Tech Bites: Week of May 30, 2022

David Wightman has left his position as global head of advertising for South China Morning Post (SCMP) just six months into the role.

Based on one anonymous source close to the matter, Wightman resigned under a cloud with immediate effect on Tuesday, May 31 after he was involved in a dispute with one or more SCMP staff. The source added that he was deemed not a “cultural and leadership fit” for the publisher by SCMP’s senior leadership.

SEM9, an esports organisation, has launched an esports hotel in the town of Senai, Johor in Malaysia. Called the SEM9 Senai Esports Hotel, the rooms are fitted with gaming computers, gaming chairs, and gaming peripherals. There are also rooms for mobile gamers that are fitted with PlayStation 5 and a merchandise zone featuring SEM9 apparel to esports team jerseys and collectibles. 

Emodo, an Ericsson company providing audience, inventory and creative advertising solutions, has partnered with Hong Kong’s CKDelta, a member of CK Hutchison Holdings, to power more relevant ad experiences for consumers, while helping advertisers improve inventory, targeting and campaign quality through Delvify. 

Nielsen has launched Total Ad Ratings in Malaysia to provide independent and actionable audience measurement for advertising campaigns across TV and digital platforms (computer, mobile, and tablet). It couples Digital Ad Ratings data with Nielsen TV Ratings data to deliver reporting of deduplicated audiences across TV and digital, with measurement of Facebook, Instagram, and the Open Web. 

MoEngage, a customer engagement platform for consumer brands, has raised USD 77M in Series E funding. This round was led by Goldman Sachs and B Capital, with participation from the company’s existing investors Steadview Capital, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Eight Roads Ventures, and Matrix Partners India. This is the third fundraising for the company in the last 12 months, having raised $32.5M in July and $30M in Dec 2021. MoEngage will use the additional funds to deepen their geographic footprint in the US, UK, and Asia markets and also expand in new markets like LATAM and Australia. The funds will be used to explore strategic acquisitions that can help extend its platform capabilities and provide more value to customers. 

ONE Esports, a subsidiary of ONE Championship, has been named Official Media Partner for League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK). The League of Legends tournament is organised by League of Legends Champions Korea Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Riot Games Korea Limited. 

Political and government spending dominated Q1 2022 digital advertising as the industry grows 19% year-on-year to reach $3.449bn in Australia, according to the IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report.

Travel and lifestyle brand TUMI, has teamed up with Razer, the lifestyle brand for gamers, to reimagine TUMI bestsellers as limited-edition gear for the esports community. The TUMI-Razer limited-edition capsule features four co-branded styles including the take-everywhere Laptop Cover 15", the Bozeman Sling, the Finch Backpack and the International Expandable 4 Wheeled Carry-On Luggage. 

AppsFlyer has released its State of Gaming App Marketing 2022 edition findings for Australia & New Zealand (ANZ). It found that US$138 million (AU$192 million) was spent by gaming apps for user acquisition in 2021. The research also found that 80% of gaming apps in ANZ have implemented Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt, with low user opt-in rate which was averaging at 37% across genres, highlighting the ANZ region’s heightened sensitivity and awareness to data privacy and security. 

  Highlights of the report include:

APPOINTMENTS AND WINS

Kinesso, IPG’s connected intelligence company, recently announced the appointment of four new Regional CEOs. Executives previously in Matterkind leadership roles are being promoted to Kinesso Regional CEOs and will retain their Matterkind leadership responsibilities as well: Matt Ware in APAC, Andy Butters in EMEA, Jorge Chavez in LATAM, and Sean Muzzy in North America.

Lexer, a customer data and experience platform, has appointed Ben Moreau as its new VP of Southeast Asia. Moreau will be tasked with forming strategic partnerships, establishing operations, and accelerating the platform expansion in the region. Lexer has also signed partnership deals with Malaysia-based TGV Cinemas and aCommerce. 

Acast, a podcast company, has announced its move into Asia with the appointment of Timi Siytangco as key account director. Siytangco was previously head of brands & agencies Southeast Asia at Outbrain. She will be responsible for leading commercial growth in Singapore and establishing Acast’s first on-the-ground presence in the region. 

Twilio, a customer engagement platform has announced that Nicholas Kontopoulos has been appointed as VP of marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Based in Singapore, Kontopoulos will oversee the marketing strategy to support business growth in the APJ region. Kontopoulos was most recently at Adobe, where he led marketing go-to-customer efforts for the Asia Pacific region as regional head of growth marketing, Adobe DX. 

Programmatic media and adverstising platform Teads has appointed Natalie Bastian to global chief marketing officer, to lead the company’s worldwide marketing team and strategy, based out of New York. Bastian joins Teads most recently from Tubi, FOX Corporation's free ad-supported streaming service, as SVP, head of marketing and prior to this as head of sales and marketing at Roku. 

Taboola has promoted Robert Perry and Adam Payne to the roles of regional director, Asia Pacific and country manager for Australia and New Zealand respectively. Perry was previously director of publisher partnerships for Asia Pacific and will now focusing on developing Taboola in the Australian, New Zealand, and Korean markets, and support both advertiser and publisher customers. Payne, who was previously the senior publisher sales manager for Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, will now manage the growth and retention of agency advertising sales, publisher sales, and existing partnerships. 

Wavemaker Indonesia has chosen Praveen Pandey as its principal for partner performance. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading performance media and ecommerce for L’Oréal and building their brand business.

Digital marketing agency Tug Sydney has appointed Isabel Blanchard as paid media director. Blanchard will lead strategy and management of Tug’s paid media clients across search, social, display and video. 

Universal Music Greater China (UMGC) has announced that Carol Ding has been appointed to the newly created position of senior vice president & head of digital and Commercial at UMGC, effective immediately. Ding will be based in Beijing.