Telum is looking to highlight the diverse and vibrant agencies in the Southeast Asian PR agency landscape in upcoming editions of our PR Alert. We want to encourage networking, business opportunities, and to celebrate the great initiatives being worked on around the region. If you'd like your agency to feature, get in touch.

In this edition, we caught up with Vincent Ong, Managing Partner of Touch PR & Events as he shares more about the lifestyle PR agency with presence in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

What services does the agency offer?
Touch PR started as a PR agency focusing on media relations and events. Very soon after, with the rise of digital and social media, the company broadened its offerings to become a 360 integrated brand agency with core expertise in PR and influencer relations, social media management, creative production and content within the lifestyle sectors, such as beauty, lifestyle, fashion, health & wellness and retail. 

What size is the agency?
The agency has been on a steady growth trajectory especially over the past few years. We are now a mid-sized company with almost 30 team members with dynamic local teams in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand as well as strong partners in Indonesia.  

Do you have a particular area of focus?
Luxury and consumer lifestyle.
 
Who is the founder and why did they start the agency? 
Touch PR’s founder is Eileen Wee, who spent about a decade in marketing, branding and corporate communications in the entertainment and beauty industries before starting Touch PR in 2007. 

Tell us about the leadership team. 
Our executive management team comes from a mix of diverse yet highly relevant management background, each complementing one another. Eileen, who is the soul and heart of the agency, is a veteran thought leader in strategic marketing communications. Vincent (Managing Partner) and Lynnette (General Manager) have spent almost two decades each in Brand and General management positions in global beauty and consumer goods companies. They take charge of strategic Client counsel and head up Operational and HR / Talent development functions within the Company.

What is next for Touch PR? What is the five year goal?
We do not intentionally fix our agency’s targets within a specific time frame but prefer to pursue growth organically without compromising quality through creating value with our clients. At Touch PR, we are continuously working on our expansion in three key areas.

Through lateral expansion, we are scaling up our local teams in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and our partnership in Indonesia as well as other SEA markets. Our regional structure supports many international and home-grown brand partners to expand their footprint within SEA region. 

Touch PR has also extended our service verticals as an integrated brand consultant from media and influencer relations to social media content management, digital content development as well as social commerce which is a new space to watch. 

Finally, beyond the beauty industry which will always be our first passion, we have been diversifying into a broader stream of lifestyle brand representations. The recent wins of new accounts like Starbucks, Voost (by P&G) and WMF premium cookware have helped us extend our media and influencer insights which are always transversal across each product categories within the larger lifestyle sector. 
    
Tell us about a campaign you are currently working on or are particularly proud of.
It’s difficult to highlight one specific campaign we love because there are several. What gives us the greatest fulfilment is to see how our PR and brand strategies and executions become the key levers to higher sales conversion and market share growth for our clients. The level of trust we have built with our clients and our ability to deep dive into brand insights to drive meaningful transformation through our partnerships very often help us scale new milestones in each campaign we embark on.

Any key PR trends your agency is keeping an eye on?
We have seen that the pandemic has served as a catalyst for consumers seeking out purpose-driven brands; increasingly. This means more brands are now more mindful in regard to social activism, the environment, people and the planet as well as how they treat their employees.

What skillsets do you look for in new hires?
It’s always mindset before skillset for us. A positive attitude with a can-do spirit and the ability to multitask with a passion to excel are what we believe to be the most important attributes when it comes to talent scouting.