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Grant Watts, Amobee MDof Asia Pacific, On How By 2015 Asia Will Be A US$7 Billion Mobile Advertising Market

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.

How does Amobee differentiate itself from its competitors?

We’re in a pretty unique space, offering two main values: 1) on the demand side we have a DSP called Amobee PULSE for Advertisers, a mobile ad management platform that makes campaign management more efficient and effective, and 2) on the supply side we have Amobee PULSE for Publishers and Operators, enabling them to manage their mobile inventory and achieve unparalleled ROI through big data analytics to track investment, consumer action and purchase.

We make advertising measurable and reliable, and uniquely guarantee results.

How do you work with publishers to increase yield? How do you work with agencies to drive efficiency and media optimisation?

Our key features and functions include:

- Campaign Manager: Sell campaigns direct to maximize the value of premium inventory.
- Targeting: Improve the user ad experience by providing the right advertising to the right audience.
- Yield Optimization & Mediation: Determine which advertiser from which ad source will generate the highest yielding revenue for web and application impressions.
- Business Intelligence & Reporting: Flexible performance tracking by flight, campaign, house, network, etc.
- Inventory Management: Sophisticated tools to help communicate the value of the inventory.

In terms of automated buying across exchanges and the use of SSPs, is APAC far behind Europe and the US?

APAC is a little behind, but in a position to overtake. Countries like Indonesia, which have skipped the PC and are predominantly mobile, will move much faster in adopting these types of technologies due to the massive global fragmentation of content in this space.

What does your acquisition of RingRing Media mean for Amobee’s offering?

RingRing brought us a great deal of insight into the needs of agencies, in terms of the creative and technical processes unique to mobile campaigns. RingRing now serves as an innovation hub keeping us at the forefront of campaign evolution and development. The team has also quickly become a leading mobile advertising agency delivering large ROI for clients on a global scale.

How developed is the mobile advertising market in the region? Does mobile advertising have access to similar sized budgets as they do in the US and Europe?

Asia is the largest mobile ad region in terms of mobile advertising spend. Japan is the largest mobile ad country. By 2015 Asia will be a US$7 billion mobile advertising market.

Mobile Advertising Revenue by Region, Worldwide, 2010-2015 (Millions of US Dollars), according to Gartner

What challenges do publishers and agencies face in the region when it comes to mobile advertising? Are mobile advertising budgets representative of mobile populations in APAC?

Mobile advertising is still a relatively new sector, and most people are still learning about its value; that includes agencies. There is a lot of interest and the projections point to rapid adoption.

Amobee PULSE for Advertisers and Publishers offers a campaign management solution that brings efficiency to mobile advertisers. It enables real time targeting, monitoring and adjustments to ensure that investments are made where they deliver the best return. As companies see the campaign results, they will want to do more and more.

Do mobile media buying strategies vary across the different APAC markets? Japan? Singapore?

Both are hugely important markets – Japan because of its market size and Singapore because its position as a business and advertising/branding centre. Decisions made in both countries have a very large impact on execution across the APAC region.

Has the arrival of international platforms like Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube had much impact on mobile media buying strategies in the APAC region?

Several of those companies are our customers, and we manage their mobile ads. Because of the size of these companies, the massive number of users, and their continued rapid growth, these companies set the market direction. They are very important.

How common is behavioural targeting/audience buying? Are agencies and advertisers buying into the potential? What is Amobee offering in this area?

Behavioural targeting is growing rapidly. Amobee can track behavioural elements such as location, device use and device use time so that advertising dollars are spent when they are going to make the biggest impression on consumers.

What is your relationship with telcos in the APAC region? How do you work together?

We’re in discussions with a number of operators. They are very interested in Amobee PULSE for Operators because it helps them monetize their advertising inventory to unlock their highly valuable latent assets within the ecosystem.

How important and what is the relevance of local vs international mobile content in the growth of mobile advertising?

The more relevant the mobile advertising content is to the local consumer, the more engaged the user will be, ultimately leading to higher returns for our customers.

What role will video and mobile apps play in opening up new sources of inventory in APAC?

As broadband speeds increase, smartphone penetration grows and data package rates come down, there will be a significant rise in the consumption of video and mobile apps.

Research proves that for millions of consumers around the world, the phone is already an important viewing screen. Asia-Pacific online consumers are 45% more likely to use mobile video, while Europe and North America lag in mobile video adoption. MEAP consumers 26% more likely, North Americans and Europeans lag by 55% and 45%, respectively.

How will the mobile exchange eco-system in APAC evolve over the coming year?

APAC is evolving quickly with the world’s largest mobile ad market, Japan. Smartphone penetration in Asia is expected to surpass feature phones in 2012. With this trend, there will be more and more emphasis on efficient buying methods to fill available mobile advertising inventory.

What innovation will we see from Amobee in the next 6 months to a year?

We will continue to lead the mobile advertising market by providing the most advanced technology and solutions for large advertisers, publishers and operators, delivering relevant, technology-rich mobile ads, and enabling them to monetize their valuable mobile advertising inventory.

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