Vizury's Chetan Kulkarni, Co-founder & CEO, talks about the company's Visitor Relationship Management platform and re-targeting proposition across the APAC region.

Can you give an overview of Vizury’s re-targeting proposition?

We fundamentally believe that retargeting should be conceptualized and executed, in line with Customer Relationship Management(CRM). And this philosophy guides our re-targeting proposition, VRM. VRM stands for Visitor Relationship Management. We fundamentally look at every visitor to the advertiser's online destinations(we are focused on their website now, but there can be multiple avenues incl social media presence that we will be looking at) as a potential customer for that advertiser. So, VRM, as a platform, lets the advertiser tag the visitor & statistically model their behavior,  build dynamic 1:1 creatives based on the observed behavior and optimize the lifetime value of every visitor on an ongoing basis. The end result is a highly engaged visitor pool that is more engaged with the brand and has transacted/acted in terms of a direct response.

How are you differentiating your product offering from other vendors in the APAC region?

We find that APAC is still a nascent, upcoming market. We truly believe that the proof of the pudding is in eating it and hence the differentiation is primarily in terms of delivering measurable and subsbtantial RoI on a consistent basis. There are 4 key pillars that enable us achieve this, and formthe basis of our differentiation - Real 1:1 profiling through nano-segmentation module capable of creating millions of profiles, State-of-art dynamic creative generation module, Media buying engine with Real Time Bidding(RTB) capabilities and Statistics powered product recommendation engine

 Are you working with agencies or client direct?

We take both the channels, but the balance is tilted towards direct clients at this point in time. This has got to do with the fact that many of the target verticals we have are performance advertisers who have limited or no agency interfaces. Also, given the depth of the engagement the solution requires us to maintain a direct line with advertisers on an ongoing basis.

 Is the re-targeting a self-service or managed offering?

It is primarily a managed offering at this point in time. The reason is 2 fold - We are the first player in almost all these markets to have such a sophisticated solution. And given the nascent phase of some of our target markets, there is a fair bit of hand-holding required. Also, we believe that we bring in a considerable client servicing IP in suggesting various cross-sell and up-sell engagements based on our platform resulting in better realization of value for the clients and in turn for us.

 Can you give some insight into the markets you are currently operating in – and how different the approaches are in markets like India, Korea, Japan and China?

As we are exploring these markets first hand, we believe that these markets vary in terms of - (a) media buying dynamics on agency/advertiser side, (b) sophistication of online ad ecosystem and (c) in general importance of online advertising in the marketing mix.

Let me explain. We see that APAC advertisers are much more performance focused than their western counterparts. At the same time, we also see that there are primitive practices like Cost per Time on which display inventory is being sold in a market like China. We also see that the influence of global online ad ecosystem is fairly limited in a country like Korea where local ad networks and publishers rule, as opposed to India and Japan, to an extent, where there is a fair amount of global influence. Further, we are observing that the adoption of online advertising is much lower amongst mainstream advertisers in a smaller size market like India, whereas the automotive and financial services rely very extensively in Korea. So, as opposed to a Europe where in there are 4-5 top markets at a similar stage of evolution, these markets happen to be at drastically different stages and bring in diverse set of challenges.

How are you buying online inventory?  Direct from publishers? Or are you buying directly from the exchanges?

We use a blended strategy. While we work with prominent publishers in certain geographies, we have (or just launching) global tieups with large ad exchanges and yield optimizers like Yahoo Rightmedia, Microsoft Media Network, Rubicon Project, Openx Marketplace, Google Adex, Admeld and Adbrite amongst others. We are also RTB capable and are seeing tremendous value in buying media through our media buying algorithms.

Are you offering a dynamic creative solution to your clients?

Yes, absolutely. We believe we were one among the first globally to start monetizing this capability. Our dynamic creative processes are characterized by 3 attributes - flexible (it can take inputs from multiple sources in different forms), statistics powered(we test various elements on creatives and in different formats) and vertical specific(we have considerable IP in what sort of content appeals to consumer and in format, by vertical)

 Are more APAC advertisers and agencies using re-targeting to drive conversions?

The phenomenon is picking up, but basically we are seeing that that the markets are underserved. There have been off the shelf solutions incl one by Rightmedia platform and Google Remarketing for a while in the market. But what the advertisers, esp those who have a transaction/key activity online, need and expect is a sophisticated solution which has capabilities to offer the depth and width of engaging each drop off user in a true 1:1 fashion.

Re-targeting has been controversial in European and the US in terms of behavioral targeting.  What are you doing as a company to allay any concerns over user’s online privacy?

User's privacy is critical to us. Firstly, as I mentioned, we are focused on RoI and hence do all that is possible to provide consumers with a pleasant & positive interaction with our ads in order to encourage the end sale. It would simply not make any sense for us to spam or over expose consumers in order to tempt them click. After all, unhappy visitors don't make revenues! Given this background, we use a combination of 3 different things: (a) We work strictly with Non-PII(Personally Identifiable Info) at all points in time. The data used is 100% anonymous; (b) we strictly comply with the privacy guidelines set for our advertiser's websites in terms of the data is gathered and used; and (c) we have an opt-out facility as a part of our standard engagement guidelines with all our publisher partners.

What trends are we likely to see in the APAC exchange marketplace over the coming year?

We see 3 fold changes coming in the next couple of years into APAC with the emergence of exchanges:

(a) Setup of the infrastructure by major players, and some local players emerging - None of the top global DSPs/SSPs have been active in APAC so far. From our knowledge, even Google Adex is getting active only in the last couple of months.
But we know of multiple DSPs/SSPs which are looking to set one base in APAC and start operating in the next 6-12 months.

(b) Introduction of RTB into the display planning - RTB emerged in 2009 in US and our sense is that 10% of the total display advertising buys happen through RTB.

(c) As a result of (a) and (b), the buyers/sellers would start getting a taste of higher value/price in the next one year.

What will be Vizury’s focus over the next year?

Our focus would be around effective distribution, improving the depth of adoption and also in being a product of choice globally. We are also foraying into US/Europe with a whitelabel solution and have a strong pipeline already. We would also be investing heavily in technology and statistical intellectual property development.