Reza Behnam is CEO & Founder at ADZ. Here he discusses the ADZ DSP solution, and trends in the SE Asian market.

Can you give an overview of the ADZ solution in the APAC region?

We are a regional demand side platform (DSP) with self-service, managed-service and enterprise versions available to agencies and clients. We have access to over 600bn impressions/month globally. We offer easy-to-use programmatic media buying for agencies, brands, advertising networks and SME’s who want to access a large volume of publisher inventory.

Can you give some insight into the point-to-point solution you are rolling out in the local market?

We view our solutions as a means-to-an-end. The “end” here is a media-buying experience that is efficient, easy-to-use, transparent and pleasant. Client and customers don’t want to be bothered with conflicting (or lack of) standards, lack of customer data, lack of brand safety, etc. It’s our job to create that experience, through our in-house development and through best-of-breed partnerships. As such, we have designed the ADZ platform to be compatible (some people would say “agnostic”) to as many technologies and platforms out there. The “means” by which we do this is by:

- Learning about and experimenting with the latest and greatest technologies through our hand-on media-buying teams;
- Creating our own “secret sauce” or IP in terms of integration, optimization, data gathering, and targeting;
- Integrating best-of-breed value-add services into our platform, in cases where partnerships makes sense;
- Focusing on the bigger picture of media-buying across channels;
- Executing in a fast, nimble, and flexible manner and keeping the clients’ best interests in mind.

What markets are you currently servicing in the region? Do you have plans to expand beyond the APAC region?

We are already doing business with companies across S E Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe and Australia. Negotiations are progressing well in markets such as China, Korea, and Japan.

How evolved is the APAC display eco-system? Can you give some overview on the likes of Singapore – as well as some insight on the potential of the rest of SE Asia?

APAC is not homogenous in the exchange/DSP space any more than it is in other aspects of the marketing communications industry and media industries. The markets are at various stages of development in their use of digital and mobile and in their application of programmatic planning and ad buying.

Both marketers and publishers are starting to realize that the old ad-network model is inefficient as it does not provide transparency, reach or optimized ROI. Programmatic buying allows publishers to maximize the value of the inventory while allowing marketers to maximize the ROI for the client. The ability to leverage 1stparty (publisher), 2nd party (advertiser/agency) and 3rd party (independent players) data AT SCALE increases this efficiency even more. Savvy marketers and agencies are therefore are enthusiastically embracing programmatic buying.

A weakness of the APAC digital display advertising eco-system is the relative scarcity of data for targeting and contextual placement. However, marketers and their media agencies are addressing this by building cookie pools with platforms like ADZhub. Programmatic buying, in a sense, is the pre-cursor to aggregating data at scale.

Is there an adequate supply of brand safe impressions to trade across in the APAC region?

Yes, there is and it is increasing rapidly. We also work closely with our clients to apply extensive “white-lists” for brand-relevantand brand-safe targeting.
What SSPs and exchanges are the big inventory sources for inventory?
We are connected to a large number of exchanges and inventory sources including Google AdExchange, Admeld, OpenX, Microsoft Advertising Exhange, Pubmatic, Rubicon and more.

In Europe there has been a massive focus on retargeting when trading across automated platforms. Is retargeting driving the growth of the APAC exchange marketplace?

We have comprehensive retargeting capabilities and we find a lot of interest in those capabilities. Compared to more competitive markets with a lot of direct-marketing activity, however, we feel that retargetingis somewhat under-leveraged in most parts of Asia. This is a capability that can enhance results by tracking users and providing the relevant offers at each juncture so as to maximizethe number of customer acquisitions. However, we expect that the Asian direct markers, brands, and performance buyerswill start to use retargeting much more extensively.

Recent comments by a leading publisher executive in Australia suggest there is some hostility the big five pubs in that market. Is there resistance to the automated model? What is the perspective of the regional publishers? Do views differ between local and international publishers?

There seems to be sort of general anxiety among publishersin Australia, especially those who originated in print before exploring digital. They have been in the publishing business a long time and they experience certain amount of understandable anxiety around pricing.

The point is that programmatic trading of ad inventory in real time is not about low cost. It is about an efficient marketplace. If you have poor quality inventory people will bid low prices;if you as a publisher have quality inventory attracting a valuable audience in large volumes, exposing it to a larger potential market will tend to drive up the price you receive for that inventory. The ability to make impressions data-enriched in volume through programmatic buying platforms puts further upward pressure on prices while increasing the value for the marketers.

We think the large Australian publishers will move to real time bidding when they realize there are significant benefits to them and this has already started.

The reality is that the ad network model, where 50% or more of the unwitting marketer’s budget is siphoned off to pay for manual media operations and sales capability, is no longer viable or desirable. In a day and age where automation can provide a better, more reliable, more efficient, more transparent, and real-time experience, the only reasons to stay with the traditional ad-network model seem to be reluctance to change, legacy issues, lack of sufficient focus or complacency.

Are the region's agencies driving adoption of automated buying?

There are a few agencies who are forward-looking and drivers of change. Those are the agencies who realize that they need to be at the forefront of this disruptive change. We see a lot of American and European agencies who have been using automated trading giving support, advice, and encouragement to their Asian counterparts to leverage this technology. In addition, we have seen brands and marketers encouraging, and in some cases demanding, their agencies to benefit from automated trading.

Frankly it is a bit of bifurcation. There are some agencies that have been reluctant, because of operational or tactical issues, to embrace this capability. While others, some of which are quite aggressive and enthusiastic, have stormed ahead and are doing great things in the space.

Are advertisers embracing automated trading as part of their media strategies?

Yes they are, and increasingly it is the major brand owners, performance marketers and direct marketers who are getting into it: giant banks, major FMCG marketers, travel clients, e-commerce providers, etc.The rise and prominence of the Procurement department in major FMCGs is probably playing quite a significant role in adoption of automated buying as well.

How evolved is the data market in the region? Are there any regional company filling this void?

Data is the great differentiator for programmatic trading. However, there’s a little bit of a Chicken-and-Egg issue here. Programmatic buying and a healthy media-marketplace need to be in place at scale before it makes sense for data providers to collect and provide data.The major US DMPs seem to have their hands full with the US and Europe right now. This gives companies like ADZ an opportunity to help marketers through collection of behavioral data and retargeting methods. This will, in turn, begin to solve for the “Chicken-and-Egg” issue as more marketing dollars will, inevitably, be allocated to programmatic buying. ADZ is helping some savvy media agencies and clients build their own data resources.

Is there significant inventory being traded through RTB in the region?

Yes there is and digitally-savvy publishers are working with RTB right now. Others are still in testing phase. The business is accelerating in Japan and in China there are early signs that the deeply entrenched ad network model is now starting to show cracks.

How do you see the APAC exchange market evolving over the coming twelve months? And what are we likely to see from ADZ in terms of expansion and product development?

In Australia the existing direct relationshipbetween media agencies and their publishers will come under increasing pressure and inventory will increasingly become available, initially through master contract deals accessed through private exchanges and later through full RTB.

Major publishers in Asia will run more trials and will come to realize the benefits of restructuring their sales teams around programmatic buying and RTB, as is starting to happen in Japan and the US.

Local and regional DMPs will develop and some consolidation will happen once the business opportunities in APAC have been proved by them.

Smart and progressive advertisers and clients will not only embrace programmatic media-buying but they will learn how to better integrate creativity and science. Programmatic buying offers the automation and optimization (Science). The strategy and creative departments offer the story and the messaging (Creative). The Creative team can learn a lot from the Science side (in terms of performance of various messages, A/B testing results, etc.) This will allow them to create better messaging and communications.The combination and interaction of the two create a very strong force that will allow marketers to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time, in the right medium.