Dentsu Aegis Network hosts launch of 'industry transformation map'

At the opening of the new Asia-Pacific headquarters of Dentsu Aegis Network at Guoco Tower yesterday, Indranee Rajah, Singapore's senior minister of state for Law and Finance unveiled the Industry Transformation Map (ITM).

Rajah said that the ITM would grow thousands of jobs in sectors related to the advertising industry, through its newly launched professional services practice across data science, analytics, and artificial intelligence.

Google, Adobe, and Grab are among the data sharing consortium of companies that will be part of the ITM, aiming to help businesses in the APAC region achieve innovation in data-driven marketing.

Under Singapore's Adapt and Grow Initiative, the Economic Development Board announced the launch of Professional Conversion Programmes that will allow Singaporeans to evolve skills in an ever-changing economy on the brink of digital restructure.

"The professional services sector is a growing industry with tremendous potential for job creation," said Rajah. "The ITM is an integrated plan that will enable our firms to scale, innovate and increase their productivity while preparing Singaporeans to take on exciting new jobs such as digital product developers, data modelers, and risk advisory professionals."

Dentsu’s new 100,000-square-foot headquarters houses Isobar’s NowLab, iProspect’s VoiceLab, and the Global Data Innovation Centre.

Co-created with Google, the iProspect VoiceLab developed the iProspect InfoBot, a beta-phase voice assistant to be used by the agency team during presentations and within teams to acquire information on the go. 

According to data presented by iProspect, 45% of the APAC population with an Android device uses voice to search for products, locations, prices, and deals, amounting to roughly 661 million people, with English being the primary language of activation.

Nate Shurilla, head of CRO and analytics at iProspect and the creator of the iProspect InfoBot, shared that Google's latest patent would definitely play a large role in voice search optimization.

Co-locating all teams in one building, along with innovation labs, the Dentsu Aegis Network intends to offer its teams more collaboration opportunities and the ability to offer integrated solutions for clients.

“This reflects our unique operating model with all agencies in the group managed under one P&L and is consistent with our ongoing strategy to co-locate our offices across the Asia Pacific region," said Nick Waters, chief executive of Dentsu Aegis Network in APAC. "We are pioneering agile working in our Asia Pacific business to foster a culture of empowered innovation to meet the demands of the fast-evolving digital economy.”

As the first location in APAC to pioneer this concept, the network aims to provide its employees the option to balance between work and personal needs.