Tag: Ad platform

Singapore – Following the company’s recent acquisition of global video advertising platform SpotX, sell-side advertising platform Magnite has announced a new roster of leaders for its Asia-Pacific team.

They include Gavin Buxton, who has been appointed managing director for Asia at Magnite Asia, and Yogesh Sehgal, who will assume the role of head of partner development at Magnite APAC.

Buxton will oversee the Magnite Asia team from Singapore, growing existing business and opportunities in emerging markets. Previously, he was the managing director for Asia at SpotX where he oversaw the business’ operations in Asia and Japan. He has over 20 years of global experience in digital advertising, having worked in leadership roles at technology, broadcasting and publishing companies, including Microsoft, Turner Broadcasting and LinkedIn, with the last ten years based in Asia building businesses. 

As a leading participant within industry trade associations including the IAB SEA and India and the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), Buxton also plays an active role in the growth and development of the advertising ecosystem across the region.

“I’m delighted to be leading our new Magnite team as we work to integrate our teams and technology. We’ll be focused on helping our clients grow their businesses across OTT and all other formats including video, display, and audio and connecting brands to reach audiences in premium, brand-safe environments,” Buxton said regarding his appointment.

Meanwhile, Sehgal will focus on developing opportunities in the region across identity, data, measurement, and other relevant areas to respond to local market needs. He will also work closely with Magnite’s account and product teams, ensuring the unique requirements of local publishers and media buyers are fulfilled – with an additional focus on new and emerging markets. 

Previously, Yogesh was the regional manager for Asia at Magnite and publisher lead for APAC at Rubicon Project. He brings 15 years of experience in the industry including working with Times Internet and Thomson Press.

Meanwhile, Juliette Stead will continue to lead Magnite across Asia Pacific and Japan in her role of senior vice president, head of JAPAC.

“With Gavin at the helm of Magnite’s business in Asia, the company is well-positioned to support media owners and media buyers in this market as they seek a scaled, independent alternative to the giants that often dominate the media landscape. Although OTT and online video are now as important to Magnite as ever, we are committed to the company’s roots as an omnichannel SSP: a tech partner that makes it easier for sellers to create a great ad experience for audiences, monetize all ad formats, and for buyers to reach engaged audiences all over the world,” Stead commented.

Tel Aviv, Israel – Global in-game advertising platform Anzu has announced a new global deal with media company Verizon Media to bring Anzu’s fully-blended in-game advertising to ad platforms hosted by Verizon Media.

Verizon Media has established itself as a forward-thinking media brand that provides its clients with access to next-generation advertising opportunities across established and emerging platforms and channels. Its already strong foothold in the gaming industry will be bolstered by the partnership with Anzu.

Through the deal, Verizon Media advertisers will benefit from Anzu’s exclusive partnership with popular game publishers such Vivid Games, Toplitz Productions, Axis Games, to name a few. Clients will also be able to connect in-game with Xbox gamers as Anzu is the only platform of its kind licensed under the Xbox Tools and Middleware program.

“Our new partnership with Verizon Media is a testament to Anzu’s platform and strengthens our position as a leader in the in-game advertising industry. We are pleased to welcome Verizon Media advertisers to our platform and provide them with exclusive opportunities to deliver their campaigns to a growing and receptive gaming audience,” said Yaniv Rozenweig, director of business operations at Anzu.

Meanwhile, Kristiana Carlet, VP for international sales at Verizon Media, commented that they have been always on the lookout for new partnerships that help connect their advertisers and media partners to premium, engaged audiences through creative campaigns and innovative context and formats.

“We see an increasing demand for in-game advertising opportunities from clients across our global markets. This partnership with Anzu continues to build out our strong gaming credentials, supplying our ecosystem with even more premium advertising opportunities,” Carlet said.

Just recently, It was announced that 90% of Verizon Media’s division had been acquired by investment management firm Apollo Global Management for roughly US$5b, and will be known as ‘Yahoo!’ following the closure of the deal. Meanwhile, Anzu has also been ramping up its operations, recently announcing its new partner in China, Chen Zeng, as well as forging partnerships with companies such as Eskimi and AdColony similarly to bring in-game advertising to a greater reach.

California, USA – Global ad platform Magnite has announced the conclusion of its acquisition of video ad platform SpotX, disclosed at an amount of US$640M in cash and 12,374,315 shares of Magnite stock.

Through the acquisition, both companies have created the largest independent connected TV (CTV) and video advertising platform, and reinforcing the company’s capabilities as linear TV budgets increasingly shift to digital, which works ideally for buyers and sellers that have long wanted a scaled, independent alternative to the giants that currently dominate the CTV marketplace.

Michael Barrett, president and CEO at Magnite, stated that scaling and reaching the largest possible audience is the name of the game when attracting the demand our CTV and video clients need, evident with the scale they have created with the recent acquisition.

“Acquiring SpotX positions us to become the world’s largest, independent source of highly-coveted CTV and video inventory. Two-thirds of our revenue is now concentrated in the fastest-growing segments of the market, and as linear TV dollars move to CTV, the greatest opportunity is still ahead of us,” Barrett stated.

Meanwhile, Mike Shehan, co-founder and CEO at SpotX, commented, “We’re thrilled to become a part of the Magnite family. CTV viewership and the ecosystem around it continues to evolve with new streaming services popping up every day and advertisers hoping to connect with those audiences.”

He added, “SpotX’s CTV business has experienced significant growth over the past year, and we believe our performance will only accelerate through this combination of resources by delivering even more value to our clients.”

Magnite, which now holds a large array of clients including A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Crackle, Discovery, FOX, among others, has also built a new Asia Pacific presence, as it announced last March the establishment of a new data center in Singapore.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – LMX, the supply-side arm of media company Moving Walls has partnered with Australia-based ad platform CAASie.co in accelerating automated and audience-driven out-of-home (OOH) advertising.

Through the collaboration, both companies are bringing their end-to-end OOH of home buying experience to SME and agencies. LMX will enable CAASie.co’s self-serve OOH marketplace and provide advertisers with global access to an inventory of more than 35,000 screens across Southeast Asia. 

LMX provides a full sales automation and delivery stack to OOH media owners and its supply-side platform (SSP) called ‘LMX Connect’ will be integrated with CAASie.co’s self-serve demand-side-platform (DSP) to enable flexible budgets and durations to SMEs and agencies buying OOH advertising.

CAASie.co is keen to bolster a fully self-serve digital OOH (DOOH) experience, making on-demand access to outdoor assets more flexible and accessible with a strong dedication to merging digital marketing and OOH advertising. The collaboration will allow both companies to scale their offerings across multiple markets and drive adoption of DOOH from buyers who have traditionally shied away from the format. 

For Srikanth Ramachandran, founder and CEO at Moving Walls, LMX’s prime objective since its establishment was to enable screen asset owners to connect to multiple DSPs while remaining in control of inventory allocation and pricing.

“CAASie.co’s vision of making audience data-driven media buying for OOH possible aligns with LMXs own vision. The partnership will connect Australian advertisers to LMX clients around the world, while opening doors for LMX to be adopted by Australian media asset owners,” Ramachandran stated.

Meanwhile, Jeff Jaraved, co-founder at CAASie.co, commented that the company had great success opening up access to out-of-home for both small businesses and agencies, as they believe that these folks have generally stuck to online digital formats for their marketing, almost entirely because outdoor was simply inaccessible to them.

“The fact that anyone can come in and self-serve their ads on the billboard or bus shelter down the street is huge. Our partnership with LMX allows us to tap into a whole new part of the globe, which I’m sure will be very exciting for our users,” Jaraved stated.

The Moving Walls group has recently established independent offerings for both the buy-side and the sell-side stakeholders. To advertisers and media agencies, they provide cloud-based planning and analytics for all forms of OOH media powered by a multi-sensor location data platform. To screen asset owners, LMX equips them with inventory management and sales automation tools.

Singapore – Sell-side advertising platform Magnite has announced the launch of a new data center in Singapore, which accompanies the company’s continuous growth in APAC.

The new data center is designed to support the rapid growth in digital advertising services across the region and reinforce Magnite’s global leadership in CTV and omnichannel digital advertising.

As Magnite co-locates its digital television plus (DV+) and connected television (CTV) platforms in Singapore, the new data center will help standardize the company’s operations and provide maximum efficiency for buyers and publishers. The investment also allows Magnite to provide the robust technical capabilities necessary to support increased traffic.

Furthermore, the larger unified data center in Singapore will enable Magnite to better service clients across APAC from India to Australia and Japan. With this step, publishers can expect better performance and new monetization opportunities, as well as increased capacity for inventory. The company expects buyers to see better campaign performance and delivery, and have increased access to new supply.

“Preparing our technological infrastructure in APAC will give Magnite a clear competitive advantage in better servicing our clients and ultimately improve results. By unifying and standardizing our omnichannel platform, we’ll be more agile, proactive, and efficient. Our tech stack needs to evolve with the demands of the industry and we have greater flexibility to scale our infrastructure in real-time as the business scales,” said Tom Kershaw, CTO of Magnite.

Meanwhile, Juliette Stead, head of APAC at Magnite commented the new Magnite data center is a response to the company’s expectation from the entire APAC region to enjoy continued growth and recognizing the importance of investing in the region for the benefit of their clients.

“Investing at scale to optimize our capabilities ensures we will be well-positioned to respond to change. We are also building out our Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure in Singapore to further support CTV growth – including live streaming. Now more than ever, we intend to be at the forefront of the strongest segment of industry growth for the foreseeable future, and ensure our infrastructure is equipped to accommodate these developments,” Stead stated.