APAC > Ad Server

Much is spoken and written about the growing economic strengths of the BRIC markets, it is one reason why ExchangeWire has a growing presence in these markets. However, when it comes to ad tech, India often is left in the shadows for some reason. When commentators future gaze about the APAC market, the focus is predominantly around Japan, China, South East Asia and Australia; but India is a sleeping giant of ad tech that is about to awaken.

The opportunity in India is sizeable, with over 100 million people online and a fast-growing e-commerce industry. Whilst it is still one of the smallest e-commerce industries in APAC, its growth is predicted to increase at the fastest pace over the next five years, according to Forrester. In 2011 alone it took on an estimated $1 billion of investment, and the economy as a whole is the 10th largest in the world, with an ever-increasing GDP — but what is the opportunity around ad tech specifically?

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There are signs that the data-driven ad market in APAC is gathering momentum. With a number of US vendors now entering the market, and local APAC solutions getting new funding and traction throughout the region, APAC is likely to have a big growth spurt in 2013. Pubmatic, another significant player in the space, announced its move into the region with the launch of its newest data centre in Singapore, which will provide the platform to service growing business in the South East Asia and Australia. ExchangeWire caught up with Paul Shepherd, Country Manager, Australia to discuss the recent expansion.

How have you seen the Australian market develop over the last 12 months?

From a display point of view, the Australian market has been quite robust. The IAB reported that growth in FY11/12 was 15%, and to all accounts the market is continuing to grow at a similar number. I think the winners of the last 12 months have been Google, Facebook and the Category specialists like carsales.com.au and realestate.com.

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Brandscreen announced this morning that it is raising a further eleven million dollars in a new round of funding. The Series B round was led by Macquarie Capital Group Limited (“Macquarie Capital”), and was joined by new co investors including SingTel Innov8 (Singapore) and existing investor Southern Cross Venture Partners (Palo Alto and Sydney). The new funding comes amid signs that the data-driven ad market is picking up serious momentum across the APAC region. Japan, the second largest display market globally, is seeing significant growth with the three big agencies investing considerable resource into the data-driven opportunity locally. China is also undergoing a big shift there. A number of key players have set up exchanges over the past twelve months, including Alibaba who runs the Taobao exchange. Google’s Adx is also heavily active in the Chinese market. While Korea and Singapore remain at an early stage of development, the signs that the market in APAC is going to move significantly in 2013 are there. Brandscreen’s new fund raise will doubtless be used to expand into these growing markets, and position it as the leading DSP in the APAC region. It will be interesting to see how Brandscreen will compete with the US and domestic players operating in the multiple markets.

Criteo has announced that it is entering into an advertising partnership with Yahoo Japan. In a deal that reflects other international agreements, Criteo Japan appears to be buying ad space from Yahoo Japan. A piece in the Nikkei today states that Criteo will be running third party tags across the Yahoo Japan domain, allowing Criteo to retarget for its advertising clients.

This is significant move as Yahoo Japan remains a first party ad serving publisher. Is this a sign of a change of strategy at Yahoo Japan? Will agencies soon be able to 3rd party ad serve across the Yahoo Japan domain? Could we see Yahoo Japan building out an exchange proposition for unsold inventory, with a third party vendor?

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Phil Duffield, Managing Director Adap.tv, discusses the growth of Video RTB in the APAC region, publisher adoption of the buying mechanism and some key infrastructure problems that currently is holding back the market.

Is the fusion of TV and video applicable to the current state of video advertising in AU and APAC?

Absolutely. Growth in online video consumption is a global trend and the opportunity for consumers to watch it on more channels and more devices is fueling it. One of the most interesting trends to watch in these regions will be the rise of connected TV. In the U.S. it took a significant leap onto agency media plans this year, but in Australia and APAC it’s challenging. Currently, the volume of video traffic is an issue as few homes currently have sufficient speed to stream high-definition content. But it’s improving all the time and the eventual rollout of the NBN will solve for this. After that, we should start to see a significant growth in the adoption and use of connected TV in our region.

Given that premium publishers in the region have been slow to adopt RTB for display, how will the likes of Adaptv bring premium liquidity to the market for Video?

It will be about empowering them with technology, through private marketplaces and showing them that RTB can no longer be pigeon holed as a race to the bottom but as a way to drive eCPM’s up. We will also look at premium overseas inventory through either marketplace connections or again a private marketplace option.

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Ros Allison is a Director at Vivaki. Here she discusses Vivaki’s cross-platform approach in the APAC marketplace, AOD’s multi platform addressability and the growth of the data-driven market in the region.

You’ve recently launched a world first offering in the addressable media space, with the multi platform capability through Audience On Demand. Is it a platform? Or a service? Could you outline its proposition and does this mean big changes to the current advertising landscape for advertisers?

We’re now buying multi platform, multi device campaigns, across mobile, video, display and tablet channels, in real time. It’s the first true cross platform execution – fully optimized in real time and executed within a single platform.

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Hidetaka Fukata is Executive Officer, Head of e-Business Group, at D.A. Consortium Inc. Here he discusses the launch of i-Effect, DAC’s new third-party ad server.

Can you give some background to “i-Effect(TM)” DAC’s new third party ad-serving technology?

Even though Third Party Ad-serving was introduced to Japan over a decade ago, Japanese Advertisers and Agencies have been reluctant to adopt it for a number of reasons, including the fact that the service models proposed by the non-Japanese vendors did not match local business practices; a perception of ad-serving fees being high and, perhaps most significantly, the fact that major Publishers disallow third party ad-serving. As such, the idea of Third Party Ad-serving until recently had largely yet to be accepted.

In recent years, however, Advertisers and Agencies have realized the necessity of allocating their spend on online advertising more effectively rather than just relying heavily on SEO and search ads. They have come to see Third Party Ad-serving as a valuable solution for measuring overall campaign effectiveness. As well, Japanese Publishers have become accustomed to the presence of third party ad-serving.

In line with these changes, DAC has released a third party ad-serving solution called i-Effect^TM, which meet the needs of Advertisers and Agencies in Japan with a flexible service model and pricing. As well as offering core features for managing, tracking and reporting on advertising campaigns, i-Effect^TM also enables auto-optimization of creative and copy. This auto-optimization feature, made possible by the latest ad-serving technology, is essential for maximizing advertising effectiveness resulting in higher conversion rates.

In summary, i-Effect^TM is a tool that can be used for not only evaluating campaign effectiveness, it also delivers the ability to deliver an increase in a campaign’s return on investment.

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Mike Downey is VP, Business Development, at OpenX. Here he discusses the recent deal signed with Samsung, and the roll-out of the in the APAC market.

What will the AdHub partnership look like in the APAC region?

The Samsung AdHub Market (Market) will launch later this year and will be a major new private advertising exchange specifically for global mobile inventory, including smartphones and tablets.

The Market will not be limited to the APAC region, but will be open to mobile inventory buyers globally, including those in North America and Europe. As such, the Samsung AdHub Market will offer an innovative gateway into unique worldwide mobile inventory.

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