Digital happenings this week from VivaKi, Microsoft, Facebook, Tencent and more

Publicis Groupe's digital initiative VivaKi is to become a separate business unit in an effort to encourage more aggressive growth and digital acceleration for the group’s agencies. Launched in 2008 with the aim of boosting the digital transformation of Publicis Groupe, will now be transformed into a separate business unit that will be opened to all Publicis Groupe agencies and the market.

The Digital Asia Festival kicked off its inaugural instalment on Wednesday (8 November) in Beijing, incorporating the Digital Media Awards, which take place tonight (9 November). Read all of our Digital Asia Festival coverage, including the winners list, as soon as the ceremony ends.

Microsoft Australia launched an interactive outdoor campaign for the launch of its latest video game, Halo 4. Titled 'Capture the poster', the campaign encouraged fans to take part in a real-world scavenger hunt to find one of 400 JCDecaux street furniture ads in Sydney and Melbourne and claim the signed Halo artwork inside using either Tapit NFC (near-field communications) technology or a QR code.

Tencent will officially launch its We Chat service in Taiwan tomorrow with a nationwide TV and digital campaign push, and wwwins Isobar Taiwan has been chosen as its digital retainer agency.

GroupM agreed to acquire a majority stake in digital marketing agency Netbooster Asia in the Philippines and Indonesia in a bid to strengthen its digital capabilities in the region.

A significant digital skills gap exists in Australia, with nearly three-quarters of sales and marketing professionals less than comfortable with their digital expertise, according to Digital Chameleon’s ‘Digital IQ Index’ poll of 350 respondents working for agencies, media businesses and brands across the country.