LOS ANGELES — In a nascent market replete with both opportunity and inertia, there is always a need to smooth off the rough edges.
That is why Sean Buckley’s company acquired video ad-serving platform last year.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Buckley, Chief Revenue Officer, CTV, Magnite, explains how SpringServe can help catapult CTV fortunes.
Magnite’s attraction
SpringServe’s technology handles inventory routing, customized ad experiences and advanced podding logic for CTV publishers.
SpotX, an earlier acquisition of Magnite, had already made its own strategic investment in SpringServe, which Buckley calls “a truly modern platform for ad serving in CTV, really built from the ground up for where we are now and where we’re headed as an industry”.
He says: “The relationship really flourished over the last year, and so Magnite was excited to fully acquire SpringServe earlier in 2021.”
Improving the experience
For Magnite, a sell-side independent ad platform created from the merger of Rubicon Project and Telaria in 2020, it’s the latest chapter in a movement toward the new-wave TV.
The opportunity is growing fast, with brands and ad buyers keen to exploit the combination of large-screen, high-impact creative and targeted delivery.
But Buckley says the early innings is also plagued with problems.
“There’s going to be growing pains as any industry sort of evolves and grows really rapidly,” he explains.
“Delivering consumers a reasonable ad load, seamlessly, without the same ad being repeated multiple times, without getting the same ad seven times throughout your viewing session… these are all problems that need to be solved.
“It takes a lot of time, effort and development in order to get it right.”
Eliminating duplication
Such problems were a motivator behind the SpringServe acquisition.
The acquired company’s Bingewatcher software, for example, analyzes video content, turning attributes into valuable plain-text metadata that publisher systems can use to fulfil ad demand.
The thinking goes, that extra data can help eliminate the appearance of duplicate ads to viewers, improving the viewing experience.
But Buckley says he also wants to see programmers and distributors share more of this kind of data, so they can do even better at ironing out the kinks.
You are watching coverage from Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2021, presented by FreeWheel, IRIS.TV, Samba TV, TransUnion & Warner Music Group. For more videos, please visit this page.
