Essence appoints Magda Wolder as Head of Experience, APAC

She will lead the agency’s specialist Experience capabilities including creative, content innovation and studio in the region.

Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, today announced the appointment of Magda Wolder as Head of Experience, APAC. Based out of Singapore, she will lead the agency’s creative, content innovation and studio capabilities in the region.

Essence’s Experience capabilities utilise data science and machine learning to deliver more relevant, meaningful and effective personalised experiences, while protecting consumers’ data privacy. In APAC, Wolder will head a team of creative strategists, conceptual thinkers, design experts and technology-powered production partners to create data-driven creative innovation for Essence’s clients in the region. This team will continue to incubate and develop next-generation, privacy-compliant personalised creative experiences through Essence Global Ventures, the agency’s Singapore-based innovation, research and development hub which is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board. These services will be commercialised and deployed across APAC and globally via Essence’s network of offices.

Essence’s notable Experience work in APAC includes its ongoing dynamic creative programme for its major client Google. For Google Pixel 5 in Japan, live device context related to users’ actual phone battery levels was incorporated into launch ads, driving relevance and unprecedented purchase consideration lift for the product. For Google Nest in Australia, voice-activated banner ads were utilised to encourage higher message retention, leading to increased brand awareness and consideration. To promote travel features on Google Search in Vietnam, real-time weather-triggered ads were created to make users’ itinerary planning more relevant to the moment, resulting in a significant uplift in usage intent.

For the new Jeep Compass launch in China, a creative campaign was developed in partnership with two young key opinion leaders to engage the young generation with ‘find your inner compass’ as the overarching message. To help establish Vedantu in the online education category in India, Students Special Week was launched on Kaun Banega Crorepati, a popular television game show based on British programme Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

“Our work at Essence demonstrates that data and technology complement a creative idea, and are not the idea itself. Technology and data are merely the tools for our curious and creative minds to help connect brands with people. In addition to my focus to drive personalisation at scale for our clients in APAC, I am keen to help nurture emerging creative talent and imagination in this region. We have a very talented creative team on the ground here and I cannot wait to see what we will achieve together in 2021,” said Wolder.

Joining Essence in 2018, Wolder was previously Head of Creative Strategy, EMEA at the agency’s London office. With over a decade of experience bringing advertising and ideas together in the media, technology and entertainment industries, she earlier worked as a senior researcher for EMEA at Netflix in the Netherlands, as well as a lead creative strategist and head of customer closeness at Sky in the United Kingdom.

“We are delighted to have Magda join our APAC team. With her impressive brand experience, as well as her deep understanding of Essence’s unified approach to data that brings creative and media closer together, we are looking forward to the creative innovation she will bring to media channels and content programmes for our clients in this region,” said Monica Bhatia, Senior Vice President, Client Partner, APAC and Managing Director, Singapore at Essence.

“In line with our mission to make brands more valuable to the world, we are committed to helping marketers create value in new ways, including through intelligent creative. With Magda’s leadership, I am excited about the creative technology and experience products our Experience team will continue to deliver through Essence Global Ventures, which will be scaled to help brands across APAC and globally succeed in the new economy,” said T. Gangadhar, CEO, APAC at Essence.

As part of Essence’s corporate and product strategy, Wolder’s appointment and addition to the agency’s APAC leadership team will further strengthen its specialist capabilities which include Advertising Operations, Analytics, Consulting, Data Strategy, Experience and Strategy, alongside its Media services offering which includes media planning, media activation, automation and media technology.