In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: China ad spend slows, but still growing faster than global; WPP's Wunderman & Bienalto merge in Australia; Local Measure opens office in Singapore; and Sizmek unveils new APAC appointments.

China ad spend slows, but still growing faster than global

China's ad spend growth will dip to 7.8% in 2015 from 10.5% last year, but still is expected to grow almost twice as fast as the global growth rate of 4%.

According to Zenith Optimedia's latest Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, China's ad market has not been significantly affected by the country's stock market chaos, but its slowing economy and concerns about future growth have prompted advertisers to moderate their spending slightly.

The growth forecast put China as the 13th fastest growing ad market across the 81 markets covered in the report.

ZenithOptimedia said global ad spend would climb 4%, to hit USD$554bn, in 2015 and grow by another 5% next year, fuelled by the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and the US presidential elections. Growth rate will drop down to 4.4% in 2017.

In addition, mobile ad spend would outpace newspaper ad in 2016 to account for 12.4% of global spend at USD$71bn, while newspapers would account for 11.9% at USD$68bn. Mobile would rank as the third-largest ad platform, behind television and desktop.

ZenithOptimedia said: "Mobile ads remain the driving force behind the growth of the entire ad market, contributing 83% of all new ad dollars between 2014 and 2017."

WPP's Wunderman & Bienalto merge in Australia

Wunderman and Bienalto have merged to form a new agency focusing on data analytics and digital media.

Wunderman-Bienalto CEO Hurol Inan

Called Wunderman-Bienalto, the newly formed entity is led by CEO Hurol Inan, who founded Bienalto in 2005 and has vast experience in web-based analytics, research, and data-driven marketing, said WPP. It added that Wunderman was a digital marketing agency that focused on CRM, loyalty management, social media, and advertising.

Wunderman Asia-Pacific President Martin Conneen said: "Wunderman and Bienalto have complemented each other so well for the past three years that it makes perfect sense to explore the wider synergies by integrating the two agency offerings. We believe Wunderman-Bienalto's whole is greater than the sum of its parts, embodying the network's promise to deliver successful client solutions that build on the optimal balance of strong creativity plus deep understanding of data."

Inan added: "Wunderman-Bienalto is the marriage of strong creative with superb data, technology, and design competencies. As a single integrated business, we mutually benefit from the momentum of rapid growth in demand. This consolidation will help Wunderman-Bienalto continue to lead the way in a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive marketplace, at an exciting point in time in the evolution of a great agency."

Wunderman acquired a majority stake in Bienalto in 2012.

Local Measure opens office in Singapore

The Australian location-based data analytics platform has expanded its global presence into Singapore, Miami, and London, as it looks to better support its international customer base.

Sydney-based Local Measure said it has doubled its headcount and tripled its revenue over the past 12 months, boasting a customer base that includes Dubai Tourism and Accor Hotels. It added that four industry professionals had joined its new advisory board, including Google's Americas vice president of online sales, Alan Moss, and former Las Vegas Sands' senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, John Mims.

Local Measure further pointed to increasing demand for customer intelligence and location-based social media analytics, noting that its tech platform enabled marketers to extract insights from publically shared social media posts and feedback.

Sizmek unveils new APAC appointments

The ad tech firm has made several new hires and internal promotions that include Ayaan Mohamud, who is its new Asia-Pacific head of marketing.

Based in Sydney, Ayaan has held roles in the agency and client-side in Europe and was previously DataXu's Europe marketing manager. Her appointment follows a recent new hire in Melbourne, where Keaton Hulme-Jones was named strategic account manager and response for helping clients with their digital strategy, ad tech, and media buys.

Sizmek also announced several staff promotions, including Scott Ries, who is now Asia-Pacific technical services director and mobile specialist, and Dylan Robinson, who has been named Asia-Pacific head of commercial for its media solutions unit.

The company said the new appointments were made to support growing demand in the region. "We're pushing ahead with our growth strategy in Asia to provide advertisers, agencies, publishers, and trading desks with an end-to-end ad management solution across mobile, video, data, and programmatic technologies," said Carolyn Bollaci, Sizmek's Asia-Pacific vice president of global accounts.