3 hottest trends of 2019
Asia has been a hotbed of digital marketing growth in recent years,
and all the projections suggest that it is going to continue to soar.
According to Statista, the
digital advertising market in Asia Pacific will hit US$94.9 billion this year –
more than double the 2015 figure of $43.0 billion – as
brands increasingly push their marketing dollars to where consumers are most
engaged: namely online and on mobile.
That is why as 2019 gets into
full swing, we have pulled together the top need-to-know trends across
programmatic, mobile and e-commerce, to help marketers stay up to speed with a
rapidly evolving digital advertising sector that seemingly never sleeps.
1) Programmatic predictions: Premiumisation,
new platforms and transparency the watchwords
Brands in Asia will
be investing US$452 million into programmatic buys in the region this year
alone, up from $106 million in 2015.
And it’s just not
just the rocketing revenue that is changing in the sector, there are three
fundamental factors that will increasingly dominate across the next 12 months.
The first is
premiumisation. A major differentiator for today’s best platforms is access
to exclusive and premium inventory, especially via easy-to-access and custom
buying deals, such as programmatic guaranteed.
According to the Boston
Consulting Group (BCG), the penetration of
programmatic guaranteed in digital display and video ad activity across APAC
will increase from 6 per cent in 2017 to 11 per cent in 2020.
The BCG research also found programmatic advertising to
be 30 per cent more efficient for advertiser and agency-buying teams.
By aligning ease of use with premium and guaranteed
placements, these numbers will continue to improve.
That is why at Verizon Media we focus on combining
providing premium content and exclusive
ad placement across our own inventory, and also
forging partnerships with other premium providers.
Alongside
premiumisation, expect transparency to also continue to be a priority in 2019,
as responsible providers double-down on their efforts to meet brands’ needs.
Last year we began to see the
benefits delivered by the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) ads.txt
project – a simple, flexible and secure method that publishers and distributors
can use to publicly declare the companies they authorize to sell their digital
inventory in order to slash the risk of fraud and boost brand confidence.
But there’s still more that can
be done. We have been implementing supply path optimization (SPO) to shorten
the path from buyer to seller. This has helped further to weed out
lower-quality and duplicate inventory, thereby reducing fraud and enhancing
transparency.
Last but not least, we will see
programmatic expand to new platforms this year.
With today’s consumers always on the go, advertisers need access to
supply across every emerging channel.
That’s why platforms need to make it easier and more effective to buy
inventory across connected TV, programmatic audio, digital out-of-home and
in-app opportunities.
2) Mobile: Effective partnerships pivotal to
maximise new opportunities
Asian consumers have an insatiable appetite for mobile – with many
people in emerging markets leapfrogging straight to smartphones as their
preferred device for getting online.
According to Hootsuite, the share of mobile web traffic in Laos is at
90 per cent, far eclipsing web browsing done through laptops, desktops,
tablets, and other devices. In Myanmar that figure is 72 per cent, and in
Cambodia it is 42 per cent. In other parts of Southeast Asia the smartphone is
also commonly the preferred device for accessing the internet with 68 per cent
of users accessing the internet most often on a smartphone in Vietnam.
All of these compare favourably against more mature markets. For
example, in Singapore 41 per cent of people prefer to use their smartphone to
access the internet, while in Philippines it is 52 per cent, and in Malaysia it
is 60 per cent. In Indonesia and Thailand, the number of users preferring to
access the Internet via smartphones is similar to the ones seen in emerging
markets with the figures at 81 per cent and 74 per cent respectively.
Overall,
data from e-Marketer shows that by 2021, technological improvements and device affordability will
lead to 62.4 per cent of the region’s population owning an internet-enabled
device
That’s 1.81 billion people – or
23 per cent of the total global population.
As access to devices and connectivity improvements increase, so will
the opportunities for marketers. One of these will be the growth of virtual and augmented reality –
arguably among the most immersive and engaging formats ever created to empower
brand storytelling.
With the eventual advent of
faster data transfer speeds that 5G networks will unlock, the next generation
of devices will be faster and more capable of creating exciting new ways to
engage with consumers. It is
therefore vital that brands find the right partners to utilise these
advancements and meet new and long-time mobile users’ demands for new
experiences.
3) E- and m-commerce growth: Maximising
digital marketing on the path to purchase
APAC’s e-commerce growth will hit 14.2 per cent in 2019,
according to Fitch Solutions, meaning it is crucial for brands to harness the
latest digital marketing trends to create a credible, trustworthy and effective
path to purchase.
And these opportunities are being further reinforced by the
proliferation of smartphone use, referenced above.
Research from Flurry, Verizon Media’s mobile developer analytics
platform, assessed 14,500 apps and 217 million devices across the region in
2018, and found that m-commerce sites saw the biggest spike (240 per cent) as
consumers increasingly splashed their cash via their smartphones.
But an m-commerce site alone will not guarantee success. Instead,
brands have to deploy the latest creative solutions to win the battle for
consumers’ attention, hearts and minds.
One way to achieve success is by maximising the wow factor and utility
of augmented reality (AR).
Last year, for example, we developed an AR mobile ad unit available
through our native marketplace to tap into these very trends.
This was used by Pottery Barn to help create a seamless path from
inspiration to purchase, allowing users to view a variety of home furnishings
within their actual home environment.
The experience resulted in an average time spent of 2.4 minutes within the ad, as well as an 8.9 per cent click through rate.
The campaign also created a seamless path to
purchase, recording an impressive 8.9 per cent CTR from the AR experience to
the products on the brand’s mobile shopping site.
Asia’s impressive e-commerce growth will continue to be driven by
rising internet penetration, widespread smartphone adoption, a fast-growing
middle-class, and the increased availability of convenient payment solutions.
But don’t fall into the trap of believing that increasing purchases is
the only benefit of using new digital marketing strategies.
By incorporating the latest AR and VR technologies, brands can also
benefit from a wealth of consumer insights and metrics based on user responses
and reactions within the campaign.
While some of these are still being fine-tuned, there is no doubt that
these Extended Reality (XR) formats – the likes of AR, VR and MR (Mixed
Reality) – will bring a new set of engagement metrics to enhance our
understanding of the user’s experience.
So, whether is the pace of change in programmatic, the sweeping creative
possibilities across mobile, or the ever-expanding opportunities via e- and
m-commerce, there is no doubt that 2019 is going to be another action-packed
year for APAC’s smartest brand marketers.
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