Indonesian Flock Creative Network and SG indie GERMS join up for SURGE

Indonesian Flock Creative Network (FCN) and GERMS Creative Capital (GCC) headquartered in Singapore are combining forces to launch an experience design and development studio called SURGE Interactive.  

This partnership will bring the best in digital expertise from both agencies to offer a new form of digital service in line with the growth of the Southeast Asia market. SURGE believes in partnering with forward-thinking startups and business to create customer-centric offerings. Specialised offerings include customer experience strategy, experience design and development, as well as business analytics and optimisation.  

With an eye on the fast-growing Southeast Asia market, where the Internet economy is expected to grow to around US$300billion by 2025, SURGE is primed to serve the region with localised insights and expertise, said the duo in a press statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

SURGE will serve primarily in Singapore and Indonesia, with growth plans in other SEA markets such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. Started up in 2016, Flock Creative Network has grown from a startup of five people to a creative network of 21 creative agencies and business units, with a staff strength of over 600. It works with clients such as Tokopedia, BCA, Indofood, AIA, OVO, Samsung, XL, Unicef, amongst others. It was recognised by Adweek as the fastest growing agency in the world with a growth rate of 2,975% and has won awards in various local and global awards. Leading the operation is Ivan Hadywibowo, CEO of Flock Creative Network.

Hadywibowo said, “We’ve been an Indonesian born and bred agency since we started almost five years ago, we feel we are now ready to look at opportunities beyond our shores. Singapore has always been a market that holds dear to my heart, having worked there for 11 years and it is a market that we have been looking at for a while now with its good client pool and strong governance. We feel the time is right and what better partner to do this, than with one of Singapore’s most recognised digital marketing agency.”

Meanwhile, GERMS Digital has grown in prominence in the Singapore market since its inception in 2009, and is led by founder James Chua. From a digital marketing agency, it now boasts a fully integrated marketing offering with clients from varying industries such as UOB, Income, Bioderma, VW and SKODA. Over the years, GERMS has also garnered multiple accolades with the latest being Silver and Local Hero in both Integrated Marketing Agency of The Year and Full Service Agency Of The Year at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s award shows.

In 2019, GERMS Digital also launched a creative investment arm, GERMS Creative Capital (GCC), which has invested in consumer brands such as fashion label AKINN and diamond eCommerce marketplace LUXIEE, along with a video content house.

SURGE would be the GERMS Creative Capital’s fourth investment in less than two years.

Chua said, “The pandemic has escalated the need for every brand to embrace digitalisation and technology to bring, not just brand presence but survivability and/or economic growth. SURGE would complement our current offerings in helping brands scale.”

“With Flock Creative Network, we have a great partner who is familiar with SEA’s largest market while also having the talent pool that is ready to regionalise. I’ve known Hadywibowo for many years now and I’ve admired his talent since we were both rookies in this industry and I’m really excited to be able to work together with him again albeit in a different capacity.”

SURGE Operations in the works for two years 

In an interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Chua added that the partnership with FCN was a no-brainer and initially, there will be a core team of 10 across both markets. “But beyond the core working team, our setup allows us to tap into the other expertise of the wider resources across both agencies should the need arise,” he added.

Chua added SURGE talks were in the works for almost two years, and the launch was initially slated for the first quarter of 2020, but plans had to be delayed due to the pandemic.

“ We've talked about this since I visited Hadywibowo in Jakarta over two years ago. We were looking to regionalise, and coincidentally they were also planning to look beyond their shores as well so everything just fell into place,” he added.

“One of our unique strengths is the collective expertise and skill-sets of both teams, not just in technology, but also in strategy and creativity. Not only that, our shared intelligence in SEA's largest market and SEA"s most developed market will allow us to effectively collaborate with any brands/businesses in the region.”

Currently, SURGE’s inaugural project is with QONN8Q, a Singapore based start-up that aims to give every citizen of the world a taste of space.  QONN8Q’s products offer special ways for users to celebrate their personal milestones, loved ones and special occasions in a meaningful way. With GERMS supporting the digital marketing and communications efforts of QONN8Q’s introduction to the market, retail customers (individual or corporates) can now purchase a QOSMOSIGN, and customise their messages that will be etched onto plates that will be delivered to space.

Commemorating special moments and milestones, each QOSMOSIGN would be launched into space onboard a Zeus spacecraft, which would be launched in Florida in January 2022. SURGE is leading the build of QONN8Q’s ecommerce platform, which will include a portal that allows customers to track the spacecraft’s orbiting journey in real-time. This would allow everyone to have their unique experiences with space and immortalise memories.

Meanwhile, SURGE will be headed by Wilson Tan in Singapore and Jeffrey Nijstad in Indonesia.

Tan brings with him over 20 years of hands-on experience from both agency and client positions, working with clients like DBS and M1. He held leadership roles within Digital Banking and ePayments companies such as UOB, Singtel Dash and GrabPay, leading marketing, business development and partnership teams. He was also part of the MAS task force spearheading PayNow and SGQR deployment in Singapore.

 Nijstad has close to 11 years of creating digital brand experiences and is passionate about the impact of storytelling combined with creativity and technology as creative solutions for brands and consumers. He helps forward-thinking brands, big and small, such as AIA, Uniqlo, Unilever, BCA, Samsung to define or transform their business and brand.

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