With ATS Singapore 2025 just around the corner, we reveal a final preview of this year's topics...

With less than one month until ATS Singapore 2025, anticipation is building. At the event, we'll delve into the biggest industry issues currently affecting the APAC ad tech landscape, with experts from across the ecosystem, representing brands, publishers, agencies, and vendors. Read on to discover more from three of our panellists on what will be discussed around AI and attention...

ATS Singapore showcases more than fifty speakers, both local and global, all set to give their insights on the latest ad tech trends. With at least 700 attendees, it's an ideal place to network, connect with others in the field, and put faces to names. 

We’re looking forward to seeing you on 2nd July at Singapore’s Sands Expo & Convention Centre! If you want to join us and still haven’t got your ticket, you’re still in time: register here.  

Sushmita Mohapatra, Digital Transformation Consultant, Reckitt

Topic: Mastering AI to shape tomorrow's media landscape

We are in the throes of an AI revolution – the impact of which we don't understand. What will the new normal look like is almost like staring into a crystal ball. Yet, it is important to look into the immediate and maybe medium term wins. At ATS, we hope to explore how agencies are navigating things such as Google's AI personal shopper, as well as what advice and models they are creating for their companies. 

Raj Parekh, VP & Head, Digital Sales, Mediacorp

Topic: Capturing the Value of Consumer Attention 

I’ll be discussing attention and how that impacts, affects, and hopefully stabilises for both advertisers and publishers in the coming year(s). Attention has been an important new metric that has taken its own sweet time to materialise into something measurable. As a publisher, it is particularly important, as we have audiences that spend three times more time on our channels than on social platforms, and can be a pot of gold once there’s a standard to measure it and more science and technology advancements. 

Mimi Lu, Head of Strategy, Media, APAC, dentsu

Topic: Capturing the Value of Consumer Attention 

Attention has been a hot topic in our industry for years, but it's often reduced to tactical metrics – how long someone watches a video, what format performs best, or how we optimise creative for algorithms. That framing keeps us stuck in a narrow view of success. But in 2025, attention needs to mean more than visibility. It’s about driving action that actually moves people – sparking interest, driving action, and influencing real decisions, not just purchase decisions by life decisions. It’s not about being just another piece of content that’s a scroll away on TikTok. It’s about understanding the deeper cultural undercurrents that shape how consumers think, feel, and behave. If we keep chasing what’s easy to measure, we’ll miss the real opportunity: to create ideas that connect, resonate, and ultimately drive lasting impact.

The biggest challenge is that we still don’t have a unified definition of what attention really means. Is it time spent? Scroll speed? Eye movement? Without clarity, we’ve ended up over-optimising for surface-level metrics. And ironically, in chasing attention, we often lose what genuinely earns it: storytelling, emotional connection, creative originality. On top of that, platforms have built algorithms that reward superficial forms of attention; short bursts of dopamine through dance-offs, pranks, and shopping hauls. It’s content designed to keep people scrolling, not necessarily to add value to their lives. Aside from driving more purchases, there’s very little that’s truly enriching about the experience. That creates a deeper tension: how do we translate attention into meaningful outcomes; not just post-campaign analysis, but as a core part of planning and buying? And are publishers and platforms brave enough to challenge the status quo, and push for content that enhances the environment rather than just filling it?

Elsewhere, I’m looking forward to the retail media panels. There are two this year and they’re at the top of my list. There’s been a lot of global buzz around retail media, but in APAC it’s still incredibly fragmented – across networks, data infrastructure, and measurement. I’m keen to get some understanding and insight into how others are approaching it in such a complex landscape. And more than that, I want to explore how retail media can evolve beyond just purchase triggers – how it can play a bigger role in brand building and consumer engagement across the full funnel.