Amplifi launches in Malaysia

Dentsu Aegis Network has launched the network's media investment arm, Amplifi, in Malaysia, led by newly appointed managing director, Hasnain Babrawala.

Amplifi is now in eight markets across Asia Pacific, including China, launched in March 2015, and New Zealand in January 2017. It will bring together DAN’s media trading and investment management, media partnerships, programmatic buying (Amnet) and content capability functions (The Story Lab) into a consolidated unit for Malaysia.

The Malaysia structure will see Amplifi engage with 13 sister DAN agencies in the local market: Carat, dX cubic and dX palette (collectively Dentsu X), Vizeum, Dentsu LHS, Merdeka LHS, Dentsu One, Isobar; Consider iProspect, Columbus, Dentsu Sports Asia, Posterscope and psLIVE.

Babrawala joins Amplifi Malaysia from IPG Mediabrands Malaysia, where he was the head of media trading and innovation, working on accounts like Intel, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Reckitt Benckiser.

“The Amplifi approach to media partnerships and trading is refreshing, as it does not pivot only on the conventional tenets of investment management and accountability," Babrawala said. "Amplifi is redefining trading, I call it Gen-Y trading. Investments in areas like content, programmatic, data, new technology and artificial intelligence are set to increase, hence it is critical for trading units to be equipped and manage this continuous investment fragmentation smartly. I also believe that trading will not only be limited to price guarantees and will start, if not already, to feature as a measurable function for its overall solution in all agency evaluations and contracts."

Babrawala will have a mandate to deliver a demonstrable uplift in performance across all Malaysian media, the company said. 

Amplifi's regional office has been working with the Malaysian teams on several initiatives before today's official launch, which provided "a cursory look into the market readiness and its potential to further drive convergence through media", commented Sunil Yadav, president of Amplifi Asia Pacific.