Axiata's ADA to invest RM120m in growing ops, unveils Centre of Excellence

Axiata Digital?s?integrated digital advertising business, ADA, plans to invest another RM120 million in the next two years to grow its operations. It is also investing RM60 million in data and talent to strengthen Malaysia's data infrastructure. This comes as the unit recently launched its Centre of Excellence in Kuala Lumpur, which will?support growing data and digital demands locally and regionally across eight other markets - Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

According to ADA, this expansion has also created new roles, including highly skilled positions in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics sector, which is a highly employable workforce in Malaysia. The ADA Centre of Excellence has over 280 million unique consumer profiles, and offers services that cut across the creative, advertising, and marketing spectrum. With the roll out of the ADA Centre of Excellence, the agency also aims to?become a talent hub for digital advertising, data learning, and innovation. Through its talent development programmes and initiatives, ADA will reinforce data-driven digital skills across its 400-plus strong team of data scientists, engineers, consultants, digital advertising specialists, and industry experts in Malaysia and the rest of the region.

ADA CEO?Srinivas Gattamneni (pictured) said:??While traditional agencies have relied heavily on creative ideation or deep media planning, times are changing fast. As we approach 2020, more businesses are starting to understand the importance of funneling their creative ideas, but through the right channels."

He explained that to achieve this, ADA ensures its?marketing strategies are built on reliable data-driven insights. Gattamneni added that the expansion will boost talent demand and help to contribute high-skilled employment within the nation. "It?s not just about turning a profit ? we want to ensure that everything we do is impactful and serves as a win-win situation for our clients, and our people. That?s why talent is a critical asset we cherish and will continue to develop,? he said.

In addition to the ADA Centre of Excellence, it also unveiled its Retail Business Insights Dashboards (Retail BIDs), which will help companies precisely target consumers based on their behaviours. It is designed to help the automotive, mall, and petrol industries drive marketing and sales strategies to the right customers by re-shaping their digital strategies. Retail BIDs is a suite of dashboards that allow businesses to find out more about existing and potential customers; uncover the personas of customers who visit their own and competitors? stores; and track customer foot traffic to which outlets they visit, when, and how often. According to?Gattamneni, this would allow companies to meet consumer needs in a digitally-driven economy.

ADA was established in March 2018 and last July, it received a US$20 million investment from?Sumitomo Corporation, a global trading and business investment company. ADA said previously that the funding round solidifies its path?towards becoming the leading integrated digital advertising firm,?leveraging telco core and digital and analytics capabilities in Southeast Asia by 2021. In June this year, the agency shuffled its regional leadership,?leading to Mahesh Neelakantan, Summer Choo, Adrian Burton, Faraz Khan, Kirill Mankovski, and Mayi Baviera taking on new roles within ADA. The agency also recently named Simon Samuel its head of data analytics.