Great news! Yesterday, at an industry function marking the establishment of the Digital Advertising Alliance, a Singapore Govt. minister committed to spending over $30m SGD to support the Alliance’s goal of growing the Singapore’s digital adex to 20% share by 2020 (it’s currently at 5%). You can read the official release here (http://snipurl.com/125tov).

But how significant is this move to 20% share by 2020?  Not much. Because it brings to fore The Singapore Paradox – Singapore’s digital spend is abysmal when compared to it’s internet penetration. Whether benchmarked against the U.S., the U.K., Australia or Taiwan – countries with similar or lower levels of digital penetration actually have higher share of digital adex (HK excluded but that’s for another day).

I think the 20 by 2020 number is too low, and is perhaps constrained by how digital is defined by the Alliance.

Is it Internet as we know it today? Maybe mobile thrown in. What about TV watched through the iPad? Or, interactive TV via your Hubstation or the Mio box? How about the ubiquitous Focus Media screens that serve real-time ads depending on the time, day, location, & the gender of the audience in front of the screen? Augmented reality linking magazine ads to your iPhone app?  If these forms of digital have indeed been considered, then 20 by 2020 is a very low number. In fact, I would posit that 80% of all ad spends by 2020 will be digital. And I have no idea of what’s coming down the pipe a few years from now that could redefine digital again.

We are in the new decade. And it’s about Addressable Advertising. The biggest opportunity for a small, diverse, affluent & a highly wired nation is to wring inefficiencies out of mass-media and generate higher value from targeted conversations. That’s what digital can do in Singapore. It’s also the only way for Singapore’s above-the-line advertising to grow given the high costs of media relative to other countries in the region, and the dominance of retailers.

What the Govt. can do is to push the telcos to open-up their systems for addressable advertising. the hardware exists today.  That single act will transform the industry. Singapore has the ability to be the World leader in addressable advertising. Very quickly.

But in a market where advertisers can’t even get a complete view of TV viewing, that’s perhaps too much to ask.

Have a great break.

Tags: addressable advertising, Digital, Digital Alliance, MDA, SingTel, StarHub, Yahoo

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 9th, 2010 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Advertising, Digital, Media. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.