Tipping point with digital video in APAC

Register now for Video tipping point: APAC’s programmatic opportunity, the latest in Campaign’s advertising-technology webcast series, presented in conjunction with Turn. This free webinar takes place on 30 June and will be available shortly after on demand.

With all the talk of China’s lead in mobile marketing, a recent chart from Statista shows internet penetration in the country is only at 47 per cent. While that puts it well behind chart topping countries New Zealand (at 91 per cent), Australia and South Korea, China is still significantly ahead of the APAC average of 36 per cent. (For reference, Statista puts the rate for North America at 88 per cent.)

What the numbers indicate is a window of opportunity for marketers to work with digital advertising while it’s still new but has large enough audiences for the experimentation to have a reasonable payoff.

While it’s no secret that advertising on mobile platforms is where vast sums of energy and money are headed (PwC forecasts about a 23 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the next three years, reaching US$55 billion in 2018), within those numbers there is another big story that sometimes gets overlooked, and that’s digital video. While the same PwC projections put the CAGR for online display ads at about 7 per cent for the next four years, the number for video online comes close to 20 per cent, with adspend on the format to more than double by 2018 (from US$6.3 billion in 2014) and surpass US$15 billion in 2019.

The draw of course isn’t the number of dollars but the number of consumer eyeballs that the medium attracts. Analysis from Global Web Index, which claims to be the world's largest market-research study on digital consumers, shows that global mobile internet audiences have double in the past three years globally and the number one activity for these audiences is viewing videos.

While digital video might answer a big strategic question about where to put ad dollars in the next few years there are still plenty of questions around how to spend those dollars. And of course what kinds of risks might be hidden behind those big spend numbers.

Advertisers need to look at what the reach potential is and specifically at the in-demographic reach of their ads placed against online video. And while online video isn’t the same as TV it is becoming increasingly indistinguishable both to audiences (namely younger ones who place less emphasis on platform and more on content) and in terms of measurement. A Gross Ratings Points (GRP) system from TV lore is gaining ground.

And like all advertising online, what are the options for automating ad buys to gain the most efficientcy? That’s the topic campaign will put to our next panel of experts on 30 June during the next webinar: Video tipping point.

We’ll address best practices for incorporating programmatic buying with a video strategy and look at issues around retargeting and how you can use video to fill the sales funnel. Vieability, fraud and private market places are also on the docket for questions to the experts. If you are looking to start or refine an online video strategy, this next webinar could have the insights you need to take your plans to the next level.

Our panel includes Ogilvy’s Chris Actis regional managing director for Neo@Ogilvy’s in APAC. He has worked on major client accounts like P&G to oversee video investment and helped Walmart fine-tune its programmatic tactics. Cindy Deng, Turn’s APAC managing director will also be back with inside views on reaching audience segments as well as optimizing video campaigns.

Later in the week we’ll announce a guest speaker from a major brand that has been working with digital video and can speak from experience with enacting campaigns on a global scale with digital video and programmatic buying.

This is your chance to learn from seasoned experience in a still-growing territory that’s open for lots of creativity and experimentation. Registering for the webinar is just a few minutes worth of typing and clicks but it will give you an hour of insight you won’t find anywhere else. Even if you won’t be free on 30 June at 10 am (7:30 am in India, noon in Sydney), if you register you can listen to the webinar anytime on-demand after the live presentation next Tuesday.

And if you have any specific questions you’d like put to the panel, email [email protected] before 30 June or use the webinar interface to send us questions live while you learn about APAC’s programmatic opportunity with digital video.