iClick strikes preferred deal with Tencent’s Qzone

iClick Interactive Asia has established a preferred deal arrangement with Tencent Social Ads for “first look” access to its Qzone’s international native ad inventory.As the first programmatic marketing platform to reach a preferred deal agreement with Tencent Social Ads, iClick will be given early access to premium international native ad inventory on Qzone, one of China’s leading social networking apps.Following the acquisition of OptAim Technology, China’s biggest mobile demand side platform (DSP) in August, iClick continues to build on its mobile-led strategic position – to connect international advertisers with the Chinese audience via precise, cross-screen and data-driven programmatic marketing solutions.Via the new preferred deal arrangement with Tencent, iClick can now ensure its international clients access to the cream of the inventory, allowing more precise and effective targeting of this developing Chinese audience in Asia and beyond via non-intrusive in-feed native ads.iClick’s Co-founder and CEO, Sammy Hsieh, said native ads have long been proven to be a more engaging and 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. Facebook’s in-feed ad is a perfect example of this success," he said."According to a native ad effectiveness study, consumers looked at native ads 53% more frequently than banner ads; native ads also registered an 18% higher lift for purchase intent and 9% higher lift for brand affinity responses than banner ads.”