In this exclusive “Masters of Media” series, Integral Ad Science (IAS) speaks to the Movers and Shakers of the Southeast Asia advertising industry, on all matters digital.
Vitya Vijayan is the Account Director at M&C Saatchi Performance and she’s an expert in running digital campaigns through data-driven insights. She champions customer acquisition and branding campaigns for her clients on digital channels.
Integral Ad Science (IAS): What has your digital advertising journey been like?
Vitya Vijayan, M&C Saatchi Performance (Vitya): It all started in 2012, when I joined GroupM’s Media Masters graduate program in Singapore. After my traineeship, I landed a job at Mindshare where I was managing both offline and online channels – I still remember my first digital campaign, an IO based buy for an FMCG client. With the increasing year on year (YoY) digital spend of my clients, I got the chance to run a growing number of campaigns. It was in that moment that I started to love performance marketing and decided I wanted to focus solely on that. I joined M&C Saatchi Performance in 2017 and since then, I have truly broadened my understanding of mobile app advertising. Today, as Account Director, I manage some of our biggest accounts in the APAC region.
IAS: What are the key industry developments you’re excited about?
Vitya: Having worked in an integrated role and having done my fair share of TV, OOH and newspaper buying, I am excited and looking forward to the possibility of accessing OOH or TV inventory programmatically. While this new trend has been picking up fast in the western countries, it is still in a relative stage of infancy in our market.
IAS: What is your opinion regarding the industry’s move from brand safety to brand suitability?
Vitya: It’s about looking at things from a glass-half-full perspective and that is what this move reflects. It is a good direction for advertisers to take in terms of looking at the content they want to be associated with, vs that which they don’t. But it is still important to have a baseline blocklist to ensure the brand remains protected.
IAS: What are the key initiatives pertaining to digital media quality your company is prioritizing right now? E.g. ad fraud, viewability, brand suitability
Vitya: The key initiative that our agency has always prioritised and continues to prioritise is ad fraud prevention. We actively approach ad fraud by educating our clients and ensuring advertisers are protected as much as possible.
IAS: What are the top key trends you foresee in 2020?
Vitya: In 2020, I foresee three main trends: firstly, the growth of social commerce with shoppable social media posts; secondly, the rise of TikTok as an advertising platform for brands and finally, the growth of predictive analytics to drive personalised ads – forecasting a user’s buying behaviour or product usage pattern will help brands to serve them ads at the right time.’
IAS: What do you do in your free time?
Vitya: Nothing too out of the ordinary. Netflix, Nintendo Switch, spend time with family and friends
IAS: What is your advice to the fresh talents in the industry?
Vitya: Stay curious, work smart and not hard.
Read more about our Masters of Media series. If you’d like to be featured or to speak with us, contact us today!
