Bangkok, March 28th, 2013 ? GroupM, Thailand?s leading media investment management operation company, and its digital specialist agency, mInteraction, presents four key trends at its digital conference, FOCAL 2013. This year, GroupM brings clients, digital players, and thinkers to discuss digital opportunities into the areas of integration through purchase journey, video usage, selective paid media, and driving engagement through owned and earned media.
The FOCAL 2013 will discuss new possibilities for brands and agencies in Thailand?s digital future. The conference provides industry expertise and knowledge in Thailand?s digital marketing landscape and the new generation of consumers and new media bridging the gap between traditional and the revolutionary. The four elements are comprehensive guidelines that will help advertisers maximize brand value and make the best use of online strategies.
Siwat Chawareewong, CEO of mInteraction, opened up the conference by informing the audience about the rapid growth of digital advertising in Thailand. There is a 48.03% growth from 2011 to 2012 forecasted to comprise 4% of the entire advertising budget this year from almost 3 billion THB to 4.5 billion baht, a rise of 50%. Chawareewong continues by telling advertisers that they should focus within these four areas in 2013; integration through purchase journey, video usage, selective paid media, and driving engagement through owned and earned media.
Niklas Stalberg, COO of mInteraction, encourages marketers to consider moving away from buying media placements. Instead, they should focus on audience buying, and targeting individual profiles. New technologies such as Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) have emerged that are now available in Thailand. By combining various data sources with the possibility to bid on inventory through a demand side platform, it will be possible to pay per impression and individual. This will reduce waste and lower the cost for the advertiser with up to 30% for selected campaigns.
The more marketers become educated on search always-on and the campaign based concept, the more they will realize the significance of search. The next logical step for them is to try aligning their search budget and keywords with their above-the-line execution. Hence, well executed above-the-line campaigns can serve as the impetus for uniquely created Internet slang that go mainstream in a campaign that effectively combines social and search. ?Take ?Ped Pon Fai? (Duck emitting fire ? in Thai) for example, while this word doesn?t have a specific meaning, this version of slang promoted from the above-the-line campaign quickly caught on by the online population who started searching for it, and interact through social media,? said Siwat Chawareewong, CEO of mInteraction.
The three main drivers for online video usage are (a) wider access of broadband Internet through fixed line expansion and possible 3G launch (b) the need of air-time to maximize the return of video content
development and (c) the growth of video content in general. Advertising opportunities will be abundant in a multitude of forms such as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll. Consumers have drastically shifted from watching television to video as well, not only short videos but lengthy full clips such as series, webisodes, and mobisodes. 82% of Thai Internet users stream or download video content on a monthly basis and VRZO has reached 160 million viewers. In 2013, MThai, the leading video channel, dominates with 1.2 billion page views. As 22% of GroupM?s client brands utilize pre-roll advertising, the integration of pre-roll ad with online video will expand reach of TVC campaigns ? creating a need for a successful multi-screen strategy.
The power of social media should not be underestimated for 2013 for its efficiency, ease, and frugality. In lieu of traditional paid approach, the continuous growth of social media will increase limitless opportunities from doing owned and earned media over simple paid planning. Many advertisers will realize that it will be difficult to engage consumers as they are bombarded by various forms of ad during the day. Spending will somewhat shift from paid to owned and earned media. ?Content creation should not be ignored and can include but not limited to photos, videos, and music. We can expect to see collaborations between celebrities, influencers, and products through the distribution of social channels,? Mr. Chawareewong finished.
About mInteraction
mInteraction is Thailand?s leading digital agency and is part of the GroupM Network. We provide a full range of digital services to the biggest advertisers and brands. Our premium digital services are Digital Media Buying, Planning and Execution, Creative Services, Social Media, Search, Email, Mobile, Strategic planning, Buzz and Blog marketing among others. With a total of 115 digital specialists in the Thailand market, we deliver exceptional digital marketing experience for our clients by gaining a deep understanding of their needs, customers and target market, and then merging adaptive digital-driven strategy and ideation with the highest levels of execution.
About GroupM
GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation company. It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Mindshare. Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP?s media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities.
GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies.