Forward3D to offer brands easier access to Korea's Naver search engine

Forward3D, which is based in London and has offices in New York, Shanghai and Seoul, has become a certified partner of Naver. 

This means more efficient workflows, a quicker approval process for ads and access to new beta ad extensions and ad channels, Hannes Ben, Forward3D’s EVP International, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "Having direct communication with internal Naver teams, regular updates, training and access to their market insight data will be crucial in supporting our clients in their international expansions to platforms, such as Naver," he said, adding that while Naver has a few other agency partners, Forward3D is the only international independent on the roster. 

The agency's international travel and retail clients are keen to capitalise on this access to South Korea. For example, Hilton Worldwide and MrPorter.com are already running campaigns on Naver through Forward3D. Such clients are interested in driving traffic and revenue in a market where e-commerce is mature, where people are used to shopping online and enjoy buying foreign brands, said Ben (pictured below).

Naver is an information portal as well as a search engine, and has a "totally different SERP [search-engine results page] landscape" from Google, combining a number of different paid and unpaid sections, he said. 

"API access allows us to manage data quicker and on a larger-scale," he said. "We can integrate our internal tools directly with the Naver interface and then more easily facilitate the optimization process. Clients receive data directly from our internal tools that present it in a bespoke format. This means that our clients don’t require a detailed understanding of campaign, keyword and ad copy specific regulations in order to still receive detailed insights from Naver activity."

Forward3D has similar relationships with other regional search engines including Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China. "We are also working on partnering with other prominent APAC search engines to offer our clients the best possible service across APAC markets," he said.