Publicis One Malaysia just launched a new global performance marketing agency, Performics, to give local market clients access to its digital service offerings and performance marketing expertise.
Tan Kien Eng, group chief executive of Publicis One Malaysia and chief executive officer of Leo Burnett Malaysia said, "Performance marketing is a strategy that is widely gaining popularity in Malaysia because of its measurable outcome. At the forefront of the industry, we are proud to have Performics leveling up the playing field for the industry and ensuring that our clients stand out above their competitors.”
With the launch, Performics’ offerings will include planning and insights, analytics and technology, performance content, performance media and performance consulting to clients, particularly those demanding more sophisticated and integrated solutions.
Among the list of clients being serviced by Performics are Samsung, AirAsia, Coway, Mead Johnson and AIA.
Performics Malaysia’s general manager, Stan Chew added that its objective is to be solution focused in doing what is right for its clients’ business, and to do that, it will require "a new level of transparency, expertise and being platform and tech agnostic.”
Stan Chew brings with him 12 years of media experience from across Malaysia and China. Upon appointment, Chew’s roles in Performics include defining long term growth strategy for the agency and ensuring quality product and people.
As we wind down the year and look back on 2016, we find that social media is on everyone’s lips - but perhaps for different reasons than we social media marketers would imagine or prefer. The discussion happening around social media at the end of the year is about responsibility and control.
The outcome of the EU Referendum in Great Britain and the American presidential election was no doubt influenced to a greater or lesser degree by social media - from President-elect Donald J. Trump’s insistence on using Twitter as an unfiltered direct communication channel with his followers and critics, to the soul-searching happening in some quarters about the role social media played in serving up news stories to the American electorate.
Social media is also being mentioned frequently as the major news and polling organisations come to grip with the fact that their predictions did not see a Trump victory as a serious possibility - while those monitoring the two campaigns on social media saw how much support the Trump campaign was able to muster, and how much Trump’s controversies galvanised his supporters rather than hindered his path to the presidency.
In the world of social media marketing technology, there’s been plenty of talk and soul-searching about social media, too, though in quite a different way.
There is no question that the platforms are maturing both in terms of business models and technology. They are behaving much more like traditional media in their approach to advertising - paid media is becoming the prevalent model.
In a world of abundance, of distraction and entertainment all available on a supercomputer that everyone carries in their pocket - aka the smartphone - user attention becomes the new currency of success. And companies that are active on social media (that is nearly everyone these days) need new forms of support to make this powerful marketing channel work for them. Just thinking about the scale, Facebook alone has 26% of all attention in the US through its platforms and audience network.
Since social media has such a large share of online activity, companies are seeing social media as an important component of their digital marketing and wider marketing strategies. And it’s not limited to just marketing. Customer service, human resources (recruitment and employer branding) and other departments are taking a stake in social, too. This is helping to increase social media’s importance in the organisation and spur hiring.
According to research by McKinley Marketing Partners, digital marketing expertise has been leading the pack in 2016 for the most desired skill sets. McKinley found 90% of all marketing roles required some digital marketing experience or analytical skills. Social media is a must-have nowadays, and not a nice-to-have. I predict it’s going to become a business-critical function within the next year or shortly afterwards.
We have been seeing the social media channels themselves mature in terms of the kind of advertising technology they offer. The targeting, flexibility, and media buying options available from major social channels is allowing advertisers to target and reach users with unsurpassed precision.
The range of advertising options on major social channels is playing a pivotal role in helping to make 2017 a watershed year for marketing, when many expect that digital advertising spend will finally surpass TV ad spend for the first time.
This shift will be driven to a large degree by the massive amounts of money flowing into social media channels. This influx is driven largely by a significant lag between the share of time users spend on social media and the overall share of budgets invested in this channel.
As we look ahead to 2017, there are a few pivotal changes we expect to happen to take the industry forward and demonstrate how social media is, and will be, truly critical to businesses.
Leveraging data to make the next best action with data-driven recommendations
On social media more than on any other marketing channel, data has been part of the equation from day one - and understanding your data is mission critical to both improving your performance and delivering greater value from social channels. In 2016, companies have their own platform data in one tool, competitor data in another, ads data in a third, customer service data in a fourth, and so on.
Data silos will need to be broken down and connected to one hub in order to create one cohesive ecosystem of data. Only then will it be possible to tap into all of the relevant data and move past time-consuming manual analysis.
With a single ecosystem of data, powerful algorithms crafted by data scientists will pull all of your data together on their own, analysing it on the fly to present companies with tailored recommendations for what is the next best action they should take.
Tools to make life easier for customers
Following on from the point above, it will be essential to create a single ecosystem of all of your data in one place. That means moving from using 3 to 5 tools to building one single robust, powerful tool. In 2017 we will see a continuing trend of tools moving towards a more open and comprehensive offer - combining the services of the most important disciplines for the clients and connecting through APIs.
In addition thereto, we will see the now-fragmented industry continue being consolidated by larger players who ‘tuck in’ many of the smaller, niche players.
For the client, this makes a lot of sense. Only then will they be able to move past manual analysis of various data outputs (listening, competitor analysis, ads, etc.), decreasing both the amount of work they have to do and the number of tools they have to use to do it - working far more effectively and efficiently.
We see a coming reduction in the number of tools but an increase in staff resources, as cross-product collaboration will further drive this consolidation.
Automation will become a must-have feature of any consolidated tool
As these new systems are able to have a comprehensive view of all of your relevant data and present analysis and recommendations from that data much faster, these machine learning algorithms will only continue to get smarter and smarter as you ‘teach’ them by selecting the best among the best options they present you with. The next step is simply automation. It’s not too far off, and it’s not too hard to fathom.
Having said that, everything starts with a clear definition of goals: What do I want to reach with my investments and how do I measure it? Only with clear goal definition and constant measurement, can we allow algorithms to do their magic. In 2017 we will see a strong evolution of the ‘science/knowledge’ of how to successfully maximise social ROI.
Once goals are defined, use cases can be programmed. Imagine that you create a performance threshold for automatic post promotion of your organic posts on Facebook: any organic post that performs better than y in the first 6 hours after you post it should be promoted with a budget of x. Pretty simple, no? The instructions you give can be as simple or complicated as you like.
In 2017 content will remain king. Many people think that with the proliferation of paid media model, the important of content creation goes away. It might be counter-intuitive, but content quality has never been more important. Why? Platform algorithms respond to content quality as they want to serve content to the user that is not perceived as irritating or a distraction.
So the price that you have to pay to place your content in front of your audience depends on how well the content actually resonates with the audience - culminating in a simple formula: good content has much higher reach and lower price than content that is not appreciated by the audience. This is a fundamental change and marketeers will need to adapt.
Generating and sharing content across different platforms and audiences is becoming key to success. This cries for machines to take care of the heavy lifting of timing, audience, budgets so that marketers can focus on generating great content for their customers.
It’s not too difficult to imagine automation taking over many of the routine tasks social media teams perform today - from customer care to content creation, to ads placement and post promotion. In fact, it’s already happening and so there are engines / algorithms that are driving hundreds of thousands of different content variations and optimise what works best. Automation is going to save you significant time, and it will only get better as you use it.
The social revolution we have seen in 2016 - from the rapid growth in live streaming and video, to the unprecedented social groundswell we saw in the US elections - clearly demonstrates that social is a more and more pervasive medium in our lives.
I don’t need a crystal ball to tell you that in 2017 social media is only going to become more important and influential, both in society and for marketers like yourselves. The key to taking advantage of this will be in the tools. Businesses will invest more and more in social and as such the tools they use will need to be smarter, more integrated and easier to use.
The writer is Robert Lang (pictured), Socialbakers CEO.
Freeman launches brand experience agency in China and Singapore
The global provider of brand experiences has integrated several of its creative services across the Asia Pacific region, including China and Singapore, under the company’s agency division, FreemanXP.
Sitecore appoints The Hoffman Agency
The appointment comes as Sitecore plans to further establish its presence in this region and meet the ever increasing digital marketing needs of brands with context marketing.
McCann Worldgroup Japan appoints new CCO
Antony Cundy will be responsible for overseeing excellence in the targeted and efficient delivery of campaigns for clients who work across multiple MWG disciplines.
Ogilvy Public Relations Australia appoints new director
In this new role, he will oversee the consultancy’s social, content and digital practice - Social@Ogilvy, and will lead the Microsoft account as the key client relationship manager.
Adknowledge announces country head for India
He has over 20 years of experience in building and scaling businesses and brands, defining strategy, and running operations for companies.
WWF and Toyota head towards a zero carbon society
The project will take place in WWF priority places such as Borneo and Sumatra. In the future, the project will expand to the Greater Mekong region.
Outbrain renews multi-year deal with SPH
With the extended partnership with SPH, Outbrain continues to demonstrate significant momentum with its publishing partners.
NTUC FairPrice hosts first ever Facebook Live event
Food channel, co-owned by NTUC FairPrice, and operated by content marketing agency Brand New Media, will be hosting its first Facebook Live event entitled Live Healthy, Eat Healthy.
Outbrain partners up with Mediacorp
Outbrain will aggregate Mediacorp’s coveted audiences with those from its previous local publishers and global site wins.
L'Oreal Paris Singapore employs star power
L’Oréal Paris Singapore has launched an interactive out-of-home (OOH) panel featuring brand ambassador and local celebrity Rui En.
SPHMBO shows off latest OOH offering in VivoCity
Since its inception, the digital advertising network has played host to Seiko, Rado and Walt Disney's Finding Dory, which will be screening in local cinemas later this month.
Discovery has strengthened its central corporate leadership team in Asia Pacific with key appointments.
Nikhil Madhok (pictured), SVP, head of products, will spearhead the re-development of the company’s product suite and champion a strong maker culture in the organisation. He will closely partner with the Innovation team on future digital offerings. Madhok joins in January from Star where he recently led the turnaround of two of Star’s largest networks. Rebecca Kent, VP Business Transformation, oversees change management, and leads business process and operational optimisation. Kent joined in September from Discovery’s Global Business Operations team in London.
Darrell Chan, VP regional counsel, will manage the legal dossier, drive strong governance around Discovery’s growing portfolio of equity stakes in new businesses and coordinate external affairs. Chan joins on 1st February 2017, from Expedia. He will partner with Dinkim Sailo, who manages Discovery’s External and Government Affairs brief. Sailo recently joined from SOS International. Karun Arya - director, head of corporate communications, represents the company’s voice as it implements its ambitious transformation and investment plans. He onboarded recently from Uber.
Discovery’s new executives join Nilesh Zaveri (chief financial officer & SVP corporate operations), Winradit Kasidit Kolasastraseni (SVP Innovation), Jonathan Mills (VP, Corporate Development), Karan Paul (VP Strategy) and Jin Tan (VP, Human Resources) in the APAC HQ team.
Arthur Bastings, president and managing director of Discovery Networks Asia Pacific said, “We are laser focused on re-inventing our existing space and growing our business beyond linear across Asia. The new leadership team members bring with them strong entrepreneurial drive and a disruptive mindset. I am thrilled to welcome them on board as we step up our efforts to redefine our product and business portfolio in the region.”
MTR has appointed Cheil Hong Kong and The Gate as its advertising agency after a pitch against different local and multi-national agencies.
This win will see the agency work on integrated marketing communications for the brand ranging from strategic development, creative communications and activation strategies. The contract period for Cheil and The Gate will be effective January 2017.
Currently, the transportation system works with a number of shops, including Twohundred and The Tank, the new appointment means there will be four agencies on its roster from 2017.
Jay Jeong, managing director of Cheil Hong Kong, said: “As one of the best railway network systems in the world, the MTR as a brand in Hong Kong has maintained a phenomenal level of success throughout the years. We are all captivated by MTR’s inspiring brand ambition and are now very much looking forward to collaborating in achieving their marketing and communication goals”.
Ever since Twitter's introduction of hashtags to the social media in 2007, the formerly-known-as-pound symbol has been the source of much confusion in the marketing world. For example, how many hashtags do you use? How long should your hashtags be?
To address this issue, a new study by TrackMaven recently analysed 65,000 posts across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to find the optimal length and number of hashtags for each social media network to drive engagement, according to wersm. One of the important takeaways: not all hashtag strategies work the same on every social media network.
Facebook: One hashtag works best
Contrary to accounts on Twitter and Instagram which are mostly public, those on Facebook are private by default. This means Facebook's hashtag has more limitation on content discovery than the others. However, results indicated that the more hashtags were added to the post, the less engagements the post could give.
As for the length of the hashtag, 6 characters is seemingly the best hashtag length, but no pattern was found up to 20 characters. The study advised hashtags not to exceed 20 characters, as it takes too much effort for users to engage with.
Twitter: Users start overlooking hashtags
Same as Facebook, tweets with one hashtag work best, although using two hashtags per post does not affect engagement as much as on Facebook. The study did not recognise any patterns of the length of a hashtag.
However, the study pointed out that users are increasingly overlooking hashtags in recent months, as there have been a number of spammers who take advantage of hashtags to share garbage content.
Instagram: Nine hashtags provide the most engagement
Hashtags on Instagram are powerful in boosting organic reach, because the vast majority of Instagram profiles are public. Nine hashtags on a post provide the most engagement on Instagram.
As for the length, hashtags between 21 and 24 characters averaged the best performance.
A new mobile application, called WeEat, developed by Dexus AP Marketing, has launched in Sabah and Sarawak.
According to an article by Borneo Post. WeEat markets itself as the "food location finder." In a statement to the online daily, managing director of Dexus AP Marketing SL Ling said that the application distinguishes itself from the other food platforms by not only providing users detailed information on the food they desire to eat, but also information on the exact location of the eatery.
According to Ling, one of the main challenges faced by food operators is their inability to efficiently market their products and outlets as advertisement rates can be expensive. The app was therefore developed to not only please the food lovers but also help food operators promote their outlets at affordable prices.
Additionally, WeEat is also linked to other applications such as Google maps, and app-based ride-hailing services such Uber and Grab. This features allows provides users accurate details on the distance, time taken to deliver and the traffic status on the roads.
He was quoted as saying the number of food outlets featured on the app is expected to rise to 1,000 by the end of this year.
Annoyed at monthly data busts from your mobile phone plan? According to Circles.Life's new spot, maybe "breaking up" with that plan may not be the worst idea.
Featuring customers of Circles.Life who are classified as “Super Users” of the telco, the spot shows four individuals talking about what seems like a personal break up experience, only to reveal later on that they were referring to their past mobile data contracts, which is inferred to be from competitor telcos.
All four individuals share that their current data plan allows them to have more than 10GB of data, with some going as high as 12.4GB of data which is implied to be higher than the average amount a regular user has in Singapore.
The video garnered 275,547 views, 882 reactions and 205 shares at the time of writing.
In a statement to Marketing, Megan Yulga, marketing manager at Circles.Life, explained that the Super Users were selected due to their high engagement on social media and sharing of personal referral codes. Although they were prompted, the users featured were not asked to say specific lines, in order to keep their answers honest and personal.
The campaign was created and managed in-house and produced by a production company called 90-Seconds. It was designed to be Facebook optimised, with individual focused videos expected to be rolled out in the next month.
DBS gets deep in a new spot featuring national darling Nathan Hartono to tell its users that there is more to gifts this Christmas season. The spot which was launched last Friday was produced by Tribal Worldwide Singapore.
The video shows a couple shopping for a Christmas gift for the woman’s father and sees her deliberating between a pair of shoes and a limited edition gold fountain pen they saw earlier. She stops talking mid sentence when she sees Nathan Hartono in the shoe shop she is in.
Hartono then interjects with why she should go with the shoes as they would “take them places, not just physically but emotionally as well”. He then explains on how the shoes will hold a greater meaning for her father as an item which reminds him of his daughter.
The whole store is entranced by Hartono as he concludes his statement and proceeds to walk out.
Since its launch on Facebook last Friday, the spot has garnered 83,000 views, 511 reactions and 163 shares.
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has seen a 3.4% growth in group revenue to RM8.82 billion for the first nine months that ended 30 September 2016. This was against RM8.54 billion recorded in the corresponding period last year, due to higher revenue contribution from internet, data and others services.
The stronger nine months’ performance was mainly attributed to positive growth in its key products, mainly Internet and multimedia, data and other services.
Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, group CEO, TM said the company remained resilient over the first nine months of the year despite an overall “challenging environment”. He added that its LTE service, webe, is now officially operational, and still has an impact on its financial performance, on account of the costs associated with the LTE rollout and Webe’s initial operations.
Webe, which was formerly known as Packet One Networks, officially launched on 30 September with a single plan which offers subscribers unlimited data, calls and messages for as low as RM79 monthly.
“2016 is the ‘Year of Convergence’ for TM Group as we stake our claim as Malaysia’s Convergence Champion. I’m pleased to say that we are the first and only truly converged communication service provider in Malaysia with webe now being offered to all Malaysians. webe was made available for public subscription in September 2016, offering a brand new end-to-end digital experience,” he said adding that webe allows consumers to make the most of mobile technology thus making their digital lifestyle easier.
“This is in line with our vision of ‘Making Life and Business Easier for a Better Malaysia’,” Tan Sri Zam added.
The company also recorded a 3.3% increase in total broadband customers YTD as compared to last year, from 2.29 million to 2.37 million. Most recently, Recently, TM had reached an agreement worth RM916.10million with MYTV Broadcasting (MYTV). This was to provide digital terrestrial television infrastructure, network facilities and related services.
The group also reported that the operating profit was RM868.1 million on year-to-date(YTD), lower by 13% against last year primarily due to higher marketing cost, foreign exchange loss on international trade settlement and accelerated depreciation of assets.
The total capital expenditure for YTD September 2016 was RM1.65 billion or 18.7% of revenue, with spending during 3Q2016 at RM715.0 million. The higher Capex is in line with the expansion of major projects whilst higher YTD cost as a percentage of revenue is in line with higher revenue and launch of new products and services.
Some 59% of APAC marketers view mobile as a very effective marketing channel, up from 39% in 2015, according to Warc and Mobile Marketing Association's latest report.
However, the report, State of the Industry: Mobile Marketing in APAC found that 60% of the responding marketers are currently attributing less than 10% of their budget to mobile.
The majority of respondents believe their budgets will rise in both the short- and mid-term, with 37% expecting to see growth between 25% and 50%.
Meanwhile, more than half of agency respondents believe that the majority of their clients do not have a formal mobile strategy in place, and just 42% of brand owners think they have a formal mobile marketing strategy for their brand.
Multi-screen (62%) is regarded as the most significant trend impacting mobile strategy in APAC, and investment is planned in mobile display, video, and social marketing.
61% of all respondents intend to utilise mobile display advertising in their marketing activities this year, and 49% intend to leverage mobile video.
Lacking metrics (39%) and skills (33%) are considered to be the main barriers to industry growth. Metrics have become more of a barrier, and skills less, since 2015.
Marketers in the APAC are mostly familiar with programmatic (82%), and see it as having an important role in future marketing strategies.
The survey based on 324 marketing and advertising professionals from 17 markets across Asia Pacific, and the data was collected between 6th October and 20th October 2016.
Bell Pottinger has appointed Clarence Fu as partner to strengthen the agency’s financial practice. Fy joins an experienced team which has this year advised on Singapore’s two highest-profile transactions, the privatisation of SMRT and the sale of Neptune Orient Lines.
Prior to joining Bell Pottinger, Fu was director at Tulchan Communications and executive director at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, i.MAGE.
Fu has over 18 years of financial communications experience which includes 13 years of in-house investor relations and corporate communications experience with companies listed on the NASDAQ, NYSE and Singapore Exchange; and six years of senior level corporate and financial communications consultancy experience.
He has worked on various IPOs and other capital markets transactions over the years, and provided strategic communication counsel to companies operating in a variety of sectors including real estate, education, hospitality, semiconductors, retail, plantations, pulp & paper, and asset management. He also comes with strong Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) knowledge and experience, having served as the head of investor relations and communications at two SGX-listed REITs.
Mark Worthington, managing director of Bell Pottinger Singapore said, “I am delighted to welcome Clarence on board, and he will be a great addition during an exciting phase of growth for our financial practice. He brings strong financial communications knowledge to a talented team which continues to shape investor and public perception around the most significant financial transactions in Singapore. ”
According to a release, Bell Pottinger so far has advised on transactions completed in 2016 with a combined value of over SG$9 billion. The global team of financial communications practitioners have worked on some of the world’s largest international listings, fundraisings and M&A transactions for a diverse range of clients.
Xiaomi's business model is not about selling smartphones; profit growth will be driven from its smart home devices and revenue from its software eco-system, said Xiaomi global VP and former Android VP Hugo Barra in an interview with Reuters.
"Basically we're giving [handsets] to you without making any money… we care about the recurring revenue streams over many years," Barra said in the interview, "We could sell 10 billion smartphones and we wouldn't make a single dime in profits."
The senior executive said the statement when he was commenting on a drop in Xiaomi's smartphone sales in China, in which the company missed its global smartphone targets by 12% last year, and its third-quarter China smartphone sales were down 45%, according to figures from IDC.
Xiaomi has increasingly focusing on other devices, such as home appliances like air and water purifiers, and rice cookers as key earnings drivers. In April, Xiaomi vicepresident Liu De said the firm expects sales of smart home devices to double to 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) this year.
Barra said based on its current business model, the drop would not impact the company's long-term profit growth.
He added that the company is looking forward to CES next year, where the company is participating for the first time, and is set to unveil a new product there.
Komoco Motors, the official distributor for Hyundai has unveiled the first ever Hyundai Motor Squad with Mediacorp OOH Media to introduce Hyundai’s first hybrid technology, the IONIQ.
The IONIQ is available in three different powertrains: Electric, Plug-in Electric and Hybrid. The Hybrid will be the first available option in Singapore – which is powered by a combine engine that works on battery and petrol.
Bringing the Hyundai showroom experience out to the streets, the Hyundai Motor Squad is a roving convoy comprising a 24-footer transformer truck from Mediacorp OOH Media and six cars from four of Hyundai’s iconic models. Wrapped in striking decals, the 4 models includes: Elantra, Sante Fe, Tucson and Sonata.
Augmenting the Hyundai Motor Squad branding livery on the 24-footer transformer truck, a LED screen was mounted onto the exterior of the truck. As the convoy roves around, stills of Hyundai’s various car models are screened.
Starting from 8 November 2016, the Hyundai Motor Squad will be roving island-wide from 10am – 7pm daily on weekdays (except Mondays) until 4 December 2016. On weekends, the truck will be morphed into a mini-laboratory at different locations, where members of the public are welcomed on board to learn about Hyundai’s eco-friendly cars.
To create an immersive experience, video clips and VR experiences are available on the truck. They also get to test drive different cars on showcase during the activations, maximizing engagement and interactivity.
Komoco Motors Representative said, “We are pleased to partner Mediacorp OOH Media to introduce the Hyundai Motor Squad and the IONIQ to the public in a unique way. With their help, we were able to bring Hyundai’s first of its kind experience to our target audiences while communicating directly with them.”
Henry Goh, head of OOH Media said, “Other than crafting routes catering to our client’s preferences, the same truck can be used for experiential executions which ensures on-point targeting. For Hyundai, OOH Media also roped in Mediacorp’s in-house creative team to execute the visual designs, and this is what our advertisers and clients can expect.”
Singtel has appointed Mark Chong as group chief technology officer (CTO) and Arthur Lang (pictured) as CEO International. This follows current group CTO’s Tay Soo Meng’s retirement who has been with the company for almost 50 years. He will take on an advisory role.
Together with CEO Group Digital Life Samba Natarajan, the two new hires will join Singtel’s management committee which oversees strategic direction and execution for the group.
Chong’s appointment will be with effect from 1 April 2017, which will see him relinquishing his current CEO International role and leading technology strategy and innovations across the group. He is a Singtel veteran of over 20 years, holding various leadership positions such as COO of AIS in Thailand and also a role in EVP Networks in Singapore.
Meanwhile, with effect of the same date, Lang will take over as Singtel’s CEO International and be responsible for the growth of the group’s regional associates across India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. He will join the company on 9 January 2017 as CEO International (Designate).
Prior to his appointment, Lang was group CFO of CapitaLand where he oversaw financial reporting, treasury, tax, risk management and internal audit, global strategic investments and investor relations. He was also responsible for its real estate investment management business. He was also previously at Morgan Stanley where he was variously co-head of the Southeast Asia investment banking division and COO of the Asia Pacific investment banking division.
“Given our global aspirations and a fast evolving business and technology landscape, we are reinforcing our leadership team as we prime our enterprise for our next phase of growth,” Chua Sock Koong, Singtel Group CEO, said.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has fined SingNet for two separate Singtel TV disruptions which occurred in October last year and January this year.
According to the press statement, the disruption affected around 100 Singtel TV subscribers islandwide. It also resulted in a complete loss of programmes on 11 channels. The fine is valued at SG$145,000.
Investigations showed that the incident was caused initially by a damaged fibre cable, followed by unsuccessful attempts to switch over to a backup cable to prevent service disruption. It was concluded that SingNet did not have a robust process to test that the receiver card was functional.
Hence the service provider subject to a fine of SG$55,000 due to contravention of its quality of service licence conditions.
“As a Nationwide Subscription Television Service Licensee, SingNet must comply with licence conditions on Quality of Service (QoS). This requires SingNet to provide pay-TV services at reasonable quality that meets public expectations and is satisfactory to IMDA,” the press statement read.
Meanwhile, the second service difficulty lasted around three hours which saw some 1,400 Singtel TV subscribers islandwide experienced intermittent pixelation on 15 channels. Similarly, IMDA found the provider be in contravention of QoS standards and hence issued the fine of SG$90,000.
In determining the financial penalties, IMDA explained that is has taken into consideration SingNet’s response to the incidents, the extent of the disruptions and the provider’s track record. It also noted that SingNet has committed to implementing the necessary measures to prevent future recurrences.
CapitaLand’s Ascott brand, a serviced residence business unit, has unveiled its newest brand Lyf (pronounced as life) which is targeted at Millennials. Millennial currently make up a quarter of its customer base and is set to grow exponentially, said Lee Chee Koon, Ascott’s CEO in a press statement to Marketing.
The new brand defines Millennials as a “social generation” which craves discoveries and community, which Lyf aims to tap on by providing services and features in its new properties, in locations that have yet to be confirmed.
The marketing for these properties are largely done through social media and the company is working with Goodstuph to create a social strategy. The two will promote Lyf through online platforms including social media to drive awareness and engage the social generation. For its show suite at the Ascott Centre for Excellence, Ascott worked with a local agency, FARM, to develop the branding for Lyf. Its media agency is Havas Media.
In a statement to the press, Lee added that the brand is currently on the lookout for sites in “key gateway cities” for Lyf and are open to both investment and management contracts in areas such as Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. This is to meet the growing demand for co-living spaces.
“As we scale up to achieve our global target of 80,000 units by 2020 through Lyf and our other brands, our guests can easily take their pick from our wide-ranging portfolio across the world,” Lee said.
According to the group, this follows reports from Forbes which indicates that individuals in their 20s and 30s are likely to account for more than half the workforce by 2020 – dominating the business traveller segment. Meanwhile Hotels Mag reports that Millennial travellers are also spending more than US$200 billion annually.
“With the rising trend of co-living and co-working, Ascott aims to have 10,000 units under the Lyf brand globally by 2020,” Lee said. The new brand launch follows a year of growth for Ascott with more than 10,000 units added globally.
How it conceptualised the new brand for Millennials
In the conceptualising the new brand, a spokesperson from CapitaLand explained that the brand put together a taskforce consisting of mainly Millennials to brainstorm for a new product catering to Millennials.
It then embarked on a brand study and conducted focus group discussions to test concepts such as social spaces, communal lounges and shared bathroom facilities. It also surveyed key corporate customers to find out if this is an accommodation concept they would choose, the spokesperson added.
"Lyf was hence developed with the insights garnered from this research process and is said to be an evolution of ‘lifestyle’, a key element and association with Ascott’s tagline ‘Because life is about living’," she said.
The company also tested various co-living concepts during the focus group discussions. It found that Millennials would much rather have larger social spaces instead of facilities like swimming pools. Moreover, they want as much flexibility as possible, both within the apartment and social spaces.
"This is why the apartments at Lyf are designed to be able to cater to different personas from the budding artist to the sports enthusiast," she added.
Some features of the new Lyf brand include a shared co-working space with public and private zones, communal kitchens and laundry areas which play on puns. Lyf properties may also incorporate features such as Foosball tables, interactive digital art pieces or even giant ball pits, hamster wheels and oversized Connect Four game sets. This is to encourage community interaction between residing guests and business visitors.
Rather than being managed by conventional service staff in service apartments, the brand’s properties will be managed by “Lyf Guards” - Millennials residents in the compound. They will take on the role of community managers, city and food guides, bar keepers and problem solvers.
As part of its launch initiative in Singapore, Lyf has also released its take on the recent #MannequinChallenge in a bid to stay true to its new youthful brand image.
Havas RiverOrchid has appointed David Mitchell its managing director in Vietnam. He will be reporting to CEO Pick-Santiphong Pimolsaengsurya.
Prior to this Mitchell has worked with Naga DDB for 8 years, where he last served as the CEO. In the past he has worked with Riverorchid in Laos and Leo Burnett in Indonesia for 13 years.
Most recently, Naga DDB and Tribal Worldwide Malaysia had announced a merger. This move officially signals the agency’s intent to strengthen its ability to deliver to clients a full range of marketing communications services by combining the best of traditional advertising and brand strategy services with sound and comprehensive digital marketing abilities.
Genting Malaysia has concluded both its regional creative and media accounts, covering markets such as Singapore, Indonesia, India, China as well as the Middle Eastern countries. A+M understands from sources that the incumbent, OMD managed to win its media account back, after a lengthy review process which started since early this year.
Meanwhile, its creative account is awarded to Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which is taking over from incumbent Grey and M&C Saatchi. Genting generally performs a fresh review of its media and creative pitches once in three years.
Additionally it has also added on a new regional PR agency and awarded the account to Allison+Partners, a strategic public relations firm specialising in media relations, digital PR marketing, and communications management services.
Genting could not be contacted at the time of writing to confirm the developments.
A+M first reported in August that Genting Malaysia is in the midst of finalising both of its media and creative pitches. The two accounts will cover regional markets which it intends to further penetrate such as Singapore, Indonesia, India, China as well as the Middle Eastern countries.
