The IAB SEA+India AGM, hosted at TikTok’s office in Singapore, united over 130 industry leaders to share how our 2023 achievements and our 2024 goals align with our mission.
More than just an excellent networking opportunity in a cool space, our AGM provided a first look of our progress to date and our exciting plans for the future. Insights from Regional Board Members at Unilever, Meta, The Trade Desk, The Coca-Cola Company, GroupM Nexus, and Grab brought these updates to life, sharing their personal experiences and the unique value they’ve received from our community.
This summary captures the highlights from this exclusive member event, ensuring you’re up to date on our collective path forward. There are two formats available; the article below or a video summary with subtitles available here.
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Our Mission
In Southeast Asia and India, the digital landscape presents unique challenges. With no overarching regional governing authority, we navigate a complex mix of regulations and varying levels of market maturity. In a digital landscape marked by the siloed nature of brands, agencies, publishers, platforms, and the diverse markets within Southeast Asia and India, our strategic approach is to dismantle these barriers and speak with one voice.
We are on a mission to unite the digital industry for collective progress and responsible growth. With a commitment to collective and inclusive leadership, the IAB has stepped up to be the platform to unite the region’s digital marketing forces and we represent diverse voices from across the region to catalyse and accelerate digital transformation.
BRINGING THESE PRINCIPLES TO LIFE
1. UnitING the Industry
Marketer Membership Growth: Brand members joining has surged by an impressive 367%, affirming our role as a preferred partner in the digital marketing landscape and emphasising the value marketers see in aligning with our mission for their business objectives.
Leadership Engagement Uptick: Senior Executive involvement in our
initiatives and events has increased by 70% YOY, signifying that collaboration with IAB SEA+India is a strategic decision, not just another commitment. This swift rise in engagement reflects our community’s value.
Committed to Equality: Achieving over 52% diversity on our regional board and councils, far surpassing the regional average of 20%, reflects our strong commitment to gender equality.
Equal Opportunities for All: Our initiatives ensure equal access and influence for all members, from startups to global giants. We guarantee a level playing field where every voice is valued equally in a community where everyone can contribute to and shape our collective future.
Impact of Economic Pressures: We recognise the decline in SME members, largely due to budgetary constraints.
2. Collective Progress
Global Destination for Regional Insights: In 2023, we reached 3.2 million views, with 25% of our traffic from the US and Europe, underscoring the East’s impact on global digital transformation. Our focus on the future state of marketing addresses the major topics in marketing.
Expanding Influence: With an enhanced government advisory role we’ve amplified our industry advocacy through 37 workshops in 2023. Marking a 60% increase from the previous year and thereby expanding our sphere of influence.
Strategic Collaborations Triumph: Our sponsored partnerships delivered over 120,000 downloads of our Retail Media Research with Carousell Media Group and propelled the WARC podcast episode, which discussed this research, to become one of the most listened-to episodes, earning “Top of the Pods” status. High-impact events with Google and TikTok, all received outstanding attendee feedback scores for their insights into Privacy, AI, and consumer trends in Asia
3. Responsible Growth
The evolving role of industry associations marks a shift from focusing merely on short-term promotional activities like events and awards to addressing the long-term, strategic challenges and opportunities at the heart of digital transformation.
Transformation is not just about keeping pace; it’s about setting the pace. These areas are at the core of a significant eastward shift, positioning our region as an inspiration hub for digital transformation. How consumers search, shop, and entertain themselves online is ever-evolving which is driving the constant creation of new macro digital ecosystems from the contributions of these micro audiences.
For 2024, we’re excited to introduce a special addition to our member benefits. Recognising the hurdles often encountered in authorship for our members, we’ve partnered with WARC to launch an exclusive co-branded content series. This series will spotlight the latest insights, promoting not only a deeper understanding of the digital ecosystem in Southeast Asia and India but the unique expertise and experience of our members. Every piece of content created through this partnership will be jointly published, significantly amplifying its reach across both our global networks. Opportunities to contribute to this landmark series will be exclusively available for the Feature and Steer levels, providing a unique platform for those looking to influence our industry’s narrative.
2024 REGIONAL BOARD
Streamlining for Efficiency: To ensure our leadership and initiatives remain at the forefront of this transformation, we are optimising our regional board for 2024. Our goal is to enhance operational efficiency by aligning our structure with those of other IAB chapters globally to ensure that we can swiftly move from discussion to decisive action, maintaining our agility to adapt to rapid industry changes.
Tailored Leadership Approach: We are refining our approach to leadership by closely aligning each regional board member’s expertise and motivation with our strategic priorities. This ensures a board composed of diverse skills and backgrounds and that each regional board member is deeply engaged and can contribute effectively to our priorities.
Specialism and Expertise Alignment: Regional board members will each own a specialism to allow them to develop our point of view, drive conversations and progress in a dedicated area aligned with their personal passions and expertise.
2024 REGIONAL COUNCILS
Our Regional Councils are workstreams dedicated to collectively discuss and provide consensus to create some of our most crucial resources. Councils are dedicated to creating practical and measurable outcomes in collaborative workstreams.
INCLUSIVE MEMBERSHIP MODEL
Recognising the industry’s current challenges—from economic strains to performance pressures —IAB SEA+India offers a flexible and inclusive business model. Tailored to empower members at every level, our model offers a low-cost entry point and is thoughtfully designed to cater every member’s capacity to contribute as well as their ambitions.
Our flexible and inclusive business model is structured around four levels of participation —Support, Promote, Feature, and Steer—each designed to provide unique benefits and opportunities for our members to shine and contribute. This provides a scalable approach to engagement enabling members to unlock additional benefits by investing more time (horizontal axis) and/or financial resources (vertical axis).
Here’s a clear breakdown of each level to highlight the opportunities available:
Support – Annual membership starting point
Benefits: Your annual membership provides essential support to our mission and as a valued member of our community, you’ll receive the recognition you deserve for contributing to the collective progress and responsible growth of the digital industry. Beyond recognition as a member, you’ll enjoy exclusive access to members-only networking events, providing unique opportunities to create connections virutally and in person.
Promote – Customised visibility
Benefits: For members who want to elevate their brand’s presence, this level opens the door to bespoke sponsored partnerships, offering you tailored marketing opportunities. These collaborations are designed to showcase your company’s unique value and vision through bespoke initiatives that capture attention and drive engagement.
Feature – Collaborative influence
Benefits: Members who can dedicate time to share their expertise can contribute to the IAB SEA+India x WARC co-branded series through bi-annual “Member Point of View” features. Hosted in-person on key industry topics, the APAC Editor of WARC will craft these discussions into editorial features spotlighting the latest regional insights, promoting not only a deeper understanding of the digital ecosystem in Southeast Asia and India but the diverse knowledge and experience of our member comunity.
Steer – Collective Leadership
Benefits: At our premium level of engagement, you’re not just participating; you’re leading. As a member of our regioal board or regional councils, you’ll steer our strategic direction and drive tangible impact. This premium level is the highest investment but the return is exceptional: unparalleled access, influence, and visibility, including exclusive regional board and council features as part of the IAB SEA+India x WARC Inside Series., placing you at the forefront of industry leadership.
CONCLUSION
The AGM highlighted our significant strides in 2023 and set the stage for even greater achievements in 2024. As we continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the digital landscape our focus remains on uniting the industry for collective progress and responsible growth, ensuring that IAB SEA+India is at the forefront of digital transformation. Together, we are not just witnessing the digital transformation of our region; we are actively shaping it.