Faves aims to 'disrupt' ad industry with new micro-influencer offering

Faves Holdings has launched a new media group “X10 Media Group” to consolidate and expand its interests in the marketing space and the Southeast Asian region. X10 Media Group’s underlying principles revolve around "disrupting the advertising sphere through innovative game-changing marketing channels and technologies", said the company. The rationale behind the name, “X10”, is the mission to provide multiple folds of ROI through extending marketing reach and conversion rates as a byproduct. In a statement to Marketing, managing director Sky Lim (pictured) said Faves intends to raise awareness of the new media group via inbound strategies through channels such as Google, LinkedIn, content publication, marketing talk shows and hosting networking events. Lim added that X10 Media Group will be expanding into other verticals in the events and travel space with projects currently underway. In the micro-influencers space, X10 Media Group's closest competitors are Partipost and Kobe. Lim, together with his advising partner, Gregg Lewis, will lead the whole group regionally. In the meantime, the team in Singapore will be co-led by Lim and Benedict Woon, while the Malaysia team will be led by Lim and Chin Bing. Meanwhile, X10 Media Group recently secured an SG$1 million valuation through several angel and corporate investors. The funds will go towards accelerating growth regionally, acquiring stronger and more experienced talent to execute its new strategy, as well as to expand the micro-influencer community within Southeast Asia. Lim told Marketing that the company is looking to grow its team from 12 to 20 employees this year. "With the investment funds, we're definitely looking at hiring strong and experienced talents to the team to scale the business faster," he said. Having launched its Kuala Lumpur office last July, Faves is looking to expand into Indonesia in the first quarter of this year. According to Lim, the company is currently working with a small pool of Indonesia influencers and learnt that the best strategy would be building the Indonesia team within its Singapore headquarters first, while heading to Indonesia for meetings. Also, most activities and contracts in Indonesia will be linked to its headquarters in Singapore. "After substantial stability of our presence in Indonesia, probably six months to one year down the road, we will be setting up office in Indonesia and have a team there to grow our business," Lim said. Besides Indonesia, Faves also has plans for the Philippines, Thailand, China and South Korea over the next few years. Meanwhile, the group also launched a system named X10 Slidr, which maximises sales conversions for brands on social media. Read also: Faves Asia rebrands to Faves, launches KL office Faves Asia apologises for “unintended misrepresenting” of influencers