iClick Interactive Asia Limited: Reaching Out to Target Audiences with Advanced Digital Marketing

Until 2008’s financial crisis outbreak, data-driven programmatic media buying was virtually a non-existent digital marketing approach in the APAC region. Although, some marketers adopted digital ads in their marketing mix, yet it was in a very controlled manner. Recalling the after effects of financial blow, Sammy Hsieh, Co-founder & CEO, iClick Interactive, explains, “After the global financial crisis marketers were more budget-smart and ROI-alert with every marketing dollar spent. Resultantly, digital advertising business started blooming. By holding a strong belief that a data-driven, result-driven approach would be the future of digital marketing,” says Sammy Hsieh and Ricky Ng co-founded iClick Interactive in 2009 with a firm conviction to redefine the digital marketplace with data, insights and innovation.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, iClick Interactive is the first enterprise in Hong Kong to introduce platform-based data-driven digital marketing solutions and a programmatic marketing approach. The company has its own proprietary Programmatic Marketing Platform to help international advertisers reach out to their target audiences via cross-channel, cross-screen programmatic marketing solutions. Precise targeting requires true understanding of the target audience; iClick Interactive’s Data-driven Audience Buying continuously optimizes the quality of the data to enhance the precision of audience targeting solutions on an ongoing basis. By continuously monitoring the digital footprints of different Chinese audience groups across the channels, including search, site interactions, social, e-commerce and ad interactions, the company gathers valuable insights into their audience profiles’ interest, buying intention, etc. Besides, the company’s extensive media connections in mainland China allows iClick Interactive to access the best possible premium inventories to precisely reach out to its right audience in Mainland China for advertisers.

iClick Interactive runs its own R&D centre in China that focuses on enhancing Digital Marketing capabilities. The center actively engages in advanced data mining and algorithmic technology development to continuously devise solutions that maximize marketing ROI and efficiency. In 2015, when Huawei wanted to attract budget-conscious customers, it launched its all new Ascend Mate7 smartphone. In order to meet Huawei’s marketing objectives, iClick Interactive planned a two-phase strategic approach:First, to identify for Huawei its target audience and second, adopt a data-driven marketing solution to reach out to potential customers across different digital channels. Leveraging iClick Interactive’s programmatic marketing platform’s connections to websites in China and the huge amount of data in its audience database, the company helped Huawei identify the target audience groups. The company then targeted Huawei’s advertising messages towards these audience groups via programmatic buy on major ad exchanges, private exchanges and portals. iClick interactive's support undoubtedly helped Huawei address its target audiences, which eventually reached a target audience group of beyond 56 million users. The company has so far helped 150 Fortune 500 clients and 2,500+ medium-sized enterprises to precisely reach their target audience in Mainland China in a programmatic approach.

To strengthen its cross-platform, cross-screen marketing capabilities and market coverage, iClick Interactive acquired China’s leading mobile DSP OptAim 100% in 2015.

In Mainland China, the company was named China’s Independent Agency of the Year by Campaign Asia in 2015. It was also awarded as The Best Case Study at the DCCI iWorld Awards 2015 for its Huawei’s Mate7 launch. In Hong Kong, it’s been winning at Yahoo’s Big Idea Chair Awards four years in a row, receiving six awards in total in 2015 with award categories spanning across Branding, Mobile, Search and Performance. It is also the winner of Best M-Commerce Solution and Best Insight-Driven Mobile Campaign at Marketing Magazine’s Mob-Ex Awards 2016.

Digital marketing is a complex space, but iClick Interactive has mastered the game and is poised for further growth in the coming years.