Tag: Programmatic

United States – Pacvue, a commerce acceleration platform that integrates retail media, commerce management and measurement, has announced expanded access to its full range of Amazon DSP capabilities beyond North America, bringing Pacvue’s intelligent automation, reporting and optimization solutions to 16 countries across APAC, as well as LATAM and EMEA.

Through Pacvue, brands in these regions now have self-serve access to a full suite of programmatic media solutions to elevate their growth strategies. Markets in APAC who can have access to these solutions include Australia, India, Japan, and Singapore.

Previously, Pacvue’s Amazon DSP customers outside North America only had access to reporting capabilities. Now, advertisers in these regions are able to leverage the Pacvue platform to reach Amazon Ads audiences via Amazon DSP. This expansion includes campaign creation and management, budget, bid and dayparting automation controls.

With this rollout, Pacvue has introduced several new features for customers in expanded regions. These include a combined dashboard for Amazon Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP, providing a unified view of campaign performance. 

Additionally, AMC audience creation enables seamless transitions from insights to action by directly integrating with Amazon DSP campaigns. To enhance automation, Pacvue offers tools like dayparting, which allows for precise optimisations throughout the day, as well as automated budget management to control monthly and daily spending without requiring manual oversight. 

Lastly, advanced reporting and analytics, powered by Amazon Ads performance data and Pacvue’s cutting-edge technology, provide deeper insights to drive better advertising outcomes.

Melissa Burdick, president and co-founder at Pacvue, said, “Our partners around the globe have been eagerly awaiting access to Amazon DSP tools, so we’re excited to be among the first platforms to unlock these new capabilities for them. Access to Amazon DSP tools brings greater capabilities and reach for advertisers in these regions, as well as opportunities for growth from a wider variety of ad types, channels and audiences.”

Singapore – Magnite has announced it has strengthened its partnership with Samsung Ads to power programmatic advertising on Samsung TV Plus inventory in Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand for the first time. 

Through this expanded partnership, advertisers now have programmatic access to premium video inventory on Samsung’s free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service, Samsung TV Plus, which went live across the Southeast Asia region late last year.

Samsung TV Plus is currently available on millions of Samsung Smart TVs across Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand. The built-in streaming service delivers free, instant access to a wide range of live TV channels spanning entertainment, news, movies and more. 

Fan-favourites including MythBusters, Survivor, Deal or No Deal and Red Bull TV are some of the first channels to arrive on the new platform, with more global and local channels launching in early 2025. Through this new partnership, advertisers will be able to programmatically access Samsung TV Plus’ premium, and growing, in-stream inventory for the first time.

Gavin Buxton, managing director for Asia at Magnite, said, “The powerful combination of Smart TV adoption and increased consumption of ad-supported streaming content in Southeast Asia represents a significant market opportunity. Samsung is uniquely positioned to capitalise upon this transformation, and we are excited to expand our relationship with them. We look forward to working with Samsung to drive results as they leverage our leading streaming technology to help streamline programmatic activation of premium inventory on Samsung TV Plus.”

Meanwhile, Alex Spurzem, managing director at Samsung Ads Southeast Asia and Oceania (SEAO), commented, “Launching our FAST service, as well as native and in-stream ads, in just 12 months reflects the huge opportunity we see in the region. Seven in ten TV viewers already watch ad-supported streaming content and our FAST service gives advertisers a new way to reach this audience. As we scale Samsung TV Plus, Magnite will play a pivotal role by making it programmatically available to brands and agencies across multiple Southeast Asia countries.”

New York, USA – Global independent sell-side advertising company and LG Ad Solutions have announced a renewal of their global relationship, spanning North America, APAC, and EMEA. The partnership achieved substantial growth over the past two years which saw LG Ad Solutions’ programmatic spend grow significantly on the Magnite Streaming SSP.

Magnite and LG Ad Solutions are continuing their collaboration and connecting to high-quality demand sources to unlock efficiencies for buyers. Advertisers can now use Magnite’s ClearLine self-service solution to directly access and purchase premium video inventory with full transparency and control. 

Through ClearLine, they can apply LG’s proprietary first-party data to LG’s supply and will be able to utilize unique ad formats on the LG Home Screen in the first half of next year—marking the first time these formats are available in the programmatic ecosystem. 

Moreover, LG Ad Solutions is leveraging Magnite’s SpringServe ad server to power several new activations, including its webOS all-in-one smart platform. This combination delivers an all-in-one smart platform enabling the delivery of highly tailored ad experiences that align with viewers’ preferences and improve the overall TV experience. 

This expanded capability within LG’s webOS ecosystem allows advertisers to reach audiences on a global scale through a highly immersive and seamless ad format.

Mike Laband, SVP of platform revenue at Magnite, said, “We’re excited to embark on the next phase of our relationship with LG Ad Solutions and build on the great success we’ve achieved to date. The LG team has been supportive of new ideas and testing new technology which is always a huge help when it comes to bringing novel solutions to market. We look forward to continuing to grow the partnership globally and raising the bar for ad-supported video advertising.” 

Meanwhile, Kelly McMahon, SVP of global operations at LG Ad Solutions, commented, “Our partnership with Magnite has been essential in delivering high-quality, seamless ad experiences to our viewers, and this next phase brings even more potential. With the deeper integration of Magnite’s ad-serving technology across our CTV footprint, we’re enhancing ad relevance even further and enriching the connection between brands and their audiences.”

Singapore – Haleon has chosen Vistar Media as its preferred partner for programmatic OOH across all key markets. Through this partnership, Vistar will collaborate with Publicis, Haleon’s media agency, to power OOH campaigns worldwide—leveraging Vistar’s advanced technology to maximise impact and media efficiency.

Haleon’s decision to select Vistar as their preferred partner underscores the strategic importance of DOOH in their media strategy. By leveraging Vistar’s industry-leading demand-side platform (DSP), Haleon can execute data-driven, highly personalised DOOH campaigns at scale, ensuring their commitment to quality, transparency and sustainability is reflected in every market. 

This partnership marks a significant milestone in Haleon’s continued investment in premium, impactful media channels.

This collaboration reflects Haleon’s ongoing efforts to ensure greater control over its media investments, aligning with its quality media initiative. Vistar’s programmatic OOH capabilities, combined with Publicis’ global success, enable Haleon to deliver impactful campaigns while maintaining its sustainability goals. With OOH recognised as one of the most carbon-efficient media channels, this partnership supports Haleon’s drive to reduce the environmental footprint of its advertising efforts.

This partnership also allows Haleon to elevate their global media presence, ensuring their brands connect with consumers across a dynamic and premium OOH environment, powered by Vistar Media’s programmatic capabilities.

Brook Minto, global investment director of marketing edge at Haleon, said, “Haleon is always seeking the best ways to connect with consumers while staying true to our sustainability mission. Partnering with Vistar Media lets us push boundaries in digital out-of-home advertising, combining innovation with purpose. Their expertise and cutting-edge technology empower us to elevate the quality of our media investments globally, in a way that truly aligns with our values.”

Meanwhile, Ben Baker, managing director for APAC at Vistar Media, commented, “We’re incredibly proud to be selected as Haleon’s global partner for programmatic OOH. It’s exciting to see this partnership amplify the impact of iconic brands like Panadol and Voltaren, both essentials in our lives. At Vistar, we’re all about leveraging technology to connect brands with people in meaningful ways, at the right moment and in the right place. Working alongside Haleon and Publicis, we’re ready to deliver campaigns that are not only innovative but also resonate deeply with consumers across Southeast Asia and the globe.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – Telkom Indonesia, through its Metra Digital Media (MDMedia) subsidiary, has announced the launch of its ‘programmatic advertising platform which will leverage telco data to deliver more targeted digital ads.

The new platform, called ‘AdXelerate,’ is a demand-side platform (DSP) service that enables digital advertisers to buy ads more quickly and automatically match them for optimum placement across multiple publishers.

According to Telkom Indonesia, another advantage of the ‘AdXelerate’ service is the ability to optimise ads directly in real-time and based on performance, thus providing flexibility and efficiency for advertisers. 

In addition, said DSP platform also provides the advantage of a re-targeting process by sharpening the segmentation of the target audience through a big data analytic learning process that can increase conversions according to the advertiser’s expected goals. 

In terms of data security, this platform is designed with the main priority of compliance with privacy regulations that refer to the Personal Data Protection Act.

During the platform’s launch, Arif Prabowo, president director at MDMedia said the platform also benefits by using datasets from Telkom’s fixed and mobile operations.

“This service can help advertisers face modern challenges in today’s digital marketing by analysing insights from diverse telco data. Through the use of AdXelerate, advertisers can provide optimal, effective, and efficient results,” Prabowo said.

Meanwhile, Honesti Basyir, business development director at Telkom Group, commented, “AdXelerate is the result of Telkom Group’s collaboration between MDMedia and Telkomsel which is able to accelerate advertising promotions from customers to be more targeted and efficient through the application of big data analytics.”

Singapore – Kargo has announced the launch of its new proprietary service ‘CORE’ (Create Once, Run Everywhere) in APAC. This solution is built on creative science and empowers advertisers to easily use their creative assets across screens for seamless campaign performance at scale. 

A combination of creativity and technology, CORE empowers brands to reach their audience at the right time, in the right environment, and on the right screen. Kargo originally launched CORE in APAC for video and has now expanded the offering with a cross-screen enhanced pre-roll that runs across mobile, tablet, desktop, OTT and CTV. 

Kargo is also adding creative capabilities including its popular mobile-only ad formats, such as Runway for desktop and tablet with adhesion, in-article, and outstream formats to follow. This means that advertisers can now create once and run enhanced video and display ad formats seamlessly on both desktop and mobile devices, maximising efficiency and impact.

As well as driving creative consistency, Kargo CORE has a range of other benefits including easy activation through direct PMP and programmatic guaranteed channels. Brands can also get extended reach on their preferred device with the ability to retarget users with a personalised experience to build stronger brand-customer relationships. 

Lastly, Kargo’s offering enables brands to optimise campaigns and analyse performance to ensure resources are directed to the most effective channels, reducing waste.

Robert Leach, general manager for APAC at Kargo, said, “According to IPSOS 75% of a campaign’s success is driven by creativity. But as consumers flip through devices, maintaining cross-screen consistency with memorable ads is a necessity. So, given the high costs and lengthy turnaround times, how can brands tackle this task? The answer lies with Kargo’s newly expanded CORE creative suite.

He added, “Advertisers in APAC will see higher performance against their goals with our CORE offering, which makes it easy to run creative from a single campaign across different channels and screens. Our creative science innovation provides the perfect combination of automation and innovation to help advertisers cut through the clutter and achieve success.”

The original vision was simple: Programmatic technology was introduced to solve challenges of scale and efficiency across the open internet. DSPs arose to facilitate and optimize all aspects of buying, and SSPs were introduced to facilitate and optimize all aspects of selling. We are still operating within this overly simplistic, category-based view of the digital advertising supply chain, and it’s time to put the days of ‘one-size-fits-all’ behind us.

While the current construct has been great for some companies, particularly those operating within a walled garden context that can use this dichotomy structure to validate their control of the entire tech stack, others in the ecosystem should think about whether they have actually benefited from this model. Rethinking the supply chain will create new opportunities for differentiation and value creation, all while better aligning with the needs of publishers and advertisers and creating a more sustainable ecosystem.

Programmatic is now being applied to a growing number of use cases. Buyers and sellers of digital media should no longer be limited to the previously identified set of constraints. They need the ad tech ecosystem to evolve to put their needs where they always should have been—at the center of tech solutions.

It’s time to cast aside the buckets—and the corresponding terminology—we’ve been using for programmatic technology. Rather than thinking about the alphabet soup of company types, such as DSPs, DMPs, CDPs and SSPs, we should instead start thinking in terms of supply chain components, including:

  • Media planning
  • Dynamic bidding
  • Audience ingestion
  • Audience targeting
  • Audience matching
  • Bidder management
  • Outcomes delivery
  • Inventory curation

By shifting to a capabilities versus a business model mindset, we see how the programmatic ecosystem can accommodate a wider array of use cases—a pivot that is long overdue in today’s dynamic digital ecosystem.

Expanding Use Cases, Expanding Capabilities

As programmatic advertising embraces its next evolution—one in which we pivot from delivering on efficiency alone to delivering true customization and added value—the way in which we think about the ad tech stack is going to shift, both in terms of the use cases accommodated by programmatic, as well as how traditional programmatic media buys are executed. Consider:

Open Market Media Buy

In an open market programmatic buy, advertisers aim to reach their target audience for a set CPM. While this typically includes traditional DSP and SSP capabilities, to bid and scale campaigns effectively we are seeing buyers evolve their supply chains amid increased signal loss. As the ecosystem has shifted away from cookies and other identifiers, the buy side has been feeling the impact in terms of audience matching capabilities. As a result, some buyers shifted audience onboarding and targeting to the sell side, where they’re finding better results. Which begs the question: Do our traditional notions of the supply and demand sides of the equation still hold up?

Maximum Monetization

Publishers should also think about their supply chains and how they can best leverage various technical components to achieve their objectives. Depending on a publisher’s demand strategy, their ideal ad stack setup may differ. One CTV publisher might lean on programmatic technology to automate a successful direct IO business, while another might add a wrapper to their supply chain to unify bidding across multiple SSPs and exchanges. All publishers are not created equal, and their supply chains should not be either.

Commerce and Retail Media

Finally, let’s not neglect the immense impact that the growth of commerce and retail media platforms is having on the programmatic industry. These days, retailers might find themselves in the role of an advertiser, a data owner and a media owner, and programmatic ad tech should be equipped to switch hats right alongside the retailer as needed. In other words, success in commerce and retail media requires a consolidated tech offering featuring a complex set of capabilities that have historically existed across multiple company types. As the programmatic ecosystem evolves to address this increasingly important use case, we will likely find that the traditional constructs are suboptimal.

The simple fact is that publishers and advertisers can each have countless different use cases when it comes to their business needs and advertising objectives. They shouldn’t have to shoehorn these needs into a static, one-size-fits-all tech solution. This is 2023. Programmatic has come a long way and should be expected to adapt to the needs of the customers it serves, not the other way around.

Learn more about the new opportunities in the digital supply chain of the future in our new report.

This article is written by Sudipto Das, Vice President, Advertiser Solutions, APAC at PubMatic.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023-2024. What’s NEXT 2023-2024 is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.

The programmatic supply chain needs to evolve to accommodate economic pressures, privacy regulations, and the push for greater buyer control of media budgets. To help media buyers across Asia Pacific meet these challenges, PubMatic launched Activate. With a single layer of technology, Activate removes inefficiencies in the programmatic supply chain – including the operational inefficiencies of direct-deal setups – and creates more value for buyers and sellers overall.

We believe the supply chain of the future must provide for the independence, interoperability, control, choice, and transparency that both buyers and sellers require. If the programmatic supply chain were created today — specially for direct deal and private deal opportunities — it would look vastly different. It would be much more efficient if buyers could transact programmatically closer to the inventory source. And that is why we are bringing Activate to the marketplace, to bridge the automation of programmatic with the control of direct.

PubMatic is in a unique position to bring this solution to market because we have well-established sell-side technology that was complemented with our 2022 acquisition of media measurement and reporting platform, Martin. We have now built a layer of technology which brings the publisher and buyer sides together with the same levels of interoperability and flexibility that we build into our entire suite of software solutions.

Activate taps into our entire publisher inventory pool of omnichannel video inventory, including CTV and high-value online video, giving buyers greater control and efficiency with fewer hops. Activate is built for a sustainable and responsible media chain and includes a unified SPO platform, which is designed to bring publishers and buyers closer together. Thanks to fee efficiencies, we anticipate more working media for our publisher customers, which has been a frequent request.

Learn more about how we are building the digital advertising supply chain of the future.

This article is written by Sudipto Das, Vice President, Advertiser Solutions, APAC at PubMatic.

This post is done in partnership with PubMatic.

India – Dentsu Programmatic has announced the launch of ‘Dentsu Curate’, a strategic programmatic supply solution, in India. Said solution enables advertisers to target premium and brand-safe inventory, allowing them to bring better performance leading to high operational efficiency for all campaigns.

In addition, the solution aims to improve media quality by consolidating supply and involving deeper integrations with tech platforms and data partners.

Dentsu Curate is built on dentsu international’s global clean supply initiative. The programmatic supply solution guides advertisers in buying digital inventory across media on behalf of dentsu X, Carat, and iProspect in a brand-safe and fraud-free environment.

This is done through robust evaluation mechanisms, with industry-leading partnerships offering high-quality premium supply coupled with supply path optimisation modelling.

Speaking on the launch, Divya Karani, South Asia chief executive officer for media at dentsu said, “Dentsu Curate offers our clients’ assurance and trust in maximising fraud-free, brand safe, and viewable inventory. Dentsu’s ability to fulfil these assurances entails working with the right supply partners with robust solutions and value to ensure clean supply in building a marketplace for our advertisers.”

Through Dentsu Curate, clients can once again get control by building up their bespoke marketplace across Display, Mobile, CTV, DOOH, and native. India’s fragmented landscape in OTT and growing CTV as with this solution they can curate across publishers but drive a certain campaign objective of video or viewability. It allows them the flexibility to have control across their inventory via multiple parameters such as third-party audiences, context, inventory type, among others.

Salil Shanker, chief operating officer at Dentsu Programmatic said, “At dentsu, we are committed to investing our brand dollars to deliver maximum efficiency and efficacy whilst safeguarding brand legacy. With the launch of Dentsu Curate, we are equipped to help enable great value and outcomes for our clients and support a fair marketplace.” 

Meanwhile, Saagar Sethi, president at Amplifi India commented, “It is all about finding the right mixture of quality publishers and partners that align with our defined quality KPIs. Our Inventory Superiority Mechanism is used to analyse the quality of a publisher across a variety of our trusted partners. With Dentsu Curate we safeguard transparency on the overall media operations.”

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Digital entertainment and media platform Azerion has acquired programmatic agency and trading desk Hybrid Theory, which specialises in mid and lower funnel campaigns.

The acquisition allows Azerion to open a new footprint for the company in the US, and the broader APAC market.

Hybrid Theory’s technology delivers a hybrid approach that connects data intelligence with human nuance, understanding, and creativity, to power smarter advertising across the full customer journey.

Through the acquisition, Azerion will integrate Hybrid Theory’s custom-built technology offering of solutions, hands-on support and independent managed execution. Hybrid Theory’s strength in data will allow Azerion to build and target detailed audience segments, proving effective for brands at acquiring new customers.

In addition, Azerion will strengthen its position in the UK, US, and the broader APAC market to deliver and work with their advertisers and publishers in collaborative and hybrid ways, bridging the gap between in-housing and outsourcing for brands and agencies. 

Umut Akpinaar, co-CEO of Azerion, said, “I am pleased to announce the acquisition of Hybrid Theory by Azerion. This acquisition will provide Azerion with enhanced skills and capabilities to manage advertiser campaign performance. We are confident that Hybrid Theory’s market-leading data capabilities will provide Azerion with the best-in-class technology to power better and smarter data-driven advertising potential to our advertisers and publishers.” 

He added, “As such, this acquisition is a perfect fit to our growing portfolio and we are excited to harness the power of data and create tailored ads to give our audiences the best experience on our platform.”

Meanwhile, Patrick Johnson, CEO of Hybrid Theory, said, “Joining the Azerion Group allows us to continue to deliver on our ambitions through far greater global scale and linkages between our technology and the Azerion platform. Hybrid Theory’s unique capabilities in data now have the addition of proprietary first party data at scale, which coupled with Azerion’s branding capabilities provide an unparalleled linkage with our performance heritage.” 

He added, “At the same time, Azerion’s culture is also a fantastic match of client-focused entrepreneurial thinking to deliver industry-leading results. We are thrilled to be joining the Azerion team.”

Azerion recently announced a tie-up with advertising platform Right Thing Media to allow advertisers to deliver campaigns with social impact messaging inside its portfolio of in-game advertising and high-impact inventory across APAC.