2015 Malaysia Digital Overview
ONLINE DISPLAY
2015 will see an estimated 15% to 25% y-o-y growth in online display ads driven by increased mobile & desktop traffic in Malaysia.
More focus on context and content will be amongst the key drivers in online display ads as advertisers gets more relevant to Malaysian consumers. With new and more robust ad networks and exchanges coming into the market, it also brings along new methods of launching rich media and networked content with greater insights.
More than 30% of online display ads are currently being served to consumers by automated algorithms that are specifically targeting people across multiple channels, and this will continue to rise as more Malaysian online display inventories are made available. Data-driven analytics and how the data is used will be a critical differentiator amongst Malaysian advertisers as online display ads begins to drive conversion.
ONLINE VIDEO
Over 60% of monthly Malaysian internet traffic is video in 2014, and this is estimated to rise to 80% by 2017. With such big pool of audience, TV advertisers are beginning to shift their budgets towards online video platforms to extend reach beyond TV.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The social media landscape in Malaysia has been dispersing, especially over the last 12 months. The challenges Malaysian brands face involve a bigger, yet scattered audience; more diverse, yet fragmented social platforms; and an ever more competitive environment with impressive marketing efforts. The increase in social-ad spending is driven by this continuously growing reach, particularly on mobile, better analytics and targeting, and performance. The rise of programmatic social platforms has also fueled growth.
MOBILE
Mobile ad spend has seen a sharp increase in 2014 and will continue to do so as content developers enable even better user mobile experience on their platforms. More platforms are switching to mobile-friendly HTML5 instead of traditional Flash sites (including YouTube) towards the Q3 of 2014. All this are in view of Malaysians that are consuming more content than ever on their mobile as analyst predicts over 80% smartphone penetration in Malaysia by 2015.
With the ability to geo-fence and geo-target their consumers, Malaysian advertisers are already exploring different mobile ads. Between native advertising, deals and coupons to location-based ads targeting outlets, events and OOH ads; advertisers are looking for the right mix in influencing consumers through their path to purchase. Albeit mobile ad spend has been much lower in the past, most Malaysian advertisers are already looking to increase their investment on mobile ads.
PROGRAMMATIC BUYING
The programmatic market is evolving quickly and next year the pace of change is set to continue. Programmatic buying is now understood by majority of Malaysian marketers. Site buys and large native programmes won’t disappear quite yet, but, for the first time, we may see programmatic spends that are higher than the rest of the media budget. With new technologies and advertisers aiming to make TV advertising better and more efficient, 2015 could see programmatic playing an increasingly important role in the delivery of TV ads to online viewers. In summary, programmatic have already become mainstream over the course of 2014.
By Kenneth Wong, Head of Digital – Carat Malaysia.
