Tag: Taiwan

Taiwan – Prior to celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2024, McDonald’s Taiwan kicks off a full year of festivities with its latest campaign called ‘Simple Happiness’, in collaboration with Leo Burnett Taiwan.

Starring Taiwanese pop icon Jolin Tsai, the film by Leo Burnett Taiwan depicts moments of simple happiness across four decades, beginning in 1984, the year McDonald’s Taiwan first opened its doors.

Leaping from 1988, when McDonald’s launched its first Happy Meal, through to 2024, when McDonald’s Taiwan will celebrate its 40th anniversary, the film transitions from village streets to cityscapes in the blink of an eye using 3D animation with a timelapse effect to express the passage of time.

In a first for Taiwan, the film’s various eras were filmed entirely in a Virtual Studio in collaboration with Moonshine XR Studio using the latest 3D modelling and mapping technology. The film even uses AI to faithfully recreate McDonald’s most iconic packaging designs of yesteryear, which exist today only in people’s memories.  

Speaking on this innovation, Hsiao Ya-chuan, the film’s director, mentioned, “Simple Happiness is a leap forward for Taiwanese filmmaking. We created five distinct settings using 3D modelling and huge LED screens. Simulating natural sunlight was one of many hurdles, but after months of extensive planning and testing, our story was freed from the constraints of physical locations, giving us greater control, flexibility and creativity.”

With Jolin Tsai’s new song featured in the video, she also commented, “It has been over 20 years since I first collaborated with McDonald’s, and I’m truly honoured to be part of this 40th anniversary celebration. The narrative masterfully intertwines the journeys of growing up in various eras, and the courage that McDonald’s can instil along the way.”

Talking about the campaign, Brenda Kou, CMO, Asia business unit, McDonald’s, said, “To commemorate McDonald’s 40th anniversary in Taiwan, we loved the idea of creating a ‘happiness time machine’ campaign that revisits memorable moments of simple happiness over the past 40 years. By embracing the latest virtual production technologies, it also looks to the future, positioning McDonald’s Taiwan as an icon of food, tech and transformation.”

Meanwhile, Kevin Yang, CEO and CCO at Leo Burnett Taiwan, also added, “McDonald’s holds a special place in the hearts of Taiwanese people. When it first opened in 1984, it brought new cultural influences and immediately became a place where shared memories are created, like a good friend we’ve all grown up with. After many years of adapting global propositions to local culture, McDonald’s Taiwan is a loved and essential brand among many Taiwanese people.”

Taiwan – Global marketing and advertising agency dentsu has announced the establishment of a new ‘Greater North’ cluster that brings Mainland China and three of the regions in Asia into one structure, with a new leadership team and Jennifer Tang to spearhead as the CEO. 

The new Greater North cluster will merge dentsu’s markets in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan to form one management structure.

With the new cluster, dentsu also announced the appointment of its visionary team of leaders from the agency’s respective markets who are expected to drive success and growth for the new cluster.

Tang, who is currently serving as dentsu Taiwan’s CEO, will take the helm as Greater North’s CEO. She is recognised for her transformative management approach, transforming the Taiwan business with her six-year visionary journey and making it among the strongest in the APAC region. 

She is known for her unwavering focus on integration, innovation, data, and technology, which enabled dentsu Taiwan to capitalise on high growth opportunities by expertly predicting and navigating the changing expectations of consumers and delivering competitive advantage for brands in the market.

Together with Tang, Joshua Wong from dentsu Taiwan will serve as the new cluster’s CFO. He is an innovative and strategic leader who brings a critical commercial lens to investments and operations. Having worked with Tang, he was part of Taiwan’s transformation journey to deliver some of the strongest results in the group.

Chu Yin Mak will remain as dentsu China’s CEO and dentsu APAC’s executive committee member. With 25 years of career experience, his mastery of the varied imaginative value delivery, technology, data, and ecosystem landscape, along with his ability to identify and take action on significant growth opportunities from evolving market conditions, is expected to bring a significant advantage to the group.

Also working with the new group is Simone Tam, who is now appointed CEO for the Greater Bay Area. Tam has been overseeing both Dentsu Creative and dentsu Hong Kong as CEO since 2021 and has been growing both over the course of her career. 

In her new role, she will capitalise on the huge potential of the Greater Bay Area, overseeing a geo-centric business unit comprising the hyper-growth territories of Hong Kong, the Guangdong Province, and Macao as the new CEO. 

Lastly, Donna Kim, dentsu Korea’s CEO, will also join the Greater North cluster’s leadership team. With 30 years of experience building successful domestic enterprises for large global MarComms businesses, she is expected to further drive growth for the group. Her deep level of industry knowledge and thorough understanding of building brands in and out of Korea bring a strong media perspective to the fore. 

Rob Gilby, CEO APAC at dentsu said, “Jennifer is a vocal advocate of co-creation and collaboration, and together with her leadership team will deliver new untapped growth opportunities for both our clients and our business. Bringing together these markets into one management structure with an integrated cluster strategy will enable each leader to spearhead an agenda that benefits all markets, delivering new innovation and client opportunities, improved speed to market, greater autonomy to deliver solutions, and economies of scale aligned to market needs.”

He added, “Jennifer needs no introduction; she has won a number of accolades for her own leadership and the culture she has overseen in the Taiwan business, while her teams have been recognised on the global stage, from Cannes Lions to Spikes, Clios, Madstars, and RECMA. She is a passionate advocate of B2B2S and dentsu’s impact on the communities it’s a part of, living the values that are fundamental to the way we do business.” 

Commenting on her appointment, Tang shared, “We’ve been given a significant opportunity to drive unprecedented scale and build our business around our clients and their needs, which is unique to dentsu and our model in market. The formation of this cluster ultimately drives greater opportunity for our clients, giving them frictionless access to a collaborative community of experts across marketing, consulting, and technology.”

“I am excited to work with the exceptional leaders in Joshua, Chun, Simone, and Donna, who bring significant expertise across a range of specialisms. Together we will drive new growth for brands and opportunities for our people by delivering new services and solutions that tackle our clients’ greatest challenges, fueling our growth and broadening the horizons for professional development within our teams,” she added. 

Taipei, Taiwan – Singaporean bank DBS has announced that it has completed the acquisition of the consumer banking business of Citi in Taiwan. The acquisition was completed over the weekend, according to the company.

With the acquisition of Citi Consumer Taiwan, DBS will become one of Taiwan’s largest foreign bank by assets. DBS Taiwan will have clear market leadership in loans, deposits, cards and investments amongst foreign players in the market. Additionally, close to 3,000 employees from Citi Consumer Taiwan have moved over to DBS.

Speaking about the acquisition, Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS, said, “Our successful integration of Citi Consumer Taiwan with DBS continues our strategy of building meaningful scale in our core Asian markets. By bringing a prized Citi franchise into our fold, we accelerate our consumer business growth in Taiwan by at least 10 years. Overnight, revenue from the market will more than double to over SGD 1.3 billion.”

He added, “With the transaction, I am also confident that we will be able to provide more value to our customers, in particular, helping them grow their wealth through innovative products, and helping those who are business owners expand into new markets or participate in regional trade flows.”

Meanwhile, Ng Sier Han, CEO of DBS Taiwan, commented, “I am delighted to welcome our new Citi colleagues to the DBS family. Since we announced the transaction back in 2022, we have been working towards a seamless transition of the two businesses. Today marks a momentous milestone for DBS Taiwan, made doubly significant as we celebrate our 40th anniversary in the market.”

He added, “Over the years, DBS Taiwan has made significant strides with new innovations in digital banking and more recently, advancements in sustainability. Our enlarged franchise affords us greater opportunity to continue availing best-in-class products and services to our customers as we set ourselves apart as a different kind of bank – one that enables them to Live more, Bank less.”

The slew of acquisitions in Asia-Pacific also includes UnionBank acquiring the Philippine operations of Citi’s consumer banking business in 2021. This comes over two years after Citigroup announced that it is exiting its consumer businesses in 10 Asia-Pacific markets.

Taipei, Taiwan – Global fast food chain Burger King in Taiwan has tapped software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Appier to aid in its personalised marketing campaigns to boost local customer loyalty.

By leveraging Appier’s ‘AI Personalization Cloud’, Burger King Taiwan harnessed diverse creative modules to create engaging marketing campaigns, offering customers a unique and personalised experience.

Moreover, with Appier’s AI-powered personalised marketing platform, Burger King Taiwan was able to collect and analyse customers’ online behavior, including product pages browsed, and shopping cart items. This enabled Burger King Taiwan to execute targeted segmentation marketing campaigns based on detailed information about customer behaviour and preferences, allowing them to seize crucial moments of customer interactions.

Lastly, by integrating the ‘AI Personalization Cloud’ with the OpenWeather API, Burger King Taiwan can recommend products or promotional activities aligned with the local weather conditions in a user’s location. 

For instance, during warmer days, the platform will automatically recommend refreshing cold beverage promotions, while in the event of a high probability of rain, it will push delivery promotions. By offering customers the most suitable products or offers for their current situation, Burger King Taiwan was able to enhance customer loyalty even further.

Karin Jiang, marketing director at Burger King Taiwan, said, “Burger King Taiwan is committed to embracing new technologies and using creativity to drive sales. With AI data analysis and segmentation capabilities, we can develop personalised marketing strategies based on customer insights, delivering engaging and precise messages and offers to each customer, and seizing every communication touchpoint. Appier’s user-friendly solution, coupled with their proactive approach in proposing practical marketing strategies, has significantly enhanced our marketing endeavours.”

She added, “Looking ahead, Burger King Taiwan is excited to sustain our collaboration with Appier, planning more eye-catching and customer-centric marketing campaigns, fostering website interaction and conversions, and strengthening our customer loyalty relationships.”

Taipei, Taiwan – Waste management in Taiwan is known for its regular trash collection schedules, where people have to carry their trash and wait at a designated area until the garbage truck passes by their area to collect the trash. If you miss the truck, you have no choice but to take the trash back home and try again tomorrow.

However, in recent years, the country has struggled to deal with those who illegally throw their garbage on street curbs. This is despite repeated reminders to the local population on penalties for littering. With that in mind, how can the government impose these regulations?

In response, the BaoXing Council in New Taipei City has launched a campaign that merges artificial intelligence (AI) and the local belief in Taoism to deter these illegal trash dumpers–all thanks to a rather tongue-in-cheek approach to a surveillance system.

Conceptualised alongside Leo Burnett Taiwan and Digitas Taiwan, the campaign uses a combination of surveillance cameras and a 3D holographic display, which then displays a 3D model of Tudigong, God of Land. Tudigong is respected like a family elder in Taiwan, making him the perfect God, stern yet friendly, to remind people not to dump their garbage illegally. 

Kevin Yang, CEO and CCO at Leo Burnett Taiwan, explains, “Most people don’t dump with bad intentions, so creating a little holographic god was the silliest way we could think of to show BaoXing Council how creativity and technology can make our neighbourhoods better.” 

Within three months of the campaign implementation, it garnered so much attention that illegal waste dropped by 73%. They are now looking to roll out this technology to more neighbourhoods in New Taipei City in future. 

Taipei, Taiwan – Fast food chain McDonald’s and agency Leo Burnett Taiwan have teamed up to create donation wallpapers, which promotes a refreshing method to the customary practice amongst Taiwanese, where purchasing receipts are dropped in ‘donation boxes’. These receipts then benefit charities like that of McDonald’s Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) as a major source of income. 

The campaign was launched as a digital alternative to the staple Uniform Invoice Lottery in Taiwan, which allows customers to get a ticket to enter the government’s Receipt Lottery, with prizes ranging from NT$200 to NT$10m. Said lottery uses physical receipts to enter, but with the rise of digital payments, they have all but disappeared, out of sight, and therefore out of mind.

To launch this campaign, McDonald’s and Leo Burnett Taiwan have tapped up-and-coming new media artists to create a series of downloadable wallpapers and inject an engaging twist to the routinary receipt donation. With 35 designs to choose from, every donation wallpaper includes a barcode, and when scanned at any cashier, the receipt is automatically donated to RMHC.

Donation Wallpapers can be scanned at retailers across Taiwan, making every transaction in any store an opportunity to donate to RMHC.

Jin Yang, creative partner at Leo Burnett Taiwan, said, “Gen Z can’t live without their phone, and the screen they see most of all is their mobile phone wallpaper. With this in mind, we came up with an idea that makes receipt donation impossible to ignore – every time someone wakes up their phone, it’s a reminder to do good.” 

Taipei, Taiwan – Digital agency cacaFly has launched its Web3 Marketing development ecosystem, a comprehensive network of technology solutions that can be utilized as a full solution to empower brands and agencies in Taiwan. 

This was first unveiled through the ‘2022 DigiAsia: Web3 Rhapsody’ conference held in Taipei in November, which explored how world-class software companies and marketers are turning Web3 into practical applications.

In his presentation at DigiAsia, cacaFly’s Ecosystem Development Advisor Yan Lee explained that because of the sophistication of Taiwan’s technology solution, it is the best location in Asia for launching a Web3 project.

Moreover, the cacaFly ecosystem has partners specialising in all the key areas of Web3 marketing, such as the metaverse, cryptocurrency, NFT, immersive entertainment, gaming, and AR/VR spaces.

“Since late 2021, cacaFly has been bombarded with Web3-related inquiries from Taiwan clients. Brands know that this is the direction, but are unsure what exactly they should be doing, what’s out there, and how they can actualize it,” said Yves Huang, CEO at cacaFly.

He added, “We are confident that Taiwan has the best in terms of technology, and are now looking to help brand partners weave it all together to create something remarkable.”

Previously, cacaFly has also entered a partnership with Google Cloud for the launch of the Cloud AI+ Solution Center in Taiwan.

Singapore – Food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced that its on-demand and express delivery service ‘pandago’ will now be made available to customers in the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. 

The service was initially launched in Singapore last August 2022 and has now been extended to Thailand, Taipei, and Davao, with more cities to come in the next few months. It will also be rolled out in other markets next year.

In addition to the expansion, pandago will also provide customers with real-time tracking and a chat function to allow them to track their parcel’s live location and share it with the recipient.

According to foodpanda, pandago has started to gain traction in the Philippines and Thailand in the early launch stages, with the most frequent items delivered in the Philippines being clothes and accessories, while food and drinks, books, and documents are most delivered in Thailand. 

foodpanda also said that delivery fees will start at a reasonable base fee, with an additional per-kilometer distance-based fee in the respective countries.

“Following the successful launch in Singapore, we are excited to extend pandago to millions

more users across the region. Whether it’s to send a gift or something that was left behind, we hope that pandago will go a long way for customers who need instant delivery services,” said Bhavani Mishra, regional director of logistics for APAC at foodpanda.

He added, “Beyond providing convenience and fuss-free service for our customers, pandago represents an important step in foodpanda’s journey to building an all-rounded ecosystem that helps to address the everyday needs of our customers.”

foodpanda has also previously announced its partnership with Huawei to launch its app on the HUAWEI AppGallery for the latter’s smartphone users.

Tokyo, Japan – Integrated marketing and innovation company Hakuhodo has announced the launch of ‘Hakuhodo International Media Taiwan’ (HIMT), a specialised integrated media business organisation that will mobilise the media solution functions of the Taiwan Hakuhodo Group and the Growww Group.

The launch comes in line after Hakuhodo acquired a majority stake in the Growww Group in 2020, making it a consolidated subsidiary.

The newly launched HIMT, led by chairman Vince Cheng, will bring together the media functions of full-service media agencies with an established track record of excellent client relationships in the market including Hakuhodo Zeta of the Taiwan Hakuhodo Group and 2008 Media of the Growww Group, as well as the media functions of Hakuhodo DY Group digital marketing agencies DAC Taiwan, MESh+, and Unisurf. 

As the newest media organisation in Taiwan, HIMT will offer media-driven solutions for the diverse challenges clients face today, including media planning, media buying, digital marketing, data solutions and marketing technology solutions.

HIMT is also planning to leverage data and new marketing tools that fuse media and technology together in integrated media solution offerings, from systematic and scientific media planning to cross-media integrated solutions, such as TV and digital. 

Hakuhodo has been ramping up its expansion in APAC, with the most recent business move acquiring Malaysian digital creative agency Kingdom Digital.

In an exclusive interview with Shuntaro Ito, senior corporate officer at Hakuhodo and president and CEO at Hakuhodo International, for MARKETECH APAC’s The Inner State, he said that bringing in companies that are passionate about growing together as a group is strategically very important, and this is why they are pursuing the acquisitions of companies that shine across the different markets which share the agency’s partnership philosophy.

“During the acquisition process, we apply our sustainable management thinking and place importance on maintaining sustainable corporate management in a continuous manner. In going forward, based on this thinking, we would like to further expand our network,” Ito said.

Taiwan – BBDO Taiwan has appointed Shih-Yen Lee as its new chief creative officer, which took effect on October 3 this year.

Prior to BBDO, he also worked as creative director of Wunderman Thompson, DDB Shanghai executive creative director, and Unisurf Digital Marketing executive creative director in Taiwan.

Since joining in 2008, he has held top creative positions at leading ad firms in both China and Taiwan, covering multiple brands and categories. His works have received numerous awards, including the Effies, London International Advertising Awards, New York Advertising Awards, Clio Awards, The One Show, Spikes Asia and Cannes Lions. 

Speaking on his appointment, he said, “It’s an honour to join BBDO. I can see there is a commitment to creativity, as well as a passion for creating creative work that not only enhances the brand image but also increases sales and revenue for the client. As a final say, for now, I’d like to borrow the term “brainstorm” from BBDO co-founder Alex Faickney Osborn – I look forward to storming creative problems with the team and creating more amazing work that will truly blow clients away.”

Alan Hung, managing director at BBDO Taiwan, said, “I’m thrilled to have Shih-Yen join us as our new Chief Creative Officer. Aside from his 24 years of experience working abroad and also in Taiwan, he has an outstanding collection of awards under his belt ranging from LIA, the New York Advertising, Clio and two Cannes Lions. Shih Yen is an exceptional storyteller, and I’m looking forward to working with him on BBDO’s next chapters.”

Meanwhile, Wai Foong Leong, chairman and CCO of BBDO Greater China, commented, “It’s been ten years since I got to know Shih-Yen. I’ve watched Shih-Yen win clients and awards one after another in different battlefields, wondering when I’ll be able to collaborate with him. That dream has now finally come true! I’m confident that with Shih Yen, BBDO Taiwan will shine even brighter in the years to come. Exciting times ahead for sure.”