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Tag: APAC

  • Commonwealth’s RP Singh to join Sirez Group

    MUMBAI: RP Singh who works as McCann Erickson Commonwealth head-digital, APAC and West Asia, has decided to move on from the agency to join Sirez Group as CEO.

    Based in Delhi, Singh‘s immediate priority will be to bring new clients on board for digital marketing agency Sirez Infosystems.

    Singh comes in with over 12 years of experience in digital marketing. He has worked across regions including India, China and Southeast Asia.

    Prior to joining McCann Erickson Commonwealth, Singh has worked with companies such as GroupM, Starcom, Ogilvy, Trident Group and Smile Interactive.

    In his career, he has handled brands from companies like Pepsico, GSK, General Motors and P&G.

    For the record, Commonwealth is the global JV between McCann Erickson Worldwide and Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

  • Yahoo! India MD Arun Tadanki calls it quits

    Yahoo! India MD Arun Tadanki calls it quits

    MUMBAI: Yahoo! India and Southeast Asia MD Arun Tadanki resigned from his post.

    Serving his notice period, Tadanki will continue to be with the company till June.

    Tadanki was with Yahoo! for the last three years and has been credited for driving a sixfold growth of Yahoo! mobile-users in India. He has worked for 11 years in CEO roles for APAC/ Emerging Markets regions at multinational Internet companies.
     
    He had joined Yahoo! in 2009 where, as Managing Director, Yahoo! India and Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia & Thailand), he had the mandate to expand and consolidate business, building on Yahoo!’s leading market position in this region.

    Prior to joining Yahoo!, he had worked for seven years at Monster.com where he was president (Asia-Pacific & Middle East).

  • IAA crowns Sam Balsara as Media Agency Head of the Year

    MUMBAI: The International Advertising Association (IAA) India chapter on Saturday crowned Madison World chairman and MD Sam Balsara as the Media Agency Head of the Year in the first edition of IAA Leadership Awards.

    IAA leadership Awards were given away in 18 categories in Mumbai. The awards recognised and honoured “outstanding” individuals in the fields of marketing, advertising and media.

    Ogilvy & Mather executive chairman and national creative head Piyush Pandey was bestowed with the Creative Agency Head of the Year Award.

    Star India EVP and communication Gayatri Yadav won the award in the Media & Entertainment category.

    On the client‘s side, Cadbury India: Regional category head APAC (developing) executive director Chocolates & Biscuits Chandramouli Venkatesh bagged the IAA Leadership Awards in FMCG-food and beverages category while HUL vice-president – Skincare Arun Srinivas won the award in FMCG-Personal Care category.

    Samsung Electronics CMO Rahul Saigal was given the IAA Leadership Award in Consumer Durables Category. Meanwhile, ICICI Bank head marketing Sujit Ganguli got the marketer of the year award in the banking category.

    LIC India executive director Rita Bhattacharya received the marketer of the year award in insurance sector and Vodafone Sr VP, Brand Communications, Insights and Online Anuradha Aggarwal bagged the marketer of the year award in telecom products & services category.

    Hero Motor Corp SVP Sales and marketing Anil Dua was given the IAA Leadership Award in auto-two Wheeler category, while Maruti Suzuki COO Mayak Pareek collected the marketer of the year award in auto-passenger vehicle category.

    Force Motors GM Cyriac Jacob was bestowed with the marketer of the year-auto commercial vehicle award while Makemytrip.com marketing head Manish Kalra collected the marketer of the year award in travel & hospitality category.

    Asian Paints vice-president sales and marketing Amit Syngle won the IAA Leadership Award in household products & services category. ITC chairman YC Deveshwar got the award in the best CEO of the year category.

    IAA had also constituted special six categories for editor of the year that was won by TOI executive editor Jaideep Bose, News Anchor of the year award by IBN-18 editor in chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Media person of the year award by Hindustan Times chairperson and editorial director Shobhana Bhartia, brand endorser of the year – male award by Salman Khan, best endorser of the year award by Katrina Kaif and the IAA Hall of Fame award by former president and director of Bennett, Coleman & Company and former CEO of Zee Pradeep Guha.

  • HD Playboy Asia Channel launches in APAC via AsiaSat 5

    HD Playboy Asia Channel launches in APAC via AsiaSat 5

    MUMBAI: Playboy Plus Entertainment, managed by Manwin Media, has launched encrypted HD Playboy Asia Channel on AsiaSat 5 in the Asia Pacific.

    Manwin is the leading international provider of high-quality adult entertainment, delivered through online, mobile and television media platforms.

    From AsiaSat Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong, the HD Playboy Asia Channel is uplinked to AsiaSat 5 (100.5 degrees East), through a C-band DVB-S2 MCPC platform for delivery to over 50 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and CIS.

    AsiaSat also provides encryption service to the channel from its teleport.

    AsiaSat President and CEO William Wade said, "We are pleased that Playboy Plus chose AsiaSat 5 for the launch of its first HD Playboy channel in the Asia Pacific. We are proud to meet the increased demand of international broadcasters who expect comprehensive and cost efficient transmission solutions while at the same time appreciate the benefit of AsiaSat 5‘s excellent access to Asian pay TV platforms."

    The HD linear channel offers Playboy branded series including Playmates!, The Truth about Sex and The Man, as well as upscale movies from studios including world-renown Digital Playground.

    Playboy Plus Entertainment GM-Asia Pacific Lanny Huang said, "We are proud to launch HD Playboy Asia, the first channel targeting the adult audience in Asia. The 24/7 linear HD channel will include a unique blend of content including Playboy originals and the addition of our highly-acclaimed Digital Playground movies, offering extreme cinematic experience to our viewers."

  • SapientNitro appoints Andy Greenaway as ECD – APAC

    MUMBAI: SapientNitro, an interactive marketing, creative design, and technology services agency has appointed Andy Greenaway as executive creative director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

    Greenaway will assume the role in February and will be based in Singapore. Till recently, Greenaway was the regional creative director of Asia Pacific for Saatchi & Saatchi.

    He will report to worldwide chief creative officer Gaston Legorburu and work alongside APAC business unit lead Christian Oversohl as a member of the APAC leadership team.

    Oversohl said, “With his extensive experience in the Asian market and his unique creative voice, Andy will be instrumental in our ability to serve the growing client demand for truly integrated services. We believe there is a fundamental shift taking place in marketing. Brands are recognising the need to start and maintain meaningful relationships with their customers, across multiple devices and channels, in an always-on world. Having senior industry leaders like Andy realise and embrace this industry shift is a powerful endorsement of our vision and strategy.”

    “The company‘s focus on merging tremendous creative talent with the innovative use of technology allows SapientNitro to tell immersive stories for the brands it represents. I‘m looking forward to contributing to the company‘s creative ambitions and next phase of growth in this region,” Greenaway said.

  • Geo-targeting is biggest perceived benefit of mobile marketing: Mobext

    MUMBAI: The most important benefit of mobile marketing is geo-targeting or the ability to target on-the-go consumers. This aspect of it comes out in a recent study by Mobext which reveals that 84.3 per cent advertisers currently invest in mobile marketing.

    This, according to the study, is followed by 64.8 per cent respondents who say that mobile marketing gives ability to communicate one-to-one with consumers on a personalised or targeted basis while 63 per cent believe it helps in real-time messaging. Only a little over a third of respondents each believed mobile marketing to be cost-efficient (37 per cent) and easy to use/implement (36.1 per cent).

    According to the agency, even though advertisers appreciate the ability of mobile to do geo-targeted as well as one-to-one communications, a majority of marketers are still not convinced that mobile is a cost-efficient and easy-to-manage advertising channel.

    The APAC region is believed to be the largest and fastest-growing mobile market in the world with more than 2.5 billion mobile subscriptions and 70-90 per cent average mobile customer penetration in many countries. Although certain Asian markets already invest heavily in mobile (Japan, in particular), the rest of Asia still represents a small percentage of the total mobile advertising market globally.

    Mobext, Havas Media’s mobile marketing agency, conducted this research to delve deep into Asian advertisers’ attitudes towards mobile marketing, particularly the “non-Japan” APAC market which lags behind in mobile spending

    According to the research finding, marketers are clearly struggling with measuring return on their mobile investments. 57 per cent of respondents said that it is too early to tell and they are not sure if returns are commensurate with their mobile investments. Only 3.7 per cent of respondents said they are “extremely” satisfied with results of their mobile investments, while 23.1 per cent said they are“moderately” satisfied.

    The study also revealed that 47.6 per cent of respondents agreed that mobile would be equally important as TV in the next two years while 44 per cent said that mobile will be more important than radio in the next two years.

    Also, 60 per cent of surveyed respondents said they do not use a third-party organisation (such as a mobile agency) to manage their mobile marketing efforts.

    In general, the agency felt that the outlook for mobile marketing in the six surveyed Asian markets is very positive. Among those not currently investing in mobile marketing, 55 per cent said that they plan on investing in mobile in the next 12 months.

    The survey revealed that while marketers are attracted to smartphone and tablet-based marketing, a significant portion of marketers still “heavily” associate mobile with SMS or text-based marketing. They believe that SMS still represents the single biggest mass reach opportunity for marketers.

    When asked to choose a phrase that they associate the most to mobile marketing, 63.5 per cent respondents chose mobile or smartphone ads, 61.3 per cent chose SMS/text messaging and 59.4 per cent went for mobile apps as their top-of-mind options.

    The survey shows that advertisers in the covered Asian markets are increasingly embracing mobile,with 53.5 per cent per cent of respondents saying that they currently invest in mobile marketing.

    Among the markets covered in the survey, Hong Kong (63.8 per cent of respondents), Singapore (48.2 per cent) and Malaysia (38 per cent) report the highest rate of adoption for mobile marketing among advertisers

    More than half (56.5 per cent) of the current investors in mobile marketing feel that it’s too early for them to say if the returns are commensurate with their investments in mobile. Around 23.1 per cent are moderately satisfied with their returns (results have met expectations) while about 14.8 per cent are not satisfied (some campaigns have not met expectations).

    For those who currently invest in mobile marketing, the top three roles of mobile marketing are: raising brand awareness (61.1 per cent), increasing the customer purchase intent (50.9 per cent) and increasing customer-base by attracting new customers (48.1 per cent).

    Based on the data, most marketers are currently focused on utilising mobile as an awareness building channel as well as an activation channel to help drive both purchases and consumer spending, and at the same time, also increase customer base. A majority of marketers have still not fully taken advantage of the potential of mobile in increasing brand loyalty through targeted one-to-one communications, or by integrating mobile in existing loyalty programs, the report said.

    The study revealed that among those respondents who currently invest in mobile marketing, the three main mobile marketing methods that they have invested in are mobile apps (59.3 per cent), mobile websites (53.7 per cent), and SMS to an opt-in database (48.1 per cent).

    The company said that despite the potential of mobile in driving purchase (via mobile coupons and mobile commerce), majority of marketers still do not invest heavily in mobile commerce (only 9.3 per cent) and mobile coupons (only 17.5 per cent).

    By far, however, the biggest anticipated trend is the convergence of social and mobile, with advertisers planning to increase investment in this area significantly. With mobile increasingly becoming the main access point for social media, particularly in the APAC region, advertisers are interested in scaling their investments in campaigns that integrate social and mobile.

    Another point to note is that while investment in SMS/text to opt-in database is expected to decrease (from 48.1 per cent of current mobile advertisers investing in it, to 34.3 per cent planning to invest in it in the future), more firms are planning to invest in mobile CRM/one-to-one messaging (from only 7.8 per cent to 32.4 per cent of current investors planning to invest in it in the future). The implication is that marketers will increasingly shift from mass communication methods via SMS, to more targeted, one-to-one, personalised communications, the company said.

    While current adoption of QR codes/bar-codes is high (48.1 per cent), fewer advertisers (35.0 per cent) are planning to invest in them in the near future. Other areas of mobile marketing that are expected to undergo drastic changes in investment include:

     

    Methodology Current
    investment    		 Planned
    investment    		 Increase/
    Decrease
    Mobile CRM/one-to-one
    messaging    		 7.8% 34.0% 26.2%
    User-generated content 6.8% 23.3% 16.5%
    Mobile Couponing 17.5% 34.0% 16.5%
    Mobile Commerce 9.7% 25.2% 15.5%
    Location-based marketing 22.3% 36.9% 14.6%
    Social media mobile
    marketing    		 39.8% 54.6% 14.8%
    Text/SMS to opt-indatabase 47.6% 35.0% -12.6%
    QR codes/Barcodes 48.5% 35.0% -13.5%

    The research report shows that the two biggest barriers that are holding mobile marketing from assuming a greater role in the marketing mix are: lack of a reliable, uniform framework to measure or prove mobile marketing success (56.5 per cent) and lack of enough knowledge or case studies to provide effectiveness and RoI of mobile marketing (55.6 per cent).

    A few other issues highlighted by current advertisers are technology constraints, including poor 3G/4G connectivity (53.7 per cent), limited resources or expertise in this domain (50 per cent), and consumer privacy issues (44 per cent).

    Majority of respondents (55.1 per cent) not currently investing in mobile marketing say that mobile marketing would gain importance for their brand in the next twelve months.

    Mobext conducted this online survey from 9- 23 August 2012. It got responses of 271 respondents representing more than 230 companies across six markets in Asia-Pacific, specifically Indonesia, Philippines, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

    The markets covered in the study were purposely selected in order to cover the non-Japan Asia-Pacific market, with a balance between advanced economies (Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia) and developing markets (Indonesia, Philippines and India).

    Approximately 85 per cent of the respondents are mid-to-senior level marketing functional leaders in their respective organisations, while the surveyed companies represent various industries, specifically retail, consumer goods, fashion and apparel, travel and hospitality, media and entertainment, telecom, tourism, and financial services.

  • Ogilvy Healthcare hires Pete Smith as APAC regional innovations and creative director

    MUMBAI: WPP’s Ogilvy has appointed Pete Smith to the post of regional innovations and creative director in Asia Pacific for its specialised healthcare division. It offers services across Asia with hubs in India, China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Smith will relocate to Shanghai from Sydney this month to lead the creative offering of Ogilvy’s healthcare division across the region.

    Smith‘s previous stint was with the BBDO network in Australia, where he was creative director. As creative lead within that network, he created many successful healthcare campaigns both locally and globally. Most recently he was driving the launch and ongoing growth of Astra Zeneca’s brand portfolio in Australia.

    Smith will join the core regional team of Ogilvy’s health discipline that includes Asia Pacific regional director Rohit Sahgal and regional director insights and strategy Sebastien Boisseau to create a unique specialist agency model that will seamlessly service the needs of global/regional/local clients, across Rx-OTC-Nutrition & Wellness.

    “Pete has been a leading advocate for digital, new technology, experiential and social marketing in a health context, but has always followed the simple principle that every great campaign needs a great idea brilliantly executed. He has embraced and driven serious innovation of new media platforms into the healthcare sphere – in particular the ‘digitalisation’ of healthcare creativity. I couldn’t have asked for a more inspiring and groundbreaking creative leader to work with,” said Sahgal.

    Smith said, “The Asia Pacific region is where the most exciting work in the world is being done and the most exciting work in the region is being done by Ogilvy, a leader in the field. I genuinely feel privileged to be part of this team and excited by the prospects of working with this team. Ogilvy has always been the place where advertising people want to work, and nothing much has changed. Under my guardianship, I have strong ambitions to take that spirit further and faster” said Pete Smith on his being a part of the Ogilvy AP network.

  • Publicis Groupe acquires Malaysian interactive agency Arachnid to bolster Saatchi & Saatchi digital offering in APAC

    MUMBAI: France-based Publicis Groupe has acquired 100 per cent stake in Malaysian digital agency Arachnid.

    Established in 1996 in the capital city Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian agency today employs a team of more than sixty digital communications specialists. It has roots in digital and interactive marketing the agency‘s service offering has evolved to cover all forms of interaction-oriented touch-points. Its portfolio of clients includes Dutch Lady (dairy), Lexus, MINI, Petronas (oil and gas), Reckitt Benckiser, and Toyota. Arachnid serves over 25 markets across North America, South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

    Post the acquisition, the agency will be rebranded Saatchi & Saatchi Arachnid, and will become a part of the Saatchi & Saatchi network in the Asia-Pacific region. Arachnid founder and CEO Chin Weng Keong will continue to lead the business as Saatchi & Saatchi Arachnid, and will now report to Saatchi & Saatchi Asia Pacific Chairman and CEO Chris Foster.

    With this buyout, the Publicis Groupe now has more than 600 full-time employees in Malaysia through its networks Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi and VivaKi. At the end of June 2012, Publicis Groupe employed nearly 13,000 people across the Asia-Pacific region.

    Fosters said, “Today‘s transaction signifies a major scaling up of our digital capabilities across the Asia Pacific region, in order to provide our clients with the best possible solutions across the full multitude of consumer channels. The acquisition of Arachnid will further enhance our ability to deliver powerful integrated campaigns for our clients in this strategically important region and to unleash the ‘unreasonable power of creativity.‘ “

    Weng Keong added, “We‘ve been exploring becoming part of a global group for a while and we‘ve received a number of offers. We‘ve finally found the right fit with Publicis Groupe. We share a common vision and strategy with the Saatchi & Saatchi teams, and our excellent rapport promises a wide range of synergies. This is an opportunity for us to evolve beyond pure-play digital, and to integrate our capabilities into a new generation agency well positioned for an exciting future.”

  • RedWorks Digital Services appoints Gavin Hall as regional VP

    MUMBAI: Oglivy & Mather‘s design unit RedWorks Digital Services has appointed Gavin Hall as regional vice president for APAC. He will be based in Singapore.

    In this new role, Hall will expand the digital delivery capabilities of RedWorks across the region, including specialist and production operations in Bangalore, Ho Chi Minh and Beijing.

    RedWorks Asia regional president Michael Burgess said, “RedWorks has evolved considerably over the last three years and we are pleased to have Gavin on board to be part of our growth. His extensive management, mobile, online project and product management experience will further add to our service offerings and strong leadership team, and create additional value for our clients.”

    “It has been more than six years since I was part of Ogilvy and I feel as if I am coming home. It is an exciting time to join RedWorks, and I am looking forward to supporting RedWorks‘ growth across Asia Pacific,” Hall said.

    Hall began his career as an award-winning producer for MTV before joining OgilvyOne in the interactive space where he worked on regional projects for Nokia, Unilever and Lufthansa. He moved to Yahoo! where he managed regional mobile product offerings before his most recent role at SingTel, where he was charged with leading the developer and partnership relationships for the company‘s drive into mobile applications.

  • Aegis posts impressive H1 results ahead of Dentsu takeover

    MUMBAI: Global media conglomerate Aegis which is headquartered in London posted an organic revenue growth of 8.6 per cent for H1 2012, up by 0.8 per cent over year-ago.

    The billings for the H1 period of 2012 were ?596.8 million. In 2011, the Aegis group recorded billings worth ?519.1 million, registering a YoY increase of 15 per cent. Profits for the same period rose by 10.32 per cent from ?25.2 million in 2011 to ?27.8 million in 2012.

    Aegis Media APAC’s revenue increased by 17.3 per cent to ?115.8 million from ?98.7 million in 2011. China and Australia were the leading performers in the region for Aegis with other markets also doing reasonable well.

    The company’s revenue in the Americas region increased by 38 per cent to ?134.8 million as opposed to last year’s ? 97.7 million. Its North American business continued to improve its market position with the appointment of Carat US as General Motors Co’s global strategic media partner in January 2012.

    Geographically, the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region revenue increased by 5.3 per cent (from 2011’s ? 290.7 million) to ?306.1 million with Russia, the UK, Turkey and across the Middle East and Africa delivering strong performances.

    In January 2012, the group acquired a further 41 per cent of the share in Norwegian agency Qualité Search taking its stake from 34 per cent to 75 per cent, thus obtaining control of Qualité which has joined the iProspect brand in Norway.

    In February 2012 Aegis fully acquired the holding company of Roundarch Inc, a digital agency which specialises in designing and building enterprise-class digital solutions for clients. Roundarch has been combined with Isobar, Aegis’s existing digital creative network in the US and renamed as RoundarchIsobar.

    In March 2012, Aegis acquired 70 per cent in the Hungarian out-of-home agency PPI Central Europe. PPI has been rebranded to become part of the Postercope EMEA division of Posterscope Worldwide.

    In May, the group fully acquired Beijing-based digital agency eLink Advertising, which is now a part of the Isobar network in China.

    Aegis Group chief executive officer Jerry Buhlmann said, “Successfully delivering our strategy in recent years has consolidated Aegis’s market-leading position and, in July, the Board recommended a ?3.16 billion cash offer from Dentsu. Once completed, this transaction will create one of the world’s most dynamic marketing services groups, the first truly global communications group born in the digital age, with the global reach to provide increased scale, capability and investment to support our clients. For our people, the combination offers continuity and the promise of working for one of the most exciting, high growth companies in our industry.”