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Tech platforms and publishers to form new digital marketing industry body in Hong Kong

DMAHong Kong is now home to another digital marketing industry body with the launch of the Digital Marketing Association of Hong Kong (DMAHK).

The new group has support from a mixture of tech platforms and publishers, with Pixels, Google, comScore, Facebook, Yahoo, South China Morning Post , Next Digital and PricewaterhouseCoopers among the founding members.

An email to the industry, sent out this afternoon, reads:

About a year ago, a group of media/platform owners and publishers in Hong Kong got together to discuss the formation of digital marketing association in order to help advertisers make the most out of digital marketing and to accelerate the growth of digital in Hong Kong.

The founding members are Pixels, Google, comScore, Facebook, Yahoo, South China Morning Post , Next Digital and with the support of PWC.

We are now pleased to unveil the “Digital Marketing Association of Hong Kong” and to invite other leading companies such as yours to be a part of association to take digital to new heights.

The body launches with a simple mission, “To help Hong Kong’s advertising and marketing professionals get the most out of digital.”

Members will gain access to DMAHK’s events, workshops, training sessions, white papers, and free jobs board, according to a document detailing entitlements.

DMAHK now shares a territory with the Digital + Direct Marketing Association Asia, or D+D, which was formed from the merger of the Asia Digital Marketing Association and the Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association in December 2013, and the Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing.

The launch comes just over a year after a number of digital advertising firms lobbied the Interactive Advertising Bureau in the US to sanction the launch of a dedicated IAB for Hong Kong, separate from IAB China, a body that was set up in February 2014.

The request went unheeded, and Hong Kong continued to fall under the remit of IAB China.

Then, Joe Nguyen, APAC head of ComScore, one of the founding members of DMAHK, pointed out: “IAB China currently has the license to the IAB franchise in Hong Kong, but the Hong Kong digital market and players are very different from China so their focus is different and what is developing in China will not fit the Hong Kong market.”

Also pushing for the launch of an IAB Hong Kong was Kevin Huang, the co-founder of Pixels. He said a year ago: “In order for digital advertising to continue to grow, I believe that there needs to be consensus, best practice sharing and agreement on standards (be it ad size, measurements metrics, etc) between the buy and sell sides of the business.”

“Currently there is no unifying organisation for publishers to agree on standards. Each operates their own, albeit based on global standards, and there is a disconnect between each of the sellers leading to inconsistencies and frustrations by advertisers who are increasingly looking to digital advertising.”

Only once both sides of the market can agree on metrics, standards and a consistent way of operating, will advertisers will have the confidence to invest more in digital, Huang commented.

The launch event for the Digital Marketing Association of Hong Kong is to take place on Wednesday 26 October, at Azure in Central.

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