JAKARTA, May 31, 2023 – (ACN Newswire) –Thoughtful Media Group Inc (“Thoughtful Media” or “TMG”), the Thailand-based social commerce-focused, premium digital advertising network of Society Pass Incorporated (“SoPa”) (Nasdaq: SOPA), Southeast Asia’s (SEA) next generation, data-driven, loyalty, fintech and e-commerce ecosystem, today announces the acquisition of Newave, the go-to advertising platform for nano and micro influencers (KOLs with under 100,000 followers) in the Indonesian social media scene. Newave’s +10,000 influencers on its talent roster turbocharges TMG’s social commerce advertising business in both Indonesia and SEA.
Founded in 2017, Newave has ridden the popularity of social media and social commerce in Indonesia advertising market. Newave Head of Strategy, Ilhamka Nizam, explains, “According to Datareportal, 68% of Indonesians or 191 million people are on social media as of January 2022. Covid drove millions of Indonesians to shop online for more than 3 hours daily via their social media. Naturally, brands increased their marketing budgets every year since Newave was founded. For 2023, we expect Indonesia-based brands to invest more than 30% of their marketing budget on influencer marketing.”
To meet demand for influencers from increasing advertising budgets, Newave focused on identifying and servicing up-and-coming nano and micro influencers as these KOLs represents 66% of all influencers in Indonesia according to INSG.CO. Newave Co-Founder, Bunga Nizam, comments, “When we founded Newave, we realised that onboarding hundreds and thousands of nano and micro influencers is the unique selling proposition that sets Newave from other so-called influencer marketing companies. Why? Because it is easier to make your audience engage with your content if you share a familiarity with them. And how does one share familiarity with the audience? In essence, nano and micro influencers, comprised of family and friends and not celebrities, personalise advertising content. In addition, advertisers can deploy specifically tailored marketing campaigns as often as they want with a cheaper budgets and optimised results. As a result, we have been fortunate to onboard more than 10,000 influencers onto our talent roster.”
Ms. Pamela Aw-Young, TMG Vice-Chairman, exclaims, “TMG is ecstatic to welcome Newave onto our ever-expanding TMG regional platform. By merging Newave’s dominant position in the nano and micro influencer space with TMG’s social commerce focused ecosystem, we provide additional channels for regional and local brands to market their products and services. Since our parent company, SoPa, acquired TMG in July 2022, TMG has grown from strength to strength with headcount growing from a dozen professionals to over 60 staff in just under a year. We look to triple our revenues year-on-year in 2023. As we enter Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia markets in 2H 2023, TMG is uniquely positioned to be the premier SEA regional digital advertising agency offering a significant value proposition for advertisers, merchants and influencers in SEA’s biggest economy.”
Newave Co-Founder, Bulan Nizam, adds, “Newave is proud to become an integral part of TMG and SoPa. TMG’s broad advertising network and SoPa’s extensive user and merchant bases in SEA allow us to fully become the premier digital advertising company in the world’s fourth most populous country. Thoughtful Media Indonesia is well positioned to generate significant revenues in 2023 and occupies a central position in Indonesia’s large and fast-growing digital advertising market.”
About Thoughtful Media Group Inc (TMG)
Founded in 2010, Thoughtful Media Group Inc is a leading digital advertising platform in SEA. Through our network of talented creators across multiple industries in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, we help brands maximise marketing budgets and achieve business objectives through some of the most innovative marketing campaigns in the region.
In 2022, Society Pass Inc (Nasdaq: SOPA), SEA’s next generation, data-driven, loyalty, fintech and e-commerce ecosystem, acquired Thoughtful Media Group. Since then, we have fully evolved into a digital-first and fully integrated advertising powerhouse. For more information, please check out our website: www.thoughtfulmedia.com.
