In anticipation of its 3rd Anniversary on 8th August 2020 and also in conjunction with ASEAN’s 53rd Anniversary, The ASEAN Post, billed as the region’s first technology-driven, communications and intelligence platform, is pleased to announce the launch of its eagerly awaited Brand Studio, Spotlight Labs.
Leveraging off the deep insights, network and relationships The ASEAN Post has built over the last 3 years across Southeast Asia, Spotlight Labs will provide brands with a communications platform to intelligently communicate its existing initiatives, new initiatives and regional ambitions to an ASEAN centric audience at a time when the region is fast moving towards a single market production base as envisioned under the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint in 2025.
Through a suite of products and services located within the Spotlight Labs microsite (www.spotlight.theaseanpost.com), brands for the first time will be able to package their most complex (or simplest) messaging initiatives revolving around their existing commercial or marketing efforts onto the regional landscape via The ASEAN Post platform, without having to undertake costly multiple media buying campaigns across the different ASEAN member states.
With a single platform for regional market entry, regional exposure has now been made affordable and accessible to thought leaders, start-ups, SMEs, large corporates, multinationals and international organisations. These efforts are also in line with the ASEAN Communication Masterplan 2018-2025 framework to bridge the data and information gap around Southeast Asia by building a regional communications platform to intelligently promote the conversation around regional integration.
“Despite the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Malaysia is committed to the ASEAN Communication Master Plan to communicate the vision of the ASEAN Economic Community to regional and global audiences. It is heartening to see a Malaysian company like The ASEAN Post coming forward to take on this enormous challenge by building a unique platform dedicated to bridging the regional divide in order to connect and integrate Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.” said YB Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah, Minister of Communications and Multimedia of Malaysia.
Backed by the knowledge and expertise of The ASEAN Post, governments, business leaders, market observers, entrepreneurs, and the general ASEAN citizenry are able to gain better insights and analysis into the developments shaping Southeast Asia for informed decision making.
Through Spotlight Labs, previously complex and difficult to grasp messaging efforts around the application of disruptive technologies (big data and analytics, and the internet of things, cloud computing and blockchain, robotics, automation and 3D printing, clean energy and smart cities et. cetera) by businesses, can be expertly crafted at the fraction of the costs normally associated with regional messaging campaigns via a single platform with entry into 10 lucrative markets.
“The last 3 years has seen The ASEAN Post undertake phenomenal growth. Today, it is the go-to point for governments, businesses, academia and the broader society with regard to the issues shaping Southeast Asia. The launch of Spotlight Labs is the final step in our evolutionary process of building a fully digitalised cross border regional media platform before we move on to future proofing by harnessing the technological innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It also comes at a time when all businesses – from start-ups and SMEs to established multi-national brands – are battling the coronavirus pandemic and looking for cost-effective digital alternatives to tell their brand stories as they digitalise in order to tap into the lucrative ASEAN market with local markets saturating.” said Azizi Meor Ngah, Chairman & Co-Founder of The ASEAN Post.
Background & Developmental Context
The ASEAN Post which went live on 8 August, 2017 in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN has spent the last three years building formal and informal bridges and strategic partnerships with a variety of organisations ranging from regional think tanks, research institutes, developmental organisations, international bodies, the diplomatic corps, governmental agencies, large corporates and multinationals. In turn, its strategic content, insights and analysis have been carried, referenced and cited locally, regionally and globally by these very same organisations, their peers and contemporaries. The localisation and dissemination of this data-driven content by the media in local languages in all 10 ASEAN member states has also resulted in an additional network effect.
In 2018, The ASEAN Post held its inaugural forum, Reimagining Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur. The forum was launched by then Foreign Minister and current Minister of Communications and Multimedia of Malaysia, YB Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah in the presence of then Minister of International Trade and Industry, YB Dato’ Darrell Leiking. The forum was well attended by the majority of the country’s diplomatic corps, corporate leaders and senior executives. The ASEAN Post has since then built up an affluent and influential regional audience base that is well-informed and better understands the mystiques around Southeast Asia.
Ever sensitive to its regional audience, The ASEAN Post pioneered and initiated the now highly popular ASEAN COVID-19 Daily Update which has become an indispensable resource and daily highlight for a region wanting to know the latest developments about the pandemic.
The introduction of Spotlight Labs now opens the door for start-ups and SMEs to established multinational brands to engage with an ASEAN centric audience.
