Impact announces APAC expansion

Adtech and performance-marketing firm Impact has announced major plans to expand in Asia-Pacific and grow its partnership automation business following a round of new investment.

Offering a suite of tools for analytics, ad fraud detection, performance marketing and more, Impact said the new US$75 million funding from investors Providence Strategic Growth would allow it to further develop its latest business proposition of partnership automation: using technology to automate partnerships between brands and platforms to drive better value and efficiency.

Impact is already working in the region with several brands and agency partners including Dentsu Aegis Network and APD.

According to Impact APAC managing director Adam Furness, partnerships are now fuelling 50% or more of revenue growth for some companies, and representing as much as 25% of total revenue, as opposed to being “an offshoot or hybrid of sales and marketing”.

The company said clients use its Partnership Cloud to expand across all types of partnerships, including traditional affiliates, influencers and strategic B2B partners.

“Enterprises across the region are demanding automation to help them scale in this new category of revenue, similar to the automation they’ve used in other categories such as sales and marketing,” he added.

Speaking to Campaign Asia-Pacific regarding APAC specifically, Furness said Impact is seeking to double its operations in the region, and open new offices in China in Japan. To that end, Furness announced that Jennifer Zhang has joined Impact as China general manager. She brings 12 years’ industry experience to the company, and previously held senior roles at TrendPower Digital, Ogilvy and Dell.

Zhang will begin her role in April, Furness said. “We already have a business licence in China and I expect Jennifer to hit the ground running. Plans are underway to have an office in Japan at the back end of the year,” he added, explaining that many of Impact’s global clients, such as Airbnb, Uber and Microsoft, are already present in the two markets, and that Impact is receiving enquiries from several local Chinese and Japanese businesses.

In addition, Furness said Impact is seeking to significantly grow its Singapore office, which was opened last year, and once Japan is established the next frontier is India. He said bringing partnership automation to APAC was a huge opportunity, but the first step is education.

“When I say education, I mean education of the partnerships space and how it's driving significant business outcomes, I mean education of how a brand and/or advertiser can use technology to automate partnerships; discover, recruit, on-board, engage and optimise,” Furness explained.