Increase digital ad spend through education: Google

The country director for Singapore and emerging markets at Google noted that digital ad spend in Asia has remained relatively low compared with other markets, with the average budget share standing below 10 per cent.

“Singapore is a more advanced country, with a digital ad spend of 8 per cent," Shuster, who left SingTel last year, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "The main thing we need to do is to work with the ad community and ultimately clients on search, video, display and mobile.” 

Shuster went on to mention the deployment of dedicated teams for particular industries to help study consumers’ media behaviour changes and raise clients’ awareness of the value of digital advertising.

He noted that the travel industry is one of the industries with the highest growth due to changes in the purchasing process brought on by technology.

In Southeast Asia, Google currently has offices in Malaysia and Singapore with a view toward opening further offices in Thailand and Indonesia. 

The search giant's focus is key solutions and products, including search, display, mobile and connecting users via smartphones.