Tribal DDB Singapore wins Cornetto regional digital brief

Tribal DDB will work to manage online communications for the brand's 'Say it with Cornetto' campaign, to be launched in various Asian markets during 2012.

According to a statement, Cornetto awarded Tribal DDB Singapore the agreement to create its digital platform and help craft strategic solutions in a pitch process with other notable agencies.

“We are keen to increase our digital presence in the market and we’re looking forward to taking this further through our partnership with Tribal DDB Singapore," said Aparna Sundaresh, senior regional brand development manager at Cornetto Asia.

Tribal DDB, meanwhile, has in recent months added to its Unilever business. In April, Tribal DDB Shanghai won the digital branding and marketing assignments for two of Unilever’s leading home care brands, OMO and Comfort, following a pitch.

The appointment of Tribal DDB is separate from Unilever's ongoing review of its digital agency roster in the region.

Unilever's is increasingly adopting digital media for its personal care brands, headed up by Singapore-based Victor Fernandez-Lahore, director, global media innovation, Lux, Clear, Lifebuoy, Ponds, and CloseUp.

Digital also appears to be becoming a larger focus for Unilever's food brands, with the recent appointment of Singapore local digital specialist GoodStuph to handle the Ben & Jerry's brand.

Many of the FMCG giant's brands, including Wall's ice-cream sub-brands, reside with Lowe & Partners for the region, but that network does not have a dedicated in-house digital offering - instead working with preferred digital partner Huge.

The arrangement, announced in March this year, sees the two companies working together to promote Unilever brands around the world, beginning with household cleaning brands Cif and Sunlight in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America and Asia.

A spokesperson from Lowe said the appointment of Tribal DDB does not effect the relationship with Unilever or Cornetto in any way.

“Lowe continues to be the brand agency for Cornetto in Asia and globally," added Sanjay Srivastava, regional business director at Lowe, who runs the Unilever ice creams business for the agency in Asia.

"This appointment brings on Tribal on board as a digital discipline-specialist that will help landing integrated brand campaigns into digital touch-points. We already collaborate with multiple discipline specialists appointed by Unilever on various brands as the lead agency and look forward to doing the same in this case”