In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sum up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: IAB SG want marketers to look past cost-per-click; Dentsu reports 11.5% profit growth in APAC; Nine launches audience data products; GumGum adds AU publishers to visual ad platform; Amobee snags former Millennial Media MD; and Mindshare gets new APAC data & tech head.

IAB SG want marketers to look past cost-per-click

IAB Singapore have unveiled whitepapers aimed at helping digital marketers assess the performance of their ad campaigns and move past cost-per-click measurement.

The documents offered guidelines on measuring performance across key areas of digital advertising, namely, mobile marketing, social media, digital video, and content marketing. According to the industry group, digital ad expenditure in these four segments was projected to grow between 21% and 50% this year.

Noting that marketers faced increasing pressures to justify their spending as their budgets expanded, IAB Singapore said campaigns in Southeast Asia still were driven by cost-per-click. Through the whitepapers, it hoped to provide a reporting framework for digital campaigns and drive transparency.

The guidelines were drawn up based on insights from several market players that were IAB Singapore members, including Singapore Press Holdings, Google, LinkedIn, BBC, Kantar Insights, and Xaxis.

"Advertising platforms are becoming more granular and sophisticated; but many companies in Southeast Asia are not fully utilising the insights available to them", IAB Singapore said.

Peter Hubert, LinkedIn's Asia-Pacific head of insights, and co-chair of IAB Singapore's M&S committee, added: "As digital marketing matures, historical campaign data and new reporting metrics provide more reference points for campaign measurement. The framework allows marketers to use this data for far more educated advertising buys than before."

IAB Singapore CEO Miranda Dimopoulos also urged marketers in Southeast Asia to look beyond ad clicks and offer greater transparency as well as "smarter" reporting processes, including measuring engagement, time spent, and conversions.

Dentsu report 11.5% profit growth in APAC

Dentsu Group have clocked an 11% gross profit growth in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, for the first half of its financial year 2016.

The region's gross profit for the second quarter alone was 16.8%, said the agency group, pointing to robust numbers in several markets such as China, Australia, India, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Dentsu said operations in their domestic market also saw gross profit growth of 8.5% in the first half of the fiscal year, with the second quarter clocking 12.2% growth. They attributed the strong showing to sponsorship sales related to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

They added that operating margin for the Japanese market grew 28.7% on constant currency, with growth boosted by ongoing cost controls.

Across the Dentsu Group, gross profit grew 9.6% year-on-year to ¥368.62bn (£2.82bn) for the first half of the year on constant currency

Nine launch audience data products

The Australian TV network has introduced two data offerings, touted to offer their customers more flexibility in tapping various data types.

Alex Parsons, Nine's chief digital and marketing officer, said: "As a publisher, our role is to connect advertisers with the right audience, at the right time, in a way that creates a meaningful outcome for both parties.

"By shifting the focus away from siloed data to using all types of data in a harmonious and productive fashion, these new data products enable a scalable, yet relevant, conversation with consumers around a brand's product or service like never before", Parsons said.

Called 'Audience Sync' and 'Audience Match', the two products were designed to enable advertisers and agencies to use their own DMPs and audience segments across Nine's digital inventory, as well as deliver better engagement with their audience.

With Audience Sync, the TV network said, advertisers would be able to identify and target customer segments in real-time across its brands and websites, as well as Microsoft's products, including nine.com.au, 9News, Xbox, and Skype.

They added that Audience Match would allow advertisers to match customer databases against more than 15 million active unique user accounts and implement more sophisticated marketing strategies, encompassing components such as customer purchase history and reward brand loyalty.

GumGum add AU publishers to visual ad platform

The marketing analytics platform says they have signed-on several Australian publishers to their visual web ad platform, including IDG Communications, Evolve Media, and Tone Deaf.

Launched in the local market in March 2016, GumGum said their platform currently had a monthly unique reach of more than seven million. Apart from the new additions, they added that it was in "advanced" testing stage with five major publishing networks.

The ad tech vendor said they further inked contracts with local agencies and brands, such as Holden, through their agency Carat Melbourne, Commonwealth Bank via Ikon, and Fiji Airways with ZenithOptimedia.

GumGum said they also added a new executive to their team, Rob Reynolds, who assumed the role of senior sales manager for Melbourne and would be responsible for expanding the company's presence in the city.

Amobee snags former Millennial Media MD

The Singtel-owned mobile marketing vendor has hired Robert Woolfrey as their senior vice president for Asia, where he will be looking to drive Amobee's international growth.

Previously the Asia-Pacific managing director of Millennial Media, having set up the ad tech company's Asian operations, Woolfrey had spent more than 10 years in Singapore. He also had a stint with inMobi, where he headed Southeast Asian sales.

Amobee CEO Mark Strecker said: "We believe the future of engaging with connected audiences will be led by access to the best data, combined with powerful creative and new ad formats. Robert brings significant digital advertising experience and will allow us to continue to provide the most advanced marketing solutions to our customers."

The company also launched a tool they said would allow marketers to target and push digital campaigns based on current trending consumer issues.

Running on the Amobee Brand Intelligence platform, Triggers could deliver marketing activities based on real-time popular topics of interest and consumer sentiments. It also would automate digital advertising based on changes in social consumption, enabled by Amobee's ads APIs with social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Mindshare get new APAC data & tech head

Aloun Liu

The WPP media agency has appointed Aloun Liu to a new role of head of data and technology for the Asia-Pacific region.

Armed with more than 15 years of experience in systems, data, and technology, Liu would collaborate with Mindshare's partners within and outside WPP to develop the company's data-related products. He also would be looking to offer architectural support for the agency's FAST (Future Adaptive Specialist Team) Hubs, and drive design and development of reporting of campaign activities in the region, Middle East, and Africa.

The executive is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in computer science with specialisation in economics. His employment history includes companies such as IPG Mediabrands, PWC Consulting, and Charles Schwab.

Mindsahre Asia-Pacific COO Gowthaman Ragothaman said: "Aloun will play a key role in advising our clients for an agnostic and open-sourced technology solution that brings the best of both slow- and fast-moving data streams."