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With interest heating up in programmatic advertising approaches that help automate buying and selling of inventory, B&C and MCN offer this list of advertising technology companies that are developing programmatic tools.
The list is not intended to be comprehensive; there are hundreds of ad technology companies playing one part or another in this ecosystem for digital platforms, where programmatic buying is already a well-established practice. In addition, deployments in the TV industry are still in their infancy, making it difficult to keep track of all the emerging players.
Rather, the list is intended as a snapshot of the range of technologies currently available. Each listing provides key contacts, a brief description of the kind of technologies the companies provide and, where possible, a sense of the work they are already doing with TV companies.
The technologies described here also highlight another key issue with programmatic advertising: Some players are trying to build all-encompassing offers; others are just focused on one aspect of the equation, such as the buy-side with agencies or brands, or are primarily focused on specific solutions, such as data analytics.
Those differences are important because companies are still working to figure out the best way programmatic technologies might be applied to TV. It isn’t clear, for example, if real-time auctions, a key piece of the digital programmatic equation, will work well in systems for handling TV inventory, or what kind of processes are best automated for TV sales.
As a result, the types of technologies being offered are likely to change as the various players settle on the best approaches.
ADAP.TV, A DIVISION OF AOL PLATFORMS
Contact: Bob Lord, global CEO, AOL Platforms, (212) 652-6317; Dan Ackerman, head of programmatic TV, AOL Platforms, (650) 937-3803
Offerings: adap.tv’s programmatic video platform is already used to plan, buy and measure billions of video ads every month across the Web, mobile and linear television. Its cross-screen programmatic video technology is also being built into ONE by AOL, which the company says will provide a holistic view of a consumer’s journey through the marketing funnel.
AUDIENCEXPRESS
Contact: Walt Horstman, president, (212) 356-8070
Offerings: audienceXpress automates planning, audience buying, optimization and daily reporting for TV campaigns across a national footprint using technology from Visible World and data from many providers. It’s Web-based sell-side platform aggregates inventory from multiple TV partners and is designed to help agencies and brands simplify buying and managing programmatic television inventory. The company also provides dynamic ad insertion on more than 100 cable networks.
BRIGHTROLL
Contact: Tod Sacerdoti, CEO/founder; Brent Horowitz, VP/business development, (415) 677-9222
Offerings: Provides clients with access to more than 35 billion monthly impressions across Web, mobile, tablet and linear and connected-TV devices from more than 21,000 supply sources; its end-to-end platform includes BrightRoll DSP, BrightRoll for Publishers and the BrightRoll Marketplace, a 100% programmatic, real-time bidding (RTB) exchange. Works with operators and inventory aggregators to offer inventory to advertisers from networks owned by AETN, Discovery, Disney, Fox, NBCU, Turner, Viacom, Univision and others.
BROADWAY SYSTEMS
Contact: James ackerman, executive chairman; John Sorensen, president, (616) 454-4400
Offerings: Its traffic, billing and ad sales and management software is widely used by cable networks; as part of an effort to help its network clients expand their programmatic capabilities, it recently integrated its software with a major programmatic advertising platform.
CIVOLUTION
Contact: Alex Terpstra, CEO, Civolution, (31) 40-4100200
Offerings: a major provider of technology to identify, manage and monetize media content, with a major focus on digital watermarking- and finger-printing-based applications. Civolution also offers a TV-Synced ads platform used by agencies to deliver ads to second screens that are triggered by key words in TV content. Recently added “category targeting” in twenty-plus categories to its TV-synced ads platform.
CLYPD
Contact: Joshua Summers, CEO and cofounder; Doug Hurd, executive VP of business development and cofounder, (844) 718-1100
Offerings: Its programmatic solution for TV advertising sales includes workflow automation, sales management and tools to improve use of data in making decisions; has a team of both TV and digital ad experts that is fixed on the needs of the TV industry as part of a focus on applying the best programmatic strategies from the digital world to TV.
FREEWHEEL
Contact: Doug Knopper, cofounder/co-CEO; Jon Heller, cofounder/co-CEO, (212) 913-9222
Offerings: Its FourFronts Programmatic solution is targeted to both the buy and sell side, with tools to plan and reserve inventory in advance; also allows advertisers to upload their data into a secure ‘data escrow’ so advertisers can maintain confidentiality of data while providing publishers with the information from the “blinded data” they need to forecast available inventory and make proposals. Participants in a pilot of the FourFronts Programmatic platform include ABC, Discovery Communications, adap.tv, Tube Mogul, allstate, Magna Global, Starcom MediaVest and Optimedia.
Contact: Neal Mohan, VP, display and video advertising, (650) 253-0000
Offerings: Google offers a complete programmatic suite for marketers and publishers that supports display, video and mobile ad formats on websites and in apps. Its DoubleClick Digital Marketing Suite includes an ad server (DoubleClick Campaign Manager), a demand-side platform (DoubleClick Bid Manager), a search-marketing platform (Double- Click Search) and analytics (Google analytics); also has a cross-platform exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers. Recently purchased mDialog, which works with broadcasters to monetize live, linear and on-demand content on all screens.
IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS
Contact: Charlie Vogt, CEO; Allison Coquet, senior product line manager, media, (866) 446-2446
Offerings: a variety of traffic and billing, ad sales, broadcast management systems for broadcast stations and networks, including LandmarkoSI Traffic & Billing, LandmarkoSI Cloud and LandmarkoS. Several years ago, developed a programmatic ad solution for one client that is still being used and is creating a programmatic offering for wider deployments. To strengthen its ad technologies, it recently acquired eclipsePlus, eclipsePlus/ xG Billing, eclipsePlus/xG Insights and eclipse- Plus/xG Linear ad campaign management systems used by cable operators to manage more than 1.2 billion spots and $3 billion of ad revenue annually.
LIVERAIL
Contact: Erwin Castellanos, CRO, LiveRail, sales@LiveRail.com, (415) 512-7017
Offerings: offers advertising technologies and video ad management platform focused on helping publishers manage and monetize online video content; system designed for use on a wide range of platforms, including Roku and apple TV, gaming consoles, connected TVs, PCs and mobile devices. Has integrations with all the major demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad networks and agency trading desks. over 200 companies including CBS, MLB.com, A&E Networks, PBS, ABC Family and BET use the technologies to sell video inventory.
MANAGE
Contact: Fred Hsu, founder/CEO; Mike Miller, senior VP of sales and marketing, (415) 689-6017
Offerings: Focuses on mobile sector, with spectrum of data-driven solutions for advertisers and publishers; fully managed programmatic platform offers real-time bidding (RTB) technology and secure digital monitoring products. Handles over 20 billion RTB impressions daily across mobile app and mobile display inventory that can be targeted against 15,000-plus unique audience segments.
MANAGEMENT SCIENCE ASSOCIATES
Contact: Cathy opsitnick, president and CEO; Mike McGuire, VP of media, (412) 362-8929
Offerings: Its traffic, billing and ad sales and management software is widely used by networks. Several years ago, when Navic and Google were working to develop linear TV auctions, MSA created added capabilities so clients could participate in those programmatic sales. Current software development roadmap includes tools for sellers of linear and VOD TV inventory allowing them to participate in programmatic sales as those approaches develop and the industry settles on the best practices.
MEDIAOCEAN
Contact: Bill Wise, CEO, bill@mediaocean.com; Cordie DePascale, VP product management, cordie@mediaocean.com, (201) 402-1758
Offerings: Has a software platform used by over 80,000 advertising execs to handle about $100 billion in advertising. Mediaocean’s media buying solution, Prisma avails, is designed to automate previously manual processes and is built directly into its Prisma platform, which manages the entire campaign lifecycle and allows agencies to transact digital inventory in an automated fashion at approved client and agency rates.
OOYALA
Contact: Jay Fulcher, CEO of Ooyala; 650-965- 8920; Sorosh Takavoli, CEO of Videoplaza, 44 (0) 20 7253 5530
Offerings: The October acquisition of Videoplaza will allow Ooyala to offer broadcasters and media companies a one-stop platform for managing, syndicating, publishing, measuring, personalizing and monetizing content across all screens, though the products are currently offered on a standalone basis. Videoplaza’s supply-side platform, Konnect, launched in October 2014, allows broadcasters to incorporate programmatic trading in their sales efforts, their CPMs and pricing models. More than 50% of the broadcasters in Europe run their advertising businesses on Videoplaza’s Karbon platform; Ooyala’s customers include ESPN, Univision, Caracol, Telstra, Sky Sports and Comedy Central.
PLACEMEDIA
Contact: Derek Mattsson, president, dmattsson@placemedia.com, (385) 232-2590
Offerings: Cable ad rep firm launched the placemedia programmatic television platform for linear TV advertising in September 2013 to help clients automate buying and selling of TV advertising. Is aggregating local and national TV ad inventory from cable and satellite operators, cable networks and broadcast affiliates available in 85 million TV homes; also uses data from Rentrak’s set-top box homes and consumer data from a variety of other sources to target over 500 audience segments.
RUBICON PROJECT
Contact: Frank addante, CEO, founder and chief product architect; Gregory R. Raifman, president; Kaylie Smith, head of seller cloud; Anthony Katsur, head of buyer cloud; (310) 207-0272
Offerings: The Rubicon Project has developed the advertising automation Cloud, a global ad exchange, as well as a suite of applications for both buyers and sellers of advertising. On the sell side, the company’s Seller Cloud includes tools for maximizing yields through pricing algorithms and analytics, automation and security. In June 2014, the company inked a deal with Comcast Spotlight, which means the MSO’s sales arm can apply programmatic tools to help sell display ads running on the Xfinity.com and XfinityTV.com websites.
SINTECMEDIA
Contact: Amotz Yarden, CEO SintecMedia; Geoff Nagel, VP, go to market strategy for North America, (404) 869-4575; Toufic Moubarak, CTO, North America, (262) 241-9005; Eric Levitan, Coo, North America, (404) 869-4575
Offerings: Supplies enterprise-level software to a number of major media companies, including networks owned by NBCUniversal, for traffic, billing, content management and advertising sales. SintecMedia’s programmatic offering is installed and already working at one client in Europe; tests of the programmatic module are planned by several North American clients, with wider deployments to follow.
SPECIFIC MEDIA
Contact: Tim Vanderhook, CEO, Interactive Media Holdings (IMH); Jeff Collins, CRO, IMH, (949) 861-8888
Offerings: Has a multiformat, multiscreen programmatic solution that guarantees viewability; uses adtricity technology from Vindico, owned by parent company IMH. The platform is designed to reduce inefficiencies by enabling real-time bidding of advertising inventory; also offers greater control, transparency and fraud reduction tools.
SPOTXCHANGE
Contact: Mike Shehan, CEO, mike@spotxchange.com, (303)-345.6601; Sean Buckley, senior VP, platform and global supply, sbuckley@spotxchange.com, (917) 828-2164; Alex Merwin, VP of programmatic and business analytics, amerwin@spotxchange.com, 303.345.6824
Offerings: Its supply-side video advertising platform provides premium publishers with a complete system of inventory management for desktop, mobile and connected TV inventory; processes over two billion video ad decisions through the SpotXchange platform daily and delivers ads to more than 335 million people in over 100 countries per month. Europe’s largest broadcasters, the RTL Group owns a majority stake in SpotXchange.
SYNACOR
Contact: Ron Bernstein, senior VP, ad sales and operations, rbernstein@synacor.com, (908) 868-5813
Offerings: Brings programmatic advertising to its customers through its Supply Side and Data Management platforms; partnerships with Google, oracle (BlueKai), Facebook (LiveRail) and others allow it to offer best-of-breed systems that work with clients’ existing ad technologies. Also works to help sales teams at MVPDs sell inventory programmatically across the Web, mobile and social platforms. Clients include Verizon, Suddenlink, Charter Communications, CenturyLink, Mediacom and others.
THIS TECHNOLOGY
Contacts: Jeffery Sherwin, CEO, 212.253.9633; Denise MacDonell, vice president of product and marketing, 303.835.6954.
Offering: Provides software to multichannel operators and programmers for monetizing content, centralizing operations and adapting to changing ad models; clients for overall offerings include Comcast, Verizon, NBC Universal, and ABC. The company’s dynamic advertising insertion software supports programmatic and addressable advertising for linear, time-shifted and on-demand content delivery; supplies Trajectory Dynamic Ad Insertion software that enables users to monetize inventory through any programmatic system with a controlled flow of anonymous data.
TUBEMOGUL
Contact: Brett Wilson, CEO; Keith Eadie, chief marketing officer, (510) 653-0501
Offerings: TubeMogul is focused purely on buyside; offers technologies to simplify, unify and verify digital video campaign planning across devices so companies can better achieve their marketing objectives. Has entered into a partnership with Clypd and audienceXpress so media buyers can purchase television advertising inventory.
VDOPIA
Contact: Saurabh Bhatia, CEO, (347) 989-5080
Offerings: Focuses on mobile video advertising with a global programmatic buying and selling platform, Chocolate; is integrated with various technology partners to provide a one-stop platform for planning, buying and measurement of mobile video ad campaigns.
VIDEOLOGY
Contact: Scott Ferber, chairman and CEO; Rob Dalven, head of U.S. TV Practice, rdalven@videologygroup.com, (917) 887-8650
Offerings: a major provider of video advertising technology platforms for agencies, advertisers and media companies. The company’s recently launched TV Practice focuses on providing clients with television-centric, cross-screen advertising technologies to plan, execute, measure and optimize cross-screen linear television and digital video advertising campaigns.
VISIBLE WORLD
Contact: Seth Haberman, CEO, (212) 739-1900
Offerings: Provides an end-to-end programmatic TV ad sell-side platform called HighYield for targeting, selling and managing impressionbased television ad campaigns. audienceXpress, a Visible World subsidiary, is a key user of the HighYield system.
WIDEORBIT
Contact: Eric Mathewson, founder and CEO, (415) 675-6700
Offerings: Its traffic, billing and ad sales software is the most widely used system among U.S. broadcast stations and it has been gaining market share in the cable network sector. After working for several years to develop an ad marketplace for TV inventory, it recently announced a major deal to work with Magna Global and Tribune Media Co. to launch WO Central, which offers programmatic targeting and automated buying in local media for local and national marketers. Hearst, Meredith, Raycom, Scripps and Sinclair also agreed to participate in testing the system.
YUME
Contact: Jayant Kadambi, cofounder and CEO; Matt Arkin, VP, programmatic sales, (650) 591- 9400
Offerings: YuMe is a major provider of digital video brand advertising solutions, working primarily with media agency trading desks. Its Video Reach programmatic brand advertising solution for TV advertisers is designed to address the specific needs of brand advertisers; the platform collects data from across all screens with its proprietary audience-aware SDK and applies analytical solutions to help brands and agencies improve campaign performance.
