Samsung Ads Partners with Eyeota to Add Precision Targeting in Southeast Asia

Samsung just made a quiet but significant move in Southeast Asia's advertising market. On May 21, Samsung Ads announced a data partnership with Eyeota, a Dun & Bradstreet company, to layer consumer profile data on top of Smart TV viewing signals from millions of Samsung televisions across Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.

It is the first time Samsung Ads has brought in an outside data partner since Samsung TV Plus launched in the region 18 months ago. The deal marks a clear shift: Samsung is no longer just selling ad space on its streaming service. It is building the targeting infrastructure to compete with digital platforms.

What the Deal Actually Does

Samsung TVs collect viewing data through a built-in technology called ACR (Automatic Content Recognition). Think of it as the TV quietly noting what households watch, when they watch, and for how long. That data is valuable, but it only tells part of the story.

Eyeota adds the missing layer. Its audience data covers demographics, purchase behaviors, and consumer interests across more than 180 countries. By combining Samsung's viewing signals with Eyeota's consumer profiles, advertisers can now target households on connected TV with a level of precision that was previously only possible on digital platforms like Google or Meta.

In practical terms, a brand selling family cars can now find households with children, a demonstrated interest in automotive content, and a household income bracket, then reach them directly on the television screen. That capability did not exist in this market a year ago.

Why the Eyeota Deal Completes the Stack

The Eyeota partnership is not happening in isolation. Samsung Ads has been assembling a full advertising stack in Southeast Asia at pace. Earlier partnerships with Magnite opened programmatic buying channels. A deal with Teads made Samsung's homescreen inventory available to brands across six Southeast Asian markets through a single reseller relationship for 2026 and 2027.

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The Eyeota deal completes the data layer of that stack. And the timing is deliberate. As Alex Spurzem, Managing Director of Samsung Ads Southeast Asia and Oceania, put it: "The combination of scale and unique audience segmentation gives brands greater confidence that their campaigns are reaching the right consumers to ultimately deliver better outcomes."

Advertiser confidence has been the soft underbelly of connected TV in Southeast Asia. Brands have been willing to test CTV budgets, but moving serious money requires proof that the audience is there and identifiable. Samsung now has the numbers to back that claim: 12 million unique viewers, more than 4.4 million Samsung Smart TVs in the region, monthly active users up 70% year-on-year, and total viewing hours up 125%.

A Structural Shift in How Ad Budgets Flow

The broader picture here matters to any marketing leader thinking about where connected TV fits in a regional media plan. Open programmatic CTV ad spend in Southeast Asia surged 43% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to 2023. More than half of APAC marketers are now moving at least 40% of their budgets toward CTV.

Google's ongoing deprecation of third-party cookies in browser environments is part of what is driving this. As audience tracking gets harder in digital channels, TV manufacturers with proprietary first-party data suddenly look very attractive. Samsung's ACR data is built on more than 50 million Smart TVs worldwide and is not sold externally. The only way to activate it is through Samsung Ads or its authorized partners.

Marc Fanelli, General Manager at Dun & Bradstreet Sales & Marketing Services, framed the commercial logic plainly: "Our work with Samsung Ads significantly increases accessibility for brands and advertisers, ensuring campaign budgets are spent reaching the audiences that matter most."

For regional brands and agencies, the message is straightforward. The living room screen now offers the same data-driven targeting precision as a phone screen. The question is no longer whether connected TV deserves a line in the media plan. It is how large that line should be.