And for more of the same check out our stats posts from June and July, or book yourself onto one of our digital training courses in Singapore…

Singapore not up to standards

Singaporean marketers feel that the country lags behind other nations when it comes to digital measurement, according to a new IAB study.

When asked to rate the current state of digital measurement using a 10-point scale where 10 reflected the situation in the most advanced markets, respondents from brands, agencies and publishers gave an average score of just four.

Additionally, only around a quarter (28%) of respondents said they are happy with existing practices and 88% said that metrics currently being used are either ‘somewhat ineffective’ or ‘ineffective’.

Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) said they were looking for help to better understand digital measurement.

Asians use Facebook for news and discovery

Facebook users in Southeast Asia rely on the social network for breaking news and product discovery, according to data published by Facebook IQ.

A survey of users from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia found that on average 58% of people first heard breaking news on Facebook while a further 52% discovered new products on the platform.

Furthermore, Southeast Asians report that Facebook and Messenger often replace other means of communication, such as email, phone calls and text messages. 

61% of people surveyed across the five Southeast Asian countries said they would rather talk to close friends on Facebook than on the phone or through email.

Asians turn to YouTube to learn

Asians are far more likely Westerners to use YouTube to learn something new, according to Google APAC.

More than half of Filipino viewers (56%) watch how-to YouTube videos, as do 38% of Malaysians and Thais, 33% of Indonesians and 28% of Singaporeans.

This compares to just 21% in the US and 15% in the UK.

Alibaba takes action against counterfeiters

Alibaba has launched an English-language version of its TaoProtect system for reporting intellectual property infringements as it seeks to clamp down on counterfeiters.

The Chinese ecommerce giant is facing legal action of its perceived lack of action over the sale of counterfeit goods on its Taobao and Tmall sites, so this is a much-needed step to placate foreign brands.

Xinghao Wang, Alibaba Group’s senior intellectual property protection manager, said: “Because the success and integrity of our marketplaces depend on consumer trust, we have comprehensive policies and practices in place to fight IP infringement.”

China now biggest e-retail market

China overtook the US in 2014 to become the world’s biggest e-retail market.

According to a new report by Juniper Research, the country racked up nearly $450bn in e-retail sales last year compared to $296bn in the US. Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba attracted more than 330m buyers in 2014.

APAC is most mobile-ready region in the world

A new report by Adobe shows that Asia Pacific is outpacing the rest of the world in mobile marketing.

The Adobe Digital Index 2015 compares the overall average versus the top 20% websites on six key performance indicators across eight regions: Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Southeast Asia (SEA), India, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Japan and the US.

Does your organ­i­sa­tion have a mobile strategy?

APAC brands are leading the shift to mobile-first business practices, with those in Southeast Asia being particularly focused on mobile as an effective form of customer engagement.

For example, Southeast Asian brands saw double-digit increases year-over-year in their share of smartphone visits, and all countries in APAC fared better than the US for time spend on-site.

Data analysis a barriers to real-time marketing

Problems with data management mean APAC brands are struggling to properly implement real-time marketing.

Research by TNS found that seven in 10 marketers (70%) have difficulties integrating data from a multitude of sources, 68% said insights were not actionable enough and 60% said that these weren’t coming through fast enough.

The research by TNS involved a survey of more than 2,700 marketing professionals across Asia-Pacific.

Brands should be spending 15% of ad budgets on mobile

A study conducted on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company in China has found that brands can achieve significant improvements in campaign performance if they’re willing to allocate between 8% and 15% of their budgets to mobile.

The research assessed the economic value of mobile compared to traditional marketing channels and found that mobile at 8% of total budget drives 7% of profits and mobile at 15% drives 16% of profits.

Mobile was also found to offer almost double the ROI of TV advertising, while mobile video is apparently three times more effective than TV or digital video.

It should be noted that this research was conducted by the Mobile Marketing Association. 

Aussie brands don’t meet digital expectations

A survey of 3,000 Australian consumers by SAP found that almost half (47%) are dissatisfied with the digital experiences on offer from 34 of the country’s largest brands.

This could spell trouble as only 17% of respondents said they would remain loyal to a brand that digital disappoints.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) for this segment was a a very poor -55%.

The 3,000 consumers rated a total of nearly 7,000 digital interactions against 13 core attributes of a delightful digital experience, including engagement, personalisation, responsiveness and simplicity.  

And a bit more on Aussie loyalty…

A new report from Directivity and Citrus investigates how Australians use loyalty schemes.

It shows that loyalty schemes are very popular in the country, with 84% of Australians currently enrolled in a program.

Furthermore, 59% of members say they are active in all of the programs they are enrolled in, a 31% increase since 2013. 

And despite Despite the increasingly digital world we live in, 67% of members say they would prefer a traditional card, a 10% increase since last year.

Three devices are better than two

Until quite recently we were all talking about second-screening, but that’s very old news in Asia now.

A report from Appier shows that nearly 40% of Asian multiscreen users operate more than three devices.

In Singapore 21.2% of multiscreen users operate three devices, compared to 20.8% in Australia and the Philippines.

Japan (32.7%), Taiwan (25.7%) and Malaysia (24.8%) can boast the biggest percentage of multidevice users operating more than four screens.

APAC brands pile in on programmatic video

Investment in programmatic video advertising increased by 20% in Southeast Asia during Q2, with mobile driving the bulk of the new activity.

A new report from Tubemogul looks at how brands in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are investing in programmatic by tracking the average number of daily auctions.

Singapore was the fastest growing market with a 28% increase to 2.9m auctions, although Indonesia saw the biggest rise in absolute terms from 11.5m to 14m.