In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: iClick & Tencent sign native ad deal; Singapore's IAB & MMA get new executive teams; Adyoulike goes native in ANZ with ad2one; and TubeMogul appoints China and SEA heads.

iClick & Tencent sign native ad deal

China's iClick Interactive has inked an agreement that will give it 'first look' access to Tencent's Qzone native ad inventory.

This marked the first Preferred Deal arrangement between the programmatic marketing platform and Tencent Social Ads, said the partners in a joint statement. iClick will get first dibs at premium international native ads on Qzone, a popular social networking app in China, and be able to provide its global clientele more accurate targeting via in-feed native ads.

Its co-founder and CEO, Sammy Hsieh, said: "Native ads have long been proven to be a more engaging and, hence, more effective advertising format than traditional banner ads. This is in part due to the fact that native ads are consumed the same way people view editorial content.

Guess was involved in pilot campaigns under the iClick-Tencent partnership.

"Facebook's in-feed ad is a perfect example of this success," Hsieh noted. Citing a 2013 study by IPGLab and Sharethrough, he said consumers looked at native ads 53% more frequently than banner ads. Furthermore, native ads delivered 18% higher lift for purchase intent and 9% higher lift for brand affinity responses, compared to banner ads.

Tencent Social Ads' senior product director Frank Zhou said: "Qzone is one of the largest social networking sites in mainland China. Users are engaged and they frequently share their own content, photos, and even music on the platform, via which they stay connected to what their friends are up to." The social networking app has 577 million monthly active users.

Pilot campaigns were conducted in October clients, including Guess and Nike, which had delivered "pleasing results", iClick said.

Singapore's IAB & MMA get new executive teams

Two industry groups in Singapore's marketing and ad tech industries, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), announced new appointments in its leadership teams this week.

At IAB, Miranda Dimopoulos has moved from her previous position as executive director to CEO, which gives her voting rights on key decisions, the group said. Vice chair Tobias Wilson is now chairman, replacing Olivier Legrand who stepped down after he took on the role of Asia-Pacific managing director for LinkedIn.

Tan Su-Lin, whose day job sees her as deputy head of Singapore Press Holdings' digital division, is the IAB's new vice chair. Alex Khan, who is AOL Platforms' Southeast Asia managing director, also joins the IAB's leadership council, while Newl Moore, co-founder of Click2View, has left the IAB and ad tech industry to pursue a career in film-making.

Dimopoulos said: "I warmly thank Olivier for his steady leadership and wise counsel during his two years as chairman of the IAB. He will remain on the IAB Leadership Council, so we will continue to have his industry insights and unique vision for digital marketing in Asia.

She added that Wilson, as the CEO of Asia-Pacific Digital, would bring along valuable knowledge in creative, social, mobile, digital, and traditional to the IAB.

Over at MMA, new members have been elected into its Asia-Pacific board where they, as well as other re-elected members, will begin serving a two-year term.

The new board include WWP China CEO Bessie Lee, Standard Chartered Bank's global head of digital marketing Damien Cummings, and Madhouse Founder and CEO Joshua Maa. Previous board members, including Facebook's Asia-Pacific vice president Dan Neary, Mobilewalla CEO Anindya Datta, and Unilever's vice president of media Rahul Welde, will remain in the board as their term was not up for re-election.

MMA Asia-Pacific managing director Rohit Dadwal said: "Interactions within the industry in the past year have proven to me that marketers don't need a mobile strategy as much as their marketing strategy needs mobile.

"As such, a holistic view of mobile is now important, and the stellar composition of this entire board is a reflection of the indisputable power mobile has to transform and build competitive advantage for the world's largest and most forward-thinking advertisers."

Adyoulike goes native in ANZ with ad2one

The native ad platform has partnered Australia's digital sales house ad2one, which will integrate the former's in-feed tool with its own native ad offering.

Called ad2one Native, the service will be powered by Adyoulike and delivered across Australia and New Zealand. With the platform, ad2one will offer publishers more comprehensive in-feed native ad offerings to support their own native campaigns, delivering sponsored content and video through direct sales or programmatic.

With the new partnership, which also aims to expand its global business, Adyoulike has appointed Andrew Streets as its international business development manager, with direct report to the ad tech vendor's UK managing director and CRO, Francis Turner.

Turner said: "At the end of 2015, native advertising spend will reach USD$7.9m. This highlights that it's a hugely valuable sector in which we're driving growth. Our new partnership with ad2one represents this desire to expand the sector further around the globe."

He added that ad2one had strong client base and relationships with publishers, brands, and agencies, and was looking to drive native ad demand in this region. "It's increasing both our global capabilities and its own native offering by being the first advertiser and publisher in-feed native solution in Australia and New Zealand," he said.

Before his new gig at Adyoulike, Streets was manager of publisher solutions at ad automation platform, Kiosked.

TubeMogul appoints China and SEA heads

The video ad services provider has hired Jeffery Zheng as its Greater China managing director, as well as Darin Williams as head of its Southeast Asia operations.

TubeMogul's Greater China managing director Jeffery ZhengZheng has held senior positions with various media companies including Ogilvy & Mather, Yahoo, and Renren in Taiwan and China, where he was involved in campaigns for the likes of Coca-Cola, Unilever, and McDonalds.

Williams has spent more than 15 years in Asia including Japan, Australia, and Vietnam, where he held executive roles at Nielsen, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

As managing director of Southeast Asia, he will help drive TubeMogul's presence in the region where it first launched in 2012. The ad tech vendor also opened its Shanghai office earlier this year and would be looking to expand its China operations in 2016.

Its Asia vice president Susan Salop said: "The last two years have been extremely dynamic for TubeMogul due to our focus on delivering new and innovative software tools to advertisers, and we plan to work closely with agencies, trading desks, publishers, and brands to ensure they get the best possible results.

"We forecast that the Southeast Asia and China video advertising markets will mature substantially in the next few years, and both Jeffery and Darin will ensure we succeed in that mission of brand advertising more simple, accountable, and transparent."