Speaking with ExchangeWire from the recent ATS Singapore event, Matt Harty, Experian, general manager, audience solutions – one of Asia's most well-respected programmatic figures – talks about his new role working with existing data segments to provide greater advertising utility for the ad industry in the region.

Where does your business sit in the programmatic/advertising/media ecosystem?
One of the major reasons for the move from agency-side for me was the potential for Experian in the programmatic space. I don’t think that anyone in the space denies that the lack of data sets is a stumbling block to the growth of programmatic ads. I have also done a lot of thinking about the nature of data sets and I believe that socio-economic segmentation is one of the key building blocks of data understanding.

Demographics are wonderful but understanding the potential of people to afford products is also key. With Experian already taking a leadership position in socio-economic segmentation in APAC with the launch of Mosaic in Australia, I am excited about the imminent launch of the product for programmatic trading in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. As a direct answer to your question Experian is emerging as an enabler in the programmatic ecosystem.

After your early lead establishing one of the biggest trading desks in the region, why move to marketing services?
Accuen was lots of fun to build for myself and Peter Burton who was key in the successful roll-out. It was a great honour to be asked to lead it and I will always be thankful to OMG for that chance. However, media trading is presently very focused on RTB.

While RTB is very exciting, there are all sorts of other things going on in the space that are fascinating and industry changing. There are also infrastructural challenges effecting the programmatic and RTB markets that need to be addressed in the region. I saw the early leadership position that Experian had taken and was excited to get behind their efforts to empower Asia’s programmatic revolution.

What are your key markets in APAC?
APAC for us encompasses India in the West, Japan in the East and Australia/NewZealand in the South. It’s a huge region with a lot of complexity. My key markets are Australia, Japan and China. South East Asia remains a focus too but potential spends are eclipsed by the larger markets, for now. Experian is well deployed across the region with people in all the key markets. We are just starting to build out the team with programmatic know-how now. I am never one for having huge teams but we already have a few people on programmatic in APAC and that’s a great start.

What are the biggest challenges in operating in the programmatic space in APAC?
There are a few. Conservatism, diversity and a lack of resources.

A lot of people talk about challenges with talent in the region, I have never found it a big problem personally. I have always managed to attract the people I needed or simply developed them in the past. The Resources problems that we have is in business partners. With the exception of maybe DSPs there is a lack of choice of partners in all the other key areas (research, verification, data, etc.).

This means today we only really trade algorithmically and this still creates a lot of waste. Lack of data partners is a big challenge.

The Diversity of the markets we deal with can be pretty extreme. China basically works on a totally different tool-set to the rest of the world. We also have markets where we can’t deliver ads for certain products which are fine to advertise in other markets. Then, we have markets like Taiwan and Korea where publisher dominance can mean that there is extreme resistance to marketing evolving.

Getting to grips with all of the nuances of these markets takes a lifetime. Remaining up to data with all of these market idiosyncrasies and privacy laws is going to keep the modern marketer pretty busy.

Asia’s conservatism is also a danger. I am hoping that the US and EMEA markets do not hear the things we here in South East Asia. I have routinely heard clients say ‘there is not enough print on this plan!’.

It’s terrifying. There may be some cause for hope, I recently spoke with Andrea Cohen at i-COM and he informed me that the global data creativity awards that they recently held in Spain had Asia take the majority of awards (something like 8 out of 10). It seems we may have some clients willing to lead globally from here.

How is Asia different to the US/Europe?
The grass is always greener, right? We think of how much easier things would be in the US, at how advanced they are. I think the key word for Asia is opportunity. We have a lot of work to do in APAC and it’s going to take time but our opportunity is great. The upside in other markets does not compare to APAC. I think an extreme example is to look at New Zealand.

Compared to South East Asia it is a big media market, its advanced, they are good at all of the media disciplines and have taken well to programmatic. Its thriving, it’s also not going to get much better. There is the opportunity for growth but that growth will only be incremental. I think that’s how APAC compares to EMEA and the US. Growth in South East Asia could be explosive and growth in China is on a whole other scale to any market on earth.

How do you believe digital's capabilities drive sales growth and build brands?
Digital has never been given an easy deal. When we got started in the 90’s all senior agency folks could not understand it. It was passed to kids and they lacked the seasoning of older more serious professionals. Into the new century, some of this stigma has remained. This has been exacerbated by the schism in the ad agencies.

The fit between media agencies and creative agencies has been often a bad one and the digital output has been poor as a result. Clients and their agencies have not taken advantage of many of the features that could revolutionise their campaigns. Programmatic is a serious step in the right direction and will encourage a new generation of marketers to look at what can be done. Not just what’s expedient.

Digital media is where people do product research, where they plan their trips, where they communicate with friends and loved ones, where they increasingly entertain themselves.

The audience is there and engaged. What we have lacked is the right approaches, handling of audiences and creative units to succeed. I’m not saying everybody gets it wrong but a lot of people do and its more about the way the industry is structured than a lack of will or talent.