Verizon Media unveils future-proofing strategies on tech stack and immersive experiences

HONG KONG, April 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, Verizon Media, a division of Verizon (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) live streamed the Verizon Media APAC Growth Summit via Yahoo TV across Asia. This event brought international speakers closer to Asia through virtual, immersive technology. The power of full tech stack and immersive technology were the spotlight through the two-day summit.

Truly Connected. Global Collaboration.

Themed "Maximize Today, Accelerate Tomorrow", Rico Chan, Head of APAC Sales at Verizon Media highlighted that, "With the advance virtual event technology, we gathered speakers from around the world to share their insights in the two-day APAC Growth Summit that was live-streamed to Hong Kong and Singapore on March 23-24, Taiwan and Japan on March 30-31 with subtitles. We have seen overwhelming responses from the industry across the region, eager to discover digital trends and behaviours in the post-new normal era."

The future of programmatic: Future proofing business through emerging channels
By John McNerney, Director of Platforms, Verizon Media Australia & New Zealand 

5G accelerates our daily habits with the 'Internet of things' or IoT devices. The proof is in the number of manufacturers already pumping more than 20 billion devices in 2020. Consumers buy these devices to add value to their lives. So it's all of our responsibility within the media industry to educate or be educated, about how to use data.

With Verizon Media, we take our first party data from apps, search, email, commerce and our platforms via bid-stream data. This is fully transparent and consented by users — by people who get a value exchange. This allows marketers and buyers to have a single view of their audience, with tailored and engaging messaging across any screen; so they can effectively build the brand, create affinity with its consumers and possibly have a call-to-action that is providing a service or value without being intrusive or irrelevant.

The omnichannel, single-view allows marketers to target audiences on cookieless devices like the ConnectedTV, with precision. Or do sequential messaging from offline to online - reaching those consumers via DOOH, to then re-engage them while they watch 'Catch-up TV'.

Building on our digital-out-of-home (DOOH) leadership, the APAC market has expanded our partnership with digital out of home marketplace, VIOOH. This deal provides access to premium DOOH inventory from our DSP, including the digital assets of JCDecaux — the number one out-of-home advertising company worldwide. Recently, renowned local café Kam Kee launched Hong Kong's first programmatic DOOH campaign at the Hong Kong International Airport.

The growing importance of the connected member ecosystem
By Dan Richardson, Head of Data, Verizon Media Australia & New Zealand

Verizon Media is taking a three-pronged approach to tackling a world without cookies and beyond. One: being consumer-first means what we deliver on our properties, through our products and partnerships, will always respect the user experience, with trusted protections that respect privacy and choice. Second is identity: with consent-based data at its core, we observe more than 200 billion daily cross-screen signals including login, customer-relationship data, mobile SDK, search and content engagement from our owned sites and apps, reaching more than 158 million people per month across the Asia Pacific.

We have the size and scale but more importantly, our ecosystem is backed by persistent authenticated IDs such as email addresses or customer IDs that require a log-in. Furthermore, we are replacing third party cookies with an 'unified ID', leveraging our identity graph and first-party data from our owned and operated properties and data partners. Our ConnectID solutions underpin your ability to target, buy and measure ads independent of cookies.

Third in our approach to tackling a world without cookies is the Full Stack Advantage. Dan Richardson added, "As an end-to-end, full-stack technology partner, we can uniquely support both publishers and advertisers in unlocking the full value of their content and marketing, maintaining a single user match pool across our demand and supply platforms and offering better transparency, audience insights, cost savings and with no data leakage."

Unveiling the result of the first APAC Immersive Experience Survey
By Francis Che, Head of Data, CRM and Insights, International Market of Verizon Media

In January 2021, Verizon Media interviewed 4,000 consumers online in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and UK to understand their behaviour and preference on immersive experiences covering AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality). The key findings are:

• Among all respondents interviewed, 27% have tried some sort of immersive experience before, and intended users adding up to 63%.
• Fun, Inspiration, Knowledge and Interaction are the four key reasons of consumers engaging in impressive experiences.
• Top five most common usage occasions of immersive experiences are: Playing online games; At an exhibition or museum; At a zoo, aquarium or amusement park; Learning or training; Chatting online or video calls.
• Product types which are recommended to offer immersive online shopping experience are: Games, gaming consoles and accessories; Mobile phones, cameras, headphones, wearable technology; Furniture, bedding and home decor; Apparels; Leather goods, shoes, bags and accessories.
• Over 70% of consumers react more positively to brands adopting immersive technology, no matter in terms of knowing more about the brand, having more positive perceptions, and more likely to consider the brand.
• Consumers expect immersive experiences to be easy-to-operate and real.

5G: Powering the future of media and content
By Mark Melling, Head of RYOT Studio, 5G Lead EMEA, Verizon Media

The digital world has the power to surpass all sorts of boundaries — areas where literally closing physical doors can open up new virtual opportunities. Above all, our desire to adapt launched us five to seven years into the digital future.  This shift in digital content consumption is happening at the same time the 5G connectivity is being made available in more and more countries across the world. The 5G is an Innovation platform that makes other innovations possible."

At the onset of the pandemic-induced lockdown, events like fashion shows were in crisis mode, facing new challenges as well as a host of new consumer behaviour that will likely stay long after lockdown is over. So we've created a proof of concept, a new era of virtual fashion show, with the London College of Fashion. We launched the exhibition as a live event for Press and VIPs and brands in VR. As a result, 150 VIPs attended in VR from the comfort of their homes or offices, and an additional 1.8M live streamed the event in real time or shortly thereafter. It's proven that VR technology empowered the future of content and created buzz in scale.

Cases of Immersive Experience

To showcase Verizon Media's forward thinking and the incredible possibilities 5G brings, it hosted two pioneering events: the Yahoo25 Hong Kong Passion Moment in 5G and the Yahoo Asia Buzz Awards 2020 Presentation Ceremony in extended reality. Both setting new benchmarks in the city, these immersive experiences were testament to not only Verizon Media's undue efforts in bringing the forefront of technologies to the hands of our users in an engaging and meaningful manner, but also its quick adaptability to the great online migration as a result of COVID-19. In commemoration of Yahoo's 25^th anniversary, the Yahoo25 Hong Kong Passion Moments in 5G invited prominent leaders in marketing plus esteemed media personnel in a virtual meet and greet against sentimental backdrops that pull Hong Kongers' heartstrings.

The Yahoo Asia Buzz Awards 2020, meanwhile, shifted from offline to online featuring movers and shakers of the entertainment industry in xR realms thanks to an amalgamation of physical and virtual stages, LED screens and a top-tier camera tracking system.

Verizon Media APAC Growth Summit 2021 was live streamed on March 23-24, 2021 in Hong Kong and Singapore, March 30-31 in Taiwan and Japan via Yahoo TV. This signature B2B event is a milestone on our strategic journey to where we will announce to the region the new game-changing products and experiences leaping into 2021. At this Summit, we are  setting the stage for how we will shape tomorrow. APAC advertisers and partners will hear about our latest product innovations and what's next as we get ready to accelerate for 2021. The 2-day, 142-minutes program is archived on Yahoo TV.

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About Verizon Media

Verizon Media, a division of Verizon Communications, Inc., houses a trusted media ecosystem of premium brands like Yahoo, AOL, TechCrunch and Engadget to help people stay informed and entertained, communicate and transact, while creating new ways for advertisers and media partners to connect. From XR experiences to advertising and content technology, Verizon Media is an incubator of innovation and is revolutionizing the next generation of content creation in a 5G world.