Tag: PubMatic

Singapore – Jona Oboza, formerly the APAC senior director of client strategy at Xaxis, has joined adtech PubMatic as its country manager for Southeast Asia and Korea, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In her previous role at Xaxis, she was responsible for the company’s business management, programmatic media buying, and new business development in the region. She also previously served as Xaxis’ general manager in Taiwan, where she led the accelerated transformation in client development, innovation, and operations excellence of GroupM Taiwan’s performance media and programmatic business.

Her other previous roles included head of digital integration and innovation at Publicis Media and head of performance at Omnicom Media Group (OMG), as well as associate director at Innity.

PubMatic recently published a playbook in October this year, where it laid out strategies on how mobile app publishers can capture increased brand spend.

Singapore – Digital adtech company PubMatic has recently launched a new playbook which lays out strategies for mobile app publishers in the Asia-Pacific region on how to capture increased brand spend.

Titled ‘ The Brand Opportunity Playbook’, the new PubMatic playbook explains benefits of leveraging brand spend for mobile app publishers in APAC and identifies key challenges publishers must solve in order to capture spend.

Publishers can find insights into the opportunities and challenges presented by increased brand advertising interest in mobile app, including an overview of the trends driving in-app advertising and brand spend, key challenges and opportunities for app publishers today, among others.

“Mobile in-app has long been associated with delivering short-term performance goals, however as more consumers migrate onto apps, brand advertisers are increasingly embracing the channel to deliver long-term business goals, including brand objectives,” PubMatic said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Lashanne Phang, senior director for mobile at PubMatic, said, “Digital brand ads do what traditional advertising was built to do – be memorable, change opinions, and stay with users long after they see the ad. Unlike direct response or performance ads, brand ads require no action from the user, which means publishers can benefit from ad revenue without users having to navigate away from their app.”

Phang added, “But to access global brand demand, it is important for publishers understand brand advertisers’ expectations and to work with an SSP partner that has strong relationships and access to key media buyers in the desired markets.”

California, USA – Programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic has announced a series of major enhancements in OpenWrap, the company’s unified auction solution for publishers. These recent enhancements aim to give publishers, including app developers, increased flexibility and improved performance with omnichannel and platform-specific enterprise-grade developer customisation. 

OpenWrap gives publishers more control over their programmatic advertising business. It is built on the open-source Prebid codebase, which provides publishers greater control, transparency, and innovation. With its new features, sellers can now clearly examine and activate the levers that contribute to delivering incremental performance.

PubMatic said that it has released a suite of enhanced capabilities to create value across the web, CTV/OTT, and mobile app. All publishers and developers leveraging OpenWrap will now gain yield improvements, such as floors designed to increase revenue, ad refresh at no cost, and levers that lift CPMs while maintaining fill. They will also have an upgraded management API, where they can customise OpenWrap to better fit the tech stack, and gain access to new automation and API options that add flexibility. And lastly, they will also gain enhanced analytics, which provides a holistic, data-visualised, and real-time view of their ad business. 

Additionally, OpenWrap has released new capabilities that deliver platform-specific benefits, including allowing web publishers to utilise more than 40 Prebid modules to leverage multiple, third-party-developed technology with efficient and unbiased integration, and enabling mobile app developers to seamlessly integrate with the top mobile mediation providers, leveraging OpenWrap’s SDK to gain access to PubMatic’s global brand demand, as well as giving OTT publishers the benefit from in-line bidding, capturing the full power of a unified auction that connects with third-party ad servers.

John Martin, director of OpenWrap at PubMatic, shared that OpenWrap is first and foremost a performance solution built for publishers and app developers, and they know every publisher’s business is different.

“We believe in open, flexible technology that enables total control and interoperability for every publisher, regardless of their inventory mix or monetisation strategy. Our recent enhancements build on this foundation, delivering higher performance, more nuanced capabilities and richer insights to ensure publishers maximise the value of their inventory and audiences,” said Martin.

Digital advertising spend has increased, and is forecasted to grow even further. Dentsu forecasts that ad spending globally will grow by 8.7%, and that around US$738.5b will be spent worldwide this July. As part of that growth, tech companies are very eager to dip into the adtech industry, as well as improve business performance within other adtech companies.. Data from WARC suggests that globally-recognised Big Tech companies will take up about 10.0% of all worldwide ad investment by 2030.

However, as much as there is activity within the adtech industry, companies are on the brink of losing more investment, ranging from factors such as waste of ad expenditure, online misleading content, and ad fraud. These reasons, in turn, become some of the biggest issues within the adtech space, with the large majority of adtech companies rely on third-party data to carry out their advertising strategies. This is evident with the fact that Google has delayed (once again) the phasing out of third-party cookies by 2024, after being previously delayed to 2023. 

And while third-party cookies remain a dominant feature of brands’ success in the adtech scene, there is a rising trend of using alternative ways to improve their digital advertising, from use of zero-party data and contextual targeting to identity solutions.

In our newest The Inner State industry deep-dive, we spoke with three adtech industry leaders: Peter Barry, vice president of addressability at PubMatic; Kenneth Pao, executive managing director at Criteo for Asia-Pacific; and Travis Teo, executive director and co-founder at Adzymic–to learn more about their insights on the current state of the adtech industry–what needs to be changed, and how they envision the industry for the future.

On Changing Adtech Trends: How Do Industry Leaders Perceive It?

Following the changes on Google’s Sandbox Privacy and Apple’s IDFA policies, Teo commented that investment into digital advertising is becoming more industry-specific and sensitive to the macro environment.

“We see shifting of spend into performance related media due to general downtrend of public stock markets, but pockets of industries like travel and entertainment are increasing in spend. Right now, we didn’t see changes in third-party cookies or Apple IDFA, affecting the spends, but we do see advertisers starting to ask questions around these topics,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Pao commented that through these changes, they were able to trigger their efforts to find new ways to engage with consumers, as well as diversify their approach away from retargeting for the benefits of both their clients and consumers. This includes introducing commerce media solutions.

“The approach combines commerce data and intelligence to target consumers throughout their shopping journey and help marketers and media owners drive commerce outcomes. Through this, both marketers and media owners can activate their first-party data and inventory, and package this for advertisers to drive commerce outcomes,” Pao stated.

Delaying Third-Party Cookies: Should We Debate or Move On?

When asked about their perspectives regarding the recent delays made by Google on phasing out third-party cookies, all three agreed that the adtech industry should move towards an ‘open internet’ where consumers’ data sharing preferences are protected in addition to combining data and advertising to create richer online experiences for consumers. 

“As we move towards an addressable media future, Criteo will focus on enabling marketers to manage, scale, and engage their audiences, while empowering media owners to fully utilise their first-party customer data through our commerce media platform strategy,” Pao said.

Meanwhile, Teo noted that there is already a certain fatigue with regards to this topic of cookie deprecation, and that there are more topics within the adtech space marketers and advertisers should talk about.

“At the same time, the industry should move on amidst the uncertainty, and chart its own path forward, instead of relying on Google Alternative. It may be painful initially but will reap the benefits in the future,”

Furthermore, Barry noted that delaying cookie deprecation doesn’t slow their innovation, development and commitment to customers to deliver results for advertisers and publishers.

“It is not good for competition and a healthy open internet when one company makes the digital publishing and advertising world uncertain about what moves to make; the industry should welcome a move away from any one company holding all the cards and should continue to act proactively. The industry should not use this delay to stall; instead this should only encourage us to work faster,” he explained.

Barry also added, “The industry must continue to work together and test privacy-first solutions that will enable safe, data-driven advertising into the future – this news just gives the industry more time to refine technical approaches and drive greater adoption prior to the transition. The move away from third-party cookies is in line with broader global trends around consumer data protection.”

The Big Question: Is Adtech ‘Dying’?

All of the adtech leaders have agreed that the industry isn’t dying after all, but rather advertisers and marketers alike should use the foundational tools and services they have within the traditional adtech space to develop new services that will transition the industry to a more privacy-centric future. 

Teo explains, “I believe the industry will continue to thrive and adapt. We are seeing innovative solutions coming up from various partners in the industry – too many in fact, and the downside is that it can lead to confusion from brands and agencies to understand which offerings can best suit their needs.”

Meanwhile, Pao stated that instead of staying reluctant to prepare for the future of addressability, they should view this as an opportunity to explore innovative tools that can empower them to build up a stronger first-party data management strategy. 

“Rather than viewing the evolution of consumer data privacy as a conflict to existing adtech offerings, adtech firms need to understand that tech tools serve simply as means to the end-goal of helping marketers and advertisers meet consumers’ evolving needs. Hence, as the adtech landscape evolves, the priority for adtech companies remains the same – to help marketers manage, scale, and engage audiences.”

Lastly, Barry said that there is importance in recognising that the deprecation of third-party cookies is in line with broader global trends around consumer data protection, as well as that updates like it should not pause the industry’s work to find new and better ways to deliver relevant advertising to consumers.

“Simply said: we can best serve digital publishers if advertisers get strong ROI from programmatic channels. A focus on helping publishers and brands get the best out of their digital advertising in a cookieless environment will ensure that our solutions remain relevant and useful,” he explains.

What Alternative Solutions Adtech Players Are Utilising?

As adtech leaders become more mindful with the ongoing changes within their industry towards a more privacy-centric one, companies are introducing more alternative strategies to materialise their objectives of veering away from their traditional third-party data-reliant services.

For PubMatic, Barry describes the launch of the company’s ‘Connect’ solution, which ensures publishers and advertisers that could thrive in a world without third party cookies.

“We also launched ‘Identity Hub’ a few years ago, providing a seamless transition from third-party cookies to consumer opt-in based first-party identity, which improves ad personalisation for consumers and provides higher ROI for advertisers,” he said.

Meanwhile over at Criteo, Pao says they are continuing to invest in the growth of their first-party data powered ‘Commerce Media’ solutions, including their ‘Retail Media’ offerings. According to him, they aim to build a unified platform and data source for marketers and media owners that will enable responsible addressable media for the future.

“Over the past couple of years, our solutions have grown to span the entire consumer commerce journey, from discovering brands and products for the first time to ensuring the best opportunities for a sale, to making each subsequent visit more profitable and privacy-safe,” Pao said.

He also added, “Ultimately, we’re using innovative adtech tools to remain laser focused on meeting our end-goal – helping marketers and media owners work with consumers to create a transparent and vibrant open internet for all stakeholders.”

So, What’s Next for the Adtech Industry?

The addressable media and more involvement from more brands tapping into the adtech space: these are the factors adtech leaders see as the future of the adtech industry. For context, addressable media is defined as the type of advertising that connects brands with individual consumers across multiple online advertising platforms, social media, OTT (over the top) content providers, and smart TV platforms.

“The future of adtech will continue to be bright and at the same time getting more competitive and more fragmented. You can see that big global companies like Netflix, Disney, Apple, and regional players like Grab, Carousell are aggressively entering the adtech fray, each offering their own media and data solutions,” Teo explains.

Pao also agrees with this, stating that it is time that we see these changes as opportunities to test new methods for engaging consumers online and approach them with an open mind as the industry moves towards an addressable future in an open internet.

“Four in ten [brands] [in APAC] say their current marketing practices rely on third-party cookies, and that they’re concerned about the elimination of third-party cookies. Brands and marketers should prioritise building up their first-party data strategies and invest in solutions throughout commerce media platforms to help analyse and execute data-driven consumer engagement. Only then can they remain future-proof as the industry evolves.”

Meanwhile, Barry notes that the future of adtech is evident with both publishers and advertisers moving away from walled gardens because they aren’t aware of what’s going on with their investments on those platforms.

“We know there is more change to come as the programmatic industry grapples with the future of identity, and buyers access a much wider array of inventory. We, too, will continue to innovate and evolve to maximise control and value to both publishers and media buyers. This is only the beginning of the next phase of programmatic,” Barry stated.

Sydney, Australia – Programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic has partnered with audience intelligence platform AlikeAudience to enable advertisers in Indonesia to access quality audience data on the supply side.

Aside from Indonesia, the partnership is also for key markets Australia and Japan. It aims to expand the reach of Connect, PubMatic’s differentiated audience solution that leverages addressable signals from across the internet to help data owners drive monetisation and help media buyers drive performance. Connect allows media buyers to leverage a portfolio approach to addressability.

AlikeAudience offers bespoke demographic, interest, and transactional data and has more than 7,000 audience segments in the US, Australia, Japan, and SEA, across a wide range of industries, including FMCG, automotive, and financial. The company has substantial operations in APAC and the U.S. and assembles its audience data from exclusively consumer-consented CRM data, billions of unique mobile signals, and transaction data from multinational credit card companies.

Moreover, AlikeAudience has been operating in the APAC market for the past five years, working primarily with demand-side platforms (DSPs) across the region, and this partnership makes the company’s high-value audience data available on the supply side for the first time.

Brandon Lee, PubMatic’s director of data and audience for APAC, commented, “We believe that working directly with PubMatic gives media buyers greater control over data, along with higher match rates and better campaign performance. Our proximity to publishers and consumers means fewer hops around the ecosystem, making SSPs uniquely positioned to help brands reach audiences at the right place and time.”

Meanwhile, Bosco Lam, AlikeAudience’s founder and CEO, believes that advertisers will benefit from access to PubMatic’s quality mobile app media inventory, coupled with unique audiences created through packaged deals from the supply side.

“Advertisers are seeking to ensure their digital advertising campaigns are privacy-compliant and do not utilise personally identifiable information, and that has been our competitive advantage. We believe brands can reach the right audiences with all of the right data privacy practices in place,” said Lam.

In June 2022, PubMatic has announced that all of its global data centres are now powered by fully renewable energy. The company achieved this significant milestone as it embarks on a comprehensive, multi-pronged sustainability plan by the end of 2022.

Redwood City, California – Programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic has announced that all of its global data centres are now powered by fullyrenewable energy. The company achieved this significant milestone as it embarks on a comprehensive, multi-pronged sustainability plan by the end of 2022.

According to the World Economic Forum, the infrastructure powering the Internet accounts for 2.5% of worldwide electricity consumption. At PubMatic, the majority of this consumption occurs within 10 global data centres, which account for over 90% of the company’s energy usage. By owning and operating its own infrastructure, PubMatic has greater control over the reduction of energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels. 

To achieve the full benchmark, PubMatic has executed a renewable energy strategy that included collaboration with data centre colocation providers and procurement of qualified renewable energy through virtual power purchase agreements (vPPA) and retail supply agreements. As a result, the company has invested in enough wind and solar power annually to account for every unit of electricity used across its global data centre operations.

Rajeev Goel, PubMatic’s co-founder and CEO, shared that the digital advertising supply chain of the future will be transparent and efficient, and it will also be responsible. 

“The advertising industry must focus on reducing its environmental impact and prioritize sustainability in infrastructure and operational practices. I am proud of what PubMatic has been able to achieve to date, and it is just the first step towards building a more environmentally sustainable business,” said Goel.

The company also supports Ad Net Zero, an organisation committed to reducing the carbon impact of developing, producing, and running advertising to zero by the end of 2030. PubMatic said that it plans to develop and publish specific goals by the end of 2022 focused on improving sustainability across the global company’s owned and operated data centres, offices, and daily business processes with customers and partners.

Singapore – Marketing technology solutions provider AnyMind Group has integrated data enablement platform LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution and programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic’s Identity Hub into its publisher and e-commerce growth platform, AnyManager.

These integrations enable AnyMind Group’s online publishers and advertisers to communicate with enriched data, delivering greater measurability, whilst preserving audience privacy throughout the process.

Through these integrations, AnyManager’s header bidding solution for publishers will be able to provide connected demand sources with more information to better reach and engage with desired audiences. It also enables the easy implementation of LiveRamp’s people-based, privacy-first identifier, RampID, through the Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS).

Once a publisher and AnyMind Group enter into an agreement, ATS is implemented on the login screen of the publisher’s site. ATS allows publishers to match authenticated user data with RampIDs in real-time, enabling advertising without reliance on third-party cookies or device-based identifiers. Advertisers leveraging RampID can unlock premium inventory, additional reach across browsers such as Safari and Firefox, and improved marketing tactics such as people-based audience targeting and frequency capping, amongst others.

Meanwhile, PubMatic’s Identity Hub integration enables publishers to simply turn on the integration with just a single button click on AnyManager for their header bidding wrapper and provides access to partnered ID solutions on Identity Hub including LiveRamp’s RampID, ID5 ID, and The Trade Desk’s Unified ID, amongst others.

CheeChien Chung, LiveRamp’s director of addressability for SEA, shared that the deprecation of third-party cookies and other identifiers has been a forcing function for innovation and improvement across the advertising industry, but more importantly, it’s highlighted that people-based marketing delivers superior performance, today.

“Publishers leveraging LiveRamp’s solutions via AnyMind can easily enable their inventory to be accessible to advertisers looking to buy and measure at the person-level on RampID, and can achieve outsized business results at scale, without compromising privacy,” said Chung.

Meanwhile, Hitoshi Maruyama, AnyMind Group’s managing director of publisher growth, said that web publishers in Asia have started exploring new business models such as media commerce and other means of content monetisation, whilst the ad tech industry has innovated to provide means for publishers to continue benefiting from ad revenue. 

“AnyMind Group is now where the facets of next-generation commerce, ad monetisation and media improvement meet, providing web and app publishers with various possibilities for exponential growth,” said Maruyama.

Australia – Programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic has appointed Dylan Robinson, former country manager for APAC at advertising company Taboola, to be its new country manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Aside from his previous role at Taboola, Robinson has held senior roles in Australia with Sizmek, SpotX, and Quantcast, where he led the APAC Publisher Development team. He has also worked on the publisher side of the digital media industry, holding sales roles in London for Telegraph Media Group and the BBC.

The appointment of Robinson comes after Peter Barry, former regional director for ANZ at PubMatic, moved to New York at the end of last year to take up the role of global VP of audience addressability at PubMatic.

Commenting on his appointment, Robinson said that he is excited to be joining an independent technology company that’s focused on connecting the ecosystem with robust audience addressability solutions and cross-screen targeting

“Our number one mission is to maximise value for our publisher and buy-side partners, while protecting consumer privacy. I am looking forward to continuing to drive PubMatic’s focus on BVOD, as publishers and media buyers increasingly look to technology partners to give them an edge in a competitive market,” he added.

Meanwhile, Jason Barnes, PubMatic’s CRO for APAC, said, “Dylan has more than fifteen years’ experience working for publishers and advertising technology companies which will add considerable value to our growth plans for the region. We are delighted to have him lead our Australia and New Zealand operations.”

PubMatic noted that the appointment of Robinson to lead the company’s Australia and New Zealand operations coincides with its new global campaign, ‘Built for You’, which focuses on delivering the future of digital advertising through innovation, transparency, and innovation.

Australia – Global provider of omniscreen advertising and analytics, Samba TV, has partnered with PubMatic, the programmatic digital advertising company, to bring programmatic omniscreen TV audience targeting to Australia. 

The partnership marks the expansion of Samba TV’s existing European partnership with PubMatic. Through this, Samba TV’s extensive first-party Connected TV (CTV) data will be integrated with PubMatic’s programmatic platform to provide media buyers with advanced omniscreen targeting capabilities across Australia.

The combination of Samba TV’s first-party TV data and PubMatic’s advanced programmatic targeting capabilities provides advertisers with the ability to reach audiences based on TV viewing behaviours and to drive incremental reach by targeting audiences that are not exposed to linear TV advertising. This new offering is an essential tool for global advertisers to optimise reach and frequency via a single, multi-market solution. In addition, advertisers will be able to deduplicate ad exposure data across linear, Connected TV, and digital channels.

Yasmin Sanders, Samba TV’s managing director, shared that the partnership between Samba TV and PubMatic is a game-changer for Australian marketers, providing advertisers with the opportunity to effectively reach TV audiences across every screen with confidence and scale. 

“By combining Samba TV’s proprietary audiences with PubMatic’s scale and inventory quality, we’re excited to now offer advertisers in Australia the opportunity to achieve true incremental reach by leveraging our comprehensive TV audiences,” said Sanders.

Meanwhile, Peter Barry, PubMatic’s vice president of addressability, commented that they are excited to partner with Samba TV to help their customers better reach these elusive audiences. 

“By targeting these high-value segments across PubMatic’s premium digital inventory at the supply side, buyers can deliver relevant ad experiences at scale, thereby optimising campaign performance,” said Barry.

Singapore – Programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic has elevated Lashanne Phang, former director of publisher development for APAC, to be its new global senior director of mobile.

During her previous role, Phang has helped drive the development of PubMatic’s mobile and omnichannel business in the region. Prior to joining PubMatic in 2019, Phang has held sales and business development roles at Smaato, Arton Capital, and Experian.

In her new role, Phang will be driving the growth of PubMatic’s global mobile business. She will build on the important global brand and publisher relationships she has developed and will explore new potential opportunities. This includes promoting the growth of the company’s OpenWrap SDK unified auction product, building relationships with mobile game developers and connecting them with brand advertising demand, and driving interest for PubMatic’s addressability solutions.

Phang noted, “We are committed to bringing new monetization opportunities to mobile publishers with the programmatic brand spend. As well, creating value for buyers has been a key differentiator for PubMatic and that will remain to be a priority.”

PubMatic said that mobile is a key 2022 growth area, and is part of a suite of cross-device and cross-screen offerings for buyers and publishers.

In December 2021, PubMatic has also elevated Peter Barry, former regional director for ANZ and head of audience for APAC, to be its new global vice president of addressability, where he will be providing overall leadership across multiple cross-functional teams and leading efforts with publishers in monetizing their inventory and driving better outcomes for advertisers and data partners.