SPH, Mediacorp's digital advertising marketplace adds 7 new partners

Singapore

DIGITAL advertising marketplace Singapore Media Exchange (SMX) has expanded its list of partners with seven additional media publishers and marketplace owners.

The new partners hail from South-east Asia and include video streaming service Viu, consumer marketplaces Carousell, Mudah and Kaidee, Malaysian broadcaster Astro's digital marketing arm Blaze Digital, Web portal Sanook and Philippine broadcaster GMA Network's digital media and technology arm GMA New Media.

The expansion will offer advertisers an increased selection of programmatic brand-safe options to reach audiences across the region.

The new tie-ups give SMX, set up by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Mediacorp, more opportunities to combine its first-party data with those of its partners to create "richer audience data" for more precise and effective targeting.

SPH is the parent company of The Business Times.

SMX also hired veteran digital marketing professional Rahul Raj as its programmatic market development director. He has more than 12 years' experience, including being the former programmatic director at multinational media and digital marketing company Dentsu Aegis Network.

Mr Raj will be tasked with promoting programmatic adoption for SMX partner publishers across South-east Asia, and will also help SMX work with Singapore brands and agencies to "meet their programmatic demand and drive further adoption for premium programmatic" as an "above-the-line channel" - industry speak for mass media advertising.

Hari Shankar, chief executive officer of SMX, believes that the regional partnerships will propel SMX towards a strong regional offering that "reinforces their ability to provide buyers with rich audiences, precision targeting and innovative ad formats while making the supply accessible with more buying options and across bidders".

SMX said it now reaches over four out of five Internet users in Singapore through "sites that provide advertisers with access to brand-safe, premium display, video and native inventory".