Vendors have been disintermediating each other — not to mention disrupting the traditional role of media agencies — for years. But it’s always been something inferred, not explicitly stated by those companies. They would step on each other’s toes — but only so much.

Ari Paparo, CEO of Marketecture — the industry veteran’s latest venture geared toward helping clients make sense of ad tech’s shifting sands — explained some of the intricacies behind the historical “push-and-pull” that differentiates the business models of demand- and supply-side platforms. 

“They have different interests, the SSPs want as much listening and bidding [i.e. participation in an ad auction] as possible,” he said. “The DSPs want as little listening as possible because listening costs them money whereas bidding is what they want to do.”

For instance, last year The Trade Desk began implementing a renewed approach to supply-path optimization known as Global Placement ID, a trend that sources there expect its peers to emulate, not to mention its Open Path initiative.

This is in contrast to media agencies’ preference to build “beneficial relationships” with supply-side players that grant them either technical benefits when it comes to laying their hands on the most favored ad space. That or, straight up “financial benefits.” Paparo noted that many ad exchanges are starting to formalize “volume-buying discounts,” arrangements that don’t always sit well with DSPs.

Times change and conflicts intensify

But markets change. And when they do, companies either adapt or flounder. And with a slew of new ad tech companies traded on the open market in the last 18 months, the CEOs of such companies are now eyeing new revenue streams as a result.

Also, there’s too much money at stake now that more advertisers are moving more of the activation of their programmatic advertising to the sell side of the ecosystem where the sustainable data is. No surprise then that this is where the disintermediation is happening. Anyone with a big enough stake in programmatic advertising is trying to exert more influence over these parts of the market — even if it means encroaching on each other’s turf.

New entrants shift focus

Take Integral Ad Science, for example. It’s an ad verification firm at heart, but its latest move has it operating more like a large SSP.

Dubbed Total Visibility, IAS’ new tool sounds similar to what SSPs have been pushing to marketers in recent years. In …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron