Singapore – Outbrain has announced a strategic partnership with Cedara, an end-to-end carbon intelligence platform, to support Outbrain and its customers’ sustainability and decarbonisation efforts.
The partnership will allow Outbrain to share in-depth emissions measurements with its advertiser partners, including those running on the company’s newly launched branding platform, ‘Onyx by Outbrain’. It will also enable the company to comprehensively measure carbon emissions across its global organisation.
Moreover, the company announced the launch of its ‘smart-throttling’ tool – a response prediction model which uses machine learning to predict and recommend the most valuable requests for its demand-side-platform (DSP) partners.
Outbrain will leverage Cedara’s technology to assess its own current baseline, analyse data to identify areas for improvement, and empower advertisers to gain visibility into the emissions derived from their campaigns with Outbrain. The partnership also supports the industry-wide initiative Ad Net Zero, aimed at decarbonising the production, distribution, and publication of advertising.
Yaron Galai, co-founder and co-CEO of Outbrain, said, “Outbrain is committed to shaping a better and more sustainable digital advertising ecosystem, and our partnership with Cedara combined with our Smart-Throttling tool will give us another avenue to support our premium publisher partners while addressing the need to reduce carbon emissions and ensure advertisers have a transparent way to measure the impact of their campaigns.”
He added, “Our direct integrations with many of the most prestigious publishers across the globe make us supply-path-optimised by design, and this added layer will enable us to strengthen our focus on sustainability to continue building deeper partnerships with advertisers.”
Meanwhile, David Shaw, CEO & co-founder of Cedara, commented, “Cedara is thrilled to further enable Outbrain’s commitment to sustainability, while supporting their publisher and advertiser partners’ own paths to net zero. We applaud Outbrain’s industry-leading efforts at both an organisational and technological level in decarbonisation.”
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, harnessing the power of augmented reality (AR) and gamification has become paramount for businesses and marketers alike. These innovative technologies are not just trends; they represent a paradigm shift in engagement and customer interaction.
Augmented reality bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds, offering immersive experiences that captivate audiences. By integrating gamification elements into AR campaigns, companies can tap into the innate human desire for competition, achievement, and rewards, driving deeper engagement and brand loyalty.
In this interview, we spoke with Matthew Endresz, the founder and CEO of XRii, to learn more about the company’s vision and mission of gamifying campaigns through immersive technologies, such as augmented reality.
MARKETECH APAC:In one sentence, what does your company do?
Endresz: XRii allows you to create brilliant and engaging campaigns using augmented reality, geo-mapping and gamification, all within your own app. Think Pokemon Go meshed with Groupon!
MARKETECH APAC:How / why did you start your company?
Endresz: Our journey with XRii began with an audacious belief: the future of customer engagement was on the cusp of a radical transformation, and we wanted to be at the helm of it. We realised that emerging technologies –like augmented reality, geo-mapping, and gamification – were more than just buzzwords. They were untapped resources, brimming with potential to redefine how businesses connect with their audiences.
But what struck us most was a glaring gap in the market. Companies either needed more expertise to integrate these technologies effectively or found the prospect too daunting and complex. That’s when we knew we had to act. The vision for XRii was born out of a desire to democratise access to these cutting-edge technologies, enabling businesses of all sizes to tap into new realms of customer engagement and revenue growth.
MARKETECH APAC:What is the best thing your company has achieved or learnt along the way?
Endresz: Within the first six months of going live, we launched five successful case studies. We also participated in the SportsPro Ignition event and received an exceptional reception. This recognition not only validated the hard work and creativity of our team but also reinforced our belief in the significance of our mission. We are more excited than ever about the future and fuelled by enthusiasm, knowing that the best is still yet to come.
MARKETECH APAC:What’s some advice you’d give to an aspiring martech start-up?
Endresz: The start-up landscape is dynamic, and being adaptable is crucial. Be prepared to learn from both successes and failures as each experience holds valuable insights that can guide your decisions and strategies moving forward. Beyond that, my advice to aspiring start-ups would be:
Ensure that it’s driven by passion: Passion is the driving force that sustains you through the inevitable hurdles and uncertainties that arise. It’s what gives you the energy to persist, iterate and continuously improve your offerings. When your start-up is fuelled by passion, it becomes more than just a business venture – it becomes a mission that you’re truly invested in.
Prioritise quality and excellence: In a competitive landscape, quality and excellence are your distinguishing factors. Strive to create products or services that not only meet but exceed the expectations of your customers. This requires a commitment to consistently delivering value. By focusing on quality, you establish trust and credibility in the minds of your customers, setting the foundation for lasting relationships and positive word-of-mouth.
Nurture the finer details: The success of a start-up often hinges on the finer details that might be overlooked by others. Whether it’s the user interface of your app, the packaging of your product or the clarity of your communication – these seemingly small elements can have a significant impact on the overall perception of your brand. Take the time to refine these details and ensure that every touchpoint reflects the level of care and thoughtfulness that you’ve poured into your venture.
MARKETECH APAC:What’s next for your company?
Endresz: We are committed to strengthening our product, with the goal of optimising the value we deliver to both our existing and new clients and their customers. This will position us strongly for the future whether that’s as the ‘go-to’ marketing platform for brand engagement and conversions through interactive solutions in the APAC region or on the international stage.
MARKETECH APAC:Which other companies do you admire?
Endresz: I have admiration for companies like Apple, Airbnb, Spotify, Disney, Revolut, as well as smaller enterprises such as Vitable. I’m drawn to companies that prioritise design with great intensity. So, Apple’s sleek and user-friendly products, Airbnb’s easy-to-use platform for finding unique places to stay, Spotify’s simple way of discovering music, Disney’s ability to create magical, immersive experiences and Revolut’s modern approach to finance — they showcase the incredible impact that aesthetics and user experience can have in building successful and memorable businesses. Even smaller companies like Vitable show that good design and processes can make a real difference.
Singapore – Martech company Antsomi has welcomed digital marketing and advertising company D.A.Consortium (DAC) as its strategic investor, positioning DAC as a regional reseller of Antsomi’s innovative customer data platform, CDP 365, in the Southeast Asian region.
With an undisclosed amount, the investment will be used for product development and regional expansions, including business development and client success capacities.
Moreover, Antsomi’s collaboration with DAC has yielded other results, with the onboarding of regional clients, including Dunlop Thailand. This achievement highlights the strength and potential of the partnership and showcases Antsomi’s and DAC’s commitments to providing solutions to their clients.
The strategic partnership between Antsomi and DAC is also poised to make a significant impact on the marketing landscape in the Southeast Asia market. By combining Antsomi’s advanced AI-driven customer data platform with DAC’s established market presence and expertise, both companies aim to improve existing marketing practices, empower businesses with data-driven insights and personalised customer experiences, leading to improved customer loyalty and business success.
Serm Teck Choon, co-founder and CEO of Antsomi, said, “Our collaboration with DAC represents a pivotal step forward for Antsomi’s regional expansion and sustainable growth. DAC’s extensive industry expertise and strong market presence will accelerate our mission of transforming businesses into data-driven companies. We are confident that this strategic partnership will deliver exceptional value to our clients and drive unparalleled success.”
Meanwhile, Michihiko Suganuma, senior executive officer and head of global business group at DAC, commented, “We are thrilled to invest in Antsomi and become their strategic partner. This collaboration is a testament to our dedication to providing cutting-edge solutions to our clients and driving their success in the digital age. With Antsomi’s innovative and data-driven technology, we can unlock valuable customer insights and enable our clients to deliver personalized experiences at scale. We believe this partnership will bring immense value to both DAC and our clients.”
Australia– Marketing transformation consultancy Lution (-lution) has announced the establishment of its dedicated martech practice. The expansion comes with the appointment of industry expert Satya Upadhyaya as its chief martech officer, reinforcing -lution’s commitment to empowering marketers and optimizing marketing platforms for clients.
Upadhyaya brings a wealth of experience as a CRM, marketing data, and tech thought leader, having worked with renowned brands such as Citibank Australia, NAB, Bankwest, HSBC, NRMA, The Star, and Accenture across various industry sectors.
Moreover, his comprehensive expertise in navigating the complex martech landscape and identifying the most suitable tech stack from various providers will be instrumental in delivering tangible results for -lution’s clients.
Speaking on his new role, Upadhyaya expressed his enthusiasm about his new role and joining the rest of the -lution team with a shared goal of bridging the gaps in the martech industry.
“Our aim is to simplify the complexity and empower marketers and in-house agencies with a more effective and optimized marketing platform. By providing guidance in architecture, tool selection, and marketing operating model design, we will ensure marketers have the tools they need to succeed,” said Upadhyaya.
Meanwhile, -lution’sCEO and founder, Chris Maxwell, emphasizes the need to enhance their services in response to market demand. He said their commitment is to assist their clients in strategy, structure, process, and tools.
Maxwell also added that Satya’s industry leadership adds immense value to the team. His appointment aligns seamlessly with their philosophy of fostering collaboration between marketers.
Lution’s martech practice launch follows a series of recent client wins, solidifying the consultancy’s position as a trusted partner for marketing transformation. The new offering complements -lution’s existing services and reinforces the consultancy’s commitment to delivering exceptional results for clients across diverse industries.
Australia – CHEP has named Nick Jia as its executive director for marketing technology.
Considered one of Australia’s leading MarTech experts, Jia’s new role will see him supporting the growth of the marketing technology function at CHEP, supporting the increasing demand for sophisticated personalisation, cross-channel marketing, and customer data management solutions.
Jia joins from Anchora as chief growth officer where he successfully built and launched their MarTech capability. Prior to Anchora, he spent time in software vendor roles at Adobe and Experian, in addition to technical consulting roles in a range of agencies across the country.
Over the course of his career, Jia has partnered with leading brands including Bupa, IAG, Kayo, Singapore Airlines, Tabcorp, Velocity and more to accelerate their commercial performance through the application of new technology solutions.
CHEP Network’s chief technology officer, Mark Gretton, said, “Since we launched our MarTech practice seven years ago, we have seen companies adopt a whole raft of solutions. [However,] the next wave of AI-infused, [cloud-based] tech is even more exciting. As Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey reports, CMO’s are now spending roughly 25% of their budget on MarTech.”
“With the space continuing to grow and evolve, and our clients’ needs changing day-by-day, I’m thrilled to have a brilliant commercial, technical and strategic mind in Nick joining our team. He comes into a business with a well-established and mature MarTech function that I think he will only help turbo-charge with his deep data-driven marketing expertise.”
Jia himself commented, “I’ve worked in a number of different shaped businesses over the last 15 years and really enjoyed my time in all of them. However, there isn’t another services business in Australia that has managed to fuse together the full spectrum of creative, media and technology services at scale with the same coherence as the CHEP team.”
“The benefit of this really shows in CHEP’s work in helping the biggest businesses in the region transform and innovate their entire end-to-end digital customer experiences. The highly collaborative, ego-free and positive culture has been something I continued to hear great things about. It feels like the business is about to embark on a whole new wave of growth and momentum, and I’m super excited to be a part of it.”
Customer reviews have a huge impact on helping companies make smart decisions about which software to purchase.
According to a recent study by content management system (CMS) Storyblok, 75% regretted buying software without reading enough customer reviews first. About 26% spend one month researching software, and 56% read more than 20 customer reviews before purchasing it.
In a global survey of 200 business leaders who purchase software for their 500+ employee companies, the report found that only 1% said customer reviews are of low importance when choosing software. All of that research pays off because 94% said customer reviews match their experience using the software all the time or most of the time.
“Focusing on the needs of our customers is at the heart of everything we do at Storyblok. We believe being recognised as the only vendor that’s a Customers’ Choice is a massive honor, but it’s also a responsibility we take very seriously. We’re committed to making sure our customers feel this way about us for many years to come,” said Dominik Angerer, Co-Founder and CEO of Storyblok.
As part of its efforts to continue providing an excellent customer experience, Storyblok also recently revealed a new ROI calculator to help businesses see the economic impact that’s possible with modernised content management.
Singapore – Martech company Xtend has announced the launch of an AI-first retargeting engine. Alongside this, the firm has opened its global headquarters in Singapore.
Built on a large-scale AI model, Xtend provides an algorithm that predicts based on typical user profiles instead of usual marketing funnels. It allows anticipation of a user’s next preferred engagement with a brand – whether via discovery, product comparisons, or a flash deal.
Furthermore, the martech will also incorporate a large section of owned and operated contextual e-commerce inventory, that will be tagged as ‘SHOPit’, to create a more native environment for users to interact with e-commerce offers outside of their core platforms.
Through SHOPit, a platform agnostic plug and play solution, Xtend is able to accurately pinpoint lapses in the user journey and effectively help businesses retarget using unique and customised user scenarios, and AI Generated Content (AIGC) native creations.
At an event last 20 April, Xtend engaged its top existing e-commerce partners such as Tokopedia and Lazada for an exclusive preview of the new product. The company’s team of industry stalwarts will be supporting these companies to reach, convert, and re-engage their users.
The launch event featured an open discussion between key leaders of the industry on the future of marketing and the ability to identify and serve users with meaningful communications, in the absence of cookies and app user IDs, all expected to be deprecated by 2024.
“Industries like ecommerce, fintech, and food delivery apps acquired huge volumes of users during the pandemic. These users, many of whom were forced to come online faster than they may have, are behaving in unique ways, posing challenges to typical user models in the adtech industry, “ said Karam Malhotra, Xtend’s CEO.
“Xtend is a pioneering innovation made by a global team with rich retargeting experience to meet the needs of our partners. It incorporates best practices of marketing technology solutions across both owned & operated and programmatic inventory. We are excited to debut amid a new AI generation, given every part of our engine and workflow is heavily integrated with AI, bringing efficiencies onto the table,” Malhotra further said.
Xtend, which was soft-launched earlier this year, is made up of industry veterans and young-blooded executives coming from companies such as RTB House, Criteo, Tencent, and others.
Across Q2 and Q3 2023, the company will be globally rolled out across Asia, EMEA, CIS, LatAm, and the U.S.
Singapore – Involve Asia, the martech firm with a focus on Southeast Asia, has expanded its leadership team through the appointment of two senior marketing hires. This comes after its recent fundraising of over US$10m led by Bintang Capital Partners.
Melissa Chan is inaugurated as vice president of brand and marketing, whilst Kylee Yap assumes the position of director of marketing services. With the new leadership, Involve Asia looks to continue expanding its product line and services to its network of clients and partners across the region.
The company’s main value proposition is making affiliate marketing accessible and cost-effective, in order for individuals to small-to-medium-sized marketing companies to enhance their network with global brands. Involve Asia says Chan and Yap will be instrumental in growing its regional brand and marketing efforts and in leading the company’s team across content, brand, public relations, social media, digital performance, marketing, and design.
Chan is most recently the CMO of iMoney Group. She brings with her 25 years of experience including working in teams across the startup and fintech industries. Her vast in-market knowledge spans financial product development, digital banking, loyalty programs, and customer segmentation. Prior to joining Involve Asia, she held key leadership roles at CIMB bank, HSBC, Hong Leong, RHB Banking Group, and TNG Digital.
Meanwhile, Yap is coming off his position as the interim country marketing manager of Meta for Malaysia. Over a span of 20 years with companies such as Meta, Lazada, CtrlShift, Ogilvy Action, and Saatchi & Saatchi, she had been deeply involved in curating and leading branding activities across offline, online, and social media platforms. She had been exposed to many regional and global events which have honed her skills in creating tailored campaigns.
With a holistic background in client management, sales, event management, and branding, the company says Yap will be aiming to strategically grow Involve Asia’s presence in Southeast Asia and enhance its service quality to existing and new audiences.
Yap commented, “We are living in a world that is rapidly growing its digital presence, and the online marketplace is an indispensable staple for most brands and advertisers post-pandemic. Through the extensive network that helps it effectively bridge the gap between brands and audiences, Involve Asia’s platform is uniquely positioned to amplify returns in the marketing partnership space.”
Meanwhile, on the new journey with the firm, Chan says, “Involve Asia has such a captivating story combined with a social purpose that needs to be told. Many brands this year have been reviewing their marketing budgets and are looking for cost-optimised solutions to meet their business and marketing goals. Individuals are also starting to supplement and increase their income by entering the gig economy. I look forward to elevating the experience of affiliate marketing and fulfilling Involve Asia’s missions.”
Along with optimising current growth channels, the firm further shared that both will hold key responsibilities for the development of bespoke marketing campaigns to drive additional revenue streams.
Since the company’s establishment in 2014, Involve Asia has expanded from its Malaysia base into Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, tapping into Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing e-commerce and digital ad market. The company says it is charging forward with ‘ambitious’ growth planned in the coming months.
Singapore – Affiliate marketing platform Involve Asia has recently raised US$10m in funding, which the company will use to acquire complementary tech companies, as well as continuously invest in enhancing its platform and team.
As part of Involve’s plans to scale even more rapidly, part of its fundraise will be used to invest in companies that complement its business and leverage its network of clients and partners. In recent years, Involve has established a firm footing with influencers across the region which has driven strong results for advertisers.
The company also plans to deploy a comprehensive suite of solutions that will increase the avenues for advertisers to leverage on influencers and their highly engaged audience.
It is also expanding the team in line with its aggressive growth plans and hiring across many roles, with almost 50 positions open especially in business development, project management, product and DevOps.
Rene Menezes, president and co-founder of Involve said, “2022 marked Involve’s second chapter of aggressive growth. We’re not sitting around waiting for the global uncertainty to settle. We are in a position to invest and step on the gas while many are focused on consolidation and preserving cash. A number of industry-changing products are ready to be taken out of beta and will hit the market very soon.”
He added, “There is always a need for high impact, brand advertising but even more opportunity exists for marketers who adopt Involve’s platform with its focus on risk-free, highly effective returns on marketing budgets.”
The funding round was led by Bintang Capital Partners Berhad, the private equity arm of Affin Hwang Asset Management Berhad, with a parentage that includes leading global investment managers such as CVC Capital Partners and Nikko Asset Management.
2023 will mark an exciting and transformative new phase for most businesses in the world as the economic environment and market situation evolves and enters a new normal. First-party data-centric solutions, online-merge-offline (OMO) services and applications, along with result-driven marketing focus with the emphasis on conversion and campaign result uplift, are set to help businesses build stronger resilience in a highly uncertain market environment.
In the post-pandemic era, offline channels have been recovering steadily, but this does not mean that the influence of online channels will decline. Instead, with the nature of online marketing’s measurable effectiveness, the lines between customer acquisition, retention, conversion, and insight into the marketing funnel stages have started to blur, and this makes it more important to equip businesses with real-time first-party data collection and analysis capabilities to strengthen their online and offline data integration. Service providers with a strong AI know-how will continue to lead the trends of MarTech tool development and present more diverse applications to fit multiple scenarios.
Following the incoming phasing out of third-party cookies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a leading technology that provides better results for organisations, supporting them to enhance their campaign performances with limited data sources. In response to the economic slowdown and inflation, results-driven marketing solutions will empower businesses to turn their marketing investment into predictable returns and leverage a ‘turning AI into ROI’ customer-centric mindset to help enterprises cope well with the new normal in 2023.
To prepare for the new normal in the post-pandemic era in 2023, the following three strategies can help companies seize potential business opportunities and make wiser business decisions:
Theme 1: First-party data centric solutions
With the rise in the awareness of data privacy, businesses are seeking first-party data centric solutions for digital marketing. Real-time analysis and predictions from small data are two unique features of AI technology which can unify user profiles and extrapolate user affinity more accurately and realize personalised communication with limited first-party data, whilst respecting user privacy. Moreover, first-party data can also enable auto-piloted intelligent advertising to generate greater investment returns for customers.
Theme 2: OMO application of online and offline data
Digital transformation is a continuously evolving process. Although offline sales have gradually recovered in the post-pandemic era, online shopping trends that took hold during the pandemic have convinced brands that OMO is the key to sustainability and to coping with uncertainties.
To adapt to the new normal in the post-pandemic era, enterprises are actively seeking solutions to integrate and connect data across offline and online channels. Brands that unify customer data across different channels such as websites, apps, and social media can then leverage smarter insights to create seamless and personalised customer experiences.
Theme 3: Emphasis on conversion and effectiveness with result-driven marketing focus
An ever-changing market environment brings formidable challenges to enterprises and brands. Brands are spending their marketing budgets more precisely to specify marketing targets. AI can incorporate natural language processing, computer vision, and conversational commerce to help businesses keep up with these changes in real time, gain insights that humans cannot perceive, and recommend businesses to take immediate actions driven by data.
For example, AI can target high-value customers and make predictions beforehand, and optimize the effectiveness of advertising and retargeting. It can also be used to make creative decisions about ad materials to improve advertising effectiveness. Combined with intuitive visualisation to quickly display users’ feedback at every touch point of the customer journey, AI can quickly predict and understand marketing performance in real time and take immediate actions.
AI not only improves the efficiency and effectiveness of customer acquisition, it can also predict purchase intent. After a user visits a website, brands can leverage the power of AI to deliver a personalised coupon to hesitant shoppers to stimulate the checkout process or increase customer transactions, enabling enterprises to maximise the ROI of their marketing campaign without sacrificing profit.
Due to the impact of the pandemic and uncertainties in the market, AI-driven MarTech solutions have become an indispensable tool to help companies enhance their competitiveness. There will be more relevant applications to be introduced in 2023, and be adopted extensively in multiple industries. MarTech solutions will also become more data-driven and result-driven to help enterprises make advances in the face of adversity.
This article is written by Hongchia How, Vice President of Appier for APAC.
The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023. What’s NEXT 2023is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.
If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share on upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to be part of the series.
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