We have some incredibly positive news to share out of our APAC region to kick off 2024. The frankly spectacular Carat Taiwan team were awarded the accolade of being Taiwan’s Media Agency of the Year by Campaign Asia-Pacific at the end of 2023. They persevered through key challenges facing the agency landscape in the market – warding off increasing competition while juggling brand expectations in an economy recovering slowly, post-pandemic. The strength of the Carat team in the market’s strategy, AI-driven solutions and ESG compliance placed them well ahead of the competition and resulted in their success at the prestigious Award show, run by Campaign Asia-Pacific. We are not surprised that they have achieved this award - the quality of the work speaks volumes but awards like this are fiercely competitive, so it’s always a thrill when the hard work is acknowledged by a panel of industry leaders on the judging panel. We couldn’t be happier for the team over there.
Read on to discover how Carat Taiwan took the core philosophy of Designing for People to the next level to win this coveted award.
The vision & challenge
Consistently ranked the #1 media agency in the world, Carat positioned its brand to DESIGNING FOR PEOPLE – from ‘golcal’ (global thinking + local insight) communication, AI marketing with martech & data to business model development, we create end-to-end solutions according to clients’ business needs, this all stems from Carat’s market learning insight into people. All this against a market where:
1. There’s a highly competitive business dynamic
2. There’s a relatively unstable economy in the post-pandemic times
3. Standard abilities are not enough for rapidly changing media landscape
New business Momentum driven by Inclusive practices
Carat Taiwan design services for all parties – laser focus on end consumers/brand/agency is the key solution to thriving in the disruptive and constantly changing marketing environment.
Inclusive daily actions drive growth
Carat Taiwan does not regard itself as just a media agency, but an inclusive agency that leverages all diverse perspectives, cross-industry experiences, and cross-functional skills to generate more innovative ideas, solve problems more effectively, and foster a positive work culture, be an inclusive industry leader that ultimately brings synergy and business results for our clients.
THE 5 INCLUSIVE ACTIONS
Inclusive Cooperation that makes a “new type of retail media”
We brought Foodpanda and adidas together to collaborate in capitalizing on the FIFA World Cup. Carat initiated this partnership, creating a co-branded party box during the tournament. We connected online and offline channels through resources exchange and owned media traffic (Adidas has the most eye-catching 3D outdoor and high-traffic physical store x Foodpanda’s daily high traffic orders, variety of delivery products. This successful inclusive partnership achieved sold out party boxes, and Foodpanda’s client base increased by a third.
Inclusive application that developed “Innovative AI led growth”
Standard Chartered Bank in Taiwan has a huge demand for new loan customers, however, due to the country’s financial regulations there are many advertising restrictions.Our task was simple on paper: deliver impressive business results despite the restrictions, through innovation. To do this we developed a generative AI tool for marching learning (Dentsu AI) to connect with the Meta ads system and used AI to prospect the potential audience automatically. By engaging this approach, leads from Meta almost doubled year on year, massively improving the cost per lead for the client.
Inclusive social measurement index for “deep community brand value insight”
Carat Taiwan proposed a new and exclusive cross-platform community value measurement index in Taiwan: the SAVI community-driven value index to achieve better deep dives into brands’ social value and find out the brands’ influence on different communities. The SAVI community-driven value analysis services help brands benchmark their social community levels, indicate and map out their current social status with competing brands, and suggest directions of travel and strategies for brands to increase community value.
Inclusive business model that co-creates “green media”
Carat Taiwan successfully became the first media agency in the market to join hands with BING DIAN Air Conditioning, kicking off the partnership launching the MEDIA RESPONSIBLE PROCUREMENT AGENCY SERVICE GREEN MEDIA CASE. With this success, Carat became the first media agency in Taiwan to adopt scientific calculations of carbon emissions into media planning.
Inclusive culture that empowers our talent
Focusing on DEI as a core pilar, Carat Taiwan created a culture of equity, a diversified and inclusive work environment. This was achieved by enhancing the understanding of unconscious bias through workshops and seminars for employees, and launching ‘Thrive’, Carat Taiwan’s internal training program, to motivate peoples’ performance while turbo-charging business growth, communication strategy, creative process training and Client Integrated Business Lead (CIBD) system.
Achievement highlights
With our inclusive strategies and relentless efforts, in 2022, we enjoyed 6.6% growth year on year. Carat Taiwan created amazing results that continue to grow year after year, which included the following third-party’s recognition.
1. 2022 Billing Ranking No.1 by COMvergence
2. 2022 Qualitative Ranking No.1 by RECMA
3. 2023 DBTA (Diversity for Better Tomorrow Award) the best DEI corporate
This all came together to deliver an undeniable leading position in the market and being named Campaign Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year in 2023.
