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BusinessFeatured ReadIndustryUSA 2016

Rewarded video touted as effective tool for developers at Casual Connect USA

August 5, 2016 — by Casey Rock

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Video ads are quickly becoming the advertising industry’s new mainstay. Gone are the days of static placements and banner ads. At Casual Connect USA 2016, MoPub’s group product manager, Boris Logvinskiy, explained why video has become such an important advertising format during his lecture Rewarded Video: Optimize Your Strategy.

“According to eMarketer, thirty minutes is the amount of time spent looking at videos by the average user,” Boris noted. “That makes up 10 percent of the total time spent on mobile devices. This year it’s expected that $4.2 billion will be spent on mobile video advertising – and that’s expected to grow to $6 billion in 2018.”

BusinessExclusive InterviewsOnlinePR & Marketing

Sonal Patel on the Evolution of Advertising

May 19, 2014 — by Catherine Quinton

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Sonal Patel, Director of Twitter Exchange, JAPAC

Sonal Patel, the business development director of Twitter Exchange, JAPAC, says her favorite part of the industry is the complexity. She started out training to become a lawyer but ended up in advertising, realizing her passion was in technology. She grew up working in the family grocery store and noticed some products sold more than others; this began her interest in advertising.

Working in a New Market

Her first role was in the oil and gas industry at a time when gas was being marketed to UK homes from other providers that were not government run. The market was new, the product was the same, and the only differentiator was the marketing, so her role was a tough one. She was very hands-on in creating new ways to go to market, to understand the wholesale gas prices, work through B2B markets, and do financial modeling to create compelling propositions. The main difficulties were comprehending the needs of the various stakeholders and finding balance. Although she admits overcoming these difficulties, understanding the overall business gave her perspective.

Patel accepted her current role with Twitter Exchange because she recognized the passion and drive of social media and the real depth of social data, real-time bidding and relevancy. She was a Twitter user who loved the product and understood the potential of Mopub. She was sure the technology platform was going to be a game-changer.

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She was a Twitter user who loved the product and understood the potential of Mopub. She was sure the technology platform was going to be a game-changer.

A Satisfying Position

There have been many satisfying moments in Patel’s career, she tells us, but the time that keeps her grounded was helping to build an ad network that started out as a sole trader in advertising and grew to a team of more than two hundred around the world. She says, “This experience was humbling, as this particular ad network founder showed me where he had created the vision of his business and how he conceived his idea in his small retail store, and has now become a massive million dollar business.”

She emphasizes, “I love the gaming industry because it resonates so well with me as I help young entrepreneurs who have a passion to enjoy games, build amazing games, and overcome the many challenges they have to become successful. Helping those smaller companies or individuals think about engagement and adoption builds their confidence to create great products.”

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When Patel describes her work, she claims there is no ‘normal’ day, and she loves working in such a dynamic and differing landscape.

When Patel describes her work, she claims there is no ‘normal’ day, and she loves working in such a dynamic and differing landscape. She states, “The vibrancy of Asia from the cultures, customs, languages, and advertising maturity keeps me intrigued, busy, and learning every day.” She believes the main qualities necessary to thrive in this environment are listening, patience, humility, and respect for others. Her skill in advertising comes from recognizing opportunity; she notes that sometimes it is harder to walk away from a deal than to sign it. JAPAC is a market with wide economic disparity. Mobile phones and tablets are the first way for many people to get to the internet; this has created a surge of information-hungry users who want to experience everything from games to video to knowledge.

A Disruption in the Industry

Patel is seeing a huge change in the industry coming from the disruption of the media buying landscape and the utopia of relevant audience. Small gaming companies have limitations on their advertising budgets, so they use as much data as possible or a platform that allows them to find a relevant audience to download their games, and then spend money where the ROI is going to be positive. The thirst for user acquisition pushes technology players to layer on as much data as possible that will be insightful to help an advertiser find the right inventory to click or convert a user.

“Relevancy is at its most potent in real time; when it collides with opportunity and engagement to result in a purchase.”

In Patel’s career, she has seen a tremendous evolution in understanding the relevancy of advertising. She insists, “Relevancy is at its most potent in real time; when it collides with opportunity and engagement to result in a purchase.” But it has been difficult to move advertisers from the guaranteed premium mindset to thinking about real-time bidding and ad exchanges. When working with clients in mature markets like the US and UK, she saw a lot of apprehension on such a sophisticated technology play in advertising. But it started the tech revolution in advertising we are seeing today. The days of buying impressions because of the belief of a publisher’s user base are gone; the return on investment has become paramount.

Patel emphasizes that the disruption in the advertising world over the last five years has turned the industry on its head. Today, content is channeled across many media, which include opportunities for consumers to communicate directly back to the advertiser. So advertisers must have the resourcefulness, creativity, and drive to think on their feet while keeping the conversation and engagement with the consumer going, and they must do it in real time. She advises, “Keep relevant and keep responding to new advertising trends to realize your market potential.”

The biggest trend she sees coming in the digital industry will result from the emergence of cloud computing, giving big data the ability to grow and become reality. Big data, the connectivity of the web to our lives, gaming, and the possibilities of biotechnology will drive the adoption of the Internet of Things. During the next three to five years, she expects to see the consolidation of the digital landscape, the effect of disruption between e-commerce, 3D printing, video gaming and mobile. Programmatic Real Time Bidding will become a mainstay way to buy media.

Sonal Patel will be discussing more about Programmatic Real Time Bidding during Casual Connect Asia 2014. More information on her session can be found on her conference website.

 

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