Digital advertising: PHAR launches publisher-side trading desk with AirAsia

• PHAR Focus developed to serve objectives of traveller-related digital campaigns
• To capture data on travel behaviour, purchase intent, lifestyle indicators, etc.

 
MEDIA and marketing agency PHAR has launched what it claimed was South-East Asia’s largest publisher-side trading desk, in collaboration with low-cost carrier AirAsia.
 
In a statement, London-based PHAR – which also has offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the Middle East – said that the digital performance platform, called PHAR Focus, has been developed to serve the objectives of traveller-related digital campaigns.
 
“We are excited to partner with PHAR to not only create more opportunities to work with our advertising partners, but also to bring more relevant, personalised and interesting messaging to our guests,” said AirAsia group chief commercial officer Siegtraund Teh.
 
“This collaboration with PHAR will enable us to capitalise on the information we have to better understand our guests and enhance engagement,” he added.
 
PHAR Focus enables advertisers to reach travellers across South-East Asia with relevant and timely messaging, providing both better results for advertisers, and more engaging and useful content for the consumer, PHAR said in its statement.
 
The audience data captured runs into the billions of data events every month, and relates to travel behaviour, purchase intent, demographic and lifestyle indicators, it claimed.
 
The data segments enable targeted ads on AirAsia.com and across third party sites and exchanges. Ads can be served across Asia, with a focus on South-East Asia.
 
Key to the decision to launch an in-house publisher trading desk was the control and safety it brings to site and app behaviour data, PHAR said in a statement. It also extends the scale of inventory available to small but valuable segments of travellers.
 
All audience data collected is not personally identifiable, it added.
 
“As programmatic advertising becomes a top focus for advertisers throughout the region, the importance of quality data at scale is becoming more and more apparent,” said PHAR Asia managing director Prem Bhatia.
 
“We are excited to be able to bring an unrivalled data offering that is already delivering market leading performance for our key clients across the tourism, banking and telco sectors in particular,” he added.
 
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