Modern parents are busier than ever, with careers, children and a boatload of responsibilities banging down the door, which leaves precious little time for face-time. As a result, today’s parents are increasingly turning to the Facebook inbox to keep up with the comings and goings of the world – and that’s where Mead Johnson HK and CMRS realised they could best find a moment connect with their customers at their leisure.
The milk powder brand developed an AI chatbot "MOMsenger" on Facebook to directly and instantly engage parents and parents-to-be, no matter the time, date or place.
And not just rehashed stock messages either - properly personalised messages, in a friendly and informal tone that resonates with the target audience. It even discusses different topics with different people, based on their preferences.
To give the platform a personality, the chatbot fronts child star Keira Wang (珠女) for visual communication, using short videos and images of the star, and provides a new way for fans to be engaged in a campaign, as users can easily join games with a few simple clicks.
Once potential or existing customers are connected with the chatbot, it asks simple questions aimed at understanding the user’s preferences so that it can push relevant promotion messages in a timely manner, or answer questions instantly.
This is not to say that the chatbot is a blank slate. It has access to a wealth of frequently asked questions that it knows the answers to, and Mead Johnson HK’s CRM system has been integrated with the system, to ensure that people can quickly check and update their information without ever leaving the platform.
Aside from convenience for the end-user, the above drastically reduces the human resources required for the brand at the back end, shortens the interaction time with target customers and enhances the online experience, which helps transform and boost offline sales, while saving cost and effort.
Going forward, the platform will serve as a long-term customer engagement channel for Mead Johnson’s consumers.
Credits:
CMRS Digital Solutions Limited
Brand: Mead Johnson HK
Creative & Production: CMRS Digital Solutions Limited
Director: Barry Lau, Ralph Szeto
Senior Manager: Yulande Choi
Assistant Manager: Chung Fung
Supervisor: Winki Chung
Senior Specialist: Maggie Ip
Project Executive: Mikayo Chu, Isabella Lee, Alex Wong
Creative: Charlie Yim, Nicole Wong,
Copywriting: Ashley So
Art Team: Pien Wu, Ball To
Mead Johnson
Associate Director, Digital & eCommerce: Susanna Yip
Senior Manager, Digital: Colina To
Marketing Executive, Digital: Renise Cheng
Jackson Kwok is the newly appointed CEO of Hong Kong’s own X Social Group - a digital agency specialising in social media marketing with huge ambitions to expand their services substantially - and an agency veteran, with a track record of leading positions at some of the region’s most notable firms. Marketing’s Carlos Bruinsma sat down for an Argentinian steak lunch to pick his brain on how the industry has changed, and where it’s headed.
In the past two decades, Kwok has held various leading positions - starting with his appointment as general manager of Zenith Media, on to managing director of OMD, after which he went on to become Omnicom Media Group’s CEO, to finally his current position. Throughout his long tenure, he has led large and small teams and oversaw the disruptive transition from traditional to digital marketing.
When I started, digital media was non-existent, and the MTR was considered innovative media at the time!
He recalls with a smile. But things have changed, and Kwok is keen to be at the forefront of the transformations sweeping through the industry.
“In the present, we have media agencies, creative agencies, digital agencies et cetera, but that probably won’t be the right way to define the scope of business for an agency anymore,” he said. “Clients ought to think like marketers rather than advertisers. And agencies need to match that mindset, and they have to be in line with the client’s KPIs. At the end of the day, the client just wants one thing - growth, so you have to be a ‘growth’ agency, no matter if it’s related to search, programmatic, social media, content or even loyalty marketing discipline, and so a growth agency should have the vision to provide the right mix of communication solutions that help grow the client’s brands and business in the turbulent business and media environments - and that’s what we are working towards.”
While his company is Hong Kong-based, they have a growing presence in China and pride themselves on their expertise on China, especially when it comes to Weibo and WeChat marketing - the giant Chinese market has very advanced players and a rich social media ecosystem, making social media an important gateway for brands to interact with Chinese consumers. Driven by his data-driven marketing vision, Kwok has big ambitions in the cross-border advertising space, and his company is now building a full-stack programmatic platform integrating ad-tech and mar-tech that will not only take the market by storm, but also transform his company into a full-fledged digital marketing agency specialising in driving data-driven business growth in the cross-border frontier.
Besides, Kwok has identified a blue ocean space in content marketing. “There is so much content being created - by consumers, by brands, by publishers, whatever,” he explains. “But consumers’ content consumption level is a scarcity and will hit a plateau eventually. While brands are investing a lot in content creation, it’s not driving more consumer engagement. There’s research that indicates that only 5% of brand content accounts for 90% of engagement. That’s why, as a smart marketer or even publisher, you have to ask yourself, how can I create winning content to engage the consumer, using actionable data-driven insights?”
“You have to understand consumer interest, intent and even micro moments, what engages them, what doesn’t engage them - only then can you choose and produce the right content, and distribute it to the consumers in the right context, at the right time. Data-driven marketing is not just about programmatic advertising; the same principle also applies to data-driven content marketing which is actually a blend of creativity and data, and while brands are now creating content, they’re often doing it the wrong way. Customer-centricity is the key to content success.”
The problem, he says, is that while all marketing will be data-driven in the nearest future, the real challenge is getting the right insights from the giant mire of data at our fingertips.
Recognising that marketers in Hong Kong often do not have huge budgets, due to a small population and small economies of scale, most of them can’t afford to build their own data management platform (DMP) that can enable them to consolidate first, second and third-party data for driving a holistic view of customers and omnichannel marketing. He challenged Hong Kong marketers to be bolder and more offensive to aggressively expand their business beyond just Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is only a small and mature market with very limited room for growth.
“Yet Guangdong province alone has over 100 million population where people share similar brand preferences with Hong Kong and can frequently visit here for shopping owing to geographic proximity. Setting aside the issue of inter-market conflicts, if Hong Kong marketers can expand their target market to Southern China, they will figure out a way to justify an investment in marketing technology (particularly enterprise DMP) and thereby fully utilising data to deliver better advertising efficiency, return on marketing investment, personalised experiences, customer loyalty and advocacy, so on and so forth. In the meantime, agencies should demonstrate their strong commitment by investing in building their own ad-tech stack that can be integrated with client’s DMP for activating programmatic buying and one-on-one interactions for them.”
“In my opinion, other than investing in new technologies, agencies have to stop taking an ‘instant noodle’ approach in poaching staff from rival agencies and start attracting and nurturing a diverse group of talents from different backgrounds or other industries,” he added. “More importantly, they need to build a data-driven culture that can permeate into all facets of business, and will be accepted and fostered by the entire agency at all levels including C suites. And with the right mix of technology, talent and culture, they can stand a chance to elevate their role to become a data-driven marketing consultant of their clients and then take a bigger seat at the trust table in the big data era.”
J Walter Thompson (JWT) Singapore has appointed Farrokh Madon as chief creative partner. He was formerly chief creative officer of Y&R Singapore, a role he left in 2014. Marketing has reached out to JWT for comment.
Madon came on board Y&R in May 2012, reporting to then-Southeast Asia CEO Sanjay Bhasin and regional chief creative officer Marcus Rebeschini. Before Y&R, Madon was executive creative director at McCann Erickson Singapore, and ECD at BBDO Singapore.
He first embarked on his career in enterprise in Mumbai and has also worked for agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Saatchi & Saatchi, Batey, M&C Saatchi and others. He has also been the global creative lead on SIA and the regional creative director on MasterCard, Gillette and Caltex. His portfolio of clients include others such as Diageo, Visa, HP, Republic of Singapore Navy, Heineken, BMW, HSBC and Discovery Channel, amongst others.
“Over the past year with us, Madon’s proven abilities as a ‘big picture creative’ make him invaluable as our client portfolio continues to grow and we push forward with our business transformation for JWT and Mirum. It’s one of my core beliefs that our people should be both talented and nice, and Madon more than delivers on both those counts," Jacco ter Schegget CEO, Southeast Asia, JWT, said.
“There has never been a more exciting time to build brands. The confluence of technology and storytelling is creating great opportunities to communicate in memorable ways. I’m glad to join Schegget and the team in the exciting journey ahead," Madon siad.
OMD Hong Kong has been appointed the media duties for Dairy Farm’s supermarket chains and premium lifestyle retail brands – Wellcome, 3hreesixty, Jasons, Market Place by Jasons and Oliver’s The Delicatessen – following a competitive pitch.
As part of the new mandate, OMD will oversee the integrated media communications strategy and media investment management for all brands, as well as social media responsibilities for Wellcome and Market Place by Jasons.
“Throughout the review process, OMD demonstrated a superior understanding of our business objectives and how they can best be met in the ever-evolving media landscape,” commented Jane Lau, sales and marketing director for Wellcome Hong Kong.
“The agency’s commitment throughout the pitch and the media strategies they presented were impressive. We look forward to working with the team on enhancing the communications for all our brands going forward.”
“We are extremely proud to partner with one of Hong Kong’s most iconic heritage brands - Wellcome, which has been named as the top 10 advertisers since 2016,” added Deric Wong, CEO of OMD Hong Kong.
The appointment is effective as of January 1, 2018.
Ogilvy & Mather has acquired a majority stake in ARBA, a Hong Kong-based digital consultancy.
Founded in Hong Kong in 2012, ARBA offers digital design and software engineering services with a focus on sales acceleration and customer experience.
Its business specialises in digital strategy and has reputation in the financial services industry. With staff members of more than 40, ARBA clients include FWD, Prudential, Hang Seng Bank and other financial and insurance providers.
ARBA’s revenues were around HK$17.3 million, with net assets of around HKD 5.8 million for the year ending March 2017.
WPP said the acquisition advances Ogilvy’s existing capabilities in digital strategy and creative through the technical and production strengths of ARBA, which include enterprise mobile apps, responsive web and intranet, as well as CRM and predictive analytics.
ARBA will operate as Ogilvy Hong Kong’s digital user experience unit, working as part of the agency’s integrated team offering, as well as pursuing direct clients.
Jerry Smith, chief operating officer, Ogilvy Asia Pacific said, “Digital is the fastest-growing component of the marketing communications industry in Hong Kong. Digital transformation is a mandate for many of our key clients and our largest clients are already heavily invested in the space. We expect an increase in digital spend by three to five times over the next five years, so strengthening our specialist digital services is key to our growth and innovation agenda both in Hong Kong and across the region.”
Ingo Leung, CEO & co-founder, ARBA added, “We are delighted that our partnership with Ogilvy will bring more power to our team to grow with strengthened service offerings, and extend our client successes across additional industries. We look forward to joining Ogilvy’s management team in Hong Kong, and benefiting from their expertise.”
The Shilla Duty Free, Samsung's travel retail arm, has commenced operations at Hong Kong International Airport this month, after its successful bid on the perfume and cosmetics, and fashion accessories concessions earlier this year.
Six retail outlets opened for business on 12 December 2017, supported by Shilla’s head office in Korea. The company said it looks forward to strengthening its Hong Kong operations with a new vision for experiential retail - Beauty&You. The outlets will be transformed in phases into the new identity, which symbolises its commitment to travellers’ beauty experience.
The new Beauty&You store layout will incorporate both branded counters and non-branded areas, as well as immersive engagement zones.
The new license sees Shilla as the first operator to secure duty free perfumes and cosmetics concessions across the airports of Incheon International, Hong Kong International and Singapore Changi.
“We’re extremely excited to expand The Shilla Duty Free network to one of the busiest airports in the world,” says Alice Woo, managing director of Shilla Travel Retail Hong Kong limited.
“The airport served more than 70 million passengers annually and 1,100 aircrafts daily in the past 12 months. Hong Kong’s proximity to other Asian countries and mainland China also makes HKIA a powerful and promising hub for duty free sales. With the upcoming launch of Beauty&You, we hope to redefine the airport retail experience and customer journey through personalised service, interactive and engaging environment in one of the most robust travel markets in the world.”
Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) has called for a media pitch and the appointment is for a period of two years, with the option to extend for another. According to Gebiz, a second site briefing will be held on 5 January 2018 and the tender closes on 19 February 2018. The appointment will commence on 1 April 2018.
In 2015, SDC appointed MEC for a contracted for a period of two years where the agency was tasked to handle the Sentosa business and dealing with branding, strategic planning and creative planning of future campaigns. Prior to that, SDC also worked with OMD as its media agency.
In October last year, Marketing unveiled that SDC was in the midst of a massive restructuring where a new CMO was to be appointed. Not long after, the organisation named Lynette Ang as CMO. SDC also confirmed it will be creating a new marketing division which integrates relevant departments from its corporate and leisure management units as part of efforts to strengthen Sentosa’s position as a leading leisure and lifestyle destination.
Meanwhile, several other government organisations are also on the hunt for media agency partners. The National Council of Social Service (NCSS) is also on the lookout for an agency to manage its integrated marketing communications campaigns, which include media planning and buying and social media. The appointment is for a period of one year with the option to extend for another two years. The tender closes on 12 January 2018.
The agency will be responsible for reviewing and formulating an overall digital and social media strategy for NCSS. It will also be in charge of planning, conceptualising and executing its mental health campaign, as well as the campaign's media strategy. The agency will also be tasked with handling the overall campaign and media strategy for NCSS' disability awareness campaign.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore is also on the hunt for an agency to manage integrated marketing communication duties for Singapore Maritime Week 2018, which includes media planning and buying. The tender closes on 5 January 2018.
Heineken Malaysia launched a new campaign titled "Get Party Ready" to remind and reward revellers to celebrate this festive season safely.
The "Get Party Ready" campaign, launched via its Facebook's Drink Sensibly page, is a digital driven campaign. It will use the power and reach of social media to engage and educate Millennials through gamification, reminding the five tips to drink sensibly: eat, move, hydrate, pace and taxi home.
The campaign which runs now until 7 January 2018, essentially aims to raise awareness on the importance of drinking sensibly. The brewer's spokesperson said the campaign is its latest initiative to encourage responsible consumption, "a consistent commitment which has already reached over eight million people since 2014."
The campaign also includes weekly interactive quizzes on its Drink Sensibly Facebook page to give away vouchers of Zalora and Grab, a double-win for revellers to dress festive-worthy and reach their destinations safely. The company will be giving away up to RM40,000 in prizes.
U Mobile has re-appointed BPN as its media agency for marketing services. At the same time, the telco which has recently named several other agencies for its marketing services and brand communications portfolio - appointed TBWA, the incumbent creative agency for postpaid segment.
TBWA will be expanding its role to include creative services for enterprise communications for U Mobile. As reported earlier, the telco also appointed The Clan as the creative agency for its prepaid segment after a pitch that included incumbent BBDO Malaysia, Ogilvy, Society and TBWA.
For brand communications specifically, U Mobile has re-appointed Brandscope Malaysia to manage the telco’s out-of-home (OOH) campaigns. Brandscope will also take on media buying and planning roles beyond OOH. The telco also awarded digital agency duties to C27, who will focus on social media content and campaign execution on Instagram.
Jasmine Lee, chief marketing officer of U Mobile said, "At U Mobile, we’re inspired by passionate people and it is passion that drives our unlimited ideas. We are very excited to welcome The Clan, Brandscope, BPN and C27 on board as we have seen that they share in our vision. We look forward to producing great work together.”
Naga DDB Tribal has promoted its general manager (GM) Clarence Koh to the role of chief operating officer.
Speaking exclusively to A+M, a Naga spokesperson said Koh will now be tasked with driving the overall operations of the agency, as well as executing growth strategies. He will continue to report to chief executive officer, Kristian Lee.
Koh, who has served three years in the agency, had his first promotion over a year ago from the position of head of brand management to GM. Koh has over 15 years of experience under his belt with prior stints in agencies such as Grey, J. Walter Thompson and McCann Worldgroup.
“The year 2017 has seen rapid growth for our agency in terms of new business acquisitions, revenue, resources, awards and the overall evolution of our agency brand. Koh has been a key-driving factor behind these achievements and we are confident that in his new role, he can push us to even greater heights in the years to come," Lee said.
Lee added, that the agency has "many plans" in place to advance and expand its organisation and "to do so we require top level management personnel who meets our ambitions and have the capabilities to make these hopes a reality.”
The agency partnered up with C27 late last year to build a creative intelligence platform named “Project Curious” (Curious). This is to assist marketers in developing consumer campaigns and target audiences in a more effective way via data warehousing and machine learning. Lee and C27’s CEO Fazil Fuad said the platform will offer brands the “action points based on combined historical data, consisting of project management, ideation, agency CRM, sales, real-time market insights and performance data”.
Chinese ride-hail behemoth DiDi Chuxing has chosen Zenith, part of Publicis Groupe, as its media business partner in mainland China.
Zenith has created an agency solution, D+Z, in order to cater for DiDi. The remit includes media planning and buying across both traditional and digital media. Previously several agencies had been working with DiDi on a project-by-project basis with the pitch called in order to consolidate media under one group.
"Our team was able to demonstrate strong understanding of consumers across China’s tiers, a smart data-driven approach to media and innovative technology solutions to convince DiDi that we are the right partner to fuel business growth," said Bertilla Teo, CEO Publicis Media Greater China.
“We believe Zenith is the right strategic partner to support us. Through their data led approach they have demonstrated both the experience and capabilities to accelerate our business ambitions.” said a spokesperson for DiDi.
The Beijing-based ride-sharing firm currently provides transportation services for more than 450 million users across over 400 cities in China. According to the company, DiDi completes 25 million rides per day. It provides services including taxi hailing, private car hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), DiDi Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Car Rental, DiDi Enterprise Solutions, DiDi Minibus, DiDi Luxe and bike-sharing to users in China via smartphone application.
According to recruitment firm Hays, due to new technologies, there will be increased demand for chief automation officers (CAOs).
Hays CEO, Alistair Cox said that across the boardroom table, business leaders may also start seeing more CAOs have a say as businesses recognise AI’s revolutionary potential, but remain alert to the unforeseen impact it could have on their business model.
Meanwhile, there will also be a fierce battle to innovate quicker than competitors. This will result in an increase in demand for chief innovation officers, whose role is primarily responsible for managing the process of innovation and change management in an organisation. Cox added that there will also be a demand for leaders who can ensure the security of a business’s systems.
Data is also driving demand in a number of sector specific roles, including marketing jobs such as marketing automation, performance marketers, customer analytics and CRM specialists. The demand has been created by businesses as they seek to target customers in more sophisticated ways.
“Digital information mountains have grown, and the rise in the Internet of Things technology is likely to accelerate this. However, data without insight is of no value, which explains why we are seeing a sharp rise in data scientist, data analyst, data artists and data visualiser vacancies, around the world,” he said.
He added: “These professionals make sense of a business’ data, helping to turn zeros and ones into actionable insights, whether that’s changes in customer behaviour or new opportunities which haven’t yet been spotted by human eyes.”
Businesses will continue to seek AI developers, especially those that can apply AI technology in a consumer context. In addition, AI candidates with an understanding of the wider business opportunities will be in high demand, along with developers who can enhance an organisation and optimise business processes. As such, there will be increase in data-related roles.
Traditional roles still matter
Despite the emergence of new technologies and related roles, more traditional tech and non-tech specific roles will continue to be relevant. The report explained that skilled software developers are in high demand, particularly those with front-end user interface experience, as organisations evolve their digital offering to meet changing consumer expectations. Java and scalable programming languages remain preferred, although there is still a need for C++ fluency despite increasing migration from legacy systems.”
Moreover, preparation for regulatory changes across several industries, as well as a continued focus on digital transformation, will create large-scale projects. This will see increasing demand for project and change management professionals, particularly those needed to fill project manager and business analyst roles.
Cox said, “Despite the more sensationalist headlines predicting the demise of the human worker, at Hays, we simply don’t see this happening. We are, in fact, seeing an explosion in new roles around AI and data and a relentless demand for specific soft skills such as adaptability, creativity and collaboration. After all, and as I’ve said before, we’re yet to see an algorithm that can read things like humour, temperament or enthusiasm as effectively as a person can.”
Human skills for a tech driven world
Alongside technical skills, soft skills will continue to be in demand. Cox said, “While the best technical skills and qualifications in the world can be taught, they will have limited impact unless your business is equipped with managers who understand what motivates their employees, can communicate with their team effectively and listen. Those organisations who can marry the best technology and ‘technical’ skills with teams who have an abundance of emotional intelligence will win.”
Employers will need to actively look for creativity, collaboration, human interpretation and communication skills, in candidates. The jobseekers to stand out from their peers will be those who are not only able to provide solutions to challenges but communicate how and why to implement them.
Marks & Spencer has sold its retail business in Hong Kong and Macau to its long-established franchise partner Al-Futtaim amid overhaul plan, the clothing and food chain confirmed on Tuesday.
The sale, which completed on 30 December for an undisclosed sum, sees Al-Futtaim become the new sole franchisee for the 27 M&S stores in Hong Kong and Macau.
Al-Futtaim has worked in partnership with M&S since 1998 when it opened Dubai’s first M&S store. The purchase means that the Dubai-based trading business house now operates 72 Marks & Spencer stores across 11 markets in Asia and the Middle East.
The sale follows the brand's strategic review of its International business in November 2016, where M&S proposed to have a greater focus on its established franchise and joint venture partnerships and operate with fewer wholly-owned markets.
The company then laid out plans to shut more than 80 stores in Britain and abroad, as well as pull out from ten direct markets, including China, France, Belgium and Hungary. Company-owned stores in Hong Kong, Ireland, and the Czech Republic were spared at that time.
Paul Friston, Marks & Spencer’s International director, said the company has substantially reshaped its International business, which has improved profitability and positioned it for growth.
"As one of the world’s leading retail operators, with strong logistics capabilities and local expertise, Al-Futtaim is the ideal partner for us to develop and grow our business in Hong Kong and Macau," he added.
What to pay a close eye on?
OC&C Strategy Consultants's partner Pascal Martin, said that with this deal, M&S now has a simple homogeneous international business, i.e. all wholesale to local partners, except M&S’s India JV with Reliance.
As for Al Futtaim, Martin said the group may be able to exert more control on M&S Asia logistics network to achieve better integration across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau. "Al Futtaim will likely have increased negotiation power with M&S on product, store format, pricing and more," he suggested.
"Following the deal, it will be interesting to see how M&S and Al Futtaim will cooperate in the development of the M&S E-Commerce platform, alongside the offline store expansion, as E-Commerce gradually becomes a bigger component of retail in Asian markets operated by Al Futtaim," Martin suggested.
On the other hand, the deal does not seem to cover mainland China, and Martin said the market might be where M&S continues to operate an online business through a T-Mall store.
Media Group, the parent company of Regent Media, Pulp Kreatives, Miles Media and Key Editions, has merged the four publishers with effect from January 2018. Media Group, a subsidiary of KHL Printing, is also the parent company of Asian Geographic Magazines, which will continue to operate as a standalone.
The four companies which were previously operating independently will now be streamlined into three specialised media divisions and will no longer exist as individual brands. The newly merged entity will be headed by managing director Dennis Pua.
In a statement to Marketing, a Media Group spokesperson confirmed that there would be no staff restructures as a result of the merger. The move is also a bid to increase cost efficiency and improving the range of services offered by the group. This will also see a greater emphasis on digital solutions, which includes video production along with website and app development.
Marketing has reached out to Media Group for additional comments.
The three specialised media divisions will be led by the former publishers of three of the media companies. This includes Ben Poon, publisher at Regent Media, Foo Mei Siah, publisher at Key Editions, and Kimberley Song, publisher at Miles Media.
Poon will be responsible for Media Group’s luxury titles as well as its content solutions division. This includes luxury lifestyle titles such as Portfolio, Golf Asia, Solitaire and Jet Gala, the latter two which was acquired last year by Pulp Kreatives.
The content solutions division will offer its clients solutions for specialised interests, ranging from custom publishing, content marketing, to web and app development. The division currently operates Scoot’s monthly inflight magazine, the Ascendas-Singbridge magazine Ascent, as well as PopClub, a specialist magazine for the Popular bookstore chain.
Foo will manage Media Group’s titles across its home and furnishings and special interests division. Cromly, Square Rooms, and D+A magazines will constitute the home décor and furnishing titles, while special interest titles include Teenage, BBC Earth, S’pore’s Child and special projects for educational institutions.
Meanwhile, Song will handle the company’s food and gourmet titles, including Xin Flavours, and other related projects such as the gourmet food tours, cooking seminars and demonstrations. She will also be responsible for the company’s participation in events such as the Asia Pacific Food Expo and Singapore Food Expo.
“The vision is to create a collaborative environment that works towards creating effective and engaging content across interests. With the different arms coming together to form one cohesive Media Group, we look forward to maximising investment in each of our titles, including making the most of our custom media solutions,” Pua said.
The National Heritage Board (NHB) has appointed Tate Anzur to manage PR duties for the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum for a period of one year, with the option to extend for another two.
This follows a Gebiz tender called on 15 September 2017, which saw five other agencies vying for the account - Edelman, Ogilvy, PR Communications, CMG Group Singapore and Phish Communications.
The agency has also been appointed to manage social media duties for NHB's SG Heritage Plan for a period of six months. The tender was called on 26 September last year and saw Pinheads Interactive, Jalo Jalo and Kobe Global technologies also vying for the account.
Tate Anzur will be responsible for generating monthly social media content, formulating a social media activation plan and executing it, on-site social media support, as well as the additional design and development of content add-ons.
The first edition of NHB's SG Heritage Plan will be rolled out this year, setting its strategies and initiatives for the next five years until 2022. The plan is a comprehensive and holistic national blueprint for Singapore's heritage sector, and is done in "close consultation" with heritage stakeholders, other government agencies and the public.
In addition to formulating plans for new strategies and initiatives for the next five years, NHB aims to envision long term goals for the heritage sector by 2030 and beyond, using the SG Heritage Plan. The plan also strives to show the value and importance of heritage, as well as highlight past efforts in the areas of heritage preservation and promotion.
Luxury gift brand RISIS has appointed Carbon Interactive as its social media agency for duration of one year. The agency will be responsible for providing services in social media strategy, consultancy, social media management and content planning.
Following the move, RISIS plans to leverage on social media platforms to “build on its legacy”. According to Agnes Goh, general manager of RISIS, a focus for 2018 for the company would be customer engagement.
“Customers can expect to see more of RISIS as we innovate and customise our services and products specially to meet their needs,” Goh said.
She added that Carbon Interactive was chosen as it had submitted an “impressive proposal that is aligned with [its] vision for the brand”. The company also believes that working with the agency can help move the brand towards its objectives.
“It’s a great honour to partner with another iconic Singapore brand and to help strengthen their social media presence,” Jeffrey Lim, general manager of Carbon Interactive said.
YouGov’s Brand Boycotters report found that 30% of Malaysian consumers have boycotted a brand and half (48%) of those who boycotted a brand say they still don’t use it.
According to the report, product recalls are the top reason for boycotting a brand (55% of those who have stopped using a brand have done so for these reasons). A third (34%) stopped using a brand because of animals being mistreated; more than the 24% which were prompted by workers in the supply chain being treated badly.
YouGov’s report suggests that although some boycotting consumers do come back eventually, rarely do they use the brand as much as they did before. half (48%) say they still do not use the brand, while a third (34%) went back to the brand they used it less often. Only 8% used it as much as previously.
Overall, three quarters (76%) of those who have boycotted a brand and no longer use it as much as they used to (if at all) say they “only buy products from companies that have ethics and values that [they] agree with”.
Stephen Tracy, head of YouGov Malaysia, said, “There have been a number of cases of brands getting in hot water with consumers over the past couple of years over issues such as product safety or not treating staff well enough. While it is not as straightforward as saying that every time a brand is seen to misbehave it will lose customers, there is a distinct proportion of consumers who will vote with their wallets.”
YouGov is an international data and analytics group, with a core offering of opinion data is derived from our highly participative panel of 5 million people worldwide.
The Straits Times Digital has been renamed to The Straits Times Tech (ST Tech), and will be published in the Life section of the newspaper every Wednesday, beginning today. According to ST, the new ST Tech will offer stories on the latest tech happenings, in a bid to reflect the wider interests of modern tech-savvy consumers stories.
This follows Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) recent announcement of The New Paper (TNP) ceasing its Saturday edition to become a five-day publication on print and online platforms. This comes two years after SPH merged TNP with My Paper in 2016 to form a revamped TNP, which is distributed for free.
Last year, SPH merged The Straits Times Business (ST) and The Business Times (BT) to form a combined business team for content. According to an internal memo seen by Marketing, Fernandez wrote that the new team will be tasked with supplying business content to ST, BT and Money FM 89.3, one of the two new radio stations slated to launch this month.
Additionally, ST’s technology news will be shifted to the Life section, while BT’s weekend magazine, which currently runs on Saturdays, will be distributed with the main papers on Friday, beginning this year. BT’s Friday publication will also be revamped to carry weekend features such as car reviews and person columns.
Zenith Singapore has appointed Stefanie Liew (pictured), former business director at OgilvyOne Greater China, to the newly created role of executive director. Liew's main focus will be on Zenith's global clients as the Singapore business becomes more international.
She reports directly to Helen Lee, MD of Zenith Singapore, and will work closely with Jason Tan, head of strategy and Publicis Media's Practices to deliver a range of digital marketing solutions. Liew has more than 16 years of digital expertise in client management across Malaysia and Greater China.
During her time as business director at OgilvyOne Greater China, Liew was the business lead for Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG). According to her LinkedIn, she was responsible for brand marketing for brands such as Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, and was also the business lead for IHG's consumer loyalty marketing division. Liew also managed H&M China, Korean Air and OneX.
Prior to this role, she was the group account director at TBWA and Tribal DDB Shanghai. Liew has also worked at Nurun, Ogilvy Action, OgilvyOne Malaysia and G2 Direct and Digital.
“We are delighted to have Liew on board. She fits into the profile of a new generation of digital-savvy leaders from a creative agency backdrop we are building at Zenith. Liew’s results-oriented approach aligns perfectly with our ROI proposition for marketers. Her positive energy is infectious,” Lee said.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has partnered exclusively with sports merchandise e-commerce company Fanatics to launch 10 official online NBA stores across Asia Pacific.
The partnership expands on NBA's existing relationship with Fanatics and covers Asia Pacific countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Japan. The league now has 20 international e-commerce sites.
In a statement to Marketing, NBA's spokesperson declined to reveal the monetary value of the partnership but said it is a multi-year deal. The spokesperson added that the league is in the midst of formulating a marketing plan and money will be allocated to support the new online stores.
A wide array of products from all 30 NBA teams will be offered via the new online stores, including oncourt apparel from Nike and products from NBA merchandise partners such as New Era and Mitchell & Ness. Asia Pacific fans are also able to obtain exclusive products, including personalised team jerseys from the online stores. Fanatics currently operates the flagship NBA Store in New York City, NBAStore.com and NBAStore.eu.
“Basketball’s popularity in Asia Pacific continues to grow, and our new online NBA Stores with Fanatics will allow us to reach and engage with our expanding fanbase throughout the region," NBA Asia associate VP, global merchandising, Lesley Rulloda, said.
“The NBA is becoming an increasingly global league, and we’ve seen a significant uptick in fandom across several regions throughout Asia. This level of growth is very exciting, and Fanatics is committed to providing a best-in-class online shopping experience to provide these passionate fans with easy access to the largest assortment of officially licensed NBA merchandise available for all 30 teams," Steve Davis, president of Fanatics International, said.
