Competition in ad tech is ratcheting up, especially among supply-side platforms as leading lights in the sector jostle for differentiation, or even just \u201cstickiness.\u201d In certain cases, this involves exploring new routes to market and new revenue models.<\/p>\n
Last year saw the unveiling of OpenPath by The Trade Desk, plus GroupM\u2019s Premium Marketplace \u2014\u00a0the latter widely regarded as the culmination of years of collective SPO efforts from the industry\u2019s media agencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n These moves mirror one another, in that both involve the instigators \u201cleapfrogging\u201d their traditional trading partners.<\/p>\n And while each (publicly) maintains such interventions are complementary to historic market dynamics \u2014\u00a0The Trade Desk asserts OpenPath is a necessary evolution<\/a> to maintain functional market dynamics \u2014\u00a0others deem them disruptive in echoes of the disintermediation debate<\/a> of yesteryear.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curating inventory, then you\u2019re just an SSP, you have to be curating audiences.<\/p>\n Lulu Phongmany, ad tech consultant<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Speaking recently with Digiday on the Marketecture Podcast<\/a>, ad tech commentator Ari Paparo characterized developments such as OpenPath as a potential cause of disintermediation for traditional SSPs. And this is not necessarily a bad thing, argued Paparo, players in the space need to evolve or fall by the wayside.<\/p>\n After all, the recent shuttering of the Yahoo SSP, along with the EMX Digital flameout, is indicative of the current Darwinistic hue in the sell-side of the ad tech sector<\/a>. <\/p>\n Other players in this field, such as Index Exchange, Magnite, and PubMatic, are repositioning to avoid a similar fate. In recent times, the latter two have explored making use of their recent acquisitions to enhance their propositions to the buy- and sell-side of the market respectively. <\/p>\n Earlier this month, multiple sources told Digiday that Magnite was exploring the option of bypassing DSPs by forging direct relationships with media agencies.<\/p>\n One source with direct knowledge of the development, who declined to be named, reported that this was due to media agencies overtly expressing a desire to \u201cforge deeper, more dynamic relationships with a much smaller set of strategic partners.\u201d<\/p>\n For some, Magnite is in a unique position to make such a move given its 2021 purchase of CTV ad server company Springserve<\/a>, as this enables media agencies to connect directly to Magnite via server-side ad insertion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Matt Barash, svp Americas, and global publishing at Index Exchange, told Digiday that SSPs have had direct relationships with media agencies for years but that his outfit would not try to \u201cplay both sides\u201d while it continues its evolution away from the \u201cbroker-dealer\u201d model. <\/p>\n \u201cWe maintain that it\u2019s critical for us to focus on publishers, and while we create a service for buyers, we [are] going to maintain our focus on the sell-side,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to change with the market as holding companies evolve and look to invest in media across different formats away from the open marketplace and into more controlled environments.\u201d <\/p>\n Meanwhile, sell-side sources told Digiday that PubMatic\u2019s next phase of evolution has involved it floating the idea of an \u201cAccess Membership program\u201d for publishers whereby they pay a monthly fee. Some could compare such a development to a SaaS proposition, similar to Sovrn\u2019s recently bundled Ad Management and Exchange proposition<\/a>.<\/p>\n PubMatic declined Digiday\u2019s request to comment on reports of its mooted Access program but sources indicated that this would involve members receiving enhanced access to buyers\u2019 demand outside of its open exchange.<\/p>\n For example, participating publishers would be included in private marketplaces facilitated by PubMatic, a move that\u2019s in contrast to its traditional revenue-share proposition whereby the SSP takes a percentage of the gross bid and the publisher receives the net fee.<\/p>\n For some, this is a natural evolution of the market, as PMPs require significantly more servicing than open exchanges. Separate sources interpreted a potential launch of a membership program as the realization of PubMatic\u2019s purchase of Martin. This 2022 deal, reportedly<\/a> worth $45 million, was in response to the SSP\u2019s buy-side customers requiring further SPO capabilities.<\/p>\n PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel said in a press release about the deal that the purchase would \u201csolidify our position as the platform of choice for buyers, and in turn, bring greater advertising revenue to our global publisher base.\u201d<\/p>\nPubMatic moots \u2018Access Membership\u2019 fee for publishers<\/h2>\n
\u2018The opposite of commoditization\u2019 <\/h2>\n