Advertising

Global – Portfolio Night came to Singapore for the second time, on 8 May, with DDB Worldwide returning as key sponsor for the event which saw 10 of its offices participate globally.

Global – The Clio Awards’ “ihaveanidea” competition has announced the 12 finalists under 30 years old who will compete in the 2008 Clio Future Gold Young Creatives Program.

Indonesia - Crush Indonesia has unveiled an ad campaign to relaunch OBH Anak, an extension of the OBH Combi cough medicine range.

Singapore - To reinforce its association with its 9-ball Championship, Guinness has installed giant three-dimensional pool cues on a wall of Somerset MRT station, and the execution will remain through the month of May.

Singapore - Saxo Capital Markets has appointed Euro RSCG Singapore as its creative advertising agency on record after a four agency pitch.

Malaysia - Twelve submissions from Malaysia have been shortlisted for the Clio Awards 2008 with Saatchi & Saatchi taking the lead in number of shortlisted entries.

Hong Kong - Redgate Media has agreed to acquire out-of-home ad company MediaShell to expand its outdoor network just weeks after acquiring two major TV media groups.

Malaysia - Prudential Assurance has rolled out a 'The Face You Can Trust' marketing campaign, with advertising handled by McCann Erickson.

Shanghai - Bates 141, part of the WPP network, has taken a majority stake in Shanghai-based digital agency Evision.

Malaysia - French insurer Axa Affin Life Insurance has launched 'Turning Point', an interactive game to give people hands-on and fun experience in managing their wealth.

Hong Kong - Yakult has taken three awards at Asia Television's annual Most Popular TV Commercial Awards, including Most Popular TVC.

Guangzhou - Star River Property has appointed McCann Ericsson Guangzhou to provide creative, brand strategy, sales and events planning.

Hong Kong - Leveraging its Olympic sponsorship, Coca-Cola's Bonaqua water brand has launched an outdoor campaign featuring Chinese atheletes, Liu Xiang, Guo Jingjing and Yao Ming to promote its reformulated isotonic drink.

The recent TNBT and The Law Firm partnership reflects the increased demand from clients looking to expand overseas and seeking alternatives to the traditional big agency network offering, reports Debbie Cai.

Guangzhou - Premium paper brand Double A has awarded Leo Burnett Guangzhou as its creative agency of record after a pitch with three other agencies.

Singapore - StarHub has launched a mobile advertising service that offers marketers a more focused advertising platform targeting consumers in specified pre-set locations.

Malaysia - Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein (34%) are the most coveted luxury brands in Malaysia, according to Nielsen's Global Luxury Brands Study, but high ad spending does not necessarily translate to a similar level of desire for the brand.

Hong Kong - Portfolio Night, the world's largest simultaneous advertising recruitment event, will return to Hong Kong for a second time, with DDB Worldwide this year signing on as a gold sponsor.

Hong Kong - Virgin Atlantic has launched targeted online and direct mail campaign to convince business travelers to switch from the likes of Cathay Pacific and British Airways' business class offering. The campaign moves away from last year's marketing strategy, which relied more on TV.

Shanghai - Proximity China, a unit of Omnicom Group, has confirmed the appointment of Narelle Hicks to a newly created role as general manager of its Shanghai operations.

Hong Kong - PCCW and McDonald's have taken the lions share of awards at the annual SINA Online Ads Awards for creative ideas in online advertising.

Singapore - MobileOne (M1) has unveiled its first Young and Rubicam (Y&R) created ad campaign since appointing the agency on 5 February, as reported by Marketing.

Global - HP has signed an agreement with the Omnicom Group which will see it handing the global communications strategy for its Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) to BBDO.

Singapore - Singapore strikes three nominations and 23 In-Book entries for this year's D&AD Awards, with Work taking two Pencil nominations, DDB Worldwide taking one, and Y&R swiping the most In-Book entries with seven.

Korea - BBDO Korea has acquired Amore Pacific's Laneige business without a pitch on 1 April 2008, with the account valued at approximately eight billion KRW.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong Tourism Board has appointed Grey Group to its creative account covering 18 markets worldwide, following a pitch against three 4As agencies.

Singapore - McDonald's has launched a through-the-line campaign in view of the competitive quick serve restaurant (QSR) market and is relaunching its delivery service to consumers with the promise of a 'super-convenience' experience.

Singapore - BBC World's new embedded news service offers pre-roll advertisers opportunities outside of the UK, and Global Brands Allianz and Shell have signed up as exclusive launch advertising partners.

Malaysia - Barisan Nasional was the third highest ad spender in February 2008 at RM9.8 million, according to Nielsen.

Malaysia - Google and blog ads could see more competition from Yahoo when the latter introduces its new search marketing solution - Sponsored Search - in Southeast Asia soon.