Ad Tech and Martech
prnewswire | August 21, 2023
Today, Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. a leading advertising and marketing technology platform operating through its companies Colossus Media, LLC ("Colossus SSP"), Huddled Masses LLC ("Huddled Masses") and Orange142, LLC ("Orange142"), announced that it has partnered with Beeswax, a FreeWheel-owned programmatic buying platform.
The ad tech group, which is the ninth Black-owned company on the NASDAQ U.S. stock exchange, will collaborate with Beeswax to expand access to, as well as simplify the path for, buying multicultural – alongside general market – connected TV ad inventory.
The integration works like this: Colossus SSP, a Direct Digital Holdings-owned supply-side platform, works with both multicultural and general market publishers, giving its users access to a more diverse range of CTV ad inventory. As such, marketers and agencies that use FreeWheel's Beeswax to buy CTV ads can now reach a wider array of viewers.
This partnership and its accompanying capabilities are noteworthy as they provide a much needed and timely solve for many of the issues that marketers and agencies are facing today, including a dynamic, complex and fragmented TV ad ecosystem and a consumer landscape that is becoming increasingly more multicultural and diverse.
On a more technical note, this partnership includes integrations on both the buy and sell sides of CTV ad buying. On the buy side, Direct Digital Holdings' two digital marketing companies, Orange142 and Huddled Masses, will work with Beeswax to serve CTV ad placements for marketers. On the sell side, as outlined above, Direct Digital Holdings will work with Beeswax on simplifying and expanding access to both multicultural and general market CTV ad inventory via the group's supply-side platform, Colossus SSP.
"The media and marketing landscape today is very nuanced – from fast-changing innovations to constant industry fragmentation to audiences that are becoming increasingly more diverse and harder to reach, across multiple screens," said Mark Walker, CEO, Direct Digital Holdings. "Taking that into account, we sought a partner who brought a real-time, holistic understanding of the ecosystem, as well as a track record of creating simple and much needed, innovative solutions that remove friction and address and resolve the needs of marketers today. FreeWheel, through its work with Beeswax, exemplifies and understands these key traits and we're excited to be working with them."
"We are humbled and thrilled to team up with a partner who not only understands this space, but also is minority owned," said Tess O'Brien, VP, Head of Revenue, Beeswax. "We look forward to working with Direct Digital Holdings to drive innovation and growth in CTV, while helping to provide Beeswax's clients with an easier pathway to access multicultural content within the programmatic ecosystem."
About Direct Digital Holdings
Direct Digital Holdings (Nasdaq: DRCT), owner of operating companies Colossus SSP, Huddled Masses, and Orange 142, brings state-of-the-art sell- and buy-side advertising platforms together under one umbrella company. Direct Digital Holdings' sell-side platform, Colossus SSP, offers advertisers of all sizes extensive reach within general market and multicultural media properties. The company's subsidiaries Huddled Masses and Orange142 deliver significant ROI for middle market advertisers by providing data-optimized programmatic solutions at scale for businesses in sectors that range from energy to healthcare to travel to financial services. Direct Digital Holdings' sell- and buy-side solutions manage approximately 136,000 clients monthly, generating over 250 billion impressions per month across display, CTV, in-app and other media channels.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video.
About Beeswax
Founded in 2014 by a team of former Google executives, Beeswax is the programmatic buying platform that gives media buyers ownership and total control. Its Bidder-as-a-Service™ platform gives brands, media companies, and advertising technology firms greater control, flexibility, and transparency over their programmatic advertising. Beeswax customers include Uber, DraftKings and Nexstar. Beeswax is headquartered in New York City and has raised $28 million in funding from leading investors including Foundry Group, RRE, You & Mr. Jones, and Amasia.vc.
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Social Media Advertising
prnewswire | August 18, 2023
BENlabs, the leading entertainment AI company for brands and creators, released a new report today finding that 63% of consumers have positive emotions after seeing products or brands in TV content, while 47% say they enjoy seeing their favorite brands in shows. The report, "State of Product Placement 2023," analyzed product placement's ROI, and consumers' feelings on it compared to traditional marketing and advertisements.
The survey focused on three areas: understanding marketers' perspectives on product placement, understanding consumers' perspectives on product placement and consumers' research and purchase behaviors. The report found that:
Marketers' are overwhelmingly optimistic about product placement – In fact, 86% of U.S. marketers who've tried product placement rate it highly, while 81% consider it to be an effective marketing channel. Additionally, 91% see it as effective in reaching non-ad supported audiences.
To top it off, eight-in-10 marketers consider AI to be very important when making a decision about what marketing company to use for product placement opportunities.
Successful product placement can elicit positive emotions in viewers – A little over six-in-10 (63%) of respondents reported feeling positive emotions (happiness, inspiration, interest, and/or curiosity) after seeing a product or brand in a film or TV programs, while 47% like seeing their favorite brands and products in TV shows and films. Given a choice, a majority (52%) of consumers would prefer to watch a TV program with product placement over advertising.
Consumers are quick to research products and brands they see on screen – Three-quarters (75%) of consumers have searched for a product/brand on at least one platform after seeing it on TV/film, furthermore, 57% of those consumers go on to purchase the same product, or a different product from the same brand.
Almost one-in-five (17%) made the purchase as they were watching, 12% did so within two hours, 14% waited more than a day and 18% took longer than one week.
"We found that 46 percent of consumers have actually learned about a product for the first time after seeing it on TV or in movies. That's a staggering number and speaks to the effectiveness of product placement throughout the marketing funnel, from driving awareness and cultural relevance all the way down to sales and marketing," says Erin Schmidt, Chief Product Placement Officer of BENlabs. "Combining the power of this marketing channel with AI allows brands to target the audience most likely to drive ROI for their entertainment marketing investments."
Ad avoidance is at all-time highs, with over 41% of viewers habitually skipping or avoiding television advertisements. Combined with a massive shift to ad-free streaming platforms, this makes it harder than ever for businesses to reach audiences through traditional methods. BENlabs' newest report, with insights from approximately 350 marketing managers and 650 consumers, found product placement offers a strong new avenue for businesses to reach, retain and grow their customer base.
Methodology
BENlabs surveyed 349 senior marketing managers or above with direct responsibility for marketing spend and/or marketing innovation at their brands (December 2022), and 657 US consumers (excluding those who work in marketing and advertising) about their TV viewing habits and views on product placement within TV programs and films (April 2023). Unless otherwise specified, there were no significant differences in responses by age, gender, or viewing habits.
About BENlabs
BENlabs is an entertainment AI company that integrates brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music and film content with guaranteed ROI. BENlabs offers clients the world's largest influencer marketing business, comprising the world's largest product placement, promotions and licensing agency combined with TubeBuddy, the largest AI SaaS platform to help 15 million creators and brands optimize their audience and channel growth. BENlabs works with the world's top brands and creators, including Microsoft, General Motors, Frito-Lay, Bloomingdales, Tencent and Reckitt Benckiser.
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Ad Networks, Advertiser Platforms
Business Wire | July 21, 2023
Brightcove (Nasdaq: BCOV), the world’s most trusted streaming technology company, today announced it has entered into a strategic agreement with PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM), an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future. The partnership combines PubMatic’s programmatic advertising solutions with Brightcove’s innovative video platform to enhance and bolster demand for the recently launched Brightcove Ad Monetization, a service designed to help media companies better monetize their content.
Brightcove’s integration of PubMatic into its marketplace will enhance the company’s comprehensive video solution for media organizations and publishers looking to maximize their advertising revenue, streamline their operations and grow their business.
“At Brightcove, we continuously look for ways to provide extra value to our customers and help them monetize their video content. We want them to be able to focus on creating their content while we do the heavy lifting to ensure the right mix of monetization partners are set in place,” shared Michael Dorf, VP of Global Ad Operations at Brightcove. “PubMatic is leading in the marketplace with supply path optimization solutions and new innovations like Activate, which opens tremendous new revenue opportunities for publishers.”
“We look forward to connecting with Brightcove’s extensive portfolio of media clients to deliver premium advertising solutions that will help them drive business results,” said Meghan Jacobi, Director of OTT Partnerships at PubMatic. “This integration provides publishers with unique new sources of demand through Activate, and solutions to manage and monetize their video content for maximum revenue. Through the combination of our platforms, we can also provide publishers deeper insights into their audience and valuable data about the performance of their advertising strategy.”
This latest partnership reinforces Brightcove’s commitment to forging relationships with the most prominent advertising platforms in the industry on behalf of its customers to provide them with a seamless experience that removes the main challenges to monetizing video content. Companies taking advantage of Brightcove’s Ad Monetization service include Atlanta Black Star, Buckeye Broadband, Cricket Australia, TVB, and WINK News, to name a few.
For more information, visit Brightcove.com.
About PubMatic
PubMatic is an independent technology company maximizing customer value by delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future. PubMatic’s sell-side platform empowers the world’s leading digital content creators across the open internet to control access to their inventory and increase monetization by enabling marketers to drive return on investment and reach addressable audiences across ad formats and devices. Since 2006, PubMatic’s infrastructure-driven approach has allowed for the efficient processing and utilization of data in real time. By delivering scalable and flexible programmatic innovation, PubMatic improves outcomes for its customers while championing a vibrant and transparent digital advertising supply chain.
About Brightcove Inc.
Brightcove creates the world’s most reliable, scalable, and secure streaming technology solutions to build a greater connection between companies and their audiences, no matter where they are or on which devices they consume content. In more than 60 countries, Brightcove’s intelligent video platform enables businesses to sell to customers more effectively, media leaders to stream and monetize content more reliably, and every organization to communicate with team members more powerfully. With two Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards for innovation, uptime that consistently leads the industry, and unmatched scalability, we continuously push the boundaries of what video can do. Follow on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Visit www.brightcove.com.
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