ClickZ.asia

Japan’s absolute real-time bidding (RTB) spend has overtaken France and Germany this year and is estimated to be worth $1.1 billion in 2016, according to an October report by IDC.

The Pubmatic sponsored October white paper on RTB in the U.S. and Worldwide for 2011 – 2016, revealed the following RTB spending figures in Japan:

• Total RTB revenue in Japan will grow from $47 million in 2011 to $1.1 billion in 2016.
• Japan’s RTB market share of total display ad spend will rise from 2 percent to 24 percent.
• RTB’s share of indirect ad spend will increase from 6 percent to 68 percent.

Globally, RTB spend will grow from $1.4 billion in 2011 to $13.9 billion in 2016, with its share of total display ad spend quadrupled from 5 percent to 20 percent, and indirect display ad sales to grow from 14 percent to 58 percent in the same period, led by the United States.

When Japan is compared against global figures, it has stood out as the fastest growing market in the RTB space in Asia, as supported from the stats above.

Meanwhile, the country has seen a flurry of activities in the form of strategic alliances between American ad tech firms with Yahoo Japan and Dentsu cci in the market.

Rocket Fuel Enters Japan Through Dentsu cci Alliance

Cyber Communications Inc (cci), Dentsu’s digital subsidiary, has chosen Rocket Fuel as its display ad tech partner for programmatic media buying of display, video, mobile, and social media to its more than 1,000 agency and publisher customers.

“Based on careful analysis of the Japanese market, it was clear that Rocket Fuel could enjoy faster growth and more rapid penetration of the Japanese market if the right partner could be found,” Richard Frankel, co-founder and president at Rocket Fuel told ClickZ.asia in an email interview.

Cci will offer full-service campaigns to its Japanese clients utilizing Rocket Fuel’s technology, tools, and expertise while in markets outside of Japan, the ad tech firm can continue to work with Japanese advertisers and brands, he added.

Frankel noted that smaller, direct response-focused agencies and tech vendors have been pitching DSP technology for a while but cci’s stamp of approval begins to make this style of media buying more viable for large agencies and brands.

In addition to being able to scale its technology among large agencies and brands in Japan through the partnership, Rocket Fuel is also keen to tap into the country’s growing demand for Facebook advertising. The ad tech firm has been appointed as a Facebook Exchange (FBX) partner and is rolling out FBX in the U.S. now with plans to make this available in Japan when the technology is ready. 

Rather than appoint a Japan-based exec, Rocket Fuel and cci will send employees from each company to the other for training and knowledge sharing.

This is not the first time cci has partnered with a U.S ad tech firm. Since 2010, it has partnered with OpenX to form an online ad exchange, OpenX Market Japan. Following two years of partnership, OpenX has opened an office in Japan in September to rival Google Adx, which launched in 2011 in the Japan market.

Yahoo Japan Partners Criteo and BrightTag

Yahoo Japan has inked a partnership to use BrightTag, a Chicago-based tag management company, as its universal tag provider that will enable a more efficient connection to advertisers and agencies.

Marc Kiven, BrightTag founder said in his blog post that additional benefits of the partnership would include centralized data collection across Yahoo Japan’s verticals and media services as well as a reduced footprint on its clients’ websites.

In August, Yahoo Japan also announced it has allowed Criteo, a retargeting specialist firm, to be its exclusive provider for personalized display advertising on the portal.

This is the first time in Yahoo Japan’s 16-year history that it has allowed a third-party technology to monetize its premium inventory. The partnership will allow advertisers to buy display ads on a cost-per-click (CPC) rather than cost-per-impression (CPM) basis.

Marin and Criteo to Facilitate Search and Display Management

Criteo Japan’s MD, Max Ueno has also formed a partnership with Marin Software that will allow their customers in the country to enhance their retargeting efforts for marketing campaigns. Criteo’s alliance with the digital ad management platform provider is said to provide advertisers and agencies the ability to manage paid search and performance display ad initiatives within a single platform. Agency partners leveraging this partnership include iRep and Transcosmos.