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Nagesh-AlaiThe Confederation of Asian Advertising Agency Associations (CAAAA) elected Mr. Nagesh Alai of AAAI (Advertising Agencies Association of India) as the new Chairman at its Annual General Meeting held on 21st April 2016 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Singapore. He replaces Mr. Harris Thajeb of PPPI (Advertising Agencies Association of Indonesia) who has completed his two-year term.

The full line-up of the new Executive Committee are:

Vice Chairman - Mr Tateo Mataki, Japan Advertising Agencies Association, Japan

Treasurer - Mr Anthony Kang, Association of Accredited Advertising Agents, Singapore

Secretary - Mr Romie Chen, The Association of Accredited Advertising Agents of Taipei, Taipei

• Mr Yang Hong Feng, China Advertising Association

• Ms Angela Ng, Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of Hong Kong, SAR China

• Mr Jay Paik, Korea Association of Advertising Agencies, Korea

• Mr. Harris Thajeb, Advertising Agencies Association of Indonesia, Indonesia (also Immediate Past Chairman)

 


 

The Marketing Society Asia has just revealed its brand new leadership team.

The newly created steering committee will focus on further strengthening the Society in Asia, developing the strategy to grow its membership and building on the unique programme of events designed to inspire members to become bolder marketing leaders.

The Marketing Society Asia’s new leadership team:

Tricia-WeenerTricia Weener, Head of Marketing Commercial Banking and Global Banking & Markets, Asia Pacific at HSBC, will take over as the new Chair of The Marketing Society Asia.

With over 20 years’ experience in senior client-side marketing and agency leadership roles across Europe, the US and most recently Asia, Tricia has all the attributes required to lead The Marketing Society in Asia through its next phase of growth. Prior to HSBC, Tricia worked at British Aerospace, The Marketing Partnership, ALPHA Airports Group as well as founding an award-winning marketing agency, Intelligent Marketing.

Erica-KernerErica Kerner, Vice President Marketing and Communications at Tiffany & Co. Asia Pacific, takes up the position of Chair of South East Asia, based out of Singapore.

Erica has over 20 years’ experience marketing in Asia Pacific at brands such as Tiffany & Co., Ralph Lauren, Adidas (as director of the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games) and Nike. She is also a Founding Member of The Marketing Society Asia.

Guy-ParsonageGuy Parsonage, Partner, PwC Experience Centre, PwC China & Hong Kong and current Vice Chair of Asia takes up the newly created role of Chair of Hong Kong.

Guy has almost 20 years’ experience in a broad range of agencies and consultancies in Europe, Australia and Asia. He was Managing Director at Jack Morton, CEO and partner at fluid and now Partner, PwC Experience Centre, PwC China & Hong Kong.

The Marketing Society's winning formula of bringing together an exclusive network of like-minded marketers across the world has helped inspire bolder marketing leadership for the past 56 years. It is the place for discerning marketers to learn, develop and share best practice and has become an influential drivers of marketing in the business community with over 2,700 members and 33,000 followers on Twitter. In addition, the Society runs over 100 events in five global hubs – London, Edinburgh, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore – each year.

The Marketing Society Asia has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2014 and has by now more than 200 active members from a wide variety of brands including BT, Carlsberg, FWD Group, HSBC, Manulife, Marina Bay Sands, Miele, Shell, Tiffany & Co. and Wrigley’s plus a wide and varied programme of events in both hubs – Hong Kong and Singapore.

 


 

The cloud communications platform company, Nexmo, announced it is empowering KLM Communication to communicate with customers on Facebook Messenger and WeChat.

Nexmo Chat App API is the only solution that allows businesses to communicate with customers on Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Viber and other chat apps, through leading CRM platforms including Salesforce, SAP, Marketo, and Bright Pattern with a single API. Having used Nexmo’s Chat App API to communicate with passengers on WeChat via its Salesforce Service Cloud portal, KLM is now using the same API to communicate with passengers on Facebook Messenger. This allows KLM to use its existing customer database and recognize when a customer contacts them via any medium, be it via Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Twitter or any other social medium.

The growing popularity of chat apps reflects how communications is changing, as the number of ways people communicate is rapidly increasing and it’s difficult for companies to keep up. Nexmo eliminates the technical and regulatory complexity of communications with its easy to use APIs, industry leading partnerships and superior customer service.

 


 

HubSpot, officially opened the doors of its Singapore office and announced it will hire 150 Singapore-based employees over the next three years.

The company’s award-winning sales application enables sales and service teams to have more effective conversations with leads, prospects and customers.

HubSpot's Singapore office - affectionately known as SingSpot -- joins Sydney, Australia as the second HubSpot office in Asia Pacific and will serve as the company's regional headquarters.

HubSpot first came to Asia Pacific in 2014 in an effort to extend HubSpot's global reach and make an impact with the many mid-market companies and data-driven marketing and sales professionals in the region looking for a more personalized and integrated way of doing business. With a larger presence in Singapore and employees spanning nearly all aspects of HubSpot's business including sales, marketing, services, and support, HubSpot can build on the tremendous momentum and growth that has taken place over the past two years.

As HubSpot expands its presence across Asia Pacific, the team will be led from Singapore by Jeetu Mahtani, Managing Director of International for HubSpot.

 


 

Telstra announced that it is introducing the Telstra Business Women’s Awards in Asia to recognize business women in the region. The company is committed to promoting parity for women in business in the Asia-Pacific region.

Kate McKenzie, Telstra Chief Operations Officer and Telstra Business Women’s Awards Ambassador, said the new category is a reflection of Telstra’s growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region and will provide finalists and winners the opportunity to expand their networks and build valuable relationships.

The recent McKinsey ‘Women Matter’ report has found that in China on average women account for eight per cent of seats on corporate boards and nine per cent of those on executive committees. Meanwhile in India, Japan and South Korea, executive committee participation rates for women are less than five per cent. A lot of work has to be done to nurture and support women to excel in their profession and industry.

The new Telstra Business Woman in Asia Award will be the sixth Awards category, alongside Entrepreneur, For Purpose and Social Enterprise, Public Sector and Academia, Corporate and Private, and the Young Business Women’s Award, under Australia’s longest running and most esteemed women’s award program.

To be eligible for the Telstra Business Woman in Asia Award, nominees must work in the corporate or private sectors and reside in Asia.

Entries for the 2016 Telstra Business Women’s Awards open Monday 2 May 2016 and close on Monday 20 June 2016.

Nominations for the Telstra Business Women’s Awards are open all year round and can be made on https://www.telstrabusinesswomensawards.com/nominate/

 


 

DT-CEO-Brian-VellaDT, one of the largest digital agencies in Australia & New Zealand and part of WPP AUNZ, announced the opening of its official office in Singapore, which is being launched in partnership with Ogilvy & Mather, also a WPP company.

DT’s formal introduction to the Singapore market will take place on April 27, 2016 at a private event for senior clients and C-suite marketers hosted by OgilvyOne Singapore. Under the theme of “Delivering Value To Consumers In An Era Of Disruption”, the event will offer participants global perspectives and industry insights on how to effectively manage disruption from an exciting group of speakers from OgilvyOne globally, Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) and several other brands.

With a full-service team of more than 200 digital experts across Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, DT’s strength lies in its ability to conceive a holistic digital business strategy – and execute that strategy across the entire customer ecosystem. DT’s specialist expertise spans a range of practice areas – including Ecommerce, Engineering, User Experience, Data & Analytics, Mobile, Search, Strategy, Social Media, Design, Content and Advertising Creative.

As DT celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, CEO Brian Vella says, “There has never been a better time to share DT’s significant IP and experience, and we’re delighted to do so in partnership with Ogilvy, our partners in Southeast Asia since 2007. In the last few years we’ve seen massive demand for our combined creative and technology skillset, and with a serious local offering for Singapore, look forward to having many more conversations with the region’s leading marketers.” Vella adds that he believes each discipline - from strategy, to design and technology, to creative - are equally important and the key to quality brand experiences is the right mix of each. Bringing this philosophy and experience to Singapore, Vella says, “DT will be playing a leadership role regionally from day one.”

 


 

Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, announced that its Singapore-based Asia Pacific Business Centre (APBC) won Gold in the 2016 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards in the category ‘Award for Excellence in Innovation in Manufacturing Industries’. More than 600 entries from 22 countries across Asia Pacific competed, with a global panel of over 50 executives judging the submissions.

The Stevie Awards are considered to be the world's premier business honours, conferring recognition for achievement in the workplace over the past 14 years in programmes such as The International Business Awards and The American Business Awards.

After years of restructuring its facilities, processes and ecosystem, Rockwell Automation has now completed its companywide The Connected Enterprise journey – including the implementation at its APBC design, engineering, R&D, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and quality-control facility – resulting in prestigious regional and worldwide accolades. Rockwell Automation is delighted that APBC has achieved optimal performance and profitability through deploying The Connected Enterprise.

Established in 2005, APBC currently employs over 500 employees and produces more than 600 built-to-stock SKUs annually in its 139,000-square-foot complex. Prior to executing The Connected Enterprise, the centre was challenged with manual reporting from countless data points, records, devices and sites. Divergent networks lacked a common, standard and secure industrial protocol, resulting in ineffective process management, inaccuracies, delays and lack of integration between shop-floor operations and enterprise teams. To expand market share and remain competitive, APBC was pressured to simplify complexities and abolish inefficiencies by shortening customer response time, enhancing ERP systems, optimising MES reports, improving supply-chain execution, and promoting collaboration amongst executives, engineers, vendors and customers.

 


 

AE2016 BBDO NetworkoftheYear
Winners of the APAC Effie Awards 2016 were revealed at the Awards Gala at Intercontinental Singapore, celebrating Asia Pacific’s most effective marketing campaigns.


MullenLowe Lintas Group, India was named APAC Effie 2016 Agency of the Year, bagging 8 metals. Running behind were Colenso BBDO/Proximity and spotting 3 agencies in the tie on the third place, BBDO India, Barnes Catmur & Friends Dentsu and Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai.

On the network level, BBDO Worldwide took the lead, with a total haul of 17 metal awards, including the Grand Effie, followed by Ogilvy & Mather and MullenLowe Group coming in the second and third position respectively.

Two new Special Awards are added this year – ‘Brand of the Year’ and ‘Marketer of the Year’ to recognize the joint efforts and close collaboration between clients and agencies to produce successful work. The awards were presented to Ariel Matic and Procter & Gamble respectively, with their entry ‘Ariel – Share The Load’ being the best of show for the night, clinching the Grand Effie, on top of a Gold and a Silver. These Special Awards are accorded based on the points received on all winners and finalists.

The Awards Gala, attended by some 200 industry professionals, presented a total 66 Effies – 1 Grand Effie, 12 Golds, 21 Silvers and 32 Bronzes. As with previous year, India remains to be the strongest market in the region on the effectiveness stage, contributing the highest number of metal winners last night. Following in the ranking are New Zealand and Australia.

Organized by Confederation of Asian Advertising Agency Associations (CAAAA) and Tenasia Group, the APAC Effie Awards honors the region’s most outstanding marketing communication works that have proven results in meeting strategic objectives. Winners and finalists will contribute points towards the ranking on the 2016 Effie Effectiveness Index, the global ranking which identifies and ranks the most effective marketers, brands by analyzing finalist and winner data from worldwide Effie competitions.

The full list of winners can be viewed at the APAC Effie website - www.apaceffie.com.

 


 

Martin-WhitlockTelenor Connexion, a global provider of IoT solutions, announced the appointment of Martin Whitlock as Chief Technology Officer.

As Chief Technology Officer, Martin Whitlock will lead Telenor Connexion’s global technology team, driving major technology-enabled initiatives as part of the company’s expanding business strategy.

Martin brings extensive experience from the telecom industry. Prior to taking on this role, he held the position as Director at Northstream, where his latest assignment was working as Telenor Connexion’s interim CTO. At Northstream, Martin has been responsible for strategy assessments, sourcing projects and change management engagements with a broad range of clients.

The Telenor Connexion management team now consists of Mats Lundquist, CEO; Karin Bjernbäck D’Hondt, CFO; Fredrik Åkerlind, CSO; Rickard Widerberg, CMO; Robert Bellwaldius, COO; Karin Stenklef, CHRO; Luciana Widengren, CLO; and Martin Whitlock, CTO.

 


 

Per-PedersenPer Pedersen has been appointed Chairman of the Grey Global Creative Council. He has been with Grey for 25 years. The Grey Global Creative Council was established nine years ago where the network's top creatives gather to share, rate, collaborate and assist with the cultivation of creative ideas. This takes place every six months in interesting and inspiring locations where the creative team not only get to know each other but also provide valuable feedback and insight into their peers’ work.

Pedersen is the co-founder of Uncle Grey in Denmark and served as Chief Creative Officer of Grey Germany. Since 2010, he has been based in New York as Deputy Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, prior to that he has served as global creative leader on Febreze.

Pedersen has helped oversee Grey's senior creative leaders to identify creative opportunities, crafting smarter award submissions and ranking the quality of Grey’s work . In this role, Pedersen becomes the leading global creative evangelist, strengthening creative culture and the quality of work across the entire network.

He played an important role in achieving Grey’s best year ever at Cannes in 2015 with a watershed performance that brought home 113 Lions from 18 countries including a record 4 Grand Prix. He has led the award-winning "Breathe Happy" blindfold campaign and the Lion avalanche that made Grey New York the 2015 Cannes North American Network of the Year.

With 300 awards, including 43 Cannes Lions, Pedersen ranks among the most awarded creative people in the industry and has served on most award show juries from Cannes to the Clios.

 


 

chloe4As Singapore welcomes Chloe Neo as Singapore Media Awards (SMA) 2016 Chairman.

The Singapore Media Awards (SMA) has announced Chloe Neo, Managing Director, OMD Singapore, as the chairman for 2016.

The communications professional, with over 20 years of experience, oversees OMD Singapore’s operations and profitability with a focus on talent development and her team walked away with the most people-centric awards at last year’s SMA.

Chloe’s career to date spans strategic planning, account management and agency management roles in Singapore, APAC and China, working on prominent brands including Proctor & Gamble, Oracle, LÓreal, and Coca-Cola.

Chloe believes and invests in a strong culture for innovation and effectiveness. In 2015, OMD was declared as the most creative network in the world by the Gunn Report for 10 years in a row – a feat which was made possible from the contribution of all markets, especially in Asia Pacific. More recently, OMD Singapore was recognized in WARC 100’s Top Media Agencies in the world. As a Singapore-born and bred media professional, Chloe is proud to put Singapore on the world map for advertising.

Singapore Media Awards 2016, now in its twelfth year, continues to celebrate the most effective media communications efforts in Singapore. This year’s SMA will be introducing three additional awards categories – ‘Best Use of Data’ and ‘Best Use of Video’ - to recognize the evolution of consumption and also the expanding contribution and roles of media agencies beyond media communications. The third award falls under the Special Awards category – ‘Highest Equity Generating Brand Award’, jointly given to both the agency and client for their contribution in building and strengthening a strong brand equity leveraging the smart use of media.

 


 

Asian Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy Awards 2016 Shortlist Released

Of the 1,231 submissions to the Asian Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy Awards 2016, 324 entries have made it through to the shortlist.

Following weeks of intense deliberation by an expert panel of 96 leading international and regional marketing experts, the following number of entries has been shortlisted in each awards section:

• Effectiveness 135

• Media Strategy 71

• Digital Strategy 73

• Data & Analytics 32

• e-Commerce 13

“We are impressed with the diversity and quality of thought in the entries to the Asian Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy Awards this year, some of which are the strongest entries ever received. With more than 1,200 entries being placed through an extremely rigorous judging process, to be shortlisted is in itself a significant achievement. We congratulate the shortlisted entrants and look forward to applauding the winners at the Awards next month.” says Andrea Hayes, Festivals Director.

The full shortlist is now available to view on the website and the 2016 winners will be honored at the Awards Ceremony taking place after the Conference at Grand Hyatt Singapore on 31 May 2016.

 


 

Andy-VogelPublicitas appoints Andy Vogel as Global Digital Product Manager.

Andy has extensive experience with; big brands, agencies and major media, working on launching emerging platforms in mobile media, programmatic, social media, and video advertising. His roles have included senior management positions, involving strategic launches, and development at companies such as ADP, cars.com, Gannett, the LA Times and Tribune.

With Andy’s appointment Publicitas adds further strength to their digital capabilities.

 


 

Kitty-LunPositive Change Effie Awards has announced Kitty Lun, Head of Creative Shop, Facebook Greater China, as the Asia Pacific Jury Chair.

Kitty has vast experience in the Effies. She is the Judging Chairman for Effie Hong Kong 2016 and 2015 and has been involved in Effie China and Asia Pacific Effie for multiple years.

Prior to joining Facebook in January 2016, Kitty was Chairman/CEO at Lowe China for the past nine years, where she achieved tremendous business growth and led the agency to become the most awarded agency in China in 2014 and 2015. She has also worked with Leo Burnett, McCann, Euro RSCG and Arnold.

Kitty was named top 10 Creative Directors of the Year and top 10 Distinguished Advertising Women of the Year, and in 2013, she was honored by AdAge as one of the Women to Watch in Advertising in China.

The Positive Change Effie Awards are a collaboration between the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Effie Worldwide. It recognizes the most effective marketing works that have measurably shifted audience behavior toward more environmentally sustainable choices, and/or grown demand for more sustainable products and services by incorporating sustainability as a part of their marketing communications.

Nigel Morris, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network Americas & EMEA and Bea Perez, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Coca-Cola Company, will serve as the Jury Chair for Europe and North America respectively.

Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Unilever will continue his role as the Positive Change Effie Global Program Chair. Full Positive Change APAC jury line-up can be viewed here.

 


 

bloombergBloomberg Media announced the formation of BloombergQuint, a new partnership in India with Quintillion Media, India's digital news venture that has been founded by serial entrepreneur Raghav Bahl and his wife Ritu Kapur (CEO) in 2014.

In a new agreement that commenced April 1, BloombergQuint will harness the unrivalled global resources of Bloomberg with Quintillion Media's deep market experience to create a revamped business news channel and digital destination for India's growing business audience. The partnership will cover broadcast, digital and live events across India, serving business and financial news to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

In fact, BloombergQuint plans to launch a new business channel, localized website and live events business in 2016, focusing on high-quality, market moving digital business news content for India's business and financial professionals. The company has hired former CNBC-TV18 CEO Anil Uniyal and former CNBC-TV18 Executive Editor Menaka Doshi to serve as BloombergQuint's CEO and Managing Editor respectively. Harsha Subramaniam, the Bloomberg Executive Producer looking after Bloomberg TV India for the past five years, will be overseeing the partnership for Bloomberg across platforms.

Bloomberg Media is expanding and investing aggressively in Asia to deliver more relevant content to audiences across the region. The new partnership in India joins Bloomberg's other local presences in the Philippines, Mongolia and Malaysia. Just this year, Bloomberg launched its first regional homepage in Asia, forming a new team of digital editors based in Hong Kong to present news, video and feature stories tailored for a growing regional audience. Besides that, Bloomberg TV, available in 19 million homes across Asia Pacific, became recently the first business and finance channel to launch on HD in Asia. Also this year, Bloomberg Radio introduced four hours of daily programming in Asia.


 

Howard JonesOgilvy PR has announced the appointment of Howard Jones as General Manager, effective immediately.

Howard moves up from the position of Director of Technology and Innovation, and in his new role will report directly to Clara Shek, Managing Director at Ogilvy PR, Hong Kong.

As General Manager, Howard’s focus will be to drive operational excellence and talent development, as well as oversee the technology practice and its clients, including Huawei, Intel, LG and Oracle.

A former journalist and seasoned corporate communications executive with three decades of multinational experience, Jones has a proven track record of bringing in new business and delivering outstanding commercial and PR outcomes for the Hong Kong Technology & Innovation practice.

The company announced a day earlier that Dan La Russo has been promoted from Executive Vice President of the technology practice to Managing Director (MD) at Ogilvy PR's San Francisco and Denver offices, with immediate effect. With 17 years' experience at Ogilvy, La Russo will focus on further growing and expanding the agency's client base and service offering.



Otto-Ruijs-ProfileDigital School Hyper Island announces the appointment of Otto Ruijs as the new Managing Director for its operations in Singapore, stepping into the position previously held by Christina Andersson.

As of April this year, Christina will be relocating back to Sweden to take up a global role with Hyper Island, leaving Otto to oversee the transformation of digital behaviors in this region. His main mandate will be to shape Hyper Island as a digital catalyst for companies and individuals as they prepare to navigate the digital age.

Otto joined Hyper Island in 2015, taking up the mantle of Learning Design Director. Having lived and breathed innovation consulting for over 15 years, Otto was formerly from ?What If! Innovation Partners in Singapore where he started and ran the Singapore office for 3.5 years. Prior to that he worked for Clear (part of M&C Saatchi), a boutique brand & innovation agency, as Head of Strategy in Hong Kong, where he led multi-country, insight-based projects.


Last week, the Lisbon International Advertising Festival (LIAF) announced the renowned Brazilian adman, Washington Olivetto, as its President of the Jury. Now the remaining names of the Executive Jury are revealed who will assess in person the best creative works on a global scale.

The only Portuguese adman will be the international creative leader Luís Silva Dias, the Chief Creative Officer of FCB International. Chacho Puebla, the Executive Creative Director & Partner at LOLA/LOWE Spain, will be coming in from Madrid for the event.

Jaime Mandelbaum, the European Chief Creative Officer of Young & Rubicam will be coming from Prague. Further, Doerte Spengler-Ahrens, the Chief Creative Officer of the renowned Hamburg-based agency Jung von Matt/Fleet, will be joining.

Sarah Barclay, the Executive Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson New York, will travel from the United States, joining Fábio Seidl, the Group Creative Director of the also New York-based 360i.

From France, LIAF will welcome Alasdhair Macgregor-Hastie, the Vice-President and Executive Creative Director of BETC. Jason Romeyko, the Global Chief Creative Officer of the GSK & Deutsche Telekom accounts, and the Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Switzerland, will be travelling from Switzerland.

The jury members who have the longest journey are Eugene Cheong, Regional Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, and Ramzy Haddad, Executive Creative Director of Publicis Middle East and Africa.

The quality and worldwide recognition of our Executive Jury demonstrates the ambition of LIAF in becoming one of the great festivals of advertising creativity worldwide.

The Lisbon International Advertising Festival has opened entries, and its award ceremony will take place on September 14, in Portugal, at Cinema São Jorge, one of the most important theatres of the city of Lisbon.

The entry procedure is explained on the festival’s website - www.lisbonadfestival.com.


 


Official S4M logoS4M, short for ‘Success for Mobile’, just launched its operations in APAC with the opening of an office in Singapore.  S4M’s APAC office is headed by Gavin Buxton, Vice President of Sales APAC, who is responsible for the regional expansion of the company.

 

With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing, including leadership roles at Turner Broadcasting, LinkedIn and Microsoft, Gavin brings a great depth of knowledge and understanding to the fast-changing mobile industry and its related opportunities for consumers, publishers and brands.
 
After successfully raising $8 Million USD in funding last year, the fast-growing international mobile ad tech company has accelerated their international expansion following rapid success in five other markets. The S4M family has now grown to over 85 employees with offices in the US, UK, France, Germany, Brazil and Singapore and continues to grow its global footprint and worldwide client base. Their mobile-native proprietary technology provides advertisers and media agencies a transparent evaluation and optimization of mobile campaigns in real-time.