Marketers in Asia are beginning to take a more holistic view of their video media buying as research from demand-side programmatic firm TubeMogul appeared to show growing appetite for mobile inventory.
Data from the second quarter showed a 20 per cent increase in mobile video programmatic auction volumes across Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines compared to first quarter figures.
Release of the study comes shortly after a director of US programmatic trading firm SpotXchange said Asia has been slow to embrace programmatic video trading compared to Australia, North America and Europe.
Christopher Blok, APAC director of demand for SpotXchange told that advertisers continue to depend heavily on ad networks and “blind buying”.
But TubeMogul Asia vice president Susan Salop said the results of its analysis show a “shift” among marketers and a realisation that “video completion rates on mobile devices are high due to strong user engagement”.
All four markets in the study showed inventory rises from the first quarter, with the average number of daily auctions in Singapore climbing from 2.26m to 2.9m in Q2. The Philippines increased from 9.5m to 11.7m, Indonesia climbed from 11.5m to almost 14m and Thailand hit 13.5m, up from 11.6m.
Prices also stabilised with only Thailand experiencing a rise in CPMs.
While desktop pre-roll also climbed – with Singapore growing eight-fold and Indonesia 17 fold compared to 12 months ago – TubeMogul said the data showed an “evolution” in buying attitudes with advertisers “now planning their media buys holistically across desktop and mobile screens”.
“We are witnessing a shift by advertisers in Southeast Asia to diversify their video campaigns and reach audiences whenever and wherever they access video content,” Salop said.
The quality of mobile programmatic video inventory has also improved which has resulted in more stable pricing, compared to “wild fluctuations” in previous quarters.
Salop added that the growth was underpinned by a realisation among advertisers that video completion rates on mobile devices are high due to “strong user engagement”.
Marketers are moving beyond simply buying video at scale and are looking at engagement metrics that mobile video can provide, she said.
“We have moved past the question of whether there is enough scale and inventory in Southeast Asia for brands and agencies to buy digital video programmatically,” Salop said. “The data shows that advertisers who want to plan and optimise their video advertising media buys across screens can do it today.”
But while there was quarter-on-quarter growth, the figures still fell short of the same period in 2014 when inventory spiked in all markets.
TubeMogul explained the year-on-year declines by claiming last year’s data was distorted by poor quality inventory.
“TubeMogul was testing integrations with several different supply sources in the second quarter of 2014 which is why the numbers are so much higher in all markets,” the company said. “Following the completion of the integration, the inventory normalized in the third quarter of 2014.”
