Ad-Lib raises $6million to disrupt digital ad creative production with AI-driven platform

bdaily | November 18, 2019

Senior leadership team and EMEA operations to be bolstered; New York office to open in Q4 London, UK, 18 November 2019: Ad-Lib, a UK-based marketing technology SaaS platform that helps global brands manage and automate the production and activation of creative assets in their digital advertising worldwide, today announced it has closed $6million in Series A funding from San Francisco-based Fog City Capital. Ad-Lib will use the funding to further strengthen its technology platform, which uses AI to streamline creative ad production workflows, automate digital asset creation and optimise creative performance across display, video, social, native and mobile. The company will also build out its senior leadership team, expand further in EMEA and APAC and launch its US headquarters in New York.

Spotlight

2022 has seen widespread change on both fronts. With this whitepaper, we hope to shed some light on this change, as well as giving you some tools to help you effectively tackle your paid digital advertising throughout 2023.

Spotlight

2022 has seen widespread change on both fronts. With this whitepaper, we hope to shed some light on this change, as well as giving you some tools to help you effectively tackle your paid digital advertising throughout 2023.

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The Trade Desk Introduces Galileo to Activate Advertiser Data

The Trade Desk | January 09, 2023

The Trade Desk, a global pioneer in advertising technology, has introduced Galileo, a new approach for advertiser first-party data activation. Advertisers are seeking to activate their valuable customer data as securely as possible in order to optimize media buys across all digital media while precisely evaluating performance and business outcomes. Multiple major organizations invest years cultivating deep connections with their most loyal clients, gaining unique and essential insights about their target audiences. Galileo enables marketers to unlock this data in a privacy-conscious manner to discover new clients with comparable characteristics. In addition, Galileo is compatible with modern cross-channel identity solutions, such as Unified ID 2.0 (UID2), which have been adopted by the bulk of The Trade Desk's data and publishing partners. “We are at a tipping point for the open internet, The infrastructure of the internet is embracing new identity solutions built for today’s digital media consumption across different devices and apps, such as Unified ID 2.0. In doing so, they are creating the richest identity ecosystem we’ve ever experienced, and one that aims to put consumer privacy at the forefront. With Galileo, we will help the world’s major advertisers take advantage of this by unleashing the value of their most valuable customer data.” Samantha Jacobson, Chief Strategy Officer, The Trade Desk Galileo enables advertisers to enroll and activate their first-party data instantly. It encompasses: Seamless and direct onboarding interfaces with all major customer data platforms (CDPs), customer relationship management (CRM), and other data and clean room providers, enabling marketers to begin matching audiences with UID2 instantly Audience matching across all publishers, devices, platforms, and channels, including CTV, resulting in an actual omnichannel identity environment Objective measurement and reporting of advertising performance and identity matching About The Trade Desk The Trade Desk™ is a technological firm that entitles ad buyers. Ad buyers may manage, create, and optimize digital advertising campaigns across ad formats and devices using its self-service, cloud-based platform. Integrations with major data, inventory, and publisher partners offer maximum reach and decision-making capabilities, while enterprise APIs allow for customized development on top of the platform.

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AD TECH AND MARTECH

Volta as a Founding Partner for Ad Net Zero

Volta | February 10, 2023

Volta, a media company, has recently joined Ad Net Zero organization as a founding partner for the new USA chapter. This membership represents its aim for digital media decarbonization with its digital out-of-home (DOOH) media network, helping advertising leaders to drive sales with fewer carbon emissions. With Ad Net Zero's "Action 5" plan, Volta leverages its media networks to enhance sustainable consumer behavior. This plan includes cutting down on emissions from business operations, planning and buying media, making ads, giving awards, and holding events. Ad Net Zero is an international organization that provides decarbonization solutions to the advertising industry and enhances consumer reach for sustainable products and services through marketing agencies. Many advertisers, commercial media owners, production companies, and marketing agencies support the organization, which has global members like IPG, Google, Meta, Omnicom, Havas, Reckitt, Unilever, Pubmatic, Sky, WPP, and Meta. Chief Commercial Officer at Volta Brandt Hastings said, "Volta offers advertisers the opportunity to reach highly valuable audiences and measurably drive sales while directly supporting emissions-free, electric miles." He added, "As a founding member of Ad Net Zero's USA chapter, Volta is proud to lead the industry by furthering our efforts to decarbonize our media supply chain and using our network to accelerate a sustainable future for all." (Source – Business Wire) Director of Ad Net Zero's USA Chapter, John Osborn, said, "In 2022, the US media industry woke up to its emissions responsibilities. This year, the industry must start decarbonizing its operations and getting closer to net zero emissions." He added, "I have long admired Volta's leading role in sustainable media, and we are honored they have joined Ad Net Zero's USA chapter as a founding member." (Source – Business Wire) About Volta Headquartered in San Francisco, Volta Inc., an electric vehicle (EV) charging, and media company has been providing business growth along with a clean energy future as well as a network of EV charging stations since 2010. It helps consumers, brands, and site partners with charging station installation with large-format digital advertising screens, attracting foot traffic for retailers, target audiences for advertisers, and EV drivers at the same time. Its proprietary platform, PredictEV®, combines machine learning technology with behavioral science to assist electric utilities, cities, and commercial property owners with EV infrastructure.

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AD TECH AND MARTECH

Smartly.io CEO Drives Company Momentum Towards The Next Generation of AdTech with The Smartly Digital Advertising Platform

Smartly.io | March 17, 2023

Smartly.io, one of the world’s largest SaaS digital advertising platforms, today announces significant company advancements, stemming from months of strategic moves—including two acquisitions, a new platform release and strategic hires to senior leadership—under the guidance and vision of industry veteran Laura Desmond. The company, which holds certified partnerships with media leaders Meta, TikTok and Google, among others, brings dynamic integrations to the digital and social space, successfully “redefining social and creativity,” according to Nikhil Lai, Senior Analyst at Forrester. Desmond, the former Global CEO of Starcom Mediavest Group and senior executive of Publicis Groupe, has a seasoned track record for creating symbiotic relationships between advertising and technology—influencing opportunities that reshape entire industry categories. As was the case in 2021, where Desmond, a member of DoubleVerify’s Board of Directors and operating partner at Providence Equity, played an integral role in leading its IPO—one of the most successful in the media and technology sector that year. “When Providence acquired Smartly in 2019 and I became Chair of The Board, the company’s potential was clear from the start. Smartly is uniquely solving real problems that brands and marketers need to have solved: agile creative and media management at the same time; rapid intelligence around performance—what's working and what's not; the ability to execute personalization at scale. The steady updates we’ve been making are unlocking a depth and breadth to the technology that’s affording brands the ability to move across channels as fluidly as the consumers they aim to engage do,” commented Desmond. “Coupled with the additions of Brett Wein as Chief Sales Officer, and Oli Marlow-Thomas as Chief Innovation Officer, I am confident that our vision for Smartly.io will effectively redefine the future of digital advertising for brands and marketers alike.” Smartly.io’s continuous releases to Workspaces has created a unique full-funnel, multi-channel approach to social advertising, integrating creative, media buying and intelligence at scale, in one platform. Specifically, the company’s creative-focused adtech enables marketers to: Reach Smartly: Automate campaign workflows across all major platforms, reaching audiences quickly, easily and cost effectively. Engage Smartly: Create beautiful, cohesive, and effective creative across the funnel that drives action. Learn Smartly: Extract consolidated actionable insights to respond to audience behaviors in real-time to maximize return on investment (ROI). "The depth of knowledge [Smartly.io] brings across verticals is really impressive,” said Merry Morud, Lead, Global Creative Optimization for Consumer Products at Uber. “On top of that, they have a fantastic creative team, which is very mobile-first, which is what we, as digital marketers, in a mobile space and mobile-first world look for.” Uber, a longtime client of Smartly.io, has used the company’s platform to execute iterative creative approaches at scale as part of their global media buying practice. Smartly.io, now managing upwards of $5B in media spend, is unlocking the ability for true multi-platform brand building that exceeds both customer expectations and drives engagement across platforms, at scale. As a result, platform partners like Meta have leveraged Smartly’s Advantage+ Shopping solution to deliver upwards of 150 creative variations across all creative placements, expanding consistent brand reach and personalization in a privacy-safe way. “Reinvention tends not to come from large scale companies, so we are using our nimble size and strong influence to create real movement in the industry,” said Oli Marlow-Thomas, Chief Innovation Officer, Smartly.io. ABOUT YOU, one of Europe’s fastest growing fashion platforms, leverages Smartly’s TikTok Shopping Ads across markets. Since implementation, it's seen a near 30% uplift in ROAS for catalog sales, compared to the business-as-usual catalog sales campaigns, and greater than 100% uplift for "add to cart” actions compared to TikTok’s data. “The Smartly Digital Advertising Platform is the result of years of collaborations, acquisitions and continuous innovation that’s allowing us the ability to really push the limits of what’s been possible, up until now that is. We’re working on some exciting new builds with partners that will hit the market in the coming months, that will take dynamic creative and media optimization to new heights,” continued Marlow-Thomas. To learn more about the Smartly Digital Advertising Platform and how it’s revolutionizing the industry, please go to https://www.smartly.io. About Smartly.io Smartly.io is one of the world’s largest SaaS digital advertising platforms, managing nearly $5B in ad spend with 700+ brands worldwide. Our leading end-to-end technology and outstanding customer service help brands such as Walmart, FanDuel, L’Oreal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Nestle, and Disney/ESPN to better reach audiences, engage creatives and learn what performs best—consistently driving scale for brand and performance across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google. Visit Smartly.io to learn more.

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