Tag: Programmatic media

Singapore – MiQ, a global programmatic media specialist, expanded in Southeast Asia (SEA) through the opening of a new head office in Singapore.

The new office will function as a centre for MiQ’s growing SEA team. Several divisions, like local sales, account management, trade, and solution functions, will be housed there. A dedicated creative studio will also focus on the development of multichannel creative content. 

Together, these divisions provide support for a broad range of omnichannel programmatic activation opportunities, including the most recent CTV/OTT, YouTube, VOD, and HD streaming video solutions.

Following its initial launch into the SEA region in 2018, the expansion signifies a turning point in MiQ’s journey in Asia. The company steadily grew over the years, and the number of employees increased from six to 23. The increased workforce at MiQ has been crucial in assisting important agency partners and offering specialised knowledge of the local media business. The opening of the new office is proof of MiQ’s dedication to offering complete services and solidifying its position as a leading authority in programmatic media in Southeast Asia.

Jason Scott, CEO for APAC at MiQ, who will lead the Singapore office team, said, “We are thrilled to officially mark the opening of this new facility. With this expansion, MiQ aims to further enhance its capacity to deliver impactful advertising campaigns across various channels and optimise media performance for its SEA clients.”

“The new space will also work hand-in-hand with MiQ’s Centre of Excellence, located in Bangalore, which specialises in engineering, analysis and date science. Our goal is to use the new Singapore office to continue to expand our creative offering, particularly our total video solutions, and continue to deliver guaranteed performance campaigns for our clients.” he added.

Singapore – Programmatic media partner MiQ has appointed James Parker, former vice president of platform and agency growth at Amobee Singapore, to be its new head of revenue and growth for Southeast Asia. 

In his new role, Parker will be responsible for leading MiQ’s sales and commercial approach in the region to expand and accelerate the company’s growth. 

Originally from London, Parker has spent the last 10 years in Singapore and moved there to lead the newly created Annalect team for OMG, focused on delivering marketing intelligence solutions to regional brands. He then joined Xaxis to spearhead the roll-out of the agency’s proprietary DMP. In the UK, he worked with OMG and Mediaedge:cia.

MiQ said that Parker’s appointment comes as former managing director for Southeast Asia, Marcus D’Souza, transitions back to London later this summer in a new global commercial role. With this, all MiQ’s Southeast Asian sales leads will be reporting to Parker.

Commenting on his new role, Parker said, “What impressed me the most about MiQ during the interview process was their platform agnostic approach to driving outcomes and the automation initiatives across the programmatic campaign lifecycle; from campaign setup, creating custom performance algorithms, to analytics and reporting. I am thrilled to be joining a fantastic team and leading MiQ into the next stage of growth in Southeast Asia.” 

Meanwhile, Jason Scott, MiQ’s CEO for APAC, shared that Parker is well credentialed to ignite their commercial approach in the region, given his decade of living and working in Southeast Asia on both the agency and platform side.

“He has an established and comprehensive set of commercial relationships, alongside vast and relevant product experience. I’m delighted to work with James and the sales team as we enter an exciting stage of growth and see how his leadership can help accelerate our fastest-growing region,” Scott said.

In June 2022, MiQ elevated Scott to the new role of CEO for APAC, adding SEA to his leadership remit. In his upgraded role, Scott will be responsible for driving business growth and expansion throughout SEA.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – GroupM’s outcome media company Xaxis in Malaysia has announced the promotion of its former Associate Director for Engagement Pamela Ooi to now become its new director of programmatic strategy and insights.

In her new role, Ooi shared in an exclusive interview with MARKETECH APAC, that she will be responsible for the strategic growth of programmatic teams’ development in Xaxis Malaysia, as well as playing an important role in the company’s new business and key client relationships.

She further shared with MARKETECH APAC, “The focus for Xaxis in 2022 will still be client-focused and crafting programmatic strategies to deliver against client’s business goals. There are several pillars that I will be working on (Client, Agency, Internal, Industry) which encompasses foundation building for clients’ own first party data, moving towards a cookie-less future and working across the GroupM agencies to provide strategic leadership across programmatic in delivering first class and innovative solutions.” 

She will remain based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and will be working with Xaxis Regional counterparts in Singapore on regional clients. She will be reporting to Aravind Menon, managing director at Xaxis Malaysia, who also holds the same position for GroupM’s influencer marketing arm INCA in Malaysia.

“I am excited to take on a newly created role in Xaxis Malaysia as director, programmatic strategy and insights to drive programmatic adoption across GroupM clients. I look forward to working closely with clients and agencies to scale programmatic to even greater heights and to deliver value for our clients,” Ooi stated regarding her appointment.

Speaking about her past experiences at Xaxis, she shared that a lot has changed since her official entry into the company back in 2017 as a senior manager for engagement, saying that in her continuing four years of journey, the company continues to roll out new features and solutions, be it new ways of working or new standards of brand asset valuator (BAV).

Ooi explains, “To be a leader in this company, I learnt that you always have to stick to your intuition and speak out if you have something to say. The culture here is so inclusive and I feel at home in Xaxis. Challenges are always bound to come about, so the most important trait to have is resilience to overcome. I have learned that being in the forefront of the industry is not an easy feat and Xaxis and GroupM are the ones paving the way in the industry setting an example for all to follow,” 

When asked about her insights regarding the challenges in the programmatic media industry, Ooi noted that while programmatic adoption has been on the rise since 2018, she notes that we are still in the emerging phase where there is so muchgrowth to uncover. 

She further added that not all brands or advertisers are fully on-board with programmatic, as the level of understanding of how it works correlates with the comfort level with the data, technology, and platforms that comes into the mix.

“Aside from the mental barrier, there are also physical barriers like onboarding technology and data platforms, digital talents as well as investments that [go] into running programmatic. What we do in Xaxis is to simplify clients’ life in running programmatic media by having an all inclusive model thus eliminating all the silos that you see in adtech. I am hopeful that programmatic will continue to grow as all digital will soon be programmatic,” said Ooi.

Singapore – Programmatic media partner MiQ has announced the launch of its new suite of programmatic creative solutions, which will deliver multi-screen campaign assets catering the Southeast Asian market.

The creative studio, while based in Singapore, will offer free creative services, alongside MiQ’s brand and performance programmatic activation for the SEA market as a whole, enabling advertisers to tap into a full creative suite, as added value to their campaign spend.

Studio staff, including creative designers, project managers and developers, will create new campaigns from scratch, while also taking existing brand assets and repurposing them for multi-screen, omnichannel activation. 

In addition, services within the creative studio include original design, animation and reformatting of ads across desktop, tablet, mobile web and in-app.

Marcus D’Souza, managing director for SEA at MiQ, said that they have seen a real demand from marketers and agencies for the opportunity to harness highly engaging, data-driven advertising creative that will drive results. He added that they hope that their suite of solutions will help them achieve these objectives of results-driven creatives.

“As a programmatic partner, we understand that powerful creative, combined with expert data-driven targeting, can drive positive consumer behavior for brands. Engaging creative is set to become even more important in a post-cookie world, so we’re excited to have this additional offering for our clients,” D’Souza said.

MiQ’s creative studio allows advertisers to display creative needs across its programmatic solutions of ‘Performance’, ‘Time and Place’, and ‘High Impact Branding’. 

For ‘Performance’, MiQ offers formats that have proven high engagement rates such as social boost, chatbots and games. ‘Time and Place’ formats take mobile location data feeds for store or GPS locator features alongside MiQ’s ‘High Impact Branding’ suite of stories, carousels and interactive videos.

David Whiteley, head of product and analytics at MiQ, commented, “We have built out a creative studio to meet the growing demands of our clients and have specialized teams that can meet those quick turnaround times. This not only provides higher engaging formats but also a range of creative packages to suit any client need. Data plus creative is a really powerful tool to exceed KPIs.”

Singapore – In its continuing bid to expand its product strategy and development services in the region, programmatic media partner MiQ has appointed Damien Healy as MiQ’s digital operations officer for Asia-Pacific.

Healy will be responsible for scaling its agency and advertiser relationships, mapping their vision and business direction into MiQ’s technology, data, and execution pathways. 

In addition, he brings into the company 20 years’ experience in product and operation leadership positions driving business growth and profitability for major advertising technology and media performance companies across international organizations. 

Prior to his new appointment, Healy was the global officer for programmatic and addressable media at dentsu international, where he led the global strategy across dentsu’s programmatic and addressable service lines. Furthermore, he also spent five years at GroupM’s Xaxis where he led operations, platforms, and product as COO for EMEA.

“I’ve always been impressed by the depth of technology and data capability that MiQ brings to market. Their ability to partner with agencies and brands to deliver meaningful programmatic media value is undoubtedly world-class. I’m excited to join the business in a period of high growth and ever-increasing relevance as buyers seek value within new digital channels and the fragmenting identity landscape,” Healy said, regarding his appointment.

He will report to Jason Scott, CEO for ANZ at MiQ, who commented that Healy will be helping the company to scale itself and its client relationships by mapping their vision and business direction with their technology, data, and execution pathways to supercharge their partnerships in an evolving market. 

“Damien will represent APAC within our global technology, product and strategy cohort. An important step into the future given the growth ambitions and nuances of MiQ in our region. His vast experience and pivotal roles leading digital companies through change, rapid growth, and innovation will add a real depth and spark to our APAC efforts, as well as another brilliant strategic brain for us to help deliver on our ambitions for our clients,” Scott added.