Tag: Magnite

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.

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.

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.

Hong Kong – Out-of-home media company Asiaray has partnered up with adtech The Trade Desk and advertising platform Magnite in offering a programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) transactional platform to ease up DOOH media trade across online and offline platforms, benefiting marketers in the process.

The newest partnership is in line with Asiaray’s ongoing Offline and Online New Media Strategy, which seeks creating connection between offline DOOH media and programmatic advertising.

With Magnite’s omnichannel sell-side advertising platform, Asiaray will be able to advertise DOOH billboards in Hong Kong via The Trade Desk, which then provides marketers additional media buying options as well as creating a new channel for Asiaray to reach out to potential online marketers worldwide.

“Given the proliferate growth of DOOH, we are delighted to have secured new programmatic cooperation with two of the world’s major adtech players – Magnite and The Trade Desk. This campaign makes a key milestone for Asiaray’s Offline and Online New Media Strategy, which created a strong connection between offline DOOH media and online advertisement buying,” said Vincent Lam, founder, chairman and executive director of Asiaray.

He also added, “What is more, the cooperation will provide us a chance to reach out to a different group of usual online advertisers, thus to expand our clientele and eventually expand the Group’s penetration in the market. Looking ahead, Asiaray will continue to work closely with our partners to develop even more effective media solutions for advertisers to generate greater value for the campaign.”

The new partnership also entails facilitating advertisers with technology supporting audience segmentation and verification measurement to adopt a flexible way for buying and to help brands to deliver a more targeted, unified and holistic experience to consumers.

“This campaign shows the immense possibilities for buyers when combining a high impact format like DOOH with the automated buying of Programmatic Guaranteed, which still allows flexible targeting but guarantees access to premium inventory. We are proud to have worked with our partners to facilitate this important milestone, and look forward to running more campaigns in the near future,” said Yogesh Sehgal, country manager for Magnite Asia.

On the other hand, Doug Choy, senior director for inventory partnerships at The Trade Desk, said, “In this world of new technologies, programmatic buying in advertising is certainly a growing trend, and The Trade Desk is delighted to partner with Asiaray and Magnite to introduce our first offline media resources. Marketers now have the opportunity to access inventory for DOOH billboards in Hong Kong through our platform, thereby helping them achieve their greater business objectives. In all, we are very excited in our continued partnership with Asiaray as we help advertisers shift to programmatic buying.”