In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the European region – in this edition: MediaMath partners with Rubicon Project and Havas to re-imagine the supply chain; Triton Digital integrates Centro’s basis platform with the a2x programmatic marketplace; ICO report into the adtech industry published; NGDATA enables marketers to design and deliver data-driven, individualised campaigns in minutes, not weeks; and Merkle launches transaction data analytics tool, Merkle Wallet, in UK market.

MediaMath partners with Rubicon Project and Havas to re-imagine the supply chain

MediaMath, an independent programmatic company for marketers, has announced that it is launching an effort to create a re-imagined supply chain that works better for the entire industry. The company has partnered with Rubicon Project, the global exchange for advertising, to architect a direct and transparent programmatic delivery infrastructure. Havas is the first agency to join the effort. The collaboration is the first in a series of initiatives that MediaMath will be pursuing.

"The current media supply chain is failing advertisers, publishers and consumers," said Joe Zawadzki, Founder & CEO, MediaMath. "We’re taking the first step to create necessary change by partnering with Rubicon Project and Havas. A more accountable and addressable ecosystem, with the right values and purpose, will only come if a motivated and united alliance of leading marketers and agencies, with the right tech companies and publishers, work together."

MediaMath partnered with Rubicon Project to create an accountable and addressable supply chain through an alliance of agencies, brands, technology companies and publishers. This clean digital media supply provides long-term sustainable solutions featuring end-to-end fee transparency, direct connections between buyers and sellers and focuses on the availability of brand safe, fraud-free, viewable inventory.

Triton Digital integrates Centro’s basis platform with the a2x programmatic marketplace

Triton Digital, a global technology and services leader to the digital audio and podcast industry, announced an integration between Centro’s Basis platform with Triton Digital’s programmatic audio marketplace, a2x. Centro, a global provider of advertising technology, operates Basis, a comprehensive and automated digital media platform.

The integration bolsters Basis capabilities for executing global, targeted, non-skippable, and brand-safe audio ad buys through both open marketplace and private marketplace deals. The a2x marketplace offers a wide array of global, monthly ad opportunities on premium content produced by radio organisations, professional sports leagues, podcasts, streaming audio platforms, and more.

Basis consolidates digital operations across programmatic, direct, search, and social campaigns. In addition, it offers an award-winning demand-side platform (DSP) seamlessly integrated with workflow automation for direct-buying, holistic analytics, business intelligence technology and billing reconciliation, all available in a single sign-on system. With programmatic audio ads included in their toolset, Basis users are empowered to plan and execute campaigns on all major channels and ad units.

“Our partnership with Triton Digital aligns Centro with a premier media organisation on the forefront of digital audio and podcast advertising,” said Steve Monti, VP, Customer Success at Centro. “Our users will benefit from the performance of audio, as the a2x marketplace provides robust and unparalleled access to audiences engaged with premium audio content from radio broadcasters, podcasters, streaming music services, and more.”

“We are proud to integrate Basis with a2x, and to enable its buyers to utilise the power and efficiency of digital audio to reach their target audiences,” said John Rosso, President, Market Development at Triton Digital. “We look forward to supporting Centro’s mission to automate media buying and execution through this integration, and we are proud to provide it with access to top-tier digital audio and podcast inventory from around the world.”

ICO report into the adtech industry published

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has released its update report into adtech and real time bidding. In a statement Simon McDougall, Executive Director for Technology and Innovation at ICO, says: “In recent months we’ve been reviewing how personal data is used in real time bidding (RTB) in programmatic advertising, engaging with key stakeholders directly and via our fact-finding forum event to understand the views and concerns of those involved.

“We have focused on RTB due to its ​complexity, the risks it poses and the low level of data protection maturity we’ve found through some of our initial engagement. Whilst we accept that RTB is an innovative means of advertisement delivery, our view is that, in its current form, it presents a number of challenges to good data protection practices.

“We have prioritised two areas: the processing of special category data, and issues caused by relying solely on contracts for data sharing across the supply chain. Under data protection law, using people’s sensitive personal data to serve adverts requires their explicit consent, which is not happening right now. Sharing people’s data with potentially hundreds of companies, without properly assessing and addressing the risk of these counterparties, raises questions around the security and retention of this data.”

NGDATA enables marketers to design and deliver data-driven, individualised campaigns in minutes, not weeks

NGDATA has announced a new platform that transforms marketers’ ability to tailor campaigns to individual consumers, enabling them to set up data-rich, insight-driven customer campaigns in minutes rather than weeks.

NGDATA’s Intelligent Engagement Platform (IEP) has been engineered to overcome the challenges of turning huge volumes of data into individually tailored campaigns which create a unique experience for each customer.

The Intelligent Engagement Platform enables any marketer to 'supercharge' their omnichannel interactions with rich and comprehensive insight on the unique Customer DNA of each individual. The IEP provides a simple and intuitive user interface that enables marketers to design and manage holistic, contextualised and individually-relevant campaigns at the push of a button. An evolution of the NGDATA CDP (Customer Data Platform) product, the IEP builds on these capabilities to further develop self-service analytics, orchestration capabilities and ‘out of the box’ use cases to facilitate faster time to market.

“Customers expect a highly personalised relationship with brands, but all too often businesses are drowning in data and unable to get the right message to the right person at the right time,” said Doug Gross, CEO at NGDATA. “Turning data into insight has traditionally been a job for specialists, and it can typically take around a week to set up a new customer-focused campaign with all the relevant metrics.

Merkle launches transaction data analytics tool, Merkle Wallet, in UK market

Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, has announced the launch of its proprietary transaction data analytics tool, Merkle Wallet, in the UK market.

Merkle Wallet offers clients access to the most comprehensive set of UK consumer spending insights available to brands. It is powered by the broadest industry view of credit card transaction data across the UK and augmented by insights from DataSource, Merkle’s market-agnostic data platform.

Nick McCarthy, SVP Data Solutions, Merkle EMEA commented: “Our clients understand that they must deliver a truly people-based marketing strategy if they want to maintain 'share of wallet' or drive customer lifetime value in an increasingly competitive landscape. However, market pressures mean that business leaders can no longer justify isolated data spend which doesn’t translate to growth across the entire business and a more unified consumer experience”