Marketing Magazine SG - AOTY 2015 by Marketing Magazine Group

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RELIABLE. EXPERIENCED. COMPETITIVE. TRUSTED.

4-TIME WINNER AGENCY OF THE YEAR CRM & LOYALTY

Just a few reasons why the biggest global businesses have voted us #1.

GET A FRESH PERSPECTIVE to help you better acquire, retain & engage with your customersÂ

Call: +65 6535 0996 enquiries@cprvision.com

www.cprvision.com

177 River Valley Road #05M-15 Liang Court Singapore 179030

2015, 2014, 2013 & 2012

RELIABLE. EXPERIENCED. COMPETITIVE. TRUSTED.

4-TIME WINNER AGENCY OF THE YEAR CRM & LOYALTY

Just a few reasons why the biggest global businesses have voted us #1.

GET A FRESH PERSPECTIVE to help you better acquire, retain & engage with your customersÂ

Call: +65 6535 0996 enquiries@cprvision.com

www.cprvision.com

177 River Valley Road #05M-15 Liang Court Singapore 179030

2015, 2014, 2013 & 2012

4 5

EDITOR’S NOTE

METHODOLOGY

JUDGES

1 7 13

OUR JUDGES ON THE COVER 1. Ally Lim, head, marketing communications, Maybank Singapore 2. Michael Parsons, vice president marketing & strategic relationships – Asia Pacific, Accor Hotels & Resorts 3. Nicki Kenyon, vice president, digital & social marketing, Asia Pacific, Visa 4. Leon Traazil, head of digital & social media, HTC 5. Isabel Cheng, chief marketing officer, Wildlife Reserves Singapore 6. Juliana Lim, senior marketing director, KFC Singapore 7. Sridhar Ramasay, director of marketing, Lenovo 8. Anne Bacolod, international marketing director, FrieslandCampina 9. Jasmine Seow, director of marketing, Courts Singapore 10. Markus Keiper, executive vice president, global marketing, communications & CRM, Rolls Royce Marine 11. Clarence Lin, vice president, group strategic marketing & communications, DBS Bank 12. Cindy Tan, marketing director, Häagen-Dazs AMEA, General Mills 13. Ho Lee Yen, chief marketing officer AIA Singapore

SPONSORS & PARTNERS

6-7

OVERALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR

8-9

CREATIVE AGENCIES

MEDIA AGENCIES

PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCIES

EVENT MARKETING

CRM & LOYALTY MARKETING

DIGITAL AGENCIES

BRAND CONSULTANCIES

MARKET RESEARCH

MOBILE MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCIES

SEARCH MARKETING AGENCIES

PRODUCTION AGENCIES

CONTENT MARKETING AGENCIES

THE MARKIES

Photography: Edwin Tan; Digital Imaging: Janice Paglinawan (Lumina - www.animulstudio.com)

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MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

22/6/2015 11:17:14 AM

45 Ubi Road 1, #03-03A, Singapore 408696

EDITOR’S NOTE

A TIME TO CELEBRATE Elizabeth Low, Deputy Editor elizabethl@marketing-interactive.com Rezwana Manjur, Senior Journalist rezwanam@marketing-interactive.com Noreen Ismail, Journalist noreeni@marketing-interactive.com Editorial – International Matt Eaton, Editor (Hong Kong) matte@marketing-interactive.com Production and Design Shahrom Kamarulzaman, Regional Art Director shahrom@lighthousemedia.com.sg Fauzie Rasid, Senior Designer fauzier@lighthousemedia.com.sg Advertising Sales – Singapore & Malaysia Johnathan Tiang, Senior Account Manager johnathant@marketing-interactive.com Ee Kai Li , Account Manager kailie@marketing-interactive.com Grace Goh, Account Manager graceg@marketing-interactive.com Jocelyn Ma, Account Manager jocelynm@marketing-interactive.com Ong Yi Xuan, Advertising Sales Coordinator yixuano@marketing-interactive.com Advertising Sales – International Josi Yan, Sales Director (Hong Kong) josiy@marketing-interactive.com Events Yeo Wei Qi, Regional Head of Events Services weiqi@marketing-interactive.com Circulation Executive Deborah Quek, Circulations Executive deborahq@marketing-interactive.com Finance Evelyn Wong, Regional Finance Director evelynw@lighthousemedia.com.sg

It’s that time of the year again when we gear up for our biggest event of the year – the Agency of the Year Awards. While it is an exciting journey for us – putting together an all-marketer jury, seeing them pour over all your entries and select the winners – it is also a poignant reminder of what the industry has achieved in the past year, what are its struggles and loopholes. Some time back we spoke to Jonathan Oliver, global head of innovation at Microsoft Advertising, who said the traditional agency model would not be around in the next two years. “Agencies need to evolve to become consultants,” he said. Oliver said that while many agencies were today trying to evolve, this was still a struggle. However, developments such as Publicis buying Sapient mark a good start for the advertising industry. “Agencies are in an interesting predicament because they have to move as fast as culture is moving and constantly changing. There’s a lot of risk on the agencies’ part – they are always playing catch up, but at the same time they have a client to convince. And if it goes wrong they get fired and clients find someone new,” he said. That’s a truth, granted, but at the same time, this is largely also because clients themselves are not pro-innovation. The risks are too many and the “why rock the boat” mentality is also pervasive. Agencies, after all, are but a reflection of what their clients are. (No, seriously. I’m not joking and yeah, we can debate this some other time.)

The optimist in me says it is not all gloom and doom. Many judges I have spoken to said your work has greatly impressed them. What caught their attention was the breadth of ideas and executions that are out there and that coming from clients means a lot, you’d agree. Amid the pressures of a depleting margin and an ever-growing need to innovate, agencies are trying their best to stay aﬂoat. And, along the way, are victories – big or small. You, who have made it to the top are ﬁghting these battles every day and deserve a pat on the back for not only surviving through the storm, but riding the wave. This recognition is for those victories which help put brands on the path of growth. It is about celebrating what you and your teams have achieved over the past 12 months. So, continue doing the great work guys, and sharing it with the wider client-marketer community. And the winner is ...

Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee – www.elliotly.com; Makeup & Hair: Michmakeover using Make Up For Ever & hair using Sebastian Professional – www.michmakeover.com

Editorial Rayana Pandey, Editor rayanap@marketing-interactive.com

Management Søren Beaulieu, Publisher sorenb@marketing-interactive.com Tony Kelly, Editorial Director tk@marketing-interactive.com Justin Randles, Group Managing Director jr@marketing-interactive.com

Marketing’s Agency of the Year is published annually by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd. Printed in Singapore on CTP process by Sun Rise Printing & Supplies Pte Ltd, 10 Admiralty Street, #06-20 North Link Building, Singapore 757695. Tel: (65) 6383 5290. MICA (P) 180/03/2009. For subscriptions, contact circulations at +65 6423 0329 or email subscriptions@marketing-interactive.com. COPYRIGHT & REPRINTS: All material printed in Marketing is protected under the copyright act. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and copyright holder. Permission may be requested through the Singapore office. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in Marketing are not necessarily the views of the publisher. Singapore: Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd 100C Pasir Panjang Road, #05-01 See Hoy Chan Hub, Singapore 118519 198755 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117 Hong Kong: Lighthouse Independent Media Ltd Unit A, 7/F, Wah Kit Commercial Building 302 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2861 1882 Fax: +852 2861 1336 To subscribe to Marketing magazine, go to: www.marketing-interactive.com

Rayana Pandey Editor

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MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

17/6/2015 2:09:16 PM

METHODOLOGY

HOW THE WINNERS WON Understanding the selection process The winners of the Agency of the Year Awards 2015 were decided through the combination of a nation-wide survey on marketers’ agency preferences, and a thorough evaluation of agency performances during a specified timeperiod (1 January 2013 – 31 December 2014). During both processes, the Agency of the Year Awards was one hundred percent client-driven. Marketing Research surveyed and consulted marketers in Singapore as to which agencies they would most likely short-list and engage across the major marketing services disciplines. These questions were asked in the larger context of Marketing Research’s Marketing Spend Benchmarking Survey. Based on the survey results, the shortlisted finalists in each category (the top 10- and the top three local agencies if not already in the top 10) were invited to justify their case in the category they were nominated by submitting an entry to the Agency of the Year 2015 judging panel, which consisted entirely of 25 senior marketing professionals from leading brands in Singapore. In that process, finalists also earned a shot at the coveted Overall Agency of the Year title. Marketing Research’s Marketing Spend Benchmarking Survey Statistics Over 700 client-side marketers and advertisers participated in Marketing Research’s Marketing Spend Benchmarking Survey, which was conducted in December 2014. Genuine decision-makers and influential figures were well represented in this survey from a wide range of industries, job functions and geographical areas of responsibility. The survey was hosted online with a unique URL given to each respondent as a quality control measure. How the finalists were decided In the agency rankings section of the questionnaire, respondents were asked to write in the most preferred agency they would most likely engage in free text fields. The agency ranking results were then

JUDGING CRITERIA

25%

Performance Product People Perspective

passed to Marketing to prepare the list of finalists. Finalists from the Marketing Spend Benchmarking Survey were determined two ways: either by ranking as a top 10 finalist, or as a top three finalist among local independents in their respective categories of the survey. How the winners were decided The next step saw all participating finalists submit their entries for further evaluation by a judging panel made up of senior client marketers across most industries in Singapore, including FMCG, entertainment retail, F&B, hospitality, finance and government. The judging panel evaluated the finalists

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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25%

in four key business areas: performance, product, people and perspective – with each criterion carrying 25% of the total score. In total over 79.8% of the ﬁnalists opted to participate in submission process. All the judges’ scores were then tallied and each agency’s score was expressed as a total percentage within each category. The three agencies with the highest percentage, and the highest ranking Local Hero in each category were thus determined. The agency with the most signiﬁcant wins across all categories was duly granted the title of Agency of the Year. In the case of a tiebreaker, the agency with the highest individual percentage points prevailed.

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THE JUDGES

YOU R A O MARKies T Y A N D M AJUDGES RKies JUDGES YOUR AOTY AND

Michael Parsons

Ho Lee Yen

Vaasu Gavarasana

Ivan Tan

Quentin Briard

Vice president marketing & strategic relationships – Asia Pacific Accor Hotels & Resorts

Chief marketing officer AIA Singapore

Head - digital marketing AXA Singapore

Senior vice president corporate & marketing communications Changi Airport Group

Vice president, regional marketing, East, South Asia Pacific & sales for South East Asia Club Med

Jasmine Seow

Yvonne Chan

Clarence Lin

Anne Bacolod

Cindy Tan

Director of marketing Courts Singapore

Head of marketing & communications, Asia Coutts & Co

Vice president, group strategic marketing & communications DBS Bank

International marketing director FrieslandCampina

Marketing director, Häagen-Dazs AMEA General Mills

Margaret Chime

Leon Traazil

Juliana Lim

Gaurav Gupta

Sridhar Ramasay

Vice president, group digital marketing Great Eastern Life Assurance

Head of digital & social media HTC

Senior marketing director KFC Singapore

Marketing director, ASEAN Kimberly Clark

Director of marketing Lenovo

Ally Lim

Michael Chadwick

Lynette Ang

Belinda Tan

Markus Keiper

Head, Marketing Communications Maybank Singapore

Director of brand strategy Asia-Pacific Mondelēz International

Chief brand & communications officer NTUC Enterprise Co-operative

Vice president, group lifestyle marketing OCBC Bank

Executive vice president of global marketing, communications & CRM Rolls Royce - Marine

Ranji David

Janis Tse

Kenny Ong

Nicki Kenyon

Isabel Cheng

Regional head - marketing (mobile phones) Samsung Electronics

Head of marketing Tigerair

Country head, Malaysia & Singapore Unilever Network

Vice president, digital & social marketing, Asia Pacific Visa

Chief marketing Officer Wildlife Reserves Singapore

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MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

22/6/2015 11:20:25 AM

SPONSORS & PARTNERS

SPONSORS

Overall Agency of the Year sponsor

Creative Agency of the Year sponsor

Mobile Marketing Agency of the Year sponsor

Media Agency of the Year sponsor

SMRT Media SMRT Media is Singapore’s number one local outdoor media company. With close to 100 stations and 2,200 billboards all over the island, we are deﬁnitely Singapore’s largest outof-home marketing and advertising network. From digital screens and interactive ads in our stations, to ads carried around Singapore by our buses and taxis, or even vast on-site campaigns and installations, we have the perfect platform for you to capture, engage and activate the millions using our network daily.

HISTORY™ HISTORY™ is the leading destination for entertaining hit series and revealing award-winning event specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and fascinating manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of genres ranging from real-life characters who bring history to life every day, to natural history, contemporary history, technology and science, as well as archaeology and pop culture.

Millennial Media Millennial Media (NYSE: MM) is the leading independent mobile marketplace supporting the world’s top brands and mobile content providers. The company’s unique data and technology assets enable its clients to connect with their target audiences as they move across screens, media and moments. Millennial Media drives meaningful results at scale through a diverse suite of products fuelled by innovation and the industry’s smartest minds.

Singtel Advertising Singtel Advertising, under Group Consumer Singtel, is a media platform that offers an array of integrated digital advertising solutions to marketers in Singapore and the Asia Paciﬁc region. Utilising innovative and datadriven marketing technology, Singtel Advertising’s differentiated solutions help businesses effectively engage their target audiences across four platforms – IPTV marketing, digital marketing, direct marketing and mobile marketing. Its extensive mobile app ecosystem also allows advertisers to deliver brand messages that can be personalised according to an individual’s data consumption and online browsing behaviour.

Best Idea – Direct Marketing sponsor

Best Idea – Female Audience sponsor

DMrocket DMrocket, a division of SingPost, aims to bring direct mail to the next level. It leverages the personalised and multi-sensory experience of direct mail, mixing it with the interactivity and performance of digital technology. At DMrocket, we help you make that vital connection with customers by using the language of the senses, delivered at real-time speed.

Lifetime Lifetime™ is an entertainment destination offering the highest quality dramas, movies and reality. A television network infused with passion and empowerment, it is the leading channel for women in the US. Lifetime™ reﬂects the full spectrum of the modern female experience, delivering top tier, female-focused entertainment that encourages co-viewing.

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Best Idea – Out of Home sponsor OOH Media, the outdoor advertising arm of MediaCorp Pte Ltd, handles all out-of-home advertising business. It has been appointed to manage and market all digital screens in Bugis Street, JCube, Junction 8, The Star Vista, Chinatown Point, Westgate, orchardgateway and iFly, as well as close to 1,300 bus shelters, a robust ﬂeet of taxis, coaches and various ambient advertising options such as 3D mapping projection.

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SPONSORS & PARTNERS

PARTNERS

Official wine partner

Choice Wines International Choice Wines International is part of the QCD Group of Companies established since 1994. Choice Wines International is within the lifestyle division of the group which includes Luxury Yacht Charter and Apple Accessories. Choice Wines is a premier wine and spirits provider for the beneďŹ ts of Visa card members. Visa International is our trusted partner.

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Official photo booth partner

Official photography partner

Live!Studios Live!Studios pioneered live photography in 2003 when its CEO and founder Willy Foo wired his camera to a notebook carried in a backpack which was then wirelessly transmitted to the projector and web simultaneously. As the name suggests, it creates a lively and interactive event atmosphere. Covering more than 700 events each year, they capture photos at precise moments and within seconds, project these images onto screens and have them printed out on credit card sized photo cards for guestsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; keepsake.

MovingStills Photography At MovingStills Photography, we provide premium photo booths and social booth services for all types of fun events and parties. Instant photo printing,# hashtag printing, Facebook uploads, animated GIFs and many other new media services.

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

17/6/2015 4:16:20 PM

OVERALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR

DDB RECLAIMS TOP SPOT 2015 marks the triumphant return of DDB Group Singapore as the overall winner after an exhilarating contest at Marketing magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Agency of the Year Awards. In front of more than 700 people at the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore, DDB Group stood out from the crowd securing a gold award in the Mobile Marketing Agency of the Year category (for Tribal Worldwide Singapore) and four silvers for Brand Consultancy of the Year, Content Marketing Agency of the Year as well as Digital Marketing Agency of the Year and Social Marketing Agency of the Year (both also

for Tribal Worldwide Singapore). It topped off the impressive trophy haul with bronze in the Creative Agency of the Year category. PHD impressed the all client-side by taking home the top honour in the Media Agency of the Year category by edging out MediaCom Singapore and Maxus who claimed the silver and bronze trophies. PHD was also awarded gold in the Search Marketing Agency of the Year with iProspect Singapore and MediaCom Singapore taking out second and third. The Creative Agency of the Year category had a stunning turn of events this year with

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OVERALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR

local independent The Secret Little Agency stealing the gold award from a long line of hot contenders. Several other home-grown Local Hero winners also grabbed gold, including GOODSTUPH reclaiming its title in the Social Marketing Agency of the Year category as well as Pico Art International for Event Marketing Agency of the Year and Shooting Gallery Asia for Production Agency of the Year. In the Public Relations Agency of the Year category, Weber Shandwick Singapore muscled its way to glory in a very tight contest with LEWIS PR and Golin coming in closely behind. CPR Vision Management and Nielsen reclaimed their top titles once again in the CRM & Loyalty Marketing Agency of the Year and Market Research Agency of the Year categories. Meanwhile, the MARKies segment celebrated the most outstanding examples of creativity and effective usage of media in campaigns across 31 categories, and in 2015, the competition was as ﬁerce as ever. Local agency GOODSTUPH won the Overall Creative Ideas MARKie with four wins in the Best Idea – Female Audience, Best Idea – Launch, Best Idea – Male Audience and Best Idea – Public/Media Relations categories. It was an extremely close contest for the Overall Best Use of Media MARKie with both MEC Singapore and ZenithOptimedia securing two MARKies trophies in the Media Usage categories. However. ZenithOptimedia got through in the end with the highest

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individual percentage points to claim the top award. Publicis Singapore showcased its winning style by celebrating victories for Scoot in the Best Idea – Content Marketing and Best Idea – Viral categories as well as the Best Use of Apps category for AXA Insurance Singapore’s AXA SmartDrive application. Havas Media Singapore also stood out for the judges with its NeighboursFirst.SG campaign for POSB grabbing the Best Idea –

Digital and the Best Use of Social categories. MARKies winners this year also included Dentsu Singapore, Germs Singapore, Grey Group Singapore and MediaCom Singapore. The Agency of the Year Awards 2015 was sponsored by SMRT Media, HISTORY™, Millennial Media, Singtel Advertising, DMrocket, Lifetime and MediaCorp (OOH Media) and supported by partners Choice Wines International, Live!Studios and Moving Stills Photography.

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 9:31:32 AM

CREATIVE AGENCY OF THE YEAR

THE SECRET LITTLE AGENCY Claiming ttop spot and winning gold this year is local independent agency The Secret Little Agency. The past 12 months have been deﬁning for TSLA. According to the agency, the past year was a period of deep and quiet strengthening of its bedrock vision to be Asia’s global creative agency. It celebrated its best new business year in the history of the agency, proudly maintaining 100% client retention.

THE WINNERS GOLD

The Secret Little Agency

85.42%

SILVER

J. Walter Thompson Singapore

83.33%

BRONZE

DDB Group Singapore

83.13%

LOCAL HERO

The Secret Little Agency

85.42%

THE FINALISTS 3-Sixty Brand Communications BBH Singapore BBDO Singapore Grey Group Singapore Leo Burnett Group Singapore Publicis Singapore Saatchi & Saatchi TBWA\Singapore Wild Advertising & Marketing

It shared a uniquely Asian creative message with the whole world at key conferences and seminars, climaxing at the Cannes Lions Festival in France, where TSLA was the youngest, and the only speaker from Singapore on stage, with its CEO, Nicholas Ye, addressing a packed-out room on emergent creativity in Asia. The agency focused greater efforts and budgets towards training and talent development in 2014. Some of the key client wins for TSLA included Tiger Beer, Telenor Group and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Rating its biggest win by its cultural significance and not by profitability, the addition of Tiger Beer’s global Chinese New Year was significant for TSLA. According to the agency, the account was in perfect line with the agency’s vision to be Asia’s global creative agency. The agency was scoped through-the-line to develop work globally. For Telenor Group, TSLA was tasked to manage the brand’s regional creative duties. This involved the umbrella of telecommunication brands such as DiGi in Malaysia, DTAC in Thailand and Grameenphone in Bangladesh. Similarly for its Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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account, this win marked the agency’s first foray into the hyper-luxury segment, which sees its work being developed across Asia Pacific in markets such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. Driving demand and lead generation for this highly exclusive and elusive audience remains a top priority for TSLA’s creative and strategy teams on the Rolls-Royce account, the agency said. The agency also added new faces to management and invested more into staff training this past year. New hires included Ronnie Liew who joined the team as chief technology officer. Mriz Sidah was hired as head of design and Ling Tiong joined as head of production. Moving forward, the agency aims to maintain its investment in the development and welfare of talent to keep or lower its annual 2% staff turnover rate. The agency intends to deepen its Asian roots and grow its global creative influence, while continuing to partner with the clients and brands that derive the most from work that pushes real boundaries. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Nicholas Ye, CEO and founder

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ONLY GOLD?

Y U NO PLATINUM?!

Having unreasonable standards in creativity since 2007

www.thesecretlittleagency.com

CREATIVE AGENCY OF THE YEAR J. WALTER THOMPSON SINGAPORE Clinching silver in this category is J. Walter Thompson. After a heady year of new business wins, the agency made a deliberate choice to focus on organic growth. The agency fostered its roster of clients, consolidated its teams and scaled up its services. The agency tailored itself to a new business model comprising three pillars: a relentless focus on the intersection between creativity and technology; striking key partnerships with strong upcoming start-ups to bring the best in the world to its clients; and to explore and implement new business models (IP rights, licensing and new revenue arrangements). To achieve this ambition, the agency looked beyond the standard advertising pool of talent to hire the right breed of commercially savvy and digitally nurtured talent, many of whom hailed from the start-up world. Key hires included talent with an engineering background, computer science and even architecture. It also transitioned the trafﬁc team into a project management system and empowered it to be far more proactive in the creation process. The agency welcomed key management talent on board this year, including Peter

Womersley, its new CEO and Jordan Price who joined the agency from its Tokyo ofﬁce. Its continued focus on the intersection of technology and creativity produced

innovative campaigns, including “The Guardian Angel”, a device created for the user to trigger her phone to ring during uncomfortable moments. Designed in the shape of an angel’s halo, it is a simple yet elegant accessory created in partnership with AWARE, which can be worn as a necklace or bracelet so it is accessible during crucial moments. JWT was also the creative behind HSBC’s “Beyond Money” campaign. In partnership with TED, this integrated campaign brought together the bank’s financial experts and societal leaders. Their combined insights helped create a better understanding of changing financial needs, and the social influences driving them. New perspectives shared online encouraged customers to re-evaluate the life interests they value most – and further inspired the bank to better its products and services to suit these changing needs. According to the agency, its new focus paid off – with almost 100% client retention in the past year. JWT looks forward to more successes in the upcoming year. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Peter Womersley, CEO

DDB GROUP SINGAPORE Landing the bronze award in this category is DDB. 2014 saw the agency fusing more than 40 of its creative technologists to work alongside its 150-strong creative department. Its success has also transformed the creative agency into a marketing innovation agency. Adopting the creative mantra “breakthrough with creative innovation” has helped the agency’s business growth. According to the agency, it is keen on evolving itself as a creative species by coming up with sharper solutions, with the launch of portals and an e-store for StarHub, activation portals for the Health Promotion Board (Million KG challenge) and innovative apps for McDonald’s (surprise alarm app) and RSAF (one force gaming app). It also launched an iStore – a gateway for the rest of DDB’s offices to “shop” for innovation and apply it quickly for its clients. It also scaled up on its social content production and expanded its team – the production unit now houses an in-house film director, film crew, editor and script writers. New account wins included SilkAir, Health Promotion Board, Pioneer Generation Package

and SG50 for 2015. Key hires within the past year included Tony Low, digital creative director, Lauren Ahearn, business director and Richard Morewood, regional business director. One of its key clients includes StarHub which gave DDB the task to develop a state-ofthe-art Adobe-powered portal and e-shop. It helped StarHub achieve an increase in triple-service hubbing households and grew its customer base across TV, mobile and broadband. Moving forward, the agency aims to be the “hub” of excellence for digital, technology and human capital. This year it has unleashed new services in social media activation (Radar), ﬁlm and content (WaveMaker) and a technology solutions portal (DDB IStore). Already it is creating new work for clients from these services for both local and regional clients – McDonald’s breakfast surprise app (regional roll-out), Our Better World (Singaporebased social enterprise entity) and SG50. The agency’s social media arm Radar was launched in partnership with Refuel4 to tap into social user data for lead-demand generation. The agency also signed a partnership with social PR agency Mothership in the past year.

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It introduced Wavemaker, the agency’s very own film content production unit. Within just eight months, it has produced 48 films for key clients. David Tang, vice-chairman of DDB Group Asia and president of DDB Group Singapore, said digital innovation had become a key part of the agency’s marketing solutions for clients over the past three years, with the agency now looking to take the technologies across its client base in Asia Pacific. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: David Tang, president and CEO, DDB Group Singapore, and vice-chairman, DDB Group Asia

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18/6/2015 9:43:47 AM

CREATIVE AGENCY OF THE YEAR 3-SIXTY BRAND COMMUNICATIONS

In 2014, 3-Sixty ofﬁcially became the Singapore Kindness Movement’s longest serving agency. Five years after grabbing the highly coveted account from the four-year incumbent, 3-Sixty continues to deliver campaign after campaign of strong effective work, the agency said.

BBH SINGAPORE According to the agency, BBH Singapore has evolved from a renowned advertising agency into a communications business equipped to lead in the digital age. Its capabilities have grown to encompass brand strategy and identity, creative development across all media, TV, film and digital video production, digital UX, design and build, digital publishing, social strategy, community management and CRM, data analysis and marketing R&D. It works with clients on tasks ranging from commercial strategy through to brand, channel and campaign strategy, using data analysis and insights to optimise performance, the agency said. For example, its distribution team develops channel strategies for campaigns and works with media owners to broker partnerships. Meanwhile, the launch of BBH Build sees the agency combining user experience and design, creative technology and development to offer a suite of digital services from strategy and concept development through to production for desktop, tablet and mobile. Key clients include IKEA, Google, Mentos and Nike, among others. BBH Singapore was the creative team behind IKEA’s 2015 catalogue campaign. It continues to work with the Swedish brand on creative campaigns and advertisements, including social media campaigns. Recent key appointments include Chee Yan Yi to the role of general manager. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: John Hadfield, CEO Asia Pacific

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This has bagged the agency numerous awards over the years, including the MARKies (2012) and Marketing’s Events Awards (2012 and 2014). The agency set another milestone with Volvo in 2014. Never in the brand’s 15 years under Wearnes Automotive has it retained a creative agency for more than a year. This year its partnership reached the four-year mark. According to the agency, the continued relationship stems from the strategic and brand leadership it provides that is not just about churning out ad after ad every week, but taking Volvo from an unranked marque to becoming the sixth best-selling brand in its ﬁrst year, making it the fastest-growing brand that year. In 2014, the agency moved into a new

BBDO SINGAPORE In 2014, BBDO focused on consolidating and building on the creative standards of its office. Key to this was investing in top creative technologists and the latest social media kit built into the physical office space. “Our goal – to be known for producing great work for long-term clients – is measured by being the most awarded agency in Southeast Asia for creativity and effectiveness,” said JeanPaul Burge, chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia. According to the agency, by revamping and refining its processes and implementing cuttingedge digital tools, it has developed consistent best-in-class products. With an emphasis on organic growth rather than new business pitches, the past 12 months saw BBDO’s impressive expansion across a number of key accounts. For example, there was a 100% increase in Fonterra with the win of its digital business and new projects, the agency said. New wins included General Electric, SingTel, Tiger, Daimler After-Sales, Banyan Tree and Skippy with over 95% client retention, the agency said. Key hires included Chris Willingham, ex-managing director of Fallon who joined as regional business director, while Rebecca Nadilo was hired as planning director from BBDO New York. Moving forward, the agency plans to continue to deliver creative and effective work for its clients that makes a positive difference to their business. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Jean-Paul Burge, chairman and CEO, BBDO Asia

studio. In an industry of MNCs, global bigwigs, and imports and exports, 3-Sixty is proud to be 100% local, the agency said. In the ﬁnal quarter of 2014, 3-Sixty attracted three senior creative hires from one of the biggest MNCs. Preparing for a tough 12 months ahead in the industry, the agency is cautiously optimistic with its plan to grow its account service and digital teams. The agency will continue to do what it has been doing for the past decade – creating ads while protecting the brands entrusted to it, it says. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Stephen Choy, executive director; Cindy Tay, client service director; David Khong, creative director

GREY GROUP SINGAPORE The past 12 months for Grey Singapore saw the final realisation of its full agency integration, the build-out of several innovative departments, the completion of Singapore’s first in-house postproduction arm, and the success of several global pitch wins under its belt. Grey Singapore has strategically invested pitch efforts this year beyond Singapore’s shores, expanding its client base across the region and abroad. Client wins included Saudi Arabia-based airline business, Al Maha Airways, GSK Scott’s digital business, British Council and Sentosa. The past year has ushered in several key additions, including Judd Labarthe – VP, global strategy director for GSK, and Shahvez Afridi – head of strategy for P&G, APAC, among others. Full integration has allowed a holistic approach to each brief, while GreyWorks allows for centralised and streamlined post-production across all markets. Grey Singapore restructured the agency to meet the real-time demands of business – an approach highly appreciated by forward-thinking marketers, said the agency. The agency’s work in the past year included British Council’s, “Know Your English” campaign. The insight-driven digital banner cleverly used the search patterns of those who struggle with English. The four-week campaign reached out to more than 300,000 people, with a 51.8% interaction rate that helped to define over 70,000 words, the agency said. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Subbaraju Alluri, CEO

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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CREATIVE AGENCY OF THE YEAR LEO BURNETT GROUP SINGAPORE 2014 was a year of continued business success for Leo Burnett. Its priority is first growing its existing clientele, then new businesses. According to the agency, it grew its top two clients at an average of 30% over the past year, with its most significant growth coming from Samsung, at a whopping 58%, through winning the global pitch led out of its Singapore office. It also re-established the SK-II brand for its P&G clients by reforming the perception of the skin care category – from focusing on women’s

insecurities to encouraging women to take charge of their lives, hence, launching the global movement of #changedestiny. Leo Burnett also won the digital business on FrieslandCampina, launching a new website and mobile app across the region. The agency boosted its social offerings by activating social campaigns and content management for its clients. According to the agency, it had a 100% growth in new businesses in 2014 compared to the year before. There was also a 46% increase

PUBLICIS SINGAPORE The past year Publicis accelerated and broadened its digital capabilities to deliver genuinely integrated and innovative creative work. Currently, more than 70% of its staff are digital professionals, which sets it apart as a creative agency in Singapore, it says. It is now able to offer end-to-end integration, including social media activation, community management and a host of other offerings. A new leadership team was put in place to

SAATCHI & SAATCHI

lead the changes across the agency. According to the agency, an extremely ﬂat organisational structure gave the team wider and more direct access to CEO, Lou Dela Pena. Further,

TBWA\ SINGAPORE

in digital revenue growth over the course of the past year, the agency said. The agency leveraged its regional healthcare capabilities and won the Allergan business regionally, and is now responsible for bringing to life the brand’s first directto-consumer marketing communications throughout Asia Pacific. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Rebecca Ang, general manager; Nigel Tribe, head of strategy; Chris Chiu, chief creative officer

Publicis attracted young talent in the industry to strengthen the team and develop speciﬁc areas of expertise such as strategy and technology. On the creative front, Publicis helped AXA Singapore change driver behaviour through the mobile platform AXA DRIVE – an app that tracks and measures skillfulness in driving. Publicis also helped the insurance brand’s launch a campaign to promote customised car insurance for AXA. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Lou Dela Pena, CEO

WILD ADVERTISING & MARKETING

2014 was a year of transition and transformation for the agency. Dominic Stallard, one of APAC’s top creative leaders, was brought in as executive creative director and a slew of strong non-traditional work followed. The agency invested in a host of international integrated hires and delivered a breakthrough global platform for Pampers. Saatchi reached the global stage again after winning the pitch for Acer’s global agency assignment. The past year also saw two signiﬁcant wins. The agency clinched the Petra Foods regional business. With Indonesia as a focus market, the agency pitched in tandem with Saatchi Jakarta to deliver a regional offering with strong local relevance and insight, the agency said. The year also saw the agency make a change at the top as Saatchi veteran Shannon Cullum replaced departing CEO Paul Roebuck. In April the agency named Dominic Stallard as its new ECD, luring him from Lowe Singapore, where he was CCO.

2014 was focused on building TBWA’s capabilities across various marketing expertise, but more importantly, was the commitment towards fostering collaboration through insights and ideas rather than corporate structures. The agency launched TBWA\Media Arts Lab, a specialist social media unit for MasterCard (The Priceless Engine) and integrated Tequila, Integer, Auditore and TPR to allow for more customised services catered to its clients’ speciﬁc needs. Its ability to integrate with client needs across specialist departments and deliver relevant solutions has resulted in better client retention and numerous business wins. Global clients Standard Chartered and Singapore Airlines have been with the agency for more than 10 and seven years respectively, and the average tenure of its top clients is more than ﬁve years. The agency also welcomed new regional clients such as Airbnb, Caltex, Country Group Development, Mondelēz and MasterCard.

Wild Advertising & Marketing has seen signiﬁcant growth in the past 12 months. The agency has a high staff retention rate because of its strong company culture, with its employees citing team spirit and a transparent culture as key motivators, the agency reported. The agency made two key senior hires in 2014 and attrition rates remained at an alltime low. The agency is further investing and building its strength in digital, social media, with content marketing as a key focus. It hopes to look beyond the shores of Singapore in its next growth plan. Notable key wins for the agency were SMU, CPF, Eu Yan Sang Drypers Singapore and Seletar Mall. One of the key market-leading campaigns for its clients in 2014 included the agency’s work for CPF’s “Are You Ready” programme development and launch. Wild conceptualised a campaign titled #TheyAllSay to build positive afﬁnity with members through digital and social channels.

Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Shannon Cullum, CEO, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia

Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Ara Hampartsoumian, managing director

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Ng Khee Jin, managing director & creative director; Yeo Ai Ling, executive director

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MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR

PHD SINGAPORE Coming in at the number one position in the Media Agency category this year is PHD Singapore. It has never been more important than now to embrace a brave new world where a continuous state of disruption is the new norm, the agency believes. The launch of PHD’s operating system SOURCE across all 79 ofﬁces last year enabled its 3,000 employees to

THE WINNERS GOLD

PHD

SILVER

MediaCom Singapore

BRONZE

Maxus

71.88%

LOCAL HERO

The Media Shop

66.67%

THE FINALISTS Carat Singapore City Life Advertising Havas Media Singapore LINS Advertising & Marketing MEC Singapore Mindshare Singapore OMD Singapore Starcom MediaVest Group ZenithOptimedia

77.5% 72.08%

collectively ideate and even compete globally by creating a “Massively-Multi-PlayerOnline-Game”, unleashing PHD’s best ideas for clients. PHD Singapore’s strategy last year was focused on collaboration – playing as a unified team with the objective of “winning together”. With technology and online gamification at the core of this, it allowed the team to naturally and actively operate the many digital instruments available for media campaign development. It collaborated, hatched ideas and won. PHD Singapore enjoyed double-digit growth in 2014, exponentially increasing in size and business. The agency won 12 new business assignments in the past year, making PHD one of the fastest growing media agencies in Asia Pacific, with the likes of SAP and F&N now on the roster. PHD Singapore’s client retention rate has been 100%. Last year PHD was focused on hiring key leadership talent, manoeuvring to bring in accomplished digital leads to its turf. One such hire was Heather Cheong, regional digital director. Cheong has deep experience

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in building digital capabilities with internal and external stakeholders. Meanwhile, Tinder Chandiramani came on board as digital director. Chandiramani’s expertise ranges from handling large sophisticated global clients to guiding clients into digital channels for the first time. Carlos Matriano, associate director who is a digital native at heart, came in with a track record in driving digital innovations. Natalie Ng, associate director of the performance unit, has a strong background in digital, specialising across a hybrid of performance-driven businesses. “The crux of PHD’s growth engine lies beyond the current opportunities that the global and local landscape offer. That is why PHD actively identifies and engages emerging Asian brands,” said Ang Wangyn, managing director of PHD Singapore. By broadening the pond that we fish in, we aim to successfully match our talent and expertise to offer the right business solutions to new potentials.” Owned by: Omnicom Media Group Headed by: Ang Wangyn, managing director

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MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR MEDIACOM SINGAPORE

Last year was yet another successful year for the agency which saw it focused on aligning with the new global positioning of, “The content and connections agency”. The agency also saw much growth on the local front because of the harnessing of the new way of thinking. Believing strongly in the “people ﬁrst, better results” philosophy, the agency launched its FUN Circle to encourage greater inclusiveness and collaboration between the team members to bring more “fun” back to the workplace. MediaCom Singapore also expanded its remit with existing clients to provide them with a more seamless offering across multiple channels in direct response and social media.

Accounts wise, the agency brought on board a combination of local and global clients who can all beneﬁt from the enhanced connected thinking and tools, with a remit that includes strategic planning, media buying, SEM and SEO. Key notable client wins for the agency included NUS Business School, Mars Wrigley, Dulux’s social media and Fonterra’s social media. Going forward, the agency will concentrate on growing its existing client relationship base and strive to be the “connections” consultants for its clients. “We want to move up the value chain to

provide our clients greater synchronisation between paid, owned and earned media,” said Vivian Yeung, general manager of MediaCom. The agency also hopes to grab more clients going forward as it looks to grow both the breadth and depth of its business by working with the best local and global brands in the market. “This is why we have focused our new business efforts around the type of businesses who can best leverage from the global best practices/standards, innovative frameworks and local expertise that we possess,” Yeung added. To stay relevant, the agency is also constantly developing new tools and services such as the 20/20 framework to meet the needs of the market and ensure it can deliver on any platform, at any time. It will also be rolling out the media beyond advertising proposition where the key focus is centred on putting content at the heart of any communications approach. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Vivian Yeung, general manager

MAXUS SINGAPORE Born in 2008, Maxus says it’s the “only media agency born in the digital age”. With its core philosophy of “lean into change”, Maxus Singapore leaned into change to the new and able leadership of managing director Desh Balakrishnan in August 2014. The agency greatly increased its net profit in a span of one year from 2013 to 2014 and helped clients to get the best from today’s increasingly complex and confusing communications landscape, making it digestible, practical and actionable. In 2014, Maxus saw a significant growth of 31% in its profit-before-tax line as compared to 2013, making the agency one of the fastest growing media agencies. Maxus in the past five years has grown at a speed that is much faster than any new organisation. Even with the setback of losing clients such as Courts and Lion Corp, Maxus won 11 new businesses worth SG$46 million and added prestigious accounts such as Nissan, Subaru, Saxo Capital, Fraser Centrepoint malls, GuocoLand and UPS to its key clientele. UPS, Nikon and SIM are a few of the many key clients Maxus works closely with, with an

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average relationship of at least four to ﬁve years as of 2015. “We are driven and place a huge value on excellence in client service and aim to get ‘10 out of 10’ from our clients,” Balakrishnan said. However, Maxus emphasises greatly on client relationships. “We believe strongly in maintaining positive and healthy ties with them. At Maxus we build deeper relationships between consumers and brands; creating more valued communication for businesses and consumers.” He adds Maxus’ approach to communication – one that delivers new ways for brands to engage consumers – is called relationship media.

This approach is rooted in data and creativity, balancing the principles of CRM and communications planning. It allows the agency to deliver the speed of change and ﬂexibility needed to succeed in today’s fast-moving environment, while setting a long-term vision for brands. Last year, Maxus helped numerous clients navigate through the complex world of media in the form of paid, owned and earned, using different channels to deliver deeper consumer experiences as much as to build presence and awareness. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Desh Balakrishnan, managing director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR THE MEDIA SHOP

Toh and Tang

The Local Hero award in this category goes to The Media Shop. Stepping into its ﬁfth anniversary was indeed a milestone for the agency as it cemented its position in the competitive industry. According to the agency, many of The Media Shop’s clients have also now recognised its differentiating positioning, which includes being independent, a boutique agency and a partner to its clients. Last year, new advertising methods such as programmatic were introduced and picked up by the major players and the agency believes this will beneﬁt the industry as a whole. Instead of viewing programmatic as an alternative to

remove media agencies from the advertising equation, the agency hopes to incorporate it into its services as an enhancement to existing offerings. Meanwhile, the low turnover rate throughout the years has been a bonus for a set-up such as The Media Shop. It showed clients the agency had a strong cohesive team and had developed a conducive environment for the staff to grow in their career. One of the agency’s biggest achievements was the expansion into Oceania with a new ofﬁce in Sydney. Tim Stanford was hired as business manager (Oceania). He has more than 13 years of experience in client service,

new media/innovation and strategic account management under his belt. The agency also made several new hires to strengthen its core team in 2014. Lee Chee Wee came on board as digital director. Lee is a veteran in digital media and has chalked up much experience with established companies. Grace Huang took on the role of marketing manager of North Asia. She has more than 20 years of experience in the ﬁelds of direct marketing, channel marketing, digital marketing and client servicing. Jakarta is still a real possibility for its next venture which will prove to be a strategic move for both its clients and the group. “We are always actively looking out for the right talents for our teams in Singapore, Taiwan and Sydney. We believe in investing in the right talents as people are our strongest and most valuable assets,” Gary Tang and Jessica Toh said. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Jessica Toh, co-founder and regional business director; Gary Tang, co-founder and executive director

CARAT SINGAPORE In 2014, Carat Singapore demonstrated a commitment behind a clear vision that could essentially propel the agency into the big league. Last year, Carat saw a 95% retention rate with many specialist services added. Existing clients include General Motors and OCBC. The agency also saw several new account wins. L’Oréal was its largest account acquisition. Meanwhile, Mondelēz, FrieslandCampina, MasterCard, Microsoft, British Airways, Pontiac

Land and Ministry of Manpower were some of the other major wins. All these accounted for total new business billings of SG$20 million. This year, Allergan Medical Aesthetics appointed Carat for its media planning and buying duties. The appointment covers the Asia Pacific market. Work will be led out of the Carat Singapore regional office, and this is the first time Allergan Medical Aesthetics has appointed a regional media agency. The agency also saw several key hires for

roles such as head of Carat enterprise, head of analytics, head of digital OOH and head of SEO. In 2015, Carat Asia Paciﬁc appointed Adam Bow as regional director for content and digital. Based in Singapore, Bow assists the team in leading content strategy as well as providing innovative solutions for key clients. Owned by: Dentsu Aegis Network Headed by: Rosalynn Tay, CEO for Dentsu Aegis Network Singapore

CITY LIFE ADVERTISING Last year was an outstanding year for City Life Advertising. The agency shifted its business focus towards higher value clients. It also demonstrated its credibility with a strong track-record in account retention, robust billings and growth in advertising spend across several sectors. One key area of growth for City Life was the retail sector. With the rise in the number of suburban retail malls in Singapore, coupled with various mall expansions and an inﬂux in both global and local brands, the overall advertising

expenditure across several platforms increased signiﬁcantly despite the gloomy outlook last year. The property sector was also cautious in its ad spending, primarily due to cooling measures implemented by the government. In spite of the circumstances, the agency’s strong follow-up effort saw it successfully grab media duties of two property developers. It also achieved a milestone when the parent company of the iconic Julie’s Biscuit appointed the agency to launch its ﬁrst ever social movement – “The best of you”.

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Members of the public were encouraged to reﬂect upon their daily lives and share stories that inspired them to be the best of themselves. The movement was launched across several platforms simultaneously over two countries, Singapore and Malaysia, and the response from both countries was overwhelming. Owned by: Independent Headed by: William Tay, MD; Phyllis Chua, executive director; Reemas Chua, strategic planning director

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MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR HAVAS MEDIA SINGAPORE Havas Media had a stellar 2014. From a business perspective, Havas Media Singapore’s operations grew on many fronts. The agency’s billings improved year-on-year by 33% driven by securing large, high-volume quality clients. These included the likes of Emirates, LG, Burger King, Blue Scope, Seagate and major projects from Fraser & Neave, Samsonite, Bausch & Lomb, Skyscanner, POSB and the Standard Chartered Marathon. Profitability also improved two-fold because of astute investments in operational efficiency initiatives, automating several aspects of its operations thus driving productivity up. In addition, the industry has started riding the wave of digital specialisations. According to Melvin Lim, CEO of Havas Media Group for Singapore and Malaysia, clients are now investing more across social, mobile, performance marketing, content and programmatic buying. “We have benefited much from this evolution in the market because we purposefully initiated a ‘digital-at-the-core’ strategy some years ago to develop and nurture deep expertise within these digital specialist services.” The agency has a total of seven divisions all working in-house providing clients with a certain all-roundedness to its offering. This has resonated with the agency’s clients and has led to a significant amount of conversions for the business. Today, the diversity of what Havas Media can bring to the table places the agency in a very strong position to fulfil almost every need a client might have across paid, owned, earned and shared media, the agency claims. Another highlight at the organisational level was a rejuvenation of key staff within the agency, the most high-profile of which was the hiring of Jacqui Lim in the second half of 2014 to be Havas Media’s chief client officer. Other senior hires in APAC included Josh Gallagher who has taken on the role of regional strategy director based out of Singapore. For 2015, a new division will be formalised in the agency called Havas Sports & Entertainment to provide consultancy on sponsorships leveraging and experiential marketing to improve brands’ affinity with their customers through passion points such as sports, music and experiences. Owned by: The Havas Group Headed by: Melvin Lim, CEO, Singapore and Malaysia

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LINS ADVERTISING & MARKETING

MEC SINGAPORE

LINS Advertising & Marketing’s mantra of constantly fostering “win-win” relationships with its clients has seen many of them engaging and running regular successful advertising campaigns with the agency. The agency knows that in today’s competitive advertising landscape, meeting clients’ expectations is no longer sufficient. The agency knows that to survive, its teams need to exceed client expectations. Hence, it is constantly striving to translate this winning mentality and up its ante in all areas of services in both traditional and new media. With its 90-strong staff propelling the agency forward, the team at LINS Advertising & Marketing is by no means oblivious of the challenges and tasks confronting the agency in today’s advertising paradigm. “Advertising today has taken on a completely new meaning and dimension. It is not just about digital media, nor is it something fancy or flowery, or new for the sake of being new. It is all about precise solutions, well thought-out strategies at a cost that will be easy on our clients’ pockets,” said Seow Liang Lin, MD of the agency. With this mentality and work ethic, the agency has often been successful in numerous new business acquisitions, both local and overseas, despite a very competitive operating environment. With its managing director providing stellar leadership, the agency has every reason to be confident for its mid to long-term growth despite a slowing economy. Due diligence, fortitude, gumption, sincerity and a “never say die” attitude will be the values it embraces to reach greater heights together as a cohesive unit. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Seow Liang Lin, managing director

MEC’s commitment to growth, and what it’s as an agency is summed up by the phrase, “Don’t Just Live. Thrive”. “It is about challenging ourselves, always striving to be better, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to help our clients, our people and our industry thrive,” said Sharon Soh, MD of the agency. This enduring commitment has resulted in 2014 being a really strong year for MEC in Singapore, amid plateauing industry growth rates in this market, Soh said. The agency has achieved double-digit growth rates in total billings, annual turnover and net proﬁt. Its business has also diversiﬁed ahead of the market and almost half of its business now comes from digital, content and data/analytics. An area MEC has always been reputed for is its success in building and maintaining longterm partnerships with clients. This is driven very much by the agency’s global ambition to be its clients’ most valued business partner.

2014 proved to be no exception. MEC only had two client departures – Chanel was globally realigned to Mindshare, its sister GroupM agency, and the contract with Sentosa Leisure Management ended in October 2014. In September, following a pitch involving MEC, OMD and Zenith, Daimler AG awarded the Mercedes-Benz media planning and buying business to MEC across eight Asia markets. MEC is the incumbent in Singapore and has held the relationship since 2000. MEC’s overall headcount grew from 89 in 2013 to 100 in 2014. Key highlights of talent growth included building a fourth local client team to manage new accounts such as Abbott and Health Promotion Board, bringing in more senior digital talent from other markets and hiring Antony Yiu as the APAC head of performance. The agency also transferred Jonathan Edwards from its UK ofﬁce locally to head up its data and technology offer in APAC. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Sharon Soh, managing director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR MINDSHARE SINGAPORE In 2014, Mindshare Singapore set out two clear objectives. The first was to build on an “adaptive marketing” strategy and the second was to build a “content marketing” team. As part of Mindshare’s “transformation” agenda, the agency’s first objective was to truly bring its “adaptive marketing” vision to life. The agency invested in building up an experience centre where clients and teams could congregate and see all the data in one place. Without data – be that consumer, media, pricing, behavioural, social, etc – being “adaptive” cannot add value. So in 2014, Mindshare launched “The Loop” – a physical room where clients can make collaborative and adaptive decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing in real-time. The Loop enables clients not only to plan more adaptively and benefit from more collaborative, adaptive decision-making powered by data, it also enables the shift of media spend quickly to leverage opportunities uncovered by real time-data during campaigns. The second objective was to establish a team capable of helping clients tell their brand stories in a compelling way using “content marketing” to complement standard media communications. “Mindshare Discovery” was created to help brands transform from “advertiser” to “publisher” to create more targeted and relevant dialogue with their consumers across any screen. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nick Seckold, managing director

OMD SINGAPORE OMD saw a busy past 12 months. “When we ask our people to describe themselves, they use words such as braver, happier and friendlier. Together, we aspire to be builders, teachers, leaders, explorers and trendsetters. And by putting all these individual traits together, we are stronger,” said Chloe Neo, managing partner of OMD Singapore. Last year marked a year where the agency re-energised itself to be brighter and bolder – fearless challengers who rewrite the rules, deliver solutions like never before, while never forgetting to have fun. With its staff members on the same page, the agency kicked off 2014 with a bang. For Base Entertainment, the agency partnered its clients to showcase musicals Cats, Mamma Mia! and Beauty and the Beast to 50 media partners in an industry first event. It pioneered total communications planning among agency partners by taking on the role of the clients. The quirky tactic led to the agency bagging 13 new clients, including global iconic brands such as Apple, Estée Lauder and Coach. Last year the agency also saw five key clients successfully retained in major pitches, including Hasbro, Carlsberg, Kao, CapitaLand and Workforce Development Agency. The agency also had a 66% increase year-on-year in new billings and significant retained business, including an enlarged global assignment for Hasbro. Owned by: Omnicom Media Group Headed by: Chloe Neo, managing partner

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA Overall, 2014 was a strong year for ZenithOptimedia Singapore with a sturdy increase in year-on-year revenue. The key highlight of its business performance was the significant increases coming from its diversified services, including SEO, analytics, content creation, mobile and web build which are aligned with its vision and objectives. The past 12 months was also a period of significant change for the agency. “Most of these changes were good, some were challenging, but most importantly the agency has made significant strides in making the agency and our clients future-ready through best-in-class planning,” said Adam Hemming, CEO of ZenithOptimedia Singapore. The agency won a host of new

businesses in 2014 across its specialist units (ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Newcast and Ninah). Key wins included ABN AMRO, Singapore Airlines, Marriott, Euro Group, ANZ, Scoot, Reebonz and National Gallery Singapore. ZenithOptimedia successfully retained Singapore Management University through a pitch and extended its contracts with a number of other clients. Aside from L’Oréal and APB which departed the agency after a client realignment, there were no client losses out of its top 30 clients.

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STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP In the past 12 months Starcom MediaVest Group has been actively going to market with its human experience planning framework to combine the science of consumer understanding and the art of experience planning. The agency has won nearly 20 new businesses over the past 12 months and reinforced its foundations with current clients. The agency has been resilient and defended its long-time accounts Samsung and Far East Organization. “We have made a seismic shift in our business. We use to just buy and sell media,” said Patricia Goh, managing director of Starcom MediaVest Group, but more and more clients today are turning to the agency for data and insights to build better brand experiences for their brands. Today it has furthered the conversations with clients in the areas of social inﬂuence, brand activations and performance marketing, ultimately building tangible business results and brand outcomes. Some of the account wins for the agency last year included Sports Singapore, Wing Tai Holdings, Ministry of Communication and Information, PHS Hair Science, Open House, Robinsons, Marks & Spencer, Tiger Beer, Heineken, Courts, Lion, Deutsche bank, ASICS, AirBnB, Zespri International, Avenza, Yun Nam Hair Care and Paseo SEA. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Patricia Goh, managing director, Singapore

After the departure of Jacqui Lim, who was with the agency for ﬁve years, ZenithOptimedia promoted Jason Tan and Helen Lee as head of strategy and head of operations respectively. The agency is committed to retaining its best talents by promoting from within. The agency also found a home in a new ofﬁce. “This was one major investment in our people to ensure the design encouraged people to work collaboratively through an open philosophy, encouraging the “one team, one vision” approach,” Hemming said. Going forward the agency hopes to continue its objective of reshaping its business by creating the best and most innovative planning products in the market. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Adam Hemming, CEO, Singapore

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17/6/2015 4:29:18 PM

PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY OF THE YEAR

WEBER SHANDWICK SINGAPORE This year Weber Shandwick Singapore bags top position in the category. “2014 was the year we reimagined, recreated and hired outside of the box with profoundly positive outcomes for our clients, our people and our culture, and these showed up in our overall ﬁnancial performance,” the agency said. It closed 2014 with a 13% increase in revenue year-on-year (YOY) and also notched a substantive proﬁt increase of 75%. 2014 saw it closing with 23% YOY organic growth from

THE WINNERS GOLD

Weber Shandwick Singapore

73.5%

SILVER

LEWIS PR

70.94%

BRONZE

Golin

70.75%

LOCAL HERO

Rice Communications

56.25%

THE FINALISTS Burson-Marsteller Singapore Edelman Public Relations FleishmanHillard Hill+Knowlton Strategies PR Communications Ruder Finn Touch PR & Events Waggener Edstrom Communications Singapore

existing clients through expanded briefs and new areas of work. It was reappointed after 20 continuous years as the agency of record for MasterCard’s regional hub in a four-way competitive pitch (covering strategic planning, content development and network management across corporate, B2B and B2C for 14 markets), and added new regional hub briefs for ExxonMobil, GMI, Verisign and Spotify. New client revenue grew an equal amount at 23%. This was due largely to investment in talent to sharpen and widen its business offering on the integrated services and expertise fronts, said the agency. It also launched its sports practice with a spectacular win of the highly contested bid for the 28th Southeast Asia Games. In the consumer and lifestyle space, it won Rakuten and helped launch and connect it with foodies and shopaholics. Other key wins included Sanpellegrino and Singapore’s pride, the National Gallery. Other key highlights of its client work were changing the paradigm for prostate cancer treatment by launching Xoﬁgo – the world’s ﬁrstof-its-kind new gold standard treatment – from Singapore for the rest of Asia. Demand outstripped supply by as much as

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40% for Bayer which is championing this gamechanging treatment, according to the agency. Helping MasterCard directly engage with its stakeholders through its “engagement bureau” publishing platform across Asia Paciﬁc, starting March 2014, was another example. Using MasterCard’s research assets to tell the right stories in the right places spurred more people to consume this brand content in new ways. On the talent front, it made several key hires, including the appointment of industry veteran Barkha Patel as senior vice-president of strategy and regional client relationship lead to provide high-level counsel to corporate practice clients. Its content marketing team was beefed up with the hires of ex-BBC journalist Moska Najib as managing editor and digital guru Cristina Álvarez as digital account director. Weber Shandwick’s “engaging, always” promise saw it investing further in 2014 to rapidly enhance and consolidate its integrated engagement and communications powerhouse – under I/O, its content marketing division. Owned by: Interpublic Group Headed by: Vanessa Ho Nikolovski, managing director

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PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY OF THE YEAR LEWIS PR

LEWIS PR bags second spot in the category this year. 2014 was a big year for the agency. It hired its regional management team, boosting the senior team to support its organic and acquired growth and strengthen its infrastructure. SVP Andy Oliver moved from

Singapore to HK to help oversee the integration of the two HK offices (which is now complete) and then the integration with China. VP Scott Pettet moved from Sydney to Singapore to take on a regional role. Gemma Kavanagh in the Sydney office was promoted to MD, Australia. In terms of new hires, it hired an MD for Kuala Lumpur, Miek Gielkens, the former head of LEWIS in Belgium, which is the first MD for that office and an addition to the existing team. It hired a dedicated MD for the Singapore office, Min Chow, former managing consultant of Text 100 in Malaysia, and a strategic finance director for APAC, William Poon, based in HK. It also hired a new head of digital in 2014, Noor Aziz, who replaced Sanjana Chappalli, who left the agency. Also, now that its China integration is well underway, it continues to look for the next acquisition in the region, looking to find another agency in the region that would be a good fit. The board approved two major organic investments in APAC in 2015. First, it plans to expand its operations in India. Second, it will launch its digital marketing arm LEWIS Pulse in China. It also plans to substantially increase its

presence in India this year, opening up offices in Delhi and Mumbai, in addition to its current presence in Bangalore. It is (at the time of writing) recruiting for an MD to be based in Delhi. “Once that MD is hired, we will then build teams in Delhi and Mumbai, to complement our Bangalore operation. We plan to hire 20 people in India in 2015,” the agency said. Plans to build a LEWIS Pulse team in China are also underway. “This is the next phase of our China integration – to make our operation in China a full-service business similar to what is offered throughout the region and globally. We are currently at the research and planning stage, but expect to make an announcement on this initiative by the summer,” the agency said. Earlier in 2014, LEWIS doubled in size in staff numbers and revenue and entered China through its acquisition of EBA Communications. It also increased its wholly owned offices in the region from five to eight. Globally the agency grew by 42%.

deﬁning our journey and achieving our goal will be our commitment to G4 or “specialisms” in that our business will continue to be built organically and in-organically around our four communities: strategists/explorers, creators, catalysts and connectors; a relentless focus on clients and client service; the continued integration of digital in all we do across the communications spectrum and ﬁnally talent – where we want to strive to attract, retain and grow professionals who live our ‘go all in’ attitude every day,” said the agency. Its products and tools and service offerings continue to evolve. Elements such as a

refreshed bright collective – now a community of 400-plus and growing; and a revitalised bridge and brand story are increasingly being deployed across its existing and new client portfolios making a signiﬁcant impact on the quality of work its teams deliver. 2015 will also see the agency launch new offerings such as social selling (from the connector community) and the relevance ﬁngerprint (strategist/explorer community).

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Min Chow, managing director, Singapore

GOLIN The year for Golin was a good one. The firm grew revenue and profits 25% and 40% respectively, with strong talent and client retention numbers as well – both above 80%. “Our singular goal was to raise the bar across the business and we did just that,” the agency said. It also rebranded and became Golin – with an ambition to deliver work for clients that creates change worthy of awe and awards. New account wins included the likes of J&J Vision Care, SNEC, EDB Singapore and Volvo. It also retained 90% of its existing briefs. While it saw the exit of Rachel Noranger and Pamela Das, it appointed Geraldine Kan, executive director of corporate and technology. Moving forward, 2015 is Golin’s 20th anniversary in Singapore. It used this and the fact it is Singapore’s 50th anniversary to launch GOLINSG 2020 – setting a goal to double its size in the next five years. “Even though this means accomplishing in the next five years what we have done in the last 20 – we believe we have a solid foundation and clear strategy to achieve this by 2020. “The four pillars that will be central to

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Owned by: Interpublic Group Headed by: Tarun Deo, managing director, Singapore and SEA

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 9:55:02 AM

PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY OF THE YEAR RICE COMMUNICATIONS The past yyear has been marked by growth, investment and expansion for Rice as it grows into one of Singapore’s leading mid-sized agencies. “We’ve taken a long-term approach to growing the business and invested heavily in people with the skills and experience to help us extend our services and international presence. In 2014, revenue was up 31%, we strengthened our digital communications offerings through a strategic hire, brought on our first full-time graphic designer and opened our first office outside of Singapore in Myanmar,” the agency said. After launching in Myanmar, the agency has plans to open more offices in the region. In total, Rice won 24 new accounts in 2014 and this included a mix of retainers and projects. Total revenue added from new business was SG$570,000. Some notable new clients included Kimberly-Clark, ESET, Turner International, Singapore Motorshow and a major Singapore bank. In addition to the new clients that joined the agency in 2014, it had many clients renew their agreements. Clients such as Inmarsat, the Mobile Marketing Association, and

National Instruments have each been with Rice for upwards of four years. In 2014, Rice’s headcount grew 43% from 16 at the end of 2013 to 23 in December 2014. New hires included account directors, Mansi Maheshwari and Nicholas Leong and graphic designer He Yi Xiong. Major campaigns for the agency include one for Palo Alto Networks, where Rice was responsible for building the corporate proﬁle of Palo Alto in Singapore, Australia, China,

BURSON-MARSTELLER SINGAPORE While it has been a year of transition for the Singapore team at the PR agency, it has managed to balance out its revenue by keeping its key clients and bringing on board new ones. For example, it retained key accounts such as Princess Cruises, Huawei and FrieslandCampina. New clients include the likes of GuocoLand, Frasers Centrepoint, NATS, HAVI, APIYCNA and Meltwater. People-wise, the year saw the return of Allison Lim as regional managing director, public

affairs and government communications for Asia Pacific, to the agency. Based in Singapore, Lim previously served as market leader for Burson-Marsteller from 2007 until 2011, and she will focus on expanding the firm’s public affairs and government business in Singapore and across Southeast Asia. Besides Lim, Genevieve Chow, from the firm’s Hong Kong operations, took on the role of deputy market leader. Eric Lim,

EDELMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS According to the agency, 2014 saw it move itself from a public relations agency into a communications marketing powerhouse. This also saw more than half of its work being focused on developing and launching communications and marketing campaigns for clients in Singapore, Greater Asia, and the rest of the world. Edelman also partnered with several local heroes and brands to enhance Singapore’s proﬁle. It led landmark campaigns for the Sports Hub and Marina Bay Sands, and initiated and inspired national agenda conversations on

sports, youth, tourism, employment and energy. Its year-on-year revenue growth was about 10% and the new business success ratio stood at about 75%. Its transformation led to US$4 million in new business conversions across government services, energy, health, sports, technology and ﬁnancial services. Its work also won four major consumer marketing and technology awards for VMware, Diageo and GSK. It also made several senior appointments, such as Catriona MusprattWilliams, senior vice-president and head of

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India, Taiwan and Korea, both directly and also via in-market PR partners. In 2014, Rice generated more than 800 pieces of tier 1 media coverage for Palo Alto, enhancing the ﬁrm’s share-of-voice via valuable thought leadership opportunities with CNBC, Channel NewsAsia, BBC, The Edge and Bloomberg. In another key campaign, Rice worked with FICO to build thought leadership in the ﬁnancial services sector around the use of analytics. FICO wanted to engage key ASEAN markets from Singapore. Focusing on rising credit card fraud and the un-banked in ASEAN, during the 12 months of 2014 it secured coverage in key regional and national titles such BBC, Channel NewsAsia, Forbes Indonesia, Forbes Thailand, BFM89.9, Manila Bulletin, ABS-CBN, The Bangkok Post and The Nation. In 2014, the agency also added design to its portfolio of services it offers clients. The nature of its work has evolved and increasingly, it has been developing collateral and content for clients that requires the expertise of a designer. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Sonya Madeira, managing partner

director of corporate and brand marketing at FleishmanHillard, also returned to BM’s ranks. Sharon Tan, director of public affairs and government communications, was also appointed. Senior departures included former market leader Barkha Patel who left after a stint of seven months, and Ben Evetts, director of technology. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Allison Lim, regional managing director, public affairs and government communications, Asia Paciﬁc

research; Kim Hoang, from Weber Shandwick Europe, as Edelman Digital’s Southeast Asia managing director; Neil Leslie, from M&C Saatchi, as creative director; John O’Callaghan, from Thomson Reuters, as Edelman Southeast Asia’s director of publishing and partnerships and others. It also created 13 new types of roles to advance Edelman’s digital, strategic planning, research, creative and consumer business capabilities. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Amanda Goh, managing director, Singapore

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PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY OF THE YEAR FLEISHMANHILLARD In 2014, FleishmanHillard continued to implement its “go beyond” strategy of becoming the most complete communications company. Focusing on offering innovative solutions to clients that integrate multiple channels, FleishmanHillard has expanded its strategic integration, planning, digital, social and analytics capabilities in Singapore. In 2014, it produced some campaigns for brands such as the Philips VisaPure product launch, National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, SAP and Trend Micro. In July, Mickie French was appointed general manager of FleishmanHillard Singapore as well as managing director of the strategic integration business across Asia Paciﬁc.

Wunderman veteran Michel Mommejat was also appointed at FleishmanHillard as regional managing director of digital engagement initiatives for Asia Pacific, reporting to Lynne Anne Davis, Asia Pacific president. Among his responsibilities, he will drive the agency’s newly launched content marketing offering in Asia, as regional innovation lead for FH ContentWorks. FH ContentWorks offers clients its content shops, newsrooms, partners and tools in more than 100 markets and is made up of integrated content studios throughout its network. In Asia Pacific, these studios are in motion across Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo, with more to follow, said the company. New projects won included ones from existing clients such as Avaya, Nokia, Philips,

HILL+KNOWLTON STRATEGIES SINGAPORE

According to the agency, the past year has been a time of rejuvenation at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, with the agency picking up a number of regional remits and more integrated communications work. This comes as it expands its capability to include digital communications, and content development, planning and marketing. New wins added to its portfolio of client work include the iconic Singapore Airshow, the World Cities

Summit and most recently, the inaugural Interpol World held just earlier in April. New wins it has won under an integrated communications remit are Nikon regionally, to start a regional multi-platform content development and communications toolkit; LIXIL, to develop a B2B integrated regional communications toolkit and programme implementation; Mundipharma, for the development of its digital ecosystem and content marketing; Motorola Solutions and NTUC Future Leaders Summit. Looking ahead, the agency expects the next 12 months to be a period of growth as it continues in this focus. “More critically, the next 12 months will be about amplifying the lethal

PR COMMUNICATIONS Last year saw the agency pull in an increase of more than 30% in revenue. This was mainly due to new retainer clients, including Chow Tai Fook, Scarlet Hotel, as well as some project clients such as Range Rover, said the agency. Some key campaigns for the year included one for The Scarlet Singapore. The hotel underwent a major refurbishment for a year to reopen in December 2013. The management contracted PR Communications to develop a public relations plan to restore the charm of the establishment, and to put the hotel back in the limelight of its targeted group. The PR programme encompassed press material development, media relations, special events and, more importantly, strategic communications counselling.

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The agency launched the programme with an exclusive opening party, “House Warming”, aimed to reconnect old friends and customers who had left the place for other new hotel destinations, and to make new friends from the current afﬂuent generation. This was the commencement of the hotel’s rejuvenation of its look and feel. One of the key highlights of the house warming was the staging of a unique fashion presentation themed, “The Scarlet Muse,” where renowned stylists and members from publishing houses were invited to present looks inspired by The Scarlet. Although The Scarlet had a limited budget to execute this event, credible interest was accomplished by leveraging the agency’s strong media and inﬂuencer relations, and through the

VMware and the INSEAD Campus Expansion and Leadership Development Centre launch as well as the SAP Southeast Asia and APJ hub expansion. Since French’s appointment, she has been restructuring the agency into one fully integrated agency, with all sectors in one team structure. The core leadership leading this transformation includes Khoo Yin, senior vice-president; Shafaat Hussain, senior vicepresident, partner and managing director for Southeast Asia, as well as Mommejat. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Mickie French, general manager; SVP/senior partner, managing director strategic integration, Asia Paciﬁc

combination of our ‘challenger mentality’ and our integrated communications approach across the different practice areas, which have already yielded results in the last six months. We are looking forward to taking this into the 2.0 phase and the team is raring to go,” the agency said. On the leadership front, it hired former DeVries Asia lead Michelle Tham as managing director of its Singapore operations following the departure of previous lead Jamie Morse. Tham reports to H+K Strategies president and Asia CEO John Morgan. Tham helped set up DeVries’ Asia operations based out of Singapore in 2012. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Michelle Tham, managing director, Singapore

sharing of clever content such as witty invites and sassy images. Within a period of seven months, the hotel’s ranking on TripAdvisor jumped 13 spots from No.42 to No.29. Facebook “likes” also increased by 55%, all of which were achieved organically, and not through advertising. Aside from that, the highlights for the agency in terms of wins were: a retainer to manage Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company’s brand reputation in Southeast Asia; EMS Asia Paciﬁc; Range Rover’s launch; The Club; Gold ATM machine; Joe Labero; One Night At The Rafﬂes; Anthill Realtors; Singapore Tourism Board (Gems Up); Thomas Sabo; and Pocari. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Eric Chan, managing director and Fatoma Alladin, director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 9:56:15 AM

PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY OF THE YEAR RUDER FINN SINGAPORE

Ruder Finn Singapore was one of the fastest growing offices in the Ruder Finn Asia network in 2014. The agency saw an increase in revenue, and profit in 2014 increased by 70% over 2013. It also won more than 50% of the new business pitches it participated in. New clients included Singapore Art Fair, Farrer Park Hospital and Paktor. This was part of significant advances Ruder Finn made to its client base. From just 24 clients in 2010 and 37 in 2013, the firm closed 2014 representing 44 clients, including the major additions of Sanofi Aventis and Shinnyo-en, an increase in clients represented of close to 20% over 2013. Almost 50% of project clients became retainer clients in 2014, including Braun, GrabTaxi and Paktor. Employment statistics also defied industry trends in 2014: Ruder Finn Singapore registered its lowest ever turnover rate at only 6% for professional staff and 11% across all staff. This was a vast improvement on the turnover rate of 69% in 2010 and an industry standard of about 40% a year, according to HR solutions provider Font. The agency also made the key hire of Irene Yong to head the healthcare practice for Southeast Asia. Yong, based in Singapore, is now in charge of growing and championing the region’s healthcare practice in a range of areas, including corporate, ethical and issues management. Yong recently served as associate director at Burson-Marsteller Malaysia. Yu Poh Leng, senior vice-president and general manager at Ruder Finn Singapore, said the sector was seeing the convergence of technology and healthcare, and with it, the potential and opportunities. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Yu Poh Leng, senior vice-president and general manager, Singapore

TOUCH PR & EVENTS Despite a tough year, the agency kept up its relationships with clients such Golden Village Multiplex, ABR Holdings, Bimba Y Lola, while pulling in new business from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Love Bonito, WMF, Givenchy makeup, among others. It also implemented several training and skills upgrading initiatives to build the agency’s capabilities. Apart from sending staff to external trainings, it hired a management consultant for a period of three months to institute processes, operational discipline, develop new strategies and overall boost the company’s productivity and performance. Other improvements in 2014 included moving to a new office with a new modern design aimed at reflecting the corporate culture, as well as encouraging a cohesive work environment. It also hired new vendors for IT and book keeping to ensure the team receives the technical and administrative support to perform their jobs in a streamlined and efficient manner. It also rebranded itself to Touch PR & Events instead of merely Touch Communications. This new rebrand included a new website www.touchpr.asia. People moves included the appointment of senior account executive Coleen Tan and account manager Nina Yusman. Departures included account director Ng Mei Yan and account executive Geoffrey Tan. 2015 also kicked off nicely for the agency as it clinched the AmorePacific Group Singapore account, boosting its portfolio in the beauty industry. It is also the sole PR agency representing the Korean cosmetics firm representing Sulwhasoo, Laneige, innisfree and Etude House. Key campaigns in the year included ones for Henri Charpentier, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Jermyn Street, The Body Shop Christmas event and U Picnic. For Krispy Kreme, the agency was tasked to create buzz around the brand’s fourth store opening at Great World City. Touch PR & Events hosted food and lifestyle media at the new Great World City store to sample limited edition products as well as the festive menu. The agency also started its own Instagram account to offer a more personal look into the running of the firm. The account has grown to 1,000 followers. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Eileen Wee, managing director

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WAGGENER EDSTROM COMMUNICATIONS The past year has been notable for the wide growth of Waggener Edstrom (WE) Singapore. This was not only for its client portfolio, but also in terms of the sophistication of its work, said the agency. It continued to diversify, adding clients such as Zalora to the consumer portfolio and clients such as Temasek to the corporate portfolio, signalling a shift from the technology heritage that WE has long been known for. The addition of talent in the form of ex copywriters, planners and digital marketers also contributed to the evolution towards being a full-service agency. Key highlights for the agency were things such as the support for adidas’ real-time influence marketing campaign; promotional support for Esplanade on the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall; media relations support for Fuji Xerox; integrated communications support for Hootsuite; PR for the Singapore Memory Project from the National Library Board; PR support for the RSA Conference; integrated communications support for Sony PlayStation and Zalora. Hires included Ahjay Rai, account director; Sarah Tan, digital account manager; Rachel Cheong, senior digital consultant; Rachel Tan, graphic designer. Departures included Dan Benelisha, VP of regional technology practice, and Angela Lau, account director. “WE Singapore plans to continue our forward momentum of growth and constant reinvention,” the agency said. “We are taking definitive strides toward firming up our Southeast Asia (SEA) presence and strengthening our footprint in the region, with the sustained goal of being the go-to trusted communications partner to our current and potential global, regional and local clients. “Our strong SEA network is well poised to support our clients’ communications objectives across key APAC markets.” One campaign it did this year was to work with the Singapore Memory Project to design a campaign reaching out to both influencers and media. The campaign delivered a 300% yearon-year increase in publicity for the project, and multiple social media mentions from influencers spanning the music, culinary, literary and arts industries. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Melissa Waggener Zorkin and Pam Edstrom, founders

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24/10/2014 17:01

EVENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

PICO ART INTERNATIONAL It has been almost half a century since Pico began work as a humble exhibition stand builder. Pico managed to score double-digit growth in 2014 turnover compared with the previous year, despite a slowdown in the growth of Singapore’s economy. In today’s rapidly changing world, engagement is key. More than ever, Pico’s clients – from corporations to government agencies to show organisers – need innovative solutions to deliver upon their objectives. Total brand activation is about delivering truly effective and integrated end-to-end solutions which generate compelling moments that connect brands with audiences to form deep and lasting relationships. “We would like to extend our sincere gratitude

THE WINNERS GOLD

Pico Art International

SILVER

Mercury Events

64.9%

BRONZE

Kingsmen Ooh-media

64.75%

LOCAL HERO

Pico Art International

72.25%

THE FINALISTS Edelman Public Relations LEWIS PR Single Point of Contact The Event Company The Events Artery Tricom Events

72.25%

to all our clients; many of which have walked this path of continuous innovation together with us for almost a decade or more, as well as a warm welcome to our new clients,” the company said. One of its insightful brand activations was the i Light Marina Bay, Asia’s only sustainable light art festival. It dazzled festival goers with stunning art installations made with recycled materials and using energy efﬁcient lighting technologies, which promoted environmentally responsible behaviour for a sustainable future. Pico developed this event to evoke a higher level interest of involvement from the community through complementary events and activities that brought the whole bay to life for three weeks. Overall, i Light Marina Bay 2014 was a huge success, attracting some 685,000 visitors – a 20% increase from 2012 and the highest number the festival has ever seen. Another inspiring activation was for Singapore Airlines at the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, which sought to maximise its brand equity as the new title owner through a major branded event – Light Up The Night Carnival. Pico proved a worthy agency through a winning strategy via a strong experience with the race event, more access to the racing site for event spaces and, most importantly, a suite of “best of breed partners” that brought about a truly branding engagement event. Pico’s total brand activation services also extended to Singapore Airlines’ activation

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through the SIA race village at Padang, the hospitality tent and the Paddock Club suite during the actual race. Besides major event activations for the National Day Parade, Singapore Day 2014 London and the HSBC Women’s Champions tournament, Pico was proud to also have played a part in history through activating the ﬁrst-ever event at the Singapore Sports Hub – the World Club 10s Rugby tournament. The tournament, featuring top professional club rugby teams from around the world became the kick-off event for this impressive venue. Pico created the VIP hospitality areas, pitch-side benches, pitch-level advertising hoardings, the fan village as well as the hospitality and ofﬁcial merchandise areas. 2014 also marked the launch of “Pico global care in action” – the new theme of its CSR commitment which is also part of Pico’s vision 2020 mission. Pico established Leverage Design Pte Ltd, a creative studio dedicated to providing the disadvantaged with training and employment opportunities in the MICE industry. It employed a number of programme participants as designers and was later invited to speak at Social Collab 2014 – an ASEAN forum on social entrepreneurship. Owned by: Pico Far East Holdings Headed by: Jean Chia, managing director, Singapore

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EVENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR MERCURY EVENTS

The past 12 months has been an exciting journey for the agency. The team was busy with back-to-back events – locally and regionally. It has been a year where it won many exciting accounts such as the Jewellery Time 2014 by Cortina Watch, Cartier Singapore Shape Your Time Exhibition, the Jaguar F-Type Coupe launch, the Jaguar C-X17 launch, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class launch and the Tiffany

& Co Regional Gala 2014. For Cortina, the grand Collector’s Mansion was conceptualised to capture the maximum exposure from the media and public, with its grandeur and outof-the-box approach to build “a house within a house”. The idea was to create a span that was grand, yet inviting for everyone within the shopping district area. To further capitalise on the event, the team worked with Mercury

Creative to launch a full creative campaign. To ensure that not only shoppers in Paragon were aware of the event, there were media placements inside and outside the mall, pillar wraps advertising the event and banners outside of Paragon. Overall, the event was a greater success than expected. The grand Collector’s Mansion attracted/captured more footfall and trafﬁc compared with the exhibition in the previous years. Both the set-up and event also generated a great deal of media publicity. People seeing the illustrated drawing of the mansion coming to life was not something they could have imagined, but were glad to experience. Finally, Cortina Watch decided to extend the exhibition for another day to allow more of the public to visit the exhibitions as well as those who were unable to make it before. The agency also hired a new general manager, Ingrid How. For the next 12 months, the company is looking at securing even more pitches from both return and new clients. Owned by: Mercury Marketing and Communications Headed by: Jeremy Tan, managing director

KINGSMEN OOH-MEDIA Despite being a small division within the Kingsmen group with only 27 staff, Kingsmen Ooh-Media pulled an impressive business performance in the past year. It worked on the high-profile inaugural BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, UOB Painting of the Year 2014, Health Promotion Board, Singapore Power and Heineken Asia Pacific, among others. “Be it a mega lifestyle show, international sports event, targeted roadshow or a retail pop-up store, above are just examples of our extensive portfolio, which illustrates our commitment to a design-led approach for delivering unique customer experiences for our clients,” the company says. For BMW World, it organised a four-day ticketed event spanning 6000 sqm at Marina Bay Sands, aimed at elevating the brand by creating multi-faceted customer experiences. Several themed zones were created, enabling customers to explore different aspects of BMW brand stories – from efficient dynamics to luxury and the future of mobility. Activities were curated for all ages – augmented reality entertained visitors, there were indoor test

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drives, a baby race drew huge crowds, bike stunts captured attention, and the BMW i3 cars hummed quietly around the venue with their electric engines. A record turnout of 38,000 visitors exceeded the targeted attendance by 34% with sales ﬁgures greatly exceeding the client’s expectations. In tandem with the 10-day inaugural BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, a special WTA fan zone packed with entertainment-ﬁlled activities for the public was meticulously designed and produced to create excitement. Central to the vision of transforming the event into a premium compelling sports entertainment experience, the fan zone was created at the Singapore Sports Hub with 19 game booths to engage tennis enthusiasts with highly interactive activities such as a speed serve game, a larger-than-life social media wall application that shared live feeds, and a media zone where fans got to meet their favourite tennis stars. The inaugural event was a phenomenal success with more than 129,000 attendees and

was hailed the best overall show in the history of the WTA. People-wise, it developed a robust staff development programme that spanned a wide range of areas, including effective business writing, a Kingsmen’s service differentiation workshop and ﬁnance for non-ﬁnancial staff to ensure staff were equipped with the necessary skills to heighten their career progression. “We constantly explore the latest in interactive, social and out-of-home media to introduce effective marketing ideas for different audiences. From ideation, conceptualisation and design to project management for events, we activate brands and create links to engage customers,” the company said. Owned by: Kingsmen group Headed by: Danny Lim, managing director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 9:52:43 AM

EVENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR EDELMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS

LEWIS PR

According to Edelman, 2014 saw the agency move itself from a public relations agency into a communications marketing powerhouse. This also saw more than half of its work being focused on developing and launching communications and marketing campaigns for clients in Singapore, Greater Asia and the rest of the world. Edelman also partnered with several local heroes and brands to enhance Singapore’s proﬁle. It led landmark campaigns for Sports Hub and Marina Bay Sands, and initiated and inspired national agenda conversations on sports, youth, tourism, employment and energy. Edelman Singapore’s year-on-year revenue growth was about 10% and it had a new business success ratio of about 75%. Its transformation led to US$4 million in new business conversions across government services, energy, health, sports, technology and ﬁnancial services. Its work also won four major consumer marketing and technology awards for VMware, Diageo and GSK. For example, Diageo received the World Luxury Award Gold Trophy in Monaco and Asia PR Week Awards’ win for Consumer Launch of the Year. It also made several senior appointments, such as Catriona Muspratt-Williams as senior vice-president and head of research; Kim Hoang, from Weber Shandwick Europe, as Edelman Digital’s Southeast Asia managing director; Neil Leslie, from M&C Saatchi, as creative director; John O’Callaghan, from Thomson Reuters, as Edelman’s Southeast Asia director of publishing and partnerships; and Heidi Eusebio, from Edelman Germany, as Edelman’s Southeast Asia managing director for consumer brand. It also created 13 new types of roles to advance Edelman’s digital, strategic planning, research, creative and consumer business capabilities. Through additional new hires and training it also increased its specialisation in protection and cyber security, wellness and nutrition and biotechnology. New services and products it ramped up included its creative capabilities by building a team of creative directors, strategy directors, producers, designers, artists and writers. It also created a custom “newsroom” approach to help clients monitor and participate in real-time traditional and digital media and consumer conversations.

Lewis PR is a finalist in the Event Marketing category this year. 2014 was a big year for the agency. It hired its regional management team, boosting the senior team to support its organic and acquired growth and strengthen its infrastructure. SVP Andy Oliver moved from Singapore to HK to help oversee the integration of the two HK offices (which is now complete) and then the integration with China. VP Scott Pettet moved from Sydney to Singapore to take on a regional role. Gemma Kavanagh in the Sydney office was promoted to MD for Australia. In terms of new hires, it hired an MD for Kuala Lumpur, Miek Gielkens, the former head of Lewis in Belgium, which is the first MD for that office and an addition to the existing team. It hired a dedicated MD for the Singapore office, Min Chow, former managing consultant of Text 100 in Malaysia; and a strategic finance director for APAC, William Poon, based in HK. It also hired a new head of digital in 2014, Noor Aziz, who replaced Sanjana Chappalli, who left the agency. Now that its China integration is well underway, it continues to look for the next acquisition in the region, looking to find another agency in the region that would be a good fit. The board approved two major organic investments in APAC in 2015. First, it plans to expand its operations in India. Second, it will launch its digital marketing arm Lewis Pulse in China. It also plans to substantially increase its presence in India this year, opening up offices in Delhi and Mumbai, in addition to its presence in Bangalore. It is (at time of writing) recruiting for an MD to be based in Delhi. “Once that MD is hired, we will then build teams in Delhi and Mumbai to complement our Bangalore operation. We plan to hire 20 people in India in 2015,” said the agency. Plans to build a Lewis Pulse team in China are also underway. “This is the next phase of our China integration, to make our operation in China a full-service business similar to what is offered throughout the region and globally. We are currently at the research and planning stage, but expect to make an announcement on this initiative by the summer,” the agency said. Earlier, in 2014 Lewis doubled in size in staff numbers and revenue and entered China through its acquisition of EBA Communications.

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Amanda Goh, managing director, Singapore

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Min Chow, managing director, Singapore

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SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT

Tan and Lee

2014 was a meaningful year for the agency as it celebrated its 10th year anniversary. The past decade has been spent strengthening the foundation of the agency and building up a portfolio of clients. It recognises that staff play an important role in helping to build this agency to what it is today. Many of its staff started their careers in this industry with the agency, and are still with the company today. A clear career path progression and an orientation programme for new hires helps keep staff attrition low. It also believes in grooming young talent. Each year, the company recruits about 10 interns from various local universities, and believes they not only bring a fresh perspective, but also inject energy, dynamism and creativity to the team. “Despite our rapid growth, the company remains close-knit and our senior management has remained largely the same which aids continuity within the company,” it says. In the past 12 months, it set up the Singapore Food & Beverage Alliance to focus on F&B related projects such as the Singapore Food Festival. It also developed its own customer relationship management software known as “Bertie”. It integrates the customer database with an SMS system and web platform to facilitate activations and it expanded the logistics team with new vehicles and invested in new audio and visual equipment. Some examples of its major projects include “Families for Life Celebrations”, “Singapore Food Festival”, “Singtel Hawker Heroes”, “Dairy Farm SG” and “UOB Gamiﬁcation.” Owned by: Independent Headed by: Daniel Tan and Luke Lee, founders

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18/6/2015 9:51:27 AM

EVENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR THE EVENT COMPANY

The Event Company has been at the heart of the best and most successful corporate, government and special event projects executed in Singapore and across the Asia Paciﬁc region for more than 20 years.

expectations time and again, ensures its ongoing success and its leadership position in the event industry in Singapore and Asia Paciﬁc, it says. The Event Company is part of the Australian-based Staging Connections Group, which is famous for its leadership in event and staging services over the past 25 years. Its close working relationship with Staging Connections Group provides it with access to 750 event professionals and a strong global network of event resources in more than 100 locations worldwide.

It prides itself on creating, planning, organising and executing truly exceptional experiences for all its clients. Its planning expertise, attention to detail and ability to meet and exceed clients’

Owned by: Staging Connections Group Headed by: Ian Terry, managing director

THE EVENTS ARTERY 2014 was a good year for The Events Artery. Its blend of creativity and strategy, combined with a client-centric ethos, saw the team acquiring new account wins such as DBS Bank, Philip Morris and Allergan. It also maintained strong client retention with 75% of its clients increasing budget and expanding their experiential scope of work with the company. Bayer Healthcare continued to entrust the launch of its medical products to various segments of the medical community to The Events Artery. It was also a key partner to the Health Promotion Board in a year-long national campaign to promote health in the workplace. The campaign targeted four business

clusters with a combined audience size of 48,000 people. Its partner network across the region has allowed the events company to create experiences for clients such as Microsoft and Allergan in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. It also moved into larger premises, reorganised the team structure and kick-started team initiatives to grow the passion and motivation within staff. Some of its project highlights included DBS Bank’s I Remember Broadway – a celebration dinner for 7000 of its greatest asset – its people. DBS commissioned it to produce a full scale musical production over 16 short weeks. It also worked on Microsoft’s Asia Partner

Summit, Platinum Partner Summit and APAC Retailer Summit 2014. Its work for Microsoft has grown as it continues to work with its Microsoft Dynamics and APAC divisions to connect to partners globally. Through the conference secretariat, sponsorship marketing and strategic event programming expertise, it helped various Microsoft divisions create experiential platforms to forge new partnerships and drive leads into their sales pipeline. It also produced DiverseCity 2014 for the Singapore International Foundation, featuring 187 collaborative, multidisciplinary projects from 130 artists and presented in more than 40 countries. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Wai Mayleng, founder

TRICOM EVENTS

There is an increasingly competitive landscape in the MICE industry and for Tricom Events 2014 saw continuous growth and robust performance across all sectors of data analytics, with a 20% increase year-on-year on average billables. This was achieved by providing a broader base of services to clients, in addition to

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value-adding to the current suite of services – including content development, greater use of technology and production of digital content and visualisations. Additionally, 15% of business events took place in collaboration with clients that ventured to the Asia Paciﬁc and CEMEA regions, further adding to the company’s revenue and increasing its reach. Two account wins stood out as particularly rewarding for the events company, namely Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2014 and ExxonMobil’s 120th anniversary in Singapore. SIEW 2014 followed a competitive pitching process. Held over multiple ﬂoors at Marina Bay Sands, the event attracted more than 10,000 delegates from 60 countries. To commemorate ExxonMobil’s 120th

year in Singapore, a series of events were held in 2014, in particular, the opening of its new chemical plant expansion in Jurong Island, as well as a celebratory dinner. In close collaboration with ExxonMobil, Tricom began work on this project 15 months before the event date, with every little contingency explored, measured and rehearsed to ensure a holistic and seamless experience for all guests. In an industry commonly associated with high staff turnovers, Tricom drew immense satisfaction from ending 2014 with all, but one staff from the preceding year, still on the roster. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Dylan Sharma, Janice Swee, David Thomas, directors and founders

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 10:01:52 AM

CRM & LOYALTY MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

CPR VISION MANAGEMENT Bagging tthe gold award for CRM & Loyalty Marketing is CPR Vision Management. According to the agency, the past 12 months have been an extremely exciting time, given the dynamic and shifting landscape of the industry. As a result of its set up and infrastructure, the agency is able to respond to the market and client demands a lot faster than a traditional agency model, the agency said. It boasts a unique blend of creative, services and technology which are all equally as strong – including products that it owns, manages and controls.

THE WINNERS GOLD

CPR Vision Management

77.5%

SILVER

MRM//McCann Singapore

71.25%

BRONZE

Ascentis

67.5%

LOCAL HERO

Ascentis

67.5%

THE FINALISTS AIMIA Digital Alchemy Edenred Singapore ICLP Leo Burnett / Arc Worldwide Memberson Perx POSSIBLE Worldwide

As a result, this ensures its clients get exactly what they want at a competitive market rate as opposed to having to settle for off-theshelf services or being resold platforms that are inﬂexible and often clunky. According to the agency, for organisations that are struggling to turn data into insights and insights into revenue the future will continue to be bleak. The agency’s strength has always centred around data – helping clients capture, consolidate, understand and leverage the power of data to help grow their business. Some recent account wins included Ascott International, where the agency was tasked to handle its global CRM, marketing automation and business insights platform; L’Oréal’s luxury division Thailand, where it handles the brand’s CRM and loyalty; Ekornes Southeast Asia, where it handles CRM and digital; Daimler, where CPR Vision is tasked to handle its creative and digital accounts; SilverNeedle Hospitality Asia Paciﬁc where CPR Vision handles it CRM, loyalty and marketing automation/business insights platform and others. On the people front, Aloysius Choong took on a new remit to his current COO position as the business unit head director for CPR Vision. Other changes include Marcus Chin – joining a new division within the company as the

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product and digital director for special projects; and Roy Aldwin Dumaguin – heading up the creative director position for CPR while helping spearhead the fast growing special projects division of CPR Vision. There have been several other new appointments and promotions within the company. The agency has also established a new offshore development centre (ODC) recently in Indonesia. This will continue to help support the agency’s growth regionally and support the current business operations, the agency said. Due to a continuing labour crunch in Singapore, its ODC has also helped it continue to expand while also reducing its operating costs. CPR is part of STW which owns a minority shareholding. The company is still majority owned and operated by the founders and no changes are expected. The agency has three new innovative and exciting products under the technology arm of its business that touches the digital, e-commerce and CRM space and its creative team continues to grow and with that its growth and expansion, the agency said. Owned by: STW Network Headed by: Cameron Richards, CEO and managing partner

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18/6/2015 10:01:43 AM

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CRM & LOYALTY MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR MRM//MCCANN SINGAPORE

The silver winner for this year’s CRM & Loyalty Marketing Agency of the Year is MRM// McCann. According to the agency, 2014 marked its best performing year in its 12-year history in Singapore with 11 new clients wins and 21 local, regional and global awards. New business efforts for the agency centred around three rapidly growing industry verticals – technology, business-to-business and healthcare. This focus helped net the agency a total of 11 new client relationships, with a pitch conversion rate of 73%, the agency said. New clients included the likes of Cisco, Microsoft, Mundipharma, Menarini, General Motors,

National Gallery of Singapore and Hershey. New hires included customer experience strategist, Verónica Algaba, who joined from Spain; Malaysian-born, Adrian Tee, who was hired to lead the rapidly expanding technology team; Emil Löwnander, arrived to head up the analytics practice; and Indian-born and leading talent professional, Rachna Nazir, was lured from consultancy ﬁrm, Frost & Sullivan, to head up the HR department. Furthermore, a series of HR initiatives helped keep staff turnover in the year to just 3%, the lowest rate across its parent company in Asia, the agency said. In the ﬁrst few months of 2015, the agency has already secured two new clients, and is set to welcome 15 new digital and data-driven marketing professionals to the team. This talent includes three senior practice leads to head up new capabilities in three dynamic growth areas: social CRM, marketing automation and media planning and buying. For its work for The Singapore Red Cross, the agency’s solution was the Red Cross Connection, an always-on, cost-effective crowdsourcing mobile application and associated relationship marketing programme,

which reaches out to youths whenever a particular blood type is needed. With more than 14,000 users and 41,500 social media followers, the application has proven to be a success helping to generate a double-digit growth increase in the donor base. Some of the new additions and offerings by the agency included MRM Insights and MRM //Works. To drive a more robust and codified approach to customer experience and CRM strategy, the agency designed, developed and rolled out of a suite of seven diagnostic products. One such tool in the suite – the digital soundboard – exemplifies the level of innovation involved. Drawing on more than 50 different data points, the soundboard provides clients with a detailed evaluation of a brand’s digital footprint, the agency said. The agency also implemented a highly scalable delivery management platform called MRM//Works. The platform integrates five best-in-class third-party tools to streamline all stages of the agency value chain from resource allocation to creative workflow. Owned by: IPG Headed by: Nick Handel, managing director

ASCENTIS Winning both the bronze and Local Hero awards in this category is Ascentis. 2014 was as busy as the previous years for the Ascentis team. Amid the busy schedule, one of the key highlights of the year was the relocation of its ofﬁce to one which was twice the size of the current one. This was in view of the expected growth in the agency’s team size. Seven new staff joined Ascentis in 2014. According to the agency, it has been busy striking partnerships with Channel Partners who will become the reseller of AscentisCRM. This tie-up will see the two companies working on collaborations, joint development and enhancing the product roadmap of the agency’s solutions. Perhaps, the biggest breakthrough for the agency this year was the introduction of Ascentis’ eStore tool which allows businesses to manage their eStores. The eStore solution is integrated with its rewards and campaigns features in the CRM. According to the agency, businesses can now look forward to an omnichannel integrated solution from Ascentis. In the past year, the agency set up a new department – managed services (CRM, digital

and analytics) with the aim of providing more value-added services to manage, plan and strategise marketing campaigns for its clients. Some of its new accounts included Select Group, Crystal Jade, Starbucks, Muji Malaysia, BHG and O’Coffee Club. Ascentis is optimistic about the next 12 months with projects already lined up until November 2015. Some interesting new accounts are already in the works, said the agency. It is also expanding its team in the Philippines to support more creative work

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required from its clients. The agency has also been servicing its existing clients’ needs for greater real-time rewards solutions. Moving forward, Ascentis will be launching a mobile loyalty app and a new advanced EDM analytics engine at the end of this year. In addition, its CRM solution, the AscentisCRM 2.0, will also undergo a facelift and will be revealed early next year. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Bryan Tan, chief operations ofﬁcer

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CRM & LOYALTY MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR AIMIA This past year has seen Aimia continue to partner with groups of companies (coalitions) and individual companies to help generate, collect and analyse customer data and build actionable insights. Most recently, the agency boasted nearly 4,000 employees spanning 20 countries. Previously known as Groupe Aeroplan, Aimia with its new name, aims to be modern and distinctive in order to resonate in many languages, the agency said. While the names and brand identities of consumer-facing brands Aeroplan, Nectar (Italy and the UK) and Air Miles Middle East remain unchanged, business-tobusiness brands LMG Insight & Communication and Carlson Marketing now operate under the

DIGITAL ALCHEMY

name Aimia: One single global brand reflecting its position as a global leader in building longterm profitable relationships between brands and their customers. According to the agency, the creation of Aimia was inspired by palindromes – words that read the same backwards and forwards – as they give the sense of two-way conversations. There is a dialogue and movement within the name itself. It alludes to pinpoint precision – where two aims cross over. Whether it’s the sweet spot where the needs of clients and the wants of consumers overlap or the insight garnered from two different vantage points, its name reflects this. AIMIA continues to provide clients

EDENRED SINGAPORE

with the customer insights they need to make smarter business decisions and build relevant, rewarding and long-term one-to-one relationships, evolving the value exchange to the mutual beneﬁt of both its clients and consumers, the agency said. Some key clients include Aeroplan, Air Miles Middle East, Cardlytics, China Rewards, Club Premier, Nectar UK and Smart Button. Moving forward, the agency aims to work towards its vision of becoming the recognised global leader in loyalty management. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Karl Schuster, president, proprietary loyalty, Aimia, Asia Paciﬁc

ICLP

Digital Alchemy continues to provide strategic relationship marketing to its clients. According to the agency, a successful customer strategy calls for experience and in-depth knowledge of relationship marketing as well as efficient processes and the right technology. From its experience, it believes that customer strategies contribute to higher customer satisfaction, longer tenure and lower churn rates, reflecting heightened customer experiences and stronger relationships. It provides a suite of services for its clients, including strategic marketing, customer analytics, campaign management and data management. For its strategic marketing work, Digital Alchemy utilises customer life cycle management (CLM), which is a framework developed to nurture ongoing customer relationships throughout the life cycle. It is about handling and fulfilling every customer interaction across all touch-points, the agency said. Digital Alchemy’s proprietary CLM framework has been developed based on its experience in working with an extensive range of industries. It has designed CLM solutions for telecommunications, banking, insurance and others, and this in-depth experience is used as the building block to jump-start a project. The CLM solution aims to identify the gaps in marketing activities, understand what necessary actions are missing from current programmes and shift the focus to improve the relationship with customers and achieve business objectives.

For Edenred, 2014 brought several new business opportunities in the FMCG, technology and services industries. Attracting new clients and increasing market share was in line with its growth strategy for the year, said the agency. It introduced loyalty and relationship marketing programmes for new clients and industries. These solutions were integrated with a variety of technologies such as barcodes, QR codes, mobile apps and data analytics. This has not only provided clients with the ability to maintain market leadership, but also manage programmes which are simple and cost-effective. Edenred continued to strengthen its presence in the SEA market with new clients as well as expanding its engagement with existing clients with several successful innovative campaigns, said the agency. It continued to be in touch with the market through interaction with its customers and prospective clients. It is keen on participating in discussions with industry associations to remain aligned to the market evolution. For the agency, understanding the needs and creating a sustainable competitive advantage for its customers was the key goal of 2014. Organisationally, it had several new hires to expand its capacity to handle regional programmes. Key accounts included JT International, Seagate, Cisco, Samsung Gyro, Nielsen, Eau Thermale Avène and HP.

For more than 25 years, ICLP has helped clients on the journey from acquiring customers to transforming them into advocates through loyalty programmes. The agency is committed to using new insights that create loyalty and deliver business results. According to the agency, it is dedicated to driving customer devotion. The agency prides itself on a strategy based on the tenet that every business needs to determine the right marketing and loyalty strategy. ICLP steps in when a business is unable to grasp the steps and strategy needed to evaluate and develop a loyalty strategy, the agency said. It is keen to explore and evaluate how to make a brand’s customers feel more valued at every opportunity. ICLP boasts its technology creates rewarding and proﬁtable customer relationships by using its platforms and solutions to allow customers to engage, earn and spend points how they want to. Working with clients globally and locally, its portfolio includes, but is not limited to, Harrods, Saudi Arabian Airlines, DHL, InterContinental Hotels Group and Virgin Australia. According to the agency, the right loyalty platform rewards and engages the customers, and it plans to continue delivering business results through this.

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Regan Yan, managing director

Owned by: Independent Headed by: JB Ray, managing director

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Bruno Tay, country manager

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MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 10:00:50 AM

CRM & LOYALTY MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR LEO BURNETT SINGAPORE Leo Burnett experienced continued success in 2014, the agency said. Its priority focus was first growing its existing clientele, then new businesses. It also re-established the SK-II brand for its P&G clients by launching the global movement of #changedestiny. Leo Burnett also won the digital business on FrieslandCampina, launching a new website and mobile app across the region. It boosted its social offerings by activating social campaigns and content management for its clients. The agency won the Allergan business regionally, and is now responsible for bringing to life the brand’s first direct-to-consumer marketing communications throughout Asia Pacific. On top of that, it also won new business from Skyscanner, Lazada and GEMS World Academy. The agency executed the “Anywhere and Everywhere” campaign for Skyscanner to provide instant online comparisons for flights. It was tasked to build brand awareness and drive the trial of Skyscanner in Singapore. Its strategy was to introduce Skyscanner as a leading global travel search website, providing instant online comparisons for millions of flights on more than a thousand airlines by getting consumers to bring spontaneity and discovery back into the travel planning process. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Rebecca Ang, general manager; Nigel Tribe, head of strategy; Chris Chiu, chief creative officer

MEMBERSON

PERX

Memberson’s new and existing clients (multi brand merchants, shopping mall operators, department stores, franchise organisations) have experienced a very exciting past 12 months where new modules such as the new Reaktor automation platform, ShopperSocial and ShopperEngage products extended loyalty programmes and engagement from the physical store to social, e-commerce and other online and offline channels. Marketing and loyalty agencies continued to use and recommend the Memberson Reaktor platform making loyalty programmes, membership and marketing initiatives successful. The reliability, scalability and flexibility that come with the Memberson proprietary omni-channel technology lets clients and agencies focus on the business strategy rather than technology, the agency said. Memberson grew both financially and operationally into new markets adding to years of consecutive growth and profitability. New Memberson clients included large brands, retail chains and other consumerserving organisations globally. It has added a new R&D centre which resulted in a 30% R&D staff growth. Last year it had several new product additions to the Memberson Reaktor platform and ShopperCRM product series. ShopperSocial integrates ShopperCRM with social engagement and enables the social element everywhere, including analytics, campaign targeting and loyalty.

This past year Perx continued to partner with various brands to set up loyalty programmes that enables customers to keep track of their loyalty cards, chops, and rewards on their mobile device. One of its key clients eager to engage its customers through Perx was FNA Group International which chose Perx for The Cocoa Trees’ first mobile marketing and loyalty programme. The strategic partnership aims to encourage dynamic customer interaction and enrich the chocolate-buying experience at The Cocoa Trees. The confectionery carries more than 60 international brands, including Hershey’s, M&M’s, Ferrero Rocher and Toblerone. Recently, EZ-Link chose Maiplay, publisher of Perx, the leading mobile marketing and loyalty platform in Asia, for its first transit rewards programme – the EZ-Link Rewards Scheme with Perx. The programme aims to reward users for using the EZ-link card for travel on public buses and trains. Anna Gong, chief executive officer of Maiplay, parent company of Perx, said: “Our partnership with EZ-Link demonstrates Perx’s capacity to deliver value and enhance customer experience to more than just merchants across Asia.” According to Gong, this transit rewards programme with EZ-Link enables Perx to expand its network and user base by offering a unique digital and fun experience to all EZ-link card members.

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Mika Siirtola, managing director

Owned by: Maiplay Headed by: Anna Gong, chief executive ofﬁcer

POSSIBLE WORLDWIDE

Soon

With more than 25 ofﬁces spanning ﬁve continents, POSSIBLE boasts some of the best creative minds on the planet. Some of its key clients over the years have included global brands such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.

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The agency works together in a cross-office collaboration that spans the globe to produce results-driven work. The suite of services it provides remains varied – they include strategic planning, e-commerce technology, analytics optimisation, technology solutions, social strategy, search capabilities, user experience development and content development. POSSIBLE tailors itself to the five marketing sciences established by the agency. Two of which include customer relationship management and data analysis. According to the agency, it leverages technology, systems and processes that bring together data and information from all sources within an organisation. This is to help clients better address each customer’s specific need.

It also prides itself in not just making data understandable, but providing analysis that spurs meaningful action. “Our teams collect, manage and report across multiple data sources. We have agency relationships with measurement vendors in the industry, and it boasts a team of analysts who are certiﬁed across a breadth of enterprise platforms,” it says. Moving forward, the agency believes brands should focus on providing real value for CRM to work. Delivering a great experience and data-informed consumer interactions are key to building lasting relationships, the agency said. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Paul Soon, CEO, APAC

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 10:00:36 AM

DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

TBWA\ DIGITAL ARTS NETWORK Bagging tthe top award in this category this year is TBWA\ Digital Arts Network. 2014 was focused on building its capabilities across various marketing expertise, but more importantly, the commitment towards fostering collaboration through insights and ideas rather than corporate structures. The agency launched TBWA\Media Arts Lab, a specialist social media unit for MasterCard (The Priceless Engine), and integrated Tequila, Integer, Auditore and TPR to

THE WINNERS GOLD

TBWA\ Digital Arts Network Singapore

80.69%

SILVER

Tribal Worldwide Singapore

80.38%

BRONZE

ZenithOptimedia

78.94%

LOCAL HERO

Activa Media

71.88%

THE FINALISTS Carbon Interactive Germs Digital Isobar Singapore Maxus Singapore Mindshare Singapore Mirum POSSIBLE Worldwide Publicis Singapore

allow for more customised services catered to its clients’ speciﬁc needs. Its ability to integrate with client needs across specialist departments and deliver relevant solutions has resulted in better client retention and numerous business wins. Global clients Standard Chartered and Singapore Airlines have been with the agency for more than 10 and seven years respectively, and the average tenure of its top clients is more than ﬁve years. The agency also welcomed new regional clients such as airbnb, Caltex, Country Group Development, Mondelēz and Mastercard. Together with MasterCard, DAN launched the Priceless Engine – a new innovative marketing platform that allows MasterCard to provide its bank and merchant partners with deep and relevant insights that will help them cut through the clutter and deliver the right inspiring content and offers to their customers at the right time and in the right channel. Consisting of a robust four-part process, it allowed the team to identify and address barriers or make adjustments in real-time. To meet the demands of this new business model, TBWA\Digital Arts Network created a

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ﬁrst-of-its-kind specialist social media business unit in Singapore and across nine markets in APAC. This newsroom-type arrangement consists of strategists, data scientists, media, content producers and account servicing staff. The Priceless Engine powered the “Priceless Surprise Experience” campaign for Justin Timberlake, which ran in Australia, India, Hong Kong and Japan and drove over 300% higher engagement rates in every market compared with any previous MasterCard campaign. The highest engagement growth rate was in Hong Kong at more than 1700% growth. The campaign also got over 400% higher click-toredemption rates for MasterCard’s merchants. This means real transactions and revenue, not just advertising results. People-wise, TBWA made some key hires. Ara Hampartsoumian was appointed managing director of Singapore, while Edmund Choe joined the team as chief creative ofﬁcer for Singapore and Southeast Asia. Michael Kavanagh was hired as regional digital director and Ruben Beijer as senior strategist. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Ara Hampartsoumian, managing director

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DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR TRIBAL WORLDWIDE SINGAPORE

Taking second spot in the Digital Marketing category is Tribal Worldwide Singapore. The agency has been busy scaling up its in-house social content production team. This is especially to support the growing social media business from Unilever’s nine brands. These are for Dove, Dove Body,

Sunsilk, Clear Men, Lifebuoy, Cornetto, Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s and Lipton. With a bigger team, the production unit now houses a ﬁlm crew, in-house ﬁlm director, editor and script writers. With these added capabilities, the team is able to turn around content for social media consumption and has the ability to scale up projects to broadcast quality at a much faster pace. Additionally, Tribal Worldwide Singapore also set up the iStore to provide technology and innovation services to the DDB group globally. Currently, the Singapore team has the largest team of technologists consisting of a total of 40 members. The agency also made several senior hires with Lauren Ahearn taking on the role of business director. Meanwhile, Jeremy Ng was hired as account director and Lim Fern Yit is now taking on the role of UX strategist. These are only a few of its several new senior hires. One of the more notable campaigns the agency embarked on was to make the Pioneer Generation Package more relatable and understandable to older folks in Singapore. This was done through videos in languages, dialects and scenarios that the target audience

could understand and connect with. According to the agency, the videos have generated more than a million YouTube views and it has been widely covered by mainstream media. Meanwhile, for POSB cash-point, the agency was tasked to help increase public awareness and cash withdrawal transactions of the POSB cash-point service. Through videos on social media and other efforts, it achieved a massive year-on-year increase in the average number of cash-point transactions made per month. The agency also launched Radar to unleash the power of social media and customer data to provide insights and intelligence for business. Radar reinvents the planning – making it smarter, faster and better – creating real value for clients and DDB by delivering intelligent solutions to help businesses address competitive brand, product and customer experience challenges. Going forward the agency says it will continue to sharpen its offerings and grow its content and tech servicing into the regions where its clients are based. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Jeff Cheong, president

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA ZenithOptimedia has impressed the judges to bag the bronze trophy in this category. Overall, 2014 was a strong year for ZenithOptimedia Singapore with a sturdy increase in year-onyear revenue. The key highlight of its business performance was the significant increases coming from its diversified services, including SEO, analytics, content creation, mobile and web build which is aligned with its vision and objectives. The past 12 months was also a period of significant change for the agency. “Most of these changes were good, some were challenging, but most importantly the agency has made significant strides in making the agency and our clients future-ready through best-in-class planning,” said Adam Hemming, CEO of ZenithOptimedia Singapore. The agency won a host of new businesses in 2014 across its specialist units (ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Newcast and Ninah). Key wins included ABN AMRO, Singapore Airlines, Marriott, Euro Group, ANZ, Scoot, Reebonz and National Gallery Singapore. It successfully retained Singapore Management University through a pitch and extended its contracts with

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a number of other clients. Aside from L’Oréal and APB, which departed the agency after a client realignment, there were no client losses out of its top 30 clients. For its client Oracle it created the “Winning the cloud space with precision” campaign with the objective to raise awareness and engagement on Oracle’s cloud computing solutions among C-suites while dealing with a limited budget. It used mobile with advanced location data across VIP lounges in 14 airports in APAC, key industry events and ofﬁce retargeting. The campaign delivered eight times the media efﬁciency in solely targeting a highvalue audience while saving almost $500,000 in the budget. People-wise, after the departure of Jacqui

Lim, ZenithOptimedia promoted Jason Tan and Helen Lee as head of strategy and head of operations respectively. The agency was committed to retaining its best talent by promoting from within. It also found a home in a new ofﬁce. “This is one major investment in our people to ensure the design encouraged people to work collaboratively through an open philosophy, encouraging the ‘one team, one vision’ approach,” Hemming said. The agency hopes to continue its objective of reshaping its business by creating the best and most innovative planning product in the market. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Adam Hemming, CEO, Singapore

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DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR ACTIVA MEDIA

The past 12 months have been fruitful for Activa Media – with the agency winning 300 new assignments from brands such as OSIM, MediaCorp and Singpost. This year the agency wins the Local Hero title in the Digital Marketing category. The agency continues to expand its services and reach out to clients locally as well as international markets. It has bought a new

office space of 4,000 sqft in Paya Lebar Square in anticipation of local expansion. In addition, it is looking to establish its fourth regional office in Bangkok, Thailand, this year. The company has also expanded in markets such as Malaysia and the Philippines. Major campaigns over 2014 included This Quarterly’s Facebook campaign, the objective of which was to increase the company’s Facebook fans by 50%. Reports reveal an increase of nearly 68,000 fans (63.1% increase) within a 12-month period – from 107,665 fans in January 2014 to 175,608 fans in December 2014. In another campaign for Canary Diamond, the agency helped achieve its objective of creating a stronger brand name and positioning in the market through Google search engine marketing, based on specific Diamond-related keywords, complemented with targeted Google display ads. The remarketing campaign was successfully launched, and the reminder-effect via the campaign created good awareness for the brand, with a total of 675,158 impressions and 2,273 traffic revisited. For MyPhone in the Philippines, the

CARBON INTERACTIVE As a local growing agency, Carbon Interactive has been primarily dealing with local clients over the past decade and has created great experiences for schools, government institutions, food chains and eye-wear brands. Its clients run the gamut from Mount Faber Leisure Group (Singapore Cable Car and Faber Peak Singapore), Marina Bay Link Mall, Singapore Development Network, NTUC Link, World Sport Group, Chanel, NTUC Link, Star Cruises, Fraser and Neave and Ministry of

GERMS DIGITAL 2014 was an exceptional year for Germs Digital, as it achieved unprecedented results in terms of revenue, profit, awards and scale of campaign launches. Its initiative campaign for SPH’s 30th anniversary celebration, “See The Big Picture”, was its biggest and most outstanding by far, attracting thousands to the live drawing event along with ministers, head of corporations and dignitaries. It created a world’s first with president Tony Tan being the first to ink on a Stephen Wiltshire

Home Affairs. Last year, it achieved a major milestone in its history by securing its ﬁrst major global accounts, APRIL Group and Beko. APRIL Group is one of the largest and most technologically advanced and efﬁcient makers of pulp and paper products – PaperOne included – in the world. Beko is a leading Turkish appliance and consumer electronics brand offering products and services in more than 100 countries.

panorama. It brought autism to the fore and left a huge impression among Singaporeans. For the “See The Big Picture” integrated campaign it created an opportunity for the agency to do something different. It commissioned Wiltshire, an autistic savant, to draw the Singapore skyline from memory. The live drawing event attracted more than 150,000 visitors to Paragon and millions more followed it online. It created tens of millions of media impressions showcasing the effectiveness of SPH’s multi media platforms and reconnected Singaporeans with SPH.

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agency created brand awareness in the local market, closely alongside the marketing team of MyPhone over the year, launching and executing a series of advertising campaigns to coincide with the launch of new phone models. Together, a total of 319,901 clicks-to-site were generated and more than 59.3 million impressions were achieved for its search and display campaigns. There was also an increase in the number of Facebook fans on the MyPhone Facebook page from 906,000 to 1,680,295 likes. The total views for MyPhone’s video ads on YouTube were also overwhelming at over one million. In the past 12 months, the agency added call tracking to its range of product and service offerings. With call tracking services, clients can now identify the marketing mediums that are effective in generating the most number of phone calls, as well as be advised of strategies to improve their customer service and capture additional sales opportunities. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Lilian Teo, director of regional sales and operations

“This progress has certainly spurred us on to do greater things: moving forward with an expanded team, we aim to better ourselves at our craft,” the agency said. In terms of work, as part of The Fascinating World of Forestry campaign that sought to educate young students on sustainable forestry, it created an interactive edu-portal for APRIL Group from scratch with great success, despite having zero prior experience. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Jeffrey Lim, general manager

It also delivered great results for campaigns for UOB and new retainer client NTUC Income. 2014 was also a year where it expanded its social media department and enjoyed the highest staff retention rate since its inception. “We will continue to grow our business and support our clients strategically and creatively. 2015 for us is signiﬁcant as we intend to expand our footprint regionally after being appointed as Stephen Wiltshire’s agent in Asia,” the agency said. Owned by: Independent Headed by: James Chua, managing director

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DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR ISOBAR SINGAPORE It has been a great year for Isobar Singapore, with its annual turnover increasing by a whopping 38% year-on-year. The agency had record new business conversion rates and won multiple awards for its innovation work. The agency also bagged several new accounts – OCBC Bank’s consumer ﬁnancial services and FRANK by OCBC, Singapore Navy Recruitment Centre, Uniqlo and F&N Seasons. According to Isobar Singapore, the next few months present a unique opportunity for digitally born agencies to play an integral role. This is particularly so in helping brands navigate through the monumental disruption that is taking place to traditional businesses through creativity, innovation and imagination.

Isobar Singapore’s plan over the next 12 months is to continue to invest in strategic competencies to strengthen its ability to deliver “ideas without limits” for clients across the region. The agency aims to support its clients to become more effective in commerce building by putting the last mile ﬁrst. Currently, the agency’s data analysts are using a new proprietary dashboard tool, iAnalyse, which allows them to deliver rapidﬁre marketing and business analytics. These dashboards are shared with key stakeholders, including clients, through live interactive views of data on a web browser or tablet. “We will achieve this through a relentless focus on innovation, ensuring Isobar can deliver borderless thinking, built on evolving technology, and can design scalable business solutions that are personal, adaptive and valuable,” said CEO Prakash Kamdar. Owned by: Dentsu Aegis Network Headed by: Prakash Kamdar, CEO

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MAXUS SINGAPORE Born in 2008, Maxus says it is the “only media agency born in the digital age”. With its core philosophy of “lean into change”, Maxus Singapore leaned into change to a new and able leadership of Desh Balakrishnan in August 2014. The agency greatly increased its net profit in a span of one year from 2013 to 2014 and helped clients to get the best from today’s increasingly complex and confusing communications landscape, making it digestible, practical and actionable. In 2014, Maxus saw significant growth of 31% in its profit-before-tax line compared with 2013, making the agency one of the fastest growing media agencies. Maxus in the past five years has grown at a speed that is faster than any new organisation. Even with the setback of losing clients such as Courts and Lion Corp, Maxus won 11 new businesses worth SG$46 million and continuously added prestigious accounts such as Nissan, Subaru, Saxo Capital, Fraser Centrepoint malls, Guocoland and UPS to its key clientele. UPS, Nikon and SIM are a few of the many key clients Maxus works closely with, with an average relationship of at least four to five years as of 2015. “We are driven and place a huge value on excellence in client service and aim to get ‘10 out of 10’ from our clients,” Balakrishnan said. However, Maxus emphasises greatly on client relationships. “We believe strongly in maintaining positive and healthy ties with them.” He adds Maxus’ approach to communication is one that delivers new ways for brands to engage consumers – relationship media. This approach is rooted in data and creativity balancing the principles of CRM and communications planning. It allows the agency to deliver the speed of change and flexibility needed to succeed in today’s fast-moving environment, while setting a long-term vision for brands. Last year, Maxus helped numerous clients navigate through the complex world of media in the form of paid, owned and earned, using different channels to deliver deeper consumer experiences as much as to build presence and awareness. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Desh Balakrishnan, managing director

MINDSHARE SINGAPORE In 2014, Mindshare Singapore set out two clear objectives. The first was to build on an “adaptive marketing” strategy and the second was to build a “content marketing” team. As part of Mindshare’s “transformation” agenda, the agency’s first objective was to truly bring its “adaptive marketing” vision to life. The agency invested in building an experience centre where clients and teams could congregate and see all the data in one place. Without data, be that consumer, media, pricing, behavioural, social, etc – being “adaptive” cannot add value. So in 2014, Mindshare launched “The Loop” – a physical room where clients can make collaborative and adaptive decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing in real-time. The Loop enables clients not only to plan more adaptively and benefit from more collaborative and adaptive decision-making powered by data, but it also enables the shift of media spend quickly to leverage opportunities uncovered by real-time data during campaigns. The second objective was to establish a team capable of helping clients tell their brand stories in a compelling way using “content marketing” to complement standard media communications. “Mindshare Discovery” was created to help brands transform from “advertiser” to “publisher” and create more targeted and relevant dialogue with their consumers across any screen. The year proved to be a reasonably challenging one for Mindshare Singapore as very few large local clients were pitching their accounts. Despite that, Mindshare Singapore still won five new clients, increasing revenue by 10%. The agency prides itself on having longterm relationships with clients, with the majority of the top clients having been with the team for over five to 10 years. The agency’s client retention is about 95% – a testament to its commitment to constantly challenge itself and clients to drive business outcomes. According to Nick Seckold, managing director of the agency, Mindshare will be focused on helping clients answer the bigger questions, become more adaptive in their approach to their marketing, while ensuring greater effectiveness to drive business results. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nick Seckold, managing director

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DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR MIRUM

POSSIBLE WORLDWIDE

PUBLICIS SINGAPORE

Making it to our short-list in the Mobile category is Mirum, an agency formed from the consolidation of 11 of JWT’s digital agencies globally. The move gives the Mirum network access to 17 countries and 40 offices worldwide. Mirum was named after the Latin word for “amazing” and will operate as a sister agency to JWT, but with separate management teams and P&Ls. The network will be led by former Digitaria chief executive officer Dan Khabie as global and North American CEO. Asia is set to be a primary focus for the new entity, with 20% of its growth expected to come out of the region, said Khabie. Leading Asia Pacific is XM Asia lead Nanda Ivens. He will shift to Mirum’s regional HQ in Singapore. Sources have suggested the network was built as a competitor to SapientNitro, which has proven to be strong competition in recent times. Mirum’s services will extend to strategy and consulting services, creative and content, user experience and platforms, analytics and insight and product development and mobile. Additionally, Mirum has deep vertical service offerings in digital retail, behavioural media and financial services. Despite JWT and Mirum operating separately, both may approach pitches together when needed. Both JWT and Mirum will continue to manage individual clients. Current clients for the agency include CBRE, Cyrela, Daum Kakao, Finnair, HSBC, Magazine Luiza, Mazda, Microsoft, Nokia, Petco, Singapore Tourism Board, TD Bank, Walmart and XL, among others.

2014 saw the agency evolve at a rapid pace – within just nine months, it reinvented itself, shedding its once sleepy reputation to become one of the most dynamic agencies in Singapore, the agency said. It went through a stunning digital transformation and expanded its digital capabilities with the aim to deliver genuinely integrated and innovative work. According to the agency, more than 70% of its staff are digital professionals – setting it apart from other advertising agencies. It now offers end-to-end integration, including social media activation, community management, digital content creation and hubs, campaign analytics and reporting, social PR and crisis management. Its digital transformation has also helped drive new business, with more than 45% of all new business wins coming from digital services, the agency said. The agency invested in a strategic offering,133 LUX – a luxury marketing unit offering strategic and creative perspectives for upscale and luxury brands. It is now able to deliver real-time content marketing through its global strategic hub called Newsdesk where it seamlessly turns brand “ad” ideas into multiple content formats, at the speed of culture. It was appointed the global social media agency of record for Accor luxury and is the social media agency of record for BreadTalk Group. A new leadership team was put in place by the agency to ensure a leadership team that boasts skills across multiple competencies. The agency has attracted young talent in the industry to strengthen the team and develop speciﬁc areas of expertise such as strategy and technology. Key appointments include Kelvin Koo as head of digital; Royston Teo as business analytics director; and Sharon Tan as business director, among others. For its digital and content work, the agency helped Scoot drive brand engagement and loyalty through social media and content. Social media was chosen to promote the airline because it allowed the brand to live up to its beliefs through playful, fun and entertaining ways, while delivering against business priorities, the agency said. Some of the agency’s new offerings include Newsdesk. Launched in June, Newsdesk is a real-time insights and content engine that enables brand storytelling.

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nanda Ivens, CEO

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Paul Soon, CEO, APAC

Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Lou Dela Pena, CEO

Ivens

With more than 25 offices spanning five continents, POSSIBLE boasts some of the best creative minds on the planet. Some of its key clients over the years include global brands such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The agency works together in a cross-office collaboration that spans the globe to produce results-driven work. The suite of services it provides remains varied – they include: strategic planning, e-commerce technology, analytics optimisation, technology solutions, social strategy, search capabilities, user experience development and content development. POSSIBLE tailors itself to the five marketing sciences established by the agency. Two of which include customer relationship management and data analysis. According to the agency, it leverages technology, systems and processes that bring together data and information from all sources within an organisation. This is to help clients better address each customer’s specific need.

Soon

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The Spark Awards is back in 2015 to recognise the top performances, solutions and campaigns by media owners and publishers from across South Asia, Southeast Asia and ANZ. The only awards programme of its kind in these regions and with 26 categories open for entry take this opportunity to shine bright and be recognised as a trusted partner among agencies and clients.

To enter and for more information visit: www.marketing-interactive.com/spark-awards/sea Submission Deadline: 22 June 2015 Gala Ceremony: 27 August, Singapore Marriott Hotel Contacts: Entry submissions and table bookings: CARLO RESTON +65 6423 0329, +65 9727 0291, carlor@marketing-interactive.com Sponsorship opportunities: SOREN BEAULIEU +65 6423 0329, sorenb@marketing-interactive.com

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BRAND CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR

DENTSU SINGAPORE Winning th the gold award in this category is Dentsu Singapore. The agency reportedly showed a huge 126% growth in operating proﬁt in 2014. It streamlined its internal processes to bring out its vision of “innovating the way brands are built”. From brand innovation tools to state-ofthe-art digitisation of day to day work, Dentsu Singapore aspired to move “upstream”. Last year saw the culmination of all these efforts. Winning regional, local and government businesses, bringing home the largest awards collection for a single year and attracting the

THE WINNERS GOLD

Dentsu Singapore

81.56%

SILVER

DDB Group Singapore

80.94%

BRONZE

Interbrand

78.31%

LOCAL HERO

A.S.Louken

69.38%

THE FINALISTS Brand Story International Brand Union Singapore Design Bridge Equus Design Consultants Landor The Bonsey Design Partnership

industry’s top talent, 2014 was the year where Dentsu Singapore came to the forefront of Singapore’s brand-building industry. Last year the agency’s client portfolio included the Singapore Navy, Pringles and China Merchant Group. 2014 also saw the induction of key hires for Dentsu Singapore. With experience in London, Jatinder Sandhu joined as creative director driving creative innovation. The agency also hired Nicholas Chan to drive digital ideation at Dentsu Singapore. Judy Seah, former SVP at Resorts World, joined as group account director. Michelle Wong joined the team to provide strategic value for its retail clients as a dedicated retail business director. The agency is keen on continuing its growth spree and strengthening its offering in upstream consultancy. Dentsu Singapore will also enhance its focus on data-informed business solutions. With Dentsu Singapore becoming part of “One Dentsu Aegis Network”, the growth opportunity is set to multiply by cross leveraging clients, platforms, content and technology innovations, the agency said. Some of the major brands Dentsu

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Singapore worked with included Toyota and Canon. Featured in TIME magazine, the Toyota Waku Doki campaign was a regional campaign executed by Dentsu Singapore with the objective to make Toyota appeal to a younger audience. The campaign resulted in higher youth afﬁnity towards Toyota, said the agency. For Canon, the agency created the campaign, “Canon: EOS world – from hardware to heartware”, and executed a digital portal dedicated to developing a “creative photo culture” in Singapore. According to the agency, this was a crucial turning point for the brand as it stopped selling hardware (cameras) and became the enabler of creative photography (heartware). Dentsu Singapore crafted and implemented its proprietary brand innovation tool – Dentsu Innovation Navigator (DIN). The strategic nature of DIN also ensured the agency liaised with the top decision-makers on the client side enabling it to “work towards a synergistic brand vision”, it said. Owned by: Dentsu Inc. (Japan) Headed by: Rosalynn Tay, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network Singapore

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BRAND CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR DDB GROUP SINGAPORE

2014 was a trail-blazing year for DDB, with key wins on digital innovation from clients as well as on the awards front. This is attributed to its fusion of more than 40 creative technologists working alongside its 150-strong creative department. The success has transformed the creative agency into a marketing innovation agency. It adopted a creative mantra, “breakthrough with creative innovation”, to drive the agency’s business growth and differentiate the agency. It is on a relentless quest to learn, innovate, experiment and evolve as a creative species – coming up with smarter, faster and

sharper solutions such as creating dynamic portals and an e-store for StarHub, activation portals for Health Promotion Board (“Million KG Challenge”) and innovative apps for McDonald’s (surprise alarm app) and RSAF (One Force gaming app). It also launched an iStore which provides technology and innovation services to the DDB group globally. Currently, the Singapore team has the largest team of technologists. The store is a gateway for the rest of DDB offices to “shop” for innovation and apply it quickly for its clients. It also scaled up on social content production to support its growing social media business. With a bigger team, the production unit now houses an in-house film director, film crew, editor and script writers. New account wins included Unilever Digital (Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, Magnum), SilkAir, Health Promotion Board, Pioneer Generation Package and SG50 for 2015. It also retained the account of RSAF following a pitch. The agency brought in new talent to help grow and develop the business. Key senior hires included Anthony James – chief innovations officer; Tony Low – digital creative director; Lauren Ahearn – business director;

Thomas Ong – group business director; and Richard Morewood – regional business director. This year it has unleashed new services in social media activation (Radar), ﬁlm and content (WaveMaker) and a technology solutions portal (DDB IStore). Already it is creating new work for clients from these services for both local and regional clients – McDonald’s breakfast surprise app (regional roll out), Our Better World (Singaporebased social enterprise entity) and SG50. StarHub awarded DDB the task to develop a state-of-the-art Adobe-powered portal and e-shop. The agency also helped StarHub achieve an increase in triple-service hubbing households and grew its customer base across TV, mobile and broadband. In the year ahead, the agency looks set to expand its “hub” capabilities for clients across the DDB Asia network – as the centre of excellence for digital, technology and human capital. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: David Tang, president and CEO, DDB Group Singapore, and vice-chairman, DDB Group Asia

INTERBRAND Winning bronze is Interbrand which has had a solid year focusing on the depth of its growth by deepening its relationship with its clients, deepening its offer, deepening its thought leadership and deepening its talent, the agency said. In 2014, Interbrand Singapore continued to build its strong portfolio of clients across Southeast Asia. In Thailand, Interbrand helped King Power revitalise its brand to strengthen its position as the leading duty free retailer in Thailand. In Singapore, Interbrand helped White Sands and Tiong Bahru Plaza create unique brand experiences that captured each mall’s surrounding neighbourhood charm and heritage, according to the agency. The agency also ventured into new brandbuilding projects with long-standing clients such as OSIM in Singapore, BDO Unibank in the Philippines, Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri) in Thailand and Royal Brunei Airlines. Interbrand expanded its innovation offer to better support its clients’ businesses. The evolved innovation offer is a holistic model that applies Interbrand’s three values of

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intelligence, imagination and inspiration. Jointly led by directors of its strategy and creative teams, the approach aims to identify the unmet needs of customers and markets, and match them to the future ambitions and capabilities of a business. Over the past 12 months, Interbrand conducted a series of seminars on a range of business and brand-building topics for attendees from blue-chip companies across Singapore, Jakarta, Manila and Bangkok. Last year also saw Interbrand solidify its team with senior hires and promotions under the existing management team.

An on-the-ground team in Jakarta was set up to better serve its growing list of Indonesian clientele with localised insights and support. Additional senior hires were made in its strategy and creative teams to bring in further regional and global expertise. It continued to invest in its people through Interbrand Academy trainings and summits, and gave some staff the opportunity to work in other ofﬁces such as Shanghai and Sydney. According to the agency, the 2014 employee engagement survey revealed Interbrand Singapore’s scores as being among the highest in the Interbrand global network. In 2015, Interbrand Singapore celebrates its 25th anniversary. With the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community, the ﬁrm plans to build on its long and deep branding experience in Southeast Asia to help businesses forge stronger brand relationships with customers and consumers in the region and beyond. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Julian Barrans, managing director

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BRAND CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR A.S.LOUKEN GROUP

2014 was an eventful year for A.S.Louken. The agency experienced robust growth as it expanded the team and improved its efficiency. It has also seen a significant increase in the number of clients for both local and overseas. It saw greater revenue because of an increase in project sizes, diversity in the clients’ base as well as in value-added services to support its brand growth mission. The agency’s increased capital expenditure resulted in an office environment enhancement through renovations plus greater efficiency in its IT infrastructure through the upgrading

of servers and CRM systems. A.S.Louken is also expanding to overseas markets through investments. In 2014, the agency won 25 new projects, with an overall pitch success rate of 60%. A.S.Louken retained all of its existing clients and reined in two new clients who crossed over from another agency. 2014 was a milestone year for the agency as it started to increase its branding for FMCG, while strengthening its foray into corporate branding. Some account wins included a number

BRANDSTORY INTERNATIONAL With offices located in the Asian gateway cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, BrandStory is fast evolving to be a fully fledged brand representation and communications agency. The boutique agency has built a strong reputation for serving international clients who are entering the Asian markets. Its calendar for 2014 was filled with start-up campaigns for Brand USA for the markets in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

BRAND UNION In the past year Brand Union Singapore was driven by the need to effectively deliver consistent and compelling brand experiences across an ever-widening range of touch-points. The agency has created a more adaptive team structure to encourage strategic relationships with its clients. Highlights of the year included branding such as the logo revamp for Singtel in collaboration with Ogilvy; a regional brand relaunch for Tokio Marine Asia; and rebranding projects for Fullerton Fund Management and

BrandStory was appointed to tell the story of the United States as a premier destination. In Singapore, BrandStory activated a culinary campaign bringing together a ﬁrst-time partnership between Brand USA and Marina Bay Sands at Epicurean Market 2014, a food and wine extravaganza that enticed the palates of 10,000 foodies. Further, BrandStory orchestrated the launch of the USA culinary guide Discover America: Great American Food Stories.

the Institute of Banking & Finance. The agency also provided brand strategy development for SGX and brand experience touch-points for Vistara, the new full-service airline in India that is a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and TATA. The stability of Brand Union’s team remains its strength with no changes in the senior management for the past ﬁve years. The agency is focused on providing new talent with a clearly deﬁned career path, with plenty of responsibility and client exposure. The agency encourages the mobility of its team across markets to work on regional projects.

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of established names in the market such as Dragon Brand (FMCG), Unisoy (FMCG), Love, Bonito (fashion), Pet Lovers Centre (retail), Super-Mom (events), SAA Architects (business services) and Woodlands Transport Services (transportation). The agency made some senior appointments to its team. Ignatius Tan was hired as chief technical ofﬁcer for his expertise in experiential design, while Lynn Poh was appointed head of design. Plans for the next 12 months include harnessing the agency’s holistic suite of brand growth services. It will continue to expand its acquisition of clients and service types. The agency will open its Philippines ofﬁce in the next few months and is primed for a year of stellar performance with top-line growth. Overcoming digital threats and the labour crunch, A.S.Louken enhanced its seamless services by incorporating digital innovation and brand activations for all project works. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Luke Lim, group CEO and Karyn Lim, branding CEO

The month-long programme heightened destination awareness reaching out to hotel guests of Marina Bay Sands. New account wins for BrandStory include Qatar Tourism Authority (Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong), Destination DC (China) and Virginia Tourism Corporation (China). Owned by: A group of Singaporean shareholders Headed by: Reene Ho-Phang, founder and managing director and Peter Phang, executive director

Moving forward, Brand Union Singapore will continue to adapt its processes and develop its people and skills to better serve the changing needs of its clients and enhance its brand experience offer. The agency aims to build a creative culture that inspires the best talent, the best work and the best results. It continues to play a key role in the ongoing development across its network of the “brand experience imprint”. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Graham Hitchmough, chief executive ofﬁcer

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BRAND CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR DESIGN BRIDGE

Since opening its Singapore ofﬁce in 2003, Design Bridge has reached 70 staff and steadily built strong discipline expertise across brand strategy, creative strategy, identity design, packaging design, branded environments and retail merchandising. Well into its third decade, the agency has grown with studios in London, Amsterdam and Singapore and recently opened an ofﬁce

EQUUS DESIGN CONSULTANTS

in New York. Its strategy continues to focus on fewer, but deeper client relationships to create richer brand worlds where “truth and personality are unlocked with originality, craft and great storytelling”, said the agency. For the past year, the agency has concentrated its efforts across a number of MNCs shared across the group as well as select Southeast Asian brands who “appreciate great design”, said managing director Mark Budden. “Long-term strategic design partnerships are far more efficient financially for clients and deliver better work where responsibility is genuinely shared in getting to a great design solution.” Design Bridge remains independent and has 350 people across the four offices

LANDOR

of London, Amsterdam, New York and Singapore. The agency has designed for brands such as Hyundai, Lipton Ice Tea, Smirnoff, Dulux, Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Fortnum & Mason. Moving forward, the agency aims to deliver outstanding creative work that emotionally connects with its clients’ target consumers. Recent design launches have included Beerlao Gold for Carlsberg in Laos, which won a design effectiveness award last month in London for achieving an 800% uplift in sales after a very successful repositioning and redesign, the agency said. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Mark Budden, managing director

THE BONSEY DESIGN PARTNERSHIP

The past 12 months for Equus have proven to be exciting and challenging. The agency added new skills, won new work and launched a new way of marketing itself, in a way which reinforces its “borderless creativity” branding proposition. Equus also strengthened and expanded its brand strategy and engagement offer with the hiring of senior talent to move further upstream and downstream in its branding services, and in the process, expanding its potential revenue. The agency launched a new blog, offering a lot of educational content on branding and design for the beneﬁt of clients and young designers alike, as well as deeper insights into Equus and how it works. It also clinched new client wins from Paciﬁc Radiance, Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS), Operation Hope Foundation, Milk & Honey and Angsana. In terms of new hires, the agency hired Stanley K. Chung as its brand strategy director to lead and expand its brand strategy offer, both deepening its upstream analysis and expanding its services downstream into employee brand engagement. The agency also hired Efren Prieto as design director who comes from an extensive and diverse design consultancy background in Manila.

The past 12 months have been strong for Landor. It won interesting projects, grew its overall team, furthered its digital capability and introduced an innovation offer. The agency clinched brand project wins from various categories such as aviation, ﬁnancial services, consumer packaged goods, travel, F&B, destination and telecommunications. The scope of work included positioning, naming, brand architecture, identity, packaging, guidelines, digital and innovation. Landor has also added to its strategy and expanded its creative teams over the past year. Landor also created and launched the 1Net brand in 2014. A subsidiary of MediaCorp, the brand is looking to shake up the category in terms of services and capability. The agency also launched a range of new credit cards with OCBC to expand its offers across bigger audiences. Landor also helped activate several airport service brands in the region to reﬂect their business outlook while remaining relevant for expected growth. The agency is working on several destination projects with a focus on innovation to prepare these brands for any anticipated market changes. It also added an innovation offering called Landor, North + South. The offer focuses on new opportunities for brands to grow revenues in consumer goods and professional services.

Bonsey Design enjoyed strong growth in the business in 2014. The period saw the set up and integration of its digital joint venture Bonsey Jaden, alongside the strategy and design firm. From an HR perspective, it has hired managers adept in integrating both on and offline branding programmes. The agency hired designers who are equally adept in web and app design as in print and communications. Driven by the upsurge in interest in its digital services, the agency expanded its footprint in the region. In 2014, its teams grew from three to 18 in the Philippines, 25 to 35 in Singapore and it opened an office in Kuala Lumpur that now has a team of eight brand and digital designers and managers. Its Jakarta office has also expanded to four digital specialists. Clients who have enjoyed connecting their brands on and offline in 2014 included Pos Malaysia, Telkomsel Indonesia and EPSON. Its digital clients in 2014 included Kimberly-Clark, Reckitt Benckiser, Great Eastern Life, Galderma and TV shows Fit-4-Fashion and Asia’s Got Talent. The agency also helped revamp MediaCorp’s Toggle brand identity. Moving forward, the agency is looking to expand regionally – firmly led by its integrated digital offering through Bonsey Jaden. The agency is also planning to establish its presence in Thailand driven by regional client needs.

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Andrew Thomas, managing partner

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nick Foley, president, SE Asia Paciﬁc and Japan

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Jonathan Bonsey, managing director

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18/6/2015 10:09:53 AM

MARKET RESEARCH AGENCY OF THE YEAR

NIELSEN In the pas past 12 months, Nielsen has seen strong growth and success across all targeted industries: ﬁnancial services, automotive, CPG/retail, technology, media and emerging industries. Four in 10 of its local top clients grew more than 30% in 2014. In 2014 it tapped into the ﬁnal two ASEAN countries, Cambodia and Myanmar, by launching projects to help clients map their “go-to-market” strategies as they enter these

THE WINNERS GOLD

Nielsen

75.25%

SILVER

Millward Brown Singapore

68.40%

BRONZE

Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants

67.5%

LOCAL HERO

Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants

67.5%

THE FINALISTS Agility Research & Strategy Blackbox Research Flamingo Singapore GfK Singapore Ipsos Singapore Kantar Group Singapore TNS Global

new markets. It will continue to boost its suite of solutions and resources there. For the second year, Nielsen continued to improve its ranking within the top 100 list of companies that students consider working for. The list is compiled by Universum, a specialist in employer attractiveness. It grew its talent base from 360 employees (2013) to 363 employees (2014) and retained 92% of its key talents. It also acquired Affinnova to enhance its offerings in innovation practices to help clients reduce go-to-market time using technology to drive research; and Harris Interactive, a global opinion poll and syndicated measurement provider of brand and customer service experience. The market research firm believes growth in Singapore is increasingly getting harder to come by with an expanded focus from local giants as well as multinational organisations. It is, therefore critical more than ever, to understand the marketplace, consumers and trends, and provide foresight more than insight. “In the coming years Singapore will see significant change with a growing focus from global companies seeking out growth in our relatively strong economy, the impact of ASEAN

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2015 and the rapidly growing emerging middleclass population. To succeed companies operating in Singapore need to have a firm understanding of how these trends impact their business, and how to leverage the opportunities and minimise risk,” it said. Recognising this need, Nielsen says it continues to focus on industry verticals and practice expertise to support its clients with expert teams, as well as refining its solutions to align more closely with its clients’ business needs and challenges. Key hires in 2014 included Laura McCullough, managing director of performance management practice, SEANAP; Johan Vrancken, managing director of the innovation practice, SEANAP; Philip Dewar, regional client business partner, SEANAP; Rachel Foo, chief human resources officer, SEANAP; Deanie Sultana, regional head of marketing and communications, SEANAP; Anil Antony, executive director of consumer insights for Singapore; and Daniel Tando, finance director for Singapore. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Joan Koh, managing director, Singapore and Malaysia

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18/6/2015 10:09:31 AM

MARKET RESEARCH AGENCY OF THE YEAR MILLWARD BROWN SINGAPORE

For Millward Brown, our silver award winner this year in the Market Research category, the past year was one of leadership changes in Singapore and Southeast Asia. It welcomed Vermeer (previously from Effective Brands) to its family and continued to grow as a business, expanding across its four areas of expertise. In March 2014, Priti Mehra was appointed managing director of Millward Brown Singapore succeeding Nichola Rastrick who was

appointed managing director of SEA. Following that, Narayanan Radhakrishnan joined Millward Brown to replace Mehra in the role of chief client officer for SEA. In the spirit of development and mobility across the global organisation, it welcomed nine colleagues from the UK, France, Japan, India, Taiwan and Korea to its big family in Singapore. It made significant investments in talent – training and coaching people for performance, career planning and a strong foundation training programme were hallmarks of its training calendar. It also made work-life balance a priority in the business with work-from-home policies, a motherhood support group and better IT support to make all this work. Its continual investment in career development and work-life balance initiatives was reflected in its attrition rate in 2014 of 14% which is below the industry average of 26%. Its people were recognised globally by both Unilever and Mondelēz for significant contributions to their business. “I would call the past 12 months a period of all-round and balanced growth for Millward Brown Singapore,” Mehra said. Its new client portfolio stretched beyond

the FMCG industry adding new clients such as Shell, Microsoft, A&E Networks, Bata and Mundipharma to its portfolio. In 2014, Millward Brown collaborated with Zappistore to bring self-serve solutions to clients for evaluating various forms of creative – e-static (copy testing for print and outdoor) and LinkNow for TV and digital. E-static is also a solution pioneered from Millward Brown Singapore and now adopted globally. It continued to focus on innovation-led growth in 2015 as well, making sure its offers were truly relevant to clients and making a meaningful impact to their business. “We will continue to connect with consumers increasingly on a mobile/device agnostic platform. We are moving to activity based working in an exciting and dynamic new ofﬁce environment which is designed to promote collaborative work. Overall, as the business environment gets tougher, we will continue to focus on delivering exceptional value to our clients in every engagement,” Mehra says. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Priti Mehra, managing director

ACORN MARKETING & RESEARCH CONSULTANTS In the past 12 months, Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants has expanded its foothold in Asia. It started a new chapter with the opening of Acorn Japan in June 2014. It is now present in 10 Asian countries and has also moved into the mobile collection platform. It continues to differentiate itself as the bespoke agency specialising in custom-built solutions which fit clients’ specific needs or problems. “Because our clients seek answers and not tools or charts, our focus in a research is making sure the business objectives are not lost in the details of executing the study,” it said. It also continues to strengthen its strategic partnerships with clients and at least 5% have been with the agency for more than 25 years. The agency saw clients coming from the financial industry, F&B and education sectors. People-wise, the company has been stable and it attributes this to a staff retention programme focused on making the work experience meaningful and the work space enjoyable and “liveable”. “One of the keys is in building all-rounded and grounded consultants with a passion for

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research and not just qualitative or quantitative researchers. We strongly believe in upskilling and building competency and leadership at all levels from researchers to the operations,” it said. It recently developed a new weight management classiﬁcation mechanism that has helped change the way health screening, body composition checking and diagnostics are done. With this new classiﬁcation mechanism, walk-in customers can now be easily “diagnosed” into one of 20-plus segments based on a small set of questions and thereafter have a suitable weight management programme recommended to them.

It also says it has changed the way music auditoriums are currently run. It has custom-built a mobile app which allows for the evaluation of a larger quantity of songs through a large cross section of the listener base. Listeners can rate songs at their own convenience during the week (e.g. when they’re headed home on the train) rather than sitting through one hour or so of songs to evaluate and identify those that should be played on the stations. Being a Singaporean company, it takes pride in its continual support for the growth of local SMEs and entrepreneurship through the Business Times and the OCBC Emerging Enterprise Awards and providing mentorship for young entrepreneurs and guiding start-up companies under SMU’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubation programme. “We continue to grow and expand our involvement in the development of market research among the local tertiary institutions.” Owned by: Independent Headed by: Danny Lai, associate director and Sum Ooi Leng, director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 10:09:12 AM

MARKET RESEARCH AGENCY OF THE YEAR AGILITY RESEARCH & STRATEGY The past 12 months have been exciting for Agility Research & Strategy which signed on a number of new clients and participated in several speaking engagements locally and abroad. It also refined www.affluential.com, a DIY research platform connecting brands to affluent consumers globally. Affluential.com was showcased as one of the most innovative companies at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) pavilion at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. In addition, it streamlined elements of its research solutions into what it now calls The Affluent Suite™. This is a proprietary system of tools and processes developed by its research scientists to deeply understand the

BLACKBOX RESEARCH

Black

Apart from moving to new digs near Robertson Quay, highlights for Blackbox in the past 12 months have been the expansion of its audience response measurement methodology which is unique in the region and offers communications professionals far better resolutions on the effectiveness of their messaging. Its online communities platform is gaining traction as a result of its versatility and costeffectiveness, as is its data visualisation platform, which allows clients to bring data to life anywhere and on any device. In 2014, Blackbox successfully expanded its YouKnowAnot monthly monitor which is the only public measure of community sentiment in Singapore. The monthly updates are picked up regularly by media sources and have attracted thousands of online comments helping to generate better public dialogue on local attitudes. The YKA newsletter is now circulated to more than 300 opinion leaders and inﬂuencers across Singapore every month. It has also picked up a number of local and international clients in key sectors, including ﬁnancial services, tourism, leisure and recreation and transport. Owned by: Independent Headed by: David Black, managing director

motivations of the Affluent consumer’s pathto-purchase. Key highlights for 2014 included winning accounts from public and private sector corporations such as SGX, Sentosa Harbourfront, Tiffany, De Beers, Barclays, Unilever, DFS, BMW, Grant & Sons, CNN and many others, all aimed at acquiring actionable insights to gain market share from Affluent consumers. For Marina Bay Sands, the agency carried out a brand tracking programme, on-site visitor satisfaction and profiling, ad testing and loyalty programme tracking, with the objective to clearly define its target audience. The work, says the agency, helped the brand measure its ROI from various

FLAMINGO SINGAPORE

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Ali Mirza, executive director; Amrita Banta, managing director

GFK SINGAPORE

Flamingo Singapore has enjoyed a strong year of business in the past 12 months. With an annual growth rate of 30%, the business has more than doubled in size in the past five years; also the nature of the work has evolved in new and interesting ways and the external profile of the agency has rocketed. Flamingo continues to service longer term clients that have grown with the agency over the past five years, but also developed several new client relationships such as Disney and Google that’s helping to support a different style of work. A close-knit group has always been the engine behind Flamingo across the now seven offices and this continued with a Group Expo held in Istanbul in September. This was a chance for 300 Flamingos to share work, build relationships and find inspiration. It culminated in a large-scale event that exhibited the best work from the group, as well as a series of keynote presentations and interactive panel discussions from external speakers and internal leaders all sharing their vision of the future. This has created huge momentum in the group with multiple crossoffice initiatives now in full affect. Flamingo Singapore has entered 2015 on a high. The team is continuing to push the boundaries of client expectations in the region and developing strategic partnerships that see Flamingo create its best work for clients.

GfK is the trusted source of relevant market and consumer information that enables its clients to make smarter decisions. It has long-standing experience in collecting and analysing data. The company has more than 13,000 passionate experts with data science experience and German heritage. It delivers globally with vital insights into local markets in 100 countries. GfK’s business is divided into two sectors: consumer choices and consumer experiences. Consumer choices investigates what’s selling, when and where. This sector continuously tracks online and ofﬂine media as well as major sales and information channels. The former retail and technology sector and the TV, radio and print measurement businesses from its media sector are now part of consumer choices. GfK’s consumer experiences concentrates on consumers’ attitudes, perceptions and behaviour. Using creative and robust methodologies, the sector answers the “who”, “what”, “why” and “how” of consumer buying. The former custom research business and the media sector’s ad hoc research business are now part of consumer experiences. The two sectors work closely across the globe as “One GfK”. Recently, travel technology provider, Abacus International inked a deal with GfK to advance the analytics available to the travel industry by supplying anonymised booking data for the specialist GfK Travelscan report.

Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Emma Gage and Adri Reksodipoetro, joint managing directors

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Matthias Hartmann, global chief executive ofﬁcer

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marketing activities and guide the allocation of marketing budgets. The insights offered led to key product developments, increased customer satisfaction and growth in market share. In terms of people, it filled a number of senior roles in the company with experienced personnel from the industry, focusing overall on the development of the senior leadership bench. It also opened its office in HK to service its growing list of premium clients. The agency is now looking forward to opening its next office in New York, slated for 2016.

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18/6/2015 1:07:17 PM

MARKET RESEARCH AGENCY OF THE YEAR IPSOS SINGAPORE

KANTAR GROUP SINGAPORE

TNS GLOBAL

As industries around the world restructure to adjust to a changing world; with technology and consumer adoption of it growing leaps ahead of traditional business practices and marketing principles, 2014 was a challenging year for not just its key clients, but Ipsos as well. Globally, Ipsos streamlined and amended its core principles and values to help clients better navigate this changing world. This is being done with the launch of the New Way in 2014, a programme that will transform Ipsos over the next three years. The objective is to help clients be better informed and more certain of their sources, so they can make faster and better decisions about their products, services and brands. As a sign of its commitment, the start of 2015 saw the adoption of a new tag line, “game changers”. In the next 12 months, its external focus and commitment remains on healthcare companies, financial services, technology and CPG clients. Additionally, with the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, businesses in Singapore, and its clients, are expected to benefit with even greater regional potential. Set up in 1995, Ipsos in Singapore is now one of the most established and largest market research firms in the country, with nearly 130 research specialists and an in-house survey fieldwork unit. Together with 86 offices worldwide, it makes it the world’s third largest market research firm, merging local insights with global expertise to create actionable and effective business solutions. Ipsos is structured globally as well as in Singapore by research specialisations, specifically in areas of product innovation, consumer and market understanding, customer loyalty, brand expression and communications and business consulting, with each of these units firmly supported by global modelling units and centres of excellence to ensure clients have access to and receive the best that research has to offer. While already ISO 20252 compliant, Ipsos in Singapore initiated the formal process of certification in 2014. Ipsos in Singapore has seen a steady increase in staff engagement scores with particular confidence in the decisions made by senior management.

WPP-owned Kantar Group comes in as a finalist in our rankings this year. Most recently, the research, data and insight company inked a deal with comScore to introduce their first joint offering for cross-media audience measurement to key clients. The announcement was unveiled at a joint industry round table in San Sebastian, home to the 2015 I-COM Summit. This is the first outcome of the Kantar and comScore strategic alliance announced earlier this year to provide world-class crossmedia audience and campaign measurement capabilities to markets around the world. Bringing together the leading experts on TV and internet audience measurement, both companies have defined a roadmap together that addresses a range of reporting scopes and the options of available measurement assets and techniques, including panels, meters, tagging, home routers, return path data and census profiles. “As advertising spend on integrated crossmedia campaigns increases, there is a growing demand for solutions that bring together TV and internet audience measurement to provide cross-media reach and frequency,” said Andy Brown, CEO and chairman of Kantar Media. “We are pleased at the progress our research and technical teams have made in combining different measurement techniques and designing a common approach. Crossmedia measurement solutions must be responsive to local needs so we have designed a framework that maximises the use of existing data sets and commercial considerations in any given market.” Serge Matta, CEO of comScore, said: “We are delivering on our promise to simplify the deployment of global measurement capabilities and accelerate the creation of new services for the industry. The customer response to our partnership was extremely positive, as the market is eager to see cross-media measurement for both audiences and campaigns.”

TNS advises clients on speciﬁc growth strategies around new market entry, innovation, brand switching and customer strategies, based on long-established expertise and marketleading solutions. With a presence in more than 80 countries, TNS boasts having more conversations with the world’s consumers than anyone else and “understands individual human behaviours and attitudes across every cultural, economic and political region of the world”. Most recently, the global research consultancy announced an exclusive and widereaching strategic partnership with GeoPoll, the world’s largest mobile survey platform. Under the multi-year agreement, TNS and sister company, Kantar Media, will join forces with GeoPoll to deploy a new range of research products and services intended to deepen and improve market research in Africa, including: 1. Giving TNS access to GeoPoll’s platform and user database: TNS will utilise GeoPoll’s mobile surveying platform and user database to conduct mobile research projects for clients throughout Africa. In addition, GeoPoll will become the exclusive provider of mobile samples using its platform in key countries. 2. Collaboration on media measurement services: TNS and Kantar Media will work with GeoPoll to expand its media measurement service in selected countries within Sub Saharan Africa, providing support in the areas of media planning software, sampling and weighting expertise. 3. Expanding Kantar Media’s data products in Africa: TNS, Kantar Media and GeoPoll will jointly sell Kantar Media’s global TGI product in a number of markets, bringing regular consumer insights on a sector by sector basis. Kim MacIlwaine, CEO of TNS Africa, Mediterranean and the Middle East, said: “Mobile is an increasingly important mode of communication for market researchers, and we’re excited to collaborate with GeoPoll to expand our data product offerings in key African markets. “We believe GeoPoll’s robust mobile surveying technology, combined with TNS and Kantar Media’s expertise in the market, and media research will be beneﬁcial to all of our clients working in Africa.”

Owned by: Ipsos SA Headed by: Miranda Cheung, CEO, Singapore and Malaysia

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Andy Brown, CEO and chairman, Kantar Media

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Jon Foged, managing director, TNS Singapore

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Brown

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

18/6/2015 10:08:40 AM

MOBILE MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

TRIBAL WORLDWIDE SINGAPORE Taking top spot in the Mobile category is Tribal Worldwide Singapore. The agency has been busy scaling up its inhouse social content production team. This has been especially done to support the growing social media business from Unilever’s nine brands. These are for the brands Dove, Dove Body, Sunsilk, Clear Men, Lifebuoy, Cornetto, Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s and Lipton.

THE WINNERS GOLD

Tribal Worldwide Singapore

80.31%

SILVER

Codigo

77.06%

BRONZE

Airwave

75.44%

LOCAL HERO

Codigo

77.06%

THE FINALISTS Carbon Interactive Dentsu Möbius Grey Group Singapore Havas Media Singapore Isobar Singapore MEC Singapore Mediatropy Mindshare Singapore Mirum

With a bigger team, the production unit now houses a ﬁlm crew, in-house ﬁlm director, editor and script writers. With these added capabilities, the team is able to turn around content for social media consumption and has the ability to scale up projects to broadcast quality at a much faster pace. Additionally, Tribal Worldwide Singapore also set up the iStore to provide technology and innovation services to the DDB group globally. Currently, the Singapore team has the largest team of technologists consisting of a total of 40 members. The agency also made several senior hires with Lauren Ahearn taking on the role of business director. Meanwhile, Jeremy Ng was hired as account director and Lim Fern Yit is now taking on the role of UX strategist. These are only a few of its several new senior hires. One of the more notable campaigns the agency embarked on was to make the Pioneer Generation Package more relatable and understandable to older folks in Singapore. This was done through videos in languages, dialects and scenarios that the target audience could understand and connect with. According

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to the agency, to date the videos have generated more than a million YouTube views and has been widely covered by mainstream media. Meanwhile, for POSB Cash-Point, the agency was tasked to help increase public awareness and cash withdrawal transactions of the POSB Cash-Point service. Through videos on social media and other efforts, it achieved a huge year-on-year increase in the average number of Cash-Point transactions made per month. The agency also launched Radar which unleashes the power of social media and customer data to provide insights and intelligence for business. Radar reinvents the planning – making it smarter, faster and better – creating real value for clients and DDB by delivering intelligent solutions to help businesses address competitive brand, product and customer experience challenges. Going forward the agency says it will continue to sharpen its offerings and grow its content and tech servicing into the regions where its clients are based. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Jeff Cheong, president

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MOBILE MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR CODIGO Taking home the silver as well as the Local Hero award for the Mobile Agency of the Year category is Codigo. Last year proved to be a great year for Codigo as the agency enjoyed its work for new clients and built on its existing capabilities. The agency concentrated heavily on building the “best of mobile apps that marry form with function”. It also placed a strong focus on code structure and UI/UX. Codigo also saw several new account wins last year. Some of its new clients include the likes of Konica Minolta, McDelivery, ComfortDelGro Taxis, Brother, SingPost, Singapore Grand Prix and CapitaMalls Asia. Campaign wise, for McDelivery, the agency helped to integrate credit card payments to ensure the shortest and easiest way for a customer to get their food ﬁx. With the help of the agency, McDelivery saw an increase in its mobile booking by 20% with the new version of the app. Meanwhile, for ComfortDelGro, the agency was tasked to help the company’s app be better than the competing third party taxi apps that are on the rise in the local market.

Codigo was also tasked to integrate the best UI/UX for all users. This resulted in almost 80% of all existing taxi app users having the new version of the Comfort app installed in their mobile devices. Other clients the agency worked with included the Singapore Economic Development Board, Toyota, Samsung, Motorola, PUB, Singapore Tourism Board, Health Promotion Board, DBS, Heineken and many others. In 2014, the agency saw departures on its creative team with the exit of creative director Regina Chan. However, it also added new blood to its team with the hiring of Chang Jin as business development director and Eric Si as junior creative. Codigo has over the years won recognition from both brand and agency professionals. Last year, it was also one of the top winners for the Marketing’s Mobex awards. The agency bagged four gold awards, two silver and a bronze. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Adrian Ng (founder/director), Subha Naidu (creative director), Axton Salim (director)

AIRWAVE Taking home the bronze award in the Mobile category is Airwave. “In 2014, we breathed new life into the Airwave offering. As part of our agency wide reinvention programme, Airwave has and will continue to go through rigorous service improvements and expansions,” said Mark Halliday, head of Airwave. The agency now has more clients building mobile as a key component of their overall comms strategy. Airwave is, hence, swiftly moving towards mobile being “opt-out” rather than “opt-in”. Last year, the agency closed the ﬁnancial year on a high note with robust growth of 122% from 2013. Airwave is currently fully integrated into Omnicom Media Group’s agencies. Hence, the success of OMD and PHD often translates into Airwave’s success. In 2014, Airwave ran a grand total of 323 campaigns across almost every country in APAC. Airwave also saw 98% client retention and it now services more than 75 clients. Out of its Singapore ofﬁce, the agency drove several major new business wins, including Gumtree and PayPal. These two clients have developed highly complex mobile communications

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strategies and Airwave works with them across a broad spectrum of mobile media services. These go beyond just planning and buying to include location-based targeting, app download management and creative production. The agency has run a number of local and regional campaigns out of the Singapore ofﬁce. The agency added that increasingly, many clients were looking to the ofﬁce’s location for increased relevance. “This is evident in our submissions for HPrecision, SCB Here for Good and 100

Plus Standard Chartered Marathon. We are also highly focused on uplifts in business results, seen in our entries for PayPal Summer Securities, Engage with Gumtree and Trial with Transitions Lenses,” Halliday said. In the past 12 months, the agency achieved a staff retention rate of 83%. As part of its team expansion, the agency brought in a number of key hires into the Airwave team, including Olivia Russell as a business director from Yahoo UK, Rafael Martin, from InMobi, and promoted Sybil Ng to strategy executive. In 2015, the agency is also looking towards expanding and improving its portfolio of expertise. At present, the vast majority of output is based around ad solutions. 2015 will see a higher blend of mobile technologies, including CRM, Beacons and payment solutions. Going forward, it is also placing a huge emphasis on creativity and using mobile as a communication platform. Owned by: Omnicom Media Group Headed by: Mark Halliday, head of Airwave APAC

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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MOBILE MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR CARBON INTERACTIVE While Carbon Interactive has more than a decade of digital marketing expertise in its portfolio, the agency still remains true to a promise it ﬁrst set out with: To create aweinspiring experiences across all accounts. “This has always been, and still ﬁrmly is, instilled in everything the agency does, be it strategising, brainstorming creatives or crafting copy to account servicing,” said Jeffrey Lim, general manager. Lim added that in recent times, the agency had also landed several key global accounts. This was a welcomed shift as it previously primarily dealt with local clients. No doubt, this progress has validated the agency’s perseverance in and commitment to delivering quality work and, of course, aweinspiring experiences.

DENTSU MÖBIUS

Hawkins

Part of the Dentsu Aegis network, Dentsu Möbius is an end-to-end digital agency. The agency is committed to doing whatever it takes to achieve success for its clients. Founded as a digital centre of excellence in June 2012, Dentsu Möbius is on a mission to widen the gap between digital leaders and digital followers. Leading Dentsu Möbius is James Hawkins. This year he took on added responsibilities to his roster as the president of Dentsu’s digital capabilities in South and Southeast Asia. Hawkins, who founded Dentsu Möbius, contributed to the regional business by putting “digital at the forefront of marketing”. His expertise is set to boost Dentsu’s digital capabilities in both sub-regions, the agency said. Currently Dentsu Möbius’ teams are chosen from across digital marketing verticals, and they seamlessly collaborate to provide and implement business-driving digital solutions. The agency specialises in performance marketing, integrated marketing communications, mobile marketing, social media marketing, digital production and CRM. Owned by: Dentsu Aegis Network Headed by: James Hawkins, president, Dentsu’s digital capabilities

The major accounts the agency recently won were APRIL Group (and PaperOne its signature brand of paper products), Beko, Fraser & Neave, Mount Faber Leisure Group, Singapore Polytechnic, Hong Leong Finance, Marina Bay Link Mall, National Environment Agency, Singapore Institute of Technology, NTUC Link and Energy Market Authority. As with many organisations in the industry, the need to hire new blood is a huge challenge to the senior management team. The agency, hence, embarked on a different hiring strategy – it started investing in young and passionate individuals to train and develop their potential. To stay ahead of the game, Carbon

GREY GROUP SINGAPORE In the past 12 months, Grey Group Singapore saw the final realisation of full agency integration, the build-out of several innovative departments, and the completion of Singapore’s first in-house post-production arm. This resulted in several successful accounts being brought on board by the agency. Last year, Grey Group Singapore strategically invested in pitch efforts beyond Singapore’s shores. This was in a bid to expand its client base across the region and even abroad. It won the Saudi Arabia-based airline business Al Maha Airways. Other key pitch wins included the global GSK Scott’s digital business and iconic local accounts such as British Council and Sentosa. This was in addition to the agency’s key retained clients such as GlaxoSmithKline, Qatar Airways, Ferrero, Pringles, P&G and Metro Department Store. One of the more notable campaigns created by the agency was for the British Council. The “Know Your English” campaign was an insight-driven campaign with a digital banner cleverly used in the search patterns of those who struggle with English. The banner was used to engage audiences at their exact moment of need by providing definitions to unfamiliar vocabulary. The four-week campaign reached out to more than 300,000 people, with a 51.8% interaction rate that helped to define more than 70,000 words. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Subbaraju Alluri, CEO

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Interactive’s leads also aim to provide consultancy services, training and lectures to help clients and partners better harness the power of online interactivity – all in the hope of allowing them to better achieve their objectives and meet their KPIs. Going forward the agency has seen a surge of interest in creating brand stories tailored for the digital sphere and along with that, an increased importance placed on creating the best online user experience. Naturally, public relations and online branding have also become hot topics of interest among its clients and partners. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Jeffrey Lim, general manager

HAVAS MEDIA SINGAPORE Havas Media Singapore’s operations grew on many fronts last year. The agency’s billings improved year-on-year by 33% – driven by securing large, high-volume quality clients such as Emirates, LG, Burger King, Blue Scope, Seagate and major projects from Fraser & Neave, Samsonite, Bausch & Lomb, Skyscanner, POSB and the Standard Chartered Marathon. Profitability also improved twofold because of astute investments in operational efficiency initiatives, automating several aspects of its operations thus driving productivity up. In addition, the whole industry finally started riding the wave of digital specialisations and the agency saw its clients investing more across social, mobile, performance marketing, content and programmatic buying. “We have benefited much from this evolution in the market because we purposefully initiated a ‘digital-at-the-core’ strategy some years ago to develop and nurture deep expertise within these digital specialist services,” said Melvin Lim, CEO of Havas Media Group, Singapore and Malaysia. He added the diversity of Havas Media’s offerings placed it in a very strong position to fulfil almost every need a client may have across paid, owned, earned and shared media. Its design and technology practice has also matured so it can take on design, production and technology projects. Owned by: The Havas Group Headed by: Melvin Lim, CEO, Singapore and Malaysia

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MOBILE MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR ISOBAR SINGAPORE It has been a great year for Isobar Singapore, with its annual turnover increasing by a whopping 38% year-on-year. The agency had record new business conversion rates and multiple awards for its innovation work. The agency also bagged several new accounts with OCBC Bank’s consumer ﬁnancial services, Singapore Navy Recruitment Centre, Uniqlo, F&N SEASONS and FRANK by OCBC. According to Isobar Singapore, the next few months present a unique opportunity for digitally

MEC SINGAPORE MEC had a strong year in 2014. The agency achieved double-digit growth rates in total billings, annual turnover and net proﬁt. MEC’s business has also diversiﬁed ahead of the market and almost half of its current business now comes from digital, content and data/analytics. According to Sharon Soh, MD of the agency, this is an area that MEC has always been reputed for and this is driven very much by its global ambition to be its clients’ most valued business partner.

MEDIATROPY DIGITAL AGENCY The past 12 months have been tremendously active for Mediatropy Digital Agency. The agency has grown twofold in terms of headcount. Mostly, the teams were tied with work on the Gili Lankanfushi experiential website which, according to the agency, led to the client bagging the number one hotel spot in the World award from TripAdvisor. For Gili Lankanfushi Maldives, the agency handled all of its web, mobile, social and digital activations. Mediatropy Digital Agency has also been working on a set of interactive and digital tools for a new museum opening in May 2015. As most of the museum projects are going live just in time for the SG50 celebrations, the agency is bringing on board a mobile app startup which it is says looks very promising. In terms of major account wins, the agency brought on board Singapore Pinacothèque de Paris, the largest private art museum in Paris set to open in Singapore soon. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Astrid Boulle and Pierre De Luca, managing directors

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borne agencies to play an integral role. This is particularly so in helping brands navigate through the monumental disruption that is taking place for traditional businesses through creativity, innovation and imagination. Isobar Singapore’s plan over the next 12 months is to continue to invest in strategic competencies to strengthen its ability to deliver “ideas without limits” for clients across the region. The agency aims to support its clients to become more effective in commerce building by putting the last mile ﬁrst. Currently, the agency’s data analysts are

The agency has seen a strong year in new business wins achieving nearly US$15 million in annual billings value. It was appointed by Abbott Laboratories for the baby and adult milks category in January 2014 following a three-way pitch involving Havas (incumbent) and Zenith. Meanwhile, Health Promotion Board appointed the agency following a ﬁve-way pitch involving OMD (incumbent), Carat, Mindshare and MediaCom. Going forward, the agency will be enhancing its strategic and integrated planning capabilities through T5 and Momentum. T5 is MEC’s proprietary planning process

MINDSHARE SINGAPORE

using a new proprietary dash boarding tool, iAnalyse, which allows them to deliver rapidﬁre marketing and business analytics. These dashboards are shared with key stakeholders, including clients, through live, interactive views of data on a web browser or a tablet. “We will achieve this through a relentless focus on innovation, ensuring Isobar can deliver borderless thinking, built on evolving technology,” said CEO Prakash Kamdar. Owned by: Dentsu Aegis Network Headed by: Prakash Kamdar, CEO

which is in line with its manifesto to thrive and push boundaries. The agency rolled out its enhanced planning approach T5 at the beginning of 2014. “This approach has engagement at its heart. The development of T5 takes insights, consumer journey and idea generation to the next level, and underpins our commitment to deliver insight-driven, integrated and innovative strategic solutions for our clients,” Soh said. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Sharon Soh, managing director

MIRUM

The year proved to be a reasonably challenging one for Mindshare Singapore as very few large local clients were pitching their accounts. Despite that, Mindshare Singapore still won ﬁve new clients, and increased revenue by 10%. The agency prides itself on having longterm relationships with clients, with the majority of the top clients having been with the team for more than ﬁve to 10 years. The agency’s client retention is about 95% – a testament to its commitment to constantly challenge itself and clients to drive business outcomes. According to Nick Seckold, managing director of the agency in 2015, Mindshare will be focused on helping clients answer the bigger questions, become more adaptive in their approach to their marketing, while ensuring greater effectiveness to drive business results.

Making it to our short-list in the Mobile category is Mirum, an agency formed from the consolidation of 11 of JWT’s digital agencies globally. The move gives the Mirum network access to 17 countries and 40 offices worldwide. Asia is set to be a primary focus for the new entity, with 20% of its growth expected to come out of the region, said global and North America CEO Dan Khabie. Leading Asia Pacific is XM Asia lead Nanda Ivens. Ivens will shift to Mirum’s regional HQ in Singapore. Sources have suggested the network has been built as a competitor to SapientNitro, which has been providing strong competition in recent times. Mirum has deep vertical service offerings in digital retail, behavioural media and financial services. Despite both JWT and Mirum operating separately, both may approach pitches together when needed. Both JWT and Mirum will continue to manage individual clients. Current clients include CBRE, Cyrela, Daum Kakao, Finnair, HSBC, Magazine Luiza, Mazda, Microsoft, Nokia, Singapore Tourism Board, TD Bank, Walmart and XL.

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nick Seckold, managing director

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nanda Ivens, CEO

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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SOCIAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

GOODSTUPH “Coming tto ﬁve years of age as an independent agency is akin to going through puberty – dealing with bad acne and bad choices in boyfriends, and ﬁnally coming of age and turning 21. Twenty four months ago, we were like a fast-food joint; we took all orders and delivered them good and fast,” said founder Pat Law. In the past 12 months, it made the decision to pitch less, going from 16 pitches in 2013 to a

THE WINNERS GOLD

GOODSTUPH

76%

SILVER

Tribal Worldwide Singapore

67%

BRONZE

We Are Social Singapore

LOCAL HERO

GOODSTUPH

THE FINALISTS Edelman Public Relations Grey Group Singapore Happy Marketer Mindshare Singapore QED Consulting Vocanic

66.75% 76%

mere three in 2014. “We decided to focus more on existing clients instead. With our limited resources, our time is better spent on existing clients, than potential ones who need 30 slides about social media around Asia to justify if an idea is sound or not,” Law said. “You could say we are now an intimate by reservation-only restaurant that serves threecourse meals with regulars.” The decision to do so appeared to have paid off. There was an average of a 50% increase in revenue across all existing clients. For every 10 retainer clients, eight are with the agency. Also, the agency has seen an increase in challenges. In the middle of the year, the agency’s tenacity to handle a large-scale regional campaign was put to the test when it launched an advocacy platform for Glenfiddich. The Glenfiddich Experience was a first in many ways for the agency – a first foray into an uncharted territory – Thailand. It also partnered with FLY Entertainment to launch Bar Naked – a tribute to brick-and-mortar social media of preFacebook days, leveraging on the channel to

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market a suite of brands in its portfolio. It closed the year on a high, with its UOB Cards Anna Sui campaign – achieving 100% redemption over a period of less than six weeks. In terms of account wins, Law said: “Carlsberg was a beautiful retainer account to secure because ﬁrstly, we are alcoholics and secondly, the scope of work issued provided such great opportunities to exercise our creativity.” It was also appointed the digital and social media agency of record for The Straits Times in December 2014. “It’s not every day we get the chance of marketing a local brand with a 170-year-old history. The sense of satisfaction is a little hard to explain in words.” As for the retention rate of staff, the agency still has staff appointed from three years ago, attributing this to a decision to hire “hybrids”, and the distinctive culture the agency has. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Pat Law, founder

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17/6/2015 5:53:37 PM

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SOCIAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR TRIBAL WORLDWIDE SINGAPORE

Taking silver in the Social Marketing category is Tribal Worldwide Singapore. The agency has been busy scaling up its inhouse social content production to support the growing social media business from Unilever’s nine brands. These are namely Dove, Dove Body, Sunsilk, Clear Men, Lifebuoy, Cornetto, Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s and Lipton. With a bigger team, the production unit now houses an in-house ﬁlm director, ﬁlm crew, editor and script writers. The team is able to turn around content for social media consumption with the ability to scale up to broadcast quality at a much faster pace.

Additionally, it also set up the iStore to provide technology and innovation services to the DDB group globally. Currently, the Singapore team has the largest team of technologists with 40. The agency also made several senior hires with Lauren Ahearn taking on the role of business director. Jeremy Ng was hired as account director and Lim Fern Yit is now the UX strategist. One of the campaigns the agency embarked on was to make the Pioneer Generation Package more relatable and understandable to older folks in Singapore. This was done through videos in languages,

dialects and scenarios they could understand and connect with. To date, the videos have generated more than a million YouTube views and been widely covered by mainstream media. Meanwhile, for POSB Cash-Point, it had to increase public awareness and cash withdrawal transactions of POSB Cash-Point service. Through videos on social media and other efforts, it achieved a massive year-on-year increase in the average number of Cash-Point transactions made per month. The agency also launched Radar – which unleashes the power of social media and customer data to provide insights and intelligence for business. Radar reinvents the planning – making it smarter, faster and better – creating real value for clients and DDB by delivering intelligent solutions to help businesses address competitive brand, product and customer experience challenges. Going forward the agency says it will continue to sharpen its offerings and grow its content and tech servicing into the regions where its clients are based. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Jeff Cheong, president

WE ARE SOCIAL SINGAPORE “The past 12 months have been a mixed bag that, at the outset, has left us in a very strong position as a business and team,” said the agency. It started 2014 with a bang via a number of key client wins, including Singtel. “We are also very fortunate to be able to count Intel and Lenovo as our pillar clients and key supporters, and those relationships continued to provide us momentum and inspiration throughout the year.” When things got a little quiet during the summer, it began to rethink its internal processes – how it managed pitches and to decide which businesses and industry categories the agency’s team was most excited to focus on. “Restructuring our approach meant the departure of some members of the team, but we were able to become more focused, nimble and aligned to our vision and commitment to challenging traditional marketing norms through ‘world changing social thinking’. And we’ve won a great deal of business since then.” Key account wins included collaborating with FOX Sports’ AFF Suzuki Cup across an integrated social media programme, which

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Kemp

included an on-ground social command centre at the Malaysia-Singapore match in Singapore and helped drive channel ratings and a 93% surge in audience reach compared with the 2012 edition. For the Singtel-Standard Chartered launch of DASH, a new mobile payments solution, in Singapore, the team provided Facebook and Twitter assets creation, social outreach and active listening and launch support. The organisation beefed up its senior leadership team with the appointment of former Nokomai Singapore general manager Tuck Wai Yue in January as business director; and FleishmanHillard SVP and regional digital and social lead Don Anderson in May as managing director. Founder Simon Kemp also

assumed the title of regional managing partner to lead the agency’s activities across Asia with a focus on developing new products, services and relationships. It also added two key hires to complement its creative and account services teams – Christie Way, who joined from BBDO as art director; and Marina Bay Sands’ advertising and brand manager Emah Zaini as account director. The agency was acquired by BlueFocus Communication Group early last year. The Singapore ofﬁce recorded its biggest Q4 in its three-and-a-half year history, a highly successful collaboration with FOX Sports, and three signiﬁcant client wins in December that has dramatically altered the composition of the organisation, service offering and overall outlook. Since then it has been ramping up hiring across all departments, and in February and March it added a content team led by former Straits Times online editor and photojournalist Wui-Liang Lim. Owned by: BlueFocus Communication Group Headed by: Simon Kemp, regional partner and Don Anderson, managing director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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SOCIAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR EDELMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS According to the agency, 2014 saw it move itself from a public relations agency into a communications marketing powerhouse. This also saw more than half of its work being focused on developing and launching communications and marketing campaigns for clients in Singapore, Greater Asia and the rest of the world. Edelman also partnered with several local heroes and brands to enhance Singapore’s proﬁle. It led landmark campaigns for Sports Hub and Marina Bay Sands, and initiated and inspired national agenda conversations on sports, youth, tourism, employment and energy. Edelman Singapore’s year-on-year revenue growth was about 10% and it had a new business success ratio of about 75%. Its transformation led to US$4 million in new business conversions across government services, energy, health, sports, technology and ﬁnancial services. Its work also won four major consumer marketing and technology awards for VMWare, Diageo and GSK. For example, Diageo received the World Luxury Award Gold Trophy in Monaco and Asia PR Week Awards’ win for Consumer Launch of the Year. It also made several senior appointments such as Catriona Muspratt-Williams, senior vicepresident and head of research; Kim Hoang, from Weber Shandwick Europe, as Edelman Digital’s Southeast Asia managing director; Neil Leslie, from M&C Saatchi, as creative director; John O’Callaghan, from Thomson Reuters, as Edelman Southeast Asia director of publishing and partnerships; and Heidi Eusebio, from Edelman Germany, as Edelman Southeast Asia managing director, consumer brand. It also created 13 new types of roles to advance Edelman’s digital, strategic planning, research, creative and consumer business capabilities. Through additional new hires and training it also increased its specialisation in protection and cyber security, wellness and nutrition, and biotechnology. New services and products it ramped up included its creative capabilities by building a team of creative directors, strategy directors, producers, designers, artists and writers. It also created a custom “newsroom” approach to help clients monitor and participate in real-time traditional and digital media and consumer conversations. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Amanda Goh, managing director, Singapore

GREY GROUP SINGAPORE The past 12 months for Grey Singapore saw the ﬁnal realisation of full agency integration, the build-out of several innovative departments, the completion of Singapore’s ﬁrst in-house postproduction arm, and the success of several global pitch wins under its belt. Grey Singapore has strategically invested pitch efforts this year beyond Singapore’s shores, expanding its client base across the region and abroad. For example, winning the Saudi Arabia-based airline business Al Maha Airways for whom the agency is creating a holistic brand experience. Other key pitch wins include the global GSK Scott’s digital business and iconic local accounts such as British Council and Sentosa – increasing the agency’s total revenue by 37%.

This is in addition to the agency’s key retained clients such as GlaxoSmithKline, Qatar Airways, Ferrero, Pringles, Procter & Gamble and Metro Department Store. The past year has ushered in several key additions – from senior “thinkers” that keep global opportunities in check to business leads to the agency’s own sound engineer: Judd Labarthe – VP, global strategy director, GSK; Shahvez Afridi – head of strategy, P&G, APAC; Marco Iodice – composer and sound designer; Konstantin Popovic – executive VP, global business director, GSK; and Suresh Ramaswamy – digital lead, regional director, SE Asia. Grey Singapore sees no signs of a slow down in the next year. In fact, with ﬁnalised capabilities and new client offerings, the agency expects the business to grow exponentially. Full integration has allowed a holistic approach to each brief, while GreyWorks allows for centralised and streamlined post-production across all markets. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Subbaraju Alluri, CEO

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HAPPY MARKETER

Started six years ago, the agency describes 2014 as one of its most successful years. It saw a 69% growth in revenue, 1,556% growth in profits and it doubled its team size. It was also one of the few agencies in Asia to be licensed by Google to sell Google Analytics Premium in the region. Besides this, it also ramped up its digital marketing trainings, along with Google, and successfully coached more than 1000 marketing professionals across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Last year, it closed 59 projects out of 122 pitched, with a closing rate of 48% along with seeing great business growth. It was higher than any previous year, said the agency. Key accounts that contributed to this were: Nanyang Business School, Kaplan, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Royal Brunei Airlines, Sabre Hospitality and Standard Chartered Bank. While the agency saw the departure of some employees, including a partner, it consolidated the control of the firm with its current partners – Rachit Dayal and Prantik Mazumdar. It also hired new talent from companies such IBM, Google, Yahoo and MediaCorp. Several younger employees adopted new roles and broke new ground in areas such as client servicing, finance, human resources and operations. In 2014, it also took its search marketing impact and results to a whole different level with global campaigns for clients such as Royal Brunei Airlines, Nanyang Business School, Kaplan and Sabre Hospitality group. The main things it did differently were educating to give SEO the importance it deserves; experimentation beyond search ads with RLSA, DSA, remarketing; a focus on fixing bottlenecks and demonstrating immediate ROI; multi device, multi-channel attribution and a hyper local, user-centric campaign structure that matches messages to the prospect environment. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Rachit Dayal and Prantik Mazumdar, partners

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SOCIAL MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR MINDSHARE SINGAPORE While 2014 was a challenging year for new business with few local clients, the agency managed to win ﬁve new clients and increase its revenue by 10%. It also says that its client retention rate is about 95%, with the majority of its top clients having been with the agency for between ﬁve to 10 years. Mindshare made several key hires in 2014, appointing two managing partners, one data technologist, a digital performance director and a creative content and activation project manager. It also kept staff attrition low at less than 25%. In 2015, the agency said it would be focused on helping clients answer the bigger questions, and become more adaptive in their approach to marketing while ensuring greater effectiveness to drive business results.

QED CONSULTING

VOCANIC As pioneers, initially in word-of-mouth, and then when social media appeared, in social media, – Vocanic has always been at the forefront of presenting its point of view regarding change, said the agency. Before 2014 this was done via its blog and speaking in public at events run by conference organisers. With the integration with GroupM it now has access to a roster of more than 300 clients and brands and has been running an intensive programme of workshops and internal conferences with both the agencies and their clients. Also, following several senior departures last year, Vocanic made several new hires to its team. Sufﬁan Hakim joins regional creative director André Bose do Amaral, who was hired just last month for Vocanic’s content team. He has taken on the role of content lead. Hakim has been contributing to local titles such as August Man magazine, Time Out Singapore and CNN Travel over the years. He has also worked for agencies such as Ate Media and FYIGROUP. Maryam Mustan comes on board the Vocanic team with a background in content creation for various social media platforms across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Mustan will be part of the content and community management team as a community manager.

In 2014, it launched “The Loop” – a physical room where clients could make collaborative and adaptive decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing in real-time. The Loop enables clients not only to plan more adaptively and beneﬁt from more collaborative adaptive decision-making powered by data, but it also enables the shift of media spend quickly to leverage opportunities uncovered by real-time data during campaigns. Aside from The Loop and Mindshare Discovery, it also created its OTF (original thinking framework) war games, a planning and innovation day similar to Facebook’s “Hack” where along with clients, it gives selected media owners the chance to collaborate to crack a client’s marketing challenge or brief. In a ﬁrst for the industry in Singapore, Mindshare leveraged its scale and relationships with two of the most powerful players in the market (Google and MediaCorp) spending a day working through solutions with the client.

Before 2014, QED focused mainly on social media and digital marketing training. Capitalising on growth, with its roster of experienced marketers, in the second quarter of 2014 QED expanded its servicing offering to include digital management consulting and execution. This shift in focus resulted in explosive growth. In its first year of operations, QED signed several major clients, including Gardens by the Bay, Dolby Asia, CA Technologies, and the Ministry of Communications and Information. It closed the year with a full team of seven on board and welcomed a board of advisors who began their term in 2015. “QED and its principal consultants are regular contributors and commentators on issues relating to the industry and beyond,” said the agency. “We believe that digital and social media are deeply experiential, not just academic, which is why we plan and deliver hands-on training to marketers on topics like content marketing or crisis management in social media, serve on various boards and councils, are moderators for industry events and judges for industry awards. “We intend to continue our efforts as we work towards raising the standards and sophistication of the industry in Singapore and the region. Particularly, Ryan Lim will be pushing the agenda across on a national level as he begins his term on the board of directors at MDA.” One example of its work was to transform Gardens by the Bay’s marketing functions to become more digitally integrated and operationally proficient to handle digital and social media marketing and related initiatives. The more efficient digital marketing processes installed reduced time spent for planning and reporting while sustaining an improvement in engagement and reach performance.

Also key in Vocanic’s plans for 2015 is its technological capabilities. Chief technology ofﬁcer Shreeniwas Iyer said: “We see growing opportunities in 2015 to deploy advanced technology through products and social campaigns to service the new needs of our clients. We are ramping up our tech delivery functions in response to this demand.”

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nick Seckold, chief executive ofﬁcer

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Ryan Lim, Natasha Zhao and Freda Kwok, partners

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Ian McKee, chief executive ofﬁcer

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SEARCH MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

PHD SINGAPORE PHD bags another gold this year in the Search Marketing category. It has never been more important than now to embrace a brave new world where a continuous state of disruption is the new norm, said the agency. The launch of its operating system Source across all 79 ofﬁces last year enabled its 3,000 employees to collectively ideate and even compete globally by creating a “Massively-MultiPlayer-Online-Game”, unleashing PHD’s best ideas for clients. The strategy was focused on collaboration – playing as a uniﬁed team with the objective of

THE WINNERS GOLD

PHD

SILVER

iProspect Singapore

BRONZE

MediaCom Singapore

69.75%

LOCAL HERO

PurpleClick Media

68.25%

THE FINALISTS Happy Marketer MEC Singapore Mindshare Singapore OMD Singapore OOm SEO Agency

77.5% 77%

winning together. With technology and online gamification at the core of this, it allowed PHD to naturally and actively operate the many digital instruments available in media campaign development. It collaborated, hatched ideas and won, said the agency. PHD Singapore enjoyed double-digit growth in 2014, exponentially increasing in size and business. Since then, it has won 12 new business assignments in the past year, with the likes of SAP and F&N now on the roster. It also appointed key leadership talent, particularly in the realm of digital. These were: Heather Cheong, regional digital director; Tinder Chandiramani, digital director; Carlos Matriano, associate director and Natalie Ng, associate director of the performance unit. The crux of PHD’s growth engine lies beyond the current opportunities the global and local landscape offers. Going ahead, this is why PHD actively identifies and engages emerging Asian brands. Campaigns it ran in the past year included Unilever’s Tree of Life initiative. Every year, two million children under the age of five die of infections that can be prevented through hand washing. It amplified the movement to “Help

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a Child Reach 5” via a film inspired by real life parents. Flipping the traditional model of video seeding on its head, traffic and views built quickly to create “social proof”, allowing the video to achieve share and completion rates well above industry norms. This drove social advocacy that intensified around the cause with upwards of 250,000 shares in Asia. PHD also helped drive Johnnie Walker’s brand fame and advocacy through distribution of content, the creation of amazing experiences for the affluent, and working closely with iconic publishers and partners. Although a pure brand campaign, PHD Singapore set up an unprecedented budget setting targets that translated into trackable uplift in ROI globally for Johnnie Walker. Within the search category, there was the award-winning Hotels.com work. Based on the insight that the consumer’s movement is through the travel purchase funnel, it focused on the most recent search activities to personalise their next ad experience. This ultimately saw double-digit growth for Hotels.com’s sales. Owned by: Omnicom Media Group Headed by: Ang Wangyn, managing director

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17/6/2015 5:43:08 PM

SEARCH MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR IPROSPECT SINGAPORE

In 2014, iProspect’s journey was to build a team that was centred on driving integration and delivering innovative business and performance marketing solutions for clients today and tomorrow, said the agency. “On this journey, we at iProspect won strategic multi-market assignments, expanding our service offering from ﬁve products to 10 to deliver additional performance marketing solutions to ultimately drive leads and acquisitions for our clients,” said regional director Luke Janich. Another goal was to develop team

capabilities in product knowledge and standardise a series of deep-dive training sessions for the entire iProspect team. As of December 2014, revenue growth was a record 200% higher than 2013, and 50% of its revenue base now comes from SEO, analytics, conversion rate optimisation, afﬁliate marketing, and paid social, added Janich. Also, in the year, some of the highlights for iProspect included being appointed by StarHub for the latter’s search engine optimisation business. iProspect now works with the team at StarHub to increase the number of unique visitors and trafﬁc to its website. There was no pitch held for the account. Joe Loy, assistant vice-president of digital at StarHub, said about the appointment: “We are looking forward to working closely with iProspect to really drive our business forward and achieve great things. I see this as the start of a long working relationship with iProspect as our trusted partner.” Earlier in the year, it also appointed Stu Owens as SEO head for iProspect Singapore. He reports to Janich. Owens was previously

at Bloom Agency in the UK. He has more than nine years of experience in digital, search and online strategy. Before joining iProspect, he held the position of head of digital marketing at Bloom Agency – managing the SEO, PPC, display and affiliate teams within the fast-paced and growing digital agency. Before this, he worked at Metafocus Global, managing the expansion into China. “I look forward to seeing Owens drive iProspect’s best-in-class SEO offering and content marketing strategy across Singapore and the region in the coming years,” Janich said. Regionally, iProspect appointed Mark Fagan as its Asia Pacific MD in April last year. Based in Singapore, he reports to CEO Ruth Stubbs, and will be responsible for driving the strategic direction of the business across 14 markets, with a focus on initiating wide product diversification in the region. Owned by: Dentsu Aegis Network Headed by: Luke Janich, regional director, search and performance marketing

MEDIACOM SINGAPORE 2014 was another successful year that saw MediaCom focused on aligning with the new global positioning of “the content and connections agency” as well as continuing to grow its local presence in the market by harnessing the new way of thinking. “Since we believe in ‘people ﬁrst, better results’, we also launched our FUN Circle to encourage greater inclusiveness and collaboration between the team members to bring more ‘fun’ back to the workplace,” said a spokesperson for the agency. The agency brought on board a combination of local and global clients who could leverage its thinking and tools, with a remit including strategic planning, media buying, SEM and SEO. It also expanded its remit with existing clients to provide them with a more seamless offering across multiple channels in direct response and social media. Key notable wins included NUS Business School, Mars Wrigley, Dulux’s social media and Fonterra’s social media business. MediaCom welcomed on board Joseph Sales as digital director. “He has brought even more passion and thought leadership in digital and innovation

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and to act as our central point of excellence for our media beyond advertising proposition,” said the agency. It has outlined its strategy going forward. “Striving to be the ‘connections’ consultants, we want to move up the value chain to provide our clients greater synchronisation between paid, owned and earned media,” said a spokesperson. “We want to grow both the breadth and depth of our business by working with the best local and global brands in the market. This is why we focus our new business efforts around the type of businesses who can best leverage from the global best practices/ standards, innovative frameworks and local expertise that we possess.”

To stay relevant, it is constantly developing new tools and services such as the 20/20 framework to meet the needs of the market. It will be rolling out its media beyond advertising proposition where the key focus is centred on putting content at the heart of its communications approach. Also, since brands are now challenged to deliver greater accountability, measurability and ROI to the business, the agency has been building its performance marketing capabilities and has successfully deployed attributionbased campaigns and direct response metrics for clients. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Vivian Yeung, general manager

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

17/6/2015 5:43:15 PM

SEARCH MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR PURPLECLICK MEDIA

PurpleClick is the lead entity within the PurpleClick Group of business consultancy and digital marketing companies that includes PurpleClay Consulting and DigiChina. Headquartered in Singapore, PurpleClick provides businesses across industries throughout Southeast Asia and China with cost-efﬁcient and performance-driven digital marketing solutions, including search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimisation (SEO), online display advertising, pay-per-click advertising (PPC) which includes both SEM and online display advertising and advertising on mobile, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Started in 2006, the company has since driven results for businesses ranging from multinational corporations and government agencies to small and medium enterprises, with its excellence recognised by more than 30 awards, which include Digital Agency of the Year for the fifth consecutive year (2009-2013) by Marketing magazine. PurpleClick remains the first and only company in Southeast Asia accredited by Google, Yahoo and Baidu providing its clients with unbiased recommendations to meet their business objectives with cost-effective marketing on leading online platforms which include Google, Yahoo-Bing and Facebook, said the agency. After winning Digital Agency of the Year in 2013 at Marketing magazine’s awards, CEO Leonard Tan said: “This has been an exceptional year for us having come this far, not only winning the title for the fifth consecutive year, but also extending it another category (mobile) altogether. My deepest thanks to our clients who have made this possible, our key partners Google

HAPPY MARKETER Started six years ago, the agency describes 2014 as one of its most successful years. It saw a 69% growth in revenue, 1,556% growth in proﬁts, and it doubled its team size. It was also one of the few agencies in Asia to be licensed by Google to sell Google Analytics Premium in the region. Besides this, it also ramped up its digital marketing training, along with Google, and successfully coached more than 1000 marketing professionals across SEA and the Middle East. It closed 59 projects out of 122 pitched with a closing rate of 48%. The key accounts that contributed to this

MEC SINGAPORE One of MEC’s key campaigns in 2014 was Singtel’s “Roamaphobia”. The task was to drive growth for Singtel’s data roaming plans by using communication to help overcome the target audience’s coping behaviours such as hunting for free Wi-Fi spots and swapping their SIM cards for local prepaid ones – behaviours driven by the fear of bill shock because of data roaming charges. Its media strategy leveraged key digital touch-points in the passive and active stages of the customer’s travel journey to amplify the campaign’s key message. The campaign

were Nanyang Business School, Kaplan, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Royal Brunei Airlines, Sabre Hospitality and Standard Chartered Bank. While the agency saw the departure of some employees, including a partner, it consolidated the control of the ﬁrm with its current partners – Rachit Dayal and Prantik Mazumdar. It also hired new talent from companies such IBM, Google, Yahoo and MediaCorp. Several younger employees adopted new roles and broke new ground in areas such as client servicing, ﬁnance, human resources

exceeded the growth target for Singtel’s data roaming plan subscriptions by 20% and outperformed historical increases by 300%. The agency saw a strong year, achieving double-digit growth rates in total billings, annual turnover and net proﬁt. The agency said its business had diversiﬁed ahead of the market and almost half of its business now comes from digital, content and data and analytics. One area the agency is proud of is its long-term partnerships with clients. “This is driven very much by our global ambition to be our clients’ most valued business partner. 2014 has proven to be no exception, said an agency

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and Yahoo and our dedicated PurpleClick team for their incredible hard work. 2012 had been a spectacular year and I am very thankful for the support given through these years.” Looking back, Tan added he was assured once again that he did the right thing by leaving his comfortable five-figure salary and pristine office back in 2006 to set up PurpleClick in a rented room in the backyard of a shophouse. Today, PurpleClick sits in a spacious office along Outram Road and remains the first and only authorised reseller of Google, Yahoo and Baidu in Southeast Asia boasting a stellar list of key clients. “I encourage both aspiring and existing entrepreneurs to continue to strive for excellence especially if you’re residing in Singapore. With the generous support by the government, Singapore is one of the best places to grow your customers, grow your company and grow as an entrepreneur.” Owned by: Independent Headed by: Leonard Tan, founder

and operations. In 2014, it also took its search marketing impact and results to a different level with global campaigns for clients such as Royal Brunei Airlines, Nanyang Business School, Kaplan and Sabre Hospitality group. The main things it did differently were educating to give SEO the importance it deserves; experimentation beyond search ads with RLSA, DSA and remarketing; a focus on ﬁxing bottlenecks and demonstrating immediate ROI among other things. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Rachit Dayal and Prantik Mazumdar, partners

spokesperson, saying the agency had only two client departures in 2014 – Chanel was globally realigned to Mindshare, its sister GroupM agency, and the contract with Sentosa Leisure Management ended in October 2014. In September, following a pitch, Daimler AG awarded the Mercedes-Benz media planning and buying business to MEC across eight Asia markets. MEC has been the incumbent in Singapore since 2000. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Sharon Soh, managing director, Singapore

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SEARCH MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR MINDSHARE SINGAPORE In 2014, the agency set itself two clear objectives – build on its “adaptive marketing” strategy and build a content marketing team. For the ﬁrst, it built an experience centre where clients and its teams could congregate and see all their data in one place. Without data, be that consumer, media, pricing, behavioural, social, etc, – being “adaptive” cannot add value, said the agency. Hence, in 2014, it launched “The Loop” – a physical room where clients could make collaborative and adaptive decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing in real-time. The Loop enables clients not only to plan more adaptively and beneﬁt from more collaborative, adaptive decision-making powered by data, but it also enables the shift of

OMD SINGAPORE

media spend quickly to leverage opportunities uncovered by real-time data during campaigns. The second objective was to establish a team capable of helping clients tell their brand stories in a compelling way using “content marketing” to complement standard media communications. Mindshare Discovery was created to help brands transform from “advertiser” to “publisher” and create more targeted and relevant dialogue with their consumers across any screen. Also, in the year, Mindshare made several key hires, appointing two managing partners, one data technologist, a digital performance director and a creative content and activation project manager. In 2015, the agency said it would be focused on helping clients answer

OOM

the bigger questions and becoming more adaptive in their approach to their marketing, while ensuring greater effectiveness to drive business results. Mindshare also created its OTF (original thinking framework) war games, a planning and innovation day, similar to Facebook’s “Hack”, where along with clients, it gives selected media owners the chance to collaborate to crack a client’s marketing challenge or brief. In a ﬁrst for the industry in Singapore, Mindshare leveraged its scale and relationships with two of the most powerful players in the market (Google and MediaCorp) by spending a day working through solutions with clients. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nick Seckold, chief executive ofﬁcer

SEO AGENCY

OMD had a 70% success rate from its 25 pitches, resulting in 11 new wins. It also expanded its existing businesses such as Hasbro, Sentosa and NTUC Income and its partnerships with Kao, CapitaLand and Carlsberg. Major campaigns included the McDonald’s surprise alarm. This was created to win a greater breakfast market share in an increasingly competitive segment. As mobile phones are the last thing most people use at night and the ﬁrst thing they reach for in the morning, it used this platform to create change and make mornings something to look forward to – hence, the creation of McDonald’s surprise alarm. Going beyond standard paid media placements, McDonald’s Singapore alarm gave out little surprises to anyone who set their alarm for the following day. OMD sustained the app by using paid media to drive app rankings high in the app store, allowing organic downloads to drive sustainability. The campaign was hugely successful, and targeted downloads were achieved in two weeks instead of six as earlier expected.

Founded in 2006 as a search marketing agency, OOm has since grown to become a full-service digital marketing agency committed to working with clients throughout Asia and the Asia Pacific to meet their digital campaign goals. Headquartered in Singapore with offices in Indonesia and the Philippines, the agency has expanded rapidly to accommodate the growing local and regional demands in digital marketing. One major campaign OOm did was for GreenHub Suited Offices. Being a relative newcomer in the industry, it faced tough competition from other similar businesses online. OOm was tasked to increase its exposure and visibility through SEO as well as increase its keyword rankings. The agency’s strategy? It focused on content and social media marketing to increase the latter’s visibility and exposure in multiple search engines. Published articles were also shared on social media which helped increase its website’s social signals. By the second month of optimisation, OOm had pushed the keywords, which were not ranked during pre-SEO, to the first page of Google’s organic search results. Throughout the remaining month of optimisation, performance not only surpassed its pre-SEO performance, GreenHub Suited Offices had dominated the top five positions for 50% to 85% of its keywords in 2014.

The past 12 months at the agency saw tremendous growth, which saw its team grow from four to 22, its client base growing a staggering 300% and its revenue doubling. While this growth was exciting, the agency found itself lacking in departmental organisation. 2014 was its year to put in place proper processes and procedures and also appoint department heads across the agency, which has helped it transition from a small SEO firm to a fully fledged digital marketing agency. It became a certified Google partner, as well as winning three Google-run competitions for new account acquisitions. It appointed its global COO Fei Chen, responsible for growth across global offices. There are plans to recruit another five to 10 key staff personnel over the next 12 months, open offices in Indonesia and Thailand, increase its product offering and grow its client base. Some major campaigns included one for Cedelegroup.com. Cedele Group and SEO Agency came together in an effort to drive traffic and increase branding impressions to cedelegroup.com. The objective of this partnership was to be met by means of organic search results and paid advertisements, which was carried out by SEO Agency’s team of experts. Through intensive strategising of consumers’ search patterns, it worked with a competitive set of keywords for SEO and Google Adwords.

Owned by: Omnicom Media Group Headed by: Chloe Neo, managing partner, Singapore

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Ian Cheow, chief executive ofﬁcer

Owned by: WME Group Headed by: Rhyce Lein, general manager

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MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

17/6/2015 5:43:36 PM

PRODUCTION AGENCY OF THE YEAR

SHOOTING GALLERY ASIA Bagging g gold and the Local Hero awards is Shooting Gallery Asia. The agency had an amazing year last year as it pushed its agenda of becoming an international production house focused on Asia. The content development and producing

THE WINNERS GOLD

Shooting Gallery Asia

64.5%

SILVER

TheMomentum

60.15%

BRONZE

Reel Loco Productions

58.65%

LOCAL HERO

Shooting Gallery Asia

64.5%

THE FINALISTS Abundant Productions Freeflow Productions Hogarth Worldwide Singapore Play Films Veer Pictures VHQ Media Singapore

arms of the agency, The Flying Kick Asia and Shooting Gallery Motion Pictures, helped create original content for several of its clients. Beyond Singapore, the agency has a presence in markets such as Shanghai, Indonesia, Vietnam, Manila, Malaysia, Paris, New Zealand and The Maldives. Meanwhile, the agency is also known for its immense support in the local ﬁlm community. One of the key campaigns for the agency last year was its project with Wildlife Reserves Singapore. The agency was tasked to capture the beauty and charm of Wildlife Reserves Singapore and all its natural beauty. This included the physical assets located at Singapore Zoological Gardens, Night Safari, River Safari and Jurong Bird Park. The company has also over the years invested heavily in 3D printing and capturing. Last year the agency also carried on

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building upon its deep expertise in 3D CGI to seek synergies between 3D CGI, printing and scanning. Over the years, Shooting Gallery Asia has gained recognition from the advertising and media industry. According to the production company, this is because it has remained true to its services and offerings. This has helped it gain several loyal clients despite the ever-changing media landscape shaped by evolving consumer behaviours and emerging technologies. Despite these changes, the company is poised to navigate this challenging, yet exciting environment. Shooting Gallery Asia’s focus continues to be serving its clients as a one-stop shop for all media production needs – both traditional and digital. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Sebastian Tan, group managing director

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22/6/2015 11:33:34 AM

PRODUCTION AGENCY OF THE YEAR THEMOMENTUM

Taking home the silver award in the Production category is TheMomentum. Last year was a significant year for the production firm. It saw itself graduating from being just a local production company to handling regional campaigns and creating global campaigns with clients such as SAP. For the SAP campaign, a critical component was helping the client evolve from its usual product-based literal marketing communication style to a more emotional storytelling style. According to the agency, the first campaign TheMomentum produced for SAP was extremely well received both internally and

externally. The production house was then commissioned to produce three more global campaigns following that. Over the years, TheMomentum has also gained recognition from some overseas agencies and taken its production capabilities beyond the Singapore shores. TheMomentum was invited by TBWA Shanghai to produce the “McDonald’s Upsize” campaign for the China market. In September last year, the agency also had the privilege to be engaged by Indonesia’s Musica Studios to produce leading Indonesian rock band, Noah’s ﬁrst English music video for its single Hero.

The music video has garnered more than one million YouTube views to date. The team also undertook productions in Brazil, Australia, Thailand and Korea, very often under tight timelines and unfamiliar conditions. But keeping up its positivity, the agency says these opportunities have helped broaden its horizons and strengthened its expertise in the ﬁeld. TheMomentum prides itself on creative continuity and relationships by partnering with its clients throughout the production process – from concept all the way through to preproduction, production and post-production. The agency aims to ensure its vision is correctly executed, maintained and sustained all the way through. Its core team is hands-on and is directly involved at every stage, and all of its clients have direct access to both the executive producer and the director. Overall, the past year has been challenging, but exciting and fulﬁlling for the entire team. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Kenny Ong, founder

REEL LOCO PRODUCTIONS Taking home the bronze award is Reel Loco Productions. A design production house with a score of TV, corporate and commercial works under its belt, Reel Loco Productions punctuates its work with wit, panache and passion, said the agency. Reel Loco is equipped with facilities to see a project through from conceptualisation to post-production both in standard and high-deﬁnition. Always challenging itself to think out of the box, the company has actively avoided typecasting by consistently reinventing itself. It prides itself on constantly pursuing experimentation in all its work. Successfully merging a myriad of styles, the company produces fresh and original work for all of its clients – big or small. The production house has over the years worked with agencies such as JWT and DDB Group Singapore for clients such as Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, P&G, Singtel, OCBC, Disney and Triumph among many others. It also has many long-term partnerships with ad agencies. The ﬁrm is also a strong believer in the fact

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that relevant and customised solutions can be created from the delicate balance between dynamic technologies and pivotal messaging. Meanwhile, the production house also says it is constantly on the hunt to improve its technical ability to achieve quality work. The agency also invests much of its time and resources in sending staff for courses or freeing up some work time to upgrade the skills of its staff. Reel Loco Productions also added that as a team it was constantly trying to tell a great story relating to lifestyle or having mass-appeal. In 2014, it crossed boundaries and

engaged more with consumers directly, aside from its usual B2B clientele. Through its regular production of PSA messages published through online media, Reel Loco Productions has seen an increase in social media engagement which has been very rewarding and insightful. Its engagement with the public encouraged it to be more experimental in its media approach and go beyond just sticking to easy crowd-pleasers. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Shaun Yeo, CEO

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

17/6/2015 5:36:41 PM

PRODUCTION AGENCY OF THE YEAR ABUNDANT PRODUCTIONS

Abundant Productions is a creative studio based in Singapore. It has a collection of very capable producers, directors, designers, animators, writers and editors who strive to do their best work on every project. Equally comfortable with live-action shoots as with design-driven motion graphics, Abundant Productions can build an idea from scratch to delivery – or from any stage in between – across all media platforms. The past 12 months were extremely busy for the production agency. Abundant was involved in many projects which led to the expansion of the company size in terms of staff and ofﬁce space. One of the key highlights of 2014 for Abundant was the expansion of the production and post-production team with the employment of more producers and 2D artists. Some of the clients the agency has worked with include Singtel, Oral B, StarHub, Nickelodeon, Samsung, Audi, Great Eastern, PayPal, adidas and many others. The agency has also recently bolstered its capabilities with the acquisition of the DaVinci Resolve colour grading system. This colour grading system allows the agency to provide full colour grading services to all of its clients. In the next 12 months, the agency hopes to see a constant drive to grow the business even more and expand its services to a wider range of clients. However, it still hopes to maintain its good work ethic and relationships with its existing partners. The agency promises collaboration, heart, integrity and an absolute hunger to create beautiful visual work for all of its clients. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Ben Siow, director

FREEFLOW PRODUCTIONS Last year Freeflow Productions celebrated its 10th birthday and had the pleasure of working with clients that come from creative agencies, the private sector, the public sector and many others. These clients included global banks, established and newly formed healthcare institutions, universities, broadcasting, reputable schools, MNCs and non-profits, statutory boards, and many more. The agency likes to live by the motto of making commercials less “commercialised”. More often than not, storylines for commercials are based on fictional characters and plots. Freeflow Productions tries to break free from the norm to find the best way to bring the message across in the most believable and compelling way possible. Freeflow Productions has over the years grown from a headcount of five to more than 50 staff today. The production agency encourages continuous learning and growth for its staff through not just workshops, but though the evolution of roles. Members of Freeflow are able to interchange departments to expand their craft and experience.

One such example is former senior editor Peggy Goh who has now moved to directing and who did some well-received work in 2014. Meanwhile editor, Omar de Vera, was promoted to senior editor in 2014. “We go for real stories, people and scenarios. Our writers, producers and directors will go to great lengths just to ﬁnd real-case studies. Taking this harder option allows our work to rise above mere moving visuals and nice cinematography,” Freeﬂow Productions said. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Roslee Bin Yusof, executive producer and Mark Chua, director and partner

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HOGARTH WORLDWIDE

WPP-owned Hogarth, a marketing implementation agency, recently merged with Ogilvy’s RedWorks unit, the agency’s production arm. The merged entity, specialising in production, will be called H&O (Hogarth & Ogilvy). This will be a stand-alone joint venture combining “RedWorks’ global network and proven creative production ability with Hogarth’s expertise in centralised implementation, technology and broadcast capability”. According to an announcement on RedWorks’ site, the unit will offer services across CGI, high-end post-production, fast turnaround online content, global integrated campaigns or simple local production. The unit will serve WPP’s creative agencies for production work. Headquartered in London, H&O will stand alongside Hogarth with a presence in 48 Ogilvy offices. Barry Jones, CEO of Hogarth Worldwide, said: “H&O is a new concept. It puts a creative realisation engine at the heart of a creative powerhouse. With Hogarth going from strength to strength having H&O in parallel gives us the opportunity to bring all of our capabilities directly to Ogilvy’s clients.” Leading the group will be Jonathan Adler as H&O’s global CEO. RedWorks’ regional president Michael Burgess will be CEO of H&O in Asia Pacific. Ginny Maycox, currently COO of O&M West will be global CFO. Duncan Stokes, global CEO of RedWorks for the past two years, will lead H&O in EAME as well as taking global responsibility with Adler for the change management. RedWorks veteran Xavier Carou will be CEO in Latin America. In North America, Matt Bonin will be chief production officer and Jonathan Parker will be chief operations officer. Hogarth produces advertising and other marketing communications for its clients across all media and all languages. It opened for business in 2008 in an attic room above a shop near London’s Carnaby Street. Owned by: WPP Headed by: Barry Jones, CEO

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17/6/2015 5:36:51 PM

PRODUCTION AGENCY OF THE YEAR PLAY FILMS

Making it on the short-list for the Production Agency of the Year is Play Films. Built in 2002, Play Films has built a reputation throughout the Asia Paciﬁc region

for its creative excellence, said the ﬁrm. The agency prides itself on its uncompromised quality when it comes to work. According to the agency, it is not the size of the agency that matters, but rather the partnership it creates with its clients and what it is ultimately able to foster through this working relationship. From global campaigns to local productions for public services, the agency’s approach to ﬁlm making is one of partnership rather than a client-supplier business. More than that what the agency tries to do in all of its tasks is to have fun. The agency has both local and foreign directors. It has been playing a part in production work across

Singapore, China, Australia, Spain, Iceland, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand to name just a few. The production house also has a list of well-known directors at hand. These include the likes of Royston Tan, Nick Reynolds, Lalli Jonsson, Jon Gwyther, Harry Patramanis and several others. Some of its clients include Sony Ericsson, Goldheart, Sentosa, Keppel Bay, Nike, Soo Kee, Singapore Navy, Smirnoff, Mentos and many others. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Julie Chung, executive producer and David Clarke, executive producer

VEER PICTURES The past 12 months have been extremely competitive for Veer Pictures. The agency has been heavily invested in reaching out to more clients and working on regional projects to expand its portfolio. Skilled in live action production, design, visual effects, 3D animation, audio and post-production – and seamlessly combining some or all of these – Veer Pictures today has become an integrated motion imaging boutique. Some of the major campaigns the agency worked on included clients such as Swisse which launched a TVC regionally. Meanwhile, a OSIM uSqueez Air TVC and Super NutreMill TVC were also some of the other projects the agency worked on to gain regional exposure.

Locally, the agency also worked on the Laurier Super Slimguard and Nestlé Omega TVCs. All these initiatives have culminated in the agency’s production team being more mature in how it handles its projects and clients. This year the agency has set its sights on reaching out to more local and overseas creative ad agencies. This, it hopes, will double its current sales ﬁgures. However, the production house is certain

these aspirations are only possible through creating more quality videos for their ad agency partners and clients. Meanwhile, bringing in more regional projects is also a priority for Veer Pictures as the agency hopes to start work with a regional production crew. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Lee Chin Ming, executive producer and Sherwin Kusnadi, creative director

VHQ As Asia’s leading vertically integrated media network, VHQ’s dynamic divisions bring an inﬁnite spectrum of possibilities, says the agency of itself. From visual effects to animation, content creation for television and new media, the production agency runs all these offerings for clients. Last year was an extremely busy year for VHQ with its regional TVC work and going forward the agency is gunning to do more long-form work. For more than two decades, the agency’s dedication and passion to the craft has kept it at the forefront of the visual arts industry, it said. In a dynamic media landscape, VHQ Media stays ahead by embracing the latest talent, techniques and best-of-breed tool sets.

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Low

The agency enjoys long-term partnerships with clients who count on it to deliver consistently high-quality work. From its headquarters in Singapore and ofﬁces in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Beijing, the production house transcends geographical and cultural boundaries to

serve an extensive and growing clientele. VHQ remains the partner of choice of many advertising agencies, production companies and television networks globally. The agency is led by Low Kok Wah, who is group managing director. His responsibilities include charting and executing growth plans for the international VHQ network. He also undertakes strategic planning and plays an active role in the recruitment and grooming of talent. He has been with Yellow River Network, VHQ’s parent company, since 1991. He was appointed to head VHQ in 1997. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Dato’ Low Kok Wah, group managing director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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CONTENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

PUBLICIS SINGAPORE Scoring th the gold award in this category is Publicis. 2014 saw the agency evolve at a rapid pace – within just nine months, it reinvented itself, shedding its once sleepy reputation to become one of the most dynamic agencies in Singapore, the agency said. It went through a stunning digital transformation and expanded its digital capabilities with the aim to deliver genuinely integrated and innovative work. According to the agency, more than 70% of its staff are digital professionals – setting them

THE WINNERS GOLD

Publicis Singapore

76.25%

SILVER

DDB Group Singapore

72.35%

BRONZE

QED Consulting

66.4%

LOCAL HERO

QED Consulting

66.4%

THE FINALISTS Aleph BBH Singapore Edelman Public Relations FleishmanHillard Gosh Advertising JWT Singapore King Content Singapore Mindshare Singapore Quantico Communications We Are Social Singapore

apart from other advertising agencies. It now offers end-to-end integration, including covering social media activation, community management, digital content creation and hubs, campaign analytics and reporting, social PR and crisis management. Its digital transformation has also helped drive new business, with more than 45% of all new business wins coming from digital services, the agency said. The agency invested in a strategic offering – 133 LUX – a luxury marketing unit offering strategic and creative perspectives for upscale and luxury brands. It is now able to deliver real-time content marketing through its global strategic hub called Newsdesk where it seamlessly turns brand “ad” ideas into multiple content formats at the speed of culture. It was appointed the global social media agency of record for Accor luxury and is the social media agency of record for BreadTalk Group. A new leadership team was put in place by the agency to ensure a leadership team that boasts skills across multiple competencies. The agency has attracted young talent in the industry to strengthen the team and develop speciﬁc areas of expertise such as strategy and technology. Key appointments included Kelvin Koo, head of digital, Royston Teo, business analytics director, Sharon Tan, business director, among others.

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For its digital and content work, the agency helped Scoot drive brand engagement and loyalty through social media and content. Social media was chosen to promote the airline because it allows the brand to live up to its beliefs through playful, fun and entertaining ways, while delivering against business priorities, the agency said. Some of the agency’s new offerings include Newsdesk. Launched in June, Newsdesk is a real-time insights and content engine that enables brand storytelling. The agency restructured its processes to leverage both data and creativity for realtime marketing. Creatives, social strategists, community managers, PR and clients meet to listen to what people are saying through a range of listening tools. In addition, Zodiac, a web-based planning tool that visually maps the cultural universe to inspire strategy and spark creativity, was also launched. According to the agency, it is a tool that is able to differentiate strategy, facilitate creativity and drive real-time communication. Zodiac is used on major regional client businesses and also on new business pitches. Conﬁdent of its future, Publicis aims to focus on perfecting its digital offerings in 2015. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: Lou Dela Pena, CEO

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CONTENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR DDB GROUP SINGAPORE Clinching the silver award in the category runner-up position is DDB. 2014 saw DDB combining over 40 of its creative technologists working alongside its creative department. The agency transformed from its creative beginnings into a marketing innovation agency. David Tang, vice chairman of DDB Group Asia and president of DDB Group Singapore said digital innovation had become a key part the agency’s marketing solutions for clients over the last three years, with the agency now looking to take the technologies across its client base in Asia Paciﬁc. According to the agency, it is keen on growing as a creative species by coming up with sharper solutions with the launch of portals and e-store for StarHub, activation portals for Health Promotion Board (‘MillionKG Challenge’) and innovative apps for McDonald’s (Surprise Alarm App) and RSAF (‘One Force’ gaming app). It hired new talents into the agency to help grow and develop the business even more. Key hires include: Anthony James, chief innovations ofﬁcer, Tony Low, digital creative director and Lauren Ahearn, business director.

The agency’s social media arm, Radar, was launched in partnership with Refuel4 to tap into social user data for lead demand generation. The agency has also signed a partnership with social PR agency Mothership in the past year. It introduced Wavemaker, the agency’s very own film content production unit. Within just eight months, it had produced 48 films for key its clients. It also launched an iStore - a gateway for the rest of DDB offices to ‘shop’ for innovation and apply it quickly for its clients. It also scaled up on social content production and expanded its team - the production unit now houses an in-house film director, film crew, editor and script writers. New account wins include SilkAir, Health

Promotion Board, Pioneer Generation Package, SG50 for 2015. Key hires within the past year include Tony Low, digital creative director, Lauren Ahearn, business director and Richard Morewood, regional business director. One of its key clients included StarHub awarded DDB to develop a state-of-the-art Adobe-powered portal and e-shop. It also helped StarHub achieve an increase in triple-service hubbing households and grew its customer base across TV, Mobile and Broadband. Moving forward, the agency aims to be the ‘hub’ of excellence for digital, technology and human capital. This year, it has unleashed new services in Social Media Activation (Radar), Film & Content (WaveMaker) and a Technology Solutions portal (DDB IStore). It is already creating new work for clients from these services for both local and regional clients e.g. McDonald’s Breakfast Surprise App (regional roll-out), OurBetterWorld (Singaporebased social enterprise entity) and SG50. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: David Tang, president and CEO, DDB Group Singapore, & vice chairman, DDB Group Asia

QED CONSULTING

Winning the bronze and local hero award is QED Consulting. Prior to 2014, QED focused mainly on social media and digital marketing training. Capitalising on growth in its roster of experienced marketers in the second quarter of 2014, QED expanded its servicing offering to include digital management consulting and execution. This shift in focus resulted in explosive growth, the agency said. In its ﬁrst year of operations, key highlights in terms of client wins included big names such as Gardens by the Bay, Dolby Asia, CA Technologies, and the Ministry of Communications and Information. The agency closed the year with its full team of 7 on board and welcomed its Board of Advisors who will ofﬁcially begin their term in 2015.

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QED and its Principal Consultants are regular contributors and commentators on issues relating to the industry and beyond. The agency believes that digital and social media are deeply experiential, not just academic, which is why it plans and delivers hands-on training to marketers on topics like content marketing or crisis management in social media, serve on various boards and councils, serve as moderators for industry events and judges for industry awards. According to the agency, it intends to continue our efforts as work towards raising the standards and sophistication of the industry in Singapore and the region. Particularly, Ryan Lim will be pushing the agenda across on a national level as he begins his term on the Board of Directors at Media Development Authority Singapore. For its content marketing expertise, the agency worked with Discovery Network to drive increase viewership and fan engagement in Southeast Asia through digital strategy for Everest Jump LIVE, River Monsters Asia Tour & Mystery of the Lost Islands. It called for a need to raise interest in the three campaigns

within the Southeast Asian region to increase viewership and digital engagement. Along with growing the fan base, QED developed a transmedia content strategy to integrate digital, broadcast and on-ground activation for each of the campaigns. According to the agency, special social media and digital content was developed for each campaign as a story extension of the three respective shows in the form of webisodes and interactive microsites. Within a period of three months the fan base grew by approximately 518% with 80% of the growth being organic. Page engagement rates increased threefold, the agency said. It tightened its services in 2014 to help clients stay relevant to digitally demanding consumers and drive growth by guiding transformation towards a purpose-driven organisation structure across three key success areas namely planning, processes and people. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Ryan Lim, principal consultant & founding partner, Natasha Zhao & Freda Kwok, principal consultants

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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CONTENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR ALEPH LABS Founded in May 2006, Aleph is a boutique design and development company strategically based in Singapore. Its team works together to plan, write and produce ﬁnancial, internet, mobile and desktop solutions for its various clients. According to the agency, its in-depth understanding of technology and design gives it the unique advantage to successfully bridge the gap between design and technology. Although Aleph has grown from a garage operation to a staff strength of 50 and growing

since 2006, it still maintains a small company feel and culture. Aleph’s approach continues to be usercentric and focused on the user experience, using it to drive development of its customer products. One of its key works this past year included Standard Chartered’s Breeze Online. Breeze is a whole new way of banking that allows its customers to manage their money. The site boasts the ﬂexibility of customising how a customer sees, moves and keeps track of their money. Aleph’s other key clients

BBH SINGAPORE Over the past year, BBH’s capabilities have grown to encompass brand strategy and identity, creative development across all media, TV, ﬁlm and digital video production, digital UX, design and build, digital publishing, social strategy, community management and CRM, data analysis and marketing R&D. Built on strong strategic foundations, it aims to help clients make a bigger more productive leap than they might feel they can elsewhere. It works with clients on tasks ranging from

EDELMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS The past year has seen Edelman transform from a public relations agency into a communications marketing powerhouse in Singapore – proving that public relations can sit at the centre of integrated marketing client campaigns. As the SEA hub, Edelman Singapore has demonstrated the global thinking and collaboration required to evolve, promote and protect its clients’ brands. This fuelled its teams’ ambition to make Singapore a worldwide hub for the company. More than half of its work is focused on developing and launching communications and marketing campaigns for clients in Singapore, Greater Asia and the rest of the world. Its year-on-year revenue growth was about 10%, with a new business success ratio of about 75%. New business came from government services, energy, health, sports, technology and ﬁnancial services brands. Its work won four major marketing and technology awards for VMware, Diageo and GSK. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Amanda Goh, managing director, Singapore

commercial strategy through to brand, channel and campaign strategy, using data analysis and insights to optimise performance, the agency said.

FLEISHMANHILLARD In 2014, FleishmanHillard continued to implement its “Go Beyond” strategy of becoming the most complete communications company in the world. It produced campaigns for Philips’ VisaPure product launch, National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, SAP and Trend Micro. In July, Mickie French was appointed general manager of FleishmanHillard Singapore and managing director of the strategic integration practice for the APAC region to accelerate the transformation of the Singapore operation as well as the region. 2014 was a transformational year for the agency which saw it build a range of new services and solutions for clients as well as bring new leadership on board to accelerate its growth in 2015. According to the agency, its most transformative win last year was Philips Asia. New retainer businesses included Nikko Asset Management, the National Library Board and the MDA and Nokia, among others. Owned by: Omnicom Group Headed by: Mickie French, general manager; SVP/senior partner, managing director, strategic integration, Asia Paciﬁc

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include DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, Barclays, Microsoft and The Economist. According to the agency, its technology team possesses a depth of expertise in both client and serverside development utilising languages such as XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, Flex, Air, Silverlight, Java, PHP, .NET and more. The agency is keen to select the right technology based on the individual project and not on its routines and existing skills. Owned by: STW Group Headed by: Arvind Singh, CEO

The launch of BBH Production highlights the agency’s broad range of skills and specialisms across film, video, print, digital and production management where BBH aims to deliver fully integrated campaigns through multiple channels. BBH Singapore was the creative team behind IKEA’s 2015 catalogue campaign. It continues to work with the Swedish brand on creative campaigns and advertisements, including social media. Owned by: Publicis Groupe Headed by: John Hadfield, CEO, Asia Pacific

GOSH ADVERTISING Gosh Advertising was founded in 2000 and is a boutique agency focused on strategic advertising and branding. It has worked with renowned brands such as Gardenia, Subway, American Express and more. According to the agency, Gosh Advertising has experienced a proﬁtable growth of more than 25% per year since its inception and is still growing. A vital building block in Gosh’s approach is to work “through the line” or “from the outside and in”. It bases its analyses and recommendations on profound consumer needs and driving forces. In its experience, the key success factor behind brand-driven growth is to build a strong brand based on an eye-opening consumer insight. The agency believes that combining insights and brand management expertise is what makes its work impactful. Some of its key clients in the past year included Gardenia, Subway, Velocity, Abbott and Parkroyal Hotels, among others. Owned by: Independent Headed by: Moses Goh, managing director

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CONTENT MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR JWT SINGAPORE

KING CONTENT

MINDSHARE SINGAPORE

The past year has seen JWT focus on its internal growth. The agency tailored itself to a new business model comprising three pillars: a relentless focus on the intersection between creativity and technology; striking key partnerships with strong upcoming start-ups to bring the best in the world to clients; and to explore and implement new business models (IP rights, licensing and new revenue arrangements). The agency welcomed key management talent on board this year, including Peter Womersley, its new CEO and Jordan Price, who joined the agency from its Tokyo ofﬁce. With almost 100% client retention in the past year, JWT is looking forward to more success in the upcoming year.

King Content is only five years old, but its business has accelerated exponentially in Asia in the past year, the agency said. It hired key talent to head up its global centres of excellence, including Christie Poulos (head of moving image), Leanne Brinkies (head of native advertising), Ruth Haffenden (head of social) and Todd Wheatland (head of global strategy), in addition to growing the Singapore office team by 400% in 12 months, according to the agency. Over the past year, it has expanded its business within its current client base, as well as form new and lasting relationships, resulting in Singapore growth revenue of more than 400%. It launched fully operational offices in London and New York to add to its Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney locations. Last year, King Content also partnered with NewsCred to offer clients unprecedented access to fully licensed articles, images and videos from more than 4500 respected content providers within NewsCred’s network.

In 2014 Mindshare created “Mindshare Discovery” to help brands transform from “advertiser” to “publisher” to create more targeted and relevant dialogues with their consumers across any screen. It also launched “The Loop” – a physical room where clients can make collaborative and adaptive decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing in real-time. 2014 was a reasonably challenging year in Singapore for new business, with very few large local clients pitching their accounts. However, despite that, Mindshare Singapore still won ﬁve new clients – increasing revenue by plus 10%. It prides itself on having long-term relationships with clients, with the majority of its top clients having been with it between ﬁve and 10 years. Its client retention is about 95% – a testament to its commitment to drive business outcomes. In 2015, Mindshare will be focused on helping clients answer the bigger questions and become more adaptive in their approach to marketing.

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Peter Womersley, CEO

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Craig Hodges, CEO

Owned by: WPP Headed by: Nick Seckold, CEO

QUANTICO COPYWRITING AGENCY SINGAPORE A young company, Quantico Copywriting is a start-up by a handful of experienced web and traditional media copywriters dedicated to creating rich communication experiences. Some of its key clients include Accord Asia Paciﬁc, AXA Insurance, Chan Brothers Travel, Marina Bay Sands, McCann World Group (Singapore) and the Singapore Tourism Board, among others. Conceived in 2012 from the success of Sagacity, the copywriting arm of brand

reports, brochures and tag lines to web, digital and mobile communication pieces that require strategic keyword implementation, search engine optimisation and content-speciﬁc writing. Quantico’s copywriters have been featured in the media on several occasions for the work it does and the thinking behind it.

agency Blue Wisdom, the agency was established as a niche copywriting agency. Today, Quantico Copywriting provides the entire gamut of copywriting services – from traditional communications such as annual

Owned by: Independent Headed by: Deepa Vijayan and Arjun Khara, founders

WE ARE SOCIAL SINGAPORE The past 12 months have been a mixed bag that has left We Are Social in a very strong position as a business and team. According to the agency, it started 2014 with a bang via a number of key client wins, including Singtel, while Intel and Lenovo are its pillar clients and key supporters. Last year saw We Are Social collaborating with FOX Sports’ AFF Suzuki Cup across an integrated social media programme, which included an on-ground social command centre

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at the Malaysia-Singapore match in Singapore and helped drive channel ratings and a 93% surge in audience reach compared to the 2012 edition. For the Singtel-Standard Chartered launch of DASH, a new mobile payments solution in Singapore, the agency’s team provided Facebook and Twitter asset creation, social outreach and active listening and launch support. The organisation beefed up its senior leadership team with the appointment of former

Nokomai Singapore general manager Tuck Wai Yue in January as business director; and FleishmanHillard SVP and regional digital and social lead Don Anderson in May as managing director. Founder Simon Kemp also assumed the title of regional managing partner to lead the agency’s activities across Asia with a focus on developing new products and services. Owned by: BlueFocus Communication Group (BFCG) Headed by: Simon Kemp, regional partner and Don Anderson, managing director

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

17/6/2015 5:24:21 PM

The MARKies aims to celebrate the most creative and effective campaigns or projects spanning Singapore’s diverse marketing services industry. Now in its ﬁfth year, it evaluates individual entries focusing on either creative ideas or the innovative use of media. It provides the opportunity for agencies in Singapore to showcase unique and deserving works of brilliance. The two overall winners for the key areas are the Overall Creative Ideas MARKie award and Overall Best Use of Media MARKie award. And this year the top awards have gone to GOODSTUPH and ZenithOptimedia respectively. The MARKies awards are entirely independent of the Agency of the Year submissions. Any agency may enter a campaign it has done during the past year in the appropriate category. The ﬁnalists and winners of the MARKies are also decided by our client marketers judging panel.

Category sponsors of the MARKies:

Best Idea – Direct Marketing

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Best Idea – Female Audience

Best Idea – Out of Home sponsor

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THE MARKies OVERALL CREATIVE IDEAS MARKie GOODSTUPH

OVERALL BEST USE OF MEDIA MARKie ZENITHOPTIMEDIA

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MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

22/6/2015 12:36:09 PM

Get the recognition you deserve for your tireless events work at the premier awards programme celebrating creative excellence and strategic precision by event marketers and planners from across South Asia, Southeast Asia and ANZ. With 30 categories open for entry in 2015 donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss out on this opportunity to stand out in the industry.

ENTRY DEADLINE: 16 JULY www.marketing-interactive.com/mevents-awards/sg Entry submission enquiries: Carlo Reston +65 6423 0329 / +65 9727 0291 carlor@marketing-interactive.com

GALA CEREMONY: 2 OCTOBER GRAND HYATT

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17/6/2015 4:27:04 PM

THE MARKies IRIS WORLDWIDE, SINGAPORE WINNING THE CITY BACK FROM COMPETITION HEINEKEN (ASIA PACIFIC BREWERIES SINGAPORE)

Click2View Game On! Visa Dentsu Singapore Toyota Classics Toyota Motors GOODSTUPH Monkey Shoulder x World Cocktail Day 2014 William Grant & Sons The Event Company illuminate@d’Leedon – The Celebration Party CapitaLand Singapore

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – CONSUMER EVENTS

THE EVENTS ARTERY I REMEMBER BROADWAY DBS BANK

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – BUSINESS EVENTS

Dentsu Singapore EOS World Canon Singapore Germs Singapore See The Big Picture Singapore Press Holdings iris worldwide, Singapore Heineken Green Room: Presents the Transporter Heineken (Asia Paciﬁc Breweries Singapore) ZenithOptimedia X-Men X-Perience 20th Century Fox

PUBLICIS SINGAPORE SOCIAL CONTENT THE “SCOOT WAY” SCOOT

BLACKONBLACK Are You Travel Savvy? UOB Bank Dentsu Singapore EOS World Canon Singapore Germs Singapore See The Big Picture Singapore Press Holdings ZenithOptimedia Singapore – An Uncaged Nation Asia Paciﬁc Breweries

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FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – CONTENT MARKETING

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA SHOPPING WITH THE OTHER WOMAN 20TH CENTURY FOX

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – CONSUMER INSIGHTS

BLACKONBLACK Are You Travel Savvy? UOB Bank MEC Singapore Stretch or Splurge Scoot Mindshare Singapore Local Upsize On 5 with KFC, Sogood! KFC Singapore THE GOVT Creating Friendships NESCAFÉ

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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THE MARKies BEST IDEA – DIRECT MARKETING

HAVAS MEDIA SINGAPORE NEIGHBOURSFIRST.SG – YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD. REDEFINED. POSB

GREY GROUP SINGAPORE

Dentsu Singapore Graciousness Campaign LTA Singapore Dentsu Singapore Waku Doki Toyota Motors Germs Singapore UOB Toss and Win United Overseas Bank KRDS Singapore Travelling the World Air France

“KNOW YOUR ENGLISH” WEB BANNERS BRITISH COUNCIL

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – DIGITAL

Airwave Engage with Gumtree Gumtree Goodfellas SUTD Survival Kit Campaign Singapore University of Technology and Design GOODSTUPH William Grant & Sons – Whisky Live 2014 Invite William Grant & Sons Publicis Singapore AXA SmartDrive AXA Insurance Singapore

GOODFELLAS KICK THE HABIT NATIONAL COUNCIL ON PROBLEM GAMBLING

Addiction Advertising Perfect from Every Angle Jean Yip Group Mindshare Singapore Sunsilk Instant Great Hair On-the-Go Unilever Singapore Vertic Advertising Sensodyne True White Style GlaxoSmithKline ZenithOptimedia Shopping with The Other Woman 20th Century Fox

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FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – INTEGRATED MEDIA

GOODSTUPH UOB XX FOR ANNA SUI UOB CARDS SINGAPORE

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – FEMALE AUDIENCE

Dentsu Singapore Graciousness Campaign LTA Singapore Goodfellas Employability of Older Workers Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers Weber Shandwick Dare to Be Johnson & Johnson Vision Care ZenithOptimedia Singapore – An Uncaged Nation Tiger Beer (Asia Paciﬁc Breweries)

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THE MARKies BEST IDEA – LOYALTY & CRM

GOODSTUPH GRANT’S – IT’S THE SHIP WILLIAM GRANT & SONS

DENTSU SINGAPORE

Dentsu Singapore Legend Redeﬁned Borneo Motors (Toyota) Germs Singapore UOB Toss and Win United Overseas Bank iris worldwide, Singapore Winning the City Back from Competition Heineken (Asia Paciﬁc Breweries Singapore) Publicis Singapore AXA SmartDrive AXA Insurance Singapore

EOS WORLD CANON SINGAPORE

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – LAUNCH

Dentsu Singapore UniPlay Uniqlo Singapore MRM//McCANN The Red Cross Connection Singapore Red Cross Publicis 133 LUX A Remarkably Uncommon Experience The Leading Hotels of the World ZenithOptimedia Erdinger Nights Asia Paciﬁc Breweries

MRM//MCCANN THE RED CROSS CONNECTION SINGAPORE RED CROSS

AdPeople Asia Pacific Schick Hydro Groomer Asia Paciﬁc Launch Schick (Energizer Personal Care) Dentsu Singapore EOS World Canon Singapore Mindshare Singapore KFC – Hijacking World Cup with Ronaldo KFC Singapore Mindshare Singapore Clear Headers Unilever Singapore

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FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – MOBILE

GOODSTUPH GRANT’S – IT’S THE SHIP WILLIAM GRANT & SONS

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – MALE AUDIENCE

BLACKONBLACK Are You Travel Savvy? UOB Bank Dentsu Singapore UniPlay Uniqlo Singapore Germs Singapore See The Big Picture Singapore Press Holdings Germs Singapore UOB Toss and Win United Overseas Bank

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

22/6/2015 4:41:58 PM

THE MARKies TRIBAL WORLDWIDE SINGAPORE DBS PRIVATE BANK – HANDWRITING DBS BANK

GOODSTUPH BAR NAKED BAR NAKED Grey Group Singapore The Story of an Italian Creation Ferrero Rocher Publicis Singapore Citi Global Client Citibank Singapore ZenithOptimedia Have a Jet-Setting Christmas at Changi Airport Changi Airport Group

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – PRINT

GERMS SINGAPORE UOB TOSS AND WIN UNITED OVERSEAS BANK

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – OUT OF HOME

Addiction Advertising Window Safety Day Building & Construction Authority Mindshare Singapore KFC – Hijacking World Cup with Ronaldo KFC Singapore TBWA\Singapore Audio books Singapore Airlines Wild Advertising & Marketing Eu Yan Sang Cordyceps Launch campaign Eu Yan Sang (Singapore)

MEDIACOM SINGAPORE P&G KUNG FU FAMILY P&G SINGAPORE

Dentsu Singapore Graciousness Campaign LTA Singapore Edelman Public Relations Worldwide Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Samsung Electronics Singapore The Hoffman Agency Singapore “Use Your Power” for Earth Hour 2014 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Singapore Weber Shandwick Data in Sports and Government NetApp

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FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – RADIO

GOODSTUPH THE GLENFIDDICH EXPERIENCE GLENFIDDICH

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – PUBLIC/MEDIA RELATIONS

3-Sixty Brand Communications Kindness Highway Singapore Kindness Movement MediaCorp Creative Services “The Talk” Temasek Poly Mindshare Singapore Cornetto The Ride Unilever Singapore ZenithOptimedia Promoting the employability of older workers Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices

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THE MARKies BEST IDEA – RETAIL/SHOPPER

BEST IDEA – SOCIAL

BLACKONBLACK ARE YOU TRAVEL SAVVY? UOB BANK

DENTSU SINGAPORE WAKU DOKI TOYOTA MOTORS

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FINALISTS

IMPRESSIONS

100+ CONVERSATIONS

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STARTED

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IN MORE THAN

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PREMIUM SALES EXCEEDED BY

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234,000 VISITORS TO INSURE & TRAVEL

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WEB PAGE

Grey Group Singapore The Story of an Italian Creation Ferrero Rocher Jack Morton Worldwide MasterCard GSS campaign “Priceless Surprises Machine” MasterCard Saffron Communications OC Christmas Dreamland Orchard Central – Far East Organisation Wunderman Singapore Digital Shelf adidas

FINALISTS

1.4

OVER

MILLION ONLINE

Airwave Samsung Masterpieces Samsung MRM//McCann The Red Cross Connection Singapore Red Cross Publicis Singapore Scoot vs #SGAGARMY Scoot Tribal Worldwide Singapore POSB Cash-Point: Your cashier is now your ATM DBS Bank

PUBLICIS SINGAPORE SCOOT VS #SGAGARMY SCOOT

3-Sixty Brand Communications More Than Just A Job Singapore Police Force MEC Singapore Stretch or Splurge Scoot Mediacom Singapore Volkswagen Cruise Control Volkswagen Group Singapore THE GOVT Creating Friendships NESCAFÉ

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FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – VIRAL

MEDIACOM SINGAPORE SK-II STARHUB SMARTER TARGETING P&G SINGAPORE

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – TV

Dentsu Singapore Waku Doki Toyota Motors Dentsu Singapore UniPlay Uniqlo Singapore Germs Singapore UOB Toss and Win United Overseas Bank Goodfellas Kick The Habit National Council on Problem Gambling

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

22/6/2015 12:36:31 PM

Marketingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s MasterClass series is an ongoing programme of specialised workshops covering wide-ranging topics relevant to present-day marketing communications disciplines. One day in length and customised to ďŹ t the needs of marketers from various functions, each MasterClass course will enrich you with skills and tools to bring your competencies to a higher level.

Check out all upcoming courses here: WWW.MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.COM/MASTERCLASS-SERIES/SG

COMING UP Engagement: Doing it with content, native and sponsorship Date: 5 August For Singapore registered companies, enjoy 60% rebate off the course fee under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme. Contact Joven Barcenas, jovenb@marketing-interactive.com, +65 6423 0329 for further information on agenda and registration.

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17/6/2015 4:31:19 PM

THE MARKies PUBLICIS SINGAPORE AXA SMARTDRIVE AXA INSURANCE SINGAPORE

blanct City Gate Shoppes & Residences World Class Land & Fragrance Group Limited Havas Media Singapore NeighboursFirst.SG – Your Neighbourhood. Redeﬁned. POSB Mirum Singapore YS.COM Site Revamp Singapore Tourism Board Reading Room National Parks Board Corporate Website National Parks Board of Singapore

FINALISTS

BEST USE OF APPS

CARBON INTERACTIVE APRIL TFWOF EDU-PORTAL APRIL GROUP

FINALISTS

BEST IDEA – WEB DESIGN

Airwave Engage with Gumtree Gumtree Airwave Samsung KidsTime – Singapore Samsung Grey Group Singapore Hearing Aide The Singapore Association for the Deaf MRM//McCann The Red Cross Connection Singapore Red Cross

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA SINGAPORE – AN UNCAGED NATION ASIA PACIFIC BREWERIES

Dentsu Singapore Graciousness Campaign LTA Singapore Havas Media Singapore NeighboursFirst.SG – Your Neighbourhood. Redeﬁned. POSB MEC Singapore Stretch or Splurge Scoot ZenithOptimedia X-Men X-Perience 20th Century Fox

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FINALISTS

BEST USE OF DIGITAL

MINDSHARE SINGAPORE LOCAL UPSIZE ON 5 WITH KFC, SOGOOD! KFC SINGAPORE

FINALISTS

BEST USE OF BROADCAST/VIDEO

Havas Media Singapore NeighboursFirst.SG – Your Neighbourhood. Redeﬁned. POSB Publicis Singapore Social Content the “Scoot Way” Scoot ZenithOptimedia Choose A Different U Singapore Management University ZenithOptimedia Forever Faster PUMA Singapore

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

22/6/2015 12:36:51 PM

THE MARKies MEC SINGAPORE ROAMAPHOBIA SINGAPORE TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Germs Singapore See The Big Picture Singapore Press Holdings i-dac Toyota Taylor Swift Campaign Toyota Motor Asia Paciﬁc iris worldwide, Singapore Winning the City Back from Competition Heineken (Asia Paciﬁc Breweries Singapore) Pico Art International i Light Marina Bay 2014 Urban Redevelopment Authority Singapore

FINALISTS

BEST USE OF INTEGRATED MEDIA

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA X-MEN X-PERIENCE 20TH CENTURY FOX

FINALISTS

BEST USE OF EVENTS

Dentsu Singapore Graciousness Campaign LTA Singapore Germs Singapore See The Big Picture Singapore Press Holdings MEC Singapore Singtel Dash – Money’s Getting An Update Singapore Telecommunications Mindshare Singapore Magnum 25th Unilever Singapore

GREY GROUP SINGAPORE WATER EYE PERFORMANCE EYE MO

Dentsu Singapore UniPlay Uniqlo Singapore Grey Group Singapore Hearing Aide The Singapore Association for the Deaf MRM//McCann The Red Cross Connection Singapore Red Cross ZenithOptimedia Winning the Cloud Space with Precision Oracle Asia Paciﬁc

MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

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FINALISTS

BEST USE OF OOH

GERMS SINGAPORE SEE THE BIG PICTURE SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS

FINALISTS

BEST USE OF MOBILE

3-Sixty Brand Communications See Red Singapore Kindness Movement A.S.Louken TAG HomeTeamNS Celebrates Life HomeTeamNS Germs Singapore UOB Toss and Win United Overseas Bank TBWA\Singapore Welcome to Airbnb Airbnb

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22/6/2015 12:37:04 PM

THE MARKies PERFORMICS SCOOT: LAYING THE STRUCTURE FOR TAKE OFF! SCOOT

Addiction Advertising Window Safety Day Building & Construction Authority Mindshare Singapore KFC – KFC a.m. Pancakes go Bananas KFC Singapore Mindshare Singapore Magnum 25th Unilever Singapore The Affiniti The Journey Within SIM

FINALISTS

BEST USE OF SEARCH

MEC SINGAPORE SPOT THE CODE SCOOT

FINALISTS

BEST USE OF PRINT

iProspect Singapore Escape the Haze – iWeather AirAsia Singapore iProspect Singapore SEO Zero to SEO Hero StarHub Maxus Singapore Price beat guarantee! Jetstar Maxus Singapore I am Nikon Nikon

BEST USE OF SOCIAL

FINALISTS

HAVAS MEDIA SINGAPORE NEIGHBOURSFIRST.SG – YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD. REDEFINED. POSB

Mediacom Singapore Heaven and Earth – Calmcomebacks Coca-Cola Far East MRM//McCann The Red Cross Connection Singapore Red Cross Publicis Singapore BreadTalk “Get Talking” BreadTalk Publicis Singapore Social Content the “Scoot Way” Scoot

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THE MARKies WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR, STAY TUNED! MARKETING AGENCY OF THE YEAR SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION 2015

22/6/2015 12:37:06 PM

UNI 150512 AOTY SG June Marketing PrintAd 210 x 280mm V2.pdf

CMY

20/5/15

12:08 pm