Tag: Advertising

China – The WeChat mini-game advertising sector is experiencing rapid expansion, with the number of games running ads surging by 113% year-over-year (YoY), according to the latest joint report from SolarEngine and Insightrackr.

According to the report, between January and October 2024, over 18,400 WeChat mini-games launched ad campaigns, more than doubling from 8,600 in 2023. By year-end, the total hit 19,937, nearly doubling from 10,300 the previous year, underscoring the sector’s rapid growth.

Ad creatives also saw a 107% YoY increase, reaching 3.7 million from January to October 2024, up from 1.8 million in the same period last year. The full-year total is projected to hit 4.3 million, reflecting the growing scale of mini-game advertising.

The report notes that this growth reflects expanding opportunities for developers within China’s evolving mobile gaming ecosystem.

The report also highlights a growing reliance on low-cost, high-volume ad creatives, shaping distinct trends in the WeChat mini-game advertising landscape. Image-based ads make up 55.9% of mini-game ads, while video accounts for 44.1%—a notable contrast to the 59.4% video adoption in standard mobile games.

Vertical ads dominate at 61%, followed by horizontal (35.3%) and square (3.7%) formats. Meanwhile, only 5.3% of mini-game ads feature real-person elements, significantly lower than the 10.6% seen in broader mobile game advertising.

While cost efficiency and quick turnaround remain key priorities, the report indicates that higher-quality creative optimisation could become a competitive advantage. As competition grows in WeChat mini-game advertising, data-driven creative strategies may play a crucial role in enhancing user engagement and conversion rates.

Rita Ju, head of SolarEngine, said, “The WeChat mini-game space is undergoing a massive transformation, offering developers a lucrative, fast-growing advertising environment. As advertising intensity increases, it’s critical for developers to not only focus on creative innovation but also to leverage data-driven insights and precise marketing analysis. Tools that enable high-quality user behaviour analysis, precise targeting, and efficient data integration are becoming crucial for success.”

Singapore – Broadsign and Scope3 today announced a partnership that sets the stage for more accurate, comprehensive carbon modeling of digital-out-of-home (DOOH) campaigns. As more brands seek to limit carbon emissions across their businesses, including marketing, the two companies have teamed up to expand the depth and precision of available DOOH emissions data. 

As a result of the collaboration thus far, agencies and brands leveraging Scope3’s carbon measurement platform can now access DOOH property and format emissions data for over 1 million screens globally when planning DOOH and omnichannel campaigns. Available insights include average CO2e per impression for DOOH screens by country and venue category.

Scope3 users can view this data alongside similar insights from web, mobile, social, CTV, and other channels for more seamless carbon-conscious media planning and reporting. 

While DOOH is proven to augment omnichannel campaign performance, the data now available on Scope3’s platform also demonstrates its carbon efficiency on a per-impression basis, reaffirming previous studies that illustrate the medium’s carbon-efficiency advantage over other channels.

David Fischer, general manager of global adtech platforms at Scope3, said, “There’s a preconceived notion that DOOH is a high-emitting channel, but the data tells a more accurate story that accounts for its unique nuances. Broadsign’s expertise, insights, and extensive inventory data are helping us refine our DOOH carbon measurement modeling to shed more light on the medium’s impact.”

He added, “Agencies and brands that use Scope3 to inform omnichannel media strategies can now better understand DOOH’s emissions, and media owners can set their inventory apart by offering insight into the carbon footprint of their screens.”

Meanwhile, Bryan Mongeau, chief technology officer at Broadsign, commented, “Scope3 is the ad industry standard for carbon measurement, so partnering with them in the interest of the broader ad industry was a natural next step. As companies look to implement more sustainable practices, reducing ad campaign emissions will be an area of increasing focus, and our collaboration with Scope3 provides a strong foundation to support this demand.”

He added, “It not only provides invaluable insights today but also paves the way for future innovations like dynamic campaign planning and real-time media plan adjustments based on carbon intensity; we’re just getting started and have only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible.”

Singapore – YouBiz, YouTrip’s financial platform, is teaming up with TikTok for Business to boost its financial and advertising solutions for businesses in Singapore.

The strategic partnership aims to offer solutions tailored for local businesses, driving their e-commerce growth. YouBiz and TikTok for Business intend to help them maximise their marketing and advertising ROI while optimising their operations.

Joining forces, the companies are introducing a cashback scheme to provide more resources to e-commerce businesses. Through the partnership, TikTok advertisers can receive up to US$100 in ad credits, which can be used for campaigns. Businesses can also receive more cashback on TikTok through YouBiz.

The partnership reflects the companies’ commitment to empowering e-commerce businesses in the market. It was announced during a joint event where speakers shared insights on creating effective marketing campaigns while using digital and financial platforms.

YouBiz offers an expense management platform where businesses can streamline their financial processes, making payment processing, tracking, and reporting efficient.

TikTok for Business is a platform that enables businesses to manage solutions for short-form videos, allowing them to market products and services on TikTok.

“Singapore’s e-commerce landscape presents immense growth potential, yet businesses need more than just access to the market—they need the right strategic tools and comprehensive support to truly unlock their success,” said Benedict Khong, general manager of YouBiz, said.

“This partnership with TikTok for Business is designed to bridge that gap. By seamlessly integrating YouBiz’s innovative financial solutions—such as multi-currency accounts, unlimited 1% cashback on all expenditures, and cost-effective remittance services—with TikTok’s dynamic advertising platform, we are empowering businesses to not only survive but thrive in the fast-evolving digital economy, providing them with a distinct competitive advantage,” Khong added.

Paris, France – Global advertising giant Publicis Groupe is set to acquire independent end-to-end data solution company Lotame, with the company set to be positioned as part of Epsilon, a global advertising and marketing technology company that is part of the Publicis family.

The combined data and identity assets of Lotame and Publicis Groupe’s 2.3 billion global profiles will enable clients to reach 91% of adult internet users with personalised messaging at scale with even greater accuracy.

Moreover, the combined footprint of Epsilon and Lotame will expand Groupe’s unique profiles to almost 4 billion, extending global coverage to more than 90% of consumers worldwide. This scale combined with unmatched breadth and depth of data allows marketers to find and activate against the right audiences with even greater accuracy, to engage their consumers in more relevant and meaningful ways. 

It is also worth noting that Lotame’s 19 years of earned data expertise and trusted innovation, coupled with its team of experts across data and identity, will power global and local-market product development, supported by dedicated engineering, partnerships, and operations specialists.

Lastly, Lotame will drive APAC and EMEA expansion of Epsilon, continuing to work with publishers, data partners, and brands across the regions. 

Led by founder and CEO Andy Monfried, Lotame will be positioned as part of Epsilon, accessible to all Publicis clients and teams to enhance their ability to deliver personalised marketing services at scale. 

Arthur Sadoun, chairman and CEO Publicis Groupe, said, “In the age of AI, the name of the game is connect or die. By connecting Lotame to Epsilon, we’re reinforcing our industry-leading identity graph,  giving clients the unique competitive advantage of seeing and engaging with 91% of all adults who use the internet, safely and transparently.

He added, “By connecting that best-in-class identity to our clients’ data thanks to AI, and leveraging it across their marketing spectrum, from their PESO media ecosystem to content production, all in their owned environments, we are truly delivering measurable outcomes for their business. It’s how we are making CoreAI a reality, and how we’ve built a category of one for Publicis that means today we are the world’s largest advertising group, leading the industry on every KPI.”

Arthur further added, “As we continue to invest in the products, services and talent that drive differentiation and growth for our clients, I couldn’t be happier to welcome Andy and the outstanding teams at Lotame on board.”

Meanwhile, Andy commented, “We have a rich history of innovation, building out our global data marketplace and scaling our identity solution to become among the most trusted and adopted in the industry. We are beyond thrilled to join Publicis Groupe, who shares our commitment to industry interoperability, connectivity, and privacy. Together with Epsilon, we look forward to delivering the next chapter of connected identity for Publicis.”

It is worth noting that this acquisition comes in light of advertising-driven acquisitions, with T-Mobile recently acquiring Vistar Media and Blis to bolster their advertising solutions offering in the USA and globally. Moreover, Publicis’ desire to acquire Lotame also comes after Publicis Worldwide and Leo Burnette have consolidated their networks to form a new entity aptly named ‘Leo’.

More than ever, brands seek performance solutions to drive efficiency and maximise outcomes on their ad spend. Fueled by the rise of digital platforms, automation tools, and sophisticated analytics, marketing performance has empowered businesses to optimise campaigns in real-time, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to tangible results. Higher quality media leads to higher return on ad spends for customers. 

The performance landscape is evolving rapidly, presenting businesses with opportunities and challenges. As competition intensifies, brand equity becomes a crucial differentiator, influencing consumer trust, loyalty, and long-term growth. Marketers are shifting their focus from short-term conversions to building stronger, recognisable brands that drive sustained engagement and customer lifetime value. 

In our latest What’s NEXT in Marketing interview, we sat down with Laura Quigley, senior vice president for Asia-Pacific at Integral Ad Science (IAS) to discuss how to navigate the changing landscape in marketing performance, the role of attention, and how marketers can strategically build brand equity through context-driven campaigns that foster consumer trust, enhance brand recognition, and drive long-term engagement while maintaining precise audience targeting. 

Future-proofing campaigns for impactful results

For Laura, driving performance equates to driving efficiency and outcomes, helping advertisers reduce media waste and safeguard brand equity in the evolving media landscape. Building and protecting brand equity, strategic brand positioning, and multi-channel strategies will drive brand performance in 2025, which has become essential.

“Brands are adopting more context-driven, personalised approaches while leveraging diverse channels like the open web, social platforms, connected TV (CTV), and digital video to engage consumers effectively, strengthening brand recall and fostering consumer trust”, she stated.

She also noted how marketers should be able to navigate these new changes, stating, “Marketers can future-proof campaigns by optimising placements, reallocating budgets based on attention outcomes, and ensuring brand-suitable environments. This ensures measurable, impactful results while enhancing ROI in a dynamic, consumer-first environment.”

In response to these new trends, IAS aims to help its clients protect and strengthen brand equity while driving performance by combining cutting-edge technology with actionable insights to safeguard brand reputation. 

“Through advanced tools like Context Control and Quality Impression™, IAS helps advertisers place their ads adjacent to brand-suitable and high-quality environments,” Laura added

How can thoughtful measurement improve campaign efficiency?

One of the things that Laura highlighted is that when ads are placed in contextually relevant environments, they not only protect brand equity but also drive stronger engagement and outcomes.

An instance of this in action is IAS’s partnership with Mastercard in Southeast Asia to support their global brand safety benchmark of 98% while reducing fail rates and invalid traffic in programmatic campaigns.

For context, Mastercard desired to receive real-time performance signals to help them efficiently optimise their campaigns before bids are placed on possible unsuitable environments. Moreover, the global financial brand needed a trusted global pre- and post-bid verification partner who could help execute an increased brand safety pass rate, reduce block rate/fail rates and reduce invalid traffic.

By implementing IAS’s pre- and post-bid solutions—including Contextual Avoidance and Fraud Detection—Mastercard achieved around 82% improvement in invalid traffic and 72% improvement in cost of quality impression.

For Laura, the partnership highlights how thoughtful measurement and optimisation can improve campaign efficiency while supporting broader brand goals.

“Marketers can benefit from setting clear safety and suitability guidelines, using pre-bid solutions to prioritise high-quality environments, and analysing campaign insights to refine their approaches. By embedding these practices, brands can drive performance while building long-term consumer trust,” she explained.

How to maintain brand equity while balancing results

Laura admits that looking ahead, driving performance will continue to operate in a complex and dynamic environment shaped by a fragmented media landscape and evolving consumer behaviours. 

For her, these shifts will likely present challenges in maintaining strong brand equity while delivering measurable results. To foster performance, Laura shares his three-pronged approach to how brands should navigate these challenges:

  • Attention and media quality metrics: Metrics that measure attention, engagement and media quality ensure that campaigns drive meaningful interactions and relationships between brands and consumers that strengthen brand equity.
  • Personalisation at scale: Effective personalisation goes beyond audience targeting and into contextual relevance. By aligning ads with the right content, brands can enhance engagement while maintaining efficiency. Contextual strategies ensure that messaging resonates at the right moments, strengthening consumer connections. 
  • Consistency across multi-channel strategies: As advertisers leverage various platforms, seamless integration and cohesive messaging are critical. This consistency strengthens brand identity and drives performance for long-term growth.

“Performance must shift to strategies that not only drive measurable results but also strengthen brand equity. Brands are increasingly leveraging contextual targeting, first-party data, and privacy-safe solutions to build trust with consumers and maintain compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA,” she said.

Laura also added, “Through transparent, granular reporting, IAS ensures brands have visibility into campaign performance and ad placement. IAS helps brands achieve measurable outcomes while fostering trust with consumers and advertisers.”

Flexibility and commitment to innovation

When asked about her advice for marketers to future-proof their brand equity and performance strategies, Laura mentioned that Marketers need to be agile and adaptable in their strategies. Moreover, prioritising trust and transparency through strategies like contextual targeting to engage audiences is fundamental. 

“Although third-party cookies continue to play a role, adopting new technologies and solutions is essential to ensure accurate optimisation and measurement. This is where attention-based measurements would provide deeper insight into engagement and allow marketers to optimise campaigns effectively,” she explained.

“By maintaining flexibility and committing to innovation, marketers can navigate these changes while building meaningful connections with their audience, ensuring long-term success in a privacy-first world,” she concluded.

***

The future of performance and brand equity lies in balancing data-driven precision and consumer engagement. Leveraging contextual targeting and privacy-compliant measurement tools will allow marketers to optimise performance while ensuring contextual and high-quality engagements. Ultimately, brands prioritising marketing effectiveness and data responsibility will drive sustainable growth and strengthen long-term brand equity in an increasingly privacy-centric digital landscape.

Singapore – AnyMind Group, a BPaaS company, has forged a partnership with YouTube for its partner sales program, boosting advertising potential for businesses.

As a YouTube Partner Sales program partner, AnyMind Group can offer reserved advertising inventory on content produced by AnyMind-affiliated creators and channels. The move provides advertisers with more options, and affiliated creators to increase their earnings.

The program offers programmatic guaranteed ad buys and a full ‘share of voice reservations,’ which enables a single advertiser to dominate placements on a creator’s video views. 

The reserved inventory grants a higher priority compared to auctioned ad inventory from the Display & Video 360 platform.

Additionally, AnyMind is launching advertising packages for entertainment, sports, lifestyle, and news, enabling contextual targeting.

Online publishers who use AnyManager can also generate new revenue streams through the program. 

Punsak Limvatanayingyong, managing director of creator growth at AnyMind Group, said, “True to our philosophy of ‘Growth for Everyone,’ this program undoubtedly benefits our advertisers, creators and even publishers by unlocking more powerful outcomes through collaboration with us. Due to our unique business model, we’re one of the few companies that can provide deep accessibility into the advertising ecosystem.”

“This partnership comes at a right time as we have recently launched a new feature on AnyManager that enables publishers to automatically create short-form videos from published articles with the use of AI. As part of our growth plans this year, we can now provide direct access to a larger scale of video ad inventory across APAC and the Middle East to our clients, including our partnered creators on YouTube,” Siddharth Kelkar, managing director of India/MENA and performance business at AnyMind Group, commented.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Julie’s is redefining festive storytelling with its latest Hari Raya short film called ‘Selamat Lari Raya’. Known for its thought-provoking festive narratives, the brand takes a new approach this year–delivering a story that is deeply moving and haunting, yet heartwarming. For the brand, the short film invites viewers on a journey of reflection, questioning the true meaning of forgiveness this festive season.

The short film centres around the life of Johan, a man who has spent his life running from his problems and past. Played by the popular Malaysian actor Fimie Don, Johan’s life was anything but easy. Orphaned at a young age and raised by his grandparents, he eventually fell in with the wrong crowd. This led him down a path of crime and ultimately, prison. 

Moreover, the film explores how Johan’s greatest burden isn’t serving time in prison. It is the overwhelming guilt he carries over the death of his beloved grandmother Melati, portrayed by Dian P. Ramlee, whose shadow continues to visit him in his darkest moments being locked up.

While behind bars, Johan’s grandfather, Pak Hassan, played by veteran actor Dato A. Tamimi Siregar, desperately tries to reconnect with him. But riddled by guilt, Johan refuses his bid for connection. Determined not be ignored, Hassan embarks on an unexpected mission, by attempting various petty crimes to land himself in the same prison as Johan and succeeded.

Now with Hassan in prison, and Melati’s lingering presence by his side, Johan has nowhere left to run. Johan was forced by his grandparents to finally face his past and grief that he had been burying for so long. Instead of judgement, he is met with love and forgiveness that had been there all along. 

As Johan reflected on childhood memories of Hari Raya with his grandparents, especially during the tradition of seeking forgiveness through ‘salam’–Johan finally understands a lesson they once taught him: forgiveness must start within. By accepting their forgiveness and most importantly, learning to forgive himself, Johan finds peace within and rekindles his bond with Hassan. 

Tzy Horng Sai, director of Julie’s Biscuits, said, “As we mark our fifth year of Raya storytelling, we take our audiences on a self-reflective emotional journey about familial reconciliation and forgiveness. Our film delves into the silent killer of unresolved guilt and grief that destroy family dynamics. However, Hari Raya is a time of renewal, healing, and second chances, and we show the importance of addressing the psychological barriers in our healing process.”

He added, “To bring this powerful narrative to life, we collaborated with esteemed actors, whose performances deeply embody the emotional weight of this story, making it all the more resonant and impactful.”

Meanwhile, having collaborated with Julie’s on all of the previous Hari Raya festive short films, Aaron Koh, chief creative officer at GOVT, commented, “Unlike our previous Raya films, we wanted to deliver a wild rollercoaster of emotions this year, blending suspense, humour, fear, and sadness – to resonate with people from different backgrounds. It was a risky endeavour as we have grown a large fanbase over the years, with a recognisable Julie’s Raya tonality, which we have now completely flipped for this year’s.”

He added, “This festive season is the time for forgiveness, yet self-forgiveness, a powerful step to happiness and renewal in life – is rarely discussed. We hope that with this film, we can start conversations surrounding the subject matter and to get people to focus on themselves this Raya.”

Hong Kong – Taboola has announced a new focus beyond native advertising and a powerful new technology platform called ‘Realize’, an industry-first platform that specialises only in performance outcomes at scale beyond search and social.

‘Realize’ taps into Taboola’s unique data, performance AI, and an increasingly diverse range of inventory and creative formats to achieve performance objectives. While advertisers need great solutions for all parts of the marketing funnel, they need specialised solutions. 

It is worth noting that existing solutions that promise full funnel service face significant challenges to excel in each part of the marketing funnel. As of today, Taboola is opening ‘Realize’ for all advertisers focused on performance.

Moroever, ‘Realize’ is a independent performance platform that goes beyond search and social media and delivers outcomes at scale for advertisers, leveraging Taboola’s unique supply, first party data and AI technology. It delivers simplicity and efficiency for advertisers to run performance-based campaigns on many of the world’s largest and most trusted publishers across all ad inventory, OEMs and apps.

This platform allows advertisers to tap into display and other high-visibility locations across its extensive network. This includes top publishers like NBC News and Yahoo, as well as major apps and OEMs such as Xiaomi and Samsung. With ‘Realize,’ brands can now connect with their target audiences more effectively across a broader range of platforms, maximising engagement and performance.

Powered by an advanced AI performance engine, ‘Realize’ also leverages Taboola’s unique data-driven approach to optimise ad placements across its trusted publisher network. The platform offers advertisers greater creative flexibility by enabling them to repurpose existing assets—whether from social media, display, or vertical video—into high-performing ads. This streamlined approach allows brands to accelerate customer acquisition efforts while ensuring their campaigns reach relevant audiences at scale.

Adam Singolda, CEO at Taboola, said, “Every business deserves a chance to grow and succeed. Performance advertising beyond search and social media has been far too difficult for too long, however. Advertisers have settled on search and social media simply because there has been no viable alternative. Spending money with DSPs and CTV is great for branding but not optimised to drive performance, and running display with hundreds of advertising tech companies at low scale is simply not worth marketers’ time.”

He added, “Amazon started in 1994 and did a great job winning the book business by 2000, which allowed them to go into owning all of e-commerce. This is our “Amazon moment.” After many years of success with native ads, it’s time to go after all of performance advertising. We can do a lot more for advertisers, and a lot more for publishers. Today is an exciting day for me and us at Taboola.”

This 2025, the future of marketing is being shaped by hyper-personalisation and cutting-edge customer engagement strategies that redefine brand-consumer interactions. With advancements in AI, data analytics, and automation, businesses can now tailor experiences on an unprecedented level, delivering highly relevant content, offers, and services in real-time. Consumers expect more than just personalised emails—they demand seamless, predictive, and immersive experiences across multiple touchpoints.

This vision of what lies ahead for the marketing and advertising scene this year is what the recently concluded What’s NEXT in Marketing: Singapore 2025 conference tackled. The event–part of the What’s NEXT in Marketing 2025 conference series–was held on 20 February at One Farrer Hotel, and provided brands and marketers with the latest insights, strategies, and tools to thrive in a constantly evolving industry. 

Moreover, the conference offered attendees an exceptional opportunity to grow their network, refine their marketing approaches, and achieve success in the Singaporean market.

For the morning part of the conference, attendees were treated to a range of discussions–from predictive analytics and personalisation in marketing, transforming CX excellence to cultivate a customer-centric culture, as well as enhancing omnichannel platforms to strengthen brand strategy.

The speakers for the morning session included:

  • Zon Lim, VP, Marketing, APAC at Braze
  • Bipasha Minocha, Group Chief Marketing Officer at EtonHouse International Education Group
  • Jaren Loy, Head (Digital Growth) at FairPrice Group
  • Natalja Voronova, Regional Marketing Director, ASEANZ at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
  • Saurabh Mathur, Head, Customer Experience and Digital Marketing at Income Insurance Limited
  • Jem Loh, Head of Communications & Channels, APAC at Riot Games
  • Raushida Vasaiwala, Strategic Advisor | Martech & SaaS Sales
  • Rahul Singh, Assistant Director, Global Marketing & Strategy at Nanyang Technological University Singapore
  • Neil Patwardhan, Chief Sales Officer APAC at Sinch
  • Asnawi Jufrie, Vice President & General Manager of Southeast Asia at SleekFlow
  • Shawn Kok, Senior Solutions Engineer at Telesign
  • Chris Baker, Founder at Totem Media

Meanwhile, the afternoon part of the conference focused on navigating the art of seamless customer journeys, AI-powered predictions amidst increased privacy concerns, driving success in performance marketing, amongst other topics. The speaker lineup for the afternoon sessions included:

  • Pei Ee Chng, B2B Digital Marketing (Head) at Canon Singapore Pte Ltd
  • Michelle Tenoudji, Global Business Director at Clickr
  • Alyssa Ng, Marketing Communications (Head) at DHL Express Singapore
  • Ke Wei Chua, Head of Marketing at Fitness First Singapore
  • Deanson Lee, Head of Digital at Havas Media Network
  • Brenda Maderazo, Deputy Director, Marketing at Health Promotion Board
  • Sam Knight, Head of Strategy and Planning at H&M
  • Sahaj Khunteta, Head of Regional Analytics and GenAI Enablement at Intel Corporation
  • Caitlin Nguyen, Head of Digital and Customer Engagement at MNC Pharma Company
  • Naohiro Yamaura, Chairman at Sparkline
  • Julien Dahmoun, Head of Social & Digital Marketing at StarHub
  • Clarisse Desgeorge, Omnichannel Director South Asia Pacific at Tiffany&Co
  • Sylvia Chan, Social Media & Business Life Coach, Travel Content Creator at Travels With Syl
  • Mira Bharin, Chief Marketing Officer at Trust Bank
  • Joon Ming Yeo, Former Head of Marketing and Commercial Operations at Urban Company

The conference also included roundtable discussions, which allowed attendees to connect with industry peers, share valuable insights, and explore key marketing topics shaping the future of the industry including content marketing, conversational marketing, performance marketing, customer engagement, data & analytics, digital advertising, omnichannel marketing, generative AI, influencer marketing, customer insights, and digital transformation.

The moderators for the roundtable sessions included:

  • Michelle Tenoudji, Global Business Director at Clickr
  • Leonie Zingel, Head of Marketing Communications Industrial Solutions APAC at Continental
  • Eric Sim, Managing Director at Epic Dialogue
  • Deanson Lee, Head of Digital at Havas Media Network
  • Fatima Baduria, Regional Journalist at MARKETECH APAC
  • Jean Cabico, Senior Regional Producer at MARKETECH APAC
  • Jemo Espartinez, Regional Producer at MARKETECH APAC
  • Katherine Sy, Regional Head of Content at MARKETECH APAC
  • Raushida Vasaiwala, Strategic Advisor | Martech & SaaS Sales
  • Quinn Pham, Director – Solutions Consulting at Meiro
  • Jonathan Lok, Digital Marketing Lead at Singapore Polytechnic
  • Jeremy Kwan, Senior Enterprise Account Executive at SleekFlow 
  • Karl Baldry, Enterprise Account Director at Telesign
  • Sylvia Chan, Social Media & Business Life Coach, Travel Content Creator at Travels With Syl

MARKETECH APAC’s What’s NEXT in Marketing: Singapore 2025 was made possible by sponsors Braze, Sparkline, Telesign, and Clickr; as well as event partners Digital Ark Creatives, GrabAds, Meiro, PR Newswire, and Sinch.

The conference was attended by 170 delegates representing brands from AirAsia, A*STAR, BBC Studios, Charles & Keith, Danone, Coda, Gardens by the Bay, Government Technology Agency (GovTech), Henkel, IMDA, JustCo Global, Lalamove, Mastercard, MyRepublic, OCBC, Raffles Hotel, Randstad Enterprise, Resorts World Sentosa, Samsung Electronics SEAO, Singtel, TADA Mobility Singapore, The Coca-Cola Company, The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd., UOB, amongst others.

Joven Barceñas, founder and CEO at MARKETECH APAC, said, “Encouraging thought-provoking discussions has never been more essential, particularly in a time of unprecedented transformation and emerging opportunities. Your perspectives and contributions are invaluable as we collaborate to push boundaries, drive meaningful innovation, and create lasting change across the region and beyond.”

The conference is part of a five-part conference series, with the subsequent conferences listed as follows:

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Joven Barceñas at [email protected].

For speaking opportunities for these conferences, contact Katherine Sy at [email protected]; and for registrations, reach out to Hans Policarpio at [email protected].

The continued advancement of available technologies has added a hitch in the advertising industry, widely experienced by brands — the expanding number of channels needed to traverse in a single campaign. While technology undoubtedly greatly contributes to making campaigns easier, it also adds a degree of complexity in one aspect.

In MARKETECH APAC’s latest What’s NEXT in Marketing interview with StackAdapt’s Asia-Pacific vice president of sales, Liam McCarten shares how channel proliferation, whether deemed a minor issue or advantage, can be navigated with artificial technology (AI) to innovate campaign performance.

Means of attribution, measurement that empowers

There is a constant increase in marketing complexity as time passes, with customers gaining multi-channel journeys in their brand interactions across various touchpoints. As 2025 begins, attribution and measurement remain a priority.

More specifically, Liam suggests that multi-touch attribution models and incrementality and measurement solutions will continue to be at the forefront of innovation that will ensure a holistic view of the consumer journey, but with the added aspect of tracking offline conversions.

By prioritising solutions that address the current needs of marketers, Liam shares how this can empower brands beyond providing efficiency.

“One of the things that we focus on just at the product level is allowing our partners to make data-driven decisions with ease, so at the root of what we’ve built is a unified dashboard that allows our client to consolidate performance data across a number of channels,” Liam said.

“This provides clients with a comprehensive view of performance. It then allows them to make quick, informed, and real-time data decisions. This enables three core things: planning of advertising, execution of advertising, and analysis of their programmatic advertising campaigns,” he said.

Apart from using the company’s own data to deliver this, StackAdapt works with its partners for third-party data, enriching its analysis of audience behaviour and campaign performance.

“At StackAdapt, we’ve developed a number of in-house tools that measure across the funnel. Something that we’ve built is StackAdapt Football Attribution. This helps brands and agencies track offline impact, thus allowing them to understand how online ads drive offline outcomes, such as store visits,” Liam explained.

Revolutionising with AI

At the core of the evolving means of attribution and measurement is AI, which has ultimately revolutionised every aspect of executing campaigns. Liam shares how at StackAdapt, AI has innovated decision-making, targeting, and campaign performance.

“From a decision-making perspective, we focus on real-time bidding analysis, particularly around bid stream data to ensure that the right impressions are aligned to the right campaign goal, and ultimately, our partners get the most out of their ad budgets,” he said.

To improve targeting, Liam highlights how StackAdapt’s ‘Page Context AI’ tool personalises ad placements using audience browsing behaviour. According to him, targeting will remain hyper-personalised, enhancing its analysis and giving way to predictive analytics.

Additionally, Liam observes how advancements in AI make fraud prevention easier while eliminating other manual tasks.

“As we see advances in large language modules and AI agents, it’s going to revolutionise all the tedious aspects of media workflows, whether that be creating basic media plans, analyzing data sets quickly for initial observations, or creating efficiency and processes that will allow marketers to refocus their efforts in more high-value areas,” he said.

However, Liam goes beyond efficiency as the main benefit of leveraging technology. More specifically, he is concerned with the kind of AI innovation and the differentiation that can be observed in the competitive market.

“I think it’s really important to not be so focused on just efficiency, which is where the conversation is ultimately today, but on how it can deliver performance and growth and innovation,” Liam said.

Cross-channel strategies

With the advancement of AI comes the multiplication of channels needed to traverse the marketing industry.

“We’re at a point where we’ve never seen such a proliferation of channels in the digital marketing ecosystem. And I have a lot of empathy for brands and agency leaders with the volume of channels and platforms that they’re required to navigate,” Liam said.

In this regard, Liam emphasises how it is essential to build uniformity to simplify processes, which is among StackAdapt’s priorities. He shares how the platform provides a single view that, beyond simplifying workflow, delivers rich insight for cross-channel strategies.

“The reality is, if you look at the marketing ecosystem, channel proliferation is not going to slow down. It’s probably going to increase. Being able to manage that with a finite amount of resources is something that we really double down on and a lot of value that we bring our partners,” he said.

Through StackAdapt’s user-friendly platform, Liam says they seek to aggregate usable and actionable data, ensuring impactful performance for brands across channels, all while empowering their decision-making.

To view the full discussion, watch the video interview here: