Tag: Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand – Mirum Thailand, WPP’s full-service digital agency in Thailand, has announced the appointment of Tawin Tusnajareon as new managing director. Tusnajareon was previously head of technology at loyalty platform The 1.

Tusnajareon is a highly seasoned digital marketing executive with over 20 years of extensive experience in marketing communication, strategic planning, and consultancy, especially in areas of business and digital transformation including mobility, big data & analytics, e-commerce, digital marketing and cloud computing. Aside from being head of tech at The 1, he also held previous positions of delivery lead for Accenture Digital, and assistant VP of hypermarket chain in Thailand, Big C Supercenter.

WPP said Tusnajareon’s responsibility will mainly be to steer the company strategically in the digital transformation race. With Tusnajareon at the helm, the group said it looks to accelerate the tech-and-creativity integration in Mirum Thailand to create the best solutions for international and local brands and to enable them to connect with the consumers effectively through the delivery of enriched experience across all platforms.

“The business world was heavily disrupted in recent years, affecting one and all globally. As the game-changing solution, digital technology adoption is being fast-tracked as brands and organizations struggle to survive and quickly regain their feet for future growth,” said WPP’s Mirum Thailand. 

Mirum said it aims to stand out as the global agency that has enabled integrated digital transformation of numerous organizations in Thailand. Tusnajareon’s role is expected to drive creation of digital services, from digital transformation to digital marketing consultancy, strategic planning, and solution delivery for timely and impactful communication between brands and their audiences.

“I am delighted to be part of Mirum Thailand. I believe that the marriage between technology and creativity will spawn fresh takes on marketing, especially ideas that are based on consumer insights, cutting-edge innovation and technology, as well as informative content and rich storytelling styles. Bringing them together on platforms that reach target audiences accurately, we help brands create better and stronger impacts from their marketing activation,” said Tusnajareon. 

Tusnajareon said that he will use his management experience alongside new digital strategies to step up Mirum Thailand’s offerings and deliver innovative tech and data-driven creative campaigns to clients as the partner who works closely with them towards their goals and success. 

Tusnajareon also cites findings from the ‘Digital 2022: Global Overview Report’, where Thailand’s internet penetration stood at 77.8% of the total population with Thais spending an average of 9 hours and 6 minutes of online time per day.

“These figures speak the trend that Thais are living and working more and more digitally. As a digital agency, we stay strategically ahead of the ever-changing digital landscape and market development to harness up-and-coming innovations and technologies that will click with the consumers and strengthen brands, working towards impactful campaigns and favourable business results from effective lead generation and sales achievement,” he said. 

Indonesia – The capacity of Thai commercials to tug at heartstrings in one moment and make viewers laugh out loud the next is what makes the advertising so unique. Many of them are tickling the funny bones not only of the locals, but also to the people of the region’s neighbouring countries. 

Thai advertisements have established the industry benchmark for a successful ad in markets such as Indonesia, giving over-the-top, passionate, and outright humorous content that is only semi-aligned with any specific product.

This encouraged LinkAja, one of Indonesia’s most popular e-wallet apps, to produce communications that challenge said benchmark and galvanise Indonesians to be proud of what they can achieve with a little inspiration from their northern neighbours.

Rizky Wisnu, head creative of LinkAja, commented, “Indonesians tend to look to the outside world to gauge our successes, but we wanted to change that mindset. We wanted to make ourselves proud of what we have achieved, showcasing our technological capabilities matching and, in some cases, surpassing other super-apps in the region. The same should be said for our communications work.”

Teaming up with TJT Creative Lab (Tang Jai Tham), he added, “Their creative portfolio showcases the experience in engaging audiences from across the region. And we wanted to work with a team that could bring this to the table – their understanding and appreciation of cultural nuances was ideal for what we were looking for.”

Keeping the execution Thai in spirit, the films were shot in Bangkok with a full suite of Thai talent, crew from Vanilla Films, a sister company of Mum Films of Suthon Petchsuwan and directed by TJT’s very own Creative Director, ApiwatPattalarungkhan.

Irvine Prisilia, creative director of TJT Creative Lab, explained the approach, “As an Indonesian, living in Bangkok for the past 12 years, you learn to appreciate both cultures and how it impacts our lives. Therefore, whilst we wanted to deliver on LinkAja’s message – encouraging Indonesians to stand proud we saw an opportunity to break through the cluster. So, for their new campaign #Apa2Bisa (#EverythingCanDo) we leveraged the Thai methodology but celebrated the Indonesians.”

Prisilia added, “The success of this film proves once again that collaborations are both borderless and limitless, especially when you’ve got amazing clients like the team at LinkAja that appreciates and understands the creative process.”

Bangkok, Thailand – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has outlined its new marketing strategy in line with its ‘air travel bubble’ agreement with India, a major step forward in the planned recovery of what is one of Thailand’s important visitor source markets.

TAT is focusing on further building the Indian market with a particular emphasis on special interest groups with high spending; such as, weddings and honeymoons, golf, millennials, and digital nomads. Among the activities include familiarisation trips and business events.

To kickstart the marketing strategy, a fam trip for Indian travel agents and media is in Thailand from 15-22 February, 2022, to gain first-hand experience on tourism products and services on the Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Ko Samui travel routes, as well as discuss business with local suppliers in a trade meet event.

Tanes Petsuwan, deputy governor for international marketing for Asia and the South Pacific at TAT, said, “Thailand was a very popular destination for Indian travellers before the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is every indication this appeal will continue. Significantly, the proposed Thai-Indian Air Travel Bubble arrangement will help enhance the image of Thailand as the preferred destination for Indians wanting to travel abroad.”

TAT will also head up the Thailand presence at India’s largest tourism promotion event – South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) 2022 – scheduled for 18-20 May, in New Delhi. It will also arrange a product presentation event to provide travel agents from key cities in the South and West of India.

Following the materialisation of the ‘Thai-Indian Air Travel Bubble’ arrangement and the reopening of commercial flights between the two countries, TAT will join hands with airlines to co-organise networking sessions in key cities in the North of India, including New Delhi and Kolkata to further promote Thailand’s latest tourism products and services.

Petsuwan added, “With the TEST and GO entry scheme having been resumed from 1 February, 2022, under which fully vaccinated travellers from any country can apply for a Thailand Pass, while the COVID-19 situation in India is vastly improving resulting in relaxed restrictions for international arrivals including returning Indians, TAT will actively target high quality Indian tourists to return to Thailand.”

Bangkok, Thailand – Thailand-based digital assets management platform, Bitazza, has announced its expansion into the global market with the Bitazza Global platform. Following this move, the platform also announced its roadmap for its utility token, BTZ, which will open for trading on 22 February 2022.

Bitazza offers a robust suite of real-world crypto usage features that are currently being used, including API payment integration, in-app crypto payments, and a white-label wallet solution.

The Bitazza Global platform will be offering users access to its ever-growing ecosystem and features, including spot trading, derivatives trading, yield products, and DeFi investment opportunities, as well as Freedom Wallet, and Freedom Card.

Meanwhile, BTZ will be serving as fuel for the ecosystem and is designed with utility features that may expand as the ecosystem grows, including paying fees with up to 75% discounts, redeeming BTZ for rewards, stake to earn APY, and accessing tiered benefits, as well as participating in the governance of the ecosystem. Moreover, BTZ has a max supply of three billion tokens, of which only 412.5 million are currently in circulation.

Bitazza said that it also has plans to establish a crypto-based e-commerce platform and will soon offer users crypto payment cards to further drive crypto usage in everyday life.

Kevin Heng, Bitazza’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, believes that with their interconnected global platform and the carefully curated tokenomics of their BTZ token, they have a clear roadmap towards the sustained growth of their platform.

“Our focus is on promoting financial inclusion and subsequently financial freedom. Bitazza believes in the freedom to manage and use one’s own assets in everyday life. We are passionate about putting real-world working crypto products in people’s hands and driving crypto mass adoption like no one else,” said Heng.

Bangkok, Thailand – Local cloud services provider Nipa Cloud has tapped global multinational company Juniper Networks to accelerate digital transformation among local enterprises, as well as in anticipation of further growing demand for endpoint flexibility amidst Thailand’s rapidly transforming digital economy.

In light of its strong growth momentum and this increasing demand for cloud services across Thailand’s enterprises, Nipa has deployed network fabric solutions from Juniper Networks, including the QFX5120 Series Switches and MX10003/MX204 Series Universal Routing Platforms, to upgrade its campus and data centre networks and better differentiate its offerings.

“Nipa is now able to better deliver enhanced throughput, scalability, capacity, performance and security – enabling Nipa to continue development of its ground-up cloud solutions, uniquely built for Thailand’s fast- developing enterprises and its rapidly transforming digital ecosystem,” Juniper Networks said in a press statement.

Abhisak Chulya, founder and CEO at Nipa Cloud, said, “Thailand is amid a massive digital transformation, with consumers and enterprises alike accelerating their transition to the cloud. As our nation drives toward Thailand 4.0, it is key that infrastructure providers like Nipa Cloud adapt and transform to stay ahead of the pack.”

He added, “Through our partnership with Juniper Networks, we can introduce new infrastructure-as-a-service capabilities with multiple locations and lower cost of cloud. This will offer our customers and partners access to agile, cost-effective and secure services that will help drive sustainable growth in Thailand’s digital economy.”

Meanwhile, Perry Sui, senior director for ASEAN and Taiwan at Juniper Networks, commented, “We are delighted to partner with Nipa Cloud to support their vision toward enabling Thailand 4.0 through the digital transformation of the country’s enterprises. Nipa Cloud plays a key role in driving the nation’s technological growth and through Juniper’s experience-first networking approach, we are committed to helping them deliver world-class cloud solutions to its end customers. All of which are crucial in bringing digitally-accelerated post-pandemic recovery and in ensuring Thailand’s continued economic growth.”

Thailand – Thailand’s digital lifestyle and loyalty platform, The 1, has launched its new app that allows its members to check, redeem, and claim rewards swiftly. 

According to The 1, the majority of its members are unaware of the huge loss of exclusive privileges they are missing out on the new app. The new app will help educate and encourage its members to make full use of this app. 

Nutthapong Wannakovit, Wunderman Thompson’s client service director, shared that interesting data from The 1 revealed that over 19 million members had their points and privileges expire, with over 15 million privileges worth THB200m. 

“This means there are about 80% of members that lose their privileges every year without knowing it. The brand challenge is for us to communicate The 1 App’s key benefits, build more app engagement, and establish ‘The 1 App’ branding,” said Wannakovit.

Following the launch of the new app, The 1 has also launched a new spot titled ‘The Internship Day’, which was created in collaboration with creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson Thailand. The spot centres the story around a fictionalised ‘lost and found department’, which represents ‘The 1 App’. It features an innocent, young intern’s tasks to hunt down its members, educate, and convince them to use the privileges. 

Moreover, the spot breaks down the three key benefits of ‘The 1 App’ for the different consumers’ needs, including the best deals for consumers who want to choose how to utilize their benefits, convenience for those who like flexibility, and personalized benefits for every unique member to encourage those who are still using family members’ accounts to switch to their own.

Park Wannasiri, Wunderman Thompson’s chief creative officer, noted that they had to share the benefits of ‘The 1 App’ in an interesting way, avoiding too many technical jargons, hard selling and making the spot relatable and highly entertaining. 

“‘The Internship Day’ spot is an entertaining storyline that fused its key product messages to differentiate The 1 branding and truly connect the brand with customers,” said Wannasiri.

The campaign is now available on Youtube and Facebook. It was also adapted into multiple formats to support different social media platforms, as well as a 15-second TVC.

Bangkok, Thailand – Tra Mongkut, a fertiliser brand in Thailand known as Terragro Fertilizer, has launched its newest campaign that aims to look after the welfare of the local farmer population–by giving them signboards as a way to combat heat.

Called ‘Shelter Signboard’, the signboard is custom-made and researched to reduce heat from the scorching sun by 3°C – 4°C. Its reflective paint reflects back direct sunlight allowing shelter for farmers whilst they work on the fields.

This campaign, conceptualised alongside creative agency Wunderman Thompson Thailand, kicked off with 20,000 signboards being handed out to farmers nationwide within 1 month. Sales representatives from Tra Mongkut joined the fields to greet the farmers and provided demonstration and education on the usage of these Shelter Signboards. 

In addition, to share their sincerest gratitude to all these farmers feeding the nation with their sweat and tears, these signboards were printed with messages of cheers and appreciation for their hard work.

Jakkrit Charupong, product group manager, Tra Mongkut, said, “Thailand is one of the leading rice producers and one of the dominant food-producing countries of the world. Thai farmers play a major role in the agricultural sector which has long been the real backbone of the country. That is why we at Tra Mongkut are committed to providing insights and solutions that will inspire and enable a better living for Thai farmers to achieve a healthier and more sustainable living in Thailand’s agriculture industry.”

The campaign generated positive news that even the Thai government also joined in to support their innovation by taking this initiative nationwide and focusing more on the health of farmers.

Meanwhile, Park Wannasiri, chief creative officer at Wunderman Thompson Thailand, added, this campaign is interpreted as a whole new way to look at innovation: being a new, simple solution but truly helped and embraced by real users. 

“As a brand leader, we need to build more than just awareness but go for brand action that shows our support to the local farmer community. When we launched the campaign and consumers started to create their own version of our Signboard, we knew then that this made the right impact. Thank you to the brand and research team for knowing what their consumers really need,” Wannasiri said.

Thailand – Global brand experience agency VMLY&R in Thailand has appointed two new hires to drive its brand experience, customer experience, and commerce practices, which has already reaped new business wins including Lotus, CP, and CPF.

The two new hires to the newly-created roles are Chaicharn Jiraumnuaiporn, the new director of commerce, and Thiti Thianprued, the new director of experience design.

Jiraumnuaiporn has over 10 years of experience in e-commerce and digital marketing, specialising in harmonising channel strategy. Having started out client-side at Groupon Thailand and Ensogo, he then applied his deep understanding of the end-to-end process at major retail firms Makro, FN outlet, and Big C.

Meanwhile, Thianprued started his career in the design and advertising field as a digital art director, and has become the creative director at Wunderman Thompson Thailand, where he was responsible for managing the creative and production teams, overseeing all digital creative solutions. He then worked for various start-ups, focused on improving UX (user experience) and CX (customer experience).

Commenting on his new role, Jiraumnuaiporn said, “VMLY&R research shows e-commerce in Asia-Pacific as the highest-growth region in the world with a cash flow of over $1.3b. While global e-commerce continues to grow by 28.5%, the Thai e-commerce market has grown by 71%. This is why I joined VMLYR Commerce, to help clients tap into the opportunities offered by e-commerce.”

Thianprued also commented, “It’s exciting to have joined VMLY&R Thailand, where we see CX work as essential for creating that human connection between the customer and the brand. It is a creation that must come from understanding the customer before they have met the brand.”

Meanwhile, Yupin Muntzing, VMLY&R Thailand’s CEO, said, “Our belief is to build connected brands from BX to CX and Commerce. Today with our team and our potential, we are ready to meet the needs of our customers in every aspect, including working closely with customers to generate sales and profits.”

Ekaluck Charanvas, VMLY&R Thailand’s brand experience lead and chief strategy officer, shared that a 2020 survey of over 13,000 Thais using VMLY&R’s BAV tool found that despite the global pandemic and consequent economic crisis, many brands in Thailand were surprised to find an increase in the value of their brand and an unperturbed faith in their business. 

“During uncertain times, people feel insecure and therefore look for things they can trust and have confidence in,” said Charanvas.

Most recently, VMLY&R Thailand has also appointed Anuwat ‘Bert’ Nitipanont to be its new chief creative officer.

Bangkok, Thailand – Credit card brand First Choice in Thailand has released its newest ad – a parody of making the world’s first metaverse commercial. The ad was developed by creative agency Leo Burnett Thailand who shared that the inspiration was none other than the coming of the metaverse and how it is becoming a hot topic for younger generations across the globe. 

The agency shared that the brand aimed to promote its credit cards to a young and blockchain-savvy audience, which gave them the idea: Why not shoot the commercial entirely in the metaverse?

With metaverse an entirely new phenomenon, the agency spun a sarcastic flavour to the ad ‘Metaverrrrrr,’ which shows the First Choice marketing team working alongside Thai Stars Mario and Pattie. The ad demonstrates how unique the demands and challenges will become in shooting in a metaverse setting, such as lagging and disappearing avatars. 

“As a credit card brand for the young generation, First Choice is jumping on the Metaverse trend with a unique vision for brand communications and a funny, witty execution,” says Athip Sinpagekan, EVP and head of marketing at First Choice.

Sompat Trisadikun, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Thailand, added, “We loved the idea of filming in the Metaverse in a style that will engage this generation of banking customers. It’s relatable, timely, complete with glitches and poor signals: we hope it will stand out in a category that is often safe and conservative.”

First Choice credit cards offer benefits such as credit health checks, spending alerts, bonus points and cashback rewards. ‘Metaverrrrrr’ builds on another recent campaign by Leo Burnett Thailand, which is the First NFT Credit Card ART Collaboration. 

In January, First Choice unveiled its first NFT Credit Card ART Collaboration, a one-of-a-kind NFT token designed in collaboration with Thai NFT artist PUCK.

“The banking system is facing radical transformation as a new generation moves towards the blockchain system. We have been working with Leo Burnett Thailand to let them know that First Choice is ready to face the change together. Our goal is to penetrate this market and promote our brand image to suit the lifestyles of the Metaverse,” added Sinpagekan. 

Thailand – Thailand shopping centre Megabangna has launched a new programme called, ‘Mega Smile Kids’, an extension of its Mega Smile Rewards loyalty programme which aims to raise a total membership by 20% while driving repeat traffic for tenants.

The ‘Mega Smile Kids’ programme, which is in line with Megabangna’s 2022 strategy to provide an inclusive lifestyle experience to all groups of mixed-generation customers, offers special promotions and privileges to families with children under the age of 12. The first phase of the programme will cover 40 participating shops and partners offering free workshops and classes, special menus and cash vouchers, among others. There are also numerous benefits and promotions from participating in child-centred shops, schools and specialized academies, restaurants, and lifestyle shops. 

‘Mega Smile Kids’ members can enjoy various privileges like the welcome pack, a gift pack that includes a backpack, a pin, a water bottle, and special discounts coupons at certain shops, as well as an M-Gen Card from Mega Cineplex, and an adorable set of limited collection stickers from ‘I Found Something Good’. The members can also gain kids rewards such as discount coupons, gift vouchers and premium gifts available for exchange all year round, as well as ‘E-Discount Coupons’, which enable large discounts at participating shops.

Moreover, they will also have birthday privileges, which include surprise birthday gifts with special menus from some of the kids’ favourite restaurants at Megabangna, and lastly, events and workshops to help them gain experience, learn skills, and develop creativity provided by schools and academies at Megabangna.

Sirinchat Sangsri, Megabangna’s vice president of marketing, noted that they launched the Mega Smile Rewards loyalty programme in May 2019 via their Megabangna application, to provide loyal customers with special benefits and promotions. Moreover, it also has the added benefit of staying connected through CRM with their core group of customers.

She further shared that the programme currently has over 300,000 members who can accumulate points via the Megabangna app, which can be exchanged for premium items, discounts, and other benefits, including cash vouchers of 100 baht for every 30 points that can be used at participating shops, as well as use the points to receive benefits and vouchers from participating petrol stations and the country’s leading hotels.

“In 2022, we are preparing to upgrade our Mega Smile Rewards programme to embrace all generations of customers. We believe that building good customer relations should not be limited to parents but should also extend to their children who play a key role in the purchasing decisions of their parents,” said Sangsri.

Members of Mega Smile Rewards are now eligible to apply for Mega Smile Kids membership for their children under the age of 12 for free. The programme details and conditions are available on Megabangna’s website.

Megabangna said that it is also transforming every square inch of space in its shopping centre into ‘Your Everyday Meeting Place’, where customers can enjoy a memorable experience with family and friends, while adhering to strict pandemic precautionary measures.