Tech Bites: Week of June 27, 2022

NEWS

ONE Esports and Marriott International have come together to organise Gamer’s Paradise, a 15-episode variety talkshow series. The programme will feature content that celebrates the diversity of gaming and esports culture across Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Gamer’s Paradise will feature esports athletes, gaming and influencer talent, and industry experts. Each episode will centre on a theme, from deep dives into popular gaming titles to explorations of broad industry trends.  

Quantcast has announced the launch of solutions for digital marketers who demand more from their brand advertising. Named Brand Lift Live, Quancast said this real-time survey solution enables marketers to optimise campaigns continuously against the brand awareness and consideration metrics, rather than limiting substitute metrics such as viewability and click-through rate (CTR). It said Brand Lift Live uses statistically controlled survey groups to measure the real-time impact of ads throughout a campaign, allowing for refinement of campaign audiences and delivery characteristics to maximise the impact of every marketing dollar.  

TikTok has introduced Follow Me, a programme aimed at driving awareness and helping small-and-medium businesses (SMBs) in Asia. The six-week program will run from end-June to early August and provide SMBs with guidance on how to get started on TikTok as well as tips and insights from existing users on the platform.  

Forrester has released a new report called “A CMO’s guide to marketing technology” which advises CMOs to take an active role in martech. The report said CMOs must recognize that they have the biggest stake in its success, and they should be involved in defining a vision for martech and its ongoing management to ensure that it lives up to its potential. 

The report suggested CMOs are uniquely positioned to:

• Establish executive support for martech. Senior executives are increasingly aware of marketing technology. The CMO must work with their senior leadership colleagues to advocate for martech’s value and cement commitments to ongoing investments. 
• Mandate a martech stack that drives business value. Successful marketing technology is more than a collection of tools. The CMO must drive a martech strategy that supports the business with speed, security, and value for customers. 
• Develop the team behind the tech. Martech needs support and skills for optimal performance. The CMO must ensure that an effective organizational design and staffing strategy is in place to deploy, manage, and utilize marketing technology

Warner Bros Discovery has partnered with Shell for a new show called Dare to Ride in Southeast Asia and India. Dare to Ride showcases some of Asia’s most accomplished riders as they attempt to conquer the region’s most iconic routes. The show is narrated by Steve Crombie, a professional adventure motorcyclist.

Ginee, an e-commerce merchant services technology platform, has partnered with Zalora to help merchants drive traffic and maximise revenue on their product-level pages on Ginee.  

Teads has launched the Teads Attention Program for key markets in Asia Pacific to arm brands with optimal multi-screen reporting of attention metrics within Teads Ad Manager. It hopes this programme will accelerate the understanding of attention for media buyers and media owners allowing them to plan, buy, optimise and report on attention to ultimately drive a better return on media investment for brands. 

Twilio has released its third annual ‘State of Personalization’ report, which explores trends in personalisation, first-party data, privacy, and consumer loyalty. The report found only 22% of business leaders in APAC and Japan say they provide highly personalised experiences, the lowest of all regions polled. Seventeen percent of APJ business leaders say customers spend significantly more money after a personalised experience, compared to 36% South American, 16% European, and 29% North American business leaders. Fifty-seven percent of Asia-Pacific business leaders use customer experience/satisfaction measures to measure success in delivering personalised shopping experiences, compared to 46% European, 71% South American and 61% North American business leaders. 

APPOINTMENTS AND WINS

FMCG conglomerate MasterKong Beverage has announced its retention of Mindshare China as its agency of record. The retention, which will see Mindshare China provide media planning and buying services for the beverages business, extends the agency’s eight-year old relationship with MasterKong.  

PHD Malaysia has appointed David Soo as managing director. Soo replaces Kiron Kesav, who moved to OMG Malaysia as the chief strategy officer earlier this year. Soo was the managing director of Invictus Blue group previously. 

Performance marketing agency Jaywing and user-experience agency Frank Digital have appointed Rai Campbell in the newly created role of commercial director, to drive business across the recently integrated agencies. Campbell joins Jaywing and Frank Digital after more than five years as head of strategy at Yoghurt Digital.  

Deveshi Chugh has been appointed as managing partner for Wavemaker Asia Pacific. In the new role, Chugh will continue to operate out of Singapore. She has previously worked with Group M for over four years, both in Mediacom and Maxus and has experience covering the India, Philippines, and Singapore markets. Her appointment comes close to the heels of other key hires in the company Shamsul (Shams) Islam (head of precision) and Smith Bhatt (head of ecommerce). All three will report to Rose Huskey, chief client officer, Wavemaker Asia Pacific.

Tourism Fiji has appointed Host/Havas (creative and CX/digital) and Havas Media (media). An integrated team will support the country’s post-pandemic recovery as a destination, and implementation of Tourism Fiji’s strategic plan. The scope of work includes evolving Tourism Fiji’s ‘Where Happiness Finds you’ brand platform, supporting its focus on sustainability, and leading on global media strategy and buying. The team will also help to build digital capabilities across the Tourism Fiji team and develop digital experiences across the visitor booking journey.

Shamsul (Shams) Islam is the new head of precision, Wavemaker Asia-Pacific and Smith Bhatt will be the new head of ecommerce. Both will continue to report to Rose Huskey, chief client officer, Wavemaker Asia-Pacific. In his new role Islam will be chief advocate in performance media, analytics, data & technology. Previously Shams was performance director at Wavemaker Asia-Pacific, overseeing digital excellence across regional clients and local markets, and leading the development of the agency's regional digital centre of excellence. Smith was previously regional digital & ecommerce lead for clients across Southeast Asia. 

Sadhan Mishra has been promoted to CEO of OMD Singapore following 11 years at the agency. Mishra began his career at OMD as a senior manager in Singapore, and clocked in time in Jakarta and Shanghai before returning to Singapore. In his new role, Mishra will work with Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC; Paul Shepherd, chief investment officer and president of Annalect, OMG APAC; and Bharat Khatri, chief digital officer, OMG APAC. 

JCDecaux Transport has appointed Ray Lee as head of digital and programmatic. He will oversee the Hong Kong MTR digital vision sales team for the sales and marketing of MTR digital media networks and zones, including brand new programmatic digital buy in the market. He is also responsible for fostering client relationships and assisting the management in executing the company’s digital strategy. Prior to this, Lee held senior roles at Shimba Digital and Dow Jones.