Expenditure on customer data has increased 81% in the Asia-Pacific region, according to data firm Eyeota which has unveiled its Annual Index highlighting where brands are placing budgets in order to obtain consumer information.
Findings specific to Australia show that the automotive, finance and services and utilities sectors spent more on obtaining and utilising data than any other categories.
In fact, Eyeota claims that the automotive sector spends more than twice the average on data across all sectors, meaning that for this year, the financial services industry has been knocked from first to second place.
The services and utilities sector, however, makes most use of audience data and over the last quarter has climbed from eighth to first place. Much of this, says the firm, results from telecommunication firms increasingly capitalising on the use of data.
As well as measuring the total expenditure by industry sector, the Eyeota Index also tracks the average price paid for data by each sector.
Multimedia advertisers including BBC News, Disney, Financial Times, Netflix and YouTube placed a premium on audience data at 1.5 times the average.
62% of all data bought in 2015 was sociodemographic data, which was used across all industries, but particularly by the finance industry and multimedia, each trying to pinpoint specific products at particularly types of individual.
Interest data was the second most popular data type and was spread across a broad range of industry types, but particularly by the FMCG sector. 14% of all data bought by FMCG advertisers was interest data.
Eyeota CEO Kevin Tan says: “The Index has now been running for over one year, so we can now make useful year-on-year comparisons. For advertisers they can see at a glance how others in their category are making use of data to drive advertising decisions, or realise the opportunity to be a first mover. Publishers can gain further insights into the most sought-after data segments and the types of advertisers purchasing them.”
Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.