Ad tech M&A is heating up again – specifically in connected TV land.
On Tuesday, TV-focused demand side platform Madhive announced its acquisition of Frequence, an omnichannel marketing platform with roots in broadcast TV. Both companies have a foothold with local advertisers.
Madhive’s vision is to become an end-to-end digital advertising hub for local businesses, including small and midsize businesses (SMBs), CEO Spencer Potts told AdExchanger. This ambition requires expanding beyond just TV and video, Potts said.
Frequence has omnichannel planning tools that Madhive lacks. Think of this acquisition as tying together Frequence’s front-end capabilities with Madhive’s back-end programmatic workflows, Potts said. This combination should help improve targeting and, in turn, campaign results, he said.
Frequence also expects its business will continue to grow under Madhive because the tech stacks are complementary, Frequence CEO Tom Cheli told AdExchanger.
Frequence’s roughly 350 employees brings Madhive’s headcount to nearly 600.
Moelis & Company acted as Frequence’s financial advisor for this transaction. Madhive declined to share a deal price.
An ode to omnichannel
This acquisition is an example of Madhive putting its money where its mouth is.
In an interview last year after the company secured a $300 million investment from Goldman Sachs, Potts alluded to Madhive making an acquisition by or in 2024.
Madhive also spent the past year pursuing more direct integrations with the sell side, which Frequence can help provide.
It has planning tools that both buyers and sellers use to plan local omnichannel campaigns. If, for example, a local coffee shop wants to reach more of its target audience within a certain number of miles, Frequence creates campaign plans with a media mix most likely to reach that audience.
And now that Frequence is under the Madhive umbrella, it can use first-party data for targeting via Madhive’s DSP in addition to third-party data, Cheli said.
This combination should improve the targeting and retargeting that Madhive can offer, Potts said. Madhive clients keep asking for omnichannel retargeting, he added, because CTV advertisers know that people are more likely to click on a display ad after hearing about a brand or product on TV.
Madhive already has a proprietary bidder that can connect to other types of inventory for audience extension, including display and social, Potts said. Until now, many of the brands that take this approach have also had to use other DSPs that specialize in those other inventory types.
Now, with Frequence on board, Madhive hopes more of its clients will centralize their cross-channel buys within Madhive, Potts said. Advertisers are increasingly trying to reduce the number of ad tech companies they work with.
Madhive adds to its roster
Beyond better serving existing clients, Madhive also wants to attract new advertisers.
Paired with better retargeting capabilities, incorporating more planning tools designed to pace smaller campaign budgets across channels should attract new SMBs and local advertisers that wouldn’t normally have the budget to try CTV, Potts said.
According to Potts, Madhive and Frequence have hardly any overlapping clients. But the plan is to generate more business from both new and existing clients.
Madhive runs more than 30,000 campaigns at any given moment, Potts said. “That’s a lot of relationships that [can become] bigger accounts.”
