TBWA\Singapore Establishes Innovation Centre of Excellence to Drive AI-Led Brand Growth

TBWA\Singapore today announced the launch of its Innovation Lab, the first Centre of Excellence in TBWA’s Asia-Pacific network established with support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). The Lab establishes Singapore as a regional proving ground for AI-led brand innovation, helping companies translate ambition into scalable experiences, intelligent systems, and new growth models enabled by emerging technologies.

The Lab has been established in response to a fundamental shift facing brands. As customer expectations evolve faster than traditional marketing and innovation cycles, ambition alone is no longer enough. Brands need to be able to build, test, and learn at speed, while ensuring ideas are credible, scalable, and commercially sound.

“Technology has finally caught up with creative ambition,” said Mandy Wong, Chief Executive Officer, TBWA\Group Singapore. “AI and immersive platforms allow us to build, test, and learn at a pace the industry simply couldn’t achieve before. This Lab exists to ensure that speed is used responsibly, creating brand experiences that are richer, more engaging, and grounded in real value, not hype.”

Unlike traditional innovation labs that often rely on large-scale, long-horizon, and high-cost initiatives that take months to prove and are difficult to unwind once committed, TBWA\Singapore’s Lab is built to deliver outcomes through rapid prototyping, early proof, and disciplined scale. Its role is to help brands identify new growth spaces, rapidly test ideas, and scale only what earns the right to grow.

Artificial intelligence sits at the core of the Lab’s model, collapsing timelines across insight, ideation, experience design, and production. This allows teams to prototype immersive brand experiences in weeks rather than months, pressure-test ideas early, and compound learning rather than resetting with each new project.

The Lab also focuses on how emerging technologies unlock opportunities that were previously impractical or out of reach. Robotics and intelligent systems are applied to solve complex human and business challenges across education, training, service design, and social impact. Virtual and augmented reality are used to extend brands into new realms, creating environments audiences can step into, interact with, and return to, rather than passively consume.

Mel Daniels, Head of Innovation, TBWA\Asia and TBWA\Singapore said: “We’re interested in the spaces where creativity and systems collide. AI, robotics, and spatial computing let us prototype experiences and operating models that used to be too slow, too complex, or too risky to attempt. Our job is to make those ideas real, usable, and scalable.”

The launch of the Lab formalises capabilities TBWA\Singapore has already proven in market, including immersive experience platforms developed for Singapore’s arts and culture industry to deepen audience engagement through interactive digital environments. The Lab also extends existing work in designing bespoke AI agents and AI-enabled operating systems integrated into real creative, production, and strategic workflows.

Supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the Innovation Lab will develop, test and refine ideas and experiences, before scaling them across clients, categories and global markets. At the same time, partnerships with educational institutions and other industry players will uplift the local tech and innovation ecosystem.

“TBWA\Singapore’s Innovation Lab will harness AI in marketing and advertising to support businesses, while partnering our Institutes of Higher Learning to develop the next generation of AI-savvy talent. Firms like TBWA\Singapore play an important role in Singapore’s marketing ecosystem, strengthening our position as a trusted hub for professional services. We look forward to working with TBWA\Singapore to advance AI transformation in the marketing sector,” said Junie Fo, Vice President and Head of Professional Services, EDB.

Beyond client delivery, the Lab also plays a central role in shaping the agency’s future talent strategy. Under the leadership of Mandy Goh, Head of Talent and Human Resources of TBWA\Singapore, the Lab will operate as a training and incubation platform for the hybrid skillsets the industry will require over the next 12 to 18 months, blending creativity, technology, systems thinking, and cultural intelligence.

Mandy Goh added: “The future of our industry depends on new hybrid skillsets. The Innovation Lab gives us a live environment to train, experiment, and incubate talent for the roles the agency and our clients will need next, not just the ones that exist today.”

This includes upskilling existing talent, developing new career pathways, and incubating roles that do not yet formally exist, ensuring both the agency and its clients are prepared for what’s next rather than reacting to it.