According to Kantar’s recently published media reactions report, marketers plan to increase their spending in online video ads, social media newsfeed ads, brand effectiveness research and digital behavioral measurement. This has led brands across APAC dealing with more discerning, divisive, and digitalized consumers in a more fragmented media and ecommerce ecosystem.

To help brands navigate this new world of media effectiveness, Kantar has launched two market-first innovative research solutions in APAC that can track consumer behavior and brand impact in ecommerce sites:

• Digital Content Optimization (DCO) – a predictive model that identifies the best and worst performing content in real-time to improve digital campaign ROI.
• Context Lab for eCom – an APAC-exclusive solution allowing marketers to understand the variables that matter most to create impact within a certain context and optimize the ecommerce brand experience.

Both solutions provide actionable insights supported by audience behavior metrics to allow brands to connect with people effectively and quickly optimize digital ad and ecommerce performance.

Kantar’s recent APAC Consumer Sentiment Survey found half (48%) of people across the region increased their ecommerce usage last year. In addition, two in five are now consuming more TV on-demand/streaming (+40%) and podcasts/streaming music (+38%), with new digital platforms entering the market.

Further analysis from Kantar’s COVID-19 Barometer indicates consumer choice is influenced by increasing societal and ethical concerns that the pandemic has precipitated. As such, advertisers and agency partners are now taking surrounding content into account and holding data owners and publishers to a higher degree of scrutiny than ever before, says Kantar’s Head of Digital – APAC, Pablo Gomez.

“It’s critical that brands are clear on how to connect with newly digitalized but financially fragile consumers in the moment as they soak up an increasingly fragmented digital media environment. And when it comes to ecommerce, connecting creative in the context is complex”, he states.

“Using a real-time tool like DCO will allow marketers to learn which ads are performing well and eliminate underperformers from their campaign; and understand the content motivating their target audience to optimize campaign effectiveness,” Gomez adds.

“For example, we worked with a brand to programmatically predict the performance of 320 ads for in-flight optimization during a brand building campaign with the DCO platform. The result was a +263% increase in custom brand sentiment KPI by the fifth week.”

As APAC becomes increasingly more fragmented online, it is also essential to keep up with consumers in the moment. New models such as social ecommerce are being driven by micro-influencers increasing engagement by 60% while new formats are allowing product play through scaled-up, low-price immersive videos formats and shoppable ads. New routes to conversion, such as livestream sales are also driving conversion levels of +30% on key ecommerce platforms in the region.

“As the media and ecommerce worlds collide, it’s not just about optimizing ads for the environment, but driving the sale within,” says Gomez.

“Using a tool built on behavioral metrics like Context Lab for eCom delivers valuable insights into the real ecommerce environment allowing marketers to understand the variables that matter to create impact, such as positioning, content and reviews. It also allows analysis of how brand assets impact upper and lower funnel metrics and tracking of the consumer journey to optimize the brand experience.”

“Providing the best consumer experience of your brand is essential in this new digital world in APAC,” Gomez emphasizes.

“Brands must be digital by design. You must be obsessed with high quality content and positioning to increase conversion and brand impact. Creating communities by putting people at the center and delivering the best experience is now more important than price or time. Remember, a successful consumer ecommerce journey always starts from the brand – and 70% of people are now putting value on those brands acting in a responsible, transparent and honest way.”


Digital Content Optimization is available via Kantar Marketplace – Kantar’s automated market research platform. Context Lab for eCom is a bespoke APAC solution customized to clients leveraging Context Lab, which helps brands quickly gain a contextual understanding of their media effectiveness to use budgets more efficiently. (Source: Kantar)

By MediaBUZZ