APAC

Stuart Spiteri is Chief Operating Officer at News Digital Media – and worked previously at Google as the head of platforms for Japan and Asia-Pacific. Here he discusses his new role at one of Australia’s biggest publishers, the challenges/ opportunities that lie ahead and some wider trends from the greater APAC market.

Can you give some overview on the new role at News Digital Media – and some background on your experience in the APAC region?

I joined NDM in December 2011 from Google in Singapore where I was head of platforms across the Japan and Asia-Pac region, looking after the display business including DoubleClick suite of products including Ad Exchange, plus Invite Media.

Prior to Google, I was with Akamai Technologies as MD of their Asia-Pac business for seven years, providing platform-led technological solutions to a broad range of blue chip organisations that included working closely with all major Australian publishers.

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Stephen Hunt TubeMogul’s Asia-Pacific Director talks candidly about the challenges the online video industry currently faces: demand outstripping supply; publishers holding on to unsold inventory to protect its value; and lack of transparency in video advertising and the industry’s absence of regulation e.g ‘fake pre-rolls’. But Hunt argues that the opportunity in online video advertising is huge, and is poised to attract huge amounts of brand budget in the coming years.

If the latest PwC figures are accurate, 2014 will be the year online advertising will surpass TV to become the biggest segment of the media pie in Australia.  A major driver of future growth is forecasted to be brand dollars flowing away from traditional TV into online video and connected TV.

With great power comes great responsibility, however, and the industry needs to create a quality ecosystem worthy of TV’s mantle.  We have the opportunity to be good, but we should strive to be great!

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Managing Director of Adap.tv, Phil Duffield, discusses their increasing activity in the Australian, South East Asian and Japanese marketplaces.   He says how the adoption of traditional media buying by today’s industry has created silos in TV and video resulting in massive operational costs and time for both buyers and sellers and how 2012 promises to be very exciting with new strategic  products in the pipeline and more global expansion.

Can you give an overview of Adap.tv and its offering within Australia and the wider APAC region? What markets are you active in?

Adap.tv is the leading programmatic platform for buying and selling video and the world’s largest video ad marketplace. The Adap.tv Platform offers automated technology for buying and selling video. It’s a single platform for all video screens that can be easily configured to meet advertisers and publishers business goals.  The Adap.tv Marketplace is the largest global exchange in volume.  With the option to transact over spot, committed and RTB inventory, buyers and sellers always get total clarity into pricing and inventory. We have just launched a new office in Sydney, Australia and are also active in New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

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Angus McDonald, Managing Director at emerge Digital, explores why Australian publishers should follow a Darwin-esque approach to online advertising

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Change is uncomfortable, unfamiliar and not without pain but the result is usually pretty positive. As an adaptable species, you’d have thought we’d have learnt that by now and embraced change at every opportunity.

However, Charles Darwin’s quote is very apt for the change that is currently taking place in the Digital Media Display (DMD) industry. Real-Time-Bidding, the volcano of that change, has altered sales models DMD in the US and Europe, and my money’s on Australia being the next market to erupt this year.

Let’s look at the local landscape: large, independent premium publishers in Australia are selling inventory at high CPMs (relative to North American peers) to brands who want to be associated with premium content in premium environments. Sales teams are successful so why commoditise the sales proposition?

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Carolyn Bollaci, Country Manager for MediaMind Australia & New Zealand shares some case studies on the effectiveness of data optimisation – a critical, but less known, factor behind the success of display ads. She also highlights how using data has shown an average lift in CTRs of 73%.

After years in the advertising doldrums, pulling meagre average click through rates (CTRs) of around 0.06 percent, it’s interesting to see certain digital ads now regularly storming CTRs in primary and even double digits.

Data optimisation is a critical, but less known, factor behind the rebound of display ads. From our benchmarks as a global ad server, we regularly see that data usage for targeting and retargeting lift CTRs by an average of 73 per cent. Actual conversions increase by an average of 40 per cent, with as much as 389 per cent for some advertisers.

Data optimisation technologies work by calculating the many factors that determine a display ad’s success, or failure. Like a race car’s cockpit team, data optimisation technology can tinker and tweak with a live ad in order to nudge up its results, often significantly.

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Marc Barnett is the GM of Microsoft Media Network & Microsoft Advertising Exchange. Here he discusses the growth of the Microsoft Ad Exchange in Australia and NZ, the relationship with retargeters and third party buyers, channel conflict and data monetization.

Can you give us a little background on your new role as GM of Microsoft Media Network? What does your remit entail and what territories do you cover?

In my new role I am responsible for leading and driving the growth of the Microsoft Media Network and the Microsoft Advertising Exchange across Australia and New Zealand.

Late last year, the Microsoft Media Network was brought into the joint-venture between Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Co. This change, coupled with the launch of the Microsoft Advertising Exchange, gives us a unique opportunity to offer advertisers access to our data-driven suite of products at scale along with the option to buy through our RTB-enabled Exchange. We have increased our investment in this area of our business over the past four months and the team will be expanding to include 25 people across sales, operations and media buying by the end of March.

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Vicki Lyon, Managing Director SpotXchange Asia-Pacific on why real-time bidding is a win-win for advertisers and publishers.

It is not surprising that advertisers are moving more of their ad dollars into Online Video, with Frost and Sullivan predicting Australian video expenditure to increase from $33m to $350m in three years and we are also seeing publishers looking to cash in.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB) for video is gaining traction in Australia and Asia-Pacific. Publishers, and in particularly Advertisers, are becoming more aware of the effectiveness and convenience that RTB offers. Just like RTB for display, it will revolutionise the way online video inventory is bought.

RTB: A win for advertisers and a win for publishers.

Online video offers an engaging experience for consumers that translates into the potential for high-quality advertising impressions from desirable audiences that can be delivered at scale.

RTB helps advertisers eliminate waste, increase performance and simplify the media trading process. Advertisers can enjoy real-time control over executing targeted campaigns and more efficient buys. Demand for RTB-enabled video is growing exponentially and this will continue as agencies, their trading desks and DSPs all look to adopt programmatic buying beyond just display.

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Grant Watts is Amobee’s Managing Director of Asia Pacific. Here he discusses the rapidly changing mobile landscape and why by 2015 Asia will be a US$7 billion mobile advertising market.

Can you give an overview of Amobee and its offering and strategy across the APAC region?

Amobee is working with large-scale advertisers, publishers and operators to deliver mobile advertising solutions and technology – from text to rich media, across all devices – at the global and regional levels. We run mobile ad campaigns for some of the biggest and best brands including eBay, Nokia, Skype, Zynga, Google, Groupon, InMobi and Telefonica, delivering unparalleled results.

While running campaigns across Asia, we’re also aggressive in all key Asian markets – Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Australia and New Zealand – meeting with operators, advertisers and others, understanding their needs and introducing our capabilities.

Everyone we meet is very impressed with our mobile advertising technology and solutions. We’re already working with Asian-based companies such as InMobi, Globe (Philippines), Ugama (India), Ambient (Vietnam) and MCM (Indonesia) and expect to make additional partner announcements in the near future.

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Chris Brown is team lead at DoubleClick Performance Products in Australia, South East Asia and NZ. Here he discusses the progress made by the DoubleClick Ad Exchange in the region, timeframes around when mobile and video inventory will be made available and the recent Direct Deals launch.

Can you give some overview on the progress made by the DoubleClick Ad Exchange in the Australian and APAC markets? What similarities and differences did you see in relation to the UK and US markets?

The Australian market was already primed for exchanges due to the DoubleClick Ad Exchange 1.0 having been launched here in 2008, and RightMedia already being active in this market. Uptake was swift on the buy-side due some of the big holding companies strategies, and local independent agencies and Ad Networks always being close to ‘game-changing’ developments in the online world.

The major difference I saw from an agency perspective was how autonomously they were acting in this region. Country by country – each agency has a different take on how they should approach exchange buying.

A major similarity I saw was how some publishers perceived exchanges. They wanted to get involved as they were seeing the focus that agencies were giving, but were unsure on how-to.

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