How a panel network helped this martech agency beat the competition

Ad2iction, a Taiwan-based marketing tech firm, has spent the better part of the last five years figuring out how to overcome its biggest challenge since its founding.

The obstacle in question? General Data Protection Regulation privacy laws, which have become stricter globally, causing martech firms that traditionally built their business models on cookies to face a big problem: less access to high-quality data.

“This was a time bomb that I think everyone knew was coming,” says Tatt Chen, the firm’s chief strategy officer. “Luckily, it [enforcement of the laws] had been pushed back as the advertising industry tried to make sense of what’s next, in the case there are no more cookies, or cookie data becomes less and less reliable.”

Tatt Chen, chief strategy officer at Ad2iction / Photo credit: Ad2iction

Cookies have been many advertising firms’ bread and butter – without them, many companies would be left rudderless and lacking the necessary customer insights to provide targeted advertising. Other options, such as scraping for data using AI tools, were inefficient and lacked the same level of quality.

For a company like Ad2iction, with names like McDonald’s, Warner Bros, and Mitsubishi Motors in its client roster, the lack of cookie data meant it had to adapt – or lose out to other agencies.

This led Ad2iction to go on a search for answers, and it eventually found one in June last year.

Going down the consumer panel route

Help came in the form of GMO Research, a subsidiary of one of the largest internet conglomerates in Japan, GMO Internet Group. In particular, GMO Research runs a loyalty program solution, Z.com Engagement Lab, based on the concept of engagement as a service (EaaS).

Here’s how EaaS works: Through GMO Research’s API-integrated solution, Ad2iction can offer its partners’ end consumers incentive points in exchange for completing online surveys GMO provided. These points can then be redeemed for rewards.

For Ad2iction, GMO’s surveys allow it to directly collect a ton of zero-party data – information that customers voluntarily share through methods such as surveys and loyalty programs. This arrangement is also known as a panel network or model.

Photo credit: aoo3771 / 123RF

According to Chen, shifting to this model has enabled the agency to grow faster and “in a much more agile way” as it no longer relies solely on content-attracted consumers.

“Creating a relationship through panels and rewards is much quicker and much easier.”

What attracted Ad2iction to GMO Research was the latter’s status as a regional leader in the martech space.

“It’s the leader in Asia, it’s definitely the leader in Japan, and it is also very experienced in working with panel partners. Coming into this, Ad2iction had no idea how to build panels. So I think having that experience from GMO Research definitely shortened the learning curve a lot for us,” Chen explains.

Staying ahead of the competition

When Ad2iction first embarked on this partnership, it had several goals in mind: to expand the opportunity for revenue streams for the company, to build a relationship with zero-party data providers (known as panelists), and to increase research projects as a channel to upgrade its product offerings.

The onboarding process was really quick, says Chen. His firm only needed to integrate its API with Z.com Engagement Lab’s platforms, and the panel networking could begin right away.

Within months, the collaboration looked like a match made in heaven. Firstly, the sizable amount of zero-party consumer data collected was a great help for Ad2iction when trying to win clients over during pitches.

“In most of our conversations with clients, they are wowed by the fact that going into a pitch, we already understand a lot about their target audience,” says Chen. “We’re going in with real-time consumer insights that even they may not have.”

Photo credit: sabthai / 123RF

The agency has also been able to elevate its discussions with clients even further. “Now we’re able to actually have a more strategic conversation with the client. This has allowed us to position ourselves very differently to our competitors, who may just be competing on price,” Chen explains.

The difference was clear for one particular client: a Taiwanese contact lens company. Ad2iction’s ability to attract new customers and increase customer retention made campaigns more effective.

In particular, having richer consumer insights meant that Ad2iction could better identify swing buyers and target them for surveys.

“That contact lens company had customer relationship management set up but didn’t have active responses. When it ran surveys, only the really loyal customers responded, but it actually wanted to hear from people who were leaving.”

The data Ad2iction gathered wasn’t just limited to this client’s customers but also included insights on what its competitor’s consumers liked and disliked too.

“Now we’re given a budget to run their ad campaigns on behalf of them,” says Chen.

To top it off, Ad2iction has also successfully built a long-term relationship with panelists, reporting a 3x jump in engagement and participation rate since the partnership started, and a month-on-month increase in membership of 100 to 150 panelists every month.

Plenty of opportunities ahead

As the relationship progresses, Ad2iction is keen on extending the collaboration beyond its current scope. More specifically, it intends to use the data it’s gathered to generate segmented industry reports by country, region, and trend.

This is part of Chen’s plans to expand the company’s footprint internationally – particularly in Southeast Asia, which is a “big potential investment area.”

This has allowed us to position ourselves very differently to our competitors, who may just be competing on price

He’s also got his eye on using AI to improve Ad2iction’s current offerings. Naturally, tech like ChatGPT has entered the conversation and Chen’s considering its use for content generation as well as to convert data into even more content for consumers.

“There could also be more possibilities for us – for instance, can data be collected passively? Captured from a device every second, with consumer consent, rather than a survey that’s based on recall? Are there more systems from GMO to help break into zero-party data?” he continues.

“That’s definitely something we will explore.”

Z.com Engagement Lab is an end-to-end loyalty solution that allows businesses to unlock new revenue streams and improve consumer engagement through its online research platform and rewards program.

Visit its website to find out how Z.com Engagement Lab can help your company skyrocket customer engagement and build up consumer insights.

FIND OUT HOW

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.