Asia Pacific is poised for growth in data-driven marketing (“precision marketing”) given the increasing base of 2 billion online users and expected rise of advertising budgets in the next five to 10 years.
The conclusions arise from the latest report by research company Nielsen, A Digital Giant Awakens, which surveyed marketing leaders across Asia-Pacific markets on their next-level strategy and implementation road-map, revealing investments in precision marketing are likely to increase in the next year from 14 per cent of marketing budgets to about one-fifth of spends (19 per cent) going beyond social, search and mobile toward newer applications.
In the next six months the top three platforms where advertisers across the Asia Pacific region will be allocating their marketing spends are Facebook/Instagram (60 per cent), Google/Youtube (43 per cent) and mobile (42 per cent). Meanwhile, investments in advanced applications are increasingly gaining pace, particularly for data-science/modelling (36 per cent), high-quality third party data (32 per cent) and analytics to measure ROI (28 per cent).
The survey, conducted across top leading advertisers in the region, found precision marketing is enabling advertisers to understand consumers’ purchase journeys, personalised communications and consumer profiling.
Key factors accelerating the progress of precision marketing include better quality and reliability of data, clear demonstration of ROI for advertisers and further education to stay ahead in the game.
“With advancements in technology and popularity of digital media there is tremendous headroom for growth in precision marketing across Asia Pacific,” said Nielsen’s MD media North Asia Ranjeet Laungani. “Precision marketing is capable of driving marketing applications out of predictive analytics and forecasting results and it is strongly recommended for advertisers to consider in their repertoire of new-age tools.”
The report spotlights Data Management Platforms (DMPs) as pivotal technology enablers for advertisers to successfully implement precision marketing in their overall strategy. Such platforms manage and unify multiple streams of disparate consumer data and assist in consumer profiling and targeted messaging, thereby limiting spends on media waste.
The challenge for advertisers remains to show quick wins during early stages of DMP engagement.
Data science and analytic prowess are top attribute advertisers in Asia Pacific look for while evaluating a data management platform.
“Currently the space is under-invested, however, broadening expert ecosystems, presence of higher quality datasets, and presenting more success stories will drive up confidence and adoption in the industry,” added Laungani.
“The void in awareness and education can be filled by agencies, media owners and advertisers by maintaining an eye on the long-term and short-term potential of precision marketing.”