Case Study: Singapore Press Holdings (SPH)

Challenge

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), the largest premier media organization in Singapore, has been working with Smaato since September 2014 to monetize their mobile properties. These include various media portals like Stomp, AsiaOne, LianHe Wanbao, Omy News and MyPaper.

SPH had previously been looking for a strong monetization partner within the APAC region to work with their internal digital division, with a special focus on their Chinese and English mobile sites and apps. The main challenge for SPH had been to find a strong, reliable partner that could help them scale these mobile assets.

Strategy/Execution

SPH was an early and enthusiastic adopter of SPX (Smaato Publisher Platform), a mobile-first publisher ad server that offers its publishers to allow all demand traffic sources to compete in a real-time auction for the highest eCPMs. SPX enabled SPH to achieve full control over the types of advertisements displayed on their websites and apps. SPH could also make any type of demand compete within Smaato’s real-time auction via the built-in “dynamic demand” capabilities of SPX, which empowered SPH’s direct sales teams, as competition within SPX ensured the placement of only the highest quality ads.

By migrating to SPX, Singapore Press Holdings was able to achieve full control over the monetization of their mobile inventory and the type of advertisements being displayed on their websites and apps. With built-in “dynamic demand” capabilities, SPX empowered SPH to make any type of demand compete within Smaato’s real-time auction. This quickly became a strong complement to SPH’s direct sales teams, as competition within SPX meant there would be no compromises in the quality and the price of advertisements placed.

Additionally, Smaato put in place a dedicated sales team for SPH who worked hard to provide timely market insights for the various countries in which SPH has inventory. With mobile beginning to dominate the digital world, SPH was determined to make more of their premium properties available on mobile.

Smaato helped them in their efforts to expand banner ad sizes and formats from the basic 320×50 to larger-sized ones like 300×250, as well as to full-screen ads sized at 1024×768. This mix was designed to ensure visibility and improve overall click-through rates (CTR) within SPH’s properties.

Results

With Smaato’s extensive global reach and its dynamic, mobile-first platform, SPH was able to benefit tremendously from the highly-priced and brand-safe ads delivered to their properties. The Smaato team is working closely with SPH to ensure the partnership flourishes and there is continuous growth. SPH is currently one of the top publishers within Smaato’s ecosystem and the company is striving to keep that in place in the months and years to come.

Working with Smaato transitioned our programmatic buying much more quickly into the mobile space. This has in turn created an incremental revenue channel for us at SPH Digital. The service and integration team at Smaato has been brilliant to work with, with a clear emphasis on getting things done with great speed. This is just the start of a long-term partnership between SPH Digital and Smaato.