December, 2022
Meet Leya, our newest
senior member in our
newest role at AKA
After several inspiring meetings and conversations, we're excited to welcome Leya Teo join the AKA family in the newly created role of Managing Director.
Leya returns home to Singapore with
17 years of experience, 9 of which were spent overseas, most recently as VP of a global, Independent PR agency, where her focus lay on building strong teams, growing the agency’s culture, and managing key regional and local clients with integrated scopes.
She brings with her a range of skill sets having worked client-side (Singtel), as well as in global creative and digital agencies (Cheil Worldwide, JW Thompson). As we continue to evolve in the integrated communications space at AKA, her expertise will prove to be incredibly valuable.
Leya will be working closely with the founders on more opportunities for the team to continually learn and develop -
a key mission for AKA since day one.
October, 2022
Baking for a good paw-se
The AKA fam got to turn up the (oven) heat once again with the return of the AKA Bake Sale for an 8th year. Everyone baked their hearts out to raise funds for our furry friends at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Singapore (SPCA Singapore).
It was one of AKA’s biggest bake sale to date with over 50 budding bakers joining in the fun and filling our office with amazing aromas.
This time around, eggs were not the only things being beaten; this year’s sale hit a new record with S$3.4k raised in just a few short hours on our Instagram page - where all the competitive bidding action took place.
Thank you once again to both our bakers and bidders (and not forgetting the fab organising committee) for making this Bake Sale comeback one to remember!
January, 2023
Tefal: No meta the verse,
we’ve got you covered
Overnight metaverse sensation Bondee was no match for our lightning-fast Tefal Social Team, who swiftly converted everything from Tefal’s Air Fryer to Handstick Vacuum into 3D models and slotted them into actual Bondee homes – all within 24 hours of pitching the idea to the Tefal clients!
It was an incredible feat pulled by the Tefal team with the support of our clients and truly showcased their dedication to fearless creativity.
Though what surprised us even more was finding out the team’s account director Zaim (who doesn’t even update his Instagram) downloaded and created his own Bondee home for this project. #dedication
December, 2022
Still the Best APAC
Agency to Work For
The values that AKA champion have once again secured us the the #1 spot on PRovoke’s 2022 Best Asia-Pacific Agency to Work For (Midsize) for the fourth time since it started. This comes just months after we were awarded Workplace Champions at the PRCA APAC Awards in March 2022.
We’re proud that our values don’t stay as mere words, but are also what guides how we run the agency. And our scores reflect how we’re walking the talk, from our consisting training and mentorship programmes, to our culture-first mentality that promotes entrepreneurialism, anti-harassment, diversity & inclusivity, and work-life balance.
We’re constantly finding ways to adapt, such as policies that helped our team endure the pandemic with an enhanced focus on their physical and mental wellbeing. There is also working parents support, considerable workplace flexibility, and more collaborative hiring — we want our AKA fam to feel empowered, supported and fearlessly creative, always!
September 2018
An amazingly kick-ass win!
We are so excited to announce that AKA Asia has been named Asia Pacific Consumer Consultancy of the Year 2018!
Team AKA turned out in style to the Sabre Awards in Singapore last night, bagging the coveted Consumer Consultancy award alongside Best Place to Work For (National) and the Gold Industry Sabre for our “Stay Home this Lunar New Year” campaign for Jetstar Asia. It was a triple win that packed a powerful punch!
Were our feet tired from walking up on stage so many times? Maybe.
Did we stand up a little too early to collect the award? No comment.
Are we beyond proud of the team? Most definitely.
A huge thank you to our amazing clients and our kick ass team – we couldn’t have done it without you!
Nov, 2017
AKA signs retainer with
British Council
British Council has appointed AKA Asia for a 12-month retainer, following a competitive pitch.
Regina Goh, director, marketing and communications, British Council, has said that it is shifting from a traditional PR focus to a more campaign-driven support that drives 360-degree awareness. “We are looking forward to building a strong partnership with the team at AKA Asia,” Goh added.
“We are thrilled to be supporting British Council in championing life-long learning for children and adults in Singapore. Developing interactive and thought-provoking campaigns is our forté and we look forward to working with British Council to spotlight their initiatives into 2018,” Amy Wright, co-founder of AKA Asia, said.
August 2018
Parents’ Evening II
It doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s likely your parents love to share advice with you, especially pertaining to career! This would be better received if only they had any idea what it is we actually do. So, to remedy that, last Friday night, we welcomed more than 70 parents, partners and siblings to attend our bi-annual AKA Parents’ Evening. We showcased the power of a positive culture in the workplace and what can and is achieved every day, by combining formidable creativity with likeminded people and a hunger to innovate. They learnt about the variety of work we do for some of the world’s leading brands as well as local favourites. They got to hear what our clients really think of us and, perhaps most importantly, they got to meet our ‘work family’, who they hear so much about, and each other. It was awesome to meet some new folks, as well as welcome back familiar faces who have watched us grow over the past (almost!) decade. Parents left feeling proud, and meeting them reminded us why we have such a kick-ass team – it all started with them and their unfailing support and encouragement. Here’s to our awesome, inspiring parents!
Nov, 2017
British Baking Battles at AKA
Thursday last week saw a number of Victoria Sandwiches enter the office following a wager between the Brits that they could each create the best version of the classic cake.
Despite a lot of talk and bravado over who won, the general consensus was that the rest of the office were, in fact, the winners – enjoying big slices of delicious homemade strawberry jam and cream-filled Victoria sandwiches throughout afternoon.
May, 2022
Making our mark at the Marketing PR Awards 2022
Team AKA is back to grace the stage in person once again, as agency awards season returns to the physical world after 2 very weird years.
Dressed to impressed (as we always do), our team’s haul included 4 Gold, 2 Silver and 5 Bronze awards for their work on Viu, Durex, William Grant & Sons and Science Centre Singapore.
Our two Gold wins for Viu’s “Survive the Night” for Most Creative PR Stunt and Best PR Campaign: Entertainment, really reflects our fiercely creative spirit, while we couldn’t stop talking about our work with Durex for “Let’s Start Talking About Sex” that earned us a Gold for Best Use of Content, and two Silvers for Best PR Campaign: Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals and Best Use of Social Media.
All in all, we’re really proud of our wins and were also really happy to see familiar faces in real life, once again.
May, 2017
From cursive to solid –
a new look for AKA
After months of work (we are officially our own hardest client) we are pleased to reveal our fresh, new AKA identity.
The strong new look has a contemporary feel, and with the evolution of our business over the past 8 years, it better represents who we are now - a well-established, independent creative consultancy.
May, 2017
An Effing Good Win!
What do you get when you put three years of planning, a flight to Bangkok (and straight back again), with a sprinkling of Singlish? Our very first Effie!
That’s right guys and girls, last week we walked away with a bright and shiny Effie in the Brand Experience category for our Singlish April Fool campaign that tricked the nation (and subsequent National Day activation where we did it for real), with Jetstar Asia. We also enjoyed host Hossan Leong’s Effie themed rendition of “Let it Be".
Only 12 Effies were given out on the night, against the much larger shortlist, which is why we’re so darn proud.
July, 2018
AKA bags a new PR OPPO-tunity with OPPO Singapore
AKA continues to strengthen its consumer technology capability with a new 12 month partnership with OPPO – the world’s No.4 smartphone brand. We’ll be focused on fearlessly co-creating a series of engaging campaigns, partnerships and initiatives to build the brand’s awareness and credibility with Gen Z. Appointed for our creatively–led communications, watch this space as we start to push boundaries with technology to create relevant and
captivating content. Given the phones are synonymous with taking amazing selfies, we’ll do our very best to show some restraint!
August, 2016
Love at First Bite
We’re so excited to spill the beans and announce that AKA will be working with popular dating app Coffee Meets Bagel in Singapore. We’re brewing up some exciting news for all the single, young working professionals in the little red dot who are searching for meaningful connections, so stay tuned, as our romance with the dating app is on a mission to make swiping a thing of the past.
August, 2016
Jetstar launches the latest
in-flight entertainment...
The Book!
Introducing our latest creative campaign for Jetstar Asia, Jetstar’s Big Book Swap. The team forged partnerships with National Library Board and some of Singapore’s leading book publishers to launch the world’s first flying book exchange. The campaign went live on Singapore’s inaugural National Reading Day (30th July), and over 500 books have been given away to Jetstar passengers to read on their holidays and return to the seat pocket of their flight home for the next passenger to enjoy. Check out the video we created to launch the initiative here, which received over half a million views in just 48 hours and hundreds of positive comments!
April, 2016
Jetstar extends scope and
awards AKA creative brief
AKA is pleased to announce that the team is venturing into new creative territories with Jetstar. Having secured the PR remit four years ago, AKA’s role quickly morphedinto an integrated communications role – creating compelling content to live online; conceptualising consumer events; and driving editorial. With the launch of a soon-to-be-revealed platform, Jetstar has pushed the envelope still further, entrusting the creative conceptualisation and development to the team. We’re thrilled to be going on such an incredible journey with the great people at Jetstar.
June, 2016
Leaving on a Jet(star) plane
Each year we showcase our best work to the judging panels of the leading awards in the region, and hope it makes the cut.
News is just in that we have been shortlisted for no less than eight categories at this year’s PRWeek Asia Awards – a phenomenal testament to our creative and strategic hunger, and the continued partnerships we nurture with our clients and our people. Here’s to buying extra luggage for the return journey!
Southeast Asia PR Consultancy
of the Year
Boutique PR Consultancy of the Year
CSR Campaign of the Year
#happyplatesg (Electrolux)
SouthEast Asia PR Campaign
of the Year
December Baby (Jetstar)
SouthEast Asia PR Campaign
of the Year
Love is in the Zodiac Pair (Jetstar)
Media Relations Campaign of the Year
SG50 Heroes Take Flight (Jetstar)
Best Use of Broadcast / Video
December Baby (Jetstar)
Promotional Activity of the Year
December Baby (Jetstar)
May, 2017
AKA takes it away
with Deliveroo
Deliveroo, the game-changing home delivery brand that hit our shores in late 2015 (and that we instantaneously fell in love with), has appointed AKA Asia as its retainer agency of record. Given that the team at AKA likes nothing better than working with brands that are creatively playful and prepared to be brave, this is a super exciting win – and added to that, we’re a team of ardent food lovers. We went into the pitch with some brazen ideas, and are looking forward to bringing them to life over the next year and beyond.
October, 2016
and '2016 Consumer Agency
of The Year, Asia Pacific' goes to... (drumroll please)
Team AKA is on a natural high after being named the Holmes Report’s 'Asia Pacific Consumer Agency of the Year 2016’ at an awards event in Hong Kong. What an honour.
Founder Kate O’Shea said: "When you start a business you aim for it to be best-in-class, but you never stop testing, tinkering and innovating. I was thrilled to be on stage with Amy Wright last week accepting Consumer Consultancy of the Year, Asia Pacific at the 2016 SABRE Awards. A huge shout out to our kick-ass team (present & past), our phenomenal clients for being bold, brave and always awesome and our hugely supportive husbands!”
Perhaps the high wasn’t 100% natural. We did enjoy one or two glasses of bubbly with the team to celebrate the win in good old-fashioned ‘consumer agency’ style. Well what’s a girl gotta do?
May, 2016
Meet the parents
Yes, you did read this correctly. On Friday 13th, we invited our parents to our AKA home to learn a little more (or a lot in some cases), about what we do everyday, and to thank our parents for raising such awesome people. The relaxed evening gave our parents a little window into our working life. They got to see first hand how we make a difference to some of the world’s leading brands (a.k.a our clients), meet the colleagues they’ve heard so much about, and enjoy some great food and drink. Of course, they also had the opportunity to meet the founders and ask the kind of questions only your parents would. Here’s to our AKA parents!
October, 2016
We've been Spiked!
To win a Spike is a toughie but a goodie, and so we thought long and hard before entering our work into Spikes Asia Pacific 2016. The fierce competition is made up mainly of global ad agencies with seriously big budgets. This year, we spoke with our Jetstar client and agreed to enter two 2016 campaigns into Spikes – December Babies and April Fools – to see how we fared.
Spikes week came, and we were delighted to get shortlisted for our April Fools campaign not once, but twice. We were on the edge of our seats when the overall winners were announced… and are proud to share that we brought home a bronze spike in the Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants and Fast Foods Chains category.
July, 2016
Award wins for AKA
in Hong Kong
The AKA team is pleased as punch to have received not one, not two, but four awards at the recent PR Week Asia Awards that took place in Hong Kong. The nail-biting ceremony proved a huge success for AKA’s Jetstar and Electrolux teams, who were invited to the stage and collect awards for:
CSR Campaign of the Year
Electrolux Tackles Food Waste with #happyplateSG
Promotional Activity of the Year
December Baby (Jetstar)
Best use of Broadcast / Video
December Baby (Jetstar)
South East Asia PR Campaign of the Year
December Baby (Jetstar)
We’re also proud to be recognised as finalists in both the Boutique Agency of the Year, and SouthEast Asia Consultancy of the Year categories.
May, 2016
Full of beans
We’re super proud to have forged a strong working relationship with Costa since 2015 and we’re tickled pink to share that we’ll be continuing our work with the brand for another year. As the months have passed, our scope has grown and we are ecstatic to be forging new ground together.
December, 2015
Packing a punch:
AKA named 5th most
creative agency in the world
The Holmes Reports has ranked AKA as the 5th most creative agency globally, measured in terms of agency headcount. As Arun Sudhaman from the Holmes Report said: “an alternative measure of agency creativity comes from weighting agency scores according to their staff size. Accordingly, the Holmes Report has again used a points per head calculation to identify which are, ‘pound for pound’, the most creative PR agencies in the world.”
Although the majority of agencies in the ranking hailed from traditional powerhouse markets such as Sweden, US and UK, with Singapore as our base at AKA, Sudhaman added that this demonstrates that “geography is not a factor when it comes to creative prowess”.
What an honour.
May, 2017
AKA gets down to the
numbers with Manulife
We took the brief, we shared our ideas, we liked each other a lot, and we were appointed. It’s been quite an adventure so far, and we’re looking forward to supporting our new client, financial services provider and insurance giant Manulife in Singapore for the longterm. Appointed for our creatively–led communications capability, we are proud to be working with such a forward-thinking team, to drive awareness and build brand love for the global life insurance brand.
January, 2017
Jetstar asks Singaporeans
to clip their wings this
Lunar New Year
To celebrate the year of the Rooster, Jetstar wants Singaporeans to stay home for Lunar New Year, because you can travel anytime. Our social experiment is getting some great results online, with over 120,000 views and more than 200 shares in just one day. Warning, it’s a tear-jerker.
Flights booked already? Jetstar will change flights departing on 27th or 28th January for free so you can stay home instead. Wishing you a prosperous and happy new year!
February, 2017
Sony Mobile Singapore and Sony Electronics Singapore
AKA is proud to be named agency of record for both Sony Mobile Singapore and Sony Electronics Singapore. After what was possibly one of the most hotly contested pitches ever, we’ve already started supporting Sony Mobile with PR, and we'll take over the social scope soon. As for Sony Electronics, the team is gearing up to start work next month on the PR scope for the global giant. We can’t wait to showcase the fruits of our collaboration.
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December, 2022
A flickin’ awesome
AKA Christmas
What do Anna Delvey, Aunty Zima, The Tiger King, Queen Elizabeth II and Jake Peralta have in common? They were all found partying the night away at AKA’s Christmas Party 2022, along with many other favourite characters from TV series we all can’t stop binging on!
From reenacting that famous “I Want It That Way” scene from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, to a 2-minute impromptu skit that gave all of us a taste of real life K-drama, it was a night of endless entertainment, laughs, drinks, karaoke-ing, and spamming the agency WhatsApp group chat with enough juicy-slash-embarrassing pics and vids to last us until the next Christmas season drops.