A Marriage of Convenience – Brands and Events

Magnetic Asia sets up a new full-service marketing and creative agency focused on events, branded experiences and innovative customer engagement.

Established in 2019, arcc is a new division of Hong Kong-based live entertainment powerhouse Magnetic Asia, the company behind Clockenflap Music & Arts Festival. Bringing together experience in event marketing and mainstream advertising, arcc was established to help event owners and brands better connect with audiences through innovative creative solutions across all media channels as well as experiential activations.

“We see more and more brands wanting to get involved in the event and experiential space,” said Martin Lever, Creative Partner, “our understanding of how to position and market events, brands, products and experiences – as well as our ability to create ownable and relevant roles for brands within events – is fast becoming a signature service.”

arcc offers a full spectrum of brand, marketing and creative strategy services with application of a proprietary process of Audience Insight, Market Research, Focussed Creativity, and Effective Content. To ease brands’ common pain point in measuring return value, arcc also focuses on implementing real‑time campaign tracking and post‑event analysis.

“Events are in our DNA – but our creative marketing services go beyond purely events. We are very positive about the opportunities for our unique mix of skills and insights,” added Simon Bratt, Managing Partner.

Hong Kong – home to regional headquarters of global brands

Headquartered in Hong Kong, the company grew out of a desire to change the way events and experiences are marketed, with effectiveness as a driving principle. “Hong Kong was the logical place for us to base our operations,” said Bratt, “our partner companies Magnetic Asia and Asia Ticketing are headquartered here and Hong Kong is the regional base for many multinational and regional brands.”

Bratt added that arcc’s strategy is to build its customer base in Hong Kong and Singapore, and from there to expand regionally in Asia. “While our existing customers are primarily based in Hong Kong, we are already delivering regional and international campaigns.”

With experience in implementing multi-regional projects, arcc is open to opportunities across different regions, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. “Currently, we are looking to work with brands across the region – including our neighbours Macao, too often an overlooked opportunity,” said Lever, “we believe our approach and service offering is well-suited to supporting integrated resorts, which are already experimenting with experiential activities to attract patrons.”

In less than a year since its launch, arcc has grown its headcount to 11 people, and will continue to expand. Bratt remarked that setting up and conducting business in Hong Kong is a straightforward and efficient process. “We also appreciate the highly competitive nature of business in Hong Kong, which keeps our potential clients on the hunt for ways to better connect to their audiences and customers” he said. “This is the opportunity space arcc is focused on.”