Fintech
Yahoo Asia Big Idea Chair Awards Celebrating the Extraordinary Work

Yahoo held the Asia Big Idea Chair Awards 2022 (Asia BIC Awards 2022) earlier at the St. Regis Hotel, Hong Kong. As brands meander their way through the new normal, the awards are dedicated to the boundless creativity and out-of-the-box imagination in the digital media and advertising industry as brands not only survive, but thrive, throughout the tumultuous pandemic landscape.
As an acclaimed regional industry event for 14 consecutive years, the Yahoo Asia BIC Awards 2022 celebrates marketers and advertisers who have shown remarkable efforts in their campaigns.
The judging panel was composed of 26 members from key industry outlets include IAB Hong Kong, HK4As, The Hong Kong Advertisers Association, Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing (AIM), HKMA Digital Marketing Community, Taiwan Digital Media and Marketing Association, Taiwan Advertiser’s Associations, as well as renowned industry practitioners from Taiwan and Singapore.
Matthew Chan, Head of Advertising Business, Yahoo Hong Kong & China, said, “As the world slowly returns to a pre-pandemic normal, brands are pulling all the tricks out of the bag to not only reignite purchasing intent, but also to ensure that their names remain top-of-mind after a three-year lockdown. In 2023, we will see brands operating with tighter budgets in an economically volatile landscape. They will have to unlock opportunities to accelerate business growth by thinking out of the box, in new directions, focusing on performance and RoI, while keeping the consumer front and center. In the upcoming year, we are expecting an uptick in emerging technologies such as the metaverse, artificial intelligence and cloud computing.”
In addition to adtech trends, Matthew also highlighted how the ad industry is embarking on a sustainability journey. He added, “In the past year, Yahoo has honed in on sustainability to provide green media products to align with the brand’s sustainability goals. We can now give brands around the world to shift their buying behaviour in favour of a more eco-friendly tomorrow.”
The Yahoo Asia BIC Awards 2022 was prestigiously attended by 200 esteemed guests from marketing, advertising, media and more to celebrate their own and their peers’ success in the past year.
Aside from being crowned Hong Kong’s Big Idea Chair Champion Outstanding Award, fintech company SoFi Hong Kong’s “SoFi x Yahoo Finance Youth Program — Hunger Investment Game” brought home Best Integrated Solution, as well as Merit awards in Best Acquisition Campaign, Best Partnership Strategy, and Best Innovative Experience (Asia). Niki Leung, Head of International Marketing from SoFi Hong Kong said, “To amplify product proposition and show off our easy and versatile trading app, SoFi Hong Kong collaborated with Yahoo Finance to debut a 3-month investment competition to engage with young investors. The U.S. stock-trading competition successfully recruited 286 teams of young investors, offering participants an opportunity to meet both online and in person to discuss investment strategies whilst experiencing SoFi’s offerings as they access our trading platform. As a result, we saw a substantial increase in membership, along with increased mentions of SoFi on online forums popular amongst this demographic.”
A Merit Winner of the Hong Kong BIC Champion 2022 was Manulife Hong Kong, whose “New Critical Illness Product Launch Campaign” was also crowned Best Programmatic Campaign for both Hong Kong and Asia region. HyounJoo Choe, Chief Customer Officer at Manulife Hong Kong and Macau, said: “As part of our campaign to promote the flexible benefits offered by our two recently launched critical illness plans, we created a series of entertaining cinematic videos featuring well-known Hong Kong actors, Gordon Lam and Louise Wong, as a couple of special agents showcasing the importance of easing medical burden and early protection. The campaign targeted the 25-54 age group with a range of videos and subsequent advertising coupled with call-to-action messages to reach a variety of consumers, including health-conscious youngsters or parents. By leveraging the Yahoo Next-Gen Audience, our campaign reached high-value audiences in a cookieless digital environment. As a result, our campaign KPI rose by 310% with CTR that are 400% higher than the Yahoo industry benchmark!”
Another notable Merit Winner of the Hong Kong BIC Champion 2022 Awards was IKEA, whose acclaimed “IKEA Empower Your Everyday” campaign won Outstanding awards in Best Branded Content Campaign and Best Partnership Strategy, and the Merit award for Best Integrated Solution. Nicole Hsu, External Communication Manager from IKEA Hong Kong said, “In reaction to the increasing number of people working from home or reluctant to leave the safety of their four walls due to the pandemic, IKEA sprinkled a number of enticing and relevant ads, long-form content, native ads alongside call-to-action in premium media buys. Messages were tailored to groups who are studying, working and have problems sleeping at home. The content commerce ecosystem we generated – alongside Yahoo’s support – drove significant results to the campaign, namely -66% in CPA, and ROAs were 5x times better than all awareness placements.”
Originating from Yahoo! Inc., the Asia Big Idea Chair Awards is a leading digital awards event which has travelled around the world, and was launched in Hong Kong in 2009. The Asia Big Idea Chair Awards celebrates all the remarkable advertising campaigns and ideas on Yahoo in Asia throughout the past year.
Fintech
NOVASPARKS EXPANDS ITS OPERATIONS IN ASIA-PACIFIC

NovaSparks™, the leading field programmable gate array (FPGA) market data company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Clément Pelletier as the new sales and marketing director, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Pelletier will report to Dr. Luc Burgun, CEO and president, beginning on December 1st, 2023.
“Clément possesses a wealth of experience that makes him unique in the industry,” said Luc Burgun, NovaSparks’ chief executive officer and president. “His thorough understanding of the sales process, particularly in the field of trading tools which he acquired over 20 years in Asia, makes him ideally suited to drive our sales and marketing initiatives in APAC. We are pleased to welcome Clément and look forward to his leadership in expanding our operations in Asia.”
Pelletier brings to NovaSparks solid experience in sales and marketing in Asia. Most recently, he served as sales director for the APAC office of Horizon Software, a global leader in electronic trading solutions and algorithmic technology. Prior to Horizon Software, he served as CEO of CPIT, an IT services and consulting, specialized in the Fintech industry, based in Hong Kong. Pelletier holds a Master of Engineering from INSA Lyon.
Fintech
Broadridge Investment Management Technology Enhances Carlyle’s Private Credit and CLO Portfolio Management Operations

Global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) announced today that its cloud-based solution, Sentry, has been implemented at global investment firm Carlyle in support of its private credit and collateralized loan obligation (CLO) portfolio management. The Sentry private credit and CLO portfolio management technology will enable Carlyle to more efficiently manage its deal pipeline, trade compliance and loan operations on a single platform, and scale operations as the platform grows.
“With increased demand in credit products and ongoing growth of our product offerings, we wanted the right technology that would enable us to scale up and achieve a platform approach,” said Jim Keogh, Carlyle’s Managing Director and Head of Operations for Global Credit. “Sentry has smoothly integrated with our technology stack and provides functionality that will improve our capabilities as we grow.”
“Working closely with Carlyle, we customized Sentry to specifically suit their portfolio management requirements, which emphasized the need to help manage all aspects of private credit and CLO administration,” said Mike Sleightholme, Broadridge’s president of international and head of asset management solutions. “This implementation really showcases the value of the flexibility and scalability our solution offers and how it helps position firms for growth.”
Broadridge’s Sentry PM is a scalable web-based solution that provides front-to-back-office functionality to both the private debt and syndicated loan markets to increase overall efficiency, including research and pipeline management, pre- and post-trade compliance, analysis of hypothetical trade scenarios, dynamic waterfall projections, loan administration, and data aggregation across strategies, portfolios and assets.
Fintech
Nuvei enters global payments partnership with Microsoft

Nuvei Corporation (“Nuvei” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: NVEI) (TSX: NVEI), the Canadian fintech company, announces today that it has partnered with Microsoft to deliver leading payment experiences for customers of its products, solutions, and services across many of its key markets.
Microsoft will start using Nuvei’s customizable and agile payments technology in the Middle East and the Africa region, while benefiting from Nuvei’s deep knowledge of local markets to optimize its payments for recurring billing and individual transactions across both its Office and Xbox product ranges.
Other benefits of Nuvei’s global payments capabilities Microsoft is harnessing include optimized authorization rates through local acquisition and superior risk management that minimize false declines, as well as Nuvei’s ability to offer all of the relevant local alternative payment methods (APMs) to each market through a single integration. Philip Fayer, Nuvei Chair and CEO said: “Enabling Microsoft to connect to its customers across a wide range of products is testament to our technology and dedication to world-class customer service. We’re excited to optimize payments for such a universal brand that is trusted and relied upon by so many people.”
“We’re pleased to extend our payment solutions to the Middle East and African region,” added Ajith Thekadath, Vice President Global Payments at Microsoft. “Whether it is a one-off purchase, software subscription, or in-game purchasing, payments are critical to our overall customer experience. Partnering with Nuvei enables our customers to pay wherever they are and whenever they want to.”
Extending the partnership across geographies and use cases
Nuvei and Microsoft are committed to extending this partnership across additional markets, as well as exploring new use cases to enhance the overall Microsoft experience. This includes Microsoft Dynamics 365, its business applications technology suite that drives operational efficiency and improved enterprise resource management.
Fayer commented: “As two innovative, technology-led businesses that provide solutions to many of the leading international brands across the globe, it makes sense to explore how we can work more cooperatively as we grow our commercial relationship.”
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