DDB has launched Tango5, an agency which specialises in championing social impact. The agency will be jointly-led by its social media creative director Benjamin Lee (pictured middle), also known as Mr Miyagi, Josiah Ng (pictured left), content and experiential marketing consultant, and strategist Koo Ze-hou (pictured right).
The new agency aims to drive advocacy work and help organisations achieve greater social impact. It will continue to drive the work DDB has done with clients in the ‘social for good’ causes space in past years.
Some work undertaken by DDB in the past includes creating the brand for the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre’s (NVPC) corporate philanthropy programme ‘Company of Good’. Other campaigns include ‘Our Better World’ by Singapore International Foundation, along with work with non-profit organisations such as the Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF) and Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP), to boost outreach.
DDB has also created a series of original content and orchestrated social media experiments for key clients such as Ministry of Communications & Information (MCI), StarHub, McDonald’s, SilkAir and DBS Bank. Tango5 is expected to lend its expertise for the recent appointment for the Nation Building campaigns by MCCY.
According to a press statement, Tango5 will build on DDB’s ethos of ‘Creativity+Humanity’, as social impact has grown from a passion for DDB Group, to an in-demand best practice for the agency’s work across its key clients. The move to start Tango5 follows the shift towards consumers showing greater social consciousness and support for brands which are seen as leaders of change.
It is part of DDB’s move to offer specialised marketing solutions with its T-divisions as the agency looks to boost its talent pool. It claims to have seen breakthrough growth with digital innovation arm Tribal, shopper marketing arm TracyLocke, portals and e-commerce arm Track and Tasseologic which specialises in data-mining. It recently launched a global tech hub, Equator, in Singapore with the support of the Economic Development Board.
“We are keen on social impact – done intelligently, cohesively – for our clients’ marketing. Social has become the most influential media for brands and causes. We are way past producing one-hit wonders and well into creating systemic, long-term social impact. And that means investing in top-class talent with exceptional skills – idea scripting, influence marketing, content production and brand advocacy– for a complete end-to-end offering. Lee, Ng and Koo are the new champions of social impact creativity,” David Tang, CEO of DDB Group Singapore and Asia, said.
It was started up by DDB’s Rowena Bhagchandani (managing director), Joji Jacob (group ECD), Khalid Osman (creative director) and Lester Lee (creative director). Simultaneously, DDB hired JWT ECD Chris Chiu, who is joining the team as chief creative officer, while former Y&R MD Melvin Kuek is taking on the role of managing director.
Most recently, Guillaume Pagnoux also joined as chief planner to become part of the leadership team helmed by David Tang, Neil Johnson and Jeff Cheong.
With Malaysia's recent decision not to renew its hosting rights with Formula One (F1) after 2018, the stakes in the region are high for the Formula One Group, with negotiations in Singapore still ongoing in reaching a final decision – that is, whether or not the city state will host the annual Singapore Grand Prix after 2017.
The big question; if Singapore follows Malaysia's lead and declines new hosting rights, what will happen to the brand’s foothold in Southeast Asia altogether?
"Clearly, the F1 looks bad if it is no longer in Southeast Asia (SEA)," said Nick Foley, president of Southeast Asia Pacific and Japan for Landor.
While other sporting events do take place in Singapore, such as the WTA women's tennis Finals and the Rugby 7s series, only F1 proves that Singapore should be taken seriously as a sporting hub on the world stage, Foley said.
In fact, Foley also added:
With Malaysia now pulling out of F1, Singapore is well placed to negotiate a deal that works well for the country, as well as for F1.
"It will be counter-intuitive for F1 to lose its presence in SEA, one of the only economic regions in the world that is enjoying reasonably robust economic growth, thanks to a growing middle class, rising incomes and steady inflow of foreign direct investment," said Dragon Rouge’s CEO of Southeast Asia Zayn Khan.
But again, Khan said, this also leads to the question: "Who actually attends F1 in Malaysia and Singapore and why are they losing interest?"
Questions about the competition's relevance and identity in the region need to be addressed, and quickly, Khan emphasised.
CEO of Consulus Lawrence Chong echoed Khan's observation pointing out that “F1 is at a crossroads and it is not like before. Auto brands are not putting that much emphasis into the race itself and are reconsidering their participation in the race. So certainly the issues at F1 do have an effect on the host countries."
Singapore’s F1 race costs about S$150 million to put on every year, 60% of which is funded by the government. But it doesn’t help the country to justify when ticket sales are not improving.
One possible reasons, Khan said, could be that the glamour of sports racing has worn off and needs to be re-invented: “It needs an injection of technology. It needs an injection of gender equality. It was sexy in the 70s.”
Both Chong and Khan raised concerns about F1 losing a key foothold in SEA with one of the world's largest concentrations of youth, if a deal with Singapore can't be struck.
Khan added:
Millennials probably don't care about it anymore. Even more worrying is that the people who are driving the growth of this region - the local emerging middle classes - are not being engaged by F1. They probably see it as an event for the elite, for foreign tourists, as a television property for big corporate.
When asked what Singapore stood to lose if F1 does not return in 2018, Foley said branding and destination marketing could be heavily affected without the annual night race.
“Singapore needs a global event to attract tourists and put it on the map. The night F1 on a city circuit is unique and distinct. The F1 is tremendously positive for Brand Singapore. It would be a shame to see it go,” he added.
"Singapore does an amazing job of hosting the F1 and the city looks stunning. This is what the rest of the world sees. It’s good for SEA and brilliant for Singapore. Could you imagine what a two hour TV advertisement would cost? This is the power of holding an event which looks amazing and goes to a broad, global audience," said Foley.
But of course, the challenges also remain on how F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone would persuade the city state to continue in hosting the grand event.
“How to re-position (F1) as accessible and exciting entertainment for everyone - this may be the only way to drive numbers. Of course it would mean re-thinking event pricing and leaning more on sponsorship, but I am sure if the audience were bigger and broader, more sponsors would be willing to insert their brands,” said Khan.
However, Chong said he believes F1 has done enough to help position Singapore as an exciting city and a place of the future. “Over the recent years, Singapore has consolidated this image as a city for tomorrow. So although F1 has helped to visualise that, it is not worthwhile to invest so much money for a competition that is losing audience and participants.”
Singapore has to make prudent bets, said Chong: “F1 leadership structure has not evolved and the future is not certain so it is better to end on a good run than end it when the going gets bad.”
Foley also added, in determining whether or not to keep the F1, Singapore must distinguish between short- term tactical reasons versus broader strategic factors that bode well for the nation reputation, as well as considering the qualitative criteria rather than a quantitative one that only focuses on immediate financial return.
“The F1 attracts a range of bands and musical entertainers. How could more be made of this? The challenge is to move the F1 from just being a car race to being an entertainment brand with broader appeal. This is eminently possible. If the shift can be made, then Brand Singapore will be the winner!" said Foley.
It was announced in September this year, that the new owner of F1 is now US media conglomerate Liberty Media which has acquired the company for US$4.4 billion from Luxembourg’s investment fund CVC Capital Partners. This deal also values the sport at US$8 billion, according to The Guardian.
The takeover certainly brings a fresh chapter for the sports group, which has about 400 million viewers worldwide, but it also opens up new questions on its new direction.
BBC reported that F1 is struggling to win audiences back in the US, and with Singapore’s deal still in the midst of discussion – the uncertainty and challenges are high on how F1 will remain as one of the world's top sports brands.
The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) have launched a nationwide campaign rallying Singaporeans to beat diabetes by making a positive change in their diet and lifestyle. This was done with the help of Tribal Worldwide Singapore.
Launched by health minister, Gan Kim Yong, on World diabetes day, the campaign is rooted in one simple truth that if you don't watch your diet and exercise regularly, you may trigger a chain reaction of bad habits. This might eventually lead to diabetes and its complications.
To kick-start the campaign, a series of six television commercials (TVCs) will be aired on television channels, in the four official languages. Supporting the TVCs will be large installations, bus wrap and screenings on OOH billboards. Social media will also be used to extent the campaign's reach to audiences in the digital space.
According to statistics released by the International Diabetes Federation, Singapore has the second-highest proportion of diabetics among developed nations. At the rate the numbers are growing, it is estimated that by 2050, as many as 1 million Singaporeans may suffer from diabetes.
Jeff Cheong, president of Tribal Worldwide Asia, said, “Diabetes is a serious problem in Singapore, but we can all take steps to prevent and manage the condition. This is every Singaporean’s fight, as it affects not just the afflicted, but their families too. We hope that our effort inspires a chain reaction for positive change.”
Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) have partnered up to produce and distribute short form digital video content on SPH multimedia platforms as part of a public service broadcast initiative.
The programmes will feature local content produced in both English and Mandarin, on key themes such as current affairs, culture, sports, entertainment and lifestyle.
The first series, InstaScram, will be launched across various SPH sites and platforms, including AsiaOne and Stomp. Other anchor series include AskST, a programme produced in conjunction with The Straits Times' Ask ST initiative that aims to educate Singaporeans by curating and answering readers’ questions. There is also a Why It matters initiative, which is a Chinese-language animation series that explains major global issues and trends, and their relevance to and potential impact on Singaporeans.
Alan Chan, CEO of SPH, said with the digital medium becoming increasingly visual, videos are an important and growing segment of digital content consumption.
“The convergence between infocomm and media presents fresh opportunities to showcase and deliver compelling content to a wider, and increasingly digital savvy audience.” said Gabriel Lim, CEO, IMDA.
“We hope our collaboration with SPH, known for its strength in factual content, will continue to encourage Singaporeans to watch and appreciate local productions,” he added.
China's largest online travel agency Ctrip acquired Scotland-based flight search company Skyscanner for US$1.7 billion in a bid to step up its overseas ambitions.
Skyscanner, a 13-year-old company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, conducts comprehensive searches across a large number of travel providers and generates price comparisons.
In China, visitors to the platform grew 67% in 2015 and mobile visitors nearly doubled, according to a company statement in February. Skyscanner also acquired Chinese travel startup Youbibi in 2014.
It will remain operationally independent with its current management team, the statement said.
In its third-quarter results, Ctrip said it had also acquired "two large US tour operators specialised in serving Chinese travellers", without naming them.
Ctrip co-founder and CEO Jame Liang said: "This acquisition will strengthen long-term growth drivers for both companies. Skyscanner will complement our positioning at a global scale."
"Ctrip and Skyscanner share a common view – that organising travel has a long way to go to being solved. To do so requires powerful technology and a traveler-first approach. In taking the next step to achieving our goal, Skyscanner will remain operationally independent and our growing global team will continue to innovate and deliver the products travelers know and love. It's an exciting time for our business, our partners and the travelers who use us," said Gareth Williams, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skyscanner.
Fintech company Iqianjin (愛錢進) Internet Finance has re-appointed J. Walter Thompson Beijing for brand and creative duties.
The agency began working with Iqianjin in 2015, creating a brand campaign to highlight its services in a competitive P2P financial services marketplace. In early 2016, the Iqianjin reappointed the agency again to continue building its brand.
After a competitive, three-way pitch, Iqianjin has now signed on again with J. Walter Thompson for 2017. The agency will develop a brand film for TV as well as work that will be published in print and online to promote the concept of P2P financing to a wider audience.
“We are thrilled to continue our journey with Iqianjin. This is a highly ambitious, innovative brand in a very dynamic, new space. We’ve come a long way together over the last two years, and we look forward to taking the brand to the next level,” said Jeffrey Yu, managing director of J. Walter Thompson Beijing.
French Embassy and Institut Français of Singapore collaborated with Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) to promote the French Film Festival for the first time in Singapore. According to the agency, the two experimented with new forms of communication with its discerning audience.
To create awareness of the French Film Festival amongst Singaporeans, and to entice audiences to attend it, O&M created an integrated campaign encompassing a new visual identity and logo, website, movie trailer, long form ads in the form of 12-sheet posters. The posters were displayed around Singapore, magazine placements, radio spots, POS and PR.
Moreover, O&M will continue to promote French films in 2017 through a partnership with independent cinema and creative platform called The Projector which screens French films.
“As a whole, the campaign really set the tone for our films which are a world away from the Hollywood blockbusters that most people are used to seeing. It was exciting to see how this new approach to our communications helped to attract a much larger, more diverse audience to our events,” said Guillaume Duchemin, regional audiovisual attaché for SEA, French Embassy of Singapore.
From the 10 to 20 November 2016, the festival showcased 18 movies, across theatres in Singapore.
Recently, O&M was also appointed as the creative agency to deliver two new creative campaigns for Singapore’s Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth in 2017, with Maxus Communications Singapore as media partner.
One Championship started up in Asia five years ago. The company has since grown tremendously bagging partnerships with brands such as Under Armour and The Walt Disney Company. Most recently, it also entered a massive definitive agreement, led by investment firm Heliconia Capital Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. The partnership is valued at “eight figures” in US dollars.
With mixed martial arts (MMA) being one of the fastest growing sport in Asia currently, the sport has seen exponential growth by over 30 times in the past decade. While no doubt the platform is gaining momentum across Asia, not all stages of its journey has been smooth sailing.
Addressing a crowd of over 200 marketers in Marketing’s Digital Marketing Indonesia conference, Victor Cui, CEO of One Championship said the start for example had been shaky largely because of a traditional marketing mindset. But since then, the digital and social team at One FC has come a long way. He said:
I believe that it has never been easier to start a new company in the world because of social media and tools present. But it has also become more challenging now, because of the noise out there.
He added: “When I first started I was a traditional marketer and I would create this 360 degree campaign. The mistake I made was this was not how the world worked anymore, but I still thought that’s how we had to make a marketing campaign.”
His hires too reflected his traditional mindset, Cui admitted. The folks he brought on board initially were people who well understood 360 degree marketing. But because of the speed of change in consumer behaviour, mastering traditional marketing was simply not enough.
Cui, who had worked in the sports media industry for over 20 years, told the audience he first moved to Asia in 1995 to work on Malaysia’s commonwealth games. He has over the span of his career worked with the Olympics, PGA tour and ESPN before launching One championship. Speaking of his learning curve when he first launched One Championships, he said:
I was an excellent traditional marketer but personally I wasn't adjusting to the curve of social media fast enough. The consequence was that for the first few years, we missed our goals.
Recounting an experience in 1995, he said that back then, when the company asked the marketing and sales teams if they needed a computer, many said no.
"This was because making calls and closing deals and faxing details was getting the deal done. Many didn’t feel the need to embrace this new foreign technology known as the 'computer'," he said, adding that those same people were out of a job in the next 10 years.
And while working without a computer seems simply unimaginable today, the same inertia to embracing upcoming tools and technologies still exist. But it can, and needs to be overcome, for the success of any marketer and brand. Cui said to overcome his own inertia,he took online classes and courses to build up knowledge about the world of digital and social, adding.
Today Cui has a personal brand following with over 700k followers on Facebook and Twitter. Most of his posts garner approximately a thousand likes. He added:
This didn’t happen by accident, it happened by design. I worked the last couple of years to get to that. I didn’t just say I won’t worry about digital or social media. I am 45 years old, I forced myself to learn.
Cui candidly added that to truly ensure he understood social to its granular level, he taught the same social media skills he had acquired to his 75 year old mother.
“I forced my mom to do it and now she has 30k followers organically with no advertising spend. I had to make sure I could understand social media completely,” he said.
He also highlighted three key takeaways in the world of social:
1. Timeliness trumps everything
Cui said that from the traditional marketing and media perspective, marketers used to think that after they create a content piece or campaign and publish it, they are done with their jobs. But today it’s the opposite because the tracking and measurement starts only after launching a campaign.
“Back when I used to run traditional campaigns, we spent months creating a campaign waiting for it to be perfect and you sit back and wait for results. But today it doesn’t work like that. The moment your work gets published, the social work starts. We at One Championship really take time to really look at the results and evaluate it,” he added.
Initially, Cui said, he was fixated on getting the information out with 100% accuracy which would lead to delay of the news getting out. But he soon learnt that 100% accuracy doesn’t matter. Of course, marketers should want to be as accurate as possible to maintain credibility, but what is really important is timeliness.
“If you can get information at faster pace to your fans, you are allowed to cross correct after. That’s a big difference in live sports because it is about results and nobody cares about it two days later. Also our brands and partners want to work real time with the consumers,” he said.
He added that many times, marketers are still stuck as they fear “going live” on social and letting go of control. But the important thing is to reach out to people and connect.
“What people want to see are all the different stories that are not polished. The important thing is to listen to people who you want to reach out to,” he added.
2. Adaptation is vital
Recounting the days of 1995, he said often folks on marketing or sales teams would get an email, print it out and then fax it over to their clients.
“Sounds ridiculous right? But that is exactly what we were doing when we first started One Championship,” he said. The organisers would often take a poster and plaster it on Facebook. But they soon learnt that didn’t make sense.
“People don’t go on social media to see a poster. But to me, when we first started, that made sense. And I would wonder why people didn’t know about us and engage with us, despite our digital and social media posts and efforts. That was old school thinking,” he said, adding:
You have to embrace new technology and really the last 20 years of my life is useless today and I had to put it out of our mind.
3. Build content for each platform
“When I was in ESPN, we were so in love with the product and content, we would take content for TV and put it on digital or social media - and it failed,” he said. This is because the way people consume content on social media is completely different from how they do it on TV or print.
Think of how difficult it is to stop someone’s thumb [from scrolling down]. You have to capture attention and get them to stop their thumbs and look – that’s hard.
He urged marketers in the room to make content specific for each platform. Everything One Championship does, he added, is made by design for each platform be in a gym, video for social media or for even Cui’s own Facebook. It is all about understanding the audience. He added that the best thing this leads to is the various ways brands can tell their story.
Content for the Asian palette
According to Cui, if asked to replicate the success of One Championship with the same budgets and dynamics in Northern America, he would probably fail.
“If you are to give me same amount of money to launch in North America, I think I would fail. Every day of the week in North America, there is world class sports content because of the dominance sports plays in their lives. This however, is not the case in Asia. Sports is a new phenomenon here,” he said. As such, there is a great opportunity for brands in Asia.
Moreover, the taste palette for content in North America is also vastly different.
“Mixed martial arts has been displayed as a violent sport. In North America you have athletes who are arrogant and swearing and throwing water in your face during a press conference because the viewer’s love it,” he said. But in Asia that doesn’t resonate because the values of martial arts in Asia is “the complete opposite”, he said. It is about respect and loyalty. Moreover martial arts has a long history in Asia.
“We have very few examples of Asian athlete heroes to look up to, except in martial arts where we have history with the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee and Manny Pacquiao. But across other sports in Asia we suck because we don’t have the sports history,” he added. He added that a new martial arts champion coming from Asia be it Singapore or Indonesia or China is far more likely that. Albeit not impossible, he added:
To think the next big F1 racer will come from Singapore or world tennis championship from Indonesia is unlikely.
A move into original content
When asked if he would move into creating content given the rise of players such as iFlix and Netflix in Asia, Cui said it is not off his radar completely but is something he and his team would approach carefully.
“There is a big gap in creating original content in Asia versus North America. When audiences watch Amazing Race and Amazing Race Asia, they can tell there is a difference but they don’t know what,” he said. He added that it isn’t the technology that is different but rather the soft skills that the region lacks.
“In Asia we aren’t there yet when it comes to original content. It is still a difficult challenge to create something world class,” he added.
Edelman has reshaped its Shanghai leadership team. Alex Lam, former head of digital performance at Publicis China, has been hired as GM of Edelman Digital Shanghai and Guangzhou, effective immediately.
Prior to joining Edelman, Lam was head of digital performance at Publicis China, and has also served at MediaCom and Optimedia China. Lam has over 10 years of experience in integrated digital advertising, including creative and communications strategy, social strategy, media planning, performance marketing and e-commerce. He has worked on clients such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Shanghai General Motors, L’Oreal, Epson (Europe) and Haier.
Sonny Shen, currently MD of Edelman Shanghai and SVP of China, will take the role of part-time senior executive advisor to pursue new opportunities effective January 1, 2017. Jeffrey Yu, CEO of Edelman China, has been appointed interim MD of Edelman Shanghai.
Bob Grove, CEO of Edelman North Asia, said: “We look forward to drawing upon Sonny’s experience and deep expertise to consult on our existing clients and new business.”
“We are fortunate to have Sonny’s respected communications marketing counsel, which is trusted by some of the world’s leading organisations operating in China and beyond,” said Yu. “At the same time, Alex will use his leading digital experience to help us strengthen our brand offer and achieve our communications marketing vision for the benefit of our clients.”
Nothing can make you feel happier than unwrapping your Christmas present, especially when it is a giant, 2-metre tall gift box.
Knowing our deepest desire, British hairstyling brand ghd recently launched a campaign, which deployed giant ghd gift boxes across strategic high foot traffic locations around Hong Kong.
The gift boxes are all measure over 2 metres tall, and wrapped in hundreds of layers of gift packaging, which customers are encouraged to "let rip" for a chance to find a hidden QR code, one of 300 prizes to be won, including gift sets and free hairstyle tutorials in its stores.
"The brand looks to raise brand awareness in the city with the new initiatives," Karen Hui, client services director at ghd Hong Kong's integrated marketing agency Catalyst, told Marketing. "By putting ghd's glitzy and glamorously designed box in busy locations like Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Central, and encouraging everyone to interact with the brand by ripping the packaging off, ghd can establish its brand recognition in a fun, playful way."
She added that locations are strategically chosen for further driving traffic to store. "In ghd's case, these are style-conscious women between the age of 18-50 who spend their weekends at leisure at premium retail districts."
Response has been positive. While people have to follow either one of ghd's social channels before playing the game, the brand's Instagram fanbase has grown by over 3%, and its Facebook by over 4.5%, with over 76% increase in reach from content created around the campaign.
Media Prima has appointed Leo Burnett Malaysia as its creative agency for myFreeview, its free digital TV broadcasting service in Malaysia. The agency will be responsible for strategic development and delivery of creative communications for its digital terrestrial television (DTT) project.
The DTT project, which is an education and awareness campaign, is spearheaded by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (KKMM) and it will be monitored by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). It will also be managed by Media Prima Berhad under the Broadcasters Alliance.
It aims to provide the nation with sharper and higher resolution images as well as access to more television channels and interactive services.
“Leo Burnett Malaysia has a clear understanding of our role and excels in providing creative marketing communication solutions. These factors plus the agency’s resources and the ability to produce world-class creative and strategic output convinced us that they are the right partner for us,” Yohani Yusof, general manager, Media Prima, said.
“We are honoured to have the opportunity to work alongside MCMC with Media Prima and become a part of a new age as our nation takes a step forward in technological advancement with digital TV broadcasting,” Tan Kien Eng, group chief executive officer of Leo Burnett Malaysia, added.
J. Walter Thompson Asia Pacific has appointed Carter Chow (left) as China CEO, and promoted George Shi to the position of managing director of J. Walter Thompson Shanghai.
Chow, who starts on 2 January, will oversee the offices in Shanghai, where he will be based, and also in Beijing. He will report to Asia Pacific CEO John Gutteridge and work closely with Norman Tan, J. Walter Thompson’s China Chairman and North Asia chief creative officer.
Chow has over 22 years’ experience in China’s advertising industry. He joins J. Walter Thompson from McCann, where he was CMO for McCann Worldgroup Greater China.
Prior to that role, he served as managing director of McCann Shanghai, and managing director at Y&R Shanghai. Chow’s appointment marks a return to J. Walter Thompson China, where he worked as a group account director 10 years ago.
“Carter has the perfect blend of local and international expertise. He has an intimate understanding of what it takes to grow brands in China, but he also has a very global perspective on culture and commerce. He is innovative and enterprising, which fits perfectly with the future of our business,” said Gutteridge.
Shi, meanwhile, will assume the role of managing director for the Shanghai office. He rejoined the agency in 2013, where he tripled the agency’s roster of domestic clients and helped build out the agency’s digital and content marketing team.
GetCRAFT, the Southeast Asia’s premier content marketplace, appoints the former media head and country manager for Yahoo Philippines, Kate Delos Reyes, as the managing director in their new office in Manila, Philippines. The latest expansion of the company is their latest step toward its goal of spearheading the creative & media boom in
Southeast Asia.
“We consider the appointment of Kate as the right step to leverage the opportunities we are seeing here in the country, with over ten years media, agency & client side Kate is the perfect candidate to lead our Philippine efforts and help guide the market as to the best practices when it comes to doing content marketing & bespoke native advertising ,” said Patrick Searle, the CEO and co-cofounder of GetCRAFT.
In the last year, GetCRAFT has worked on more than 1,700 projects for over 130 brands with top clients including Unilever, Samsung, Tourism Australia, Matahari Mall, and has established strategic partnerships with the likes of GroupM, IPG, Havas, Starcom & DAN.
“It’s an exciting time to be at the intersection of digital and content. GetCRAFT is looking forward to helping push the content marketing industry in the Philippines to exponential growth,” said Delos Reyes.
GetCRAFT has given back over USD 2 million to the content creator & media community since its establishment by Searle and his co-founder, Anthony Reza, both being ex-Ogilvy executives back in 2014 in Jakarta. The company GetCRAFT connects brands and agencies with publishers, influencers, writers, photographers, and videographers to create bespoke native ads and original content for brands via its website, www.getcraft.com .
“Philippines is a lucrative market for content marketing and native advertising due to its media landscape, creative talent, and digital adoption,” said Patrick Searle, the CEO and co-founder of GetCRAFT.
GetCRAFT aims to engage content creators, brand managers, and expert marketers in the Philippines through a series of meetup events aimed at elevating discussions on content marketing. Their first event was held on November 15, at The Brewery at the Palace, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
IBT Media, the news organisation that owns International Business Times and Newsweek, will rename its EMEA and Asian editions of Newsweek jointly to Newsweek International.
The American title will put its overseas edition under the name Newsweek International, and will be relaunched with a new-look masthead.
The headquarters of its global operation will be run centrally from United Kingdom while Newsweek’s London office will have an Asian business editor, and Africa and Middle-East specialists, all covering their distant beats from their desks.
The rebrand and extension aims to boost circulation and subscription rates in the region.
Newsweek Europe's Matt McAllester has been named Newsweek International’s editor, and will oversee both the European and Asian editions.
Additionally, its branded content division IBTailored, launched in August, will also be expanding operations to include Asia, as part of IBT Media's strategy to capitalise on the growing digital advertising spend in the region.
Greg Witham, COO of IBT Media based in London, will spearhead the growth of Newsweek International and IBTailored.
"As Newsweek International and IBTailored grow their operations out of London, we look forward to developing the brands on a global scale at an exciting time for our business. In Greg and Matt we have two highly accomplished and recognised leaders in their field to make this expansion a huge success," said Dev Pragad, global CEO at IBT Media.
A global crisis expert warns against the rise of online reputational attacks and calls on companies to prepare their teams, build communities and actively engage their markets to prevent losing billions of dollars over reputational attacks.
For Brian West, Global Managing Director for Crisis of FleishmanHillard, thousands of companies are now being victimized by online reputational attackers and cybercriminals. Billions are being siphoned off from online accounts and are being stolen by cybercriminals, inspite of companies installing highly sophisticated firewalls and premium anti-virus softwares.
West leads a team of over 150 certified crisis counselors in FleishmanHillard's global network spanning over 80 cities. In Manila, FleishmanHillard is run by its SVP & Partner/General Manager Cosette Romero who is also a certified crisis counselor.
West says companies can install higher firewalls, build more sophisticated anti-phising software or anti-viruses, yet, if they didn’t train against cybercriminals getting information from employees themselves, these companies risk getting caught in a crisis trap.
“There are two problems facing companies today: online reputation and cybercrimes. Companies need to train their people on how to defend themselves against these threats which are causing companies billions of dollars worth of losses. And the Philippines is no exception,” says West who recently conducted a crisis training before senior and middle-level officers of a multinational firm based in Ortigas City.
Reputational crisis outbreaks when companies failed to do brand audit. West proposes that companies should identify long-existing issues that their stakeholders previously identified. To prevent a crisis outbreak, companies must identify these issues and resolve it internally before the public knows about it, West adds.
“Most crisis outbreaks stem from unresolved corporate or business-related issues. If you do an audit, you’ll be able to identify these issues and internally, cause them to disappear,” says the Aussie PR expert who for more than 30 years, have advised top 100 companies from around the world how to deal with reputational crisis situations.
West gives a glimpse as to how modern PR crisis experts deal with crisis situations now. Traditional PR crisis puts more premium on media handling in putting out fires. Modern approaches tend to provide clients with a wider perspective, with focus on assisting clients with resolving their internal issues then, sharpening their listening skills to be able to identify what causes stakeholders to lose their trust on the company.
“Before, the frequent answer to PR crisis is we’ll handle media. Now, the modern answer is how you could talk with your audience, your stakeholders, and explain the issue before them, engage your audiences, and provide them with sufficient basis why they need to believe you rather than those who created the crisis. We are more holistic in our approach now than before.
“Companies need to see that in every crisis, there is always an opportunity. “
Another tip that West gave is companies under reputational crises should prepare for it, by making their teams immerse into media and PR crisis training. Resilience enables a company to recover faster than others.
“Resilience is about returning the company to its former strength and therefore, responding quickly and appropriately are some of the key elements of counter crisis which companies must possess.”
Malaysia’s online marketplace Mudah.my has created a music video featuring local award-winning artiste, Altimet (pictured) as part of its ninth anniversary celebration this month.
The company also teamed up with creative director and singer-songwriter, Sasi The Don, to produce the lyrics for the song, which also features up and coming singer Maya Hanum.
Altimet’s song, “Memang Mudah”, encourages budding musicians to take the first step in realising their dream. In the music industry, their professional journey begins with obtaining the proper instruments (available on the e-commerce platform) that will enable them to develop their talent, said Gaurav Bhasin, CEO of Mudah.my.
Check out the music video below:
[embed]https://youtu.be/FPu_Rcoc8mA[/embed]
According to Mudah.my, the online marketplace managed about 1.4 million unique sellers in the last 12 months, representing a growth of 29% year-on-year. Meanwhile, its unique monthly site visits averaged 7.5 million, with daily visitors up 10% over a twelve month period, amounting to 750,000 as of October this year.
