Disintermediation is in the air.
If The Trade Desk’s OpenPath cuts out SSPs (while claiming not to), Magnite’s ClearLine cuts out DSPs (while claiming not to).
ClearLine will allow agencies to buy video inventory directly from Magnite. GroupM, Camelot, and MiQ are the launch partners.
“There was a market ask” from buyers for a video-specific direct-buy product, said Sean Buckley, chief revenue officer at Magnite.
The company examined its existing supply-side technology and found they could repurpose its existing tech, particularly around its SpringServe video ad server, for buyers.
A buyer-direct platform required “really minimal adaptation” of existing tools, which were provided to buyers who were interested in, say, handling their traditional direct sales, activating “really sensitive first-party data that sits on the supply side” or structuring carriage deals with media owners to manage inventory sharing.
By only using an SSP to buy video inventory, buyers can lower their tech tax.
As video budgets migrate to the programmatic streaming ecosystem, Buckley said, “buyers are really focused on maximizing working media.” There’s greater demand for an auditable, efficient supply chain.
Buying direct offers other benefits besides lowered fees, noted Andrew Meaden, global head of investment at GroupM. The direct connection to publishers provides a laundry list of benefits: more transparency, a reduced risk of ad fraud, priority access to publishers’ inventory and lower technology costs. With ClearLine, GroupM pays one negotiated fee, rather than fielding fees from both a DSP and an SSP.
“Our aim is not to remove the DSPs from the programmatic equation but to provide more buying options to fit the needs of our clients,” Meaden said.
Magnite says it’s still firmly staking its claim in SSP territory, but adhering to the market trend where DSPs and SSPs connect with buyers and publishers, instead of just one side of the ecosystem. “If you look at all the major players, it’d be hard to find someone who doesn’t provide some sort of service to both buyers and sellers,” Buckley said.
Magnite says its loyalties remain to the sell side: “We view everything, including the development of ClearLine, through the lens of helping make our supply-side customers successful in their advertising business,” Buckley said.
The launch of ClearLine exemplifies how, in recent years, Magnite has pivoted toward CTV, prioritizing the fast-growing channel over mobile and desktop. The SSP partnered with streaming company Brightcove in January and cultivates a long-running partnership with Disney. It officially merged with Telaria in 2020, then acquired video SSP SpotX in February 2021 and SpringServe in July 2021.
And last June, the company inked a deal with LG Ads to become LG’s preferred SSP and ad server, which also netted its buyers access to ACR data from LG’s smart TVs. This first-party viewership data, “all housed and refined on the supply side,” according to Buckley, allows buyers to better plan and measure their campaigns programmatically. Through ClearLine, LG can enable and share its ACR data to bring publishers and advertisers closer together.
A buyer-to-SSP product may have felt unprecedented several years ago, but the winds of change are blowing in the programmatic space.
Times have been tough lately for SSPs. The Trade Desk’s OpenPath direct-to-publisher product potentially cuts out SSPs, which no longer have exclusive direct connections to publishers.
So far this year, Yahoo disbanded its SSP and EMX filed for bankruptcy as creditors came knocking. Magnite laid off 6% of its workforce in January and reported slowed revenue growth in its Q4 earnings in February.
