Audience Data Sessions: Q&A with Astro

Can you introduce yourself and your audience solutions? 

My name is Shashikanth Ramakrishnan, the SAVP & Head of Digital Analytics and Insights over at Astro. Astro Malaysia is Malaysia’s leading content and entertainment company, serving 5.3 million homes or 67% of Malaysian TV households, 8,400 enterprises, 18 million weekly listeners across FM radio and online, as well as 18 million digital monthly unique visitors. 

Astro’s strength lies in the audience ecosystem which are amplified across the sum of all touchpoints, including TV, OTT, Digital Publication/ magazine, Radio and KOL. Besides being the largest Pay-TV operator in the South East Asia region, it also serves millennials with sooka which is an OTT designed for mobile-first viewing and now available on big-screen platforms. Astro’s digital publications, include Awani, the No 1 news brand on social media and Gempak, the No 1 Malay digital entertainment brand while its SYOK app aggregates live radio, podcast and videos. 

These platforms have enabled Astro to assemble a large and comprehensive selection of valuable audience segments for advertisers – may it be by demographics (race, age groups, income segments), life stages (millennials, newly-weds, parents, empty nester) or interest (content preference, travel, gadgets, property, finance) etc.  

Why have you partnered with Eyeota?

Astro suite of valuable contextual and non-personally identifiable information 1^st party data allows marketers to identify the highest-potential online audiences and target their ad campaigns accordingly. We partnered with Eyeota to maximize the discovery of these audiences and ultimately build our ROI, as its business footprint helps to expand our segment offerings to a broader base – more countries, industries, advertisers and clients.

Being an established player in the audience market place, Eyeota also provides the reassurance that our clients are using our data from a safe and privacy-compliance platform.

In which markets do you operate?

We focus on serving Malaysians with a wide variety of content including entertainment, news, live sports and lifestyle topics.

Can you discuss the importance of audience data in today’s digital advertising landscape?

As digital marketing continues to innovate, there are much more choices for the advertisers. This also means it is harder for them to decide which are the channels/ platforms they should invest in to really stretch their ad dollars.

From consumers’ perspective, there is too little time for too much information. Targeting right audience at the right time with the right message has become more complicated. Hence advertisers need to enhance targeting precision, improve customer experience and deliver relevant, relatable communication to cut through the ad clutter.

On top of that, advertisers also need to be mindful of the brand safety and privacy-compliance to protect the brands from potential harm and damage that may arise from their marketing campaigns.

How can business leverage data to improve advertising strategies?

Competition for data today lies in how publisher can enrich their 1^st party data with consumer pesonas and unify the 1^st party data from different sources to form more robust data segments.

Based on the demographics, behavioral patterns and preferences, brands need to create more relevant and timely advertisements that entice the consumers and make them click/ act. Personalized messages also help to reduce ad fatigue and improve overall user engagement.

It is important that marketers monitor the campaign closely and analyze the campaign metrics regularly. This helps the marketing teams to identify the gap and refinement needed to optimize their campaigns.

Can you describe the Astro audience data that you’re bringing to market with Eyeota?

Across our digital assets, which include news, entertainment, and lifestyle platforms, we employ various audience segmentation techniques. These segmentation methods encompass non PII demographic, behavioral and interest data.

Our demographic segments are created based on age, location, and ethnicity. These segments enable businesses to target audiences effectively according to their life stages and geographical locations.

Furthermore, we categorize our users based on the TV content they consume, such as K-drama, movies, sports, as well as the articles they read, covering topics like parenting, finance, beauty & fashion, and automotive. This meticulous approach allows us to offer personalized content and targeted advertising, maximizing engagement and effectiveness across our platforms.

Reach out to our Audience Specialists at the Data Desk