KOL management agency Newave Strategic acquired by Society Pass’s Thoughtful Media

Thoughtful Media Group Inc. (TMG), a Thailand-based, premium digital advertising network with a social commerce focus owned by Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa), announced the acquisition of Newave, an Indonesia-based KOL management company.

In a statement, SoPa claimed that the +10,000 influencers on Newave’s talent roster “turbocharge TMG’s social commerce advertising business in both Indonesia and Southeast Asia (SEA)”.

“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,” said Pamela Aw-Young, TMG Vice-Chairman.

She claims that since SoPa, the company’s parent, acquired TMG in July 2022, it has only gotten stronger, with the number of employees rising from 12 professionals to over 60 in just over a year.

“We look to triple our revenues year-on-year in 2023. As we enter the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia markets in the second half of 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,” she said.

The preferred advertising platform for nano and micro influencers (KOLs with fewer than 100,000 followers) on the Indonesian social media scene is Newave, which was founded in 2017.

The company has capitalized on the growth of social media and online shopping in the Indonesian advertising market.

According to Datareportal, Newave Head of Strategy Ilhamka Nizam stated that as of January 2022, 191 million Indonesians, or 68 percent, were using social media.

“Covid drove millions of Indonesians to shop online for more than three hours daily via their social media. Naturally, brands increased their marketing budgets every year since Newave was founded,” he said.

He stated that the company anticipates Indonesia-based brands to spend more than 30% of their marketing budgets on influencer marketing in 2023.

In order to meet the demand for influencers brought on by rising advertising budgets, Newave concentrated on finding and working with emerging nano and micro-influencers, who, according to INSG.CO, account for 66% of all influencers in Indonesia.

According to Newave Co-Founder Bunga Nizam, when they founded the company, they realized that one of the key differentiators between Newave and other so-called influencer marketing firms is the ability to onboard hundreds of thousands of nano and micro-influencers.