All the latest partnerships and platform launches in APAC: August

August 31: TenMax.io, a marketing technology firm, announced a partnership with Gojek to support GoGAN (Gojek Advertisement Network), in delivering best-in-class ad services to consumer brands, merchants, and ad agencies of all sizes in Indonesia. By leveraging TenMax's artificial intelligence and Gojek's insights-driven platform, the partnership will enable brands, agencies, and merchants to access a one-stop advertising solution to plan, measure, and optimize their digital marketing efforts across social media and content sites, the companies said.

TenMax executive team in Taipei

August 31: Asiance, a brand-tech company based in Seoul and Tokyo, and Mobile Now, a full-service mobile platforms agency based in Shanghai, formed a strategic partnership agreement. With combinging their expertise in local platforms such as KakaoTalk, Line, and WeChat, and by sharing insights and talents, the companies say they will help international brands go through their digital transformation journey in China, Japan, and Korea. 

August 31: The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia has chosen Ipsos and its Iris platform for the planning, buying, and reporting of digital audience measurement data. Ipsos will replace Nielsen, which provided the service for 10 years, starting in Q2 2022. The appointment ends a review process conducted by Venture Consulting, for which a tender was issued in May.

August 30: Walee, an influencer ecosystem solution, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding from Z2C Limited, a marcomms network in Pakistan. The funds will support the company’s regional growth ambitions in Pakistan and the Middle East, accelerating product development and service growing clients across 10 core verticals. The investment comes within a month of Z2C's media agency Brainchild Communications Pakistan (BCP) signing a strategic partnership agreement with Walee to distribute Walee Enterprise, an AI-enabled social media listening, and digital service center platform.

August 29: Social audio app Clubhouse has developed a spatial audio feature to help conversations and virtual performances within the platform "feel more life-like", the company said. The surround-sound-like feature, which works best with headphones, makes audio and voices sound as if they're coming from different directions, generating a more immersive experience. The company said spatial audio will roll out first to iOS users and then Android users "soon after". 

August 27: Brandvas, a technology platform of tools designed specifically for creative and marketing agencies, has launched in Australia. Users will have access to Roy Morgan consumer data and Australia Post parcel insights data embedded in a brand strategy system to ensure strategies target the right markets. The Brandvas toolkit allows agencies and marketers to increase capabilities, improve productivity and streamline projects, according to the company. The platform launches with seven modules; Creative Brief, Media Brief, Script Template, Creative Competitive Overview, Competitor Mapping, Research Data, including customer personas and their hero Brand Strategy. 

August 27: Xandr has expanded its video marketplace to include all of Australia’s premium, commercial broadcasters. The most recent quarter saw Xandr post strong international growth across digital video, and specifically, connected TV (CTV). In Asia specifically, regional over-the-top platforms WeTV&iflix, Viu and iQiyi, as well as local platforms SMX (for MeWatch) True Digital and Vidio have signed on to use Xandr’s selling platform, Xandr Monetize. Building on this momentum and direct integration with video publishers, CTV inventory has become increasingly available and monetised through Xandr’s platform, the company said. 

August 27: Taboola and DoubleVerify have tied up to allow the former to receive the latter's standard brand-safety and suitability targeting technology, allowing for control over the quality of where their ads are placed. These settings can be customised by advertisers based on DV’s expertise and brand safety and suitability controls. 

August 24: Cybersecurity firm Human (formerly White Ops) has partnered with mobile programmatic platform InMobi to integrate its MediaGuard solution into InMobi's ad exchange. The partnership promises to bring real-time visibility and active protection against malicious bot activity to in-app advertising. In addition, InMobi is joining the Human Collective, a recently launched initiative that brings together players from across the digital advertising industry to create a collectively protected ecosystem.

August 24: Programmatic solutions provider Bench has announced the launch of Bench Connect, a marketing intelligence platform for brands and agencies, designed to speed up the delivery of ad campaigns and improve transparency. Bench Connect integrates agencies and advertisers’ existing ad platforms into one dashboard and automates the manual processes that exist within programmatic media workflow. It claims that it takes just 30 minutes to run through the process of initiating a brief to launching a marketing campaign—significantly less than the industry average of 30 days. Bench is aiming to see 800% growth over FY22 for the platform. A screenshot of the platform below.

August 23: Fast food brand Subway has signed an agreement with PT Sari Sandwich Indonesia, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s food and beverage retailer PT Map Boga Adiperkasa Tbk (MBA), to launch its restaurants in Indonesia. According to the agreement, the Subway brand will be managed by PT Sari Sandwich Indonesia, with plans to rollout across Indonesia by Q4 2021 initially in the Greater Jakarta region. The agreement is the first time Subway will implement a country franchise model, and forms part of the brand's aggressive plans to expand its international footprint. Chief executive John Chidsey said in a release: "This is just the start of our global expansion plans."