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annouViu, a leading pan-regional OTT video service from PCCW Media Group with more than 41 million monthly active users (MAU), and Mediacorp, Singapore’s largest content creator and national media network, announced a collaboration which will offer Viu-ers access to drama and lifestyle programs from Mediacorp.

This collaboration demonstrates that Viu is the ideal digital platform in the region to showcase the great content produced in Singapore and enables Mediacorp to introduce ‘made in Singapore’ content to new audiences across Asia.

More than 600 hours of curated Mediacorp content will be available to Viu-ers throughout Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. This selection spans English and Chinese programs and includes both scripted and factual titles and the content will include English, Bahasa Melayu, Traditional Chinese and Thai subtitles on an as-available basis.

The Mediacorp content offerings are now available on the Viu mobile app, which can be downloaded for free on App Store, Google Play, and selected smart TVs; as well as on the web at www.viu.com.


Zendesk announced a strategic alliance with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to provide world-class, enterprise grade CRM solutions for large Enterprises.

The partnership combines Zendesk’s powerful support, sales and engagement software solutions together with TCS’ deep contextual knowledge and experience in digital transformation. Together, Zendesk and TCS will collaborate and more efficiently solve companies’ increasingly complex technological requirements and provide powerful CRM custom solutions and integrations.

In 2020, it is predicted that customer experience will surpass both price and quality of product as a brand's key differentiator. As part of this alliance, global companies will benefit from TCS’ technology expertise and Zendesk’s support, sales, and engagement software to meet customers’ rapidly evolving demands and transform their experience. This includes:

  • Alignment between TCS' industry leading consulting, implementation and optimization services with Zendesk's CRM product portfolio.
  • Access to TCS' deep expertise across industries including financial services, manufacturing, retail, and more.

These service-first CRM solutions enable service and sales teams to instantly connect with their customers and have natural conversations across all touchpoints. More information can be found on the Zendesk Partner Marketplace.


NetApp announced the acquisition of Talon Storage, a leader in next generation software-defined storage solutions enabling global enterprises to centralize and consolidate IT storage infrastructure to the public clouds.

The combination of NetApp Cloud Volumes technology and Talon FAST™ software, enterprises can seamlessly centralize data in the cloud while still maintaining a consistent branch office experience.

NetApp’s acquisition of Talon enhances the company’s cloud data services portfolio with a market-leading solution that solves all the remote office and branch office challenges with file shares. Talon FAST is a cloud data service that provides a “Global File Cache” service for ROBO workloads, to enable file server consolidation into a secure, globally accessible file system on our public cloud platform.

Talon’s software will integrate with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Cloud Volumes Service and Azure NetApp Files solutions and give customers a faster path to the public cloud at a better total cost of ownership. Visit NetApp Cloud Central for more information.


AnyMind Group, a company in the marketing, entertainment and HR technology spaces announced the full acquisition of India-based mobile video advertising platformPOKKT Mobile Ads (POKKT).

POKKT was founded in India in 2012 and expanded into Southeast Asia and the Middle East. POKKT Mobile Ads is the leading in-app smartphone ad platform that is integrated with over 1000 app publishers. Reaching over 500 million monthly active users, POKKT’s key offerings include in-app video ads, rich media innovations and app performance marketing. In addition, POKKT has built strong data and machine learning capabilities that help its over 200 advertising partners to target their audiences effectively.

AnyMind Group will integrate POKKT’s in-app advertising tech stack into the AdAsia Digital Platform, which currently allows marketers to activate, manage and track media buys across desktop and mobile web display and video advertising, and digital-out-of-home.

AdAsia360, a platform for publishers to activate, manage and track monetization opportunities, originally focused on browser-based publisher monetization, has added features for in-app publishers in the past year.

The acquisition of POKKT also provides AnyMind Group with an extended set of bases in the region: three offices in India and an office in the UAE, bringing the total geographical span of AnyMind Group to 17 offices in 13 markets.

AnyMind Group will extend its other business lines and brands into these markets, including:

  • CastingAsia, the end-to-end influencer marketing platform for discovering, activating, managing and tracking influencer marketing activities,
  • CastingAsia Creators Network, a scaled talent network across Asia that incubates and grows social media influencers and content creators,
  • AdAsia’s offerings including the AdAsia Digital Platform and AdAsia Premium Marketplace


Rohit SharmaIn Addition, CEO and co-founder of POKKT, Rohit Sharma, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of AnyMind Group. He will assume the responsibility for AnyMind Group’s operations function including the implementation of AnyMind Group’s strategic plans and product opportunities in Asia and the Middle East.

Otohiko KozutsumiOtohiko Kozutsumi, co-founder and former COO of AnyMind Group will take on the role of Chief Commercial Officer of AnyMind Group. Kozutsumi will lead the company’s existing AdAsia business and on-going commercial efforts for AnyMind Group, including solution strategy and sales enablement, along with identifying and leading strategic initiatives for the company.

Vaibhav Odhekar
Vaibhav Odhekar, COO and co-founder of POKKT, has been appointed as Managing Director of India and the Middle East for AnyMind Group
. Odhekar will be responsible for POKKT’s operations in Asia, the rollout and integration of POKKT’s solutions to AnyMind Group’s markets and lead the day-to-day operations for AnyMind Group in India and the Middle East.

The four-year-old AnyMind Group started out as AdAsia Holdings in April 2016 and has since expanded into three business lines (marketing. Entertainment, and HR technology, and HR technology) and has made five acquisitions, including FourM and GROVE in Japan, Moindy in Thailand, Acqua Media in Hong Kong, and now POKKT in India.


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Many books address marketing approaches in a theoretical way, which helps readers understand the basic concepts, but they leave many gaps in understanding how to execute. The Circle of Traction model provides a specific direction and questions to ask on the journey to creating a successful, profitable, and growing company”, David Altounian writes in the foreword to this beneficial book. Read Fast Track Your Business to help your company use this customer-centric framework to take a practical and systematic process for navigating and accelerating a sustainable path to organic growth.


Dalet, a leading provider of solutions and services for broadcasters and content professionals, announced the appointment of Bea Alonso to Director of Global Product Marketing.

With strategic oversight of Dalet’s expanded product marketing team and technology partnerships, Bea collaborates with Dalet product management, sales and corporate marketing groups to define and execute all go-to-market strategy plans across industries and verticals, shaping unique value propositions for news broadcasters, content owners and publishers, sports leagues and teams, as well as brands, corporate organizations, government agencies and institutions.

Prior to joining Dalet, Bea spent the last two decades with technology vendors Avid and Grass Valley, joining Ooyala in 2016 to spearhead the media logistics business across the Asia Pacific region and ultimately leading the company’s product marketing team.

A talented communicator, Bea is a well-respected technologist and frequent conference presenter and panelist on topics around evolving content supply chains, the business of content creation and distribution, and AI applications in the media industry.

A champion of digital transformation, Bea was instrumental in evolving news, playout, production, post-production and multi-platform content distribution workflows for leading media companies and brands including Fox Sports, VuClip, Discovery, Turner and the National Rugby League of Australia. Deeply involved in the media community, Bea serves as an Advisory Board member for the DPP and RISE - an advocacy group for Women in Broadcast. Bea is also part of the organizing team for the Barcelona Video Tech community and an IABM board member.


FrankyThe Hoffman Agency announced the appointment of Thomas Franky as General Manager of its Indonesia office.

He joins the Agency from Fortune PR, where he served as Managing Director for four years, growing the business to be one of the biggest in Indonesia, and successfully launching two business units: digital communication consultancy diBe and brand communication consultancy Verbrand.

Established in 2017, The Hoffman Agency’s Indonesia operation is one of eight fully-owned offices across Asia Pacific, working with brands including Legoland Malaysia and McAfee across a variety of integrated, multi-market communications programs. In his new role, Franky is charged with propelling Hoffman’s presence within the Indonesia market, as well as working closely with the Singapore office to progress the Agency’s capabilities across the wider Southeast Asia region.


charoletteCharlotte Tan joins RICE as account director to lead growing client portfolio.

 

Charlotte brings nine years of agency and in-house marketing communications experience to the new position.


Prior to RICE, Charlotte led TODAY Ogilvy’s public relations (PR) team in Yangon, Myanmar, which she helped start in 2012. In Yangon, Charlotte advised and supported clients in their communications and market entry efforts while building local team capabilities and processes.

Charlotte also previously worked in Ogilvy’s Singapore office for over three years, where she primarily supported technology companies with their PR and social needs. In addition to her agency experience, Charlotte spent three and a half years in-house with the corporate communications team at SPRING Singapore (which has since been renamed Enterprise Singapore). In this role, she was responsible for delivering public relations and corporate communications support and managing multichannel marketing campaigns.