Home The Big Story The Big Story: We’re Going On A Treasure Hunt

The Big Story: We’re Going On A Treasure Hunt

SHARE:
The Big Story podcast

It’s been a slow year for ad tech M&A.

But on Monday, DoubleVerify (DV) announced plans to acquire Paris-based AI startup Scibids (pronounced sigh-bids, which we sadly realized only after recording the episode) for $125 million. Scibids analyzes all of the data generated by an advertiser’s ad stack, including impression-level information, and uses AI to create custom algorithms for campaign optimization.

Why would DV make this move?

Ad tech Twitter has been bubbling with speculation that DV wants Scibids because it plans to launch its own DSP. But it wouldn’t make sense for DV to compete directly with DSPs and risk hurting those valuable established relationships.

Instead, the acquisition is likely yet another sign that DV has expanded beyond its ad verification and measurement roots to areas such as attention, targeting and prebid optimization.

“There’s been this push across the industry for attention to become a new currency for ad transactions,” says Associate Editor Anthony Vargas on this week’s episode of The Big Story.

If attention metrics eventually replace viewability measurement – which DV built its business on – the company would logically “want to own as much of the attention measurement market as it can,” Anthony says. Not to mention that attention is one way to infer ad outcomes in the absence of third-party cookies.

During the second half of the episode, we turn to how the rise of YouTube TV has resulted in CTV advertisers snagging top-shelf TV content, including ads running against the FIFA Women’s World Cup, at clearance rack prices.

It’s that feeling when you break out your metal detector on the beach and find treasure rather than trash.

But as our Senior Editor James Hercher explains, advertisers don’t care about prestige; they “just want cheap, targeted reach.”

Subscribe

AdExchanger Daily

Get our editors’ roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday.

Here’s a question for advertisers. What’s better: a precisely targeted ad based on your YouTube and Google search history or an ad that mimics the linear TV ad experience, like a commercial for your local Honda dealership or a Saul Goodman-type lawyer?

As James likes to say, sometimes the roughest thing you can do to somebody is hold up a mirror – and that’s what YouTube is doing to the TV industry.

Must Read

NYT’s Ad And Subscription Revenue Surge As WaPo Flails

While WaPo recently lost 250,000 subscribers due to concerns over its journalistic independence, NYT added 260,000 subscriptions in Q3 thanks largely to the popularity of its non-news offerings.

Mark Proulx, global director of media quality & responsibility, Kenvue

How Kenvue Avoided $3 Million In Wasted Media Spend

Stop thinking about brand safety verification as “insurance” – a way to avoid undesirable content – and start thinking about it as an opportunity to build positive brand associations, says Kenvue’s Mark Proulx.

Comic: Lunch Is Searched

Based On Its Q3 Earnings, Maybe AIphabet Should Just Change Its Name To AI-phabet

Google hit some impressive revenue benchmarks in Q3. But investors seemed to only have eyes for AI.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters

Reddit’s Ads Biz Exploded In Q3, Albeit From A Small Base

Ad revenue grew 56% YOY even without some of Reddit’s shiny new ad products, including generative AI creative tools and in-comment ads, being fully integrated into its platform.

Freestar Is Taking The ‘Baby Carrot’ Approach To Curation

Freestar adopted a new approach to curation developed by Audigent that gives buyers a priority lane to publisher inventory with higher viewability and attention scores than most open-auction inventory.

Comic: Header Bidding Rapper (Wrapper!)

IAB Tech Lab Made Moves To Acquire Prebid In 2021 – And Prebid Said No

The story of how Prebid.org came to be – and almost didn’t – is an important one for the industry.