Singapore – From a global perspective among brand marketers aiming to seek priorities for brands this year, only 26% of global marketers are confident in their audience data. This is according to the latest survey from market measurement firm Nielsen.

This is despite the fact that the survey noted that 69% of marketers believe first-party data is essential for their strategies and campaigns, and 72% of marketers believe they have access to quality data.

Speaking of brand awareness, around 64% of respondents stated that social media is the most effective paid channel with TikTok and Instagram dominating spend. Comparatively, TV and radio spend is significantly less with an aggregate increase of 53% across global marketers. Customer acquisition is their second objective, showing that marketers must focus efforts on the entire customer journey.

Meanwhile, marketers’ confidence in measuring ROI of the full-funnel is only 54%. Remove online and mobile video and confidence in measuring ROI across all other channels is under 50% globally, and while nearly half of marketers plan to increase their spending on podcasts, their confidence in measuring the ROI of that investment is 44%.

In addition, the survey notes that only 36% of marketers still claim that data access, identity resolution, and deriving actionable insights from data is either extremely or very difficult. With the rise of connected TV (CTV) presents new challenges to traditional targeting solutions. CTV is a growing focus for global marketers, with 51% planning to increase their over-the-top/CTV spending in the coming year.

Lastly, the data shows that 55% of consumers aren’t convinced that brands are fostering true progress, despite global marketers saying their brands are emphasising purpose.

Jamie Moldafsky, chief marketing and communications officer at Nielsen, said, “This research showcased that marketers want to put money into channels to deliver immediate ROI, however we also see that they must be agile in the year ahead and work across the entire marketing funnel to reinforce brand awareness and acquire more customers. With the upcoming elimination of third-party cookies, it’s understandable to see marketers prioritising personalization and aligning their brand with causes their customers care about. Through our solutions – and this report – we’re continuing to help brands and marketers get actionable insights to make more informed, and quicker decisions.”

India – Online parenting community platform, FirstCry Parenting, has partnered with programmatic digital ad company PubMatic, to make its audience data segments available across PubMatic’s premium inventory. This will be through PubMatic‘s audience data platform, Audience Encore.

FirstCry Parenting boasts a user base of 20 million and engages parents via a wide range of parenting content, from curated video and editorial articles on parenting, which is validated by medical experts, from tracker tools to meal plans and parent forums. Its audience is segmented into expecting parents, parents of infants, toddlers, and school-aged children, enabling advertisers across industries and sectors to connect with the relevant target demographic of their choosing.

Through the partnership, PubMatic will further expand its Audience Encore, which is designed to improve how marketers and data owners transact by aiming to give more control to the data owner and better ROI for the advertiser. Data providers and publishers with first-party data can upload their segments to the platform, generate a Deal ID for single, recurring, or customized use, and then transact programmatically, alongside premium PubMatic inventory in private or open marketplaces.

Moreover, the partnership will enable media buyers to leverage FirstCry Parenting’s rich audience segments across all digital screens and channels, including mobile, connected TV, and the open web on PubMatic’s premium inventory. The direct integration allows buyers to activate data at the supply level which can lead to increasing the campaign performance via improved scale, viewability, and click-through rate.

Supam Maheshwari, FirstCry’s founder and CEO, believes that the combination of PubMatic’s premium inventory and FirstCry’s valuable audience data is a real win for advertisers.

“FirstCry Parenting harnesses the accumulated knowledge and experience of parents on FirstCry for several years, making this a complete resource for new families embarking on their parenting journey. Engaging with young families is an opportunity for brands to introduce themselves to a generation of prospective new customers,” said Maheswari.

Amit Yadav, PubMatic’s country manager for South Asia, said that with the prevalence of third-party cookies continuing to decline and consumer privacy paramount, it is important for agencies to re-define audience addressability strategies to optimize reach. 

He further shared that poor cookie match rates can be addressed when data targeting is applied at the SSP level and passed via a deal ID, which typically represents a multitude of domains. 

“Media buyers who use Audience Encore to target high-value segments like FirstCry Parenting’s segments typically report increased efficiency, more control, better transparency, increased scale, higher quality buys, and greater efficacy,” said Yadav.

Sydney, Australia – Market measurement firm Nielsen in Australia and adtech PubMatic have recently announced a new data collaboration, which now makes Nielsen’s audience data now available to PubMatic’s Audience Encore™ product, allowing advertisers to buy premium omnichannel inventory layered with quality data for precision targeting and better performance.

PubMatic’s Audience Encore™ is an audience platform designed for marketers to transact on unique, addressable audience data across premium omnichannel inventory.

Through the data collaboration, brands can benefit from PubMatic’s extensive reach, enabling advertisers to engage audiences wherever they may be across all digital channels. Furthermore, brands may now access Nielsen’s premium audience data, along with insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and purchasing decisions. 

Nielsen’s rich audience data has a unique breadth and depth and includes proprietary fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) data, credit card transaction data, psychographic data, intent, and interest data.

For Daisy Smith, associate director for Nielsen Marketing Cloud at Nielsen Australia, brands are constantly competing for consumers’ attention, hence audience data and insights play a significant role in engaging consumers when they are most receptive to advertising.

“With the widespread adoption of premium programmatic deals, the need to package high-quality datasets with premium inventory is bigger than ever. The partnership between Nielsen and PubMatic provides marketers with a high level of consumer intelligence while optimizing their advertising investments across all the touchpoints on the consumer journey,” Smith stated.

In a statement, Nielsen stated that their data layered onto PubMatic’s Auction Packages or private marketplaces (PMPs) may benefit advertisers by giving them the ability to leverage data and contextual targeting across premium inventory. 

“This can enable advertisers to identify and buy media with the publishers that attempt to attract the most suited, addressable audiences for each brand. This gives advertisers the opportunity to reduce wasted ad spend and focus budget on premium inventory, maximizing the effectiveness of campaigns,” the company said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Peter Barry, regional director for ANZ and head of audience for APAC at PubMatic, commented, “With Nielsen data available through PubMatic’s Audience Encore, our clients can expand their media campaigns and reach new, highly targeted audiences. Our goal is to fundamentally change the way marketers and data owners transact on audience data by giving more control to the data owner and better return on investment (ROI) for the advertiser. For retail brands, this provides an exciting opportunity to engage consumers in the run-up to key shopping periods, such as Black Friday and the run-up to Christmas, to ensure they are top-of-mind when consumers look to purchase.”

The data collaboration recently follows the partnership between NielsenIQ and experience management (XM) company Qualtrics in aiding to create comprehensive brand experience solutions for brands.

Singapore – Global data and measurement-driven media agency Essence has announced the launch of its newest consulting service called Essence Data Health Check, targeted to aid brands in getting value from collected audience data, which in turn can optimize business impact and consumer brand experience.

Said service was developed at the Singapore-based innovation, research and development hub Essence Global Ventures.

According to the agency, said service was built to be a strategic and tactical aid for marketers to accelerate their digital marketing transformation and business growth. In addition to helping brands navigate the seismic shifts in data, identity and privacy due to the confluence of changes in user sentiment, regulations and technology, the offering enables marketers to maximize value from their audience data and optimize consumer brand experience. 

Furthermore, the features of the product are informed by years of providing data services for brands across APAC, including those from the technology, retail, travel, luxury and financial services sectors.

As part of its consultancy offerings, Essence Data Health Check provides a meticulous review of marketers’ technology stack, data collection setup, audience management approach and data deployment practice, along with actionable recommendations to increase the effectiveness of data-driven paid and owned marketing activities. 

In terms of data review, this process is done with respect towards current and future shifts in legislation and technology pertaining to consumers’ online identity and privacy. Designed for both in-house marketing teams and external agency service models, the offering also recommends measurable implementation roadmaps to track progress and capture value.

For Vincent Niou, vice president for data strategy for APAC at Essence, their excitement with the launch of the Essence Data Health Check stems from the fact that data has never been more integral to more aspects of marketers’ businesses, but the space has never been more confusing and uncertain.

Meanwhile, Shane Dewar, vice president for advertising operations for APAC at Essence, commented, “With consumer sentiment, public policy and the advertising industry as a whole moving towards an ecosystem that puts privacy at the forefront of how it operates, brands and advertisers will be challenged to ensure that the people, processes and tools they have are capable of navigating the new privacy-first world. Essence Data Health Check is designed to help marketers evaluate what they are doing well in, provide a roadmap to improve their data strategy, and ultimately, enable brands to achieve their goals.”

The introduction of Essence Data Health Check follows the earlier launch of Essence Media Health Check, a consulting service developed to help marketers achieve effective business outcomes from their digital media campaigns by delivering measurable performance improvements over current baselines. 

“We are now at the dawn of a new era of marketing – one that is defined by consumers’ expectations around their data and privacy, and an industry looking to bring more personalized experiences to their consumers. Essence Data Health Check will underpin the foundations for this privacy-first world, where the ethical compass on consumers’ data is paramount. Through Essence Global Ventures, it is our ambition to continually innovate solutions that will ensure marketers globally can lead with new strategic advantages, today and in the future,” said Kunal Guha, executive vice president at Essence.