PubMatic debuts Activate, as the line between demand- and sell-side players continues to blur
Supply-path optimization, or SPO, has been one of the key themes in ad tech in recent years, as demand for more efficiency sets in and the curtain closes on ad tech’s initial halcyon days.
The latest gambit in this trend is Pubmatic’s launch of Activate, an offering that promises advertisers a more direct route to market, and (equally) more revenue for publishers through the reduction of players in the supply chain.
Although, will the launch risk raising the ire of its demand-side platforms amid a series of moves that some interpret as an escalation of rivalry between traditional partners?
What’s new?
The supply-side platform has announced the launch of Activate, an offering that lets buyers “execute non-bidded direct deals on Pubmatic’s programmatic platform” to access video inventory, including connected TV.
Initial launch partners include media owners Fubo and LG Ads, with buy-side participants including Mars plus media agencies Dentsu, Havas and Omnicom in Germany, among others.
Pubmatic is positioning Activate as “a single layer of technology that directly connects buyers and sellers of digital media” via private marketplace or programmatic guaranteed deals made possible via its 2022 purchase of DSP Martin. This means that buyers can log in directly to the SSP and book their ad campaigns, a contrast to the more orthodox method of programmatic media buying via DSPs.
In a press release, Pubmatic CEO Rajeev Goel positioned the launch as its latest move to meet buyers’ and sellers’ demands for better pricing transparency in a sector of the market that has grown reliant on “outdated transaction methods.”
“We are significantly reducing the hops, discrepancies, data proliferation, opacity, and complexity in the programmatic marketplace,” he is quoted as saying. “This will result in higher ROI for buyers and increased revenue for publishers.”
The details …
In a conversation with Digiday, Goel claimed Activate represents the potential for $65 billion in incremental revenue for Pubmatic, which is scheduled to issue its first quarter earnings call on May 9.
“That’s $37 billion of CTV [ad buys] … and $28 billion of online videos that’s transacted via I/Os,” he said, adding that this latest launch is geared toward drawing more ad dollars into the programmatic ecosystem.
Per Pubmatic’s assessment, non-programmatic insertion orders accounted for approximately 60% of CTV and 30% of online video transactions in 2022, and as it looks to introduce Activate at the same time as rival SSP Magnite unveils a similar offering, how will it look to differentiate?
According to Goel, Activate differs from Magnite’s ClearLine — which similarly looks to appeal directly to media agencies, primarily through the use of its SpringServe ad server — as it has been designed to work with all publisher ad servers. “We view what we’re doing as much more applicable [to a more broad range of ad formats], and growing the programmatic pie for everyone in the market,” he said.
Additionally, Goel pointed out how the fragmentation of the ad server space in the CTV landscape — where there are four to five leading providers — …read more
Source:: Digiday
