Hepmil Creators’ Network (HCN) is now the first in Southeast Asia (SEA) to offer premium inventory of Reserved Media, including that of the increasingly-popular Esports and gaming channels, to brands. This comes about from a partnership with US-based digital media company, Bent Pixels, which owns the sales rights through its long-term partnership with YouTube. The provision of Reserved Premium Media in Southeast Asia expands the offerings of HCN, a subsidiary of Hepmil Media Group which owns SGAG, MGAG, PGAG and SGEEK, beyond its TikTok-first content arm which was launched in April 2020.
HCN’s latest offering stems from a growing interest among brands in the region who are keen to reach out to the millennials and Gen Zs across multiple countries and platforms that they frequent. In particular, the Gen Zs are moving towards visual media such as YouTube where video influences them not only in brand awareness but also in purchase decisions. Moreover, with Southeast Asia forecasted to be the world’s fastest-growing region for online game revenue and 68% of Gen Z males in the region indicating that gaming is an important part of their identity, this offers the opportunities for brands to leverage gaming to establish and grow their mindshare with the millennials and Gen Z.
Karl Mak, CEO & Co-Founder of Hepmil Media Group, said, “We understand the pain points of brands across sectors such as e-commerce, telcos, food delivery and FMCGs where they want to optimise their advertising efforts across countries, be more targeted at where their advertisements appear, and even to own the share of voice with the media spaces they purchase. As the only provider of reserved media in Southeast Asia with the largest inventory of popular comedy and entertainment channels in Singapore alongside top global Esports & gaming channels, we endeavour to continually provide brands with seamless solutions to reach out to the millennials and Gen Zs, including the hard-to-reach Esports and gaming community. This prompted the partnership with Bent Pixels to offer Reserved Premium Media in Southeast Asia.”
“With Reserved Premium Media, brands can now purchase advertising spaces on specific channels by their favourite creators across multiple countries from one single point of contact. At the same time, they will fully own the advertising spaces on select channels during the engagement period without interference from competing advertisements, thus improving targeting efforts and optimising media budget. This offering will completely change the YouTube advertising landscape in Southeast Asia as it is not possible through the existing media buy options through YouTube Auction or YouTube Select,” he added.
With over 11 years of expertise and deep relationship with YouTube, Bent Pixels develops technology-based management solutions for brands and talent networks. It has the largest independently-owned influencer network in the United States and works with 13 major Esports organisations including 7 of the top 10 and over 50 individual teams as well as reputable, premium content creators. This enables Bent Pixels to manage media placement and delivery at the channel level to further guarantee brand safety and brand-relevant alignment for its advertising partners.
Mike Pusateri, Founder and CEO of Bent Pixels said, “We are delighted to partner with Hepmil Creators’ Network to facilitate Reserved Media solutions to brands and advertisers in Southeast Asia. A strong, well respected partner like Hepmil brings immediate credibility to potential brand partners in Southeast Asia who will greatly benefit from Reserved Media. We have seen tremendous success from our experience in the US and are excited to see how this will change the landscape of YouTube advertising in Southeast Asia.”
HCN will be a valued partner to brands in their marketing efforts
While Reserved Premium Media has been available in the United States of America, this is the first time it is offered to brands in Southeast Asia. Reserved Premium Media will offer flexibility to brands and their varied needs. It allows brands to secure highly sought-after ad spaces before ad auctions commence, while enabling micro-targeting of channels and creators, date and time, as well as the countries that the advertisements will appear. What will be of great value is also its ability for brands to achieve 100% share of voice on select channels during key promotional or launch periods, such as the upcoming e-commerce sales – 9/9 Online Shopping Day, Singles’ Day on 11 November and the Double 12 – to stand out from the crowd with exclusivity.
Marketers can also create YouTube advertising assets in multiple formats (both skippable and non-skippable) that run complementary to its branded content on YouTube channels by the most popular comedy, entertainment and gaming creators who are working with HCN and Bent Pixels. Its YouTube channel network includes more than 20 creators from Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines currently and 134 top global Esports and gaming channels, who will be available for Reserved Media buys from September 2020 onwards. This supports the optimisation of marketing spend by brands with complete share of voice on select channels, premium association and effective micro-targeting.
HCN was launched in April 2020 to provide business opportunities for independent comedy content creators in SEA, while leveraging its expertise in comedy to mentor these talents. It also enables a fuss-free coordination for brands to ensure its campaigns’ objectives are met and brand-safe content is produced for millennials and Gen Zs. Its network includes more than 70 TikTok and YouTube creators from Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines currently, with more than 25 million subscribers and over 40 million monthly views. It now has close to half of the biggest comedy and entertainment YouTubers in Singapore, including Wah! Banana (1.33M subscribers), Ryan Sylvia (1M subscribers), Naomi Neo (446k subscribers), Millennials of Singapore (197k subscribers) and Zermatt Neo (181k subscribers), making it the largest inventory for comedy and entertainment channels in the country.
