Operative announced this morning their expansion into the Australian market with the appointment of Dean Jenkins, the new General Manager for Operative Australia. AdMonsters spoke with him regarding what this move means for Operative and ad operations in the region.
Q. How do you see the current state of the display market in the Australia / Asia Pacific region?
The entire market is seeing an estimated 16-18% YOY growth rate with more and more publishers coming to market. According to several sources including the IAB, Price Waterhouse Coopers and Frost & Sullivan, this trend is set to continue over the coming years. Specifically, Frost & Sullivan predicts that the value of Australia’s online advertising market will increase to $877 million by 2015, at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 10% percent. Market growth will be particularly strong for online video advertising over the next five years and this segment is expected to outperform all other major segments.
As we look at the Asia-Pacific market as a whole, it is one of the fastest growing in terms of Internet usage globally and this is fueling growth in the online advertising market, according to comScore. Given this, we see opportunity within the region and are investing in local talent in order to seize those opportunities and support our client base.
Q. Are there specific ad operations challenges for the Australia / Asia Pacific region? Or it the same issues that most other markets face?
Media companies in Australia and Asia-Pacific are faced with the same challenges as US and UK media companies. The lack of integrated people, processes and technologies plague the industry and media companies in the region are struggling to simplify and get control of their cost drivers. In fact, the digital advertising industry today spends an astounding 30% of revenue executing transactions, a number which is unsustainable. In addition, media companies lack the visibility and transparency necessary to understand their customers and markets, information that is critical when it comes to more strategic initiatives around product innovation and packaging.
An Advertising Business Management solution drives down transaction costs by simplifying and streamlining the way in which media companies perform day-to-day operations. In addition, it provides visibility into critical data that can accelerate innovation and help a media company remain competitive.
Q. How will Operative seek to contribute to the growth of the digital display market in this region?
By providing software and technology-enabled services, we are helping media companies create efficiencies across their entire advertising business – from ad sales, to ad operations and on through finance. By enabling publishers and agencies to create efficiencies, and providing visibility and transparency into their data, we will also enable them to accelerate innovation and more effectively package offerings that will deliver the most value to their clients and prospects.
Given that 60% of the market currently runs on our platform, and that steady growth is predicted in coming years, expanding operations within the region makes sense for us, as well as for our clients.
Q. The release mentions clients such as REA Media are moving to Operative.One. For those who aren’t familiar with advertising business management, could you please discuss the benefits of using such a platform?
Sure. Competing in the digital media space has come down to two things: 1) the ability to offer premium advertising solutions and 2) deliver them effectively. For media companies and their partners, the constantly evolving digital advertising ecosystem has made it challenging to achieve these simultaneously. Product innovation means leveraging new technologies and channels to create new revenue opportunities. Yet introducing these technologies to your business can cause significant operational disruption across the entire value chain, leading to fragmented processes and decentralized data.
Our platform, Operative.One, is the only end-to-end advertising business management platform that enables digital publishers, networks and ad agencies to run their increasingly complex business with simplicity – from creating, selling and delivering products to billing clients and reporting. Operative.One customers can expect to significantly cut their advertising transaction costs. For example:
- Ad Sales teams reduce RFP execution costs leaving more time for prospecting and building client relationships.
- Ad Operations teams reduce campaign execution costs, minimize over/under delivery, and boost overall renewal rates.
- Finance teams cut campaign billing costs in half by reducing billing errors to 1% (or less), eliminating discrepancies and make goods, and enabling collection on 100% of contracted revenue in less time.