Microsoft ran customer profiling proof of concept for Stadium Astro in Malaysia

Nov 28, 2017 -

In collaboration with Microsoft, Astro has leveraged on the Microsoft Azure cloud technology to experiment on Digital Customer profiling using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. This experiment was conducted on the Stadium Astro’s platform, and was designed to increase the capability of Astro’s business to evaluate and respond to each individual’s preferences in real time to effectively match supply with demand. This narrative drive better economic outcomes for both consumers and advertisers.

Astro Head Office, Malaysia

The Digital Customer Profiling technology of Astro allows the media company to understand the interests of their consumers. Leveraging Azure’s cloud infrastructure, Astro’s big data solutions can crunch billions of hypotheses in seconds to ascertain what each consumers’ interests are, allowing them to personalize customer experiences in real-time.



Celebrating this key milestone as part of Astro’s digital transformation, Ridhuan Sidek, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, Astro said, “We, at Astro, are pursuing a Consumer First narrative to keep pace with the changing business landscape. One of our strategic initiative is the ability to adapt and respond better to the interests of our customers and this initiative was crucial to making it possible. We are constantly engaging and personalizing our content to meet the needs and interests of our customers. Over the year, we have built our capabilities in Artificial Intelligence, Data Sciences, Algorithms and Analytics within the company. The Digital Customer Profiling experiment was undertaken for a period of two months until August 2017 on our Stadium Astro platform to engage better with our audience. During this stage, Astro observed a significant improvement in the clickthrough rates across Stadium Astro’s content recommendations, indicating that more people were reading Stadium Astro’s content as they were more relevant.”

The task facing Astro was to autonomously understand the interests of the customer’s fast enough to adapt to their interests whilst they are still on Stadium Astro’s website. Through the Digital Customer Profiling technology, the Astro team is able to predict the visitor’s interest with a certain level of statistical certainty. This results into tailored content for each visitor on the Stadium Astro’s website based on their preferences and importantly, a more relevant user experience. The Azure platform’s flexibility and cost-effective model allowed Astro to customize and take view of infrastructure optimization considerations during the course of the project.

Congratulating the team on this partnership, Michal Golebiewski, Chief Marketing and Operations Officer, Microsoft Malaysia said, “Since Microsoft established its presence in Malaysia over 25 years ago, our technology has helped transform the way people work, learn, play and communicate. Microsoft has a long-standing relationship with Astro over the years, however, this is the first time Microsoft has worked so closely with Astro on a cloud based big data initiative. We are confident that our trusted cloud solutions will propel Astro’s digital transformation to enable them to deliver exceptional customer experience.”

Astro worked together with Kasatria Technologies Sdn Bhd, a local MSC Status company and Microsoft partner to build the Digital Customer Profiling platform tailored to exacting specifications. Kasatria is a Technology Innovation Grant recipient from MDeC and have patents filed in both Malaysia & the US in the area of Digital Customer Profiling using Micro-Conversions.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dato' Ng Wan Peng, Chief Operating Officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation said, “Nowadays consumer’s lifestyle choices are increasingly digital, mobile and personalized, so industries must move fast to meet their expectations. We congratulate Astro and Microsoft on this partnership and we hope that with Astro taking the initial step, the Malaysian media and entertainment industry will follow suit and embrace digital transformation to stay in the game.”

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