Tag: Taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan – Playing on the Chinese New Year tradition of using fortune sticks to get predictions and fortune, potato chips brand Lay’s in Taiwan took this step further: by using artificial intelligence and their own line of potato chips.

Through Lay’s Fortune Telling ‘lucky cam’, users can scan a single chip and then the ‘lucky cam’ telling you how much luck you will enjoy in 2022 overall, and what to expect in five areas of your life – Wealth, Health, Love, Family and School.

Some of those predictions include ‘You may be like a god in stock investments’, ‘You will laugh all year long’ and ‘Your year-end bonus is incalculable’.

The campaign was conceptualised alongside Leo Burnett Taiwan, where the agency first had to teach artificial intelligence (AI) technology to recognise whether different objects really are chips or not. Over 5,000 chip samples were used to train the AI and create data sets. This meant photographing 5,000 chips and painstakingly tracing their edges, nooks and crinkles. With between 1,500 and 2,000 data points in every outline, it took between three and five minutes to document each chip by hand. 

From here, the agency created a vast database of fortune-telling sentences by using web-scraping and social listening programs to collect popular buzzwords relating to the five fortune categories. According to the agency’s social listening database, getting a raise or a bonus, attaining ‘financial freedom’ or getting an ‘All Pass’ to every subject are popular topics among Gen Z in the lead up to Chinese New Year.

Yuan Chuang, creative director at Leo Burnett Taiwan, said, “Fortune telling sticks are a well-known Chinese New Year custom. We wondered if we could modernize this tradition and connect it with Lay’s product in a way that helps Lay’s to engage with Gen Z digital natives. We challenged ourselves to use machine learning to do something that’s never been done before: could we tell people’s fortunes using something as unexpected and silly as the shape of potato chips.”

Meanwhile, Tina Liu, marketing head at Lay’s Taiwan, commented, “People think their fortunes are written in the stars, but now they are written in a packet of Lay’s chips. It has been lots of fun working with the team at Leo Burnett Taiwan to build a new consumer habit of buying Lay’s during Chinese New Year. We hope you will give Lay’s Fortune Telling Chips a try, and we wish you huge five-star luck in 2022.”

Divided into four levels of luck and five fortune categories, the Lay’s Fortune Telling Chips web experience delivers over one million fortune combinations. This ensures each fortune is unique no matter how many chips are scanned or eaten along the way.

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s leading telecommunications group Taiwan Mobile announced that it has executed a strategic investment into SoundOn Global, a podcast platform and the only Chinese Language hosting partner of Apple Podcast based in the country.

Andy Huang, CEO of SoundOn Global, commented, “SoundOn Global is committed to connecting the world through audio and we are very excited to be working with Taiwan Mobile to achieve this. We look forward to working closely with Taiwan Mobile on content diversity, marketing, monetization and more, to usher in the golden era of the audio entertainment market.”

SoundOn Global provides consumers with a selection of audio products, namely podcast originals, podcast hosting services, social audio entertainment platforms, podcast players, and 360° audio advertising services. In 2021, the podcast platform acquired Goodnight, the region’s leading social audio service and expanded its audio products beyond podcasts.

MyMusic, Taiwan Mobile’s audio-streaming service subsidiary currently has more than 6 million registered users, where according to its data, 82% listen to both music and podcasts, with  90% of its top programs hosted on SOG. Through the partnership with SOG, the podcast platform’s programs would be added into MyMusic’s audio library, giving MyMusic’s consumers access to listen to a wide selection of audio products. 

Through the collaboration, the number of podcast programs on MyMusic is estimated to grow by 20% and the number of podcast episode listens is estimated to grow by 40%.

Jamie Lin, president of Taiwan Mobile, commented that Taiwan Mobile is committed to bringing the world’s best technology applications and entertainment services to Taiwan’s consumers. The company sees great potential in the global podcast and audio market.

“Since the launch of ‘Podcast Zone’ on MyMusic in 2020, the platform now has more than 1 million episodes which help to drive continuous growth in the number of registered users and number of podcast/music listens. We expect that, through our partnership with SoundOn Global, both platforms will be able to share resources, create synergies, attract more talented creators, and jointly lead the positive development of podcast and audio entertainment industry,” Lin said.

Singapore – Direct-to-consumer streaming platform HBO Max has named Jason Monteiro as its newest general manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Through the new role, Monteiro will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of WarnerMedia’s direct-to-consumer business, leading content experience, brand, marketing, subscriber management, digital partnerships and data analytics.

He will be temporarily reporting to Johannes Larcher, head of HBO Max International, until a new managing director for the broader INSEAK region (India, Southeast Asia and Korea) is appointed.

With extensive OTT leadership experience across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, Monteiro will also oversee the existing HBO GO streaming service and the eventual launch of HBO Max in the region, building and leading a team of cross-functional executives to maximize the streamer’s success.

Prior to joining HBO Max, he was the director of AVOD at Shahid, a leading Arabic content streaming platform. Prior to Shahid, he was the general manager of Indonesia and Malaysia for iflix, and he also ran marketing as the company’s chief marketing officer. He has also held leadership roles at a number of telecommunications companies across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking about his appointment, he said, “I could not be more excited to be joining this amazing organization and in particular to lead the charge for HBO Max. It’s going to be such a thrill to work with the people across WarnerMedia to bring the likes of ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ DC, Warner Bros., HBO favorites, new Max Originals and many more, to the viewers in Southeast Asia.”

Meanwhile, Larcher commented, “Jason arrives at HBO Max with a proven track record of building and growing subscription services across Asia and other important global markets. He’s a passionate leader known for building and inspiring high-performing teams, and I’m eager to see his leadership in action as he steps into his new role today.”

Taipei, Taiwan – Digital out-of-home (DOOH) media owner Solmate Media has tapped programmatic DOOH adtech company Hivestack to be its partner to distribute programmatic DOOH in Taiwan, offering local and global brands, agencies and omnichannel demand-side platforms (DSPs) the opportunity to purchase and activate DOOH inventory.

The partnership, a first for the Taiwan market, will be instrumental in driving adoption of programmatic DOOH in the Taiwanese market. Solmate’s advanced and interactive digital screens will benefit agencies and omnichannel DSPs in monetizing their premium DOOH inventory leveraging custom audience and omnichannel targeting via the Hivestack SSP.

To date, Solmate currently has 6,000 premium digital screens in high-end hair salons across Taiwan, with plans to increase this to over 10,000 by the end of 2022. In addition, Solmate screens are enabled and integrated within the customer mirrors at leading hair salons, meaning dwell time is upwards of 60 minutes, which gives advertisers an opportunity to target audiences with non-skippable video content.

Yaw Ren Tsai, CEO at Solmate Media said, “We are very pleased to be partnering with Hivestack in Taiwan and look forward to expanding our DOOH presence in the local market. By leveraging Hivestack’s market-leading technology and our network of premium DOOH screens, we can raise awareness for the programmatic DOOH channel and connect better with the global marketplace.”

Meanwhile, Troy Yang, managing director for North Asia at Hivestack commented that this partnership is an exciting moment for them in time to be announcing their first Supply Side Platform (SSP) partnership in Taiwan – the initial step in the firm’s market launch. 

“Solmate Media is an ideal partner with their network of screens in premium hair salons, offering unparalleled targeting capabilities for both local and global advertisers. Hivestack is pioneering the Taiwan market for programmatic DOOH and we are thrilled to be increasing premium inventory supply, providing our demand partners the opportunity for outside-in buys into Taiwan from around the world, globally,” Yang said.

Singapore – A group of independent public relations agencies representing Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, as well as Singapore, and South Korea has joined forces to form the new ‘PerfectPitch Asia PR Network’ in SEA. 

The new network aims to support global companies in strategizing and implementing their business communications programs as they venture into Asian markets. It is composed of female founders who are experts in brand strategy, public relations, and integrated marketing, as well as social media.

PerfectPitch founders include Constance Chao, the founder of Media Plus for Mainland China and Taiwan, Maggie Chen, independent representative for Hong Kong, and Yukiko Harada, TrainTracks’ managing director for Japan, as well as Melinda Ilagan, I.M. SEA Communications’ managing director for Singapore, and June Cha, TwinTracks’ managing director for South Korea.

Harada said, “We have come together combining the depth and breadth of our experiences in various industries, practices, and our respective geographies to provide global clients good counsel and strong execution to help them succeed in Asia’s mega-economy.”

Meanwhile, Ilagan shared that SEA continues to experience brisk growth as global enterprises and disruptive innovators set their eyes on the region’s young, tech-savvy talent and consumers.

“Our experience is that global companies and our counterpart agencies in the western hemisphere seek expert advisors in the most economically vibrant countries like Singapore, Mainland China/Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. They come to us because of our intimate understanding of this diverse region,” said Ilagan.

Chao also noted, “With over 20 decades of media experience in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan via Media Plus and Maggie Cheng, PerfectPitch can provide the total solution for the companies who want to enter into these comprehensive markets.”

As free trade agreements get ratified and borders start to reopen amid COVID-19 PerfectPitch said it is anticipating a fresh burst of business opportunities coming into the region.

Singapore – Dentsu International’s customer experience management (CXM) company Merkle is expanding its APAC presence with the launch of its services in Taiwan. Merkle’s 30 years of global experience in data, digital transformation, and worldwide talent connections will now be adopted by the new team.

Carrie Tsai, who is iProspect Taiwan’s CEO, has been appointed by dentsu Taiwan to also become Merkle Taiwan’s CEO. Joining Tsai to head the new team is Boice Lin, former SVP of Global partnerships/Global business development at Appier, who has been appointed as general manager of Merkle Taiwan.

The agency said that the new Taiwan team will work closely with martech, adtech, cloud, and tech providers to integrate commerce design consultancy. The CXM transformation offerings that will be provided by Merkle Taiwan include data transformation as in focusing on data science and data engineering, including cloud service consulting, data management consulting, and data analysis, which will also include personalization, commerce consulting, CRM, and loyalty program consulting. Most of all, Merkle will be helping brands in CXM Transformation such as customer experience transformation strategy, planning, and technology consultancy.

Remarking on today’s market, Jennifer Tang, CEO of dentsu Taiwan, said that brands have entered into a new era in which everything is all about data and that to meet the evolving market and technology demand, such as the cookieless future, brands need to consider connecting with customers through consumer experience, finding more value from data, and extending business applications.

“With Merkle joining dentsu Taiwan, we are able to immediately respond to the market and clients’ demands, and also further consolidate our industry leadership in creative, media and CXM, making dentsu the only marcom group in Taiwan that truly provides idea-led, data-driven, and tech-enabled end-to-end solutions,” said Tang. 

Meanwhile, President of Merkle Asia Pacific Zhengda “Z” Shen, added, “Asia Pacific is a key global growth driver for Merkle, and we’re very enthused with the rapid growth and maturity of digital commerce, data management and customer experience in Taiwan. Putting together this superstar team has been years in the making. We’re excited to now launch in market and work with the most innovative marketers and technologists.”

New CEO Tsai further stated that Merkle is a well-known global brand for its delivery and proofing capability.

“We have built a team of global talents who hold entrepreneur experience. It is the winning strategy to bring the brand’s vision to life through customer experience transformation. Our vision for Merkle Taiwan will be to focus on data transformation, digital transformation and CXM transformation, and it will integrate with dentsu’s other offerings and change the value chain,” said Tsai.

Meanwhile, new GM Lin highlighted that launching Merkle Taiwan indicates dentsu’s dedication to enabling end-to-end marcom solutions, “Only considering both data application and commerce insights can help brands rebuild their model post COVID-19. It is crucial for our clients to take action and work closely with a full-service consultancy. We are confident to be the best transformation partner.”

Last August, dentsu APAC has also launched Merkle in Indonesia.

Singapore – Global communications firm Edelman has announced a new lineup of digital hires as part of strengthening its digital offering in the Asia-Pacific region.This includes expanding the firm’s existing offerings in content creation and production, as well as adding talent in the areas of social commerce, paid and performance marketing, martech, AI, VR and 3D capabilities, among others. 

In South Asia, Saurabh Kulkarni has been appointed as the head of Edelman Studios in India, where he is tasked with building a regional hub for content creation. He will partner with India’s managing director for digital, Kunal Arora, on leveraging AI to create data-centric content production capabilities that will serve the region.

At Edelman China, in addition to Justin Teo joining the firm in August as the new chief digital officer, Yuliani Setiadi has come onboard as head of digital for Hong Kong and Taiwan. With Setiadi’s extensive experience in building shoppable e-commerce experiences across different touchpoints, she will aid in establishing Hong Kong as a B2C regional hub.

In Korea, the firm welcomed Rebekah Lee as its new head of digital earlier this year, bringing rich experience in data-driven performance marketing and web analytics that complements Edelman’s digital newsroom capability in the Korean market.

Jonathan Wong and Henry Taylor also joined the teams in Malaysia and Australia respectively this October to serve as head of digital in those markets. Wong brings extensive technical and automation experience, as well as a proven track record for e-commerce and digital transformation, while Taylor is skilled in content, SEO, newsroom and platform growth strategies, given his background as a data journalist.

To manage the growing team’s operations across the region, Debra Ng returned to Edelman this year to take on the role of regional digital operations manager. She is tasked with delivering digital upskilling and competency development programs for clients.

“Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen our clients take significant steps to accelerate their digital capabilities, knowledge and skills. With these hires, we are doubling down on specialisms across the region to match the evolving needs of our clients, helping them create more compelling content, facilitate digital transformation, and leverage the growth of e-commerce and digital storytelling,” comments Stephen Kehoe, Edelman’s CEO for APAC.

He added, “Each of these hires brings a deep specialism to the firm, allowing our clients to benefit from the industry’s most advanced and comprehensive practices, irrespective of which market they are in. By removing the silos of markets and specialisms, we are building a more client- and solution-centric operating model, setting ourselves and our clients up for success in a post-pandemic world.”

Hong Kong – As part of strengthening their presence in Asia-Pacific, streaming service Disney+ from global media enterprise The Walt Disney Company has announced that they will roll out to the markets of South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan in November 2021.

Said announcement was made during the recent calls of the company regarding their Q3 earnings.

In addition to this announcement, Disney+ Japan will also be expanded to feature additional general entertainment content in October 2021.

To date, Disney+’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region includes the markets of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

According to Luke Kang, president at The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific, the response towards Disney+ across the region has exceeded the company’s expectations, as consumers seek diverse entertainment content and are drawn to their portfolio of brands and franchises.

“We are pleased with the subscriber growth and partnerships forged in markets, and look forward to engaging with more consumers across the region – through unparalleled storytelling, creative excellence and cutting-edge content delivery,” Kang said.

Said endeavor by Disney+ best reflects the duties of Kang when he was appointed to the current position last December 2020, including duties of managing Disney’s media networks, direct-to-consumer offerings including Disney+, media distribution and motion picture businesses.

Disney+’s current content portfolio includes a wide selection of films and episodes of content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and Star, as well as including local and regional content in the region. Globally, Disney+ is currently available in 61 countries and 21 languages across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

Taipei, Taiwan – The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) scene in Taiwan has been majorly dominated by local-grown brands, with a greater inclination to dairy products and beverages, the latest data from Kantar’s Brand Footprint report shows.

Leading the list is homegrown brand I-Mei Foods, a well-known milk processor company in the country; followed by Kuang Chuan, another milk brand; and Fresh Delight, a beverage company. Coming up next on the list is local food production company Uni-President, dairy company Wei Chuan Lin Feng Yin, and dairy brand Chui Sui, which is part of the Uni-President company group.

Only two global brands made it as the top FMCG brand choice among Taiwanese, which includes Quakers, Kirkland Signature.

Such high preference to local brands, according to Kantar, can be largely attributed to the rise of retailers in the digital age in Taiwan, and coincidentally the top-three choice brands are well-known retailer staples. According to them, retailers drove growth in consumer purchases via a digital approach – apps, payments and CRM to link the consumer journey. This demonstrates that private labels are now able to meet consumers’ expectations and get the balance between quality and price right. In 2020 they were able to recruit and drive repeat purchases.

Uni-President’s beverage lineup CH’UN CHI CHA ranked as the top beverage brand choice in Taiwan, followed by local beverage brand Hey Song and Super Supau. Global beverage brand Coca-Cola followed suit, then Vitalon Ochaen, a tea beverage brand.

In terms of dairy and dairy substitute products, Kuang Chuan takes the lead, followed by I Mei and Fresh Delight. This is then followed by Wei Chuan Lin Feng Yin and Uni-President’s Chui Sui.

Kantar notes that the reason why Coca-Cola managed to be alongside local brands is due to Coca-Cola’s campaign in 2020 focusing on Taiwan’s cities using local languages to build strong engagement with consumers. 

I Mei also takes the lead in the food category ranking, followed by frozen foods manufacturer Laurel and food brand Uni-President, as well as potato chip brand Lay’s and local food brand TAI SUN.

In the health and beauty category, women sanitary brand Sofy takes the lead, followed by global sanitary brand Kotex and beauty brand Carnation (KNH). Toothpaste brand Darlie follows the list, and global hygiene brand Colgate. For the homecare category, on the other hand, global tissue brand Kleenex tops the list, followed by local tissue brand Andante and De Yi. 

“Brands won through agile adoption and disruption, catering to the growing demand for convenience and by accelerating innovation to win new consumers. In an era driven by data, Kantar is uniquely placed to connect the dots through the consumer journey and link everything back to real purchases to uncover your next growth opportunity,” said Jason Yu, managing director for Greater China Worldpanel Division.

Taiwan – Brands and services are often expected to be mind readers. A number of times, consumers don’t always know what they want, until you show it to them, but that brands must also act sly – not all times are consumers willing to ‘cooperate’ and ‘talk’ with brands, and they just want their needs to be handed on their laps–ASAP. 

A new insight from a report done by global analytics firm FICO points out that it might just be the opposite for the said customer-brand relationship. 

First, about 73% of Taiwanese consumers say they are not satisfied with generic credit offers from their bank. With this, it came out that one in five Taiwanese are “very willing” to offer more financial information to be granted preferential pricing, while half are “somewhat willing” to do so.

According to the report, many banks in Taiwan do not have a comprehensive pricing strategy that aligns with the organization’s overall business strategy, yet customers are extremely willing for banks to make them offers that consider their total customer relationship. 

The report notes that innovative pricing strategies have been the name of the game in the industries of airline, ride-sharing service, and insurance and that it’s safe to say that banks are lagging behind.

“Clearly there are opportunities for banks to move past single-product pricing and engage in improved cross-selling and increased product penetration. Banks may have gotten away with this so far due to the high inconvenience cost for customers of moving to a competitor, but with increased competition and the regulatory trend of open banking, we see this changing quickly in the next three years,” said Aashish Sharma, FICO senior director of decision management solutions in Asia Pacific.

Another finding from the report agrees with the call for personalization, where more than half, or 53% of Taiwanese, had a positive reaction to offers that took into consideration their circumstances. 

APAC banking customers are very receptive to personalized credit offers

The study was conducted across 10 countries in Asia Pacific, and it found that there had been broad discontent from consumers in the region with the experience of taking up new products. About 34% said they were not offered any attractive incentives such as better rates, and gifts, while 31% said the bank failed to offer them a superior product to the one they applied. Meanwhile, 28% said the bank failed to offer any additional products to their liking.

“Lenders are cognizant that to compete effectively in today’s retail financing environment, speed to market and pricing features may be insufficient and the greatest value-add is centered on products that are bespoke and tailor-made to meet the specific needs of the customer,” Sharma said.