Brands taking more accountability for their data, and the growing programmatic market locally are just two of the reasons Adform, an integrated advertising platform, recently decided to open its first Australian office.
Adform said at a time where a skills shortage has led media professionals viewing the absence of programmatic expertise as an obstacle in selling video inventory in the market, it is key to establish an on-the-ground presence locally.
Programmatic advertising demand is on the increase in Australia. In fact, 65 per cent of all money spent on advertising in digital media in 2019 is expected to be traded programmatically according to Zenith. Adform said its full stack suite of enterprise trading tools offer advertisers support for an already strong programmatic uptake in the region.
“The region is scaling quickly and we’re looking forward to developing our global partnerships, in addition to supporting new advertisers and agencies," Adform VP APAC, Sukesh Singh, told CMO. "We have entered the Australian market at this time as we feel we can add value, with our on-the-ground presence and investment in the region allowing us to meet the needs of the market as it continues to scale.”
Adform was founded in 2002 in Copenhagen, Denmark, by three code-writing engineers: Gustav Mellentin, Jakob Bak, and Stefan Juricic. It's since grown into a full stack of software to automate digital advertising, both buying and selling.
Today Adform offers an ad server, DSP, DMP and automated assistant. In the future, it will be exploring artificial intelligence within these capabilities and beyond.
For the first 10 years, the company grew organically in Europe. "We then implemented an expansion plan and opened an office in the US, and more recently in Singapore, with the intention to further expand in the Asia-Pacific,” Singh said.
“In the 22 months since I joined, we’ve rapidly expanded into the region and opened in India, China and now Australia.”
Singh puts Adform’s rapid expansion down to the fact it is a single stack solution in a sea of ad-hoc, add-on solutions that result in data leakage and inefficiencies.
“All the solutions were built in-house; we haven’t sourced them from elsewhere, and there is massive efficiency in this, not to mention it saves on data loss/leakage," he claimed. “What we are seeing globally is a trend toward brands taking more accountability for their data. They want to know what stack they are working with, there is a lot more involvement in this than there was even a few years ago. They want to control their data and a big say in what they are using, but not necessarily do it all themselves.
“We see a lot of growth opportunities in Australia. Where we bring value to brand is in terms of building a story or service that stitches the whole stack together, and building custom solutions for brands."
Singh also singled out Adform's creative team as an important piece in the puzzle. "We offer a strong understanding of how to tell a story and we help brands understand how to use this," he said.
“With the increased demand for personalisation, this is crucial. When everyone started using programmatic, it was very cost-efficiency led, but it wasn’t looking at the brand story. Consumers look at the brand, what reaches them is the copy, and it has to be the most important to create this connection.
“Thank to the technology available now, we can make things highly personalised, not only at an emotional level but also at a factual level. Whatever emotion you want to touch for your audience, we now have a capability to do so.
Angus Blackwood is the account director AU/NZ heading operations.
said it is an exciting time to be investing in programmatic development.
“I’m looking forward to working with the Adform team to bring the company’s expertise to a very innovative market," he said.
"Heading up the Australian operations is a great opportunity, as the market matures there is a strong need for established adtech platforms to support the evolution of programmatic uptake."
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