Tag: Thailand

Singapore – More consumers in the Asia-Pacific are doing their holiday shopping on their mobile devices, a new survey from mobile advertising AdColony shows.

Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand have the highest share of consumers that prefer to make purchases on their smartphones, as the majority of the country respondents clocked 94%, 93% and 91% respectively. 

AdColony-Online-Shopping-Philippines
AdColony infographic of mobile shopping in the Philippines

Respondents from Thailand (88%), Malaysia (86%), and the Philippines (84%) stated they prefer to shop in-app rather than use a mobile browser. On average, APAC shoppers showed 73% majority of showing the same consumer behavior. 

Purchases related to seeing an advertisement online are also relevant to the majority of APAC consumers, as Indonesia (92%), Malaysia and the Philippines (89%), and Singapore (85%) showed majority of such behavior.

AdColony-Online-Shopping-Malaysia
AdColony infographic of mobile shopping in Malaysia

In terms of what matters most for consumers’ shopping experience on mobile devices, an average of 52% said that easy payment process matters, as evident by the majority of respondents from Thailand (60%), Indonesia (59%), the Philippines (55%) and Malaysia (54%).

Japan (50%), Australia (53%) and Indonesia (56%) said that gifting this holiday should be done via shipping the gift directly to the receiver, while Malaysia (58%) and Thailand (52%) said that they will do the exchange gifting after the gift shipment has arrived.

AdColony-Online-Shopping-Singapore
AdColony infographic of mobile shopping in Singapore

Meanwhile, online ordering, accompanied with concurrent home delivery still ranks as the top choice of shopping for today’s APAC consumers, garnering an average of 85% of all the respondents. Also, 55% of the respondents state that better deals are the prime reason why they shop online, evident by consumer behavior from Malaysia (70%), Singapore (62%) and Thailand (56%).

Singapore – Global media network Omnicom Media Group (OMG) has announced that its COO for the APAC division of its marketing agency OMD, Rochelle Chhaya, has been promoted to CEO of OMG in Thailand.

In her previous position at OMD, Chahaya was instrumental in scaling a client-centric, digitally-powered, and data-led agency model across the region.

“Rochelle has done an outstanding job of improving OMD’s organizational processes for growth while enhancing its operational capabilities and efficiency,” said Tony Harradine, CEO at OMG APAC.

He added, “With Rochelle’s comprehensive knowledge and experience, coupled with her unrivaled visibility over the entire client-agency-partner ecosystem, I am confident that OMG Thailand will reinforce its position as an innovative and digitally-forward agency brand.”

In her new role, Chhaya will be tasked to drive profitability and efficiency across OMG’s media agencies OMD and PHD in Thailand.

Additionally, she will also oversee and support the development of the network’s digital transformation roadmap as well as the operationalization of products to foster stronger client partnerships, drive digital growth and
creativity in the market.

“Thailand has always held a special place in my heart and I am humbled to take on this responsibility,” said Chhaya.

“Right now is an important time of change for the Thai media landscape and together with the Thai leadership team, we are fully committed to build on the fantastic momentum and harness all opportunities to drive OMG’s continued growth and ambition in the Kingdom,” she added.

Chhaya will report to Tony Harradine and will officially assume her role immediately.

Singapore – IT service provider Logicalis Asia is acquiring a majority stake at Singapore-based digital transformation company iZeno in expanding digital transformation strategies to their respective clientele base.

“There is strong alignment between Logicalis and iZeno, in terms of vision, opportunities for joint value creation, and mutual focus on customer-centricity. Our customers are prioritizing their digital transformation agendas. The skills and innovation that iZeno brings to the group strengthen our core value proposition as we fulfill our mission of helping customers unlock value through digital transformation,” Logicalis Asia CEO Lee Chong-Win stated.

The recent partnership will focus on modernizing the approach  to IT frameworks amongst businesses, with a greater focus on customer relationship management. Strategies such as data analytics, development operations (DevOps), and hybrid cloud are also included in integrating modern strategies to businesses.

With local markets targeted at Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, iZeno’s regional presence will help Logicalis Asia’s goal of providing impact solutions to businesses in the aforementioned markets.

Thailand – Colgate has released a new campaign in Thailand for Colgate Total, its high-performance toothpaste product, where the ad spotlights “greatness,” featuring professional climber and Academy Award-winning documentary director Jimmy Chin.

Titled “Made for Greatness,” the campaign comes after Colgate’s recent release of the #SmileStrong campaign in various markets such as ANZ, Philippines, and in Malaysia, where it has been locally adapted as #SmileStrongBersama, where Bersama means together. The said campaign displayed the main theme of optimism amid challenges and prejudices in life.

For the current one, Colgate has decided to move to feature the message of “greatness,” matching the extra hardworking anti-bacterial formula of its Colgate Total. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vSWCjfAxt24

Chin is known for his numerous climbing expeditions in different countries such as China, Pakistan, and Nepal. In 2019, his documentary chronicling a rock climber’s journey won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Displaying the brand’s color palette of Red and White, the ad shows Chin attempting an arduous mountain. In the middle of the climb, he is seen taking a break and refreshing using Colgate Total. 

The creative brain behind the campaign is Red Fuse, global communications company WPP’s integrated global team for Colgate-Palmolive. 

The campaign will be progressively rolled out across Singapore, Malaysia, Australia & New Zealand within the next few weeks.

Colgate’s Regional Marketing Director Lyndon Morant said, “Now, more than ever, people have a stronger resolve when it comes to the world becoming a better place for all. This campaign really shows a turning point – not just for Colgate Total – but for the category as a whole that we can move into a broader, richer territory to connect with people in a way that our category hasn’t done before. Greatness is about demanding more every single day, and that’s the exact attitude we bring to Colgate Total.”

Outside of the film, the campaign also includes integrated communications across out-of-home, digital & eCommerce, and in-store displays.

Singapore – With a goal towards a larger ad market target, Singapore-based ad-tech company Adzymic has joined hands with branding and ad-tech firms in Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan to bring its full suite of dynamic creative solutions to advertisers. This comes after the company’s  expansion to Australia and India in 2019.

One of the company’s flagship advertisement solutions is the ‘Dynamic Creative Management Platform’ which functions as advertising transformation of physical to digital media, such as banners, carousel ads and social display ads, allowing advertisers to create ads without the need for coding experience. The company also offers a ‘Smart Tag’ technology, which enables advertisers to create personal ads through behavior tracking, machine learning algorithms, and updates.

For Hong Kong and Thailand, the company has officially tied up with Maadtech Global, a programming integrator solutions company, while also partnering with another Thai firm Spikebrand, a branding solutions company. Meanwhile for its Japan expansion, a collaboration has been forged with Atlas Associates, a local-based ad-tech startup focused on social networking site (SNS) management tools.

“Asia is expected to surpass North America as the biggest ad spender globally by 2021. 4 Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand are very exciting for us, both from a creative and growth perspective. They are known for their incredibly creative ads, and together with our partners’ local knowledge and network, we will deliver high impact campaigns with brands and agencies,” said Kenniess Wong, co-founder and executive director of Adzymic.

Adzymic, since its founding, has been involved with large brand partnerships, including DBS, Sony Pictures, Toyota and Esplanade Singapore. 

Bangkok, ThailandーThai-based food startup Yindii launches a mobile app, in collaboration with local restaurants and cafes, to sell food items at discounted prices, rather than potentially going into waste in an effort to prevent mass food waste produced by restaurants and cafes.

The mobile app, structured around a direct-to-consumer platform, offers “Happy Hour Deals” that are tailored per member restaurant or cafe. Once implemented, users may enjoy 50 to 70% per purchase.

Initial users of the app can avail an early discount for free delivery of their items, albeit limited to the first 100 users and within a 5-kilometer delivery radius.

While primarily focused to combat food waste problems by purchasing excess items, app users may also connect with their favorite restaurants to check on other discounts and savings.

Louis-Alban Batard-Dupre, Yindii founder and tech entrepreneur, expressed a positive note towards the project, reassuring that all food offered are of quality. He also stated that the app is just one of the startup’s ongoing mission to prevent food loss in the community.

“The growing problem of food waste is challenging to solve for endless reasons including logistics, the complexities of short-lived items and the lack of a set market, which is what we are working to help solve – with a simple system for people and restaurants of surplus food to connect and enact”, he stated.

The app is downloadable through Google Play Store and App Store. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur-based developer of scalable mobile platforms Forest Interactive has partnered with mobile network operators in eight countries to launch content subscription services. The service will be available in Myanmar, Switzerland, Austria, Kuwait, and Kenya as well as Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia.

Forest Interactive’s value-added-services offer a variety of mixed content such as an HTML5 game portal with over 400 plus premium game titles, premium Android games, and mixed creative content. The platform will also offer gaming platforms Gamemania, Gamesrack, Gameddiction, Fun Club, Mobiclubs, and HaHey VDO.

Johary Mustapha, chief executive officer of Forest Interactive said, “The ongoing global crisis has led to an increase in demand for creative content, especially videos and mobile games. This has allowed us to continue doing what we do best and launching these partnerships with mobile operators worldwide.”

“Forest Interactive has been developing scalable platforms with simplified service integration, equipped with customizable features and fast upgrade capabilities to better tailor to mobile operators’ business requirements at no initial setup fee or hidden cost. This will help mobile operators increase their average revenue per user and customer loyalty through cost-effective and profitable solutions,” Mustapha continued.

All subscription-based content is available to mobile subscribers once it has been approved by mobile operators and integrations. 

Bangkok, Thailand – Bidmath, a global programmatic consultancy, has opened an academy for the special training of Display & Video 360 (DV360), Google’s unified platform for programmatic buying.

DV360 is an end-to-end campaign management tool, which aside from media planning and buying, enables advertisers to manage creative development and run measurement for campaigns across display, video, TV, and audio.

The training academy was put up with an aim to increase the adoption of programmatic industry knowledge in the country. According to Bidmath, despite the substantial growth of programmatic advertising in Thailand, there is a lack of deep technical knowledge.

A study by ad tech firm Rubicon Project reflects such observation, having found that 43% of advertisers in Asia are either extremely or somewhat hesitant to switch from the traditional way of media buying through an insertion order (IO) to the more automated mode of programmatic buying. The study also suggested that the single biggest challenge hindering further growth of programmatic advertising budgets is a lack of understanding and appropriate skills to effectively plan and execute programmatic ad campaigns.

Three courses will be initially offered, with each focusing on a specific topic within DV360: private marketplace buying, optimization best practices, and the fundamentals. Courses will be offered in Thai, Vietnamese, and English, and will be available both virtually and in-person.

Director of Bidmath Asia KK Sharma said that the lack of understanding and technical skills are slowing advertisers down when considering the adoption of programmatic guaranteed spends and the potential upside for local publishers such as Viu for example.

“By introducing courses in local languages, we hope to see increased adoption of programmatic advertising across Asia, but there is still a long way to go. Courses in Thai and Vietnamese were launched to accelerate growth and reach,” Sharma said.

Singapore – State-owned Thai telecommunications company TOT has collaborated with Genesys, a California-headquartered cloud customer experience and contact center solutions to accelerate its contact centers.

According to a press release by Genesys, TOT, as a company responsible for operating government contact centers in Thailand, experienced a surge in call volumes when the Coronavirus broke out.

To effectively manage the increase in calls, Genesys embedded machine learning and conversational AI capabilities with the use of Genesys Cloud and Google Cloud Contact Center AI (CCAI) into its system, allowing callers to now interact with AI-powered virtual agents who are able to accurately capture a customer’s intent easily, routing them to the agents most well placed to handle their needs.

Genesys Cloud is the company’s proprietary web-based unified communications solution, connecting contact center users, business users, vendors, partners, and customers; while Google Cloud CCAI is Google’s solution that helps integrate AI into contact center processes.

According to Genesys, one of the pain points it has also targeted for TOT in integrating the new solution is the company’s added complication of having less manpower to receive calls amid social distancing measures.

“The telecom provider needed a solution capable of scaling rapidly to meet the unexpected surges in call volume, address a constantly evolving set of requirements, optimize agent resources, and still deliver superior customer satisfaction with empathy,” said Genesys.

Senior Director for Cloud and Digital at TOT K. Santhiphap Phoemmongkhonsap said that customer experience remains one of the most significant measures of success for TOT as a government organization.

Phoemmongkhonsap also shared that with audiences increasingly utilizing digital channels, TOT has made it a priority to modernize contact center infrastructure and maintain high customer experience standards despite significant changes to customer requirements due to COVID-19.

“TOT and Genesys shares a common vision of improving lives with technology, and we look forward to continue serving businesses and consumers in line with Thailand’s digital transition vision with a like-minded partner,” said Phoemmongkhonsap.

Commenting on the partnership, Gwilym Funnell, senior vice president, and general manager at Genesys Asia-Pacific said, “Genesys is honored to assist TOT in serving the needs of local businesses and consumers, and more importantly, harness technology to make lives better amid the ongoing pandemic. We operate with a strong belief in the transformational potential of AI and Cloud technologies for modern economies. We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to collaborate with one of Thailand’s telecommunications pioneers to accelerate digital transformation within one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing internet economies.”

Meanwhile, Head of Product for Conversational AI at Google Cloud Antony Passemard said “The successful application of Google Cloud’s CCAI solution by Genesys for TOT is a tremendous example of how applied AI can help organizations digitally transform quickly, and ultimately drive stronger, more efficient experiences for their customers while maintaining control of their costs.”

Malaysia – Online travel agency and metasearch engine Agoda has released its latest survey of most-searched destinations on agoda.com, where Kuala Lumpur is revealed to be the top-searched among Malaysians.

Kuala Lumpur was followed by Penang and Langkawi as the second and third most searched destinations, while similar local spots such as Port Dickson and Malacca rounded up the top five. Malaysians were also shown to shine interest in places outside the country with Thailand and Tokyo making it to the top 10 list. Meanwhile, national destinations such as Kota Kinabalu, Cameron Highlands, and Genting Highlands were also among the top searches. 

Kuala Lumpur remained the top destination for other types of searches such as for the couple, family, and solo travels while Bentong topped the list for group travels. Almost the same mix of places resulted from each category. Ipoh and Johar Baru entered the list for the couple searches. Malaysian families, on the other hand, were also keen for Korea as the country ended as one of top-searched for the family category. Meanwhile, the group travel search saw Allepey, Kuching, Koh Samui, and Taiping entering the list, while heightened liking towards international locations demonstrated among solo travel searches, with almost half being foreign countries such as Singapore and Taipei.

Agoda’s Vice President for Corporate Development Tim Hughes said that while Agoda’s search data shows that there has been a shift towards domestic destinations amid regulations for domestic travel, people are still dreaming about international travel adventures. 

“[Travelers] still have hope that travel corridors will open later this year to some key markets where COVID has been more contained, and are looking out for great deals for when they do,” said Hughes.