Innovation and viewability shines through at The Drum DTAwards APAC: finalists announced

Chairperson of the judging panel and head of programmatic and data at Spotify, Dan Robins, said: "In judging this year, there are two key changes we’ve seen. There’s even more of a focus on delivering real business outcomes, not just vanity digital metrics like impressions, but instead driving direct sales. It’s really great to see. Secondly, agencies and advertisers starting to take what used to be a challenge and deliver it into a solution.

"Viewability is a good example, the last couple of years it’s been a continuous thing we’ve talked about as an issue but we saw entries that not only solved the issue but then also drove a real definable outcome as a result."

Some of the key trends that judges saw focused on innovation around omni-channel initiatives. "Entrants thought about where the user is so that there was the right level of engagement," said Sonal Patel, president of programmatic services, APAC, Dentsu Aegis Network.

"There was also much more integrated campaigns than I have seen in previous awards. The Best Video Campaign category really stood out in terms of being vocal about innovation across the digital space."

The finalists for Best Video Campaign are: Aquire Online for For ASB New Zealand, Entropia (M) SDN BHD for Redbus, Unruly and Mindshare PH for Unilever.

One category that stood out to the panel was Most Effective Use of Data. "We have seen some of the most innovative campaigns come from here," explained Carl Nawagamuwa, head of platform sales, SEA, Google (DoubleClick). "Not just in the programmatic world but leveraging those data sets across channel. Some of the brands in there were truly outstanding with their entries.

"It’s no longer good enough just to run standard campaigns, there is a demand from advertisers and from agencies working with advertisers to drive data and creative together in seamless fashion. Doing that by leveraging all the data sets that you have available to you to maxamise the output means that demand for innovation are greater than they every have been."

The finalists for Most Effective Use of Data are: Amnet Hong Kong for Manulife, Factual for For Royal Dutch Shell (Agency: MediaCom), iProspect Hong Kong for Standard Chartered Bank, iProspect Taiwan for Loreal Taiwan, PHD India for HP India, Starcom, Precision (Publicis Media Asia Pacific) and Vendor - PubMatic for Tiger Beer.

A full list of finalists can be viewed here. The ceremony will take place on 12 October at the Marriot Southbeach, Singapore. You can purchase your tickets now.

Partner of the awards are Dentsu Aegis Network and sponsors are Google, Bloomberg and Integral Ad Science.