Asia PR Werkz establishes ground in Indonesia

Singapore's independent public relations and digital marketing agency Asia PR Werkz (APRW) has expanded its operations into Indonesia. According to the agency, this marks its first office overseas in its 24 years of presence in Singapore. The agency touts Indonesia's media landscape as "vibrant against the backdrop of disruptive technologies and innovation".

Leading the expansion in Indonesia is director Anu Gupta, and the Indonesia office will have a manager from the Singapore office sent to work in Indonesia from Q2 of 2020. The agency will start with one staff currently based in Indonesia and look to grow to a team of three by end of 2020.

In a statement to Marketing, Cho Pei Lin, managing director at APRW said that the agency chose Indonesia also because of ongoing business opportunities there from its clients and with current work in Indonesia. According to Cho, APRW has been working in Indonesia, primarily in the area of public relations for start-ups since 2018. Indonesia-based agritech startup Tanihub and fast fashion firm Sorabel are some of its Indonesia-based clients, while the agency has also been doing regional work for Singapore-based clients such as insurtech company Axinan and private investment platform Fundnel.

"We will continue to grow our presence in Indonesia – both working with our clients from Singapore who have presence in Indonesia and also securing new clients from the Indonesia market. We have always had a good relationship with local agencies based in Indonesia and will continue to explore working opportunities with them as well," she added.

Meanwhile in Singapore, in the area of public affairs work, APRW has worked on the Total Defence project for the past seven years, taking the agency lead for community engagement, social media engagement and media relations. It also continued its partnership with MINDEF’s NEXUS for the nationwide Total Defence logo competition in 2019. Most recently, APRW was appointed by Singapore Discovery Centre to support the organisation's interactive programmes and activities for Total Defence 2020.

Cho explained that its growth into Indonesia marks a milestone for the company, and that Singapore has been playing a key role in enhancing ASEAN’s development through economic integration and technology adoption. "We believe our strong foothold in Singapore will be vital in taking us into the region. Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing economies in this region and we are excited to be there. We also welcome the opportunity to forge new partnerships via our regional expansion,” she added.

According to Cho, 2019 has been a good year for APRW, from events-based publicity work, crisis work such as data breaches, investor relations work for startups, to digital and social media work for clients from a wide range of industries. “We spent much of the year in conversations with regional partners and exploring the possibility of expansion into the region. Starting 2020 with a representative office in Jakarta is only possible with the support of many clients, friends from the media and Enterprise Singapore. We will continue to explore growth opportunities in other parts of ASEAN,” she said.

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