MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Filipinos spend an average of 10 hours online daily — with over six hours on the open internet. This surge in digital activity opens major opportunities for programmatic ads, helping brands reach engaged audiences with precision, scale, and smarter targeting.
Recognizing this shift, GroupM, in collaboration with adobo Magazine, hosted “From Bid to Attention: Navigating the Power of Programmatic For Business” on March 28 at the Manila House — bringing together industry experts to discuss the future and potential of programmatic advertising in the Philippines.
adobo Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Founder, and President Angel Guerrero formally opened the program and served as host for the evening. She introduced Group M-Mindshare Managing Director Abishek Gupta, who delivered an overview on programmatic advertising and its transformative potential for the Philippine market.
“I strongly believe that programmatic is the way to balance the digital ecosystem. This is the way where we can connect with consumers at the right time, the right place, and the right message.”
Abishek acknowledged that programmatic advertising can seem complex, but broke it down by focusing on its key strengths: it offers quality and incremental reach, creates richer brand experiences, and delivers highly measurable results through real-time data — making it a smart, future-ready choice for brands.
The open internet and it’s untapped potential
In his keynote, Abbas Abedi, Country Development Leader at The Trade Desk Philippines, unpacked the vast, untapped potential of the open internet in the local market. He emphasized that many brands risk a narrow view of consumer behavior — often missing the full journey that leads to a purchase.
Today, users are spending a significant portion of their time on the open internet — listening to their favorite music or podcasts, browsing websites and enjoying the latest hit shows on over-the-top (OTT) platforms. These fast-growing channels are what draws consumers to the open internet.
To get a holistic view of the customer journey, Abbas implored brands to move beyond the traditional social media platforms and invest in these open internet platforms where consumers are more engaged and more receptive to ads.
“You’re also able to manage that reach and frequency, ensuring that an individual isn’t just targeted vertically, but across multiple touch points, telling a story throughout the whole journey.” Abbas emphasized that by managing reach and frequency across all channels, brands can save campaign budgets, avoiding the waste of showing the same ad repeatedly to the same person across platforms.
“Some of the best content we enjoy comes from the open internet, and almost all of this is funded by advertising. The disconnect between consumer time spent and ad spend on the open internet demonstrates significant opportunities for today’s marketers”
Abbas pointed out that while many brands are focused on social media and user-generated content, he urged attendees to shift their investments to the open internet. He revealed that even though users are spending a considerable amount of their time on the open internet, just 21% of a marketer’s budget is allocated there.
Closing with a crucial insight, he asked, “How do we actually reach the audiences where they are, especially when it comes to consuming the content we want them to engage with?”
With this, Abbas shared that at The Trade Desk, they can serve as the gateway to the open internet. “We’re here to provide you with one holistic view of your consumer, ultimately aiming to help you capture the attention of your audiences and hopefully drive measurable business outcomes.”
Viber’s superpowered toolbox
Viber has been leveraging programmatic advertising for some time to boost its marketing capabilities. At the forum, Viber’s Programmatic Partnerships Manager Zsofia Toth, and Viber APAC Advertising Sales Director Karla Banua, shared how Viber stands out as a powerful platform for brands, noting that Philippines as one of their “most important” markets.
Zsofia emphasized that while Viber respects user privacy by restricting data based on their choices, the platform also recognizes that “data is key for the future.” With that in mind, the company has invested heavily in data targeting, making diverse data points and signals available to their partners to enhance advertising precision.
Beyond hyper-personalized targeting, Karla highlighted the powerful toolbox Viber has been developing over the years, designed to offer valuable tools for brands. One standout feature they highlighted was Branded Viber Gems — festive animations triggered when users send specific words or phrases like “Happy Birthday” or “Happy New Year.” Brands can own these keywords, making their branding appear whenever users type them in Viber chat.
“I think programmatic is very important and I think it’s going to be important in the near future,” Zsofia told adobo Magazine in an exclusive interview. She emphasized that programmatic advertising offers an efficient campaign execution model with “flexible targeting capabilities.” By partnering with Viber, brands can reach over 70% of mobile users in the country, delivering high-performance B2C campaigns.
“A goal that you would want to achieve [is that] you would like to partner with a brand that you know puts safety as a priority.”
Karla affirmed Viber’s goal is to make programmatic buying available and accessible to brands wherein they could give relevance to their users through giving them sensible ads while also adding value to the brands.
Cutting through the digital noise
In recent years, the internet and social media have dramatically reshaped how people consume content and information. During his keynote, Karthic Nithyanandan, Commercial Director for Southeast Asia at Integral Ad Science (IAS), highlighted the rapid evolution driven by these platforms.
Karthic emphasized how brands have adapted, ensuring they remain visible where their consumers are, especially within retail apps and the growing social and streaming space.
According to Karthic, the explosion of video content is reaching unprecedented levels. While this rapid growth showcases how easy it has become to create and share content, it also presents a significant challenge: how do we maintain content quality amidst this overwhelming digital noise?
IAS is redefining social media advertising with pioneering optimization solutions that seamlessly connect measurement and performance. Powered by our industry-first Multimedia Technology, IAS leverages advanced AI to analyze text, image, and audio content—frame by frame—across social platforms. This allows for unprecedented accuracy in assessing sentiment, emotion, brand safety, and contextual relevance at scale.
In an era where video dominates, and content moves fast, our technology cuts through the noise—helping brands make smarter decisions, avoid risky environments, and unlock meaningful reach. IAS is the only provider offering this holistic, cross-format analysis, empowering advertisers to not only safeguard their brand but also optimize for relevance and scale in real-time.IAS’s innovative technology ensures ads align with the most desirable and relevant content. By analyzing how audiences engage with various environments, IAS assist brands in reaching consumers in the right context, enhancing relevance, engagement, and brand affinity.
Karthic emphasized the importance of staying ahead as technology continues to evolve.
“The world is changing faster than ever before. We got you in control. And as technology advances, it is also constantly evolving.”
His point was clear: IAS is committed to putting cutting-edge technology into brands’ pockets, enabling them to be more efficient and impactful in their marketing efforts.
With IAS’s advanced tools, brands can break through the tsunami of content online and create more meaningful campaigns, thanks to AI-powered models that provide precise measurement of content and performance.
Programmatic is the future
In an exclusive interview with adobo Magazine, GroupM Chief Executive Officer Crisela Cervantes discussed the company’s role as the largest media agency in the Philippines, emphasizing their responsibility to lead the way in pioneering solutions for the industry and their partners. She noted that this is one of the many ways they continuously strive to develop new capabilities in media and marketing for their clients.
“It’s not enough to talk about scale, but it’s what you do with that scale and how you shape the market and help them navigate this new marketing era that we are facing.”
Demonstrating their commitment to lead industry innovation, GroupM has renewed its partnership with Monde Nissin — one of the Philippines’ largest multinational food and beverage companies. Gen dela Peña, Integrated Marketing Communications Head at Monde Nissin Corporation, shared her enthusiasm, highlighting the huge potential this collaboration holds for their company.
“GroupM demonstrates a strong commitment to driving innovation, both within their operations and in guiding their clients’ approach to media and communications. Their transformation of planning practices at GroupM and EssenceMediacom is truly inspiring.”
As the digital landscape rapidly evolves, the forum emphasized the power of programmatic advertising. With the Philippines being one of the biggest internet users in the world, the country represents a significant opportunity for brands to tap into a highly engaged audience.
By enhancing data targeting, gaining deeper insights into consumers, and utilizing advanced technology for brand safety, the message is clear: brands must leverage the open internet and programmatic tools to stay competitive. With the right strategies and technology, businesses can effectively reach their audiences and achieve measurable results in today’s fast-moving digital environment.
