Ahead of the inaugural ATS Tokyo event today (16 September) ExchangeWire runs through some of the opportunities for the programmatic advertising industry to crack Japan, which is still to this day one of the world’s largest, yet nuanced, advertising markets.

With Japan ranked as the third-biggest advertising market in the world with a forecasted value of $434.5bn, according to Magna Global figures, with digital expected to account for 18% of total ad dollars spent, challenges remain for this to be realised, and such issues will be debated at length during the day’s proceedings.

Building bridges

To help realise the opportunity, the IAB recently announced a tie-up with the Japan Internet Advertising Association (JIAA) to help foster stronger ties between the Japanese digital ecosystem and the wider global marketing industry.

The cooperation will extend to exchanges on self-regulation, public policy and intellectual property piracy, as well as on IAB ad format standards, including advancing the adoption of the IAB Rising Stars units which debuted in Japan in 2013.

The IAB will also help communicate the latest developments from the cross-industry metrics initiative Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS). In addition, the pair will embark on co-branded research projects, as well as a co-branded potential thought leadership event in Tokyo.

Increasing awareness of programmatic

Yet programmatic advertising remains a nascent force, in this market and there is clearly a pent-up demand for increased global cooperation between Japanese players and the wider global market, and vice versa.

Areas to be addressed

Certain key issues remain for the industry to jointly address here. For instance, market sources approached by ExchangeWire report issues around real-time media trading in multiple currencies (i.e. from US Dollars, to Japanese Yen, etc).

According to some, this create barriers that only make it more difficult to implement ad tech solutions in a market that remains one of the most profitable globally, despite the comparative lack of ad tech.

Meanwhile, the comparative lack of global agency trading desks (ATDs) makes Japan stand out from the rest of the global programmatic advertising market. Although Japan’s agency holding groups Dentsu and Hakuhodo (both of whom control the lion’s share of all ad spend here) have launched their respective ATDs recently, sources approached by ExchangeWire question whether the extent of the pair’s dual-hegemony is conducive to such a disruptive technology, and wider participation?

Other areas that have been cited by sources with knowledge of the market here cite issues around tight controls over the treatment of campaign creatives, and whether real-time media trading/placement may jeopardise their effectiveness?

Agenda

ATS Tokyo aims to help facilitate this process both by explaining how global players can introduce value to the market here, as well as ask the questions necessary for the market to mature with more speed.

Brian O’Kelley, AppNexus, CEO, and one of the biggest names in the programmatic advertising sector, will help kick off the day’s proceedings by giving his view on how ad tech is changing the digital landscape.

This will be followed up by representatives from MediaMath, Krux and Japanese digital  behemoth Rakuten, all of whom will further explain how to align algorithms and data to marketers’ goals.

Meanwhile, Scott Neville, IPONWEB, CMO, and expert on the Japanese digital landscape, will round-off the morning’s proceedings with a presentation on how building data infrastructure can help further marketers’ needs.

The second half of the day will contain keynote addresses and panel discussions around how to facilitate the growing trend towards mobile and video consumption, as well as publishers’ data strategies.