Innity Blog - Online MarketingOfficial Blog of Innity Corporation Berhad

Why Wi-Fi advertising is HOT

It’s no secret that Innity has recently launched WiFi advertising. We’ve already run quite few campaigns that proved to be a great success. Why? Because advertising at free Wi-Fi hotspots gives us the chance to capture people’s attention even before they go online. Here’s how it works.

Free Wi-Fi is becoming a necessity for all coffee shops and restaurants to attract young executives who enjoy surfing the web while having coffee or a meal. Some places have set up platforms for advertisers to tap into this target group and grab their exclusive attention for 30 seconds before they get connected to the web. This avenue provides great advertising potential for marketers.

In the second half of 2009, advertisers in Malaysia began to explore this method, called “Wi-Fi advertising”. This breed of advertising is described as a marriage between ambient and digital advertising, an attention board that guarantees viewership before the user gets connected to the digital world.

Wi-Fi advertising is a hybrid of online and offline advertising. Allowing free internet access at the most popular places around Malaysia, such as Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Secret Recipe, Pizza Hut, etc., Wi-Fi advertising can seamlessly be integrated into campaigns and benefit them with its niche audience reach, guaranteed viewership, fine geo-targeting, and formats that users are bound to watch before they browse the internet.

Advertising at free Wi-Fi hot spots is a unique way for marketers to exclusively reach the attention of their prime target audience, whose attention is otherwise difficult to grab as they are mobile, and spread their attention around.

Wi-Fi users can be divided into three major categories:

• PMEBs (professionals, managers, executives and businessmen) — With roles in management, these are affluent mobile professionals. Outside business, they focus on growing their assets and rewarding themselves and their families with the spoils of their hard work.
• Trendsetters — They are in their late 20s and early 30s. They are hitting strides in their careers and moving up the income ladder to wield their discretionary spending power. If it’s new and hip, they’ll buy it — and influence others to follow their lead.
• College youth - They are the urban upper class aged 18-25. They are outspoken, socially active, and adventurous. These users are confident, mobile, and upwardly motivated. They are the affluent professionals of tomorrow.

Now as we have this reach, it’s a matter of capturing their attention and turning them into customers and brand advocates. Mandatory watch is very helpful here, but attention must be drawn to the quality and creativity of the ads, so as to avoid falling under the same trend online advertising faced some years ago, where users became immune to ads over time.

Another strength of Wi-Fi advertising is its fine geo-targeting. When users connect from hotspots, we have the advantage of knowing their exact location; hence we’d be able to identify how close they are to the nearest store which sells an advertiser’s product. This gives us an opportunity to influence consumers to go to that store, which could be just a few steps away.

Advertising at free Wi-Fi hotspots is a gateway to users that gives marketers the ability to capture their attention even before they connect to internet. Being mobile and always connected is not just trendy, it’s becoming a necessity, and Wi-Fi here is the best solution — it offers users free internet access and gives marketers their prime audience reach.

Happy Chinese New Year!

DEAR FRIENDS!

As we usher in the year of the Tiger, Innity is set to achieve greater heights as an innovative advertising network with new products and features which are of significant value to you.

We look forward to another successful year with great enthusiasm after having become the first company in Asia Pacific to be a member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB), the first in Asia to obtain BPA Worldwide ad server system certification and the first to introduce “Pay for Engagement” model in Asia.

These achievements could not have happened without your continuous support and understanding, therefore we would like to take this opportunity to thank you again and wish this Chinese New Year brings shining luck, flourishing prosperity and greater success in all your endeavors.

Gong Xi Fa Cai & Happy Chinese New Year !

Warmest wishes,
Innity Team

Advertising anticipations on where 2010 will take us

Looking back at 2009 makes you think “Thank God, this year is over”. It was not an easy year for the advertising industry; nevertheless online advertising suffered the least!

Whereas the main focus of 2009 for online marketers was instant-ROI-driven, 2010 is promising to have more meaningful and creative campaigns based on better pre-campaign consumer analysis.

Successful marketing campaigns are not only measured by how many people saw your ad, but how many people you turned into advocates for your brand as they spread the word about your campaign. This is something online knows best about, as we enter the viral era. 2010 should see digital marketers having more authority for marketing strategy decisions, as the marketing board will come crying: “Help! We need to go digital!”

The internet has blessed marketers with a platform where people are willingly expressing and sharing, as they connect to others of similar interests. People from all ages, interests and genders are segmented into thousands of groups and millions of sites, waiting to be connected with someone who leads them.

These online customers are smart, sophisticated, selective, brand-oriented and know an ad when they see one. In 2010, they will be going for meaningful and engaging advertising that has a purpose that they would connect to.

Anticipations are higher as we expect brands nowadays to be our trendy friends who improve our lives through their products. This brand-relationship is created by marketing, mainly through repetitive messages on traditional media. The anticipation from consumers is an opportunity for brands to fulfill it with a wide range of online ideas that connect marketing with creativity and technology. Marketers have got everything at their hands to make things come true.

Sophisticated technology is opening all kinds of doors for marketers to make engaging advertising that creates experiences, not just one way messages. We are moving towards advertising with a meaning, which is trendy, simple, and easy to share. It’s a 3C advertising model that makes campaigns successful by having:

1. Content that the audience can relate to — what the campaign is about
2. Context in which they can participate through — the media for the campaign
3. Continuity of a campaign that gives them reason to spend more time participating and engaging with the brand.

Besides measuring bliss, technology now allows marketers not only to trace customers’ demands and behavior but also respond to them straight away. Advertising is moving towards a so-called “nowism”, where everything is about what is happening now and the immediate response to it.

Overall, 2010 is promising to be a refreshing year for the online advertising industry. With the quickening pace of change, technology is getting more sophisticated, giving us more features to create interactive and engaging ads. 2010 campaigns will give users more positive experiences of interacting with the brand.

Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year!

DEAR FRIENDS

2009 has been an astonishingly progressive year for Innity as a whole thanks to the several accomplishments that we have managed to achieve. In times of recession, Innity have not only strengthened foundations but gone on to surpass targets in developmental growth as an innovative advertising network.

Our unprecedented achievements for 2009 include:

	Kicking off the year with our Regional Performance Network which provides quality content with a strong focus on the “Pay for Engagement” model.
	The first company in the Asia Pacific to become a member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB), a platform for educating member companies on the values of interactive advertising.
	The successful launch of WiFi advertising in over 300 outlets in Malaysia. Since its’ launch in July 2009, major eateries and cafes like Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Old Town have been collaborating with us on advertising through their free WiFi service for consumers. This is a giant leap forward in successful targeting of certain niche audiences.
	Obtaining BPA Worldwide’s ad server system certification and also being the first firm to do so in Asia. BPA Worldwide is a media auditing company that helps firms with their audience insights and turning it into a competitive advantage.
	Groundbreaking performances at events such as AdAsia and Ad:Tech. Turnouts were encouraging despite the recession while feedbacks received from delegates and visitors were very positive.
	Smooth opening and great response from our new offices in Indonesia and Singapore. Next year will see us opening a third setup overseas.

Overall, it has been an amazing year for us at Innity with traffic hitting more than 2.1 billion impressions per month. These accomplishments have spurred us to scale even greater heights come 2010 so till then, thank you for believing in us and being part of our outstanding achievements. Happy New Year!

Warmest wishes,
Innity Team

Post Event: SGN Digital: marketing

SDM is back, bigger and more exciting with brands, agencies, publishers and service providers that gathered to share, network, learn and do business.

This Conference took place on November, 24 this year and hosted more than 30 speakers. The topics ranged from email, online advertising to social marketing. Event was rounded up with networking parties.

Innity didn’t miss a change to participate in this conference. We took part in the event as exhibitors and also went for Speaker’s Session where Mr. Arshan Saha, Regional Business Development Manager at Innity presented “Online Media Planning Through The Lenses Of A Successful Case Study: Samsung Corby”.

The whole event was a great success for Innity. We had an opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people from the industry, share our visions and opinions as well as look back and evaluate all our achievements for 2009.

About the event: Saigon Digital Marketing (SDM) is a series of Vietnam’s largest digital marketing events produced by Ninety Media Group with two biannual shows and four quarterly gatherings to update audience emerging trends from the digital world. More than a conference or exhibition, SDM is a community attendees would return year after year to connect with their existing vendors and clients beside new networking opportunities.

AdAsia post event

AdAsia 09 took place in KL this year, sharing knowledge, expertise, and last but not the least – contacts. It was an exciting event for us as well, which gave us an opportunity to see our old friends and to get to know new ones.

As a whole, this event brought 630 delegates from 23 countries – South Korea, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Taipei, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Nepal, Vietnam, Australia, Germany, USA, UK, Mauritius, Poland, Kazakhstan and host country Malaysia. This multinational team of media people made it an unforgettable experience of sharing ideas and expertise.

AdAsia’ aim has been, and remains to expand and raise strategic thinking and creative bar, to improve the role that brands play in improving lives and broadening horizons, to redefine markets and to reach more consumers. These three days of blast among media gigs saturated with conference sessions, networking lunches, tea breaks and dinners hosted by sponsors definitely made it.

Innity participated in this event as an exhibitor introducing delegates and visitors into our business and products. Our core motive in this business is to make our clients’ campaigns more efficient and accountable, so this time we featured our Performance Network and unique ad formats developed by Innity.

It was also a great chance for us to thank once more Mr. Glen, the CEO of BPA Worldwide and Mrs Doreen Chan, General Manager of Asia Pacific Region, BPA Worldwide, for their excellent work they did certifying our ad serving platform. We were fortunate enough to have them as our neighbors at the site.

Other exhibitors sharing the site were Celcom, Aljazeera, The Sun, Malaysia SME, etc. Conference was wrapped up with a farewell dinner hosted by the Indian AA, which will host the next congress in New Delhi in 2011. Vietnam has made a bid to host AdAsia in 2013.

Meet us at AdAsia09

Where: Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, KL, Malaysia
When: 23rd & 24th October, 2009

Along with its rapid growth and development Innity doesn’t miss chances of participating in the most important and influential events in online marketing and advertisement industry. After having a blast at Ad:Tech 2009 in Singapore Innity is now looking forward to an exciting upcoming event, AdAsia09, which is taking place this year in KL, Malaysia.
The redefinition of Asia’s global reorientation in view of the socio-economic challenges pervading the continent is the theme of the 26th AdAsia 09.
With much of Asia facing unprecedented economic, environmental and political challenges, the Congress with its topic Asia-Redefining the Future promises to explore the immense role that communications can play in reaching the world’s greater influencer - the ordinary consumer.
This event takes place in various countries in Asia under the auspices of Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA). It is the largest advertising, marketing, communications and media congress held in this region since 1958. The congress attracts more than 1,000 advertising professionals in Asia and throughout the world and Innity is proud to be on the list.
Its aim has been, and remains to expand and raise strategic thinking and creative bar, to improve the role that brands play in improving lives and broadening horizons, to redefine markets and to reach more consumers.
Innity is looking forward to this exciting event where we will have an opportunity to share our rich knowledge and experience of online marketing as well as about our new exciting products.

See you there!

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

The month of Ramadan is a special period for not only our Muslim friends but for all Malaysians as we look forward to celebrating Hari Raya. On top of satisfying our taste buds with “buka puasa” cuisines at a nearby Ramadan Bazaar, we are indeed looking forward to the coming “balik kampung” holidays.

So let’s take this opportunity and wish each other Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

Warmest wishes,
Innity Team

BPA Worldwide Contracts first Ad Serving System Certification in Asia

Beijing, China September 9, 2009 - BPA Worldwide, the global leader in auditing media, recently announced that Innity, Malaysia’s premium advertising network and a market leader in online advertising in South East Asia, signed up for BPA Worldwide’s ad server system certification. This is also the first ad server system certification conducted by BPA Worldwide in Asia.

BPA Worldwide’s ad serving system complies with all Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) guidelines and provides additional systems verification that goes above and beyond the IAB requirements. Some of those added benchmarks include a disaster recovery/business continuity process review, behavioral/activity-based filtering procedures and the reporting of the time at which data is considered final.

Innity Campaign Management System is a robust platform for delivering campaigns that provides transparency from the macro to the micro, with real-time reporting. Its ad system delivers measurable and scalable results based on the effectiveness of its advanced optimization technology.

“Advertisers attach importance to the accuracy and transparency in their digital campaigns,” said Glenn Hansen, President and Chief Executive Officer, BPA Worldwide. “We are glad that Innity signed up for BPA Worldwide’s membership. It is the first ad server system certification conducted by BPA Worldwide in Asia, which opens a new chapter for our growth in this promising market.”

According to recent IDC research, Asia showed an overall increase in online ad spending in Q2, 2009.

“Third-party verification further proves Innity’s commitment to its clients. BPA Worldwide’s audit enables Innity’s advertising and publisher clients to have greater confidence in its reporting data,” added Hansen.

BPA Worldwide’s ad server system certification includes an in-depth examination of the end-to-end ad serving process. It verifies compliance with established IAB guidelines validates accuracy of ad serving and counting mechanisms, provides insight to management that systems are working as they should and promotes credibility of the system within the market. It also certifies other elements of the transaction stream. BPA Worldwide’s ad server system audit findings could facilitate revisions of systems/processes to improve services and enable improvement to existing Guidelines.

About BPA Worldwide A not-for-profit organization since 1931, BPA Worldwide is governed by a tripartite board comprised of media owners, advertising agencies and advertisers. Headquartered in Shelton, Connecticut, USA, BPA has the largest membership of any media-auditing organization in the world, spanning more than 25 countries. Worldwide, BPA serves more than 2,800+ media properties—including over 1,700 B-to-B publications, more than 300 consumer magazines, 150 newspapers, 450+ web sites, 50 events, email newsletters, databases, wireless and other advertiser-supported media—as well as 2,700 advertiser and agency members. Visit www.bpaww.com for the latest audit reports, membership information and publishing and advertising industry news.

Partnership with International Publishers signed

We have recently signed up several International publishers, adding new channels and excitement to Innity network. Innity welcomes and looks forward to our partnership with E-buddy, Glam Media, Goal.com, My Space, i-TV, World Wresting Entertainment, Oberon Media. Also, we partner up with two huge renowned networks AdConion and Ad2One. Along with them, they brought several publishers like Wallpaper, Guardian.co.uk, iTV etc. Below is an introduction of some of the publishers.

E-buddy web messenger
E-buddy web messenger is a high traffic site that reaches over 22 Million unique visitors, 70% of them are ranged between 13 - 24 years old. These young audiences love music, keen in latest trends like mobile phone gadgets, sports, clothing, travel and entertainment. They are web savvy and do engage in online advertising. Here, E-buddy is able to target your audience according to Male or Female, depending on your requirement. Messenger ads drive better CTR as it comes right upfront, displaying when you launch your messenger.

Glam Media
Glam Media is the biggest Female Network in the world with 4.5Million Pageviews and 710,000 Unique Visitors in Malaysia. Being a combination of content and blogs for fashion, beauty, celebrity entertainment and living targeted at savvy, intelligent women with high spending power. This channel is suitable for all female related products.

Goal.com
Goal.com is popular among all football lovers, covering everything related to football news, gossips and latest scores and updates. It reaches over 10 million unique visitors worldwide with 70% of their audience are mainly football male fans aged between 25 and 44 years old.

My Space
My Space has a huge phenomenal audience reach with 923Million pageviews in Malaysia only. It is mainly entertainment based content for web savvy users who uses this channel for their music & entertainment updates. Also, it is a way to create a profile for themselves on this channel, especially aspiring musicians or artists. User who surfs on this channel usually spends a lot of time listening to music, keeping update of the latest songs. My Space key advertisers are record labels, film distributors, youth targeted products.

i-TV
i-TV is UK’s biggest commercial television network reaching over to 540,000 Pageviews in Malaysia solely. It’s TV network programming that covers a complete range of TV genres like drama, entertainment, news, sports and children’s program etc. i-TV provides a range of new media and interactive services via internet, mobile phones and broadband. This channel is targeted towards users who are interested in international entertainment such as Xfactor and Britain’s Got talent and also towards expats from UK staying in South East Asia. i-TV’s key advertisers are usually from industries like Travel, Platinum finance, Sports and Entertainment.

World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment is a very popular site among wrestling fans. It has everything you want to know about the wrestling sports, current matches, videos, pictures, news and even wrestling fans merchandises. This site is targeted at wrestling fans, people who enjoys watching wrestling, muscular bodied stars.

Oberon Media
Oberon Media is a young casual game site targeting youths, mainly females. Through this site, user can reach multiple gamers on different networks, allowing them to be social networking and challenging their friends at the same time. As the users gather here to play games, there is a significantly high CTR for ads displayed during their gameplay. In Malaysia alone, pageviews can reach up to 4.2Million. This channel is targeted at web savvy individuals who engage with online advertising, suitable for advertisers whose products are technology and entertainment based.