ADVERTISING

Bangkok - BlueFreeway, an Australian-based digital marketing group, has made three acquisitions in Thailand, taking full ownership of Media Synergies, PlanetUTech and Reflexible for A$1.5 million.

Hong Kong - BMW has launched an outdoor campaign to support its latest M3 Coupe model aimed at senior executives and professionals, using outdoor group Poad's sticker display at Central Building.

Singapore - KFC has shifted its creative business from BBDO to McCann Erickson following a closed door pitch which also involved JWT.

Does a strong economy mean better creative work? Mark ringer says yes.

China, Beijing - DDB Guoan Beijing has appointed Huang Yandong as creative director responsible for Citizen and Merck accounts as well as some new business.

Singapore - Discovery Channel has launched a new campaign to drive viewers to its new series Dirty Jobs, featuring taglines such as ‘Let's talk dirty' and ‘All the dirt. Minus the celebrities' on 300 public dustbins at bus shelters.

We blogged about Sony Bravia's Bunnies last week. But boy we never knew that bloggers worldwide would be as passionate and heated up on it as it is seen in this blog.

Asia Pacific - Neo@Ogilvy CEO and OgilvyOne VP of digital for Asia Pacific, Ken Mandel has resigned for personal reasons, two years after taking on the dual roles. OgilvyOne Asia president, Kent Wertime says a direct replacement will not be sought.

Hong Kong - Friends of the Earth has tapped JWT to raise environmental awareness among office workers on the issue of air pollution through a blank poster that interacts with dust particles to reveal the message and demonstrate the presence of polluted air.

Hong Kong - Sony Bravia's latest campaign for the Asia, Middle East, India, and South Africa markets aims to communicate the product's colour prowess and details, and had 20,000 reels of coloured cotton threads dropped over the side of a pyramid in Egypt.

Singapore - M1 has partnered SPH to launch Singapore's first location-based advertising SMS service (LBA) and has already signed up Citibank, Tangs and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf amongst others.

Asia Pacific - Rob Strasberg, VP and creative director of Crispin Porter + Bogusky Miami, has been named Jury President of 360 Lotus & Innova Lotus categories for the 2008 AdFest Awards.

Singapore - Curiosity, the third subsidiary of A Group of People (AGOP), launched in August and recently won new accounts such as the South Australian Government, the South Australian Tourism Commission, and Yellow Pages Singapore.

The latest installment in the award-winning Sony Bravia TVC stable is one entitled 'Pyramids' and created by Singapore-based regional ECD for Y&R Brands, Rowan Chanen.

Singapore - Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore has finally landed the Tiger Beer local creative account, a decision widely speculated to happen as Saatchis Malaysia handles the brand's regional work.

India - PepsiCo has appointed BBDO India as its creative agency for 7UP. The account was previously managed by JWT and the agency also handled Pepsi's other brands. BBDO will start work proper on 1 Nov.

Beijing - After several months of discussions, Chinese chocolate manufacturer COFCO LeConte Food has appointed BatesAsia Beijing as its strategy and creative agency.

Japan - Publicis Japan has consolidated most of its operations into Beacon Communications, a joint venture with partner Dentsu.

Singapore - Dockers has launched a through-the-line Fall/Holiday campaign in the bid to reveal San Franciscan insights to bring it closer to its Asian consumers.

Hong Kong - The Red Cross has launched a campaign to promote its first Hong Kong Humanity Award aimed at recognising individuals who displayed acts of compassion as well as to raise awareness of the spirit of humanity.

Hong Kong - Out-of-home media has scored some of the strongest year-on-year increases in ad spend, with the MTR seeing a 22.5% increase and wall signages up by 24%, according to Admango.

National - A part advertiser-funded TV drama called "I Do" has been sold to more than 200 TV stations throughout China, with a major retailer signing on to the 20-part series.

Hong Kong - JCDecaux Texon and the Victorian City Restaurant Group, owners of East Ocean, have today launched an eye-catching outdoor campaign featuring more than 70 giant mechanical hairy crabs.

Hong Kong - Hainan, China's smallest coastal province, has launched a global television advertising campaign, with Hainan Tourism signing an exclusive partnership with BBC World.

Hong Kong - MTR has introduced a multimedia shopping guide providing advertisers with a platform to reach new customer segments, signing up Chow Sang Sang, Ajisen Raman and Marks & Spencer to use the new outdoor platform.

Singapore - StarHub has started trialling a new advertising service - created by mobile media agency Affle - enabling marketers to send out discount coupons to its subscribers.

Singapore - Catapult Advertising has retained AXN's Amazing Race Asia creative account with a regional campaign expected to be rolled out for The Amazing Race Asia 2 towards the end of this year.

Singapore - Cycle & Carriage Kia has awarded Ace:Daytons Advertising the Kia Motors account for the Singapore market following a five-way pitch - three year incumbent for the business, Rapp Collins declined to pitch.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations more than other types of advertising ranging from newspaper and TV ads to branded websites and consumer-generated content, according to a Nielsen survey.