In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: Grapeshot brings APAC languages to The Trade Desk; Mobile drives 27% of ecommerce in SEA; Sizmek looks to push viewability in SEA; and IAS appoints new APPIES head.

Grapeshot brings APAC languages to The Trade Desk

The UK-based ad tech vendor says it has integrated its language capabilities with The Trade Desk's platform, offering the DSP's clientele a seamless way to target audience segments in Asia-Pacific based on languages most familiar to their consumers.

With language support in Grapeshot's keyword targeting service, advertisers can identify Chinese-speaking consumers via the written language in which the content they consume is written, based either in simplified or traditional Chinese. Marketers in other regions can distinguish French- and English-speaking consumers in Canada, or Dutch from French speakers in Belgium, as well as Spanish and English speakers in the US.

Grapeshot said its integration with The Trade Desk offers support for nine languages in this region. Its Asia-Pacific director Chris Pattinson said: "The Asia-Pacific region is a diverse collection of unique cultures and languages, so there is no messaging 'one-size fits all' for multi-market executions. The Trade Desk, via Grapeshot, now enables brands to tailor communication to consumers engaged with content in any of the nine main online languages native to the region, adding another layer of advertising acceptance."

Matt Harty, senior vice president of Asia-Pacific for The Trade Desk, added that site-level language targeting would be an asset for user-level targeting in campaigns, especially for a diverse region, and enable its clients to reach the consumers who matter most. "As a buyer's platform, we are here to ensure our clients have access to the full range of levers and controls for the campaigns they run globally."

Carlsberg, which ran a campaign with Grapeshot in Malaysia during Chinese New Year, said the language capability allowed the company to "more effectively sculpt segments", while taking into consideration religious and cultural customs associated with certain languages.

Mobile drives 27% of ecommerce in SEA

Mobile-commerce contributed 27% of all ecommerce sales across Southeast Asia in the second quarter of 2015, stressing the need for marketers to optimise their campaigns for mobile platforms.

According to Criteo's latest State of Mobile Commerce Report, m-commerce accounted for 34% of ecommerce transactions in Indonesia; while this figure clocked in at 31% and 29% in Taiwan and Singapore, respectively.

Worldwide, m-commerce is projected to contribute 40% by the end of this year. The numbers were based on the company's analysis of 1.4 billion ecommerce transactions, totalling US$160 million in annual sales.

Criteo's chief product officer, Jonathan Wolf, said: "Marketers' ability to leverage new technologies to accurately identify and reach consumers wherever they are is going to become critical as this trend perpetuates and carries us towards a world where the majority of transactions will take place across multiple devices."

Noting that Southeast Asia was the fastest-growing region worldwide, Criteo's Southeast Asia managing director Yuko Saito said this growth was fuelled largely by mobile; particularly in developing markets such as Indonesia and India where consumers owned smartphones before they owned desktops.

Saito noted: "For mature markets like Singapore and Taiwan, there's a higher incidence of cross-device usage. However, overall, for both developing and mature markets, mobile optimisation is crucial for ecommerce businesses looking to engage the region's growing smartphone population."

Sizmek looks to push viewability in SEA

Sizmek says it is offering its basic viewable impressions metrics report for free in Southeast Asia markets, as part of efforts to champion the importance of ad viewability in the region.

Available for a year from third-quarter 2015, the report will be distributed to its existing ad agency clients based in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Its basic report comprises viewability rates of ad placements and recordable rates of webpages on which campaigns are served. Premium tiers of the report include additional metrics, such as the average duration of ad views.

Noting that the IAB recently recommended that 70% of a campaign's measured impressions should meet the minimum viewability rate, Sizmek said the industry should move towards "a more transparent marketplace".

Its Asia-Pacific vice president Jordan Khoo said: "If the ad hasn't been seen by a consumer, it has no opportunity to make an impact ... it's important to consider the effect of different viewability rates on engagement metrics."

Sizmek's Southeast Asia director Joey Chee added that the ad tech company was starting to see publishers in the region realise the importance of ad viewabiliy. He noted that digital advertising was transitioning towards audience buying, and brand marketers would want to be assured of top returns from their campaigns.

APPIES Chairman Alvin Neo

On a separate note, Sizmek has appointed Ryan Murray as associate vice president of media solutions, where he is responsible for leading the company's programmatic professional services team in Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Based in Singapore, Murray was Asia-Pacific general manager of mobile DSP, StrikeAd Asia, which was recently acquired by Sizmek.

IAS appoints new APPIES head

The Institute of Advertising Singapore (IAS) has announced the appointment of Alvin Neo as its new chairman of APPIES, which is the institute's annual awards event to recognise Asia's most successful marketing campaigns.

Neo replaces René de Monchy, who is head of marketing at Asia Pacific Breweries, and is chief marketing officer of Parkway Pantai, where he heads the healthcare company's strategic and operational marketing, sales, customer service centre, among others.

Neo has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, strategy, innovation, and startup development in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, having worked with various FMCG companies including Proctor & Gamble and Gillette.