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Digital customer experiences are now just as important (and sometimes even more so) than in-person experiences in building trusted relationships with brands, said a recent report by Adobe called Adobe 2022 Trust Report. The report found that for 71% of consumers, relevant, personalised content delivered at the right time increases their trust, while 57% of consumers will stop purchasing from a brand that does not provide personal experiences. At the same time, McKinsey’s “The New Digital Age” survey also found that companies will have to build new digital businesses to stay economically viable as they look towards 2023.

Clearly having a digital presence today can make or break a brand. With the speed of change in all things tech and digital, often clients in our part of the world rely on their agency partners to guide and create an elevated experience for their consumers. Hence, agencies that are able to integrate advanced technology with marketing and advertising to produce modern and relevant campaigns are fast becoming one of the most sought after firms.

To find out which agencies excelled in their digital capabilities, the team at A+M turned to our Agency of the Year 2022 Malaysia submissions to find out which were the agencies that managed to leverage innovative digital means to produce thumb-stopping campaigns. Listed alphabetically, these are the top five winners that impressed our independent panel of judges with their modern and smart ways of operation for the Digital Agency of the Year category.

Ampersand Advisory 

Established in 2017, Ampersand Advisory specialises in audience insights and segmentation; driving scale and measuring performance; as well as digital audit and optimisation. It offers consulting and data services, digital content services, as well as connections and media services.  When the pandemic hit, Ampersand Advisory capitalised on the need for digital solutions that fast engulfed clients seeking to transform their media planning and buying approaches. As such, it was able to appeal to businesses looking to transform, and build a standout presence online.

A notable brand that the agency has worked with is Shiseido, where it developed a unique new media platform development in virtual reality that drove engagement, product sampling, eCommerce and social buzz, the Shiseido Ultimune Virtual Reality.

According to Ampersand Advisory, people are still its greatest assets. As such, the agency ensures that its team is physically, emotionally, and financially protected. For instance, it provided all its staff with large monitors to extend their screens, as they worked from home. Financially, the agency took a firm policy decision to not cut its staff’s salaries, despite the initial fall in revenue and cuts in ad spend in 2020, even giving out bonuses in the next year. Additionally, it offered flexible working hours and removed mandatory check-ins online and offline, ensuring the welfare of its team.

At the same time, as Ampersand Advisory hired more staff, it continued with its digital acceleration programme to train them quickly. Key elements included loose monitoring, media training sessions, rigorous digital training, data analytics workshops, and encouraging its staff to undertake tests and get certified. These initiatives on the manpower front proved effective, as both staff strength and retention grew.

Digitas Malaysia 

Touting itself to be a transformation and connected marketing agency, Digitas Malaysia helps clients manage and accelerate growth through first-party data, insights and actions. The connected intelligence empowers brands to create better consumer connections through technology, creativity and smart media across all ecosystem touchpoints. What sets Digitas Malaysia apart from other digital agencies is its core capabilities, where data is at the heart of every work produced. Leveraging technology, Digitas Malaysia pushes boundaries and develops bespoke solutions tailored to each clients’ unique challenges. According to the agency, this has enabled it to deliver personalised and meaningful consumer connections, helping brands fully optimise their customer experiences, delivering clear and measurable ROI.

In addition, Digitas Malaysia establishes strategic partnerships with technology vendors, platforms and content channels to give its clients an additional competitive edge. For instance, its Power of Community Commerce partnership with TikTok enables select clients to take advantage of social commerce, while its close collaboration with Media Prima has resulted in numerous exclusively branded programmes across digital platforms.

Digitas Malaysia explained that its business is all about its people. As such, the agency ensures the welfare of its staff with several initiatives, such as an Employee Assistance Programme, which provides free professional counselling to its staff members through this time of stress and uncertainty. In addition, it financially rewards its team by promoting and rewarding high performing staff members. Not neglecting the technical skillset of its staff, Digitas Malaysia is also committed to digital upskilling, where 50% of all staff has attended enhanced digital skills training via proprietary training courses on Marcel, the Groupe’s global AI collaboration and knowledge platform.  Currently, the agency works with brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Prudential, Coca-Cola, Samsung, and Nestlé.

Entropia – part of Accenture Song

Starting out as a media agency with technology at the heart of its services and solutions, Entropia – part of Accenture Song has now evolved to offer a complete suite of services in a crossover of online and offline worlds, such as customer experience design, data consulting, digital transformation solutions, IR 4.0 services, and most recently, demystifying the metaverse for clients.

Its acquisition by Accenture in 2021 opened up new opportunities for the agency’s clients to relook at their integrated brand experience, spanning the entire value chain, including product, pricing, access, communication, and commerce, among others. With a vision to break industry traditions and norms, the agency set out to blend consultancy and agency, paving future-oriented modes of thinking and working, and merging the domains of influence in marketing geared toward the fourth industrial revolution.

Bringing acceleration to its offering, the agency has partnered with various technology ecosystem partners such as AWS (cloud), Sitecore & Adobe (CMS and marketing cloud), Edgeverve, an Infosys company (customer service, distribution network digitisation, and procurement), and Bambuser (experiential commerce) to bring cloud, CX and commerce platforms to the region. In addition to these partnerships, Entropia – part of Accenture Song has also built its own IP in the areas of customer 360 and advanced profiling, predictive marketing and sales analytics, IoT-driven CX measurement and feedback systems. According to the agency, all these platforms have a strong roadmap in tune with the evolving needs of brands in the digital technology space.

On the manpower front, the agency said that it has made new hires proficient in strategy building, creative work, media, social, UX, martech, data, tech, XR, and eCommerce. This can be attributed to how the agency helped its employees adapt with work buddy programmes, and encouraged more open-door conversations.  Notable client brands that the agency has worked with include Pepsi, Unilever, Merck, Hartalega, Panasonic Malaysia and Oppo.

FCB SHOUT 

FCB SHOUT, previously known as FCB Malaysia, rebranded itself and formed a new holding group five years after an independent buy-out, giving the agency a new lease of life as it became one of Malaysia’s “hottest creative shops”. Its challenger mentality and agile working culture enabled it to hold strong and emerge out of the pandemic stronger and more determined, evident in the significant rise in organic business growth, and a high client retention rate. In fact, FCB SHOUT managed to turn 2021, a year of adversity, into its most profitable year since buying the agency, with more than a 100% rise in profit growth, the agency said.

The agency’s success can be attributed to the creative tools it has at its disposal, due to its affiliation with FCB. Ranging from brand bedrock, which helps define brand purpose; definitive design, to build brand assets; and people and patterns, which humanises data.

To help define brand purpose, which the agency believes it to be a powerful concoction of inspired storytelling and engaging story-doing, FCB SHOUT starts by interrogating the brand’s past, understanding its present and anticipating its future. Once the brand purpose is defined, the team is able to make better decisions more quickly and with more confidence.  In addition, FCB SHOUT’s proprietary tool uses data to map behaviours and recognise patterns emerging in the world, both within the category and those that are specific to the business and the brand. With that knowledge, the agency is then able to uncover the most significant opportunities to maximise how and when people engage.

Beyond campaigns, FCB SHOUT also invests heavily in its people – making its staff its priority, and ensuring that jobs were maintained despite the changing circumstances. With its lean operating principles removing all the layers and costs normally associated with a traditional network agency, FCB SHOUT successfully navigated the economic downturn of 2021 without having to implement any salary cuts or retrench any of its people. The agency’s efforts paid off, evident from its success at maintaining staff turnover at 11%. In fact, it even went to great lengths to persist with its training programmes, moving from classrooms to webinar. In addition, when others were downsizing, FCB SHOUT doubled down on talent, and added 10 new hires across all disciplines, ending the year as a 40-strong team.It currently works with notable brands such as RHB Bank, Spritzer, Domino’s Pizza and others.

Kingdom Digital 

Established in 2007, Kingdom Digital strives to push the creative boundaries in the work it produces, while still putting relationships first in everything it does. By humanising the way brands present themselves and speak to their customers, the agency creates a relatable, strong and distinct brand personality that customers can relate to, whether it is through social media content or digital campaigns. The agency also follows a “Relationships Matter” core belief which revolves around building pleasant and long-lasting relationships with clients, consumer and brands, as well as co-workers.

Digital creative automation is Kingdom Digital’s bespoke solution to help brands achieve personalisation at scale. This platform-agnostic service has helped clients such as Grab and PropertyGuru save production time, reduce creative man-hour cost, and enter markets faster with hyper-targeted campaigns.

According to Kingdom Digital, teamwork makes the dream work. With more than 45 active direct brands on the roster concurrently, the agency ensures that adequate support is provided to its clients, while ensuring internal resources are kept at optimal efficiency. As such, the agency was actively hiring throughout 2021 to expand the team, despite other organisations having recruitment freezes. In fact, Kingdom Digital made 73 new hires last year.

Beyond simply hiring and expanding the team, the agency ensures that it nurtures its existing employees. From annual performance reviews, a mentoring system between seniors and juniors where juniors are exposed to the best practices, to training, workshops, and masterclasses where its staff are encouraged to participate, Kingdom Digital provides a conducive environment for its team to grow and learn.

With its humanised approach, capable team, and effective technology, the agency has worked with a diverse range of brands from various verticals, including Grab, Digi, Shiseido, Nissan, Hong Leong Bank, and Sime Darby Property. Most recently, the digital creative agency Kingdom Digital was acquired by Hakuhodo to accelerate Kingdom Digital’s expansion in Southeast Asia.

Originally posted on Marketing-Interactive

H+ aims to grow digital revenue outside of Japan, satisfy client needs and further integrate Hakuhodo DY’s overseas holdings.

Two of Hakuhodo DY Holdings’ largest agency networks are teaming up to create a new APAC-wide digital service network called
H+, in a bid to export Japanese know-how and expand theirtechnology offerings across Asia.

Hakuhodo Inc. (Hakuhodo), the holding company’s largest creative and brand agency, and D.A.Consortium (DAC), its leading digital media agency, plan to focus on Asia-wide digital growth with team members from both networks across the region collaborating in the new cross-company organisation.

H+ will be led out of Thailand by DAC executive offi cer and head of its Global Business Group,Michihiko Suganuma, together with Yusuke Miyabe, Hakuhodo’s global business transformationdivision and Asia DX division leader. Both have relocated from Tokyo to Bangkok whereSuganuma will lead H+ operations and supply, while Miyabe will focus on growth and demand.

“APAC has always been a fantastically dynamic region of the world, and now in particular israpidly making up for lost time and looking for innovation and opportunity again,” Suganumasays. “Across advertising, owned media, commerce and CRM, clients are looking to haveengaging conversations with consumers. With data and technology at the core, H+ is focused onempowering our clients to do just that.”

While Hakuhodo’s agency network alone has nearly 100 companies in Asia-Pacifi c outside ofJapan, both Hakuhodo and DAC have identifi ed 22 of their digital-fi rst companies to form the H+network initially in ten markets across APAC.

Although the H+ network represents a collaborative service offering between agencies, ratherthan a new entity or agency brand, H+ will be hiring new staff in these companies to coordinateand facilitate H+ services, while also choosing existing select staff from Hakuhodo and DAC towork on each project.

Getting employees across different Asian markets and agency networks to cooperate and workseamlessly work together is “the diffi cult part,” admits Suganuma, but says Miyabe, himself and others headquartered in Japan are committed to seeing each client’s needs through tocompletion.

“For instance, let’s say there is a client from Japan aiming to reach 10 countries that we’ve plotted here, then we will make a special task force unit to support the client. We will appoint key members in each business to realise their request,” Suganuma says.

In Bangkok, H+ will be led out of the same location as Hakuhodo-owned Winter Egency and now expects collaborate with DAC-owned I-DAC Bangkok to a much greater degree than before.

Suganuma tells Campaign this was one of two main motivations behind starting H+, to not only raise sales revenue but also to realise the goal of integrating their agencies’ services. “We want to be united. That is why we made a consolidated brand in H+”.

L to R: Michihiko Suganuma and Yusuke Miyabe

Expansion across Asia

Of course, this integration is not merely expected in-market, but on an Asia-wide level. Hakuhodo has been steadily growing its ability to help clients with digital transformation (DX) in the region. Last week alone, Hakuhodo invested in Japanese artificial intelligence company
Laboro.AI for exactly this reason, then also bought an 80% stake in leading Malaysian digital agency Kingdom Digital, adding it as a subsidiary.

“Continuing to accelerate our growth outside of Japan has always been a key priority for Hakuhodo and DAC,” said Shuntaro Ito, head of Hakuhodo international. “This is why we feel that launching a new group offering, which can strategically power all of our in-market companies, is the perfect decision at this time.”

DAC, meanwhile, is looking to replicate its digital media success in Japan, where it claims to have12% of the market share, by expanding its extensive adtech and publisher partnerships across Asia, backed by the operational strength of 500 traders, 350 engineers and 50 data scientists.

“We are trying to bring this know-how in building client success to all the regions,” Suganuma says. We have been taking care of Japan clients asking us in Hakuhodo or DAC to cover several regions, but we are going to put more focus on acquiring clients overseas. Eventually H+ willspread past Asia but for now the focus is Asia.”

The H+ offering

The H+ logo helps illustrate its new integrated service portfolio. The four different colours on the + symbol represent its four main business areas: digital advertising, owned (brand asset and social channel support), commerce and CRM (including data services). In each area, H+ says ithas key partnerships in place with major platforms, tech and data providers.

The ‘H’, we’re told, represents both ‘Hakuhodo’ and ‘human-centric’ nature of the offerings. Those familiar with Hakuhodo will know it does not refer to consumers, but‘sei-katsu-sha’, a Japanese term for more a human-centered consumer as a multi-faceted individual.

This approach, Suganuma says, “is what drives us to look at people as a sum total of their lives, preferences, aspirations and dreams; and to seek out the evolving lifestyle experiences that will inform engaging communications.”

Based around this approach is a proprietary technique called ‘InsightOut’ that Hakuhodo developed more than a decade ago to turn data into ideas. The leaders of H+ says both concepts are at the core of its unique planning process, which uses all its data and technology partnerships to convert the underlying motivations and behaviour of sei-katsu-sha into actionable insights for clients and society.

“We start from a sei-katsu-sha insight to fi nd a new opportunity in the market and then we workon a digital solution or with media agency to increase media efficiency,” Miyabe tells Campaign. “We need to provide both to clients. This is the concept”.

The core of H+, its leaders say, is symbolised by the center point in the + sign where all the offerings come together.

Says Suganuma: “We are here to bring all these four areas into one central nodal point.”

Originally posted on Campaign Asia

Integrated marketing and innovation company Hakuhodo has acquired digital creative agency Kingdom Digital to accelerate Kingdom Digital’s expansion in Southeast Asia. According to Kingdom digital, there will be no key personnel changes within the agency, and currently, there are no conflicting clients as well. Kingdom Digital declined to disclose the cost of the acquisition.

Kingdom Digital specialises in social media and content marketing, digital 360 campaigns, web experiences, and video production among others, with a wide portfolio of clients including Grab, Digi, Tohtonku, KyoChon and Mead Johnson Nutrition. It currently has a workforce of 160 experts. Meanwhile, Hakuhodo has offices in 20 countries and regions and a pool of 10,000 specialists globally.

Vin Chinnaraja, chairman of Kingdom Digital, said that with Hakuhodo’s regional presence, Kingdom Digital can deliver multinational work for its clients and brands. “We are looking forward to combining Hakuhodo’s sei-katsu-sha data driven marketing with our innovative digital services like our Digital Creative Automation (DCA) platform to deliver hyper-personalised experiences for our clients and brands,” Chinnaraja said.

Shuntaro Ito, senior corporate officer, Hakuhodo and president and CEO, Hakuhodo International said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Kingdom Digital, which is regarded so highly in the industry, as a member of the Hakuhodo Group at this milestone juncture. I’m certain Kingdom Digital will be able to contribute to our clients’ growth by providing them with sophisticated digital solutions in a Malaysian digital marketplace that will only continue to develop in the future. I look forward to Kingdom Digital being a leading presence, alongside Hakuhodo Malaysia, in further strengthening our digital capabilities in Malaysia and ASEAN.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Ong, CEO of Kingdom Digital said: “With Hakuhodo’s acquisition of Kingdom Digital, we will be able to draw on their infrastructure, creativity, and insights to continue deliver the high standard of work that we are known for. Most of all, both Hakuhodo Inc. and Kingdom Digital share the same vision and values and us coming together will broaden and deepen our services for all our clients.”

In 2020, Hakuhodo acquired the majority stake in Growww Media to reinforce its capabilities to provide integrated marketing in Taiwan, where many Japanese companies have a presence. The acquisition also aimed to shore up the group’s services in a wide range of domains besides advertising, including large event and exhibition planning and operation, the building of UX-heavy digital campaigns, and PR.

Separately, just last month, Woon Hoh, Hakuhodo’s regional chief creative officer, left after 17 years with the agency. He started his career with Hakuhodo in Indonesia and eventually rose up the ranks to oversee ASEAN markets including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. He also won a slew of local and international awards during his time with the agency.

Originally posted on Marketing-Interactive

The deal will strengthen the Japanese network’s capabilities in Malaysia’s digital advertising market, and the two firms will also target southeast Asia with their digital advertising solutions.

Japan-based network Hakuhodo has acquired an 80% stake in Malaysian independent digital agency Kingdom Digital Solutions. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Kingdom Digital, founded in 2007, has 156 employees and will now become a subsidiary of Hakuhodo. The Japanese network has worked with Kingdom Digital previously, and this acquisition will strengthen its capabilities in Malaysia’s digital advertising market, the companies stated. The two firms will provide solutions to local, multinational, and Japanese clients in the ASEAN market.

Kingdom Digital provides digital campaigns, social media and content marketing and digital creative automation, to clients in Malaysia and ASEAN. The agency has won Malaysia Independent Agency of the Year (Gold) at Campaign’s Agency of the Year 2021.

This deal will help Kingdom Digital “realise and speed up our ASEAN expansion ambitions, tapping into Hakuhodo’s regional presence to be able to deliver multinational work for our clients and brands,” noted Vin Chinnaraja, chairman of Kingdom Digital. This deal would allow Kingdom Digital to combine Hakuhodo’s creativity and sei-katsu-sha insight with its Digital Creative Automation (DCA) platform.

Shuntaro Ito, senior corporate officer, Hakuhodo, and president & CEO, Hakuhodo International said Hakuhodo opened its first overseas office in Malaysia 50 years ago. “I look forward to Kingdom Digital being a leading presence, alongside Hakuhodo Malaysia, in further strengthening our digital capabilities in Malaysia and Asean,” he added.

Originally posted on Campaign Asia