Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore (APBS) has announced the appointment of Zenith Optimedia as its media agency and strategic partner in Singapore for its portfolio of brands, following a competitive pitch process that involved incumbent Mindshare, as well as MPG, Carat and Zenith Optimedia.‪‪



“We look forward to a strong partnership with Zenith who will be a core part of our integrated marketing teams delivering media neutral solutions that will deliver clear brand results”, said Wong Mei Wai, Head, Marketing (Commercial), APBS.

The review was conducted in two phases. The first phase called for agencies to submit agency credentials including their profile, past work, consumer insights and securing team resources. The second phase saw the agencies being evaluated on their strategic thinking in workshops where management executives were excluded.

“This review was centred around getting strong talent on the business. We are pleased to get all the agencies’ cooperation to front their working team, and to avoid all the usual bells and whistles”, added R3’s Principal, Goh Shu Fen.

AMP Radio Networks is hitting East Malaysia with localised content on their ERA, MY FM and hitz.fm stations airing in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu soon.

Radio continues to attract a large audience in Peninsular Malaysia, with 15.5 million or 9 in 10 people aged ten years and above tuning in every week, according to a recent Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) Malaysia study by The Nielsen Company.

AMP's foray into East Malaysia marks a major milestone for Radio, in a region dominated by RTM for decades save for CATS FM in Sarawak.

ESPN STAR Sports kicked off an exciting season of football to fans across the region today by unveiling a brand new and extensive bouquet of original football shows, two exciting new presenters as well as previewing the FA Community Shield, which will be broadcast in high-definition on ESPN HD in Malaysia for the first time.



This season, ESPN STAR Sports will showcase a stellar line-up of top live football content on its networks over the upcoming season, with matches from the most eagerly anticipated Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, England home matches, as well as this Sunday’s curtain-raiser, the FA Community Shield.

ESPN STAR Sports produces more than 1,500 hours of original football shows annually, and raising the bar from last year, football fans can look forward to an extensive bouquet of original programmes from Asia’s No. 1 sports broadcaster, offering viewers in Malaysia the complete football experience*:

·    Hard-core football aficionados looking for comprehensive coverage, razor-sharp analysis and well-informed opinions can hear from our line-up of highly-regarded football experts on Monday Night Verdict; led by presenter Andrew Leci and resident football analyst Steve McMahon and local football expert, Shebby Singh.
·    Similarly, football fanatics with an eye on the weekend’s big matches can catch Scorecast on Saturday and Sunday, which will give greater emphasis on match projections and score predictions by presenter Andy Penders and his team of pundits from London.
·    Penders will also cover the best of global football on Chang World of Football on Wednesdays, with a blend of highlights, updates and a spotlight on the rising stars from major football leagues around the world.
·    The new BPL Express features the five best BPL games of the week for fans who want their football in a punchy and easily digested one-hour format, and Goals feature only the highlights in a bite-sized 30-min show.
·    Fans can tune into the weekend preview shows before the live BPL matches on Saturday’s Primetime Premier League and Super Sunday the following night to hear expert opinions and analysis from former Liverpool legend Steve McMahon, former Malaysian national footballer Shebby Singh, as well as occasional guest pundits in the form of former Premier League players and managers. Football aficionados and also tune in to catch the round up of matches on Full Time.

In addition to an exciting new line-up of programmes, ESPN STAR Sports also introduced two new faces to their team of football talents. Tiffany Tan, who currently hosts the popular game review show ‘GAME’, brings her effervescent personality and sparkling energy to host Maxis Football Extra which features all the highlights and major talking points every Sunday morning. This Sunday’s FA Community Shield will be hosted by new presenter Jason De le Peña, who brings a vast wealth of sports knowledge, professional journalism experience as a former presenter and anchor with Sky Sports and Sky News in London.

The 2010/11 season will also see all BPL matches as well as a top selection of UEFA Champions League and selected FA Cup games broadcast in high-definition on ESPN HD. The 24-hour high-definition channel, which started its round-the-clock broadcast of top-quality premier international sports on this week, promises to enhance viewers’ overall experience like no other 24 hours a day.

Football fans can also tune into additional shows Premier League Highlights, Premier League World, and Premier League Preview during the week.

* Please check www.espnstar.com for latest updates on programme schedules & more information.

ASTRO took home an award in the Investment in People category at the prestigious Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards (AREA) 2010 for its outstanding commitment to corporate responsibility and personal development of its people at an event held yesterday.

Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of ASTRO said, “At Astro we aspire to enrich the lives of Malaysians. We aim to go beyond to delight our customers and improve lives in communities that we serve. As a present and contributing corporate citizen, Astro encourages its employees to lend their time, expertise and concern for the benefit of the community via various corporate responsibility activities, through Astro Kasih, an employee volunteer programme.”

Since its inception in August 2009, employees from all over the country have contributed more than 11,000 hours via 210 Astro Kasih’s community outreach initiatives including educational, environmental conservation, poverty alleviation and occupational safety programmes.

“We are both humbled and pleased that Astro Kasih’s and our employees’ efforts have been recognized via this Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards (AREA) 2010. Astro will remain steadfast in encouraging employee volunteerism to empower Astro employees with a sense of ownership, belonging and personal responsibility,” added Dato’ Rohana Rozhan.

Organized by Enterprise Asia, AREA honours programs that demonstrate leadership, sincerity and on-going commitment in corporate responsibility, community engagement and transparency. Companies are evaluated based on corporate best practices in their involvement and engagement in communities as well as the protection of the environment.

The winners of AREA were decided by an international advisory panel on both quantitative and qualitative criteria of the enterprise. The enterprises must demonstrate evidence of sustained business growth, as well as emphasis on their belief and action in supporting responsible entrepreneurship and the initiatives taken to promote compassionate and responsible entrepreneurship.

ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) has announced the successful acquisition of exclusive Pay-TV rights for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup Qatar 2011, the continent’s top football event, across its footprint covering 24 countries in Asia.

Through this deal, managed by World Sport Group (WSG), the AFC’s exclusive marketing and media partner, fans will enjoy a comprehensive and engaging experience on ESPN STAR Sports with the AFC Asian Cup 2011 available live on multiple platforms for the very first time. ESPN STAR Sports has a strong tradition in showcasing top-class sports properties on its networks and this win reaffirms its commitment to bring the best of Asian football to fans.

In addition, leading up to the event, ESPN STAR Sports will broadcast the 16-episode programme, “Road to Doha”, highlighting the teams and their preparation as they gear up to compete in Doha, Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011 for the most coveted trophy in Asia.

Said Craig Dobbs, Executive Vice-President, Programming and Production, ESPN STAR Sports: “We are delighted to continue our longstanding partnership with the AFC. With our focused approach and commitment to build Asian Football over the years, the property today has a high level of traction and immense appeal across our broadcast footprint with devoted fans across the region following their favourite teams and players. The region’s appetite for Asian football has been showing definite signs of growth, and our plans to enhance the broadcast and interactivity of the matches underline our commitment to football fans, which will provide coverage like they have never seen before.”

“These are very exciting times for Asian Football. For the first time in the tournament’s history the fans can watch the Action in high definition quality,” says AFC President Mohammad Bin Hammam. “I am very excited about our partnership with ESPN and STAR Sports and believe that this will take the experience of the Asian Cup to new heights. I am especially pleased about all the various ways the technology allows us to take the game to the fans”, added Bin Hammam.

“Our partnership with ESPN STAR Sports provides us with greater opportunities to enhance the fans’ experience and reach the widest possible audience across the region.  With extensive coverage across multiple media platforms, fans can access the very best of Asian football action in virtually every part of Asia at any time of the day.  This will also provide AFC Asian Cup™ 2011 partners opportunities to extend their reach to larger audiences of potential customers,” said James Clarke, Senior Vice-President, Content, World Sport Group.

The acquisition augments ESPN STAR Sports’ Asian football offering, and reinforces its reputation as the home of football. All 32 matches will be broadcast on television across ESPN and STAR Sports networks, and for the first time fans can watch the high-definition broadcast of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ on ESPN HD. The event will also be available online live and on-demand on ESPN Player - ESPN STAR Sports’ revolutionary broadband network that offers anytime, anywhere access to live world-class sports content, and a fully online interactive experience for users to enjoy their viewing experience with other sport fans. In addition, football fans on the move can catch daily news and goals from the event on mobileESPN.

The AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011 features the top 16 teams in the region, including defending champions Iraq and the four Asian contenders in the recent FIFA World Cup – Korea Republic, Japan, Australia, and DPR Korea.  Favourites China, a regional powerhouse and India which aims to become a significant player on the world stage have also qualified for the competition.

Advertising expenditure (adex) in Malaysia surged 22% in the first half of this year compared to the corresponding period last year on the back of a resurgent economy and the FIFA World Cup.

The Malaysian economy performed much better than expected in the first quarter of the year, with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth accelerating to 10.1% and nominal GDP surging 17.0% from first quarter 2009.

“The recession is past and advertising is once again growing as quickly as it did before the downturn,” said Mr. Gerald Miranda, chief executive officer of Zenith Media Malaysia, one of the country’s leading media services agencies, to ADOI today.

“Some of the upswing in spending was also due to the FIFA World Cup. We estimate that local broadcast sponsors of the World Cup would have spent at least RM50 million on the event.”

The final match, broadcast live at 2.30 a.m. on a Monday morning, had an audience of 1.5 million, not including out-of-home viewers. Some of the more popular matches at 10.00 p.m., like the Argentina versus Germany quarter-final, pulled in a whopping 2.5 million viewers.

Free to air television benefited most from the spending increase in the first half of the year, registering a 29% growth, followed by online (+55%), point of sale (+27%), radio (+18%) and newspapers (+18%). Magazines and outdoor increased 6% and 8% respectively and cinema dropped 8%.

Online advertising dramatically increased during the World Cup by nearly doubling the revenue it pulled in the second quarter compared to last year.

Zenith estimates that online advertising spending this Q2 will be about 80-90% higher than Q2 2009, mainly on account of the extra money that came from the World Cup.

Higher spending from telcos, the automotive sector, government, transportation and tourism also fueled the strong overall second quarter adex growth.

“The high first quarter GDP number was to a large extent also due to the low base effect in first quarter 2009 and it will be unrealistic to expect this growth rate to continue

“So, economic growth is expected to moderate as the year progresses. The announcement of the second half of the New Economic Model in the second half of this year will also help to provide some clarity in this respect.”

The International Monetary Fund says developing economies in Asia will expand 9.2% this year, compared with 2.6% for advanced countries.

Despite the expected moderation in economic growth going forward, Mr. Miranda was confident that advertising spending will still end 2010 with strong double-digit gains for the full year.

According to its latest global advertising expenditure forecasts, the agency expects spending in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, to grow 10.6% this year.

And Malaysia is one of seven countries in the region that is expected to post double-digit growth this year, the others being China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The agency has also upgraded its forecasts for global advertising expenditure growth in 2010 to 3.5%, up from the 2.2% it forecast at the beginning of April. This is the third upgrade in a row, after six consecutive downgrades.

Most of the upgrade is in North America and Western Europe, where advertising spending was stronger than expected in the first half of the year, but these regions are still growing much more slowly than most developing markets.

Overall it forecasts 1.3% growth from developed markets (which it defines here as North America, Western Europe and Japan) in 2010, compared to 8.6% growth from developing markets (everywhere else).

The gap will narrow slightly in 2011, but growth in developed markets will remain modest:  it forecasts developed markets to grow by 2.4% in 2011 and 2.9% in 2012, while developing markets grow by 9.1% and 9.8% respectively.

It expects developing markets to drive most of the growth in global advertising expenditure over the next few years, contributing US$39 billion of the extra US$60 billion it expects to see added to the world advertising market between 2009 and 2012.

Zenith Media Malaysia is a member of ZenithOptimedia Worldwide, which is one of the world’s leading media services agencies with 218 offices in 72 countries.

Omnicom Media Group (OMG) Malaysia has promoted Danny Chin to the position of Digital Director. Danny reports to Andreas Vogiatzakis, Managing Director of the network’s operations in Malaysia.

Danny was previously Associate Digital Director and was responsible for digital operations across the group’s client accounts in Malaysia since 2008. His career as a digital specialist started in the United States more than a decade ago, where he lived whilst pursuing his tertiary studies. Danny joined Omnicom Media Group from Universal McCann Malaysia where he was head of Digital & Emerging Media and helped to establish and developed the agency’s digital capabilities and services.

He will be assisted by Karen Mak, who joins the network as Digital Manager. Karen hasmore than five years of experience in marketing and communications with a focus on digital advertising and hands-on experience across a number of industries and blue-chip brands including Hewlett-Packard, British American Tobacco, Guinness Anchor, Nestle, Purina South Africa, Maxis Communications and has worked with international advertising, CRM and Media agencies in delivering award-winning marketing and advertising campaigns.

Andreas told ADOI, “We believe in retaining and promoting good talent and I am pleased to activate this well-deserved promotion for Danny. Digital media is fast becoming a way of life and Danny and his team have been tasked to be digital advocates both internally as well as externally across both OMD and PHD brands.”

Media Contacts has appointed Saurabh Shanker as associate director of search. In his new role Saurabh will report to Gautam Dutt, Director of Media Contacts for Southeast Asia.

Saurabh has five years of experience in online marketing with a special focus on paid search, media buying, SEO and link building. He was most recently handling search marketing for Media Contacts sister brand Ecselis based out of India, where he has spent three years. Prior to joining Escelis, Saurabh was with Ishir Infotech where he led the paid search team.

Saurabh’s responsibilities will include growing the SEO/ SEM and web analytics practice in the region. He will be a senior consultant on DBS’s SEM business. Besides DBS, the key accounts he will be working on includes KLM and Study Adelaide

Rajeev Bala, managing director of Media Contacts said that Saurabh's appointment is part of Media Contacts’ aggresive growth strategy across Southeast Asia and India, which has seen the agency grow rapidly both in revenue as well as deep domain expertise. “We believe that this investment in talented and qualified people will see us continue to lead the growth in the digital agency space.”

Gautam Dutt, director of Media Contacts for Southeast Asia said: “Having worked at Media Contacts global centre for Search in India, Saurabh comes with a lot of experience in handling search for large clients across the globe.”

In recent days Media Contacts has won a series of high profile clients including Chevrolet Malaysia, RS Components, DBS SEM, Global Beauty International (GBI) among others.

Christopher Lyons has been appointed as Regional Shopper & Retail Marketing Director together with Charlise Chen, as Shopper Marketing Creative Director. Based in Singapore, Lyons and Chen will operate across all markets of Asia Pacific.

In his new role, Lyons has been tasked with the goal to continue to grow Leo Burnett & Arc Shopper Marketing & Retail business and draw on all sizeable opportunities for the agency-network’s clients to win at retail.

"Leo Burnett global network with our deep and the latest Shopper Marketing knowledge and applications will fully support Lyons and his team to achieve our aggressive goals in Asia Pacific. The appointments underline our focus on shopper and retail marketing as one of the pillars of profitable business growth for us and our clients.", said Jarek Ziebinski, President, Leo Burnett & Arc Asia Pacific.

With extensive experience on both sides as a client and an agency professional, Lyons had spent 5 years at Fosters Australia where he was responsible for brand, merchandising and retail growth strategy. He oversaw over 200 store conversions; and under the Foster’s brand umbrella, was responsible its Australian division, which comprised of 130 business units and 270 retail outlets. Following that he went on to join Ogilvy & Mather in Beijing as Asia Regional Business Director – Retail for both Motorola and Michelin. In this role, he was a senior member of the 200 member team and was responsible for the go-to-market retail strategy, channel selection, retail partner programs, pricing, store audits, store formats, merchandising and the whole path to purchase for the Motorola and Michelin brand.

He was subsequently engaged to work on the Dell Business as the Global Retails Lead with focus on North America, China and India in ENFATICO.

Chen began her career working on shopper-dependent businesses including Guiness, Horlicks, Carrefour, Dunhill, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Pampers and Oral B. Prior to Leo Burnett, Chen has worked in Malaysia, Vietnam and China at agencies including G2/Grey and Saatchi&Saatchi.

Driven by strong economic performances and rapidly improving consumer confidence levels in the first quarter of 2010, media advertising activity across 12 Asia Pacific markets surged by 18% - the second consecutive quarter of positive growth.

In the clearest sign yet that the region is accelerating out of recession, six of the ten most confident consumer markets globally are from Asia Pacific and these are setting the pace of recovery, with positive consumer confidence level increases in the Q1 2010 Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index.

Richard Basil-Jones, Managing Director, Nielsen Media Asia Pacific comments “The latest Nielsen findings show that economic prospects are also improving rapidly, a sign that marketers, manufacturers and retailers have been eagerly waiting for, as consumers’ spending intentions are turning into actual spending reality.

In Q1 2010 global consumer confidence rebounded to the highest level since Q3 2007, however Asia Pacific posted the highest increase in confidence of all regions – up 8 points. The positive news for marketers is that Asia Pacific consumers are all ready upbeat on how they will utilize their spare cash, including 41% on holidays / vacations, 35% new clothes, out of home entertainment
29% and new technology 30%.

All of these discretionary spending considerations showed significant growth over the same findings in Q1 2009 and this is not lost on most marketers who are now back in growth mode. This is translating into advertising activity rapidly returning to pre GFC levels; where we now see the second consecutive quarter of media advertising growth across all 12 markets in Asia Pacific (compared to the same period in 2009)”.

“Based on the most recent ad spending results, the outlook for main media advertising across the remainder of 2010 appears extremely positive in all 12 markets. The challenge for marketers however, will be strengthening their brand awareness and positioning where visibility diminished during the downturn. Consumers are out there spending and intending to loosen up their purse strings, so the onus is now on marketers to ensure their products and services return to top of mind” Basil-Jones summarised.

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