Google’s partnership with Omnicom to build out the agency’s trading desk with the view of putting hundreds of millions of display dollars through automated channels (Google’s mostly) could well be a transformational moment for the display market. I could be accused of a certain degree of hyperbole here, but you have to look at the size of this deal and take note of the other significant relationships Google has already established with the biggest media buying agencies. It is slowly bringing the dsplay market under its control. You also need to recognise the significance of how details of the story were released: instead of giving the “scoop” to a trade press journo, it was given to Emily Steel at the WSJ. Google is serious about display, and bringing order to a ridiculously chaotic and opaque market. And it wants Wall Street to know this. Google maybe chasing profit, but in doing so it is pushing innovation in this space. This might be unpalatable for some in our industry who fear change, and would rather keep this innovation at bay. But change is upon us and we, as an industry, must act now.
I find it laughable when people in the online ad industry baulk at publishers becoming media buyers. There is a general consensus that media buyers have a specific role in the marketplace and that publishers should just stick to selling inventory. Well that might have been the case a couple of years ago, but things have changed in a big way. Over the past twenty-four months we have not only seen publishers build out their own ad networks (The Daily Mail being the best example) but also augment their reach in weak inventory areas in order to increase ad revenue (note the buying relationship between De Telegraaf and Admeld in the Dutch market). I think it’s now time that we see more innovation in media buying from publishers. Some European publishers are sitting on a treasure trove of user data. What if some – particularly those in lucrative vertical markets – looked at leveraging their proprietary data for ad targeting purposes. Not across their own inventory but across media available in their vertical. That would be a powerful commercial proposition for agencies and advertisers. But there are only a handful of publishers that could possibly do this.
Germany’s leading ad exchange, Adscale, announced today that it has raised new funding from French investment firm, TIME Equity Partners. The deal is said to be in excess of five million euro, and will give TIME Investor a minor stakehold in Adscale. The German ad trading platform has been growing rapidly since its launch in 2007, and now serves over six billion ad impressions per month. The exchange is also used by over thirty media buying agencies in the German market. The investment is significant for Europe’s biggest display market, as automated ad trading is set to increase signifcantly there in the next tweleve months. With display advertising moving away from manual media I/O buying, Adscale is well placed to benefit. It is thought the the new investment will be used to build out new platform features and expand into other European markets.
Kwame Acheampong is Managing Director and Partner at Httpool. Httpool is an ad network that specialises in the Central and Eastern European markets, offering buying opportunities in these markets to UK agencies and advertisers. Acheampong took time to speak to ExchangeWire this week about the Httpool offering, the display market in the CEE region and the growth of automated trading.
Can you give you an overview of the Httpool proposition?
KA: Httpool is an online advertising provider focusing on emerging markets, especially the Central and Eastern European region. We provide clients with localisation services together with all segments of online advertising in the region – including premium inventory network, performance network, contextual and behavioural network, and search engine marketing. Httpool has 10 years of experience and expertise across the region serving major agencies, global and local clients with digital strategies and planning.
It’s been a busy weekend of news and speculation. The rumour mill is in overdrive among the New York advertising digerati. Peter Kafka has heard from “sources” that Google is about to buy Invite Media – and the number being thrown around is reported to be between sixty and one hundred million dollars. Here’s why I think this deal will not happen? Most agencies are using DFA. Would it not make sense to integrate RTB into DFA and make it easier to buy from other inventory sources? Wouldn’t a souped-up DFA with “DSP” capabilities be cheaper to develop? I suspect that Google are already thinking about this – and we likely to see it very soon. As for these rumours, I have heard similar chit-chat earlier this year of DSP-related deals. M&A speculation is built into the DNA of this industry. I’ll stick my neck out here, and make a bold prediction. Google will likely build out its own DSP capabilities. Invite will likely be bought by one of the big holding agencies that it already has a strong relationship with. But we’ll see if I’m wrong soon enough. The other thing to consider here is whether big holding agencies will want to cede anymore control to Google. How relevant can they remain to advertisers if this happens? In that eventuality I can see most of the holding companies looking to buy a “DSP”.
Martin Kelly is Managing Partner at Infectious Media, an exchange-trading specialist based in London. Martin took time this week to speak to ExchangeWire about the company’s rebrand, the evolution of the UK exchange space and the continued growth of the data market.
You’ve recently went through a rebranding and a repositioning of the Infectious offering. Can you explain the Infectious Media proposition in more detail?
MK: Yes, it’s simple, we make display advertising work for our clients. Clearly there’s a lot more to our business in terms of how we do that but that is our proposition and how we sell our services. We operate exclusively in the ad exchange space and offer these services to both advertisers direct and to agencies. We’ve purpose built both a team and trading platform, Impression Desk, to service this opportunity in the UK and Europe.
Marco Bertozzi is the Managing Director, EMEA, VivaKi Nerve Center. Vivaki is a strategic unit within Publicis Groupe that helps agencies leverage the scale of the group’s media and digital operations to improve campaign performance for its clients. Marco took time this week to speak to ExchangeWire about the Vivaki operation in more detail, the industry’s move to automated audience-buying, and the evolution of the agency model.
There’s much confusion about what Vivaki does? Is it buying platform? Is it a crack exchange trading unit? Can you explain the Vivaki proposition in more detail?
MB: Vivaki is the strategic entity created by Publicis Groupe to leverage the combined scale of its media and digital operations, which represent nearly $60 billion dollars in global ad spend and influence. VivaKi aggregates the marketplace influence of five autonomous brands, including: two global media agencies, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; two leading digital marketing agencies, Digitas and Razorfish; and a premiere futures practice, Denuo.
Matthias Pantke is CEO of AdScale GmbH, Germany. Adscale is one of Germany’s leading ad exchanges, trading nearly 6 billion impressions per month. Pantke took this week to speak to ExchangeWire about the Adscale platform, the size of the German exchange market and when Adscale inventory would be made available to buy through RTB.
Can you give an overview of the AdScale platform offered on the German market?
MP: AdScale is Germany’s leading real-time marketplace for online advertisement. In this marketplace, advertisers and publishers buy and sell display ads, i.e. advertising space. It is possible to define ads and to plan target campaigns, simply and conveniently. As a marketplace for online advertising the pricing in our system is fair and transparent for both sides. For publishers this means that they can control their prices independently and effectively via AdScale. The price level can always be adjusted according to the efficiency of the advertising space. Therefore, the marketers have the full control over each campaign and what price it is running at. Thus, the average price level in our marketplace reflects the actual price level of the German online advertising market.
Michel Juvillier is CEO of Improve Digital, France. The platform is now the biggest supply side platform in the market: it works with 15 of the top 20 Comscore publishers; and is now optimizing two billion ad impressions per month.
Can you give an overview of the size of the French exchange marketplace? And the role Improve Digital plays in the market?
MJ: At this moment there is no ad exchange or demand platform in France with significant volumes. Some global players have not yet started in France or if they did, are at a beginning stage. There have been some announcements by the likes of the Doubleclick Adx and Weborama – which declared, during an IAB conference in January, its intention to become an ad exchange – but I have not seen any real traction in the market.
Yann Le Roux is the co-founder of the newly launched French exchange trading specialist, Matiro. Matiro is the first exchange specialist in France, and it’s launching at a time when the display market there is experiencing a similar evolution being seen in other European markets like the UK and Germany.
Can you provide an overview of the new Matiro offering?
YLR: We are the first and only ad exchange specialist in France that is focused on servicing the advertisers, i.e. the buy-side. We are entirely focused on allowing advertisers and their agencies to benefit from media trading: real-time bidding, impression-based optimisation, advanced targeting, combined creative and media optimization, access to market price, etc.
Google’s partnership with Omnicom to build out the agency’s trading desk with the view of putting hundreds of millions of display dollars through automated channels (Google’s mostly) could well be a transformational moment for the display market. I could be accused of a certain degree of hyperbole here, but you have to look at the size of this deal and take note of the other significant relationships Google has already established with the biggest media buying agencies. It is slowly bringing the dsplay market under its control. You also need to recognise the significance of how details of the story were released: instead of giving the “scoop” to a trade press journo, it was given to Emily Steel at the WSJ. Google is serious about display, and bringing order to a ridiculously chaotic and opaque market. And it wants Wall Street to know this. Google maybe chasing profit, but in doing so it is pushing innovation in this space. This might be unpalatable for some in our industry who fear change, and would rather keep this innovation at bay. But change is upon us and we, as an industry, must act now.
I find it laughable when people in the online ad industry baulk at publishers becoming media buyers. There is a general consensus that media buyers have a specific role in the marketplace and that publishers should just stick to selling inventory. Well that might have been the case a couple of years ago, but things have changed in a big way. Over the past twenty-four months we have not only seen publishers build out their own ad networks (The Daily Mail being the best example) but also augment their reach in weak inventory areas in order to increase ad revenue (note the buying relationship between De Telegraaf and Admeld in the Dutch market). I think it’s now time that we see more innovation in media buying from publishers. Some European publishers are sitting on a treasure trove of user data. What if some – particularly those in lucrative vertical markets – looked at leveraging their proprietary data for ad targeting purposes. Not across their own inventory but across media available in their vertical. That would be a powerful commercial proposition for agencies and advertisers. But there are only a handful of publishers that could possibly do this. 
Germany’s leading ad exchange, 
Kwame Acheampong is Managing Director and Partner at 
It’s been a busy weekend of news and speculation. The rumour mill is in overdrive among the New York advertising digerati. 
Martin Kelly is Managing Partner at 
Marco Bertozzi is the Managing Director, EMEA, 
Matthias Pantke is CEO of AdScale GmbH, Germany. 
Michel Juvillier is CEO of 
Yann Le Roux is the co-founder of the newly launched French exchange trading specialist, 
