Unruly & Foresight Factory Bring The Future To Spikes Asia 2017

Foresight Factory CEO and co-owner, Meabh Quoirin, and Unruly’s SVP Insight, Ian Forrester, will take to the stage at Spikes Asia tomorrow to explore the emerging trends, cultural factors and emotional relationships underpinning APAC consumers’ relationship with video advertising.

By 2020 video will account for 80% of all internet traffic (Cisco), and with digital spending in Asia-Pacific expected to reach $4.35 billion in 2018, it’s clear the medium isn’t going away anytime soon.

But video is not going to have it all its own way over the coming years. Unruly’s recent Future Home Survey found that consumers in South-East Asia are more comfortable than their global counterparts with connected technology entering their homes.

For example, 42% of consumers in Malaysia are excited about the prospect of connected technology entering their households, versus a global average of 23%.

So what does this all mean for video? Ahead of the presentation, we’ll take a closer look at some of the biggest consumer tech trends Foresight Factory are tracking in South-East Asia, as well as taking a deeper dive into Unruly’s Future Home Survey.

First things first – what’s the state of video in APAC right now?

Video is currently undergoing a boom in Asia-Pacific, as more people than ever before engage with online video content.

Mobile video, in particular, is exploding – with 45% of all global digital video views now taking place on mobile devices (source: eMarketer), while a quarter of consumers now watch more than 10 videos a week on their phones.

One of the main factors driving such huge growth in video consumption across APAC is how responsive audiences are to branded video content.

Consumers across APAC are the most emotional while watching video ads. This trend continues when we drill down to specific countries. For instance, Indian consumers like advertising more than any other market we’ve tested, with 62% of viewers saying they like seeing ads for relevant products and services vs a global average of 28% (source: Unruly Future Video Survey, Sept 2016).

What does the future hold?

So right now, APAC consumers are loving video. But what does the next 5 or 10 years hold?

As part of the launch of Home, a space designed to give marketers a glimpse of how brands can engage consumers in the connected home, we conducted a survey to better understand global consumer attitudes towards the next generation of home tech.

The study found consumers in South-East Asia are more comfortable than their global counterparts with connected technology entering their homes and becoming a bigger part of their lives. In fact, 75% of Malaysians and Thais believe connected home tech will make their lives happier and healthier.

Such willingness to embrace emerging technologies can be also seen by the adoption of virtual reality hardware across the region.

According to Digi-Capital – a tech mergers and acquisitions adviser – Asia will be the largest market for such headsets by revenue by 2021, with a 45% global share. Furthermore, Foresight Factory data points to an increased interest in VR in countries with a higher frequency of watching videos.

If VR is really set to become mainstream and part of our at-home entertainment – which we believe it will be, with Singapore leading the way in Asia at 38% for ownership – maximising video genres for 360 video is crucial to retaining a competitive edge.

Join Unruly and Foresight Factory for “The End of Video Advertising As We Know It?” at Spikes Asia on the In Focus stage tomorrow (Thursday, 28th September) at 3pm and uncover more surprising insights about the media content diet of consumers in Asia and the impact on businesses invested in video.