A view of data analytics priorities across SEA and APAC for 2020 and beyond

Thought Leadership | Author: David Whiteley, MiQ; IAB SEA+India Data & Analytics Committee

As a new member of the IAB SEA+India Data and Analytics committee (which itself is an evolution of the IAB SEA+India Analytics committee of 2019) I wanted to take the opportunity to ask the group for a snapshot of what is being worked on within their sectors. 

This committee is made up of members across a range of businesses from Consultants, Agencies, Vendors, Media Owners and Publishers. 

As we know AdTech moves fast and it can be a challenge keeping up so it’s good to take a step back every now and then and see what’s round the corner. There is a lot of exciting work taking place and not only does this serve as a guide to the region but also to see where strategy, education, resources and training can be pointed within businesses.

To begin with let’s take a quick look at the themes present within the data and analytics space and then start to see how they are distributed amongst the industry.

Please note it should be caveated that this is a large topic and that in this piece, we just want to pick out some key themes across the sector.

To start with I asked a consultant, and in this instance working specifically with a large traditional establishment within the finance sector of Singapore. The overarching theme was broad digital transformation as it pertains to marketing and the role of the consultant when evolving strategy, recommending technology and types of activation. Typically starting with data connection or a single source of truth that can be built upon to create advanced user segmentation.

Next was a look at publishers and how analytics can help drive personalisation of the consumer experience. Advancements in AI (which is a broad topic in itself but for now specifically machine learning as a mechanism to increase consumption) allowing for multi-variant testing and more engaging content for the user.

A large technology vendor was concentrating on customer personas, a theme that plays out across a lot of client executions. Using data to understand and tell a story; and have that story visualised beyond just bar charts and graphs. We saw this same theme play out within a full service agency who are taking it a step further to overlay consumer physiographic attributes to find what motivates and combining qualitative and quantitative research modelling to get the best results.

Lastly a technology vendor was looking at the demand side ecosystem and looking at ways to bring uniformity across it; exploring persistent ID’s and efficiency gains.

To conclude, even across this small sample the range of activities and skill sets required are numerous. We live in a fast changing world with ever increasing options when it comes to business transformation through analytics. What doesn’t change is the need for strategy and goal setting as a means to apply firm foundations when making these changes.

Value plays a key part too as recent events put organisations under pressure. We will see continued efforts placed in areas that can increase value through efficiency both operationally and as a function of advertising spend. Seen in a large part by being able to define consumer behaviour more accurately and through new lenses.

When we look at less behavioural led initiatives, we see broader digital transformation goals. Either externally via execution and optimisation of the ecosystem or internally, where business can combine all of the marketing signals in one place ready to make decisions that can be applied throughout different business units.

Being part of this group is a privilege that I intend to make the most of; sharing our combined goals both with each other and with the wider IAB SEA+India audience. Together we can all navigate technology advancements through times of change.