AD TECH AND MARTECH
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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PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
Hivestack | March 16, 2023
Hivestack, a company that makes programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising technology, has teamed up with Focus Media Hong Kong to give local and international buyers access to Focus Media's network of digital panels and billboards.
The network has Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok, and Kwun Tong, as well as Hong Kong's first digital screen that can be turned on programmatically with 3D creative executions. It is the first and only one in Hong Kong. With the help of Hivestack's programmatic DOOH advertising technology, advertisers will be able to reach a wider audience and send more targeted and personalized ads. It also marks a significant step towards the digital transformation of Hong Kong's out-of-home advertising industry.
Troy Yang, MD of North Asia at Hivestack, said, "Focus Media Hong Kong helps to expand the variety of DOOH screens for media buyers." He also said, “The whole team at Hivestack is thrilled to partner with Focus Media in Hong Kong, which will now exclusively use the Hivestack SSP to drive incremental revenue from our global network of advertisers." He further said, "This partnership provides countless opportunities for brands, agencies, and omni-channel DSPs both locally and globally to activate programmatic DOOH campaigns across some of the most strategic locations in Hong Kong."
(Source - Exchangewire)
The goal of the partnership is to bring in more money from global advertisers and take the process of buying programmatic DOOH ads to the next level. In Hong Kong, digital advertising that is based on data was expected to bring in 62% of all advertising revenue by 2022.
About Hivestack
Hivestack is a full stack adtech company that specializes in programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) advertising. Their platform offers a complete suite of tools and services to enable buyers and sellers of DOOH advertising to activate campaigns and attract programmatic revenue. On the buy side, marketers can use the Demand Side Platform (DSP) to create measurable campaigns that activate DOOH screens in real-time based on consumer behavior and audience movement patterns. On the sell side, DOOH media owners can use Hivestack's Supply Side Platform (SSP) & Ad Exchange. Additionally, the Ad Server can power impression-based, directly sold campaigns. Attribution enables buyers and sellers to measure business outcomes at all stages of the consumer sales funnel, providing a more complete picture of the effectiveness of their campaigns.
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ADVERTISER PLATFORMS
Viamedia | February 02, 2023
On February 01, 2023, Viamedia, a major independent cross-media local advertising company, has announced significant growth in its managed services of inventory, operational execution, and advanced advertising to its clients with its robust full stack advertising platform.
It offers Multichannel Video Programming Distribution (MVPD) options for in-home sales, managing backend operations like technical integration, video encoding, sales automation, billing services, order management, financial reporting, and ad insertion, as well as increasing local, national, and political services' sales with direct response.
It saves costs and increases monetization on advertising solutions for cable, telecommunication, OTT, or premium video providers, reducing employee costs, ad sales complications, and cross-channel marketing. In addition, it can include and exclude all technology requirements for advertising with its operational management software and Network Operations Center (NOC), which serves all markets.
Telecommunications Product Manager of Frankfort Plant Board, Harvey Couch, said, "Partnering with Viamedia has allowed us to maximize efficiency of all operations so we can focus on providing our community with the best services and customer support. With Viamedia's advertising technology, we can maximize all revenue streams and easily scale our business moving forward without worrying about additional manpower. It truly is a win-win situation."
(Source – Business Wire)
Dave Solomon, President, and CEO of Viamedia, said, "This past year was a remarkable period for strengthening Viamedia's existing partnerships and establishing new ones, truly illustrating how our technical and operational capabilities can integrate with any provider's existing infrastructure." He added, "Managed services fill the gaps for our clients that don't have the staff or expertise required to own their regional or local media strategy and execute it fully."
(Source – Business Wire)
About Viamedia
Viamedia, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, has been one of the largest independent advertising service providers since 2001.It advertises more than one million daily ads in about 130 zones across 28 states, with more than 60 markets nationwide. It engages all TV audiences with a single sales platform for over 6,000 local, regional, and national advertisers. In addition, it provides cross-media advertising solutions based on impressions generated, which fill the gap between the advertising process of linear TV and digital programming. Its cloud-integrated patent platform QTT® employs a self-owned technology stack for rich data ad campaigns targeting dynamic ads via linear TV.
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