The trade association has been set up to help drive digital advertising revenues in Southeast Asia. And with digital still attracting a pitiful amount of spend in Singapore (some even put it as low as two per cent of total adspend), it’s not before time.
However, the launch does raise several questions. The first is what this means for the Asia Digital Marketing Associatio (ADMA), which, up to now, has been fighting for digital on its own from its base in Hong Kong. IAB Singapore is not the only alternative organisation in the works - China Business Strategy owner Paul Denlinger, who has a long history in China’s tech scene, has been trying for months to get an IAB China operation set up, and claims there will be announcement “within two months”.
Given its limited resources, the ADMA was always going to struggle with a pan-Asia brief. It has done a good job in Hong Kong, but people close to
IAB Singapore believe more work is needed in Southeast Asia. China, which has a completely different set of operators, probably needs its own local organisation too. The question facing the ADMA is how its membership responds to the new entities - will local operators prefer local associations? And the question facing some of the international media owners is how many associations they can afford to be part of.
On the face of it, the fact that different people in different markets are doing their own things is a recipe for confusion, especially when it comes to setting industry standards and benchmarking. However, Asia’s digital sector has moved beyond the point where a single body can realistically represent it. What the sector needs is people who can make more noise about digital marketing at a local level. Yet, as more entities emerge, it is to be hoped that some degree of co-ordination can be developed between them, otherwise they risk muddying the waters even further. The big global media owners such as Yahoo, one of the driving forces behind IAB Singapore, will be key in ensuring that happens.
The original IAB in New York (which has no ownership in or control of its global affiliates) has done a great job in the US, and the IAB UK is held up as an example of what a trade body can do. They commission proper research into the sector, they have staff who can go into client organisations and advise them on their options, and they have a dedicated head whose full-time job it is to get people talking about digital.
If the Asian trade bodies are to succeed in their mission they need these sorts of resources, and the cash to make it happen. It’s taken a lot of effort just to launch IAB Singapore. But the really hard work starts now.
Got a view?
Email david.tiltman@media.asia
