Singapore – Raushida Vasaiwala, the former general manager for Celtra, has been named by adtech Silverpush as its new vice president for Asia-Pacific. Vasaiwala announced the change through a public post on LinkedIn.

“Being an advocate of value-based selling, I wanted to ensure I’m a part of an organisation that solves real marketing problems especially in a diverse region like APAC with a true product market fit,” she said.

Vasaiwala’s experience working with Celtra started off in 2017 when she was appointed as the director of business development for India and Southeast Asia. She was then promoted to the role of general manager in 2018. During that time, she had been responsible for overseeing the company’s business and product adoption through strategic partnerships with brands, publishers, media, and solution providers.

In the past, she’s also held roles in privacy-led data intelligence platform Near and corporate law firm Al Tamimi & Company.

During an exclusive interview for MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women 2022’s series, she explained her desire to continue her trajectory in the marketing and tech industry. 

“I grew up in a family of businessmen so entrepreneurship quite comes akin to my nature. So there was this constant internal push of leading business that would help me pursue my varied passion in advertising, brand communication, art, and technology,” she said.

Singapore – Global leader in digital media quality Integral Ad Science (IAS) has announced its first-to-market partnership with in-game advertising platform Gadsme.

With the partnership, IAS will help verify Gadsme’s ad inventory globally. It will also provide marketers with third-party viewability and invalid traffic measurement (IVT) through the IAS Signal platform.

IAS’ solution will be enabling marketers to validate that impressions are fraud-free, verify that their campaigns reach real people, and equip them with important campaign insights. These media quality measurements are reported through the IAS Signal platform, including mobile and web browsing campaigns.

Tom Sharma, chief product officer of IAS, shared his excitement over the partnership that will further develop campaign measurability and performance in gaming environments.

“This partnership creates a new level of transparency for marketers and will ensure confidence that they are engaging real users and driving outcomes,” he added. 

Simon Spaull, chief revenue officer and co-founder at Gadsme, also commented, “This announcement further solidifies Gadsme as a transformative tech leader for the gaming ad industry specifically in 3D environments. Gadsme’s non-intrusive video, display, and audio ad formats enable publishers to monetize their games without interrupting a player’s experience.”

He also added that the solution is advantageous to global brands and helps advertisers reach their target audience in a safe and ideal environment. 

IAS has also previously partnered with in-game advertising platform Anzu to provide media measurement for in-game ads.

Syndey, Australia – iion, the global adtech company that aims to redefine monetisation and advertising for gaming, today debuts immersiion, a first-of-its-kind self-serve advertising platform that’s purpose-built for the gaming ecosystem. With its time-saving campaign builder, immersiion aims to redefine the way brands connect with their audiences in any gaming environment at scale. 

immersiion is the first platform that scales in-game advertising by enabling brands to find their target audience in all gaming environments. With immersiion, advertisers can select the right games to reach audiences, build, and serve rich creative options that speak their customers’ language, and deliver contextually relevant, personalised messages.

The end result is a fun experience for the brand’s audience to engage with advertising campaigns, without disrupting the gaming journey.

“For advertisers, the exponential rise in the gaming community represents a massive opportunity,” said iion Co-Founder Giuseppe Martoriello. “As the first-ever advertising platform that connects game publishers and brands through a holistic targeting experience within all IAB-defined gaming environments, immersiion provides brands with an entire new channel that is comparable to online and TV – but more fun and innovative.”

“We’re excited that immersion is the first platform to really scale in-game advertising – where you can run innovative types of campaigns across Mobile, PC and Console Games with Display, Video and Audio formats,” added Martoriello. 

Gaming is a continuously booming industry, emerging as a dominant form of socialisation and recreation, and now attracting a diverse mix of ages and genders. According to an Entertainment Software Association (ESA) report, the average gamer age in 2022 is 31 years with its age group – 18 and 34 years – representing the highest number of players at 38%. Interestingly, female gamers are also on the rise, currently making up approximately 45% of the world’s gaming population.

immersiion’s smart capabilities, furthermore, allow it to capture every type of audience segment imaginable across all IAB gaming environments. This is achieved via its proprietary suite of buying and selling game tech, which it uses to power brands.

Features of immersiion: 

  • Offers advertising solutions catered to the entire gaming ecosystem, including in-game ads at scale across mobile, PC, console, cloud and e-sports across display, video and audio formats
  • Targets all 3 IAB gaming environments (in the game, around the game and away from the game)
  • Targets any audience segment + contextually relevant placement across those environments
  • Enables advertisers to create engaging standard, rich media and video creative ads seamlessly inside the same platform, A/B test creative
  • Provides near real-time reporting to measure reach and performance metrics and automatically blacklist individual games/apps/websites, if not hitting target metrics/parameters
  • Targets all 3 media types (display, audio and video) inside its holistic game-tech platform

iion Co-Founder Sanjaya Molligoda said, “IGA is one of the most rapidly expanding fields of marketing today. It helps brands to communicate with their target market, building familiarity with those who play these games. And this growth rate is the direct result of the adoption of digital transformation technologies worldwide, the popularity of mobile gaming and increasing strategic alliances among game developers and advertisers.

“We are excited to debut immersiion to the market. It offers brands a new and exciting way to create meaningful connections, find their audience in all gaming environments, select the right games to reach them, serve rich creative options to speak in their language and deliver the right message in the relevant context,” added Molligoda

iion Co-Founder Wout van Damme also commented, “Due to the crowded and complex nature of the gaming world and its position in this booming sector, brands need a solution that’s backed by significant experience and industry know-how to best navigate the dynamic gaming landscape. Brands need new innovative ways to connect with their target audience, beyond traditional media. Gaming is that new channel that helps advertisers and consumers to connect while the audience is wearing the gamers’ hat.”

“At iion, we understand these dynamics and don’t just connect brands to gamers, we connect them to their target audience when they are playing their favourite game and their focus and brand recollection is high. We also have a robust partner network to help move brands forward, supporting them every step of the way along their journey,” he added.

Singapore – Top smartphone brand Xiaomi in Asia has partnered with Xapads Media, adtech platform based in India, for the management of all its media sales activities in its ad platform, Mi Ads. The tie-up is targeted at offering premium app inventory in Xiaomi for brands and marketers in the SEA region. 

Xiaomi has been seeing incredible success in the global market and at present, aims to increase its penetration in the SEA region. The new partnership will assist brands in tapping the full power of on-device app recommendations within Xiaomi. Aside from offering advertisers exclusive access to Xiaomi’s premium app inventory, the partnership will be helping marketers with real-time insights, quality user acquisition, and premium ad placements while generating leads and giving product recommendations in a hygienic environment. 

Nitin Gupta, Xapads CEO, commented, “We at Xapads are glad to be associated with Xiaomi and its inventory integrated with our award-winning proprietary AI / ML driven programmatic engine, [Xerxes.]. Advertisers will get easy and direct access to Xiaomi’s premium inventory along with better pricing and ad placement options.”

Gupta added, “I believe that with the combination of Xapads’s expertise and access to Xiaomi’s [inventory,] we will be able to offer our clients with the best programmatic solutions around OEMs. [Together,] we hope to redefine performance programmatically and help brands to better sustain themselves in the adtech landscape.”

Ramneek Chadha, COO of Xapads Media, also expressed his excitement about the development, “It’s great to work with a credible, trusted and leading OEM partner. The new branding and promotion opportunities would help marketers connect with hard-to-reach niche audiences and optimize their ad campaigns”. 

Chan Liu, GM for International Internet Business Dept. at Xiaomi, also commented, “Xiaomi doesn’t only offer amazing hardware products, we’re also committed to creating a rich ecosystem of internet services based on MIUI. Our cooperation with Xapads will build a bridge for better communication between brands and Indonesian consumers and deliver value to everyone.”

Singapore – Yahoo has announced key appointments in its APAC team to bolster its adtech business in the region. They include Matt Farringtona as APAC head of partnerships and investment, Sandra Lin as APAC head of DSP strategy, Kenneth Koh as head of DSP for SEA, Terence Lim as business lead for SEA, and Natalie Phang as data and insights strategist for SEA.

Farrington will drive Yahoo’s investment strategy in the region and oversee commercial trading relationships with agencies and clients. He will lead the development and delivery of Yahoo’s trading deal models in APAC, generating value for agencies and clients across Yahoo’s best-in-class unified ad tech stack and omnichannel platforms.

Meanwhile, Lin will oversee the strategy for Yahoo’s ad platforms and unified ad tech stack, focusing on growing product adoption across the region. She will lead regional multi-discipline initiatives across product, positioning, and partnerships.

Koh will lead the demand-side Platform (DSP) team for SEA. His remit will include managing Yahoo’s growing platform specialist team that helps partners in Singapore and SEA realise their full potential through Yahoo’s buying solutions powered by its omnichannel, unified ad tech stack.

On the other hand, Lim will work closely with partners and agencies to help brands future-proof their marketing strategies and achieve their business goals through Yahoo’s unified ad tech stack.

Lastly, Phang will leverage her data strategy experience built across APAC and the EU, to help Yahoo’s agency and brand clients in SEA maximise their marketing investment for the cookieless world.

Paul Sigaloff, vice president and head of APAC at Yahoo, commented, “We are pleased to welcome these new talents to the Yahoo APAC team as we enter a phase of accelerated growth for Yahoo’s ad tech business in the region. Their collective expertise and experience will be invaluable to help create value for our clients and partners in APAC.” 

He added, “With a high-performance team and our market-leading ad tech capabilities, we are uniquely positioned to help brands solve their business objectives and take advantage of new opportunities in APAC’s dynamic digital landscape.”

The slew of appointments follows a series of appointments done this year, including Sebastian Graham as director of native, as well as John McNerneypromoted to senior director of platforms for APAC and Dan Richardson promoted to head of data for APAC.

Singapore – European-headquartered digital media, gaming and entertainment company Azerion has announced the formal launch of its high-impact ad auction and gaming SSP ‘Azerion’s Improve Digital’ in Australia and Southeast Asia. This follows Azerion’s APAC launch in July this year.

The proprietary SSP enables publishers to sell digital ad inventory across their web, mobile and app-based properties, while allowing advertisers to deliver high-impact creative ads to consumers with a strong focus on brand and performance results.

In addition, it enables advertisers to reach highly engaged and diverse audiences across Azerion’s owned-and-operated web properties, as well as independent digital publishers. The company’s advertising auction platform provides media buyers with high-impact ad formats across publisher sites and game titles through standard display, native, skin and video ads.

As a full-featured SSP, it allows multiple ways of monetising publisher inventory including header bidding, programmatic guaranteed or via private marketplaces. The burgeoning in-game advertising also brings more choice and flexibility for sellers and buyers to connect directly and conduct ad transactions.

Elizabeth Grant, operations and commercial director for JAPAC at Azerion, said, “The cornerstone of Azerion’s advertising auction platform Improve Digital is that by merging in-game advertising with our high impact creative technology, we place attention, brand and performance at the centre of every marketing campaign.”

She also added that the Asia-Pacific market is yet to reach its full potential and presents an untapped opportunity for advertisers seeking to reach gaming audiences, which vary wildly in demographic and cultural background.

“The gaming audience is growing exponentially across mobile, casual and social formats and brands have a unique opportunity to take part in this growth. We expect advertisers to increasingly embark on the journey of deploying our gaming and technology expertise to connect with hard-to-reach audiences across web, mobile and app,” she added.

California, USA – Programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic has announced a series of major enhancements in OpenWrap, the company’s unified auction solution for publishers. These recent enhancements aim to give publishers, including app developers, increased flexibility and improved performance with omnichannel and platform-specific enterprise-grade developer customisation. 

OpenWrap gives publishers more control over their programmatic advertising business. It is built on the open-source Prebid codebase, which provides publishers greater control, transparency, and innovation. With its new features, sellers can now clearly examine and activate the levers that contribute to delivering incremental performance.

PubMatic said that it has released a suite of enhanced capabilities to create value across the web, CTV/OTT, and mobile app. All publishers and developers leveraging OpenWrap will now gain yield improvements, such as floors designed to increase revenue, ad refresh at no cost, and levers that lift CPMs while maintaining fill. They will also have an upgraded management API, where they can customise OpenWrap to better fit the tech stack, and gain access to new automation and API options that add flexibility. And lastly, they will also gain enhanced analytics, which provides a holistic, data-visualised, and real-time view of their ad business. 

Additionally, OpenWrap has released new capabilities that deliver platform-specific benefits, including allowing web publishers to utilise more than 40 Prebid modules to leverage multiple, third-party-developed technology with efficient and unbiased integration, and enabling mobile app developers to seamlessly integrate with the top mobile mediation providers, leveraging OpenWrap’s SDK to gain access to PubMatic’s global brand demand, as well as giving OTT publishers the benefit from in-line bidding, capturing the full power of a unified auction that connects with third-party ad servers.

John Martin, director of OpenWrap at PubMatic, shared that OpenWrap is first and foremost a performance solution built for publishers and app developers, and they know every publisher’s business is different.

“We believe in open, flexible technology that enables total control and interoperability for every publisher, regardless of their inventory mix or monetisation strategy. Our recent enhancements build on this foundation, delivering higher performance, more nuanced capabilities and richer insights to ensure publishers maximise the value of their inventory and audiences,” said Martin.

Singapore – Food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has launched its advertising technology and marketing solutions suite ‘panda ads’. As part of the suite launch, the company has partnered with GroupM to accelerate panda ads growth across Asia.

With this strategic partnership, GroupM clients can tap into the fast-growing AdTech space by activating foodpanda’s in-app advertising and other media assets, and collaborate with foodpanda on brand partnerships and campaigns. 

The partnership spans seven markets – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

With the launch, foodpanda unveils a fresh suite of integrated advertising features that encompass the foodpanda app, digital marketing assets and new partnership programmes. Through panda ads, foodpanda aims to help brands increase their visibility and reach, improve sales conversion and build brand awareness to drive sales.

As an integrated advertising solution, panda ads offers a full suite of advertising options, from static or carousel images, to videos and lead-generating ads. Brands can also leverage foodpanda’s social media channels and enter collaborative partnerships across foodpanda’s verticals. These build brand visibility, and allow for performance tracking and monitoring. panda ads support brands with their digital marketing campaigns.

Kiranjeet Singh Purba, senior director of advertising and partnerships at foodpanda, said, “foodpanda has worked extensively to improve our ads solutions over the past year, and we are excited to offer advertisers a new, full suite of ad solutions with panda ads. We are especially thrilled to kick off our panda ads launch with a partnership with leading agency GroupM, and believe this will help their clients tap into new areas of digital marketing in Asia.”

Meanwhile, Toni Ruotanen, head of commerce for APAC at GroupM Nexus, commented, “Our partnership with panda ads covers an extensive region – across seven markets – opening up expansive possibilities for our clients in the digital and mobile space to enhance their brand visibility and increase business impact. panda ads’ innovative tech will see a great degree of personalisation and targeted advertisements, which charts the way forward in retail media.”

Singapore – Global adtech data solutions company Lotame has announced key elevations to its current leadership team in Asia-Pacific. They include Nishanth Raju, former VP for commercial and strategy, promoted to managing director for Southeast Asia; and Fred Marthoz, former SEA managing director, promoted to VP of global partnerships.

In his new role, Nishant will oversee business operations, forge strategic partnerships, growth and overall performance in the region in addition to increasing Panorama ID (the first global cookieless identity solution for a privacy-first open web) adoption across APAC.

He has over 17 years of experience in SaaS sales, client success, technology and data-driven solutions and consulting. Prior to Lotame, he was at Omnicom Media Group for over six years, where he was part of the founding team of Annalect Singapore. Annalect worked in close collaboration with OMD and PHD to offer technology, data and analytics solutions for regional and global clients across APAC.

Meanwhile, Marthoz is relocating to London, where he will be responsible for managing global deals and work in close collaboration with different regions to execute such opportunities. An industry veteran with over 20 years, Marthoz has been a product and sales leader.

Prior to Lotame, he launched Mocean Mobile in EMEA and served as the company’s Managing Director, EMEA. Earlier in his career, Marthoz held global leadership roles working for a number of big brands as well as emerging startups, including Microsoft, Google, and Playphone, among others.

Marthoz said, “Having worked with him closely in this region, his exposure to different roles and industry verticals has given him a unique perspective on our ecosystem and a better grasp of the bigger industry picture. I wish him all the success for his new role and excited to see him continue to accelerate our business in APAC.”

He added, “Our growth across regions has been substantial and as I take on a new role, I’m very excited to continue Lotame’s journey of developing high-impact solutions for marketers and publishers, together with a dynamic and dedicated team.”

Meanwhile, Chris Hogg, chief revenue officer at Lotame, commented, “With such important global initiatives in the pipeline, having both Nish and Fred at the wheel on our global teams is very exciting. Both leaders have delivered tremendous results in their various roles at Lotame and I look forward to their stewardship and contributions in our next phase of growth.”

Digital advertising spend has increased, and is forecasted to grow even further. Dentsu forecasts that ad spending globally will grow by 8.7%, and that around US$738.5b will be spent worldwide this July. As part of that growth, tech companies are very eager to dip into the adtech industry, as well as improve business performance within other adtech companies.. Data from WARC suggests that globally-recognised Big Tech companies will take up about 10.0% of all worldwide ad investment by 2030.

However, as much as there is activity within the adtech industry, companies are on the brink of losing more investment, ranging from factors such as waste of ad expenditure, online misleading content, and ad fraud. These reasons, in turn, become some of the biggest issues within the adtech space, with the large majority of adtech companies rely on third-party data to carry out their advertising strategies. This is evident with the fact that Google has delayed (once again) the phasing out of third-party cookies by 2024, after being previously delayed to 2023. 

And while third-party cookies remain a dominant feature of brands’ success in the adtech scene, there is a rising trend of using alternative ways to improve their digital advertising, from use of zero-party data and contextual targeting to identity solutions.

In our newest The Inner State industry deep-dive, we spoke with three adtech industry leaders: Peter Barry, vice president of addressability at PubMatic; Kenneth Pao, executive managing director at Criteo for Asia-Pacific; and Travis Teo, executive director and co-founder at Adzymic–to learn more about their insights on the current state of the adtech industry–what needs to be changed, and how they envision the industry for the future.

On Changing Adtech Trends: How Do Industry Leaders Perceive It?

Following the changes on Google’s Sandbox Privacy and Apple’s IDFA policies, Teo commented that investment into digital advertising is becoming more industry-specific and sensitive to the macro environment.

“We see shifting of spend into performance related media due to general downtrend of public stock markets, but pockets of industries like travel and entertainment are increasing in spend. Right now, we didn’t see changes in third-party cookies or Apple IDFA, affecting the spends, but we do see advertisers starting to ask questions around these topics,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Pao commented that through these changes, they were able to trigger their efforts to find new ways to engage with consumers, as well as diversify their approach away from retargeting for the benefits of both their clients and consumers. This includes introducing commerce media solutions.

“The approach combines commerce data and intelligence to target consumers throughout their shopping journey and help marketers and media owners drive commerce outcomes. Through this, both marketers and media owners can activate their first-party data and inventory, and package this for advertisers to drive commerce outcomes,” Pao stated.

Delaying Third-Party Cookies: Should We Debate or Move On?

When asked about their perspectives regarding the recent delays made by Google on phasing out third-party cookies, all three agreed that the adtech industry should move towards an ‘open internet’ where consumers’ data sharing preferences are protected in addition to combining data and advertising to create richer online experiences for consumers. 

“As we move towards an addressable media future, Criteo will focus on enabling marketers to manage, scale, and engage their audiences, while empowering media owners to fully utilise their first-party customer data through our commerce media platform strategy,” Pao said.

Meanwhile, Teo noted that there is already a certain fatigue with regards to this topic of cookie deprecation, and that there are more topics within the adtech space marketers and advertisers should talk about.

“At the same time, the industry should move on amidst the uncertainty, and chart its own path forward, instead of relying on Google Alternative. It may be painful initially but will reap the benefits in the future,”

Furthermore, Barry noted that delaying cookie deprecation doesn’t slow their innovation, development and commitment to customers to deliver results for advertisers and publishers.

“It is not good for competition and a healthy open internet when one company makes the digital publishing and advertising world uncertain about what moves to make; the industry should welcome a move away from any one company holding all the cards and should continue to act proactively. The industry should not use this delay to stall; instead this should only encourage us to work faster,” he explained.

Barry also added, “The industry must continue to work together and test privacy-first solutions that will enable safe, data-driven advertising into the future – this news just gives the industry more time to refine technical approaches and drive greater adoption prior to the transition. The move away from third-party cookies is in line with broader global trends around consumer data protection.”

The Big Question: Is Adtech ‘Dying’?

All of the adtech leaders have agreed that the industry isn’t dying after all, but rather advertisers and marketers alike should use the foundational tools and services they have within the traditional adtech space to develop new services that will transition the industry to a more privacy-centric future. 

Teo explains, “I believe the industry will continue to thrive and adapt. We are seeing innovative solutions coming up from various partners in the industry – too many in fact, and the downside is that it can lead to confusion from brands and agencies to understand which offerings can best suit their needs.”

Meanwhile, Pao stated that instead of staying reluctant to prepare for the future of addressability, they should view this as an opportunity to explore innovative tools that can empower them to build up a stronger first-party data management strategy. 

“Rather than viewing the evolution of consumer data privacy as a conflict to existing adtech offerings, adtech firms need to understand that tech tools serve simply as means to the end-goal of helping marketers and advertisers meet consumers’ evolving needs. Hence, as the adtech landscape evolves, the priority for adtech companies remains the same – to help marketers manage, scale, and engage audiences.”

Lastly, Barry said that there is importance in recognising that the deprecation of third-party cookies is in line with broader global trends around consumer data protection, as well as that updates like it should not pause the industry’s work to find new and better ways to deliver relevant advertising to consumers.

“Simply said: we can best serve digital publishers if advertisers get strong ROI from programmatic channels. A focus on helping publishers and brands get the best out of their digital advertising in a cookieless environment will ensure that our solutions remain relevant and useful,” he explains.

What Alternative Solutions Adtech Players Are Utilising?

As adtech leaders become more mindful with the ongoing changes within their industry towards a more privacy-centric one, companies are introducing more alternative strategies to materialise their objectives of veering away from their traditional third-party data-reliant services.

For PubMatic, Barry describes the launch of the company’s ‘Connect’ solution, which ensures publishers and advertisers that could thrive in a world without third party cookies.

“We also launched ‘Identity Hub’ a few years ago, providing a seamless transition from third-party cookies to consumer opt-in based first-party identity, which improves ad personalisation for consumers and provides higher ROI for advertisers,” he said.

Meanwhile over at Criteo, Pao says they are continuing to invest in the growth of their first-party data powered ‘Commerce Media’ solutions, including their ‘Retail Media’ offerings. According to him, they aim to build a unified platform and data source for marketers and media owners that will enable responsible addressable media for the future.

“Over the past couple of years, our solutions have grown to span the entire consumer commerce journey, from discovering brands and products for the first time to ensuring the best opportunities for a sale, to making each subsequent visit more profitable and privacy-safe,” Pao said.

He also added, “Ultimately, we’re using innovative adtech tools to remain laser focused on meeting our end-goal – helping marketers and media owners work with consumers to create a transparent and vibrant open internet for all stakeholders.”

So, What’s Next for the Adtech Industry?

The addressable media and more involvement from more brands tapping into the adtech space: these are the factors adtech leaders see as the future of the adtech industry. For context, addressable media is defined as the type of advertising that connects brands with individual consumers across multiple online advertising platforms, social media, OTT (over the top) content providers, and smart TV platforms.

“The future of adtech will continue to be bright and at the same time getting more competitive and more fragmented. You can see that big global companies like Netflix, Disney, Apple, and regional players like Grab, Carousell are aggressively entering the adtech fray, each offering their own media and data solutions,” Teo explains.

Pao also agrees with this, stating that it is time that we see these changes as opportunities to test new methods for engaging consumers online and approach them with an open mind as the industry moves towards an addressable future in an open internet.

“Four in ten [brands] [in APAC] say their current marketing practices rely on third-party cookies, and that they’re concerned about the elimination of third-party cookies. Brands and marketers should prioritise building up their first-party data strategies and invest in solutions throughout commerce media platforms to help analyse and execute data-driven consumer engagement. Only then can they remain future-proof as the industry evolves.”

Meanwhile, Barry notes that the future of adtech is evident with both publishers and advertisers moving away from walled gardens because they aren’t aware of what’s going on with their investments on those platforms.

“We know there is more change to come as the programmatic industry grapples with the future of identity, and buyers access a much wider array of inventory. We, too, will continue to innovate and evolve to maximise control and value to both publishers and media buyers. This is only the beginning of the next phase of programmatic,” Barry stated.