63% of Asian Marketers Shift Budgets to CTV and Digital Video
Mediaocean reports 63% of Asian marketers increasing CTV and digital video spend in 2026, but only 10% have integrated ad tech systems to execute AI-driven strategies.
Asian marketers are concentrating investments in connected TV and digital video platforms as they navigate a widening gap between AI ambitions and execution capabilities, according to Mediaocean's 2026 H1 Advertising Outlook Report released this month.
The report reveals that 63% of marketers plan to increase spending on CTV and digital video, followed by 61% targeting social platforms. The shift reflects a selective recovery strategy as brands prioritize high-performance channels over broad-based digital transformation.
China and India Lead Regional Growth
China dominates the Asia-Pacific advertising landscape with $246.5 billion in ad spend for 2026, representing 66% of the region's total investment. The market is experiencing 6.1% year-over-year growth, with retail media expanding 11.7% as brands integrate video formats into e-commerce strategies.
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India shows even stronger momentum with 9.6% digital ad growth, contributing to the region's overall 8.6% expansion. Online video leads category growth at 11.5%, driven by increased consumer engagement with streaming platforms and short-form content.
Netflix has emerged as the most trusted ad platform across Asia-Pacific, with 37% of consumers in Korea and Japan expressing confidence in its advertising quality. The streaming service outperforms YouTube and Prime Video in consumer preference rankings, with 35% of regional viewers rating its ads as higher quality than competitors.
Technology Fragmentation Creates Execution Barriers
Despite strong investment intentions, marketers face significant operational challenges. The Mediaocean report found that while 86% of marketers acknowledge the importance of coordinating campaigns across multiple channels, only 10% have fully integrated advertising technology systems.
"Marketers know AI can drive better outcomes, but fragmented systems make it difficult to carry insights from planning through to activation and optimization," said Michael Serratore, VP Client Success APAC at Innovid.
This disconnect affects AI adoption across different functions. While 43% of marketers use AI for data analysis and market research, adoption drops to 33% for creative development and just 19% for campaign coordination. The decline reflects growing complexity as AI moves from analysis into execution workflows.
Marketers cite data quality and access issues as their primary obstacle (42%), followed closely by difficulty connecting AI insights across different systems (41%). These technical barriers are intensifying as brands attempt to scale AI capabilities beyond isolated use cases.
Regional Investment Priorities Shift
ASEAN organizations are responding with substantial budget increases. Lenovo's CIO Playbook 2026 shows that 96% of firms plan to boost AI spending by an average of 15% this year, with 86% adopting hybrid cloud solutions to address data sovereignty concerns.
Meanwhile, programmatic trading now accounts for 81.4% of Asia-Pacific digital ad spending, with AI algorithms influencing 71.6% of automated budget allocations. This automation creates pressure for better system integration to maximize efficiency.
TikTok continues dominating Southeast Asian consumer attention, leading platform rankings ahead of YouTube and Instagram. The short-form video platform's strength has pushed marketers to blend social and e-commerce strategies, particularly as super-app Grab demonstrates higher ad receptivity than traditional e-commerce platforms like Shopee and Lazada.
Aaron Goldman, CMO at Mediaocean, emphasized that future competitive advantage "will come from orchestrating tools rather than accumulating them. Smarter, more connected foundations are what turn AI insights into action at scale."
The strategic challenge facing Asian marketers is clear. Strong investment appetite in proven channels like CTV and video must be matched with infrastructure improvements to deliver on AI's promise of better campaign performance and efficiency.
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