Scandinavian agency network launches Acoustic Singapore to make some noise in Asia

The North Alliance, a new communications and digital transformation network, is opening its first Asian office named Acoustic, with Erik Ingvoldstad as the Managing Director.

The North Alliance is a Nordic holding company that was formed last year, bringing together top Nordic creative shops such as Sweden’s Åkestam Holst and Denmark’s &Co with cutting edge digital agencies Anorak from Norway and Great Works from Sweden as well as Norwegian/Polish technology consultancy Making Waves, Swedish design agency Bold, experential agency Studionoc and CRM/Retail agency Promenad – creating a powerful entity of technological competency and creative flair. The group, with an operating income of around SGD 90 million, is led by CEO and Founder Thomas Høgebøl, and backed by the Finnish private equity fund Capman.

MD Erik Ingvoldstad (pictured on left) is no stranger to Asia, having served as digital specialist MRM//McCann’s Regional ECD in Singapore and ECD for L’Oréal at McCann Shanghai. He has also been ECD for McCann Sydney and Global ECD on the Statoil account, as well as CGO for McCann Norway.

Their brand new offering is called Acoustic, and will be serving Asia Pacific from their Singapore office. Acoustic is a digital centric agency that works in the cross section between communication, technology, strategy and creativity. Acoustic will be a media neutral company that fully understands the cultural implications of the digital and mobile age. Acoustic offers a unique process developed to solve clients’ complex and converging challenges today and in the future.

The work will be developed both locally and with the network partners in Scandinavia, giving the Asian market an opportunity to work with some of the most cutting edge creatives and technologists in the world. The North Alliance has a round the clock digital production hub in Krakow that will now be made available for the Asian market.

Thomas Høgebøl, CEO The North Alliance (pictured on right) said : “We are excited to open our first office outside Europe, and we believe there is no better place to be than Singapore right now. The South East Asian market has an influx of creativity, technology and clients that is very exciting. We believe our new offering will be a perfect fit for clients that want truly integrated marketing – and who see technology and communications as equally important drivers for their business. CMO’s are looking for more than “just” an ad agency these days, and we believe that they are tired of all the talk about integration, but little action. We are bringing something fresh to the market that will facilitate digital transformation, and that is created in the spirit of what marketing and technology will look like beyond 2015.”

Ingvoldstad added: “I am very happy to return to Singapore, both professionally and personally. Singapore is to me the most natural and exciting place for communications in Asia. The ambition for Singapore to become a tech hub fits well with our plans, and we truly believe that we have something new to offer regional, local and global clients, in terms of a more native approach to integrated communications, digital utilities and engagement platforms. We want to engage with our clients’ business objectives, and help them reach their goals – not just from campaign to campaign, but from year to year and segment to segment.”

Ingvoldstad moves back to Singapore together with his Singaporean wife and their young son.

Acoustic is up and running from today, and will be adding more clients and more staff in the months to come. They have offices in the Straits Trading building in Singapore. The North Alliance is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.