Measuring business outcomes, the rise of contextual targeting in a cookie-less world, harnessing the explosion in OTT/CTV dictate APAC marketers' agendas in 2020 according to a new report from Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global market leader in digital ad verification.

Based on a survey of over 168 industry professionals in APAC, the company’s Industry Pulse Report homes in on the trends and challenges that APAC digital media professionals are focused on for 2020.

Over-the-top (OTT) and Connected TV (CTV) video opportunities continue to grow

APAC will be home to 60% of global OTT video viewers in 2020 (OTT is any device that can be connected to a TV to allow for the delivery of video that's coming from the Internet). Industry experts see opportunity and believe advancements in CTV technology (CTV is the device such as smart TV by which one accesses the content) is set to accelerate the shift in both media consumption and ad spending from linear TV to digital in the year ahead. Accordingly, half of the respondents said their companies are prioritising CTV and OTT video in 2020. OTT video adoption is still growing in the Asia Pacific, with the pan-regional penetration rate rising from 30% to 37% of internet users between 2019 and 2020.

Increased media investments on mobile and video channels this year

APAC’s mobile user base will surpass two billion to take a 58% share of mobile internet users worldwide in 2020. Media professionals are matching their company’s priorities to consumer wants, highlighting spending on digital video as their top priority in 2020. Respondents in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) were most likely to cite digital video (92%) as a top focus this year. Mobile came in a close second, driven by 86% of respondents in Japan who said handheld devices will be a key component of their media planning and buying strategy in the year ahead. Social media ranked third across the region, driven by a larger portion of media professionals in Japan who said the social channels will be a priority over the next twelve months.

Media quality draws attention

Minimising media quality risks will be the primary focus of media quality assurance tactics employed in the APAC markets this year. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said their company will take proactive steps to block and filter content considered unsuitable for their brand. Viewability measurement and brand suitability monitoring remain popular tactics with more than half of respondents citing each, whilst 45% of respondents said they’ll use ad fraud mitigation tactics to minimise media quality risks this year.

Contextual targeting is a key focus this year

Increased privacy regulations will resurrect a focus on contextual targeting as expansive regulation around personal data will make cookie-based targeting less reliable. Media buyers will increasingly be more reliant on sophisticated contextual targeting and first-party data to reach the relevant audiences.

Measuring Business outcomes remains the top media challenge in 2020

At 44%, measuring business outcomes is by far the most pressing challenge cited by respondents in the Asia Pacific. Media professionals emphasised the difficulties behind measuring campaigns and their returns across multiple devices. As well, media executives said that measuring business outcomes should be the basis of a robust digital media strategy. Concerns over the assessment of campaign ROI stood at 41% closely followed by cross-device attribution at 40%.

Lack of transparency in social media

Conversations about social media transparency remain top of mind in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Respondents across these markets said that brand safety and viewability measurement should be more transparent within social platforms. Social network user bases continue to expand in Australia and Singapore, with respective annual growth rates of 1.5% and 3.3% in 2020. Although social media will likely remain an essential component of advertising campaigns, close to half of the respondents said the lack of transparency will negatively impact their 2020 social media spend.

IAS surveyed 168 digital media professionals across key markets in APAC— Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan— to discover how industry professionals perceived transparency and innovation in 2019, and the resulting impact it will have on their budgets, and focus, in 2020.