Vero is a Southeast-Asia-based PR, social, digital and creative agency with offices in Thailand and Myanmar and another planned in Indonesia later this year.

“In Vietnam, earned attention remains at the core of what we do, and we are seeking to generate impact for our clients through great creative and great digital capabilities,” said Raphael Lachkar, director in Vietnam. “We are pleased to announce a wide array of digital services in addition to the existing public and media relations offering we have in Vietnam.”

Vero has already commenced several research projects in Vietnam to gain insights and better serve clients.

One research project focuses on the impact of influencer marketing on millennials in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The study reveals that nearly 60 per cent of millennials are more likely to trust a brand after seeing an influencer post about it.

The outreach team in Vietnam can match influencers, both macro and micro, to suit brand identities and key messaging and to reach a wider, yet niche audience.

“The importance of Vietnam as a market in the region cannot be underestimated,” said Brian Griffin, managing director. “There are a lot of really talented people in Vietnam, and the market forces are all headed in the right direction.

“Our goal is to provide clients with the most comprehensive marketing services offer in the large, fast-growing region markets. And Vietnam is a very important part of this.”

Vietnam’s economy is expected to grow at more than 6.5 per cent through 2020. Foreign direct investment is projected to surge this year, with a significant increase in quality investment.

And Vietnam’s young, educated and tech-savvy workforce continues to attract Fortune 500 companies.

POPS also points to its use of highly experienced teams to professionally run the campaigns, along with using a customer-centric approach with right target selection. And it touts its proven accomplishment in achieving 50 per cent growth, trebled sales growth and over 200 campaigns in 2019.

Bani Tan, regional director of POPS Thailand Co Ltd, says that the company is the leading digital entertainment provider of the current era, using YouTube and other social media platforms with a focus on influencer marketing. This approach involves taking a person, net idol or celebrity who already has fame, credibility and a large following on their own online platform, and then bringing them to endorse the product or promote the brand on social media such as Instagram, Facebook or YouTube.

It is all the rage in 2019, with 50 per cent usage growth. Many brand managers and marketers have seen a noticeable shift to this new alternative, preferring content creators on YouTube for their strategies. Influencer marketing can not only create brand awareness among consumers but also build brand credibility and persuade consumers, leading them to purchase at last. Using such trends has allowed POPS Thailand to grow three times, with over 200 client campaigns from various industry including fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), tourism, airlines and other sectors.

With Facebook and Instagram changing its terms and regulations, as well as decreasing ad reach, YouTube’s popularity has increased, and its traffic and views has shown increased consistency. That has led many influencers to shift from other social media platforms to YouTube, especially actors and celebrities who previously use Instagram as their main channel. The payment rate for a YouTuber or content creator has thus escalated, especially for a top-tier YouTuber who can early around Bt1.2 million per video. Mid–tier YouTubers, are meanwhile the focus of a price war in the market right now. The record as of March 6, 2019 shows six channels with 10 million subscribers and 200 channels with 1 million subscribers. Statistics show that every three days one channel reaches 1 million subscribers. There are currently 2,500 channels with at least 100,00 subscribers each, with another three channels added daily. However, despite the rise in the industry’s payment rates, the top-tier YouTubers remain popular and are in high demand. This is because it the investment and cost per view is still low compared to video production and advertisement costs.

Bani noted that brand managers and marketers make “conversions” their priority, rather than reach or views by target consumers. Identifying and selecting the right influencer is the key factor in the campaign in order to create a conversion when applying the influencer marketing strategy. The brand must be able to choose a high-quality content creator who knows how to create branded content, an influencer whose image and position align with the brand’s communication direction, an influencer with a sizeable audience of followers and who has the same profile with the brand’s target consumers, and an influencer who is highly popular.

Lastly, an experienced and expert management team is another important factor. That is because working in this market is not all about understanding the demographic of each influencer. The best way to use influencer marketing is a deep understanding that goes beyond demographic analysis. For example, developing a strategy for the “kid segment” is complicated due to age restrictions on some social media platforms. Kids might use their parent’s account instead. Solely analysing demographics will definitely mislead target selection. But an experienced and expert management team that thoroughly knows the target audience of each influencer is able to identify and select the right influencer for each brand and campaign.

“Though influencer marketing is a highly competitive marketing approach, POPS Thailand continues to invest heavily in resources to ensure a high-quality branded campaign execution and delivery,” Bani concluded. “We are actively working to ensure ‘brand safety’ and ‘kid-safe’ in our POPS kids channels. As a result, 65 per cent of our clientele is our long-time clients who come back for more of our service.”

Boasting above 800 branches in 50 countries in the world, including 12 in Thailand so far, the company’s copyright has been owned by Primo Food and Beverage since 2007. Billing itself as a “premium grade” coffeehouse, Gloria Jean’s uses only “specially selected” Arabica varieties.

The pattern on its ceramic coffee cup was co-designed by renowned artist ML Chiratorn Chirapravati.

Rojana Homsin, the director of operations for Primo Food and Beverage Co Ltd, said Gloria Jean’s Coffees is a coffee-house brand of a world class premium standard, with its origins in Australia.

“Customers have a passion for the art of coffee, a brand that is dedicated to getting the best coffee with the story of travel in search of speciality coffee beans of only 100-per cent Arabica varieties from all over the world to get a quality coffee in their hands,” she said. The coffee shop business in Thailand has a high growth rate, with coffee having become a well-known beverage here a long time ago.

But the characteristics, popularity and behaviour of Thai coffee drinkers differ from that of foreigners. But they can have confidence in the quality of the Gloria Jean’s Coffees brand, which has the same quality control standards throughout the world from the selection of species to the roasting process under the control of a coffee expert, to imbuing the coffee beans with a unique flavour to being vacuum packed to avoid spoilage, said Rojana.

“Consumers can be confident that every coffee, every cup you drink, delivers freshness and is to the same standard as that for everyone around the world.”

Gloria Jean’s Coffees has also collaborated with the Rainforest Alliance to support the conservation and protection of wildlife, natural vegetation, ecology and environment, as well as to promote the creation of housing and to provide career education in coffee production to for local communities in many countries. Under the collaboration, Gloria Jean’s Coffees choose to source more than 85 per cent of their coffee from farms that have been Rainforest Alliance certified, which can be seen from the symbol that is attached to every package.

She said that in addition, the company has expanded its business.

“We see the premium coffee shop business as an investment business, with the business opportunities still opening up. Looking just at the premium coffee shops, it can be see that the sales volume continues to increase with the behaviour of consumers turning to drinking roasted coffee instead of instant coffee and their more meticulous selection of products. Plus there’s the quality of our brand’s products, therefore ensuring that the premium fresh coffee business will definitely change Thai coffee consumption behaviour. With an initial investment of Bt2.1 million, prepare to be the owner of a Gloria Jean’s Coffee business immediately,” said Rojana.

By the end of this year, she said, the company will have rolled out two franchise lines. The first will be the premium coffee-shop format, while the second will be “Expresso by Gloria Jean’s” outlets in partnership with Caltex.

In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Mehrotra said the firm would continue to invest in improving the quality and capacity of its network in response to surging demand for data.

“Data consumption is increasing month by month, and data customers continue to grow. We have seen that data usage in urban areas, especially Yangon and Mandalay, is at the same level as Scandinavian countries,” he said.

“Myanmar customers would love to see the world now, and we are getting more and more connected with each other. For that, our 4G is good enough.”

The firm now has 19 million subscribers in Myanmar, and 62 per cent of them are active data users with the average usage of 2.7 gigabytes on a monthly basis. It has now covered 92 per cent of the population, with its services available in 308 out of 330 townships in Myanmar.

“Generally, we see higher data consumption in the morning and evening but the patterns are changing,” he said.

“We used to see more data usage on weekends but it is now similar across all seven days.”

According to Mehrotra, Telenor is fully aware that rain and power outages may impact on the quality of its network performance. The firm’s network operating centre ensures that there is a minimum downtime with the enhancement of battery backup to enhance the user experience.

In a bid to ensure the best possible experience for data and voice calls, the firm now has 8,600 sites across Myanmar, with more than 6,100 sites being 4G compatible. Around 50 per cent of the sites are located in Yangon and Mandalay regions. Mehrotra takes pride in saying that Telenor has the largest 4G network in Myanmar.

“We are continuously expanding 4G sites, as we see there is higher demand for data. We just focus on quality and are trying to optimise our network so we are able to provide an excellent user experience,” he said.

“We are able to do quite well in building a very good data network here. With our very robust and diverse network, we are helping Myanmar people fully enjoy the benefits of 4G as well as the digital revolution.”

To date, the company has invested US$2.7 billion (Bt83 billion) in Myanmar, and invested $200 million in getting more spectrums over the past two years to provide innovative services. Additionally, the number of sites grows every day, said Mehrotra.

“Our network is technically advanced, and is ready for the future,” he said, referring to the firm’s preparations for the fifth-generation wireless technology (5G).

He said the launch of Telenor 5G services in the future will largely depend on local characteristics, spectrum pricing, market maturity and business opportunities in the market.

“If you take all these factors in mind, commercial 5G may be coming sometime – the latter part of 2020 or after that,” he said.

“That [5G] will come very soon. We just need to be mature and see the opportunities.”

When asked who would be the firm’s technology partner for 5G, he said, “We are exploring the 5G drive with the support of technology partners. It could be anyone, based on the common synergy and long-term vision.

“Like in other countries, we are doing pilots based on our experience. It is important to see what drives the market for bringing such a technology. We will be initiating 5G, but right now we still need to see the full benefits of 4G.”

Mehrotra said the firm would improve the quality of both voice and data, and had already introduced the new version of Telenor app with affordable voice and data packs to ensure the best price for its subscribers.

The executive said he is pretty happy with the growth of Telenor in Myanmar. According to a report on Telenor Group’s business performance in the first quarter of 2019, 2.3 million “new subscribers” are using its services, with more than half from Myanmar.

“Our growth in Myanmar is really good. We see the government is taking many measures in terms of a stable regulatory regime,” he said.

“It can be done more in terms of regulations, data privacy and advocating cyber laws. All these works are going on, at the government level. And we are trying to optimise our network performance in all parts of Myanmar.”

The firm now has 110,000 points of sale and 50 brand shops across Myanmar. Mehrotra said the firm believes in partnerships and sharing of towers and fibres, though it has sufficient kilometres of fibre to cover the whole population.

“We do believe in sharing. We share some sites but we also have partners to build our own sites. The sharing usually comes through our partners,” he said.

On Friday, the firm celebrated the official opening of its new head office located in the heart of Yangon. The firm now has 825 employees in Myanmar, and 91 per cent of them are locals.

Its focus is on artificial intelligence (AI), to pave the way for cognitive banking. Hence AI will take precedence over every other strategy of the bank from next year.

KBTG president Ruangroj “Krating” Poonpol said that this year, it would be a data-driven bank, but next year it would be about AI. Therefore, KBTG is planning an “agile transformation, with the dual track of innovation and legacy”. It will also achieve cultural transformation through One KBTG.

The big problem faced by corporates is they sit on legacy, including technology, IT system, culture, organisational structure and work process. All these are now a burden; assets of the old world. Even some technologies are designed for the old world of computing such as mainframe technologies, said Ruangroj.

But the new world values agility, risk-taking, speed, adjustment and cycle. Legacy assets of the old world become a legacy liability in the new world, he added.

Legacy is of no benefit at all, but it is not necessary to disrupt all legacies, he said, explaining, “For example, at KBank, security is number one priority. The challenge is how to blend both legacy and agility to coexist.”

The One KBTG infrastructure and architecture will support transformation, but the culture needs transformation as well.

“To undergo transformation, cultural transformation is a must,” said Ruangroj.

First, One KBTG will destroy silos to promote an agile transformation. There will be more cross-functional teams within KBTG. It is likely to have an internal squad or internal startups within KBTG.

Second, there will be an innovation runway and internal sandbox to encourage innovators, while having an interface to facilitate innovation that connects with the legacy system. This is the dual track – innovation runway and legacy system – which is, again, for agility.

“We bring startup knowledge for an innovation runway. We have opened API [application interface protocol] for startups and will invite startups to co-create with KBTG’s information runway,” said Ruangroj.

“We currently have 80 data analysts, micro service, container, cloud, and Big Data. We are a native tech firm, but not digital first. We still have mainframe technology and an on-premise data centre. In the next three years, after we complete the ‘re-architect organisation’, we will be more agile,” said Ruangroj.

KBTG now serves KBank. But in the next three years, KBTG will go beyond the banking industry. Though the core business will still be banking, core products and technology will go beyond banking to other industries such as logistics.

Cognitive banking consists of many phases including perception banking, prediction banking, prescription banking and cognitive banking.

KBank’s KPlus has around 11 million users; it aims to reach 15 million by the end of this year and it will change the financial lives of 15 million people. Also, KBank plans to cover the Asean Economic Community plus China, therefore KBTG will be financially wise, which will impact many people in the region.

KBTG aims to become the No 1 tech organisation in Southeast Asia, by building a tech and innovation ecosystem in Thailand. The startup ecosystem has already been built, the next is to transform corporates – and KBTG has the best practices on corporate transformation, he said.

“We need more than 300 talents with rare skills such as data scientists, data engineers, architects and developers. We need to reverse brain drain. KBTG aims to be the platform for Thai talents working overseas to return to the country. Eventually, investment will follow. My dream is to turn the world’s axis to Thailand,” said Ruangroj.

Ruangroj’s formula revolves around five “E”s: envision, empower, enable, energise and execute. He left his comfort zone in the startup world to take up the challenge of overseeing the 1,200 staff of KBTG and the 20,000 support staff of KBank.

“Always shape your own destiny, lead your career,” said Ruangroj.

“You cannot manage your time entirely, but you can manage your energy and your focus,” he added.

The Nestle team collected mostly small items of trash, including plastic straws, rubber bands and bottle caps.

They then sorted the waste for reuse in social projects such as the Rubber Band DIY Physical Therapy Tool by Burapha University, which turns used rubber bands into a body-stretching device to help heal and strengthen children, hospital patients, disabled people and the elderly.

Plastic straws are used in another project that Nestle (Thai) supports in collaboration with Village Health Volunteers, which is the “Healthy Pillow” project.

Discarded straws are cleaned and sterilised, then used to stuff pillows that are distributed to bedridden patients in households and hospitals to help prevent bedsores.

Nestle (Thai) helps to educate Thais to be more aware about plastic waste and how it affects the environment, so that they can manage it more responsibly to reduce the impact on nature and take a more sustainable approach to living.

The company also collaborates with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), such as in a recent project in which volunteer staff from Nestle’s water factory in Surat Thani, together with volunteers from its other business units in the South, collected waste from a beach in Surat Thani to help improve the area where the company operates its business.

In another conservation activity, Nestle arranged together with the WWF for the release of over 300,000 baby blue swimming crabs on Koh Sed, to help rebalance the Thai marine ecosystem.

Shoppers joining the campaign also have the change to win vouchers worth up to Bt1.2 million.

“Siam Takshimaya is the first full-scale Japanese department store operating in Thailand. Since its official opening in November, it has drawn local and international customers interested in premium Japanese products from more than 200 brands,” noted Kazuto Taniguchi, managing director of Siam Takashimaya.

The department store has invested some Bt10 million in organising this sale promotion campaign, which features products by leading brands at massive discounts. For every Bt1,000 spent, customers are entitled to enter a draw to have the chance of win one of 8 prizes of Bt150,000 vouchers every week. Spending with leading credit cards gets customers special rebates of up to 20 per cent as well as the right to sign up for a zero per cent instalment plan up to 10 months.

Siam Takashimaya card holders are also invited to exchange 88 of their accumulated points for a Bt100 voucher on June 28,29 and on July 8, 18, 28, 29.

“I am guided by the concepts of life, love and passion when developing new cosmetic products,” says Natthawut Thitipramote, a lecturer in the School of Cosmetic Science and director of the Centre of Excellence in Natural Product Innovation (CENPi) at Mea Fah Luang University.

“I also came to realise that a good research and development project should be conceived around the need to achieve commercial viability, and help to create a sustainable business with value adding that draws on local resources such as rice and the herbal knowledge in this country.”

It all might have gone rather differently for Natthawut. When he was young, Natthawut wanted to be a soldier after seeing plenty of soldiers walking around his home in Hat Yai district in Songkla province. But other ambitions came to him as he progressed with his schooling. He liked to study science and mathematics at secondary school, and took these subjects as majors. He also enjoyed physics and biology and these subjects inspired him to become a doctor – in particular, one who works in remote areas, while also serving as a researcher and scientist.

“While I was studying at secondary school I really liked physics, biology and chemistry. These subjects allowed me to experiment, discover and prove the truth of concepts. People are then able to know, understand and accept the results of an experiment backed by the evidence of science,” Natthawut says.

After graduating from high school, he lost no time in applying to study in the science faculty at Silpakorn University, with the aim of pursuing a major in biology.

“In the entrance examination for my first choice of medicine, I fell short by two points in the exam score. That left me with my second choice of the science faculty at Silpakorn University.

“Thus I went on to proceed with the science faculty, as the teacher at the faculty told me that if you understand your life and your body, you will be able to good take care of yourself and others. It is those words that inspired me to study biology.”

As he progressed in his studies at university, he was determined to secure a scholarship. At around that time, he realised that if he only read his course material in a passive way, just with his mind, then the learning would not sink in fully in his brain. His solution was to read the textbooks aloud, reasoning that the knowledge will be better retained by his brain.

By reading aloud, he was activating the powers of reading, listening and speaking. Alongside that he needed the discipline of extensive notetaking.

“As result, you can learn a given lesson by engaging in four modes – reading, listening, speaking and writing,” Natthawut says. “Your brain will find it easier to understand the material much more than if you only read the material. It’s the same understanding that you would gain if you read a given book four times.”

It was during his second year of studies that applied to join the Royal Golden Jubilee PhD Programme (RGJ). That motivated him to study even harder, pushing himself beyond the grade 2.3 he achieved as a junior student in the university to attain the grade 3.2 required for the scholarship.

After applying for the scholarship programme, Natthawut also applied to study for master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy (biology) at the Prince of Songkla University.

That decision opened up a new path for him after he graduated with a doctoral degree. He applied to be a lecturer in the School of Cosmetic Science at Mea Fah Luang University. He began work in that post eight years ago, representing a different field for him. However, he saw himself as open to study in new fields, gaining knowledge and greater insights into the use of technology.

“I think that people who graduate with doctoral degrees do not have the qualities of a genius to any greater than do other people,” Natthawut says.

“I have never had notions of a big ego, especially as I remember my mother’s words that, even if I were to gain a doctoral degree, that does not make me any smarter than my grandmother who makes desserts for a living.

“Instead, it’s more the case that people with doctorates have a more complex thinking process than do others and that enables them to understand anything or any project with the application of whole process management. I also wanted to be teacher as I wanted to transfer my knowledge to students and in this way give back to the country.”

He says that as a cosmetic science lecture, he has the opportunity to learn new scientific insights and knowledge. Now with eight years of lecturing behind him, he has taught more than 800 students.

“I tell my student that grades are not important for life but that the grades that they attain will allow other people to classify them upon meeting them for the first time,” says Natthawut.

“So I always tell my students that if you pay attention in class you will have a good opportunity to get good grades. You will not waste time in studying too many subjects like I did.”

In terms of teaching methods, Natthawut likes to think outside the box. He has developed various research and development-related cosmetics products. He succeeded in developing an anti-hair loss product containing SangYod rice extracts. The target characteristic of a gentle hair conditioner was its green qualities and high washing ability. The target characteristic of a leave-on hair serum was a transparent solution that did not cause irritations.

Natthawut worked with fellow staff members staff to develop the Sangyod rice-based anti-hair loss product. It went to win three awards: a gold medal from the 2015 Kaohsiung International Invention and Design Expo and World Invention Intellectual Property Association in Taiwan; a diploma from the Haller Pro Invention Foundation and Eurobusiness in Haller, Poland; and a diploma for the Euroinvent Medal from the Romanian Invention Forum.

He says that the new products he has worked on – resulting from extensive research and development – have created opportunities for people to branch out into other products based on further research.

This has enable value-adding to be applied to local products, such as rice and herb varieties, in a sustainable way. The resulting products are then able to compete in international markets. Moreover, they present alternative choices for customers who value the results of research and development that goes into products for daily living and at reasonable prices.

“I am glad that I became a lecturer and thus can help to develop literacy and cosmetic skills for the students. I also really glad when I see students graduate. I am proud of them and for the fact they are able to create benefits for society and the country,” says Natthawut.

In addition to lecturing, he has responsibilities as director of the Centre of Excellence in Natural Product Innovation (CENPi) at Mea Fah Luang University.

“I have learned good executive management in order to utilise human resources and other resources at the right time and on the right job,” he says. “This helps staff to love the organisation.

I believe that if you have satisfaction in doing your work, the final results will be good. However, I also believe that working has challenges. Still, for a new role, I have confidence that I can learn and absorb new knowledge.”

He says that in the future he wants to set up foundation to help children and people who live in rural areas in order improve their quality of life.

“I want to create opportunities for people in rural areas and also to help with meditation. I think that if you love the country, you must do work and perform duties for your country. As result, such efforts will create value for the country,” says Natthawut.