A post on Reddit’s r/adops forum has prompted more questions from the buy side about The Trade Desk’s transition to its new DSP interface, Kokai.
Last week, an anonymous Redditor who claims to be an agency media buyer flagged a notification they received in TTD’s platform when trying to create a new campaign using the DSP’s old Solimar user interface. The notification directed them to “create all your new campaigns in Kokai” but noted, “You can still manage your Kokai-created campaigns in Solimar.”
The Redditor claimed they were “unable to launch new campaigns without activating them in Kokai” despite “suggestions just last month that The Trade Desk has no concrete plan to deprecate the Solimar platform,” seemingly alluding to a recent AdExchanger story.
So what gives? Is TTD really sunsetting Solimar this month, despite assurances to the contrary? Is TTD forcing agencies to adopt the new Kokai interface despite claims they can still use the interface of their choice?
Here’s what we were able to find out.
It’s up to the agencies
The notification posted in the r/adops thread is real, according to a source familiar with Kokai’s development who asked to remain anonymous. And it was indeed shown inside The Trade Desk’s DSP platform.
But the message doesn’t reflect TTD forcing agencies to adopt the Kokai interface, the source said.
Rather, the message was likely triggered because the media buyer’s agency or its parent holding company decided to switch to using Kokai for all new campaign creation, the source said.
However, the agency or holdco may not have made its decision known to all employees with TTD logins. So, if an account manager who was unaware of the switch tried to create a new campaign using Solimar, they would have seen that notification, the source said.
When an agency adopts Kokai, the source added, TTD does not make the decision to restrict new campaign creation in Solimar. Rather, they said, it is up to the agency to decide whether to allow account managers to continue to create new campaigns in Solimar or to have them use Kokai exclusively.
Agencies have their reasons for only allowing new campaign creation in Kokai, the source said. For example, Kokai’s AI-driven optimization looks at different data signals than Solimar. So, if an agency wanted to have a unified data set for all campaigns going forward, it makes sense to use one platform.
So, it’s likely the Redditor is working for an agency or an account that has made the shift to using Kokai exclusively, the source added.
The anonymous Reddit poster did not respond to multiple requests from AdExchanger to discuss the notification. We were unable to confirm the exact circumstances that led to them seeing the notification or whether their agency or client account recently decided to start using Kokai exclusively.
TTD declined to share any updates on the number of agencies using Kokai exclusively. The company instead pointed to its recent Q2 earnings report that said over 70% of client spend on TTD’s DSP is now using Kokai.
Choice analysis
The Reddit thread caused confusion among some industry insiders over whether TTD is mandating that agencies start using Kokai only.
A former media buyer who still works in ad tech and who asked to remain anonymous shared the Reddit post with AdExchanger out of apparent concern over conflicting messages about forced Kokai adoption.
AdExchanger asked the former media buyer to comment on the explanation we received for the notification posted in the Reddit thread. They said it’s plausible that a decision by an agency higher-up to switch to solely using Kokai was not communicated to all employees.
“If someone with oversight authorized the changeover, then it could roll downhill to other teams,” the former buyer said. But they added that they would be surprised if larger agencies or holdcos were shifting to using only Kokai across all accounts.
A different buy-side source who currently works for an ad agency and who also saw the Reddit thread said they have been able to continue to use Solimar for new campaign creation. This source, who also asked to remain anonymous, said that their agency has not transitioned to exclusively using Kokai.
But if the choice to switch to Kokai is truly up to ad agencies, then TTD faces some obstacles in its goal to reach full Kokai adoption by the end of this year, which remains unchanged according to the company’s Q2 earnings report. There is still a contingent of agency professionals who simply don’t like the new interface.
“The Trade Desk continues to be an industry leader, and many of Kokai’s features, such as OpenPath and SP500+, are a net positive for advertisers,” said David Nyurenberg, SVP of digital at InterMedia Advertising. “But I can’t stress enough how disruptive and anti-user the Kokai UI is, to a point where the additive friction outweighs the positives.”
Plus, some SSPs worry that, when advertisers buy through Kokai, TTD’s direct-to-publisher supply paths OpenPath and SP500+ are turned on by default, which could lead to the DSP self-preferencing its direct publisher deals. This move would cut out the SSPs.
But the source familiar with Kokai’s development told AdExchanger that agencies using Kokai have the choice to turn off SP500+ and buy through open exchange instead. However, agencies do have to decide between targeting a given group of ads to the entire open web or buying only the subset of publishers included in the SP500+, the source said.
Agencies can also configure what TTD calls a “blue list” if they only want to buy inventory from certain specific publishers, they added.
And rather than preferencing OpenPath, the source said, Kokai’s default mode is finding the most efficient supply path possible. However, they said, in cases where OpenPath is available as a connection to a publisher, it is probably the most efficient path.
“Kokai will consider all the other paths available and let AI find the most efficient path to every impression,” they said. “That’s what most of The Trade Desk’s customers are asking for.”
