Branded is already planning with great fervor its program for Music Matters 2014!

brandedTake a look at the sneak preview of next year’s line-up. So far Branded secured five amazing keynote speakers:

The Super Agent and Digital Pioneer - Marc Geiger, Head of William Morris Endeavor’s Music Department. Marc oversees a diverse client roster featuring some of today’s biggest stars including Lady Gaga, Roger Waters, Flaming Lips, Nine Inch Nails, Ozzy Osbourne, Jack White and many more that you can see HERE

 

The Major Label Leader - Max Hole, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group International. Max is responsible for the operations of Universal Music’s businesses in 60 countries outside the United States. More on Max HERE

The Indie Label Hit-Machine - Daniel Glass, Founder & President of Glassnote Entertainment Group, proud home to Grammy Award winning Phoenix and multi platinum selling Mumford & Sons, Temper Trap, Two Door Cinema Club, Childish Gambino, CHVRCHES, Daughter, and many more. In 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine named Glassnote “Best Indie Label”. More on Daniel HERE

The Digital Maven - Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin, the global rights agency, representing the world’s most important independent music companies. Its members consist of over 20,000 labels and distributors and command around a 10% share of the global music market. More on Charles HERE

The Artist Manager Extraordinaire - Brian Message, Partner in Courtyard Management and Founding Shareholder of ATC. Together with his colleagues, he manages, invests and partners with over 30 artists including Radiohead, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. Brian is also Chairman of the Music Managers Forum (MMF), an organisation that represents over 400 front line artist managers. More on (the life of) Brian HERE

Music Matters and Digital Matters welcome the inclusion of Social Media Matters thus delivering Asia's only 360-degree entertainment industry perspective. Find out more from their registration page.

 


 

clozette-logo3Award winning social network Clozette has been appointed by entertainment television brand E! to boost the channel’s digital offerings in Asia.

E! Online, the digital platform of NBC Universal’s popular entertainment channel E! Network in Southeast Asia, delivers the topics of pop culture that fascinates all from entertainment news and in-depth coverage on television, movies, music, celebrities, fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Globally, the website has 10 million monthly unique visitors and over 11 million followers on its social media platforms. Between January to September 2013 alone, the site has received over 10 million page views in Malaysia and 8 million page views in Singapore.

The new advertising partnership will focus on four markets – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the

Philippines – offering compelling content to engage readers and provide display advertising such as rich media, pre-roll, interactive ads, static ads, banners and interstitial campaigns.

Over the past years, Clozette has steadily established itself as an award-winning digital platform to deliver high-performing advertising campaigns with solid engagement for its audiences. Its experience from working with brands and influencers in South East Asia will extend E!Online’s reach and depth in the region.

This partnership arrives at a time where a recent iGlobal AdView Pulse report revealed that ad spend in newspapers, magazines and radio have been declining while digital ad spending has been experiencing double-digit growth in the first half of 2013. Digital ad spending is predicted to rise 15.1% to USD$118.4 billion, and by 2016, digital ad spending in Asia Pacific will contribute 29.8% of all digital ad spend in the world.

E! Online is the second partner to enter an advertising partnership with Clozette which is currently also the official advertising representative for Glam Media in Southeast Asia.

 


 

LightLightRocket and Getty Images announce content distribution partnership to distribute Asian and international content globally.

LightRocket, a comprehensive online service for serious enthusiast and professional photographers, and Getty Images, one of the world’s leading digital media companies, announced a partnership that sees Getty Images become a key distribution partner for LightRocket, distributing select members’ content across Asia and around the world.

The represented content spans a wide variety of global subject matter with a strong emphasis on Asia, from Tibetan Festivals through to everyday life in Tokyo. LightRocket also brings the latest images from regional news events, such as the plight of Rohingya Refugees in Burma and the recent Anti-government Protests in Thailand to build on Getty Images’ extensive portfolio of editorial assets, which is currently growing by 10,000 to 15,000 images each day.

The partnership provides LightRocket’s premium annual members with a unique opportunity to apply to become Getty Images contributors direct from LightRocket’s dedicated Getty Images page (www.lightrocket.com/getty). Utilizing a feed from LightRocket’s online portal, members can upload and distribute images worldwide via Getty Images’ global platform, www.gettyimages.com, reaching business customers in over 200 countries.

LightRocket was launched earlier this year by the founders of OnAsia Images, an Asia-based media company that was originally established in 2001. The company went live with a collection of over 200,000 high quality images and is seeing fast growth as new members sign up around the world.

Getty Images presence in Asia Pacific continues to grow, with nine offices across the region spanning Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, New Delhi, Tokyo, Sydney and Auckland. A leading global creator and distributor of editorial content, Getty Images is currently strengthening its network of contributing photographers across South-East Asia, and covering a greater number of local sports, news and entertainment events than ever before.

 


 

AMESThe Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards, honoring campaigns across Asia Pacific that have achieved results by combining creativity and effectiveness, is adding three new strategy sections that will complement its existing recognition of effectiveness to become The Asian Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy Awards.

The three strategy sections will be Digital Strategy, Data & Analytics and Media Strategy. Each of these three new sections will have its own jury president and jury, which will judge alongside the Effectiveness jury, bringing the total number of juries and their presidents to four.

Entries will open on 17 December 2013 and will close on 7 March 2014. In expanding the awards structure, the awards presentation will relocate from Shanghai to Singapore, where the winners will be announced at the AMES awards on 29 May 2014 at the St Regis Singapore. The AMES are organized by the joint venture between Lions Festivals and Haymarket Media Asia.

 


 

A renewed and revamped industry group called the Digital + Direct Marketing Association (D+D) debuted this week, bringing the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) and the Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association (HKDMA) together with other groups region-wide.

The D+D Board of Governors and committee members will drive a slate of activities to promote the effective use of digital and direct marketing across the Asia Pacific. The combined organization includes many of the region’s senior leaders and companies from across the marketing ecosystem including marketers, publishers, agencies, as well as research and technology solutions providers.

D+D’s dual mission is to maximize the value of marketers’ investment and to enhance the customer experience. For 2014, activities will span advocacy, education and networking, including monthly original editorial content; a compendium of statistics and trends for the region; proprietary research providing industry insights; regular senior level networking and sharing sessions; a calendar of informative industry events; and training to complement the education offerings.

 


 

Patrick_RyanPHD Worldwide, part of Omnicom Media Group, announced the appointment of Patrick Ryan to the role of worldwide business development director, responsible for overseeing the function for PHD’s network of 81 offices globally.   He will join the agency on 11th December, reporting to worldwide CEO, Mike Cooper.

Ryan joins from Universal McCann, where he is head of new business, responsible for new business development for EMEA and the ‘G14’ network, which comprises the agency’s high growth priority markets, including Benelux, France, Germany, UK & Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Russia and Spain.

In his new role, he will be responsible for providing strategic leadership to the network, working closely with the global and regional leaders to develop new business strategy and identify client opportunities. He will lead pitches and oversee the markets’ new business activity as well as advising and providing best practice.

Ryan joined UM in 2008 as a group account director and was quickly promoted to a dual director role, responsible for new business EMEA. There he was instrumental in securing the agency’s first global win in five years with the appointment of Burberry.

In 2012, after a series of successful wins, Ryan’s role became solely new business and business development for EMEA and the G14, as one of the five discipline leads in the network. He has been at the forefront of pitches and boasted a 100% new business record in 2012.

A previous ‘Campaign Face to Watch’, he started his career in media in 1999, working in international account handling at various agencies including Zenith, MPG and Mediacom.  He has won various industry awards for his work and was named an ‘Internationalist Innovator’ in 2007.

 


 

InMobi expands China network through strategic partnership with gaming leader CocoaChina

inmobiInMobi, the mobile advertising network, announced a strategic partnership with CocoaChina, owner of the Fishing Joy app franchise, to enable app monetization and revenue maximization across its entire user base. The partnership also extends to CocoaChina's parent brand, Chukong Technologies, the top Chinese mobile gaming publisher with the largest iOS developer community.

With nearly 415 million smartphone users in China and mobile ad market growing at 150% year-on-year, China is an exciting mobile Internet market. Similarly, the InMobi network in China, has witnessed an 84% increase in the number of ad impressions across mobile devices and tablets from September 2012 to September 2013. For the same period, in-app advertising also grew by 86%.

InMobi currently delivers 350 million peak impressions and 1.5 million clicks, in the region, daily. This partnership will grow the InMobi network by 25 per cent by leveraging CocoaChina's user base and the extended developer community working on its Cocos2D platform. This partnership brings China's leading game franchise, Fishing Joy, into InMobi's ad network, and positions InMobi as the partner of choice for brand and developer advertisers in the region.

The partnership follows InMobi participation as a top sponsor at CocoaChina's annual developer forum last month in Beijing. The event drew over 1,000 developers who were looking for new ways to monetize their apps and access global markets.

 


 

TataTata Communications, a leading provider of A New World of Communications™, has won the Best Wholesale Carrier Award at the 2013 World Communications Awards - held in London. The awards, now in its 15th year, recognise the organisations responsible for the innovations that are shaping the industry today and in the future.

Tata Communications was recognised for its breadth of wholesale offerings, which enable service providers to address their core business challenges including service reach and interoperability, end-user experience, efficient capital allocation and technology transformation. Over the past year, Tata Communications has focussed on innovation - expanding its portfolio with additional managed services that allow customers to run their businesses more efficiently and to generate new sources of revenue. Two flagship solutions that were launched this year include Voice Business Apps, a suite of Capex-free tools that customers can tap into to manage their international voice business, and Hosted Policy Engine, the world’s first cloud-based policy management solution enabling mobile network operators (MNOs) to create differentiated mobile data services quickly and with significantly less capital investment.

Tata Communications continues to maintain its position as the number one international wholesale provider, delivering 53 billion minutes of voice traffic per year. It is also the world’s leading signalling provider, supported by the world’s only wholly-owned sub-sea fibre ring that circumvents the globe. Spanning five continents, its Tier 1 IP network is the fastest growing in the world, and the 5th largest globally.