Ricola names social media agency for Southeast Asia

Ricola has appointed content marketing agency Green Park Content (GPC) to manage social media duties for Southeast Asia for a year, following a pitch held in August 2020. GPC's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the agency was chosen because Ricola liked the work of its creative team on last year's Goodness Inside campaign, where it was responsible for producing the brand's social media assets during the pandemic.

At the same time, e-cigarette brand Relx has also tapped GPC to handle the brand's SEO and content production in Asia for a year, following a pitch last August. GPC said both clients aim to centralise their agencies and look to GPC as it has a regional presence. GPC is headquartered in London and expanded into Jakarta and Singapore in 2017 and 2018. The agency is in the process of planning, strategising, and producing assets which will roll out next month.

Meanwhile, it also brought on board Arcade Indonesia's head of digital Martin Niens (pictured below) as head of client services for Asia Pacific, to lead the accounts and project management unit of GPC in Asia. He reports to MD APAC Marcelo Bittencourt. As part of GPC’s Asia leadership team, Niens will take over client servicing duties from creative and brand strategy director, Fe Husaint. 

Niens will be responsible for driving client-centric innovation and business growth. Meanwhile Husaint, who has been the driving force behind several of its key clients, will now shift focus to creative transformation. Additionally, he will oversee a team of nine including a regional account director, three account managers, two senior project managers and three project managers. He told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that his main priority involves improving the agency's internal process and structure, and will work towards setting the right foundation for GPC, which is crucial for the agency as it is growing at a fast pace.

Niens has been living in Indonesia for over six years and has spent time with a variety of agencies including TBWA\, Digitas, Cheil, and Leo Burnett. During his time at Arcade, he also oversaw duties across the Groupe. Niens brings a wealth of knowledge and experience having worked with multinational brands such as Unilever, McDonald's, Nestle, Mondelez, Huawei, and Philips. Publicis Groupe Indonesia declined to comment on Niens' replacement.

In total, GPC has 61 employees including 15 hires in the process and an additional freelance network of 30 individuals across Asia Pacific. It has two studios in Jakarta and the team comprises 10 from accounts and project; 24 from creative production; 14 from editorial; four from SEO and data; and nine from business/HR/finance. Among the list of clients it has worked with include Havaianas, Unilever, and Seventh Generation.

According to GPC's spokesperson, the production team was severely hit by the pandemic. However, with its studios, its in-house team and some necessary alterations, the agency was able to continue with its work. "Leveraging the fact that we are 100% digital, we saw growth with the increasing demand of content marketing, SEO and social media efforts. It worked extremely well in our favour considering that the APAC business grew 70% compared to 2019," the spokesperson added.

This year, it plans to work on more regional brands to help clients create a consistent strategy across the region with localised content. "We also want to focus on helping brands build content hubs in the region, thereby connecting brands with their audience organically," the spokesperson said. GPC also plans to bring on board more experts in the field of tech, creative, and SEO to grow its Southeast Asian team.