With Facebook dropping its plans to put up ads on WhatsApp, the latter will be focusing on building features for its business users. A large number of people use WhatsApp for their businesses. The company has been rolling out features that can aid small to medium scale companies and they are expected to stay on this path for now.
Continue reading Monday Morning Learning – 20th January 2020Wildlife Reserves Singapore has recently extended its partnership with KRDS Singapore for the third year since 2017 to grow its presence on Facebook and Instagram.
KRDS Singapore is now its agency of record, managing social media needs across its 4 parks, Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Safari, and Jurong Bird Park. KRDS Singapore has won the business after a pitch process that started in March 2019.
On top of creating educational and awareness-driven content about animals, KRDS Singapore will also be responsible for consultation, conceptualising and executing campaigns throughout the period of appointment.
The goal for this renewal is to further engage with both locals and visitors with innovative and immersive content, and drive them further down the conversion funnel with detailed analytics.
Muhd Hidayat, Account Director at KRDS, said:
“We are excited to continue on this remarkable journey with Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which started off 3 years ago. The team at Wildlife Reserves Singapore encourages innovation and we are confident that our digital expertise combined with progressive strategies will take it to greater heights.”
Singapore’s leading caterer, Neo Garden Catering has been serving up delicious food since its inception in the early 90s. It has become one of the trusted names in catering for their ability to offer high-quality food to both large crowds & small gatherings. Neo Garden Catering has partnered with KRDS Singapore for another year to grow their presence on Facebook and Instagram.
2018’s goal was to promote Neo Garden Catering as the one-stop caterer that truly empowers its customers with the experience of a personalised unique celebration for every occasion. One of the biggest highlights of 2018 was Neo Garden Catering’s Chinese New Year Game Microsite that ran for a period of 20 days. The microsite was designed to provide individuals to have his or her fortune read ahead of the Lunar New Year. Fans could then go on to redeem gift vouchers and a chance to participate in the Grand Lucky Draw (Grand Prize of $888). Over 1,500 people had their fortune read and 800 vouchers were out!
The goal for this renewal is to enable fans to create new memories and celebrate important milestones, with Neo Garden Catering playing an integral role towards these celebrations.
The content on social will focus strongly on micro-moments – moments when users celebrate and drive conversations.
The agency will also be developing an Instagram-focused content strategy and explore different types of Instagram Stories and interactive formats to weave an engaging brand story.
Amantha Koh, Assistant Marketing Manager at Neo Garden Catering, said:
“Working with KRDS Singapore has been a great experience and rebranding of our Facebook has been a success. The team has also been very up to date with the latest trends and often updating us on their new features, innovation and ideas. We are looking forward to working with KRDS again.
Muhd Hidayat, Account Director at KRDS, said:
“It gives us immense pleasure to partner with the No.1 caterer in Singapore once again and be a part of their journey. We look forward to bringing our comprehensive digital knowledge to help Neo Garden Catering build a strong community on social and to establish the brand as the go-to caterer for any events and occasions.”
Delphine Delebarre, Amadeus Marketing Manager for Middle East and Africa:
“We were looking for a digital marketing agency to build an impactful campaign to raise awareness about our corporate travel online solution and encourage our target audience (corporations in the Middle East) to request a free demo. When I met KRDS, I liked their humble but professional approach and the fact they already had expertise with other travel players. Our collaboration was seamless, fully transparent and based on regular communication. They are professionals and we really benefited from their expertise.”
KRDS Middle East and Amadeus join hands for an interactive online activation tailor-made for the Middle East and Africa region to make business travel booking niftier. Amadeus is a leading technology company that is a powerhouse for making travel simpler. It is a key player in the technology sector. Amadeus help connect over 1.6 billion people a year to local travel providers in over 190 countries.
So when Amadeus launched Amadeus Online Corporate Traveller, they worked in collaboration with KRDS Middle East to promote the tool across the Middle East and Africa.
The campaign was meant to create an appetite, a sense of awareness and not just to create leads, which ultimately ended up happening thanks to a tool that acts as a holistic approach upheld by a Facebook & LinkedIn campaign to manage and redefine business travel in the region, and showcase added values of Amadeus Online Corporate Traveller for businesses, such as control business travel costs, facilitated multi level approval process, and quick implementation as per companies travel policies.
KRDS, conceptualized a tailor-made content approach and an ad strategy staying in line with Amadeus needs, hence a globalized content video came to light from KRDS to seek as well as enable awareness for the right target audience. Apart from the global video, 4 other shorter videos were produced by KRDS for a specific target segment and the approach was to create a unique experience. The Self-Booking system (Amadeus Online Corporate Traveller) was not only for the business travelers across the region but also suited for the Procurement and IT departments.
Below is a message from the General Manager of KRDS Middle East, Mr. Leonard Guillermin-Hazan who shares his thoughts on the campaign that ran for 1 month under his supervision:
“Amadeus has been at the forefront of innovation when it comes to travel technology. We’re pleased to have joined with such a name like Amadeus to uphold one of their newest tools. We at KRDS trust our social media capability and mobile-first approach will benefit the company reach many new consumers and lead to more business conversions.”
Have a look at how Amadeus Online Corporate Traveller works.
KRDS Singapore recently welcomed 5 senior hires to the China and Singapore offices to lead and grow different departments in their respective markets.
Joining the Senior Account Management team, we have Ken Tham (pictured first from right) who has over 6 years of experience working with both B2C and B2B brands such as P&G, Porsche, Spotify, Airbnb, Boeing, Montblanc, and HPE. Before this, Ken was an Account Manager at Ketchum where he managed up to 7 to 9 team members for both social, digital and PR work.
Shu Qi Lee (pictured second from right) from Hashmeta has joined as a Senior Account Manager in the Singapore office. She served as Account Manager and subsequently, Senior Account Manager, in Hashmeta. She has managed a few regional brands and has helped grow their digital presence. Some of them were Bosch Home Appliances Asia Pacific, TÜV Rheinland Asia & Africa, DaVinci Gourmet Asia, Tramontina South Asia and NTUC LearningHub. Shu led and won the pitch for the DaVinci Gourmet Asia social media account and spearheaded lead generation campaigns for her ex- clients, DaVinci Gourmet and NTUC LearningHub, through an effective mix of content and visual strategy, media planning & buying and gamification solutions, and results achieved exceeded the clients’ expectations. She also successfully streamlined and improved workflow and processes within the agency for better team performance and client satisfaction.
Yoganand Raju (pictured third from right) will lead the KRDS Design Team to grow their creative capabilities.
As a Creative Director at Rubecon Communications more than 6 years, he led creatives for the key accounts of the agency and worked closely with the client and the internal teams to deliver the best creative solutions for the brand. Yoga was managing teams across the department from copywriters to brand managers and other stakeholders to ensure a seamless flow of creative deliverables that are maintained at industry standards. He ensured the studio personnel are brought up to speed with the latest updates of Adobe CC and worked on design and strategy for new client pitches. He also collaborated with an array of talents such as photographers, illustrators, retouching artist etc from the country and overseas to produce the best creative solutions for the brand.
Some of the key brands that he handled were Amazon.in, Nippon Paint India, Hatsun dairy products, Arun Icecreams, Ibaco, Oyalo Pizza, The Times of India, Beverly Hills Polo Club, SPI Cinemas, Dalmia Bharath Cements, Schwarzkopf Professional, Star Health Insurance, TVS, Sundram Fasteners.
Mia Kuang (pictured fourth from right) will head the Community Management Team in Shanghai. Previously from MSLGROUP China, she worked with global brands like IKEA, P&G Pampers, Melco Resorts & Entertainment. Her expertise includes social media (WeChat) management and digital strategy planning. Mia led a team to maintain WeChat accounts for IKEA (3 million+ followers) and successfully attracted about 1 million+ followers in a year. She supported ‘Make Room for Life’ Campaign for IKEA, which won the Work of Excellence of MSL Global Awards; and also successfully helped her team to win new businesses including Philips, Lexington Home Brands and Rothy’s.
Miriam Dabrowa (pictured fifth from right) joined as a Senior Digital Strategist for Shanghai. Miriam was employed at We Are Social as a Global Team Project Manager and has helped Chinese brands create a global impact in the digital world. In particular, she worked on a successful campaign for Vivo Mobile during the FIFA World Cup, she helped win for her agency the award for Mumbrella Best Localisation of Global Strategy for the campaign “Inspiring Bonding Moments” for TCL. She also was largely responsible for the growth of the JAC Motors global accounts for more than 2 years.
Commenting on the rapid expansion Preetham Venkky, Director at KRDS Asia said:
“We are excited about growing the KRDS family across the various countries we are in. With these new strategic senior hires, we’re confident of delivering more exciting and innovative campaigns to existing clients and partnering with new brands. We’re confident that 2019 will prove to be another fruitful year for KRDS
Omron is a trusted name in Healthcare. It has been providing technologically advanced medical monitoring equipment over the past 40 years. Over the past years, they have been recognized for their smart healthcare devices. The trusted brand has renewed its contract with KRDS Singapore for the fourth year in a row since its initial signing in 2015. The renewal arose after KRDS has enabled the brand to amplify their overall reach and engagement in 2018.
The goal for 2019 is to position Omron as the go-to-brand for Healthcare at home. The brand has exciting products in the pipeline which will be a great addition to their current roster of smart devices. The agency will be customizing content to suit the brand’s new positioning. The focus for this year is on video content as they’ve proven to perform better on Facebook. KRDS will be creating more innovative and immersive content for Singapore and Malaysia on Facebook by making use of all the features the platform has to offer.
Commenting on the renewal Preetham Venkky, Director at KRDS Asia said:
“We are humbled and stoked to be working with Omron for another exciting year. 2018 has been a wonderful year where we’ve learnt and grown from each other’s expertise. We’re excited to explore new content formats and visual styles to tell the brand’s story on Facebook. We’re hopeful that we’ll continue to build our relationship with Omron and reach new heights together.
Tang Pei Yi, Assistant Marketing Manager at OMRON HEALTHCARE SINGAPORE PTE LTD, said:
“We value the long-term relationship with KRDS as our Facebook agency for the past four years. KRDS has demonstrated strong capabilities in producing quality and relevant content to engage our target audience. What is more important is that KRDS provided much professionalism to ensure the work is produced in a timely manner and input for effective audience targeting and reach out. We look forward to another great year of collaboration with KRDS!”
Founded in 1992 in Saudi Arabia, Nayomi is one of the leading lingerie brands in the Middle East, acknowledged as Most admired Nightwear and Lingerie Brand in the Middle East for 3 years in a row. The brand is known for its soft and delicate pieces of lingerie and nightwear. Over the span of 26 years, the brand has made its mark in Saudi Arabia,UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Morocco and has expanded to 210 stores
The brand approached KRDS Middle East with a brief of revamping their website and to create a smooth UI for their customers for both Mobile and Desktop. The agency created an elegant and immersive website design that aligned with the brand’s personality. The main objective was to provide a seamless shopping experience for the users. The agency has also customized a Style guide and designed more pages for Categories and Offers that’ll boost the SEO ranking of the website.
The website can be viewed here.
Barbara Colarusso, Marketing and E-commerce director at Nayomi said:
“ When we contacted KRDS, one of the main challenge we had, was to come up with a new look and feel for the website and an improved UI in basically 3 weeks time. KRDS revealed to be a great partner for the project: they understood the urgency of the request and they aligned the necessary resources to deliver the project on time. KRDS customer-centric approach ensured a smooth and successful project implementation. We are now thrilled to see the results of the new website launch. ‘’
Leonard Guillermin, General Manager of KRDS Middle East said:
“We’re pleased to have the opportunity to work with a renowned brand like Nayomi and to help create a brand new look and feel for their website. We believe our expertise in mobile first design will greatly benefit the brand in providing a smooth shopping experience for the customers.”
Prudential has partnered with KRDS Singapore from 2018 to help bolster their social media presence. GramLab is the brainchild of KRDS started with a focus on mobile-first marketing & customized Instagram strategies.
Every year, the global insurance company hosts a grand Carnival with plenty of fun games, rides and activities. And this year, they wanted to effectively leverage the social platforms to create an interactive campaign to build buzz around the Carnival.
Keeping this brief in mind, GramLab proposed an idea of a fun AR Filter on Facebook. The filter, on load, detects the user’s face and prompts them to ‘Open their mouth’, and when they do a roller coaster rolls out of their mouth with screams in the background. The filter also features a design inspired by the popular festival, Chinese New Year.
The agency believes that this filter is an ideal way to create brand awareness, drive engagement and motivate the users to visit the PMBC Carnival.
Check out the AR Filter here.
Besides the filter, the agency also helped develop an engaging microsite where the users can learn more about the carnival, play games and even win bonus credits!
Preetham Venkky, Director at GramLab, said:
“We’re happy to be exploring new things on Digital for Prudential every day. We wanted to create an immersive Carnival like experience on Digital and Social for the users. The combined attributes of the microsite and the AR filter will help build the buzz the PMBC Carnival and encourage more visitors. We’re excited to work on more innovative campaigns and achieve success together”
NEX is one of the largest malls in the North-East region of Singapore. This 7-storey mall is positioned to be the vibrant, social and recreational hub for the North-East community. NEX has placed the responsibility of handling its social media presence to KRDS Singapore for the second year in a row.
The goals for 2018 was to generate brand awareness and create a unique identity for the mall on Facebook and Instagram. KRDS Singapore was able to achieve that by leveraging trending and topical content and collaborating with influencers like Dee Kosh and Preetipls. Posts created around the Trump-Kim Summit and Ariana Grande’s famous song Thank You, Next became instantly popular amongst the users on social. The Trump-Kim post garnered a reach of 318k. As a result, the mall was able to successfully grow its page fan base by 18% with minimal Ads.
In 2019, the agency will focus more on customizing content for Instagram and creating more innovative Instagram Stories. The agency will also be exploring fun ways to engage the NEX users and non-users alike with more creative collaborations
Commenting on the renewal Doreen Yeo, Senior Marcom Manager at NEX said:
“NEX is excited to renew our partnership with KRDS, and we look forward to amazing brand and event initiatives to build engagement on our social platforms”
Commenting on the renewal Preetham Venkky, Director at KRDS Asia said:
“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to work with NEX for another fruitful year. We’re looking forward to developing an Instagram-led strategy for the mall. We’re hopeful that our creative efforts will continue to bolster the mall’s presence in the social world.”
Singapore International Foundation is a non-profit organisation that seeks to connect Singaporeans and world communities to build a better world. Through shared ideas, skills and experiences, the organisation has been uplifting lives of people in different sectors like Arts and Culture, Business and Livelihood, Education, Environment & Healthcare. SIF has partnered with KRDS Singapore to strengthen brand awareness in the region and grow its online community.
The agency will take on the role of a strategic counsel and will help raise awareness and participation in SIF’s programmes. KRDS will also be developing a content strategy on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter to engage effectively with SIF’s online community and to bolster links with stakeholders.
The agency will kick-off its social duties with a series of posts for SIF’s International Volunteers Day 2018 campaign to thank their volunteers during the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre’s Giving Week.
Kavita Ratty, Head of Communications from SIF said:
“We are looking forward to this partnership with KRDS Singapore to further amplify the amazing work our Singaporean volunteers are doing to bring world communities together to do good.”
Commenting on the appointment, Preetham Venkky, Director of KRDS Asia said:
“We’re delighted to partner with Singapore International Foundation that aims to facilitate connections between Singaporeans and global communities to create positive social change. We believe we can help SIF make an impact on digital and grow their network of changemakers.”
