with marketing consulting-meets-agency Entropia, part of Accenture Interactive, the new campaign has the golden touch of Quek Shio Chuan, the veteran Malaysian filmmaker from Reservoir Productions in Kuala Lumpur. It utilises the allure of comedy to draw viewers in and give a light-hearted feel. 

Titled ‘WonderFu Fortune’, the story follows the main character, Aunty Choi, as she becomes the target of a troop of scammers while shopping for her family’s annual Lunar New Year celebrations. Through an elaborate plan involving a series of unfortunate events, these scammers, led by a bogus fortune-teller, convince Aunty Choi her luck for the year is dire. But in a surprising twist of events, revealing the film’s deeper message that ‘true fortune and prosperity lie in the bonds we have with our family’, Aunty Choi’s relatives rally together to overturn her luck in epic proportions.

Cherry Lee, Entropia’s creative director, shared that they tried seeing this festive campaign from a fresh perspective, questioning if it was truly necessary for people to go out of their way to seek fortune, or if fortune can be found much closer to home. 

“Centered around the core thought of good energy, the film aims to inspire Malaysians to share their positivity with those around them,” said Lee. 

Meanwhile, April Toh, Entropia’s principal, noted that brands usually pull out all the stops at this time of the year, tapping on the rich customs and traditions that attract good fortune to the household or protect the family during the Lunar Year.

“And with so many remarkable festive campaigns already in their repertoire, TNB turned to the Entropia team to bring to life their latest vision for the festive period – highlighting the dichotomy of fortune and misfortune in an experience many of us can relate to,” said Toh.

The new film is now available on TNB’s YouTube channel and several major TV channels.

Singapore – For this year’s Chinese New Year, William Grant & Sons’ Scotch whisky brand, Glenfiddich, has launched its new immersive 360° cinematic experience called, ‘The Cosmic Voyage’, which is set on the rooftop of Design Orchard in Singapore and White Box @ Publika in Kuala Lumpur. 

Brought to life by regional independent agency The Teeth and event agencies Idea Fabrik in Singapore and Virtue Communications in Malaysia, ‘The Cosmic Voyage’ is a vivid passage that invites visitors to a bright galaxy of possibilities as they follow Glenfiddich’s Royal Stag through the ethereal cosmic forest, an enchanting place alive with storytelling and embedded with hidden gems.

Moreover, the experience includes a starry sky containing the familiar sights of Lunar New Year – lanterns, fireworks, and dancing lions – alongside an array of rockets, planets, and other cosmic features that bring to mind space exploration at its most fantastical and takes visitors’ imagination beyond earthly limitations. Visitors can also discover the Limited Edition Gift Packs designed by celebrated artist Rlon Wang, as well as the Tree of Fortune, where visitors can draw exclusive branded red packets and stand a chance to win exclusive vouchers on the gift packs.

Zee Agnew, The Teeth’s founder and business partner, shared that lots of marketers are keen on engaging with consumers on a bigger scale again as many consumers want to reconnect and are craving unique and entertaining experiences more than ever.

“We’ve shaped our experience in a way that fits well within the COVID limitations, while bringing our consumers on a journey through The Cosmic Voyage – designed to unleash their imagination and get them thinking ‘Where Next?’, embracing the Glenfiddich DNA of curiousness and future-thinking vision,” said Agnew.

Meanwhile, Ling Versteegen, William Grant & Sons’ head of marketing for SEA, said they wanted to encapsulate a feeling of optimism for consumers as they journey with Glenfiddich towards a future of good fortune this Lunar New Year.

“The agency managed to bring to life the celestial-themed illustration of Rlon Wang, into an immersive cinematic experience that brings them into a galaxy of exciting possibilities. It’s heartening to be able to create impactful brand experiences in a safe environment for consumers,” said Versteegen.

Bangkok, Thailand – European colocation services provider ETIX Everywhere has acquired a 67% interest in Genesis Data Centre, which operates in Bang Chalong 30kms from Bangkok’s historical centre. Genesis Data Centre will form the basis of a new data centre campus which will be jointly developed with its local partner telco Interlink Telecom.

The Genesis Data Centre, which was renamed ETIX Bangkok #1, is already live with 2.4 MW of IT power and the future development of the campus will offer significant additional capacity. The new data centre campus to be developed is said to offer a high level of redundancy with four diverse routes for fibre access and power supply coming from two distinct substations.

ETIX Everywhere said that with Thailand’s large population and strong internet penetration, the country is an important growth market for the public cloud and OTT service providers, and that they need to bring their data as close as possible to the end-users in order to deliver a better service that will drive demand for colocation services.

Louis Blanchot, ETIX Everywhere’s group CEO, commented, “We are very excited to announce our expansion into Asia starting with this acquisition in Bangkok, one of the most dynamic markets in the zone. This first step in Asia is a major milestone in ETIX’s strategy to support our global customers providing them with our best-in-class colocation services wherever they need.”

Meanwhile, Nuttanai Anuntarumporn, Interlink Telecom’s CEO, commented, “We are very pleased to have a strong partner like ETIX Everywhere with experience in this industry. We believe that our partnership will support the booming Southeast Asia data centre and cloud industry and lead us to common success.”

Pierre Patris, ETIX Everywhere’s CEO for Asia, shared that they have very strict colocation requirements, and it has been difficult for them to find a data centre that can match their standards in Thailand with enough capacity for expansion, and they finally found an answer to their needs.

“ETIX Everywhere has big ambitions in Southeast Asia, first with this campus in Bangkok, and we are also very active in data centre opportunities in Vietnam and the Philippines,” said Patris.

Manila, Philippines – ZAP, the loyalty and e-commerce platform in the Philippines forF&B businesses, has secured Series A funding from True Digital Group (TDG), the digital arm of True Corporation, Thailand’s integrated telecommunications and digital services provider.

Launched in 2012 as a mobile number-based loyalty and rewards program, ZAP launched its E-Store service in June 2020 in partnership with the world’s largest e-commerce SaaS Platform, Shopify. The E-Store streamlines the order fulfilment process by digitising restaurant operations – such as order taking and inventory, payment, customer management, and delivery, as well as centralising them within a merchant’s own e-commerce website, which ZAP helps build. 

ZAP said that it envisions itself as growing into a one-stop-shop, an end-to-end platform that captures every interaction from the moment a customer steps into a business’ doors – both in the physical and digital sense. 

Dustin Cheng, ZAP Group’s CEO and co-founder, shared that the working relationship with True Digital Group presents new synergies for ZAP in terms of smart retail and analytics.

“Everything we do is for the benefit of our partner merchants, and this fund-raise is no different. Our partner merchants can look forward to an even easier-to-use platform with more robust capabilities in the coming months. These include richer analytics and remarketing and targeting features that will help partners foster better customer relationships and ultimately increase sales,” said Cheng.

Meanwhile, Michael Gryseels, True Digital Group’s executive vice chairman, commented, “We are excited about the synergies between our digital media platform and ZAP’s CRM and e-commerce capabilities, and see great potential in scaling our joint offering across Southeast Asia.”

Dindo Marzan, True Digital Group’s country head of Philippines, said, “To help close the gap in consumer’s digital journey, we see a very hopeful opportunity with ZAP as the local market expert and believe that together, we will be able to deliver an exciting experience for consumers in the Philippines.”

Hong Kong – ELEVEN, a sports media group, has secured additional content rights for some of the most popular sporting events this year, and will be catered to their user base in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. The content will be composed of 2,000 hours worth of live sports content dedicated to the region’s growing sports fanbase.

ELEVEN has an extensive package of Asian Football Confederation rights and is currently home to live coverage of every AFC Asian Women’s Cup and AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar match in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam.

In addition, ELEVEN also has the rights to Spain’s Copa del Rey, the Malaysian SPL Sepak Takraw League (STL) and a roster of international cricket, badminton and Japanese table tennis.

Cricket, table tennis and badminton are being served up as well to fans in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam. Live coverage of this season’s Copa del Rey and STL are also available on ELEVEN across the region with the exception of Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

Lastly, a total of 19 European badminton events will be shown by ELEVEN during 2022. Live table tennis coverage from Japan will be delivered to audiences from February, and STL coverage is already underway.

Nick Wilkinson, managing director for APAC at The ELEVEN Group, said, “We are excited to be growing our operations across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong with a compelling mix of local and locally relevant content. Our ambition is to offer our audiences a dynamic new service to follow the sport they love. The partnerships that we have negotiated so far mean we are well on the way to delivering on this mission and we will be continuing to expand our portfolio in the coming months.”

ELEVEN is employing a streaming-first approach in all Southeast Asia markets and Hong Kong, with its platform ElevenSports.com at the heart of its offering. ELEVEN’s streaming service is due to be supplemented by partnerships with local linear operators to make content as accessible to fans as possible.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – In this year’s Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration, natural bottled water brand Spritzer in Malaysia has launched a new campaign, aimed at infusing a little fun and a whole lot of natural goodness into popular CNY dishes. 

The campaign, which was created by advertising agency FCB Malaysia, highlights the benefits of the silica in Spritzer Natural Mineral Water. Titled ‘Auspicious Dishes, Spritzer Wishes’, the campaign also features many familiar sights of a Chinese restaurant, reunion dinner, and plenty of happy family members, but it mainly focuses on the dishes that are being served and the wishes that accompany them, which were delivered by the head chef of the restaurant.

Shiao Chan, Spritzer’s group marketing manager, shared that they wanted to continue introducing the benefits of Spritzer Silica-rich Natural Mineral Water at a time when Malaysians would be consuming a lot of beverages during house visits and family meals, but they knew they had to do it in a way that’s contextual to the occasion.

“Not only did this film achieve all of that, but it also gave us an opportunity to carve out a new purpose for the product by encouraging celebrants to prepare their CNY dishes with Spritzer – so that everyone can enjoy all the benefits of our natural mineral water, especially those that the silica brings as a result of enhanced collagen production, namely softer skin, shinier hair, and stronger nails,” said Chan.

Meanwhile, Wang Ie Tjer, FCB Malaysia’s head of creative, said that they approached this film in a no-holds-barred manner because they believed that even though this is a commercial for a mineral water brand, it can still be really flavourful, entertaining, and insightful. 

“We decided to leverage the insight of how every CNY dish usually comes with an auspicious wish, and then creatively turn the wishes into something that works for the brand and occasion. A big shout out to our partners at Restless Productions for bringing this film to life so beautifully, and also to our amazing clients at Spritzer for believing in the idea,” said Tjer.

The campaign has been launched last 10 January, and is still running across Spritzer’s social and digital channels.

Singapore – E-commerce aggregator Una Brands has acquired Singapore’s furniture brands, EverDesk+ and ErgoTune, in a deal worth over eight-figures. This transaction deems to be one of the largest acquisitions of Singapore-based direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. 

EverDesk+ and ErgoTune have become household names after growing exponentially against the backdrop of the work-from-home requirements during the pandemic, and the subsequent shift to hybrid working arrangements fuelling and sustaining demand for ergonomic furniture.

The acquisition aims to aid EverDesk+ and ErgoTune’s expansion into new regional and international markets and to help achieve the goal of becoming the leading global players in the quality ergonomic furniture market. In addition, Una Brands’ growth strategy will see the brands launch onto additional e-commerce platforms in the coming months, including Amazon in the first half of 2022, as well as further their online-to-offline (O2O) offering with a showroom in Sydney from April, where customers can experience both brands’ products.

Together, the companies will work in partnership to lead the businesses through this period of growth and into their next evolution, with the brands benefiting from Una Brands’ global presence and the expertise of its team who hail from the likes of Irvins, Lazada, and Zalora. 

Yi Hao Lye, the co-founder of ErgoTune and EverDesk+, shared that the brands’ success has already far exceeded their expectations, but when the opportunity to work with Una Brands came along, they realised that a partnership with them would only further the growth plans they have. 

“With Una Brands’ financial backing and operational expertise, we are poised to grow our brands in various regional marketplaces and enter new markets at an accelerated timeline. Most importantly, Una Brands will accelerate our mission of helping people create a workspace where they feel great and can achieve great things. We are very excited to have Una Brands support the next phase of our expansion story,” said Lye.

Meanwhile, Kiren Tanna, Una Brands’ co-founder and CEO, stated that they are looking forward to capitalising on ErgoTune’s and EverDesk+’s strong momentum over recent years, and turbo-charging the brands’ growth with Una Brands’ in-house e-commerce expertise. 

“We aspire to grow ErgoTune and EverDesk+ into the region’s best-selling ergonomic chairs and desks in the next three years,” said Tanna.

Indonesia – Indonesian software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Lummo, previously known as BukuKas, has raised US$80m in its Series C round of funding. The funding round was led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India, and was also participated by other global tech and e-commerce investors such as CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet, NuvemShop CEO Santiago Sosa, and former Lazada CEO Max Bittner.

Lummo was launched in December 2019 as BukuKas, a bookkeeping app for MSMEs, with the objective of empowering and digitizing them. It later expanded its business by launching TOKKO, an online direct-to-consumer commerce builder.

Krishnan Menon, Lummo’s CEO and founder, commented that they are delighted to welcome their new investors to support the startup’s journey to digitise and accelerate the growth of MSMEs

“We offer entrepreneurs and brands the opportunity to sell directly to their customers, and enable them to build a strong and distinctive brand online using LummoSHOP,” said Menon.

Meanwhile, John Curtius, Tiger Global’s partner, said, “We are thrilled to be a part of Lummo’s mission to empower aspiring entrepreneurs and brands to accelerate their growth and to serve their customers by giving them the best technology and partner solutions. Digital-led economic growth, especially in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, is a key investment focus for us.” 

In addition to the funding announcement, Lummo’s flagship product, TOKKO, has been rebranded to LummoSHOP, aimed at cementing its status as a leading software solution to entrepreneurs and brands in unlocking and maximising their business potential through online commerce. 

The name Lummo is derived from ‘lumen’, and the Latin word for ‘light’. This is in line with the company’s ambition to shine the spotlight on entrepreneurs and brands, enabling them to discover all possibilities to develop their business through its D2C SaaS stack. 

Along with the rebranding to LummoSHOP, the company aims to strengthen its direct-to-consumer product offerings through technological innovations like chat commerce, catalogue integration, custom domains, multiple platform management, and personalized features for branding, amongst others.

LummoSHOP’s D2C model ensures a stronger relationship between the merchant and the customer with no third party sitting in the middle. The solution will allow merchants to access their customers’ records, purchase history, and other analytics that are crucial for building and growing an engaged customer base. 

“LummoSHOP will empower them to be strong businesses and at the same time remain customer-focused, which in turn will help manage their customer base and increase repeat business,” said Menon.

Malaysia – In conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration, Malaysian telco Digi has released a new short film, aimed at reminding Malaysians from all walks of life that ‘love’, ‘compassion’, and ‘understanding’ begins with family.

The short film, which was developed in partnership with marketing communications agency Naga DDB Tribal, highlights the importance of being flag-bearers of hope for one another.

Titled ‘The Undivided Heart’, the film tells the story of Amy, a young lady who inherits the family restaurant in the most challenging of times. This leads to friction between family members who run the business with her. Ultimately, she learns that the love of family is the cornerstone in times of adversity.

Cheng Weng Hong, Digi’s chief sales officer, shared that the telco wanted to inspire Malaysians to remain hopeful and optimistic during these new beginnings that bring families closer together as one. 

“On behalf of Digi, we would like to wish all Malaysians a very Happy Chinese New Year and to stay safe this festive season while adhering to strict standard operating procedures when spending quality time reconnecting with loved ones,” said Hong.

Meanwhile, Loo Chun Guan, Naga DDB Tribal’s creative director, commented, “This true-to-life story brought to life by the team at Naga DDB Tribal and Mojo Films reminds us that above all family is our true wealth. We would also like to take the opportunity to wish all Malaysians and their families a Happy Chinese New Year.”

Philippines – Joe Dy, a multi-awarded creative leader with almost two decades of experience in the creatives industry, returns to creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson as its new chief creative officer in the Philippines.

Dy had been with Wunderman Thompson, then a part of J. Walter Thompson’s leadership team back from 2012 to 2014, in which he helped the team win a Gold Lion and acquire a foothold in some of their biggest clients today. 

Most recently, Dy has held the same position of chief creative officer at integrated marketing communications firm Mccann Worldgroup Philippines, where he helped guide the agency into becoming one of the most awarded agencies in Asia. Dy has led his team to win Gold Lion at Cannes and the country’s first three Golds at the APAC Effies, along with several other honours. 

In his new role, Dy will be partnering with Wunderman Thompson’s CEO Golda Roldan in steering the business and driving its growth engine from the creative end.

Commenting on his return to the agency, Dy said, “I’ll always be thankful for the trust, opportunities, and growth I received, and I hope to bring some of that experience when I rejoin Wunderman Thompson. Wunderman Thompson has already been doing some really good work in the past couple of years and I’m really excited to see what we can achieve together.” 

Roldan shared that a lot of what the agency has achieved the last few years was built on foundations that he and Dy helped establish under their late mentor and friend, former J. Walter Thompson’s CCO Dave Ferrer. 

“My intention was to bring in a leader from a big agency who can help us as we grow. Someone with a solid creative reputation, who would fit our culture, who has a passion for great work, for awards, for the business and most importantly for the people. And Dy fits all the criteria perfectly,” said Roldan.

Wunderman Thompson said that the move will also see Dy reuniting with former teammates and fellow ‘Creative Guild Hall of Famers’, Wunderman Thompson’s ECD Brandie Tan and Deputy ECD Tin Sanchez, forming a solid creative leadership team.

“We go way back, and the chance to collaborate with them again was a major factor in my decision. I’m thrilled to be teaming up with two strong, well-renowned and well-travelled creative leaders who share my drive and passion for great work,” said Dy.