Dentsu Aegis Network signs on with AsiaMX

SINGAPORE – Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) via its investment arm Amplifi, has signed on with Asia Media Exchange (AsiaMX). Thailand will be the first market in the region to kick off the programmatic-TV partnership.

Under the agreement, DAN clients worldwide will have privileged access to high-value, 'first-look' advertising assets via an automated trading exchange, according to the company.

In a statement, Sunil Yadav, president of Amplifi Asia Pacific said the move was in line with the network’s strategy to be “100 percent digital” and its ongoing mission to bring digitization across all media and across the organisation.

“With this partnership with AsiaMX, we now have the opportunity to access premium TV content programmatically, bringing automation to TV planning and buying, along with audience-based targeting capabilities,” he said.  

Launched in April this year, AsiaMX offers premium programmatic advertising assets from leading pay-TV and free-to-air networks via an algorithm-based platform.

The company recently expanded its inventory significantly and now claims some US$500 million in available assets. Some of the Thai channels listed on the exchange include BEC-Tero Entertainment’s Channel 3, Mono Broadcast Co.’s Mono29 and GMM Grammy’s ONE HD.

TV remains strong in Thailand, accounting for 63.1 percent of the total advertising expenditure. This trend can also be seen across Asia Pacific, accounting for 46.4 percent as compared with 41.1 percent globally, according to Dentsu Aegis Network’s Carat latest Adspend Report, released in September.

Nick Chuah, co-founder and chief commercial officer of AsiaMX described Thailand as a "vibrant, dynamic market that welcomes new ideas."

“Its broadcasting industry has grown significantly since the introduction of digital terrestrial television (DTT),” he added. “Thus, it’s an opportune time to showcase how programmatic TV can help transform and empower the media industry.”

To champion and spread the benefits of programmatic TV, AsiaMX has also named industry veteran Art Kaneearch Dandumrongsuk (known as Art Vacation) as its country partner. In addition, it has hired Pim Koykitcharoen as account manager.

Speaking to Campaign Asia-Pacific, Dandumrongsuk said Thailand is a unique market in the region, having grown from six analogue to 36 digital channels with the launch of DDT.

“Consequently, this has created segmentation of audiences and has made advertiser targeting more challenging as you need to target the same audience profile across many more channels,” he added. “Top performing channels need to work harder to maintain audience and market share while new channels have to work even harder to work for a slice of the finite audience market.”

He noted that while the political situation has stabilized and the election is planned for 2017, businesses are growing cautiously.

“Meanwhile our King's passing has affected the entire TV media advertising industry in the last one month,” said Dandumrongsuk. “As we put behind the mourning period, advertisers need to get back to selling products in the market and put ad spending back on track. TV remains one of biggest and most important media in Thailand.”

Aggressive expansion continues

The company has also unveiled a swath of new appointments, aimed at accelerating its business across the region and meet its plans to add up to 10 offices in Asia over the next three years. 

CEO Basil Chua said the company aims to get closer to partners and better serve customers in each market. “We hope to use our combined expertise and technology to empower the media industry,” he added. “The timing is right to introduce automation to TV advertising.”

Along with the team in Thailand, new additions to the leadership team include:

• Michelle Ching as director for regional advertising sales, Asia Pacific and Japan. She has over 25 years’ experience and was most recently at Facebook.
• Daniel Kwek, as director for partnerships and media strategy, tasked with cultivating relationships with broadcasters and managing ad operations. He has held media planning, strategy and sales roles at GroupM.
• Anand Rego as director for product development and media research. He was previously with ESPN STAR Sports, where he led the Asian research team. He will work closely with Serene Sim, director for product, who is responsible for the strategy, development and execution of the company’s flagship product.
• Cheah Wei Khim as director for programmatic TV development. He is in charge of working with broadcasters to integrate their workflow and system with AsiaMX’s programmatic platform, and working with the product team on developing platform features. He was most recently at Globecast Asia.
• Vincent Seow, as director for finance, has worked for several years in financial management and audit in various multinational companies and public accounting firms.
• Benjamin Chua as chief technology officer, responsible for driving innovation and automation developments. He was most recently with Verifone.
• Kenneth Teo as country partner for Malaysia. He has 15 years of experience in Malaysia’s media industry, and was previously Astro’s VP of media sales.