Alex Khan, Adap.tv, managing director, South East Asia, will be speaking at next month's ATS Singapore event on 7 July, to explain his opinions on why advertisers and publishers still relying on manual processes just won’t be able to scale sufficiently to survive in an increasingly global media world.

Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report forecasts that the number of smartphones in Asia-Pacific will rise from 1 billion today to 3 billion in just six years. That means by the end of the decade advertisers will have two billion extra screens to reach; two billion extra people to target with location and device based advertising. Over half of all smartphones on the planet will be in the Asia-Pacific region. (In fact, that’s already the case).

Much of this connected audience in the region already have a ferocious appetite for video. Nielsen’s 2013 Mobile Consumer Report shows that a staggering 93% of Chinese smartphone users watch mobile video at least once a week – 17% access it more than three times a day (compared to just 2% in the US).

While this high usage of mobile video is substituting some conventional TV viewing, in most circumstances it’s complementary to it.

In other words, people are spending more time watching video across multiple platforms. That means much more exposure to video advertising.

Already Nielsen reckons a third of Chinese smartphone owners are viewing advertising whilst watching video on their device, far higher than viewers in Australia (9%), the UK (11%) or the US (17%).

So, an appetite for video and two billion extra smartphones – sounds like a massive opportunity, doesn’t it?

Advertisers are seeking efficiency and the ability to capture greater value in this increasingly fragmenting environment, so it’s no surprise that automation and programmatic buying have taken off.

Putting machines to work allows for greater value opportunities to surface, and allows for a more streamlined approach to marketing across these various digital media channels as well as overcome cultural barriers in Asia and beyond.

Advertisers and publishers relying on just manual processes just won’t be able to cope with the scale needed to be profitable in an increasingly global media world.

In fact, Forrester believe that many have already taken notice and that video ads traded programmatically could already be as high as 30% of total digital inventory.
The biggest issue in the region, as with Australia, is the lack of supply.

People might be watching video, but there isn’t enough advertising inventory to go around. In Forrester’s report – “The State of Online Video Programmatic and Real Time Bidding in Australia and South East Asia” – lack of supply ranked almost as high as brand safety and transparency as a concern for advertisers.

That will change, of course, as it has in the US where IPG Mediabrands, one of the world’s largest media buying agencies, formed a consortium with major content providers to make premium content available through automated technology.

As traditional broadcasters understand the enormity of the cross-screen opportunity – allowing users to watch what they want, when they want and where they want – then it stands to reason that they will look at trading platforms to place highly targeted advertising in front of the right viewer at the right time. This shift will happen quickly, I believe.

Why? Because of the numbers involved. Two billion extra smartphones is a monumental opportunity. Video and more connected devices are a perfect marriage in the busy cities of Asia where a lot of time is spent away from the home.

Once agreements are in place to offer more premium content across mobile devices, removing the inventory bottleneck, expect the market to explode.

ATS Singapore will be held on 7 July, 2014. To read more and hear about other speakers that will be on hand click here.