ad2c launches Indonesia office to serve as Southeast Asia hub

The office will be the agency's Southeast Asian hub, serving the region from its single biggest market, Anuj Khanna Sohum, Affle founder and chairman, told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

The agency was first launched in India a year ago with the acquisition of India mobile marketing agency MobiMasta to provide solutions and a campaign management platform, ad2campaign, which tracks, monitors and optimises campaigns on the go.

The launch of ad2c in Indonesia comes as the region is experiencing a significant increase in the penetration of smart devices. The Indonesia office will be led by ad2c co-founder and managing director Madan Sanglikar. Fifty per cent of the employees will be local talent, Sohum said.

In Indonesia alone, almost 50 per cent of internet users access the web through their mobile devices, presenting a significant opportunity for brands to reach out to consumers.

ad2c is Affle’s second company in Indonesia, after the launch of Ripple in 2010. Sohum noted that the mobile industry will play an important role in the economic and social development of the country, as witnessed in other developing markets.

Affle Group has three main pillars of business, namely ad2c, the Ripple rich-media ad network and Affle Media Lab, which provides custom app development.

Sanglikar, who will relocate to Jakarta from Mumbai, said Indonesia is seeing a similar situation to that in India, where consumers are moving from big screen to small screen and changing smartphone models. In addition, the increasing homegrown talent translates to higher potential than other countries in the region.

“From D2C Inc’s experience, we feel ad2c can play an important role of a catalyst in improving experiences on mobile both for consumers and brands alike," said Takayuki Hoshuyama, CEO at D2C Inc.

Sohum noted that advertising spend in Indonesia is higher than India at US$7 billion last year.

“We want to be nearer to clients,” he added. “This industry is a consumer insights-led industry. Even if we have an office in Singapore, it is a very different market.”

ad2c will be working directly with clients as well as through agency partners such as GroupM, Dentsu, XM Gravity and DM Pratama.

Harris Thajeb, president of Dentsu Group Indonesia and chairman of P3I, stated that the advertising industry in Indonesia is maturing and becoming more sophisticated.

“Mobile marketing is an area where brands in Indonesia can do a lot more,” he said. “Considering the natural lure for mobile devices and the large amount of time consumers are spending on their devices, brands will have to follow if they are to remain salient.”

The ad industry reached 124 trillion rupiah last year, with the bulk of spedning on traditional media, he said. But mobile is growing, especially with young people making up 54 per cent of the total population of 240 million.

Roy Simangunsong, country ambassador and sales director at Yahoo! Indonesia, reckons that the mobile platform shift has created fresh opportunities as well as challenges for brands.

Indonesia has a mobile penetration rate of 80 per cent, with 50 per cent of internet users in Indonesia accessing the web through their mobile devices. With the increasing use of smart devices, the country's mobile advertising spend is expected to reach US$100 million by 2015.

Such growth is supported by factors such as growing demand for smart devices, local manufacturers coming up with smart devices at a lower cost and a reduction in broadband prices, according to Wijaya Santoso, head of mobile advertising at XL Axiata.

“Out of our current sub-base of 45 million, almost 70 per cent engage with some sort of a consumer activity on a regular basis," he added. “We feel the engagement can be improved qualitatively and quantitatively.”