COLOGNE — When programmatic ad trading burst on to the scene, it was as a mechanism to allow real-time, automated buying of lower-value auction ads.
But times are changing. In fact, the needs of broadcasters dictate as much. They don’t want to give up their inventory to lack of control and poor returns. So technology vendors are now offering them a half-way house.
“The television upfront is … philosophically opposed to programmatic,” says Federico Benincasa, the product head of StickyADS, a supply-side video ad-tech platform designed to let TV broadcasters sell their online video ads.
“In between those two spaces is ‘programmatic guaranteed’ – the ability for a buyer to commit to a certain volume or price ahead of time and, to the publisher, to be able to provide that inventory.”
That is what fuelled FreeWheel’s acquisition of StickyADS earlier this year.
“FreeWheel are coming from the broadcaster environment. Broadcasters were feeling the need to reach on a programmatic model but in a way that wouldn’t conflict with the way they are doing things.”
Back in May, StickyADS enabled the ‘programmatic guaranteed’ feature for European broadcasters including France Télévisions, M6, Next Régie and Spiegel.tv, enabling them to offer premium reserved video inventory to buyers, through open RTB pipes.
We spoke with him at the recent FreeWheel European summit in Cologne presented along with StickyAds.tv. Please visit this page for additional videos from Beet’s coverage.
