Q&A: DG MediaMind's Ricky Liversidge

What are the challenges facing marketers in Asia, and what are they asking for to help them?

The way consumers consume contents nowadays—they are everywhere, we can’t catch where they are, and brands can’t drive consolidated campaigns to reach out to them.

Marketers are constantly looking at cross-channel analytics to understand reach and impressions, to break the gap between online and offline. They also want to optimise their content.

You led a panel discussion titled “Why data sucks in the new world of advertising” at Inspire Singapore. What was that about?

The new marketing world is not about online and offline, it is about people online all the time, and data pushes the gap between online and offline. We get a lot of data, but it sucks when it is not enough to answer your questions and is not simplified to be used. It needs to breach the gap between reach and impression. Data helps to make good decisions through the optimisation process–from pre-planning to planning to execution.

What trends will we see in the region in the next year?

There will be three things: mobile advertising, video, and data still sucks.

Video will be an important element in advertising campaign in Asia, as it allows brands to extend the advertising opportunity online and create response among consumers. Display advertising allows brands to extend their opportunities online and create responses among consumers.... And you will see more premium content.

Multiscreen is becoming more common among consumers. It is still at the test and trial stage now, but it will become a normal thing in the next 18 months. Mobile and TV cannot be treated as separate channels anymore, and synchronisation is needed to put different devices together. All TV channels, be they of push content, on demand or from the internet, will also be connected.