The digital advertising landscape is shifting rapidly. Between increasing privacy regulations, the decline of traditional identifiers, and the fragmentation of media channels, advertisers are being forced to rethink their strategies — fast.
To make sense of it all, Mediaweek sat down with Rishi Bedi, managing director APAC at Ogury, to discuss the biggest challenges and opportunities for advertisers, media buyers, and adtech players in the region.
Navigating a world without identifiers
For years, advertisers have relied on identifiers, cookies, mobile IDs, and tracking technologies, to reach audiences with accuracy. But as privacy regulations tighten and tech giants like Apple and Google restrict tracking, the industry is facing a reckoning.
“There are two major forces at play right now,” Bedi explains. “Governments are rolling out stricter data privacy laws, and at the same time, companies like Apple and Google are limiting tracking on their platforms. This has led to a surge in alternative solutions, particularly alternate IDs. But the reality is, there is no single dominant ID replacing what we have lost, so advertisers need to rethink their approach entirely.”
Rather than chasing a patchwork of alternate identifiers, Ogury is betting on a privacy-first approach called personified advertising, which shifts the focus from tracking individuals to targeting personas based on self-declared, consented data.
“At Ogury, we do not target individuals, we target personas,” says Bedi. “By understanding how different audience groups engage across various channels, we can build a scalable and sustainable advertising strategy without relying on traditional identifiers.”
Finding a strategy that works
With consumers engaging across an average of 5.8 different channels, omnichannel marketing is not just a buzzword, it is essential. But how do brands avoid audience duplication while still reaching the right consumers at scale?
According to Bedi, the biggest mistake advertisers make is falling into what he calls the lazy planner approach.
“Many brands default to spending the bulk of their budgets on the biggest media platforms, think YouTube, major owned-and-operated operators, and social media,” he says. “But this leads to massive audience duplication and wasted spend.”
Instead, he advocates for a more balanced approach, where advertisers leverage the open internet alongside the walled gardens to maximise reach and avoid reliance on any single platform.
“It is not about abandoning the walled gardens completely,” Bedi clarifies. “It is about diversifying your strategy to ensure you are reaching audiences in more sustainable ways, without putting all your eggs in one basket.”
Privacy regulations: The moving target for advertisers
The evolution of data privacy laws across APAC presents another major challenge.
“Every six months, regulations are changing,” says Bedi. “It is both a challenge and an opportunity, it forces companies to adapt quickly and rethink their long-term strategies.”
While many markets look to Europe’s GDPR as a blueprint, APAC is a patchwork of different policies. Australia, for example, is leading the charge with ongoing reforms to the Privacy Act, while other markets like Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan are at different stages of enforcement.
“Advertisers cannot afford to take a one-size-fits-all approach,” Bedi warns. “A global strategy will not work, you need market-specific solutions that align with local regulations.”
What’s next for adtech in APAC?
Looking ahead, privacy-first solutions, better audience intelligence, and more sophisticated omnichannel strategies will define the next era of digital advertising.
Bedi predicts continued growth in video advertising, particularly across CTV and OTT platforms.
“More advertisers will shift spend from YouTube to ad-supported OTT platforms,” he says. “But the key challenge will be figuring out which platforms deliver the best audience engagement and measurement capabilities.”
With ad saturation at an all-time high, creativity and relevance will be key.
“You have one-tenth of a second to capture a consumer’s attention before they scroll past,” Bedi explains. “That means better creative, better formats, and better sequencing across channels, not just bombarding them with the same ad everywhere.”
Location intelligence will also become a bigger focus, particularly for brands looking to connect with consumers at key moments in their journey.
“Brands are already using location-based targeting to drive in-store visits, whether it is an automotive brand targeting users near a dealership or a retailer connecting with shoppers near a store,” Bedi says.
The future of advertising in a privacy-first world
The industry is at a crossroads. The old playbook, tracking users across the web with cookies and IDs, is fading fast.
“The future of adtech is about balancing scale with privacy,” says Bedi. “Advertisers need to move away from short-term solutions that keep changing every six months and invest in long-term, sustainable strategies that will hold up for the next five to ten years.”
For media buyers, the message is clear: embrace privacy-first strategies, diversify your omnichannel approach, and start thinking beyond traditional identifiers, because the future will not wait.
Key takeaways for media buyers
For media buyers, the game is changing fast. With cookies and mobile IDs on the way out, it’s time to ditch outdated tracking methods and lean into personified advertising and first-party data. When it comes to omnichannel, don’t just throw money at the biggest platforms, balancing walled gardens with the open internet helps avoid audience duplication and wasted spend.
Privacy laws across APAC are evolving quickly, so staying ahead of market-specific regulations is a must. Smarter engagement is the name of the game, with better creative, smarter sequencing, and more precise targeting making all the difference. And as ad-supported platforms take off, expect a shift in ad spend from YouTube to CTV and OTT.