This is part of the company's plans to expand into the rest of Southeast Asia and become a major player in the digital marketing space, Blugrapes sees itself as poised to meet an increasing demand for localised social media marketing expertise and solutions.
Freda Kwok, lead consultant at Blugrapes Malaysia, said the agency is ready to expand its operations across ASEAN, starting with Malaysia. “Demand for social media marketing solutions has exploded in this market – it is one of Facebook’s largest markets in Asia, with 70 per cent of all online Malaysians being active Facebook users. Coupled with the rapid growth of Google+ and Twitter, this is the perfect time for a Blugrapes Malaysia office to meet this surge in local demand.”
Blugrapes has been active in Malaysia since 2010, working via its Malaysian partner, Better Sdn Bhd. With a local office, it would build branded social media communities focusing on local nuances, happenings, trends and habits.
Better Sdn Bhd will now provide Facebook media buying and campaign optimisation capabilities for Blugrapes in Malaysia.
Kwok added that Malaysian consumers are ready to interact and consume content from social media, and brands are ready to spend resources and effort on social media.
“While the landscape is at its infancy and has much growth potential, we will be able to provide richer content, conversations and engagement. We are drawing on our rich experience and expertise from across more than 10 consumer marketing sectors and bringing that to Malaysia,” she noted.
In 2008, Blugrapes was one of only two pioneering agencies that introduced Facebook as a marketing platform to brand marketers in Singapore. They have since worked with brands such as Citibank, Maybank, Coca-Cola, Estée Lauder, Long John Silver’s, Nando’s, Microsoft and Dulux.