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AnnouncementsEffieEffie Singapore 2022 and Association of Advertising & Marketing Singapore (AAMS) are pleased to announce the 18 finalists in this year’s awards.

The finalists were determined by a distinguished judging panel, made up of over 40 industry leaders from agencies, clients and media partners.

Ogilvy Singapore and BLKJ Havas both have 4 shortlisted entries, followed by Leo Burnett Singapore with 3, BBH Singapore and Superson Singapore both with 2 and Cheil, McCann Worldgroup Singapore and 72andSunny each with 1 shortlisted entry.

EFFIE AWARDS SINGAPORE 2022 FINALISTS
AnnouncementsEffieTable


AnnouncementsAikenOnyx 
Aiken Digital, a global growth agency that specialises in growth consulting, experience design, system development, creative & content, XB ecommerce and SaaS products, and Onyx Island, a leading digital experience agency in APAC, announced their merger.


In connection with the merger of a total workforce strength of 80 based in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, Onyx Island will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Aiken Digital.

This merger will see a synergistic collaboration between both agencies and evolve its offerings to serve the combined customer base of Aiken Digital & Onyx Island.

Currently, the combined clientele includes Mastercard, L'Oréal, Luxottica, LVMH, Sotheby, L.D. Waxson, Beam Suntory, Cortina Watch, Philip Morris SG/MY, Salesforce APAC, NTUC and more.

From this merger, Aiken Digital will be known as Aiken Group, which will streamline its core businesses into 4 key business units as follows:

  1. Aiken Digital - Digital Consulting & Services
  2. Fixx Labs - Web 3.0 & Blockchain Solutions
  3. Social Commerce Cloud
  4. Esports & Gaming


Following the closing of the merger, Aiken Digital will strengthen their ranks with a few key leadership positions within Singapore & Malaysia operations. The agency will appoint Danny Murong as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) – Aiken Group, Zhi Wei Koh as the Creative Director, Joshua Ooi as the Project Management Office Lead (PMO) and Wei Liang Lee as the Technical Lead.


AnnouncementsSnapHyperIslandSnap and Hyper Island Partner to Launch “AR Accelerator” Programme in Singapore. A first of its kind in the region, the program is designed to grow the augmented reality ecosystem with the world’s leaders in transformative education.

Snap, parent company of Snapchat and the world leader in augmented reality (AR), announced an educational partnership with Hyper Island, a leading transformative education provider to launch “AR Accelerator” – a bespoke AR educational program in Singapore.

The two-day course is targeted at digital creatives, marketers and brand managers aimed to accelerate participants' understanding of AR and integration in marketing strategies.

AR is emerging as a key technology for brands to engage with their customers in a more meaningful manner. By 2025, nearly 75% of the global population and almost all smartphone users will be frequent AR users. Globally, 92% of Gen Zs are interested in using AR for shopping and Snapchat is the #1 platform where Gen Z enjoys sharing purchases they love or when shopping (source). Over the past few years, Snapchat AR has evolved from being just for entertainment and self-expression to having true utility for both consumers and businesses.

Augmented reality experiences are personal, immersive, and interactive in a way that other brand activations simply can’t be. For brands, this makes it especially impactful because it is the most personalized, immersive way for customers to experience their products. Because of that personalized experience, AR is more effective at driving results compared to other forms of advertising and marketing.

At the end of the course, attendees will also try their hand at developing Face, World and Landmarker Lenses on Snap’s Lens Studio, a free software that allows anyone to create, publish, and share AR Lenses with millions of Snapchatters across the globe.

The “AR Accelerator” program will be launched in Singapore first and rolled out in other markets later in the year. In Singapore, there are two courses - September (6–7 September)) and November (29–30 November) – with a total of 20 spaces available for anyone to sign up at a cost of SGD$2,500. The registration link can be found here.


AppointmentsMatrixportMatrixport Group announced the appointment of Anthony DeMartino as its US CEO as part of its ongoing international growth strategy.


Matrixport's expansion into the US demonstrates its firm commitment to better serve its clients and further develop the digital asset management industry.

Mr Anthony DeMartino, a financial industry veteran with global risk experience, joins the firm from Coinbase where he held several roles, including its head of risk strategies, institutional DeFi and derivatives trading. DeMartino has over two decades of experience running multiple financial services businesses with global banks such as HSBC, Barclays, and UBS. With an expertise in risk management, Anthony is well placed to lead Matrixport's operations in the US.

Matrixport believes that blockchain technologies will redefine what's possible in the financial network of tomorrow enabling value and ownership to flow freely. With strong operational risk management embedded across its teams and robust corporate financial governance, Matrixport is well positioned for the next wave of digital assets adoption.

With USD4B in assets under management, it provides one-stop crypto financial services to meet the emerging needs of generating long term wealth in digital assets. The company's services include Cactus Custody™, spot OTC, fixed income, structured products, lending and asset management. It also forges strategic collaborations with early stage Web3 innovators, helping them build, grow and scale.

With its mission to make crypto easy for everyone, Matrixport has a relentless focus on product innovation. It offers the industry's most comprehensive suite of market leading crypto investment products. In 2021, the fintech company achieved pre-money unicorn valuation within two years of its inception.

Headquartered in Singapore, Matrixport serves institutions and individuals across Asia, Europe, and the US, and holds licenses in Hong Kong and Switzerland.

 


AppointmentsJackMortonThe global brand experience agency, Jack Morton, announced it has bolstered the leadership of its operation in Asia with the appointment of Phil Boyle as SVP, Managing Director.

Boyle, who will be based in Singapore at the agency's Asia headquarters, will be responsible for driving growth across the entire region.

Jack Morton Singapore serves as the Asian hub for its clients. The agency leads operations out of the country and leverages talent across countries as needed to offer clients a seamless experience.
Boyle rejoins Jack Morton after a stint at Live Nation where he served as vice president of marketing partnerships for Asia at the company's Shanghai operation. He previously held a leadership role at Jack Morton in Shanghai as SVP, Client Services for Asia working across multiple industries from automotive to entertainment.

In his new role, he will move to Singapore and champion innovative brand experience work for clients, including Unilever, Meta, Riot Games, HSBC, and more. He will also continue to promote collaboration across IPG agencies in the market.

Boyle will report to Julian Pullan, Vice Chairman and President, International.


AppointmentsSnapIncOff the back of posting its first-ever quarterly net profit in Q4 2021, Snap Inc. has further intensified its growth focus across Asia-Pacific (APAC), expanding its local team in Singapore with new appointments to effectively support the growing Snapchatter community in the region.

The new hires build on the company’s growth momentum following Snap’s Singapore office opening in 2020 to boost its regional presence and investments.

Recent new appointments in Singapore include:

  • Saurabh Dangwal, Head of Global Brands, APAC, who will be responsible for Snap’s global client partnerships across the region to drive business results using Snap’s industry-leading solutions for Augmented Reality and Commerce.
  • Dan Heffernan, Head of Global Agency, APAC, will be in charge of developing strategies to grow Snap’s partnership with agencies through scaled education and commercial initiatives.
  • Igor Lima, Head of Global Brands, Tech APAC, will partner with top brands in the tech industry to drive meaningful results and digital innovation through Snapchat’s ads and Augmented Reality solutions.
  • Kelly Chiu, Product Marketing Manager will be driving product excellence for the region.
  • Kanishk Khanna, Director, Media Partnerships, APAC, will collaborate with top content and media organizations across APAC regions, to drive meaningful engagement and empower them to meet their business goals.
  • Amanda Ang, as Head of Public Policy, East Asia will aid Snap’s government relations and public policy work in the region.
  • Monisha Singh, Recruitment Lead, APAC will lead Snap’s recruitment efforts in the region.


Snap is currently still actively recruiting for additional roles in APAC across sales, creative, engineering, data & analytics, people and content, so you might want to check out available positions.


AppointmentsMeltwaterMeltwater, a global leader in media intelligence and data analytics, announced three new senior appointments to lead its marketing, talent acquisition and legal functions.

  • Upali Dasgupta steps into the role of Marketing Director to build out Meltwater’s marketing function, manage its strategic brand direction and drive business growth via integrated marketing programs. She brings over 18 years of rich experience, spanning a range of roles at leading technology brands across Asia-Pacific, including Hootsuite, LinkedIn and Sitecore.
  • Alissa Sargeant has been appointed as the Head of Talent Acquisition. With over a decade of experience in HR roles at companies including Thermo Fisher Scientific and NCR Corporation, she will now lead Meltwater’s efforts to ramp up talent recruitment across the region, powering up the business for a new phase of growth through exciting new initiatives.
  • Anthony Herman joins the team as Head of Legal, bringing nearly two decades worth of experience in technology and commercial law at companies like SAP and ClickSoftware.


Upali will be based out of the Meltwater’s APAC headquarter in Singapore, while Alissa and Anthony are based in Sydney and Melbourne, respectively. The new hires come amidst a period of strong growth for the company, following a series of key acquisitions and client wins in the past year.

Meltwater has spent close to US$50 million on acquisitions, including Klear, Owler and Deepreason.ai; and 10% of global revenue on research and development in a bid to integrate all of its product offerings into one advanced and intuitive solution. These enhancements are part of Meltwater’s commitment to become the leading all-in-one data intelligence provider, providing omni-channel intelligence and insights across both traditional and emerging networks. Research and development will continue to be a big focus in the coming years, with the company committed to spending in the range of 10%–12% of its revenue towards this.


AnnouncementsSalesloftSalesloft, a leading sales engagement platform and provider of the Modern Revenue Workspace™, announced the opening of an office in Singapore.

Salesloft will also introduce native CRM integrations with Hubspot and Microsoft Dynamics to better serve its customers in the Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and broader Asian market, expanding into Asia Pacific to be closer to customers and to satisfy the demand for sales engagement in the region. Besides, Salesloft recognizes that making a human connection is important to building relationships in the Asia Pacific market.

Core to Salesloft's mission is a hyper-focus on customer success and helping customers become more efficient and productive to achieve better sales outcomes. The company already has thousands of users in the Asia-Pacific market spanning multiple industries including software, professional services, and education. This new office in Singapore is an exciting step forward in supporting Salesloft customers while bringing the value of sales engagement to more sellers and buyers around the globe.

Salesloft also announced the appointment of Vincent Ooi as Vice President, Asia-Pacific.

Ooi has a track record of spearheading Asia-Pacific expansion for high-growth technology companies. He previously served as Vice President of Sales, Southeast Asia and Korea for Tableau Software, and Vice President of Asia-Pacific for DataRobot.

Ooi will help build and scale Salesloft's team in the Asia-Pacific market and lead the company's revenue and customer growth strategy in the region.

Later this year, Salesloft will release general availability of native integrations with HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics, both leading customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and major players in the Asia-Pacific and European markets. The integrations will provide customers a sync between Salesloft and the respective CRMs for activity, contact, lead, and account data. Current customers are already using the integration via beta programs with both platforms. General availability of these integrations will ensure customers around the world will have maximum flexibility and benefit using Salesloft regardless of their CRM.

Salesloft's expansion into the Asia-Pacific region comes on the heels of massive growth. The company tripled revenue in Europe in the last 24 months and opened a data center in Frankfurt, Germany.

Recently, Salesloft launched Forecast by Salesloft, a new capability that helps organizations forecast with more accuracy and take action to close deals, all from a single platform.