The ‘Yield Management Tools’ Category
James Avery is CEO of Adzerk, a publisher-side ad technology company.
AdExchanger.com: Why focus on publisher ad serving as opposed to advertiser ad serving?
JA: The reason is publishing. I view publishing as crucially important to us as a society.
When I originally started running ad networks, the reason was due to the fact many of my friends - including myself - had blogs but we weren't making any money. Basically, we would run AdSense and get $.50 to $1.00 CPMs. So, as a side business, I went and started an ad network to get the $5.00 to $10.00 CPM's and make it worthwhile for them to create new content and spend more time on their site.
So, I look at ad serving as a publisher side tool that I can use to support the people to whom I really relate - the content creators and people who are putting themselves out there for free and need to make money from advertising in order to do it.
Please share a quick top line on your background before Adzerk. And, where did the name for the company come from?
Before Adzerk, I was a software developer and worked at Dell and at Avanade, which is a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture - essentially high‑end consulting. Then I went out on my own and started a consulting company called Infozerk. The Infozerk name came from "berserk" - a term I like - and I wanted something that stuck in people's minds a little bit more than other consulting names which are a bit more tame. I'm not tame. So Zerk represented me as a consultant pretty well. After Infozerk, I started working on running ad networks and that company became ZerkMedia. The original software I used to run those ad networks became Adzerk. So, I came from an engineering background and fell into the media world.
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Today, PubMatic announced that Kirk McDonald (LinkedIn), who was President, Digital of Time Inc, has joined the company as its President. Read the release.
McDonald discussed his new role and the larger publisher landscape with AdExchanger.com.
AdExchanger.com: Why is PubMatic the right next step for you?
KM: Here's the truth. I believe that the industry is beginning to consolidate and, at the same time, publishers are becoming more and more sophisticated. Yet, media technology still isn't publishers’ core area of strength. Automation for publishers requires not just inventory management, but data management, and eventually, dynamic content management. And, the solutions publishers require are not something that they really should or, today, have the confidence to build for themselves. So, the media tech space that provides automation to publishers still has a huge opportunity ahead and a growing list of customers that need to be served.
I'm excited about where PubMatic is. I'm excited about the fact that their platform is as robust as it has been up until now and the fact that they're thinking about diversifying and adding on incremental products beyond what they offer their clients and constituents today. And I'm excited about the fact that they're unencumbered to do so right now. So, I have no criticism for Google and AdMeld. I have no criticisms for what Rubicon Project is doing or their ambitions. I am very excited, though, about the fact that PubMatic doesn't have integration or a merger to deal with as a priority for the next year or two. It means that PubMatic is going to be able to keep focused on innovation and focused on growth. So that's the excitement for me.
What have you seen on the large publisher's side, within the past year or two, in regards to a shift in thinking in digital?
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Anthony Katsur, whose experience ranges from VP of Engineering at DoubleClick to his most recent role at demand-side platform MediaMath where he spent two years as the company’s General Manager. Today, Katsur is announcing that he’s joining publisher optimization firm Maxifier where he will become the company’s COO.
In an interview with AdExchanger.com, Katsur indicated that he remains very bullish about MediaMath but was ready for a new challenge after spearheading the building of the new version of MediaMath’s Terminal One platform.
Katsur discussed the new role and its implications with AdExchanger.com.
AdExchanger.com: Please share a bit about what you’re doing next.
TK: I'm moving into a company that's purely pub‑side optimization in a box. It helps publishers optimize campaign performance for premium guaranteed direct buys. The company is called Maxifier. It's based here in New York City with offices in London and Russia, and a strong European client base.
It's another opportunity very similar to MediaMath, where they've got a great core base of customers and platform today. But now it's time to take it to the next level. I will be going on board as COO.
What is the overall trend in the space that you are seeing right now, where Maxifier has a clear opportunity?
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Yesterday, Collective announced AMP Exchange which it positions as a sell-side platform and says "allows publishers to create private exchanges using Real-Time Bidding (RTB) without separately managing reserved and pre-emptible inventory." AppNexus is helping to provide the technology of the new offering. Read the release. Peter Longo of IDG Tech Network is quoted in the release. IDG Tech Network has been a client of sell-side platform Admeld.
Collective CEO Joe Apprendi discussed the announcement and its implications.
AdExchanger.com: Why move into the sell-side platform space? Are you pivoting?
JA: Collective has been serving the sell-side, specifically premium publishers, with AMP since 2008. Today, we power some of the largest media companies already using our data and media management platform. It was only natural for us to extend our SSP capabilities to include ad exchange functionality. With this application, we now provide publishers with a complete monetization and analytics solution no matter where they source ad demand, whether through their direct sales channel on a guaranteed basis or via indirect channels using RTB. AMP Exchange is about integrating the programmatic buying channel with the direct-sales channel.
Now that Collective has an exchange, an ad network, a sell-side platform as well as other solutions, isn't there a danger of appearing to represent everyone when clients on the buy or sell-side are looking for a solution that represents them alone?
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In an interview with AdExchanger.com, sell-side platform CEO Rajeev Goel of PubMatic offered his views on Monday's acquisition of its competitor Admeld by Google. Read full coverage of the acquisition here.
AdExchanger.com: Generally speaking, what is your view on the impact of the acquisition on the ad ecosystem, and publishers specifically?
RAJEEV GOEL: An acquisition of this magnitude reaffirms the strength of the online advertising industry and, more specifically, the need for publisher-focused innovation. This deal speaks to the importance and value of publisher-focused solutions. This is clear if we look at the magnitude of exits on the demand side of the ecosystem, for example, which have been much smaller.
Over the past several years, PubMatic has evolved from a technology centric ad network optimizer into a full Sell Side Platform (SSP), where the service and expert guidance we offer has become as important as our technical solutions. Our success over the past few has been built upon gaining the publisher’s trust. Publishers need a technology and service layer that works on their behalf to help them maximize their revenue and manage their brands online.
From what I’m hearing in the market and my first hand discussions with publishers, there is much more fear than excitement. Many publishers chose to work with Admeld or us not only because of superior technology and service, but also because we were not Google, we were independent. That has changed.
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Google VP of Product Neal Mohan, who helps drive advertising product strategy at the company, spoke to AdExchanger.com about today's announcement regarding the acquisition of sell-side platform Admeld.
AdExchanger.com: What will happen to the Admeld team post-acquisition?
NM: One of the big drivers of the acquisition is, in fact, the team.
We were incredibly impressed with the technical and engineering team in terms of the innovation they brought to the market as well as the team that works directly with the publishers - in terms of revenue consulting and the deep publisher relationships they have. So, everybody from Micheal and Brian to everybody in the organization - it was clear that they were adding value.
It's probably too early to speculate on the specifics of the team, but we look forward to welcoming them to Google once the deal closes. As you know, they're primarily based in New York, but they have offices in San Francisco, London and Toronto as well.
And when does the deal close?
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According to The Official Google blog, Google has purchased AdMeld for a still-to-be disclosed sum.
From the Google blog post and VP Neal Mohan:
"By combining Admeld’s services, expertise and technology with Google’s offerings, we’re investing in what we hope will be an improved era of flexible ad management tools for major publishers. Together with Admeld, we hope to make display advertising simpler, more efficient and more valuable, provide improved support and services, and enable publishers to make more informed decisions across all their ad space. These are all things our publisher partners have been asking us to further invest in. Of course, Admeld will continue to support other ad networks, demand side platforms, exchanges and ad servers, to yield the best possible results for publishers."
Read Mohan's interview with AdExchanger.com on the deal here.
TechCrunch's Mike Arrington, who reported the deal was done as of last Thursday, said at the time that the price tag was $400 million.
There's also a post from Admeld CEO Michael Barrett on the Admeld blog here which reads in part:
"This is an exciting moment for Admeld, not only because it speaks to the quality of our platform, team, and the results we produce for our clients, but also because it underscores Google’s dedication to helping publishers get the most out of the display ad landscape.
What’s driving this relationship is a shared belief that managing display advertising is still far too complicated for publishers, and together Admeld and Google can help address some of the underlying inefficiencies. Though we have no specific integration plans yet, we imagine our combined offerings can help publishers make more informed, efficient, and profitable decisions across all tiers of their inventory."
Reaction from around the Web (will update throughout the day):
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Yesterday, PubMatic announced that it had acquired publisher yield optimizer Revinet, According to the release, PubMatic will a new office in Boston, 15 new employees, and a set of publishers in the news vertical "including The Christian Science Monitor, A.H. Belo, Boston Herald, The Sporting News, and more." Read the release.
PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel discussed the acquisition and its impact.
What was the cost of the transaction to PubMatic?
This was an all cash deal and will be accretive from the start. Our business model is heavily aligned with the success of publishers on our platform, so as we ramp up publisher revenue from our advanced technology, both publishers and PubMatic will see gains. Right now the demand for quality RTB inventory outpaces the quality supply, so the ReviNet publishers will experience significant revenue growth in the near term.
Would you say this transaction is all about scale? If so, why is scale important?
This deal is not justabout scale; it is about achieving the right kind of scale. There are several sources of low quality inventory at scale, but we’re focused strictly on premium inventory and premium audience, and the vast majority of ReviNet’s publishers are in the News vertical. In terms of valuable inventory, News always ranks amongst the most sought after. When buyers want access to News-related inventory and audience at scale, they can come to us, which means that our publishers get access to high quality buyers first.
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Today, OpenX formally announced OpenX Enterprise, a new publisher ad server which it says optimizes "all ad revenue channels in one place. This includes inventory sold through a direct sales force as well as inventory sold indirectly through the rapidly increasing number of demand sources such as ad networks and Demand Side Platforms (DSPs)." Read the release.
John Linden, CTO for OpenX, discussed the announcement and the new ad server's implications.
AdExchanger.com: Describe the target publisher for the new ad server.
JL: OpenX Enterprise is designed for large and mid-sized publishers who need a premium ad server that allows them to manage all of their revenue channels in one place, that want to benefit from direct selling tools which have been completed redesigned, and that need to manage first and third party data in a comprehensive way. OpenX Enterprise can most certainly be used very effectively by publishers with relatively simple needs, but we think its innovations really shine when publishers have more sophisticated and innovative ad businesses and more complex ad technology needs.
We’re already starting to see this trend play out, with leading large publishers around the world - such as Groupon, Excite Japan and Orange-France Telecom - adopting the platform.
What's in it for marketers?
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In an article in Ad Age, vertical ad network IDG TechNetwork announced that it has entered into an agreement with sell-side platform AdMeld, who will provide technology and services for a private display ad exchange called TechMediaExchange.com. AdMeld CEO Michael Barrett tells Ad Age's Edmund Lee, "More and more publishers are looking to find ways to reclaim their inventory, which has long been sold in a black-box exchange where buyers get lowest possible rates." Read more in Ad Age.
Peter Longo, CEO, IDG TechNetwork, discussed his company's private exchange strategy.
AdExchanger.com: Why is it important that buyers are curated for your private exchange?
PL: Our goal is to build a premium experience on Tech Media Exchange (TMX) in the same way that we have delivered on the IDG TechNetwork. As a private ad exchange, we are creating an environment where the best technology advertisers will appear on the best websites creating the best experience for the end user. To accomplish this, we have chosen to partner with AdMeld to power TMX. In addition, while the Exchange will be a real-time environment, our largest and best technology marketers and agencies are going to want to secure longer-term inventory futures to meet their campaign objectives, which is in the best interests of both our publisher sites and the TMX.
Can you share who the partners will be and why?
We are in beta through next month, and will announce partners by the end of February. However, the likely advertisers are not hard not to imagine: DSPs and ATDs representing technology clients.
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