CANNES — Last year at Cannes, OpenAP announced the OpenAP Data Hub in partnership with Snowflake, to provide publishers and advertisers with cross-platform data in privacy-compliant environments.
The business is now gearing up for the launch of what it says is the industry’s first streaming data service, set to debut in early 2024.
“OpenAP’s role there is to build the architecture that the data service will sit on and harmonize all the publishers’ first party data sets and bring that out to market,” says Abbey Thomas, CRO at OpenAP.
Pushing the boundaries with clean room services
In 2022, OpenAP received an investment from the venture capital arm of data cloud company Snowflake, aiming to speed up the development of OpenAP Data Hub.
“We have now seen over about a hundred audiences that were activated through Open AP Data Hub in this quarter alone,” states Thomas, in this video interview with Tameka Kee for Beet.TV. This partnership is enhancing the buy side and the sell side, preparing both for a multicurrency upfront.
“Big data and new currencies are no longer just a vision; they’re a reality and the future of advertising,” Thomas adds.
But OpenAP isn’t done yet, according to Thomas: “We have no plans of slowing down anytime soon.”
Looking forward, Thomas expresses her excitement about an upcoming announcement that OpenAP and the JIC will be making on behalf of currency.
OpenAP Receives Investment From Snowflake Ventures to Help Expand Data Clean Room for TV Advertisers
The rise of multicurrency upfront
Thomas elaborates that over 30% of the audiences activated by OpenAP are on a new currency, demonstrating the shift away from traditional currency systems.
She says: “This is happening. This is real. Publishers have taken huge steps to advance their optimizers and advance their tech stacks, to be able to manage for different currencies.”
Agencies are embracing this shift as well, accepting with open arms the idea of big data and new currencies. Thomas explains: “Their clients are pushing for more of these options because clients have now had built apps, built ways to collect data that didn’t exist before.”
A bridge between buy and sell sides
While OpenAP might be perceived as more of a sell side partner, Thomas underscores the importance of serving both the buy side and the sell side.
“In my role, I oversee our agency relationships and I oversee our buy side,” she says. “And those partners are incredibly important to continue to push the envelope, continuing to innovate.”
This role of OpenAP, bridging the buy and sell sides, is crucial to driving the growth of advanced advertising. “You can’t do it alone without having the buy side involved in how we’re overall advancing investment and strategy,” Thomas says.
