“It’s become increasingly clear that OTT has taken center stage both with consumers and within our industry,” Sean Buckley, chief operating officer of video advertising platform SpotX, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “We’re seeing the ad dollars move even more aggressively into OTT than were anticipated, given the acceleration of these consumer trends.”
To improve the consumer experience, the makers of TVs have added features like Wi-Fi connectivity and improved menu systems to help viewers organize their connected TV apps without buying any additional hardware.
“If you go back three or four years, most consumers would go out, buy a smart TV, but hook up some sort of auxiliary hardware to access their OTT content. The common viewpoint was those auxiliary hardware providers gave a better user experience, had a more robust app ecosystem,” Buckley said. “Increasingly, consumers are accessing their OTT content directly through their smart TVs.”
SpotX saw more than 800% growth in ad inventory for OTT apps accessed directly through a smart TV from March to October last year. Meanwhile, about 38% of all CTV ad spend through SpotX’s sell-side platform (SSP) was the result of consumers accessing content directly through a smart TV.
“In some cases, the device manufacturers are able to take a share of inventory from third-party apps for distribution on their platform, similar to the carriage deals folks are accustomed to in the television ecosystem,” Buckley said, “but many of them have launched their own direct-to-consumer apps. That presents a new ad inventory opportunity for them as well. We’re helping those companies monetize that inventory, and really harness the power of the first-party data that they have to enhance the value of the inventory.”
SpotX also expanded into ad-serving services with last year’s investment in SpringServe, aiming to help media owners manage programmatic demand alongside direct-sold campaigns. They also developed a forecasting tool to provide transparency into booked inventory, making it easy for media owners to see programmatic availabilities.
“We’re intertwining traditional direct sales with programmatic campaigns, to give much more granular tools to media owners who really need to navigate the setup and execution of campaigns across both models, Buckley said. “We’re focused on holistic forecasting, particularly with audience-base buying becoming so much more prominent, and assembling the podded ad-delivery concept in a much more effective way.”
More 30% of SpotX customers have adopted its ad-serving, and have seen double-digit gains in revenue, he said.
The company also has partnered with major advertising holding companies on the programmatic efforts. SpotX last year signed an agreement with WPP’s GroupM to serve as the primary partner for all programmatic digital video and over-the-top (OTT) inventory. The ad holding companies have expressed an interest in working with fewer vendors, while deepening their relationships with a select group of service providers, Buckley said.
“The concept of supply path optimization (SPO) has been in other digital formats for a while, now. We see unique applications for OTT and have forged a number of partnerships with the major holding companies,” he said. “There’s a lot of complexity around inventory rights, the monetization of live events that we’re helping with, improved planning and forecasting around audience and content visibility, and streamlining work flows for agencies.”
Magnite, the SSP formed after last year’s merger of Rubicon Project and Telaria, this month agreed to buy SpotX for $1.17 billion in cash and stock from European broadcast giant RTL Group.
You are watching “Addressable Advertising: A New Reality for Linear TV,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by SpotX. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>Whilst the European market, like the continent itself, is fragmented, its broadcast ecosystem is far less so. Furthermore, initiatives like HbbTV have seen the entire chain of electronics manufacturers and broadcast groups come together to define common device standards.
Systems are simpler, through which media owners, more than underlying distributors, tend to control their ad sales.
That is something SpotX, the video ad serving platform, has discovered since it was fully acquired by RTL Group of Luxembourg in 2017.
“We see … a duty to work through the fragmentation, and the changing regulation around audience and targeting capabilities, around measurements,” says SpotX’s Sean Buckley in this video interview with Beet.TV. “We’re hard at work with, not only our customers, but partners across the industry, to really streamline those concepts.
“You … have a lot of inventory fragmentation in the market, in the US, in terms of who gets inventory rights, depending upon how the consumers are accessing content. Less so, in many cases, in some of the European markets.
“In markets like Germany and France and Italy, for the most part, the broadcasters control all of the inventory, and they’re just bringing these new capabilities to market. (They are) not as much dealing with the fragmentation, and distributors having an inventory share, et cetera.
“We do think OTT is the game-changer for that.”
This segment is part of a series titled The New Global Marketplace for Premium Video, produced at Cannes Lions and sponsored by RTL AdConnect. For more videos from the series, please visit this page. For all of Beet.TV’s coverage of Cannes Lions 2019, please visit this page.
]]>In this video interview with Beet.TV, Sean Buckley, CRO of SpotX , says brands are now seeking out deeper, more meaningful relationships with fewer tech suppliers.
That follows a few years in which the number of point-solution tech products explosion. Now we are seeing something of an implosion, driven both by M&A and by changing buyer habits.
“We have seen a move toward consolidation in the space, which is actually a reversal of maybe how things were looking a few years ago,” Buckley says.
“What we’re seeing from the buy side is interest in fewer but much deeper partnerships. We’re seeing both the agencies as well as brands launch initiatives to really focus in on the partners who are trustworthy, important, and necessary in the supply chain, and then take those relationships to the next level.
“That’s been a major trend over the last few years, folks going from perhaps 30 or 40 downstream technology partners on the supply side to maybe only six or eight total partners.”
Buckley says over-the-top and connected TV have now become the majority of SpotX’s business – a topic on which the company will be hosting a panel at the upcoming Cannes Lions festival.
This video is part of the Beet.TV preview series titled “The Road to Cannes.” The series is sponsored by 4INFO. Please visit this page for additional segments.
]]>“And also as we get into more interesting things like measuring unduplicated reach, we think it’s a really exciting product for the market,” Buckley adds in this Beet.TV interview at the recent Tru Optik InFronts event in Manhattan.
Discovery and Fox among the first media owner partners planning to leverage the new data-driven solution to enable cross-platform ad sales. MRI-Simmons will be a key data partner in helping to deliver a unified audience target across platforms, an essential aspect in the clypd/SpotX solution, according to a news release.
SpotX has bee working on three main categories of data enablement. The first is enabling media owners to bring their first-party data “into the fold in a protected capacity” to use it particularly for programmatic ad transactions. “We also enabled media owners to license that data to other media companies on the platform in a safe and secure manner,” says Buckley.
SpotX then worked to onboard the major third-party data marketplaces to ensure all of the major third-party data segments are available to any of its customers.
A major focus has been activating buy-side data so that brands and agencies synching their data with the SportX platform gain enhanced planning and forecasting capabilities.
This facilitates automated guaranteed and programmatic guaranteed transactions “in the way the industry wants to do it. In order to do that well, we have to refine the inventory down against exactly what the buyer is looking for, including perhaps data they may have housed on their side before we even send the ad requests out,” Buckley explains.
“So once we have the full picture, all the targeting attributes including the data the buyers are using on their end, we’re actually able to refine those ad requests down so when the buyer actually gets it they’re able to respond ninety-five, one hundred percent of the time with an ad.”
SpotX now has more than 600 employees in 26 offices around the world. In addition the merger of SpotX with sister company smartclip, SpotX parent RTL acquired dynamic ad insertion provider Yospace, as The Drum reports.
“It’s clearly a core integral technology that our customers need,” Buckley says of the Yospace contribution. “And we feel there’s huge potential between pairing that SSAI technology with the monetization platform in terms of what we can deliver for our customers.”
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Tru Optik InFronts 2019, NYC. The series is sponsored by Tru Optik. For additional videos, please visit this page.
]]>In this video interview with Beet.TV, the chief revenue officer of ad-tech firm SpotX explains that his company has seen a swing for its revenue mix toward OTT – but that is not the case uniformly.
“We’ve seen over the past few years, pretty heavy disruption, cord cutting, and consumer behavior beginning to shift toward these new viewing habits,” Buckley says.
“But, if you look at specific markets, like Germany or Japan, the OTT business hasn’t had that sort of turbocharged growth that we’ve seen in the US.
Last year, Ampere Analysis published figures showing how subscription OTT adoption had reached 84% of US households – more than twice the prevalence in the second-placed market, the UK (41%), and far more than trailing Germany (25%) or Japan (18%).
Ofcom ICMR: Global SVOD penetration, by @AmpereAnalysis. US nearing all households, 2x next-biggest market https://t.co/vkDe7uV1Ji pic.twitter.com/da9XSwoo4B
— Robert Andrews (@RobertAndrews) December 18, 2017
What is the reason the US is so far ahead? A stronger culture of free and linear consumption is one reason, Buckley explains.
He cites “the heavy penetration of free-to-air broadcasts where many folks in the population are actually not even paying for a TV”. “Ad loads (are) lighter,” he adds. “Instead of 14 minutes an hour, you’re seeing something like six minutes an hour.”
Still, what is true today may not be true tomorrow. Buckley, whose company merged with Smartclip earlier this year, says he anticipates the rest of the world may catch up.
“In the long run, especially among the younger generations, I feel like they’re growing pretty accustomed to the app ecosystem, the mobile ecosystem, and I think they’ll drive a similar change in markets around the world,” he explains.
Buckley says SpotX’s “third and newest pillar for the company” is data enablement – helping media companies activate their first-party data in the programmatic ecosystem.
]]>“Obviously this is a new area of the business and it’s changing very rapidly,” says SpotX Chief Revenue Officer Sean Buckley. “Consumers are really starting to shift their consumption behavior. And obviously we’re seeing on the flip side some of the virtual MVPD’s and digital offerings really start to take off.”
Just a few years ago, the broad conception in the industry was of a shortage of premium video supply, what with much of it locked up by things like traditional Upfront marketplace deals.
“That was definitely true for a long time,” Buckley says in this interview with Beet.TV. “Certainly over the past three to six months we’ve seen the amount of supply, specifically around OTT both VOD and live streaming, really start to surge.”
SpotX’s major offerings are its ad-serving platform and programmatic infrastructure for media owners like Sling. The company also has an agreement with DISH Media Sales wherein DISH can leverage its first-party audience data through SpotX’s platform.
“We’ve seen great results there,” Buckley notes. “We’re taking that data and not only enabling programmatic transactions but we’re doing that in both VOD and live streaming environments, which is really the cutting edge of the digital ad industry.”
Given the learning curve that exists in the OTT space—both on the buy- and sell-sides—SpotX created an Advanced Solutions Group to help everyone figure out the “various technologies that touch our platform. It’s a different engagement with each of our customers,” Buckley adds.
On the buy-side, SpotX helps to decipher live, linear OTT traffic patterns because they “tend to look a lot different than what, for example, the DSP’s or the agencies are used to. You have to address the traffic differently and the environments differently than you would, for example, a desktop web environment.”
Asked about pricing of premium video ad inventory, Buckley looks at it from a digital perspective. OTT commands a premium over formats like out-stream and short-form, “but we think we’re reaching the point where there’s great balance in the market. Pricing isn’t necessarily a huge barrier and I think both sides see value in what the market is bringing to the table at this point in time.”
This video is part of series on developments with OTT. The series is presented by Sling TV and DISH Media Sales. Please find more videos from the series here. For the Sling/DISH report on OTT and the marketplace, download this report.
]]>Ad spending in the upcoming presidential election could trump the last poll by 20%, reaching $11.4bn, with digital breaking the $1bn barrier, according to a Borrell Associates forecast.
And programmatic video could get a big leg-up from the vote, a panel of ad-tech vendors convened by Beet.TV agreed…
“Television, for the political arena, is already sold out, and has been sold out for months now,” said Novak, whose Rubicon powers programmatic ad trading for many of the world’s publishers. “But there’s billions of dollars that need to be bought. There’s a huge opportunity. It allows some really quality case studies to be able to test this system in a huge way.”
Other panelists believed the upcoming vote will crystallise how media consumption habits are changing dramatically, as candidates switch screen – and buying method – to reach voters who are tuning out.
“We’re going to see a desire to access that youth demographic that is viewing in OTT,” DashBid’s Herman.
“With all the cord cutting that’s really happening. and especially among the youth group, there’s a real need to access that inventory. There’s a lot of premium video inventory available in the OTT ecosystem that just hasn’t been either addressable or it hasn’t been measurable. The elections are going to drive a real hunger for that inventory and I think they’re going to move us in a really great way.”
As OpenX’s Reed Scharff wrote on Huffington Post recently, programmatic could be the dream of political scientists and campaigners who want to reach individual voters and targeted demographic groups with specific messaging. And the election could be the perfect opportunity to bring that promise to the mass market.
“It could be a domino effect, which is really exciting,” said SpotX’s Buckley, whose company is part owned by a TV operator and producer, RTL. ” It could also have an impact on other industries. Other folks are going to feel that (inventory) shortage as well… (for example), auto. It could have a residual effect, it’s not just going to be limited to the political landscape.”
This video was produced at the Beet.TV executive retreat presented by Videology. You can find more videos from the session here.
This panel was moderated by MediaMath CMO Joanna O’Connell.
]]>That, finally, is spurring ad-tech vendors to cater to advertisers’ new-found desire to be on Apple TV – a promise that, previous to the new model’s new app paradigm, was barely possible.
“That’s one of the most exciting areas of growth and opportunity,” says ad-tech platform SpotX‘s platform SVP Sean Buckley. “With the recent changes in the Apple TV ecosystem, I think it’s going to create an immense democratization of video content in the living room. We’re really excited about content publishers and their ability to now reach users in that environment.”
Shortly after Apple’s announcement last year, SpotX unveiled an SDK supporting ad serving inside the new tVOS. That sits alongside integrations for other platforms like Roku and games consoles.
“Whatever connectivity the user is trying to get to the content, we want to be there and supporting our publishers,” Buckley added.
This video was produced at the Beet.TV executive retreat presented by Videology. You can find more videos from the session here.
]]>SpotX platform and global supply SVP Sean Buckley says “programmatic” and “direct” sales channels are coming together.
“We’re starting to see those two worlds converge, our platforms customers interacting with buyers on deal terms, talking to the same folks that used to hand them an (insertion order) and are now leveraging their own first-party data, third-party data, verification and measurement vendors,” he tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
That trend is being borne out in SpotX’s own company, which just rebranded from several years as “SpotXchange”.
“Private marketplaces have been a huge area of growth from us. Over 40% of the activity on the platform is through private deals,” Buckley says.
“(The rebrand) helps tell the story about how our company has grown and evolved over the last few years. We, of course, originated as an ad exchange but now our product portfolio encompasses much more than that.”
This video is part of series: Programmatic Video at a Turning Point, presented by SpotX. You find additional videos from the series here.
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“The traditional model is ‘let’s sell everything we can up-front through a direct sales model and then whatever’s left let’s push in to our SSP platform or exchange environments’,” SpotXchange platform SVP Sean Buckley tells Beet.TV.
“Now we’re hearing the strategy putting programmatic first from major broadcasters and premium publishers. As recently as three years ago, it was an afterthought, if it was even a thought at all.”
He was interviewed at Beet.TV’s annual executive retreat by Nielsen Digital MD Andrew Feigenson.
The Beet Retreat ’15 was sponsored by AOL and Videology. Please find additional videos from the event here.
]]>“You’ll see some news from us early this year around new office openings specifically in the European region,” SpotXchange platform SVP Sean Buckley tells Beet.TV.
“(RTL) gets us closer to the TV business, giving us a blueprint on how broadcasters really operate. They’re really prominent in Europe.”
Buckley says the industry must meld both traditional linear ad trading operations and new digital media: “If we don’t figure a way to bring those areas together, you’re going to (see) degradation in currency in terms of viewership on linear video dropping. The industry’s going to be forced to think about video across all screens rather than the siloed approach we’ve seen to date.”
He was interviewed at Beet.TV’s annual executive retreat.
The Beet Retreat ’15 was sponsored by AOL and Videology. Please find additional videos from the event here.
]]>“The company saw 145% revenue growth this year in Q1, we saw 350% growth in terms of programmatic spend in Q1,” says the company’s platform and global supply VP Sean Buckley.
“We’re now over 150 employees globally. We plan to add at least another 100 by end of this calendar year.”
SpotXchange reckons it added more top-tier publisher clients during the quarter than rivals, signing Hearst Digital, Meredith Video Studios, Zynga, The Atlantic, Billboard and Mail Online.
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Video ad tech firm SpotXchange‘s platform VP Sean Buckley explains programmatic direct it to Beet.TV: “It’s a better way to serve ads.
“When I think of having an (ad) buyer and seller on the phone transacting a paper IO (insertion order) and ad tags, I think of calling a travel agent to book my vacation and then printing out my boarding pass, or calling my stockbroker to buy shares in a company. I don’t do any of that stuff that way any more – advertising is going to experience that change.”
Buckley says SpotXchange will introduce “advanced error reporting” tools to help publishers understand which attempted ad buys fail due to technical errors with their systems.
He was interviewed by Furious Minds CEO Ashley J. Swartz at Beet.TV’s annual executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
]]>The system is also designed to incorporate both buyer and seller transparency. “A publisher can log in and not only see how much TubeMogul is purchasing and at what price, but also the see the wide array of advertisers buying through TubeMogul,” he says as an example.
Publishers can opt for buying on the open market or conducting direct deals via the platform. SpotXchange said NDN saw the revenue yield boost because of the greater efficiencies that came through programmatic buying. NDN is a digital media exchange that syndicates and monetizes content.
For more insight into the shift to programmatic buying, check out this video interview.
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