Not a day goes by when we don't talk about the 'digital talent gap' in the world of marketing. To help empower the next generation of business leaders by developing their skillsets and a digital mindset, Google is relaunching its digital training programme Squared from 7-25 September.

First debuted in Hong Kong last year, Squared is a Google-led initiative, developed specifically for individuals from the marketing and advertising industry with five to eight years experience, who have been identified by their senior management as having high leadership potential within their organisations.

This year, 31 participants from a wide variety of local and international advertisers, media agencies and creative agencies joining the digital education programme.

On top of local participants, Squared also got a candidate flying in from Taiwan to join.

Participating brands include L'Oreal, Nestle, Swire, Clarins, Hutchinson, Reckitt Benckiser and Citibank to name a few.

Among the participating agencies are Publicis, DDB, MediaCom, Grey Worldwide, Starcom, DAN and more.

Meanwhile, external speakers, guests and judges include Sue McCusker, CEO of Publicis Hong Kong, Bradley Young, head of mobile of Omnicom Hong Kong, Ricky Wong, CEO of HKTV and Phyllis Ma, regional digital and brand marketing manager at Hasbro.

The 12-day programme will support participants to realise the benefits and importance of working through digital channels but also to re-think their approach to learning, handling changes and how to become members of creative and efficient teams.

Squared will be delivered by the guest speakers and thought leaders of the industry as well as mentors and digital experts from Google.

The course is composed of three modules while the teams will be working with HKTV on this year's final project focusing on driving online business for HKTV Mall in the third module.

1. Foundation

The first module, led by Impact International, lays a base by letting participants understand their own personal leadership style and how they can leverage different tools and experiences in activities to work together as a team.

2. Projects and task-based learning

The second module is made up of three projects where the participants will have to collaborate in smaller teams to develop and present successful solutions to given challenges. Each project will also have a different focus from developing an understanding of growing businesses on and offline to more specific topics such as mobile, social and video.

3. Final project and graduation

The participants will work on their final project in the third module. This project focuses on helping the HKTV Mall site sustain an always-on traffic and business, by making suggestions on optimising their media allocation, improving digital marketing activity from previous campaigns.

They will also share their experiences, reflect back and form their plans for moving forward.

4. Ongoing revolution - becoming Squared Alumni (after Squared graduation):

Last year, there are 22 graduates from the inaugural Squared programme. The participants will go back to their business to practice their new skills in a real context, they will also become the global Squared Alumni, and establish their personal development plan.

The Squared alumni network will meet again in a few months time, as part of the Squared platform to foster on-going networking and communication across different years of Squared cohort.

Squared programme runs until 25 September.

Levi’s has partnered with global music streaming service, Deezer, in Malaysia to introduce its new women’s denim collection for fall 2015.

In conjunction with the launch, a custom built Levi’s in-app page

(http://www.deezer.com/app/ladiesinlevismy) is exclusively created via the Deezer platform. This page includes a nationwide contest inviting consumers to submit a song that empowers women to its #LadiesInLevisMY collaborative playlist, and to share on their social media.

To promote the campaign, a variety of ad placements will run on Deezer including streaming audio dd, homepage interstitial, mast head takeover, as well as on social media platforms and on Levi’s Malaysia’s website.

The first 300 submissions, matching the theme of the playlist, (The #LadiesInLevisMY Playlist) will also win a Deezer Premium+ subscription gift code, Levi’s vouchers and Levi’s® bluetooth headphones.

The campaign will run on Deezer from 1-30 September 2015. It features multi-Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, Alicia Keys as the new brand ambassador.

Her new single, 28 Thousand Days, is featured in the campaign, as well as the #LadiesInLevisMY playlist on Deezer.

Anitha Narayanan, country manager of Levi Strauss Malaysia said: “The Levi’s® Brand is pleased to announce a first-of-its-kind collaboration with a global music streaming service, as a digital platform to engage and empower. This collaboration with Deezer is another way for the Levi’s® Brand to connect with our consumers, and to further evoke the spirit of the brand which has always been an embodiment of the events of its time.”

Quentin Charriaut, head of international ad sales of Deezer said: “At Deezer, we believe that music is one of the most powerful ways to connect brands to consumers.”

For the #LadiesInLevis campaign, Pixels and Deezer built a music activation totally dedicated to the New Women’s Denim Collection, leveraging the Deezer catalogue and platform.

The campaign is brokered by Pixels, the multi-screen advertising company’s Kuala Lumpur office, acting as advertising sales partner of Deezer in South East Asia.

Initiative, a global communications network within IPG Mediabrands, has appointed creative director Nick Childs (pictured) as global chief creative officer. Childs joined the agency on September 1, and reports directly to Jim Elms, global CEO of Initiative.

Childs will be charged with overseeing creative story-building and trans-media content development for Initiative, which has offices in 73 markets and works with clients including Unilever, SAB Miller and BMW. Childs will expand Initiative’s mission to craft brand stories that help clients and people connect in compelling new ways.

Childs joins from FleishmanHillard, where he served as executive creative director. Prior to that role, he was head of content development at Grey NY. Past clients include Samsung, Cadillac, the NFL, P&G, DirecTV, and Diageo.

Elms said: “At Initiative, we are not afraid of doing things differently. Childs’ exceptional talent and unique ability to craft stories that set brands apart will provide a huge boost to the agency, and will ensure we continue to succeed in taking clients into bold new territories.”

Childs said: "In the past decade, we've seen the rise of integrated, strategically-driven creative ideas that stretch across all media, and Initiative has a huge opportunity to add to that growth. It's also a chance to have fun and help a great, global team work with exceptional clients."

MOOV continues its aggressive marketing efforts with a mobile “lyric toast van” (MOOV音樂麵包車) offering up toast printed with lyrics as morning cheer-ups to passers-by.

The food truck event, developed by Secret Tour Hong Kong, has seen a set of three inspirational lyrics burned into toast that is made with three types of unusual flavours, including Yuanyang (鴛鴦, coffee with tea), grapefruit and taro. Passers-by can redeem one of them by downloading the MOOV app with a one month free trial.

(Gallery available on web)

The MOOV-themed mobile van will only circulate around some busy districts in Hong Kong during morning and lunch hours.

Helen Sou, the new media senior vice-president at MOOV, said the experiential event was a move to showcase its engagement with consumers’ daily lives.

“Work is a significant part in everyone’s life so we want to reveal our support for them. Apart from providing music, we also give them a piece of bread with our lyric to cheer them up to work,” she told Marketing.

“Among music lovers in Hong Kong, there is a strong rapport with the lyrics from popular Canton-pops. And lyrics are often a tool for people to share their feelings with loved ones.”

This is evident in its summer promotional campaign “Share a Coke, Share a Song”, in partnership with Coca-Cola.

It first started in Australia in 2012. The concept arrived in Hong Kong this summer, with an all-around ad push spanning television, outdoor, print and digital, and was developed by McCann Hong Kong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rsyOtQpoto

Running until the beginning of October, the campaign has seen a set of 72 lines of popular local songs printed onto special edition Coca-Cola bottles and cans, themed under “love”, “friendship”, “family” and “encouragement”.

Users can listen to the songs and unlock one-month free trials by scanning the QR code or visiting the URL printed on the Coca-Cola pack.

The crossover between the two companies resonates with the growing trend of cross-industry and cross-platform collaboration between brands. The two seemingly unrelated products, music and drinks, are in fact both regular items that are consumed on a daily basis.

By joining forces, the campaign is aiming at a wider reach of target customers, and an enhanced marketing impact as a result.

“Coca-Cola is one of the most recognised brands and we share the same belief that the magical power of music can bring the world together,” Sou said.

“Music is regarded as a universal connector for all human beings, often with an emotional association. A song, or even just a lyric, can conjure up memories from the past. This collaboration is a perfect means to connect the MOOV brand to consumers emotionally.”

As part of the partnership, Coca-Cola has leveraged MOOV’s network to reach out to music enthusiasts, while MOOV has ridden on Coca-Cola’s massive customer base to provide wider access to the music platform.

“It’s a win-win situation. We’ve seen a significant rise of traffic to our platform during the campaign period. Via the campaign we can also influence those who don’t care about music to start embracing it; that’s the icing on the cake.”

To grab a bigger market share, MOOV has been betting big on advertising in recent years. But apart from ad pushes, what’s more important is co-branding opportunities, she said.

Last year, it teamed up with Samsung for a street event with Kary Ng’s (吳雨霏) live singing performance and a product demonstration in Mong Kok. They took part in a video production for viral content to sustain awareness after the event.

More recently, MOOV lined up with Sony for a workshop to enhance the brand essence of Sony hi-res audio, which included a product demonstration and pre-and-post promotion on social media platforms, including an interview video on YouTube.

(Gallery available on web)

It follows with a silent concert with csl.

(Gallery available on web)

“MOOV has been constantly evolving and deepening audience engagement by tapping into the daily lives of our customers. We will continue to look for fun and engaging ways to share music through MOOV,” she added.

To attract younger consumers, the ultra-luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce did something unprecedented: it streamed the press conference of its latest convertible Dawn on the worldwide web.

The online launch was unveiled with a video that model Jodie Kidd interviewed Rolls-Royce's chief executive Torsten Müller-Ötvös from the headquarters of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1VgmR0IAcY

In the digital age, the 111-year-old brand  has to reaffirm the brand’s contemporary positioning.

"We have seen a rejuvenation of the brand where the average age of our customers has fallen. We have embraced in full the way our progressive customers prefer to interact with us, having one of the most followed social media channels in the super-luxury automotive world. It is also an acknowledgement that our customers, who have highly mobile lives, are most accessible on their mobile devices and through non-traditional media channels,"

"Now, as our most ‘social’ car and the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built, Dawn is the car to capture the hearts and minds of the digital generation.” said Marc Mielau, the general manager of marketing at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

The car maker is understood to have abandoned the traditional motorshow launch for the Dawn – it came the week ahead of its appearance at the Frankfurt auto fair – in favour of the online campaign partly to lure the new sort of motorist it is hoping to attract.

The brand staged the digital launch to reach its younger, connected and more active owner base – an increasingly diverse crowd of 40-45 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx4bkvqoU4U

Sadia, a frozen chicken brand from Brazil which exports to Singapore and Japan, is trying to get some attention this election weekend.

Working with Publicis Singapore, which handle's Sadia's account in Singapore and Hong Kong, the team came up with a Facebook post that read: Help us out here. What should we cook tomorrow? #Yourvotecounts #GE2015

Publicis first started working on the account in July 2015 and the appointment is said to run for a year. The agency will handle social media management, content marketing of the brand's website and website creation for Sadia.

Meanwhile, if you have seen any other campaigns centered around the elections, share with us below.

Supermarket chain Tesco Malaysia has issued an apology on social media for a recent incident involving a pet dog being lugged in one of its trolleys by a customer. The incident was recorded on its CCTV cameras.

According to a statement posted on its Facebook page on 5 September, a customer had allegedly brought her pet dog to the store in spite of the store’s no-pets policy.

The statement said:

“We regret fully the incident involving a pet dog, belonging to one of our customers, being lugged around in our trolley at the Tesco Extra Plentong outlet. We would like to clarify that Tesco Malaysia does not allow pets in the presmises. Our staff is working alongside AJK Masjid Plentong to clean the trolleys in order to ensure that all of our trolleys are hygienic for use.”

The comments section of the announcement revealed that some users were doubtful about the veracity of the CCTV footage. Meanwhile, others slammed Tesco’s cleaning process citing a lack of regulation to ensure the trolleys’ hygiene.

Incidents around having pet dogs in public places have been highly debated in Malaysia. Last year, an event called that “I want to touch a dog” which was initially launched in an attempt to dispel Muslim fears of touching dogs came under fire by several members of the public. The event had a polarising effect, being covered by global press and spurred emotional comments from the public. Several religious leaders saw the event as an attempt to create a new lifestyle which could potentially hamper Muslim values and culture.

The Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) has appointed Rice Communications, as its public relations agency of record.

Rice Communications will support the organisation’s strategic communications initiatives and efforts starting this month across media relations, stakeholder engagement, content and social media.

raiSE aims to catalyse the development of a thriving social enterprise sector in Singapore, bringing together the resources and support of multiple public, private and people sector stakeholders. It provides support to the social enterprise ecosystem at various stages via a range of services including funding, business advisory, training, relevant resources and networks. raiSE will also be running the President’s Challenge Social Enterprise Award this year.

raiSE is led by a high-profile Board, led by Chairman Gautam Banerjee, chairman of Blackstone Singapore and member of the International Advisory Board.

“Rice Communications has an outstanding track record in corporate public relations, and with their ongoing support of start-ups and social enterprises, it makes them an ideal partner to work with on raising awareness and acceptance of social enterprises in Singapore,” said Alfie Othman, Executive Director of raiSE.

“They have executed strategic communications programs across Asia Pacific for firms of all sizes and this is essential and in line with eventually building regional networks to help Singapore’s social enterprises to expand overseas.”

Speaking on the appointment, Sonya Madeira, Founder & Managing Partner at Rice Communications said, “We are honoured to be chosen as a supporting partner of raiSE, and are thrilled to be able to share our passion for creating social value and playing a part in solving social challenges. Rice Communications has always been committed to supporting the social enterprise sector and together, we will help raiSE establish itself as one of the faces of the burgeoning social enterprise scene in the country.”

FleishmanHillard has expanded its crisis communications practice with the deployment of FH 2020.

FH 2020 is a digital media crisis management solution offered to clients regardless of location and enables businesses to prepare, anticipate, detect and mitigate crises in real-time through a strategic combination of people, processes and technologies.

According to the agency, the businesses today are faced with a different set of challenges – building and protecting reputation while moving at the speed of social. In addition to monitoring and understanding the ever changing traditional media landscape, crisis today is exacerbated by social media.

“There has been a major paradigm shift in the way crises break in today’s digital age. It is no longer just about managing your reputation in traditional media sources. It is also about managing and monitoring countless social media accounts, websites, platforms and forums to understand the social dialogue around your brand in order to prevent any crisis before it happens. And this poses a serious challenge to many businesses who are not accustomed to managing such a vast and extensive source of information,” Brian West, global lead, crisis, FleishmanHillard said

Managing social dialogues around brands in this unpredictable environment is only going to become more challenging with most crisis situations now being aggravated (or initiated) by a digital crisis.

Designed as a digital media crisis management platform, FH 2020 comprises a distributed network of trained analysts based in key markets across the globe. These analysts work together to provide real-time, global, multi-lingual data, integrated with a collaborative work space and a real-time content creation and distribution system. In a crisis, FH 2020 can be set up within minutes, providing critical real-time data and business intelligence to put insights into the hands of key decision makers:

• People – With a physical presence in 12 time zones and covering more than 20 languages, the FH 2020 network of more than 150 certified crisis counsellors ensures that FleishmanHillard can address local, regional and global crises immediately and on an on-going basis.
• Process – FH 2020 uses proven and tested approaches for onboarding, threat assessment and anticipation, reporting, and deploying the most effective mitigation and response tactics across our network.
• Tools – FH 2020 uses best-in-class tools for monitoring traditional and social media, running crisis simulations, and establishing command centres, and can easily work within a client’s existing technology infrastructure.

“Social media can be an unpredictable factor in any crisis situation. We are witnessing a rise in the number of crises that emerge through digital platforms and it is imperative that businesses have in place a proper system to manage and monitor the kind of social media dialogue and sentiment that is being generated about their brands,” Michel Mommejat (pictured), managing director, digital engagement Asia Pacific, FleishmanHillard added.

Social media management platform Hootsuite has integrated Facebook’s updated page features into Hootsuite campaigns.  This integration will help marketers run mobile-optimised Facebook marketing campaigns directly from the Hootsuite dashboard.

Hootsuite Campaigns enables businesses to reach new audiences through social media contests, sweepstakes and galleries. By integrating with Facebook’s updated Page features, these contests and campaigns can link to Facebook Pages with prominent call-to-action (CTA) buttons for users on mobile devices. These CTAs – which highlight the primary action businesses want visitors to take, whether it’s to make a purchase or download an application – will help to increase the number of leads, followers, and engagement.

“It was exciting to work with Facebook to integrate Hootsuite Campaigns into the new Page CTA features. With the dramatic rise in mobile usage, businesses know that they have to provide a great mobile experience to their customers. This integration will make it even easier for businesses to use Campaigns to grow and engage their mobile audience,” Greg Gunn, vice president of New Product Growth at Hootsuite said.

With the rise of digital advertising, advertising budgets have shifted from traditional media such as print and broadcast mediums to digital ones.

With the loss of advertising revenue, many traditional media publications have shifted their focus to digital channels, leading many pundits to proclaim the death of print media. Technologies such as augmented reality and visual search help marketers take advantage of the device which most consumers already carry around with them: the smartphone.

By next year, mobile technology will influence one in every four product sales. However, mobile marketing is currently confined to the digital realm, even though the mobile device is now inherently a part of how we interact with the real world. This needs to change.

Technologies such as augmented reality recognises this by letting people “see” the physical world differently using digital technology. Let’s say you want to buy a watch online, but aren’t sure how it will look on your wrist. Instead of just taking a gamble, you print off a paper wristband, strap it onto the wrist, and scan it using the in-app camera on your smartphone – and voila, on the mobile screen you see the watch perfectly placed onto your wrist. You’re able to meet a customer’s need – for validation – on-device, in a way that was once only possible through an in-store visit.

Visual search, on the other hand, allows advertisers to connect print and digital worlds. By snapping a picture of an item in a physical advertisement, consumers can instantly explore the item in more detail before being presented with the choice to buy that item with one click of the phone, Uber-style.

We see the process of being inspired by a product, researching and buying it reducing from a trip to the mall to a 60 second process on the smartphone. This is what we call the three-steps to buy; point-snap-pay.

Searching and shopping are increasingly conducted on mobile devices, where interactions through touch and sight are increasingly preferred to text-based search. Visual search and augmented reality apps simplifies the process of finding what you want in an intuitive way, without requiring readers and consumers to learn complex new behaviours or website URLs.  The more seamless the link between searching and buying, the greater a marketer’s ROI will be. This is especially so in Asia, where the smartphone is often the only source of digital content.

In addition, marketers and publishers alike have traditionally struggled when tracking return on investment from print advertisements, as there is no fully accurate methods of determining how much revenue came from such advertising campaigns. However, by overlaying a digital layer of content on top of these print advertisements, marketers are now able to track consumer engagement levels in ways that only digital can, such as click-through rates and/or the sales generated from each advertisement.

This allows them to justify marketing budgets much more easily to internal stakeholders, as well as experimenting to see what types of advertisements work best for their brands.  Magazine pages, billboards and other marketing collaterals are now effectively open as direct sales channels.

Augmented reality and visual search connect print to digital campaigns, creating a synergistic effect that brings out the best of both mediums – it’s no longer a case of one or the other. Off-line marcomms can be ‘on-lined’ very simply using a set of easy-to-use, desktop-based tools that are suitable for even the most tech-reticent marketers, whilst the more sophisticated applications can be deployed by more experienced in-house or agency teams using Software Development Kits (SDK).

Marketers and publishers now have much more flexibility in how to deploy these approaches. This gives publishers a much-needed USP, as they can distinguish themselves from other off-line print publications and can upsell these capabilities to their advertisers.

The writer is Niamh Byrne, chief operating officer of iQNECT.

根据eMarketer研究显示，到2017年，83%的数字广告会是程序化的。考虑到这个可能的走势，围绕这一问题的讨论自然相当热烈，尤其对于中国这样的一个市场。

以下有几个关键发展趋势。随着数据驱动营销、移动、社交媒体、视频、受众定位／实时购买等技术已经在最近几年取得了重要的战略意义，数字营销生态系统将继续经历显著转型。

我们最近举办的「绩效营销大会」上，爱点击iClick东南亚总经理Raymond Teoh与来宾分享了程序化广告在中国的发展状态，以及整个地区的营销人员在当中有什么可以借鉴之处。

反映中国市场概况的数字如下：

• 超过6.68亿互联网用户，普及率为49％
• 约5.94亿移动互联网用户，占中国网民的89％
• 移动广告支出在2015年达到了140亿美元，预计同比增长达80％

以下是中国市场的概况：

(Gallery available on web)

虽然数字可观，但中国面临着一个与西方市场截然不同的分散环境，当中存在各种挑战。Teoh 说：「数字营销人员面对太多的选择，往往无法分辨正确的路径。此外，广告购买的复杂性，对营销测量的准确性造成了瀑布效应。」

此外，营销人员还要处理透明度的问题。精明的采购员越来越重视透明度作为显示广告管理的所需元素，库存的急剧上升使理解情况和管理质量比以前更重要。

传统的媒体策划方式已不再可行。

相反，程序化广告承诺可以更有效地细分目标受众，提高投资回报率，帮助广告主测量增加支出所带来的成果。营销人员可以通过基于定价竞价和广告需求，以及灵活控制溢价和剩余库存，来实现最高的千人印象成本（CPM）率。

Teoh 说：「品牌还可以最大限度地减少剩余库存、了解用户、优化内容以吸引高价值的受众，同时招揽新用户和提高优质曝光率。」

对于全球众多品牌、以及有意以进入中国市场作为拓展业务的一种手段的人来说，中国是最大和最具挑战的市场之一。全球营销人员如何能够成功打入中国程序化广告市场？Teoh 分享了一些技巧。

• 库存：大部分程序化广告库存对接中国交易平台，许多私有的视频交易平台只提供高品质的DSP库存。
• 产品：一个良好、全面的DSP应该有一流的广告设置和汇报功能。
• 数据：寻找可信赖的合作伙伴，以支持第一方数据重新定位和动态创意优化。
• 算法：数据驱动的算法优化，是营销人员优化品牌建设和直接反应广告成效的关键。
• 服务全球品牌的经验：找一个拥有最多全球品牌和机构合作伙伴、能够理解品牌安全性和受众洞悉的可靠合作伙伴。

Whitewords was commissioned by Pernod Ricard Singapore to design a brand experience starting from collateral development to managing the art direction for a series of exquisite launch-tasting sessions of Aberlour’s full range of double cask matured whiskies – 12-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old – and cask-strength A’bunadh which were conducted by its local brand ambassador, Kamil Foltan (head bartender, Tippling Club).

Through extensive in-depth research on Aberlour’s rich history, heritage and legend, Whitewords conceptualised a series of handcrafted collaterals and materials to highlight the scent and taste of Aberlour, bringing out the artisanal values of the whisky.

Drawing inspiration from the enigmatic and intriguing character of Aberlour, which in Gaelic means “mouth of the chattering burn” (stream), we wanted to bring across the brand’s honest and quiet confidence from the elements used to develop Aberlour, while paying homage to the true craftsmanship and prestige of this spirit.

The wooden invite block was the first collateral to reach guests – signifying the start of the Aberlour journey that was inspired by the beautiful Speyside of Scotland.

With a printed map of Aberdeen, the region where Aberlour originates, wrapped around the invite to somewhat symbolise a mystery map and tied with a red ribbon – a subtle brand accent of Aberlour.

Securely sealed together with a customised golden Aberlour wax seal showing the iconic Aberlour Oak Tree and Well, all these elements encompassed the beginning chapter of the enigmatic tale of Aberlour.

Colours in the Aberlour palette were used in all the collaterals, where they were inspired by the brand essence of “a fount of richness, generosity and honesty”. The warm earthy tones of brown and cream represented the generosity of nature and the richness of the whisky. Gold was used to give luxury cues, while red gave a contemporary luxury hint.

Considered typography for the invite and other accompanying tasting collaterals (specially made leather coasters gifted in their own special drawstring pouch, and tasting notebook with information) was another opportunity to create a standout and to visually reinforce the artisanal expertise at the heart of the brand.

Inspired by the original ledger books from 1890 (Aberlour was established in 1879), the intent was for the typography to clearly share facts and details of this carefully handcrafted luxury spirit and the alchemy of its creation.

As the story unfolded, we introduced the individually hand-cut Aberlour “secret” book, where within the book laid an Aberlour 12-year-old miniature sample. Just as the family motto of James Fleming, who built the Aberlour distillery in the 19th century, says, “Let the deed show” – this “secret” book invited readers to discover the story simply by savouring it.

Over five sessions of trade mentoring from bar professionals to wine shops, the media to high-net-worth individuals, Whitewords took charge of creating an experience taking the guest from the point of receiving the invite (handmade wooden block sealed with wax) to the tasting session where the tasting ingredients and Aberlour-inspired pieces were artfully directed.

(Gallery available on web)

• Objective

Conceptualise a fresh set of collaterals as well as design tasting experiences to launch the Aberlour full range of double cask matured whiskies in Singapore.

• Target audience

The guests invites included professionals such as bartenders and wine retailers, as well as local media from trade publications, lifestyle magazines to a daily newspaper.

• What was the result?

Ninety-five per cent of guests who received the invite attended the tasting sessions.

The writer is Jacke Tan, creative director of Whitewords.

The Direct Mail Case Study is brought to you by Marketing Magazine in association with DMrocket.

Asia Television is changing hands.

ATV executive director Ka-po Ip announces the company has sold 42% equity interest to China Culture Media International Holdings and the deal has been approved by its agent Deloitte.

Shareholder Ben Koon Wong is selling his 52.41% stake to the Chinese company, and 41.66% has been successfully sold, says Ip.

Wong and China Cultural Media Group reached the agreement on 11 June, and the remaining 10.75% stake will be released later.

China Culture Media, which bought the shares, belongs to Qingdao-based Sino Finance International Investment Group.

Ip emphasises that ATV's editorial stance will not change, adding that its news department will remain impartial.

He also says the new investor plans to invest HK$10 billion in ATV, which will then be able to pay employees as well as increase salaries in future.

ATV plans to add two channels to its current six, and the eight will include a finance channel and a Mandarin channel, Ip adds.

The broadcaster will also reapply for its licence, which the government turned down the renewal in April.

The existing licence will expire in seven months.

The Communications Authority said it has received ATV's notice on the shareholders' change and is processing it according to the Broadcasting Ordinance.

亚洲电视股权易手。

亚视执行董事叶家宝宣布，亚视已通过其代理人德勤，出售了42％的股权予中国文化传媒国际控股有限公司。

叶家宝表示，主要股东黄炳均持有亚视的52.41%股权，其中41.66%的股份已交易成功。

黄炳均和中国文化传媒于6月11日达成协议，而剩下10.75%的股权变更会待时机合适后公布。

买入股份的中国文化传媒，，是青岛中金国际投资有限公司旗下子公司。

叶家宝强调，股权易手不会影响亚视的编辑立场，并表示新闻部依然继续中立，保持其自己采编独立自主。

他还表示，新股东未来会投资100亿港元，届时将能解决员工发工资的问题，并相信未来亚视员工拿到的工资是远超过现在。

叶家宝补充表示，未来亚视将由现有的6个频道增加至8个，新增频道为财经频道和用普通话广播的中文频道。

于今年4月被吊销免费电视牌照的亚视将重新申请免费牌照。

现有免费牌照将在七个月后到期。

香港特区通讯事务管理局表示，已收到有关亚视提出股权变动的申请，会根据既定程序处理。

Razorfish has promoted JK Shen to managing director of its Shanghai office, responsible for driving new business and leading the office’s 120 employees.

Reporting to Razorfish China CEO Esther Yang, Shen previously served as senior vice president and head of brand building for Razorfish China, where he helped lead teams for Lay’s, Nike, Unilever, Estée Lauder, and MHD.

Yang described Shen as a "rare talent" with a strong background of digital in China.

“Not only is he a Shanghai native with an authentic understanding of the Chinese consumer, he is also a pioneer in China’s social media market.”

睿域营销（Razorfish）晋升沈佳齐为上海区域总经理，负责推动新业务的发展以及带领睿域营销上海办公室120名员工。他将向睿域营销中国首席执行官杨恩惠汇报。

沈佳齐之前担任睿域营销中国高级副总裁以及社会媒体主管，他带领团队帮助乐事、耐克、联合利华、雅诗兰黛、酩悦香槟等进行了成功的品牌活动。

杨恩惠形容，沈佳齐是「不可多得的人才」，在数字媒体方面是中国资历最深的人之一。

「这并不仅仅是因为他是上海人对中国客户理解深入，更是因为他是中国社交媒体的先驱。」

Marriott International and Ant Financial Services Group, an independent financial group and an ecosystem partner of Alibaba Group, have reached an agreement to roll out Alipay to hotels and resorts under Marriott International’s brands.

With this agreement, guests at select Marriott International hotels can choose to pay for their hotel stays, food and beverage purchases as well as for meeting and event bookings using Alipay on their smartphones.

Marriott International will initially activate Alipay at 10 hotels in greater China, gradually expanding to other hotels in China and across Asia by mid-2016.

The first 10 hotels to install Alipay include The Ritz-Carlton, Sanya, Yalong Bay, JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square, Shanghai Marriott Hotel Pudong East and Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel.

To better serve China visitors traveling abroad, Marriott also expects to introduce Alipay to properties in key markets outside Asia by the end of 2016.

The agreement, said Marriott, represents another step in the creation of a complete mobile-powered travel experience that is effortless, seamless and more rewarding for its guests.

Craig Smith, president & managing director of Marriott Asia Pacific, said the group aims to deliver more local and innovative services to customers.

Alipay currently has 400 million registered users and 200 financial institution partners. It handles over 120 million transactions daily, of which mobile payment accounts for more than half.

Alibaba Group kicked off its annual 11.11 shopping festival on 8 September, named this year as the “2015 Alibaba Group 11.11 Global Shopping Celebration”.

The group will also host its inaugural 11.11 countdown gala celebration, which will be directed by Chinese film director Feng Xiao Gang and held on November 10 and broadcast live in China.

O2O initiatives will continue to be the key focuses of Alibaba’s 11.11 this year. Approximately 100,000 brick-and-mortar stores in China such as Suning and Intime will establish strategic O2O collaboration agreements with Alibaba Group, which will cover marketing, customer management, post-sales management, logistics, and more.

Through these omni-channel initiatives, customers will be able to participate in the 11.11 shopping festival no matter if they are online or offline.

Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group's chief executive officer, said there will be innovative new opportunities to improve the overall customer shopping experience.

“This year’s 11.11 focus will be on both globalization and O2O, as these are the core to our overall corporate strategy. In addition, this is the first time ever that Alibaba Group will have an 11.11 countdown event to promote the sales day to celebrate the potential for limitless innovation that technology has provided for all of us,” said Zhang.

“We are working closely with international brands, foreign governments, trade associations, and global retailers to make this year’s 11.11 shopping festival a truly and unprecedentedly global shopping experience for consumers, and a gateway for new brands and companies trying to reach the China marketplace and our 367 million active users.”

The 11.11 shopping festival began in 2009. Last year, more than 27,000 brands and merchants participated in Alibaba Group’s 11.11 shopping festival, which generated 278 million orders for a total of US$9.3 billion (RMB 57.1 billion) of gross merchandise volume (GMV) settled through Alipay on Alibaba’s China and international retail marketplaces, with mobile purchases accounting for 42.6% of total GMV.

Consumers from over 217 countries and regions were able to select from more than one million products through mobile applications and e-commerce websites.

万豪国际集团与独立金融服务机构兼阿里巴巴集团的金融新生态合作伙伴蚂蚁金融服务集团已达成合作协议，宣布万豪旗下品牌的酒店及度假酒店将接入支付宝移动支付，客人可以通过支付宝在万豪酒店消费。

根据这项合作举措，客人在参与计划的万豪旗下酒店支付消费时，可以在其智能手机选择采用支付宝，此等消费包括酒店住宿、餐饮及举办会议活动等。

万豪国际集团将首先在大中华地区旗下10家酒店率先接入支付宝，计划到2016年中时扩展至中国及亚洲地区所有酒店。

10家率先接入支付宝的酒店包括三亚亚龙湾丽思卡尔顿酒店、上海明天广场JW万豪酒店、上海金桥红枫万豪酒店和北京富力万丽酒店。

到了2016年底，在亚洲以外主要市场的酒店也陆续接入支付宝。

这次合作，显示万豪朝着为客人打造便捷、无缝及更佳全方位移动旅行体验的宏图又迈进一步。

万豪国际集团亚太区总裁兼董事总经理施康瑞（Craig S. Smith）表示，酒店致力提供切合本地市场需要及创新服务。

目前支付宝有超过4亿名注册用户及200多家金融机构伙伴，每天处理超过1.2亿笔交易，其中逾半来自移动支付。