Grey Group’s Yolk rebrands and further expands in Southeast Asia

Yolk’s rebranding and expansion will broaden Grey’s ability to support regional clients with services including analytics; strategy and communications planning; social media outreach and engagement; integrated marketing services; application builds covering mobile OS, social games, custom marketing management systems, big data and eCRM; real-time bidding; and media dashboarding.

Benjamin Tan, Yolk CEO, has been promoted to Group CEO for Yolk(at)Grey and chief digital officer for Grey Group in Southeast Asia.

Tan said the region is witnessing an unprecedented digital transformation, driven by sustained economic growth, improving affordability, evolving demographics and government support.

“Our competitive difference is a combination of creativity with technology capabilities, as well as measurable effectiveness, based on our analytics and social engagement capabilities,” he told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

“Maturity of understanding from clients is driving the need to bring more thinking and value to the table,” Tan explained. “In the past, most marketers’ idea of digital is consumed with paid media and social buzz, but we are now challenged to deliver more useful and measurable results beyond fan counts and media value.”

While clients often ask for content that will go viral, Tan believes there is no magic formula for this. "What is more important is understanding specifically what type and components of content works for specific brand and audiences," he said. "Long-term understanding and tweaking is the way to go."

The agency is now starting to look at longer-term programmes that impact revenue and market share, such as data and eCRM, ecommerce and omni-channel engagement through the line, he added.

Kelveen Soh, chief operating officer, has been appointed as CEO of Yolk Singapore, while Prakash Somosundram, director for social media, will take on the role of regional business development director.

Yeong Yee, former regional head of planning, is now head of partnered services focusing on real-time media bidding, eCRM and big data. Low Jun Jek creative director will lead digital creative for Southeast Asia as executive creative director.

Nirvik Singh, chairman and CEO at Grey Group Asia Pacific, said Southeast Asia is currently the fastest growing region for Grey, as internet traffic in this region is growing exponentially, creating greater demand for quality content.

Yolk, founded in 2001 as a Singapore-based start-up, was acquired by Grey in 2010. Its regional clients include Lenovo, Ferrero Roche, Kinder Bueno, Maybank, GlaxoSmithKline, Adobe, Microsoft, Disposable Soft Goods International and Mitsubishi.