In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sum up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: APAC marketers still struggling with disjointed customer touchpoints; Australia see early 6.2% dip in agency bookings; The Trade Desk eye Indonesia growth; Band Interprise play alongside gyro; Vietnamese broadcaster now available on SpotX; and Executive appointments at Publicis agencies.

APAC marketers still faced with disjointed customer touchpoints

Providing an omnichannel customer experience remains wishful thinking, at least for now, as marketers in Asia-Pacific continue to struggle with disparate channels.

An Econsultancy report revealed that 70% of marketers had little management across customer touchpoints or dealt with completely siloed channels.

Some 20% said all customer touchpoints operated in silos and had inconsistent delivery; while 41% said they understood the customer journey, but had little management across touchpoints.

Conducted in association with Emarsys, the study found that 7% had seamless integration of customer channels. Another 24% had integrated touchpoints across channels, but noted that such efforts were focused on the channels, not the customer journey.

Asked about challenges that prevented them from better understanding the customer journey, 44% pointed to a complex customer experience. Another 34% highlighted difficulties in integrating different data sources, while 34% cited siloed organisation structure as a challenge. Some 28% noted a lack of collaboration between departments and 26% said IT bottlenecks hindered their ability to grasp the customer journey.

Some 44% admitted their customer experience strategy was still in development, while 8% had no such plans in place.

Australia see early 6.2% dip in agency bookings

Preliminary January 2017 agency bookings in Australia have dropped 6.2% year-on-year to AUD$417.7m (£257.66m), but the market still is expected to regain its footing later in the month.

According to Standard Media Index (SMI), agency bookings would return a flat result when digital bookings were included in the numbers. Current numbers excluded digital bookings across the various categories, including TV, newspapers, and magazines.

Bookings so far were deemed "strong", since figures from January 2016 were a "record result", said SMI, which added that this year's numbers also were impacted by dips in two of the market's largest product categories. Automotive Brand and Auto Parts/Dealers/Services saw their bookings drop 7% and 24%, respectively, from the previous year.

Agency bookings for the month increased 10.9% for Outdoor and 1.1% for Radio. According to SMI, in the long term, the full agency market was flat with bookings down by AUD$1.9m (£1.17m) to AUD$4.15bn (£2.56bn).

Strong performing categories such as Retail saw ad spend grow 10%, while Movies/Cinema/Theme Parks clocked a 31% climb year-on-year.

SMI's ANZ managing director Jane Schulze said: "The Retail category has grown bookings by 17% in the three months [leading to] January to AUD$193.3m (£119.24m), while the Auto Brand category has reduced bookings 7.3% to AUD$156.5m (£96.54m)."

All major media have benefited from the growth from Retail, Schulze said, with the largest beneficiaries TV, which saw a 15.9% increase in Retail spend, and Digital, which enjoyed a 27.8% climb in Retail spend.

The Trade Desk eye Indonesia growth

Matt Harty, APAC VP, The Trade Desk

The DSP provider has opened an office in Indonesia, marking their sixth outfit in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region, where they also operate in Singapore, Shanghai, Seoul, Sydney, and Hong Kong.

Strong growth in the Indonesian digital ad market indicated it was timely to establish a local footprint alongside industry partners, which included Unruly, Tapad, and Mobilewalla. The office opening also was crucial to providing advertisers sufficient time to start planning for their digital ad campaigns targeting the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan in late-May.

The Trade Desk's regional vice president, Matt Harty, said the ad tech vendor would offer their full suite of programmatic ad offerings to local brands, including display, video, mobile, and audio.

Harty said: "The Ramadan holy period represents an opportunity for brand advertisers to deliver relevant and specific messages via programmatic advertising. We plan to work with our partners and help advertisers to succeed with great campaigns in that period."

Located in Jakarta, the Indonesian operations were supported by two executives who reported to the Singapore office.

AdAsia unveil in-feed native ads

Available via AdAsia's Ad Network, the new in-feed native ad formats can run on desktop and mobile devices.

According to the ad tech vendor, advertisers would be able to track the ad units along with display and video ads, as well as social media marketing activities, through AdAsia's reporting platform.

The native ad formats could be tailored to the requirements of publishers and media owners to better reflect the look and feel of their online properties, such as the inclusion of images and logos.

The company's co-founder and COO Otohiko Kozutsumi said: "Native advertising, coupled with the ability to purchase programmatically, creates a more relevant and less disruptive advertising experience for users."

Band Interprise play alongside gyro

Dentsu Aegis Network have merged their B2B media agency, Band Interprise, with their creative B2B agency, gyro, to support the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa regions.

Specialising in the technology, finance, manufacturing, pharma, and automotive industries, Band Interprise have operated in the Asia-Pacific region for 14 years and joined Dentsu Aegis Network through an acquisition in December 2015. Sister agency Interprise Australia also was part of the integration with gyro, which itself was acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network last July.

The agency group's Asia-Pacific CEO, Nick Waters, said: "Consolidating our B2B agency brands is an integrated approach to creating a unique offering. Our strategy is to build key specialisms within our network to collaborate and activate the power of the network, ensuring we are well-placed to succeed in today's fast-paced digital economy."

Vietnamese broadcaster now available on SpotX

Vietnamese broadcast and digital video provider, BHD, have made their inventory available on SpotX's programmatic video platform.

One of the country's largest media organisations, BHD's offerings included production, cinema exhibition, pay TV channels, and VOD (video-on-demand) services. Thier TV content rights included Vietnam's Got Talent, MasterChef, The Price is Right, and Amazing Race.

Their agreement with SpotX would enable advertisers and agencies to buy the broadcaster's inventory programmatically and through automated direct buys. BHD also would be able to manage ads through their distribution network, platforms, and OTT apps through SpotX's platform, selling their inventory on desktop, mobile, set-top boxes, and connected TV.

SpotX's Asia-Pacific Japan director of platform services, Andy Yap, said: "BHD are the first in Vietnam to transition to modern video monetisation techniques. In doing so, they're setting themselves up to access additional demand as well as maximise fill rates and CPMs across different platforms and screens."

A BHD spokesperson said programmatic would enable the company to scale their operations and tap the global marketplace. "Vietnam is quickly becoming one of the highest video consuming countries in the Asia region. We will deploy advanced ad-serving techniques and programmatic enablement to decrease latency and maximise yield across the country's rapidly growing online video audience," the spokesperson said.

Executive appointments at Publicis agencies

Starcom Singapore have named Ian Loon as their new managing director, following the departure of Patricia Goh.

With a 13-year stint so far at the agency, Loon kicked off his advertising tenure as an intern at Leo Burnett and was one of the first 'digital-at-core' integrated planners at Starcom.

Over at Zenith Australia, Nickie Scriven has been appointed to the newly created role of CEO, where he will be responsible for driving the media brand in the country.

Scriven joined Zenith in 2014 as their Melbourne managing director and was previously head of marketing and brand at Australiansuper. Armed with more than 18 years of industry experience, she previously ran her own marketing consultancy business.
Publicis rounded up their lineup of executive appointments for the week with Toby Barbour as CEO of Starcom Australia, and Sue Squillace as CEO of Mediavest Spark.