SINGAPORE/HONG KONG – iClick Interactive Asia (iClick) has become the first programmatic marketing platform to secure a Preferred Deal arrangement with Tencent Social Ads to have first look access to Qzone’s international native ad inventory.
Created in 2005 by Tencent, QZone is China’s most popular social site engaging 577 million monthly active users on mobile inside and outside the Mainland, boasting a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 14% in Q3 2015.
This traffic translates to immense marketing potential for advertisers. Under the deal, iClick will be the middle man for international clients wanting to access QZone. Paired together with the company’s proprietary tools, it allows for precise and effective targeting of the Chinese audience in Asia and beyond via non-intrusive in-feed native ads.
According to a statement, the new service had a pilot run last October for invited clients including Guess, Nike and an unnamed premium hospitality brand.
iClick said that performance-based social advertising on mobile through Mobile Qzone, Weixin Moments and Weixin Official Accounts were noted to be major contributors to Tencent’s 160% YoY growth in its performance-based advertising revenues in Q3 2015.
“Native ads have long been proven to be a more engaging – and hence more effective – advertising format than traditional banner ads. This is in part due to the fact that native ads are consumed the same way people view editorial content,” explains iClick’s Co-founder and CEO, Sammy Hsieh (pictured left) says,
The deal came on the heels of iClick’s acquisition of OptAim Technology, China’s biggest mobile DSP (Demand Side Platform) in August, seen as one of the agency’s many efforts to connect international advertisers with the Chinese audience.
To date, iClick claims to connect 2,500 advertisers, including 150 multinational brands with the audience in China via programmatic marketing solutions.
Frank Zhou, Senior Product Director of Tencent Social Ads, says, “Qzone is one of the largest social networking sites in mainland China. Users are engaged and they frequently share their own content, photos and even music on the platform, via which they stay connected to what their friends are up to. We’re happy to partner with iClick to offer advertisers – including international and domestic ones – the best of the Qzone international in-feed ad inventory to help them more effectively reach their target Chinese audience in Asia and beyond.”
