Dentsu brings Amplifi to Malaysia, appoints Hasnain Babrawala as MD

Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia has launched its global media investment arm Amplifi in Malaysia, marking the continued expansion of the unit. Amplifi is currently present in eight markets across Asia Pacific and 39 countries worldwide.Leading Amplifi will be its newly appointed managing director, Hasnain Babrawala (pictured). In his new role, Babrawala will have a mandate to fulfill Amplifi’s goal of delivering a demonstrable uplift in media performance across all media. Babrawala will have dual reporting to Nicky Lim, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia and Sunil Yadav, president of Amplifi Asia Pacific.Babrawala joins from IPG Mediabrands Malaysia where he was the head of media trading and innovation, handling the agency’s crucial task of optimising and monetising clients’ media budgets, among others. He has led and worked on key accounts like Intel, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Reckitt Benckiser. Prior to IPG, he was attached with Omnicom Media (OMD) and Mindshare Fulcrum.With Amplifi, the network will see a collaborative approach in which this unit will also engage 13 media, digital and communications agencies across the Dentsu Aegis group in Malaysia. In this new structure, Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia's spokesperson said it's aiming to effectively bring together the group’s media trading and investment management, media partnerships, programmatic buying (Amnet) and content capability functions (The Story Lab) into a consolidated unit, with data as its foundation.Amplifi operates across four distinct areas of specialisation: investment, global media partnerships, programmatic buying (AMNET) and The Story Lab.Under the investment pillar, Amplifi aims to deliver market leading price points, in every media type. Meanwhile, its global media partnerships pillar serves to reinvent global media partnerships, fostering a strategic and collaborative approach to delivers transformational value for global clients, media owners and the Dentsu Aegis Network.Under AMNET, better performing media through better audience targeting will be delivered through programmatic buys. As for The Story Lab, Amplifi’s content specialist agency will have to deliver innovative content solutions that create business and brand value for DAN, clients and partners. Its expertise includes original content, content/media partnerships, and content investment and licensing.Lim said, “This is an important milestone for Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia. Amplifi is our game-changing solution that will form a matrix that integrates four key areas of our trade - media investment, media partnerships, technology and innovative content solutions - to ultimately deliver a value proposition that works for our clients and media owners.”“Investments in areas like content, programmatic, data, new technology and artificial intelligence are set to increase, hence it is critical for trading units to be equipped and manage this continuous investment fragmentation smartly. I also believe that trading will not only be limited to price guarantees and will start, if not already, to feature as a measurable function for its overall solution in all agency evaluations and contracts. I look forward to grow with the entire Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia team,” Babrawala said.