OpenX Software Ltd., known as OpenX, is a programmatic advertising technology company. The company has developed an integrated technology platform that combines ad server and a real-time bidding exchange with a standard supply-side platform ensuring the highest real-time value for any trade
We are the world’s leading ad exchange for data and identity. With industry-leading technology, premium service, and huge scale, we bring greater reach for buyers and higher revenue for publishers — across every format, from mobile to CTV. That’s the power of OpenX.
Priya Bhatia, VP, Business Development SEA, OpenX in an exclusive chat with Medianews4u she speaks on Adfrauds, a cookie less world, programmatic advertising and much more…
How do you see the Media in APAC as compared to India when it comes to brand safety, Ad frauds and trends?
In our The State of Programmatic in JAPAC 2021 study, we found that an overwhelming majority (88%) of APAC brands, agencies and publishers are concerned with fraud and quality issues, with 56% being highly concerned. In the Indian market, 100% of the respondents we surveyed showed some concern, while over two-thirds (69%) were highly concerned and actively looking for solutions.
Despite the high concern among advertisers, studies have also shown that ad fraud rates have reduced in recent times and India is in fact one of the safest markets in the region for mobile and web display formats. This indicates that the programmatic industry is maturing and has come a long way in combating ad fraud and ensuring brand safety through highly advanced tools.
Advertisers are also increasingly embracing supply path optimization (SPO) which streamlines the supply chain, provides better transparency in terms of ad dollar movement, and can help cut out the bad actors in programmatic. SPO is clearly gaining greater appreciation among Indian marketers, with 56% of those surveyed having performed their first SPO review in the past 18 months, and only 7% stating they have never run a review.
How are brands and agencies adopting Programmatic advertising?
Indian brands and agencies are getting increasingly comfortable with programmatic and are growing their investment, which could be attributed to, firstly, rapid digital transformation due to the pandemic and a better understanding of the programmatic platforms.
Programmatic is not new for Indian marketers, however, its adoption has grown with the pandemic, where many digital trends were accelerated. India saw a 43% increase in programmatic revenue as compared to pre-COVID times and we see this trend growing further. We foresee 3X growth in programmatic in India over the next two-three years as marketers look to maximize their ad spend to the last rupee and there is rising trust and confidence in the technology.
India saw a surge in digital platforms in the pandemic and OTT/Short format videos saw record views. How was it in the APAC region?
We have seen similar digital video viewership growth across all of APAC. In addition to OTT, connected TV (CTV) also saw growing popularity in the region, but we are definitely still seeing higher ad investment on mobile. This makes sense as APAC has a predominantly mobile-first population, where nine out of ten viewers in the region use smartphones to stream videos.
Do brands & advertisers now view digital as the first option for communication?
On a macro level, yes, digital has emerged as the first option for communication. The number of internet users is growing rapidly, and consumers are spending more time online. Interestingly, the biggest driver of this shift has been mobile in India which accounted for over three-quarters of digital media spend in 2021 in the market. Indian users are spending over five hours per day on their smartphones which suggests the medium’s ease of accessibility. Amid the vast proliferation of digital channels today, it is essential for brands to be mobile-first and ensure that all their campaigns fit on a six-inch screen.
Deprecation of third- party cookies – can you elaborate on this?
Firefox and Safari have already phased out third-party cookies and Google is now saying cookies will be removed from Chrome by 2023. The cookie has been a staple in digital advertising for many years, and while marketers recognize that it could cause challenges, they also recognize that we need to be proactive in terms of finding solutions and we collectively need to be ready for a post-cookie world.
Fortunately, across APAC, 80% of brands and agencies have access to first-party data. Both brands and agencies are figuring out how they can use first-party data to help maintain addressability in digital advertising, and this is going to be part of what they look for from ad-tech partners going forward.
In the new normal what would be the market strategy?
At the most basic level, marketers should assume that many behaviors learned in COVID-19 will remain. They must stay agile with their marketing strategies and adapt to this shift in consumer behaviour. As the economy grows, ad dollars will flow towards digital rather than traditional.
Across APAC about three in four marketers are expecting their mobile budget to increase this year. Growing prominence of mobile has already accelerated video streaming; however, an increased focus on mCommerce can help brands capture their audience. From motivation to research to purchase, smartphones are taking over as the primary touch point with brands.
Increased investment in a mobile-first strategy can enable advertisers to collect first-party data, giving them an edge in the cookieless future and help them deliver personalized messages to their audience at a granular level.
Additionally, in mobile we also expect eyeballs to move towards OTT and short-form videos in programmatic. And marketing dollars always follow the eyeballs, so this will likely continue to grow.
What is OpenX’s focus for 2022?
OpenX is an established, scaled, Omni channel exchange, and we aim to be the best possible supply side solution for marketers, agencies and DSPs.
We will be leaning more into CTV in 2022, exploring new contextual advertising solutions, and we will be looking to work with the buy side on supply path optimization (SPO) reviews to help them learn more about the supply side and figure out how they can maximize their programmatic efforts and ROI.
Today DATA has been termed as the new oil, and there is data everywhere. How do you ensure Data privacy?
Privacy is baked into everything we do. We follow all industry regulations – from GDPR in Europe, to the CCPA in California in the US – and use that to help guide our approach.
At the same time, we also actively educate and help our partners to expedite their compliance process with other technology partners in respective regions. At OpenX, we believe that advertiser, publishers, and their representatives need and deserve transparent marketplace principles that are fundamental to all effective markets – efficiency, transparency, and fairness.
Contextual Advertising and targeting – can you elaborate and how does a brand benefit?
Contextual has been a trusted tool for marketers for years, as it has historically been an effective way to align a brand with relevant content, based on what is on the page. As contextual evolves, however, we are going beyond the most basic examples (i.e., travel brand showing up on a travel site), and merging contextual signals such as sentiment, editorial voice or intent, with other data to offer deeper targeting.
The idea is that the more a brand knows about the user on a page, the more effective their ad will be, and in a perfect world, this is a combination of authenticated identity combined with page context.
How do you ensure that a brand’s communication is reaching out to the said target group, how does Supply path Optimization work?
In its simplest sense, SPO is all about a marketer wanting to understand more about the full supply chain, and specifically, the sell side of digital advertising. With the growing number of digital channels and the increasing reliance on programmatic, it’s important that all sides of the ecosystem have clarity into what is happening behind the scenes, and how and where the money in digital space is being used.
SPO is a chance for brands to set standards around what they are looking for in terms of quality, transparency, scale, and much more, and from our experience, when a marketer takes the time to undertake this process, they will end up with not only more visibility into who their partners are, but also a better selection of the partners that truly meet their needs.
