breaking news | July 30, 2010

Asia Pacific - Microsoft Advertising has launched the Digital Quotient (DQ), an online assessment tool to gauge the industry's digital awareness and knowledge.

India - BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), has signalled its long-term commitment to expanding in India, by announcing a programme of new investment into its channels, BBC Entertainment and CBeebies.

Global - Health and consumer-care giant Johnson & Johnson has been meeting with its global roster of media shops in recent days to conduct what amounts to performance assessments for the past three years.

Nimesh Dwivedi, APAC Marketing Head for PayPal, looks at which brands got it right and which didn't at FIFA this year.

Malaysia - Hearst Magazines International has announced plans to launch Esquire in Malaysia in April 2011, in partnership with Mongoose Publishing.

Malaysia - Catalyst Asia has inked a deal with Guinness Anchor Berhad (GAB) to provide its PowerTable analysis for Tiger Beer's Tiger FC website.

Malaysia - Consumer confidence has increased slightly in the second quarter of 2010, according to the latest Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Survey.

Regional - Harris Interactive, a market research company has beefed up its senior ranks in its Asian operations, making one new appointment and promoting two.

India - Online search giant Google is understood to be in talks with makers of popular online games to develop a broader social networking service to compete with Facebook.

Malaysia - Advertising + Marketing speaks to Mindshare leader, Girish Menon on winning the coveted blue "A + M" cube for overall Agency of the Year.

Australia - Aegis Media has confirmed it will acquire Australia's largest independent media buying consortium Mitchell Communication Group, in a deal worth A$363 million.

Kuala Lumpur - Mindshare pulled off a surprise victory at Advertising + Marketing Magazine's 2010 Agency of the Year Awards, edging out Ogilvy & Mather for the overall Agency of the Year.

Malaysia - Ciba Vision has appointed Tribal DDB as its integrated marketing agency-of-record for its complete range of contact lenses.

Singapore - Space Furniture has launched a marketing push to strengthen the brand positioning in Asia Pacific.

Singapore - Moët Hennessy Diageo Singapore has appointed iris to launch an integrated experiential and digital brand campaign for its Johnnie Walker Black Label brand in Singapore, following a competitive pitch.

Hong Kong - Google has announced its half-year Zeitgeist for Hong Kong which reveals what local netizens searched for most in past six months, with Facebook topping the list as the most popular website.

Regional - Omnicom Media Group has promoted Paul Moreton to the position of head of trading and accountability, Asia Pacific.

Role description: You will formulate and implement sales and marketing strategies for the Singapore Repertory Theatre Group to create a strong awareness for its productions and make SRT the first choice for corporate entertainment in Singapore.

Hong Kong - The launch of the Monocle shop in Hong Kong last week will act as more than just a retail front. The publishing group is also trialling a new funding and marketing model.

Hong Kong - In a bid to drive usage among the female market, MSN has partnered with Sanrio - the home of Hello Kitty - to launch an online Hello Kitty theme park.