How agencies and brands can make the most of the digital surge in APAC

With digital accounting for a dominant share of ad spend in APAC — 76% according to data from IPG Mediabrands Magna — a constant dilemma for agencies and marketers is effectively allocating funds. The challenge is compounded in a world filled with more options and avenues than ever before, when it comes to delivering marketing messages to consumers. 

 

To determine how some of the leading practitioners resolve these challenges, Campaign — in partnership with StackAdapt, a programmatic digital advertising company — hosted an online seminar ‘APAC marketing shift: How to capitalise on the surge in digital.’ 

 

Moderated by Campaign Asia-Pacific editor Rahat Kapur, the panellists included Preeti Mascarenhas, head of strategy and product, Mindshare APAC; Jake Hird, VP of strategy and solutions, APAC - B2B group, Merkle; Berina Colakovic, director of sales, APAC, StackAdapt, and Deirdre Chew, director of sales, Southeast Asia, StackAdapt. 

 

The webinar covered themes such as the criticality of first party data; multi-channel strategies; strategies to combat media fragmentation, and the importance of AI. 

 

Watch the full on-demand recording of the webinar here

 

First party data is critical irrespective of what happens to third-party cookies

 

Interest around first party data surged in 2020, shortly after Google announced the imminent deprecation of third-party cookies. In the intervening years, several leading adtech firms have built solutions based on first party data as an effective substitute for cookies, helping marketers target with greater precision. As a result, the first party data remains significant even after Google’s recent decision to potentially retain cookies. 

 

StackAdapt’s Deridre Chew said, “Leveraging first party data in a multi-channel activation is going to become increasingly important, measurable, and profitable. The ways in which first party data gets leveraged is important because the mediums and methods of consumption have changed. Linear TV, radio, and out of home can all be transacted digitally now, but the difference between doing it offline versus online, is that we have a deeper insight into what was previously unmeasurable.” StackAdapt’s Berina Colakovic added, “Some brands want to start using first party but do not know where to start. But the power of first party data that they hold is going to be crucial.” 

 

The marketing funnel has been flipped and brands are more important than ever before

 

The marketing funnel used to be a simple trawl from awareness to action. However, Mindshare’s Preeti Mascarenhas argued that the marketing funnel had been flipped due to the pervasive online culture — particularly in APAC. She said, “Everything that previously happened on-ground now takes place online. The flipping of the funnel has taken place because social media usage stands at around 90% in Asia Pacific. Consumers see, discover, and buy at the same moment.”

 

Consequently, branding has become more important than ever before. Merkle’s Jake Hird said, “Brand is the new black again. We see more thought put into the consistency of brand across all touchpoints.” In a world where the entire purchase cycle has changed, it is even more important for a brand to be part of the research process and maintain consistency across different touchpoints. Hird said, “It is not as simple as slapping in a print ad or an out of home billboard. It is getting the right brand message across all those different touchpoints whether it is commerce, a display ad, website, or connected TV.” 

 

Digital OOH and connected TV are getting too big to ignore

 

From a format where agencies spent times discussing the technology required to make it work, digital OOH has become ubiquitous. However, according to Chew, there was still a long way to go. She said, “We try to differentiate in the areas of measurement and bringing performance metrics — retargeting from digital OOH placements or footfall attribution, which offers a level of depth that we didn't have before.” Among the pervasive challenges are no single currency to measure digital OOH, difficulty in validating placements, and no consolidation of data. Which is where Chew saw firms like StackAdapt playing a role. She said, “We have been speaking to brands about how we can transform the market by looking at research and collaborations.” 

 

Connected TV (CTV) is growing at an impressive clip in Southeast Asia even if it is not as mature as Australia or New Zealand. Chew observed, “Over 90% of users watch TV via streaming services and that is across all Southeast Asian markets. Upwards of 50% of total TV time is spent on streaming versus linear TV. There was a 43% increase in programmatic CTV ad spend in Q1 this year compared to last year. Advertisers are responding but there needs to be a little bit of catch up in Southeast Asia in terms of technology offering.”

 

Colakovic added, “Within Asia Pacific, 60% of brands are already running CTV ads. There is more depth and a large network of publishers in Australia and New Zealand. A lot of agencies and clients are trying to understand how CTV affects their display, native advertising, and OOH component.”

 

For more insights on areas like AI, fragmentation of media, and measurement, please sign up to watch the full on-demand video.