In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up the key industry updates on ad tech from around the region – and in this week's edition: SpotXchange eyes SEA expansion with Singapore office; Asia consumer attention spreading across multiple screens; Australia's APD acquires Singapore's Accomplice; Thoughtful opens Thailand office.

SpotXchange eyes Southeast Asia expansion with Singapore office

The programmatic video platform has opened its first Southeast Asian office in Singapore's central business district, as it looks to bolster its growth in the region.

Asia-Pacific was the fastest-growing region for SpotXchange last year, clocking a 319% year-on-year climb in programmatic revenue and surpassing that of North America and Europe. Its regional business includes Australia, Japan, and China, and it also has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, London, San Francisco, and New York.

SpotXchange's Asia-Pacific managing director Matt Von der Muhll said the region is expected to account for 30% of the company's overall revenue in 2015, compared to just 2% two years ago.

He added that 30-40% of online video ads would be purchased programmatically by year-end.

According to the company's internal stats, the number of programmatic video ads served in Singapore grew 120% to 13.1 million in the fourth-quarter of 2014, which was the highest volume in the region. Japan's programmatic video ads climbed 45% to 12.6 million, while Malaysia ranked third with a 49% growth to 10.2 million.

China, however, saw the biggest spike in ad spend at 555% in the quarter, over the previous quarter, followed by Singapore at 155%. SpotXchange explained that increase in ad spend did not have a direct correlation to growth in the volume of ads served because currencies and inventory type would vary across the different markets.

"The opening of a local office [in Singapore] will enable SpotXchange to build stronger relationships with the region's publishers and broadcasters, opening up even more video inventory to meet the strong demand from advertisers", the company's Asia commercial director, Sujen Selva said. He added that mobile video consumption would further boost demand.

Selva noted, though, that growth rates across the region are disparate, with some markets in a more matured phase in terms of their deployment of programmatic video compared to others. He described Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, China, and Malaysia as maturing markets; while Indonesia, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines were labeled new markets.

SpotXchange told ExchangeWire they are looking to hire various positions for their local office including in mobile business development.

Asian consumer attention spread across multiple screens

As mobile devices become increasingly pervasive across Asia, consumers are splitting their attention between the multitude of devices they own and accessing these simultaneously for content.

For advertisers, this underscores the need to create campaigns that connect with people on the device that is most appropriate and with the most relevant message, said Thom Arkestaal, senior research and insights manager for emerging markets at Microsoft Advertising. Speaking to ExchangeWire in a phone interview, he added that user experience should be effectively synchronised across devices.

Research conducted last month by Microsoft revealed that 73% of Singapore consumers would view content on one device while looking at additional related information on a second device. Some 63% of their counterparts in Indonesia did likewise, as well as 51% of Malaysian consumers.

Arkestaal noted that the figure in Singapore was comparatively high and demonstrated an interesting behavioural pattern, or what Microsoft described as 'investigative spiderwebbing', among consumers in the country.

"Think about the potential if you're an advertiser and you know consumers are looking at a cooking show on TV, and searching for related recipes or cooking methods on their mobile device," he said. "It centers on one piece of information and radiates from there onto multiple screens."

In terms of 'social spiderwebbing', in which simultaneous usage is extended into social conversation on a second device, 74% of Singapore consumers exhibited such behaviour while 62% and 55% of their peers in Indonesia and Malaysia, respectively, did likewise.

"For example", Arkestaal said, "users could be looking at travel destinations in front of their laptops, and at the same time, be having a conversation with a friend via Skype to discuss the travel options.

"The increasing simultaneous use of multiple screens presents an interesting phenomenon because the devices involved are not connected to each other", he said. He added that the research has changed the way Microsoft thinks about advertising so that messages are delivered for multiscreening consumption.

"It's really about tailoring around the device and building the sequential story [around the brand]," he said, noting that the company is able to do this effectively since it can link and identify its users with a single Microsoft ID across its various services, such as OneDrive and MSN.

Australia's APD acquires Singapore's Accomplice

Asia Pacific Digital (APD) has announced plans to acquire Singapore-based digital agency Accomplice (@ccomplice) for S$1 million, which comprises S$400,000 in cash and the remainder in share.

The merger will give APD local presence and access to the agency's clients in Singapore and the region, which includes Panasonic, Lexus, SingPost, and DBS.

@ccomplice will formally be part of APD's operations in end-April along with its staff, including CEO Tobias Wilson who will be Singapore CEO of APD, and will be part of the group's strategies and solutions business unit.

In its statement, APD also unveiled a new ecommerce venture with Supps R Us, an Australian B2C sports supplements retailer, in which the former will commit A$5.4 million worth of digital services over five years. In return, Supps R Us will tap the agency's services on a fixed retainer and has agreed to a revenue-sharing model.

There are also plans for both companies to set up a separate venture in Southeast Asia to develop their business in the region.

Thoughtful Media opens Thailand office

US multichannel network Thoughtful Media Group has opened an office in Bangkok, Thailand, which will be led by former McCann and Starcom head, Somyot Chairat, who has been appointed managing director.

The local office comprises employees hired locally, as well as staff transferred from its Los Angeles operations. The opening comes amid strong demand for its channels, the company said, adding that an average of 125,000 Thais would have watched one of its videos within the next hour.

More than 250 talents are signed up on Thoughtful's network in Thailand, where its YouTube videos clock 45 million views each week. Its executive vice president of international operations, Mark Ingrouille, said: "Normally, I'd say it's been a rollercoaster ride achieving this level of activity, but it hasn’t. It's been a rocketship ride, so fast has been our development in the market, and it's accelerating.

"Serious marketers are demanding ever more efficacy from their stretched budgets. With our endorsed and integrated products delivering at least 10 times the value of standard advertising, our biggest problem is going to be keeping up with demand," Ingrouille said.

Apart from its new Thai operations, Thoughful also has an office in China and is looking to open others in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. It added that similar plans in Australia and the United Kingdom are "not far behind".