It’s been a big week for company news, and we have one more exciting development to share.

As reported today by Campaign Asia-Pacific, “XM Asia has brought award winning creative director Pei Pei Ng on board to amp up creative product across the range of the agency’s digital, user experience and social media offerings.”

Pei Pei brings over 20 years of creative experience to XM, including stints at Ogilvy & Mather, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA and JWT in both Bangkok and Singapore. Over that span, she’s created traditional, direct and interactive campaigns for a range blue-chip brands, including Singapore Airlines, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, American Express, United Overseas Bank, Seagram, Nike, Nokia, Motorola, Mattel and Canon. And that work has been recognized on the international stage, with awards from the One Show, D&AD, CLIO, LIA and Spikes, to go with Pei Pei’s two Gold Lions from Cannes.

Quoting XM Asia Pacific CEO Paul Soon, “Landing Pei Pei as our lead creative talent is a real coup because she ‘gets’ the space between brand and experience, be it local, regional or global. She learned, trained and won business under the very best mentors and we believe she will do the same for us.”

And her impact has already been felt, with Pei Pei playing a central role in XM’s recent STB GEMS Up win.

“Digital is the new ecosystem for brands, and I’m excited about bringing my expertise into this landscape,” said Pei Pei. “I look forward to working with the next generation of ‘imagineers’ to develop award-winning work that can impact and change consumer behaviours, both in the physical and digital world.”

A warm welcome to Pei Pei from the entire XM family!

Following on the heels of our STB GEMS Up win last week, we have another bit of agency news that we’re very excited to share: XM Asia Pacific has promoted our long-serving managing partner, Gerard Lim, to the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer, a move designed to strengthen our regional management team as we continue our expansion drive.

“This is Gerard’s fifth year with us and he has proven time and time again to be the operational backbone of our successes,” noted XM Asia Pacific CEO, Paul Soon. “We are growing at an incredible pace, and the time is right for him to take on a larger role, helping balance innovation, growth and talent across the region.”

You can learn more about this exciting new development at Campaign Asia-Pacific, LBBOnline and Campaign Brief, Asia.

Congratulations to Gerard—or G, as he’s better known—and, once again quoting Paul, “we look forward to benefitting from G’s wisdom for years to come!”

We’re thrilled to be able to share news of our latest win. See Campaign Brief, Asia for the details, but here’s the short of it:

The Singapore Tourism Board has appointed XM Asia to conceptualise and implement an integrated marketing communications plan to promote the importance of service in Singapore … XM Asia will work with the STB to develop creative avenues and messages to promote the importance of service to its core target market, which includes business decision makers, service staff and consumers.

Quoting John Conceicao, Executive Director for Capability & Innovation and Visitor Information & Feedback for STB, “XM Asia’s proposal is refreshing and addresses our need to drive a strong service culture in Singapore. Their proposed concept also complements other aspects of our overall strategy to bring service excellence up to the next level.”

“We’re thrilled that STB selected XM for such an important initiative,” said Paul Soon, CEO of XM Asia Pacific. “This really demonstrates that our capability extends well beyond our core digital specialty into real life applications, and the kind of strategic thinking we provide resonates across all channels to achieve our client’s business objectives.”

With the holidays just around the corner, we’re getting into the spirit here at XM…

Thanks to Joel, Leon, LiakWee, Lynn and Suliana for the photos. Keep track of life at XM by following the hashtag #xmasia on Instagram.

Safe travels to those who’ll be on the move and season’s greetings to all!

Astro together with XM Malaysia created the World’s Longest Online Banner in conjunction with Astro On-The-Go’s “Where do YOU want Astro On-The-Go contest” which encouraged Astro On-The-Go users to show off their most creative locations they would love to enjoy Astro On-The Go.

The online banner with a length of 61,500 pixels (68 feet), tripling the length of the previous longest online banner length of 18,001 pixels (20 Feet) is the world’s longest banner.

World’s Longest Banner

The “Where do YOU want Astro On-The-Go contest” ran from July to August 2012 as a promotional effort for Astro On-The-Go, Astro’s latest innovative service delivering non-stop entertainment anytime, anywhere via smartphones, tablets and laptops.

To view all 61,500 pixels of it, visit http://www.astroonthego.com/contest

by Ernest Kim

For any readers in Singapore, I’ll be speaking at the MediaMind Inspire event Wednesday, 28 November, at the beautiful Chijmes (see below for the address).

Speakers include Dean Donaldson, Global Head of Innovation for DG MediaMind, and Joe Nguyen, SVP for APAC at comScore, among others. The topic of my session will be data and how agencies can use it to fuel great creative work.

It appears to be an invitation-only event, which may explain why I can’t seem to find any information about it online. In any case, it kicks off at 2pm and, if you’re in attendance, please do stop by and say hello!

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