Heineken shifts media duties from Starcom in Singapore

Heineken has shifted its media duties from Starcom to Dentsu Aegis Network's Red Star in Singapore, following a pitch held on 3 August 2018 which saw only the two agencies participate. Red Star is a unit exclusively created to manage the Heineken account within the network and the partnership will officially start on January 2019.In a statement to Marketing, marketing director Faye Wee said the company has made "great strides" with Starcom over the last four years and would like to express its deepest gratitude for the agency's past support and commitment. "During the four-year period, the agency showed high levels of professionalism and the company accomplished much with it," Wee said.She added that Heineken looks forward to working hand-in-hand with Red Star to deliver the best media experience to consumers through all its brands. "We are confident that Red Star, with their strategic and digital-focused agenda, will excite the new age of consumers and bring great value to Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore (APBS)," she said.Arthur Sung, Red Star's CEO, told Marketing in a statement that the opportunity to work with some of Singapore's most iconic beer brands such as Tiger Beer, Heineken, Guinness and Strongbow, amidst a fast changing beer drinking occasions is definitely one that will push the team to harness its multi-disciplinary capabilities under DAN to "great effect"."All of us at team Red Star are extremely honoured and excited on our partnership with APBS. We can't ask for a better portfolio of brands as APB to propel our collective capabiliites forward. This is going to be a fun journey ahead of all of us!" Sung added."We've shared award-winning years of great work with APB since our journey in 2014, boldly embracing a progressive digital and innovation focused agenda. While the time has come for parting of ways, we acknowledge our many joint accomplishments and wish their new agency partnership well," Ian Loon, managing director of Starcom Singapore, said in a statement to Marketing. Last year, the brand moved its account from GroupM to Carat Malaysia after over two decades. In January 2017, Carat was appointed as Heineken's second global media agency alongside Starcom. Heineken's last round of global media review was earlier in 2012, when it consolidated its ad buying business with Starcom, then known as, Starcom Mediavest. Prior to that, WPP's Mindshare was handling the work in some markets, according to Adweek.