Singapore-based AdAsia Holdings, which specialises in applying artificial intelligence (AI) to marketing, is building a reputation as one of the fastest-growing AI technology companies in the region with the recent launch of its business in Malaysia.
In January, the two-year-old company introduced a new holding structure under AnyMind Group as the parent and soon afterward it launched two new affiliates, TalentMind and CastingAsia. In February it entered Malaysia, its 10th market in the region.
CEO Kosuke Sogo and chief operating officer Otohiko Kozutsumi co-founded AdAsia in April 2016. A month later they launched AdAsia Digital Platform, an easy-to-use integrated marketing platform. It then opened its second office in Bangkok, followed by units in Indonesia and Vietnam in October, China and Taiwan in November. Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were added to the roster last year. Offices in the Middle East and Europe are in the pipeline for later this year.
AnyMind Group posted US$26 million in revenue last year, double the amount of the previous year, and has been operating at a profit since January 2017. It employs 260 people and expects the figure to reach 400 by the end of 2018.
In April 2017, it raised $12 million from the venture capital firm Jafco Asia, the largest ad-tech Series A funding round in Asia outside China. It expects to mobilise another $40-50 million in a series B round by mid-year.
CastingAsia looks for young "influencers" with large social-media followings to help propel marketing campaigns, says regional head Shingo Hayashi. SUPPLIED
"In advertising, there is still a lot to be done in terms of optimisation because we have a lot of data, but thanks to AI technology we can acquire accurate data in real time, and accurate data help us makes the right decisions to help optimise any campaign. That is basically how this works," said Mr Sogo, who was named one of the "100 Most Influential Global Marketing Leaders" in 2016 by the World Marketing Congress.
High growth, he said, has allowed the company to hire "high quality people" from many countries in Asia and Europe to spur rapid development of new AI technologies.
The company is able to apply the same AI technology across different platforms. For example, TalentMind offers recruiting software that streamlines and enhances the recruitment and hiring process, based on the same technology used by CastingAsia, which specialises in using social-media influencers in marketing.
"What we need to do for CastingAsia is to analyse the data of influencers and match them to marketers, such as what kind of work the influencer has been doing in the past three years, and that kid of analysis system can be utilised for TalentMind as well," Mr Sogo told Asia Focus.
AnyMind currently has a roster of 10,000 influencers and micro-influencers and aims to have 50,000 by year-end, which would make it the largest platform of its kind in Asia, according to Shingo Hayashi, the regional head of CastingAsia.
"Most influencers are aged between 18 and 30. We recognise them as influencers when they have more than 1,000 followers on their platforms," said Mr Hayashi, adding that the three biggest markets for CastingAsia are Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
"Thanks to our expansion of offices, our network of influencers is getting larger with each market we have entered. The clients we are working with here in Southeast Asia vary from big electronics and car companies to someone like a coffee shop which also wants to try and influence the market."
Mr Hayashi believes influencer-driven advertising and marketing is "one of the most effective" ways to attract customers. But firms need to know who uses what platforms and where. For example, he said, in Thailand most people use Facebook plus Instagram but in Vietnam 80-90% of people use only Facebook. In Indonesia, on the other hand, around 80-90% use only Instagram.
Mediakix, a California-based influencer marketing agency, estimates that the global influencer marketing industry, now worth about $2 billion, will be worth $5-10 billion in five years; advertisers are expected to spend around $1.6 billion on Instagram alone this year. However, it also points out that fake Instagram influencers and engagement campaigns to secure brand sponsorship deals could be costing advertisers up to $100 million a year.
Two of the best-known influencers in Asia today are 1 MILLION Dance Studio of South Korea with 8.7 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, and Singapore-based Jinnyboy TV, with 840,000. Arief Muhammad, the Indonesian Twitter sensation, has 4.1 million followers, Pimtha from Thailand has 3.1 million followers of her lifestyle and motivational messages on Instagram. In Vietnam, model Mai Ngo was crowned Influencer of the Year last year.
This year, AdAsia plans to open a subsidiary in the Philippines and develop new markets in Russia, the United Arab Emirates and India.
"If we have an office in Russia then a lot of companies will want to work with us because they want to have campaigns here in Asia," said Mr Sogo.
"Even in Asia, each country has different characteristics, and that is the challenge. When we expand our business into a new market we need to understand what is going on in that market and what kind of culture they have. Those things are important for us because it helps us acquire the right talent. Localisation is tough but we know how to do it and that is our comparative advantage."
In his view, the Asian advertising industry is almost as competitive as in the United States because some US-based companies have already expanded to the region. At the same time, there are a lot of local technology companies in Asia, so localisation here is "very important".
"The market and the players in the US and Asia are quite similar but the business culture is totally different and that is the key point," Mr Sogo said. To better understand the market in Muslim-majority Malaysia, the company worked with local publishers and advertisers before recruiting a "great country manager" to help establish its office there.
Akifusa Kanda, country manager in Malaysia, held various leadership roles at Geniee, a Japanese supply-side platform, before joining AnyMind.
"With our focus on localisation, I am confident of enhancing our place in both the advertising and marketing technology spaces here," Mr Kanda said.
The Malaysian market is "competitive" but he believes AI-powered solutions including the AdAsia digital platforms for advertisers and publishers will add another dimension to the local sphere.
The company also intends to broaden the reach of CastingAsia among influencers from Malaysia, while also adding top-tier Malaysian publishers to the AdAsia ad and video networks. TalentMind will be introduced in the country at a later date.
AnyMind is also planning a stock market listing in the next couple of years, according to Mr Sogo. He sees a stock market in the US as "very attractive" because he says numerous US investors are interested in the company's technologies and its Asian success story.
