In a significant development for the exchange eco-system in Europe, Orange announced today that it will make significant inventory from its owned and operated sites available to buy through the OpenX Market. Partner publisher sites working with Orange’s ad network will also be participating in the new marketplace. The Orange Ad Market will be self-service, RTB-enabled and will give buyers access to premium and non-premium ad inventory. This new automated platform will be a boon to European ad traders who have to contend with a dearth of quality inventory. It’s also important for the evolution of the exchange model in Europe. Now that one of the market’s biggest publisher networks has decided to put its inventory through this new automated channel, I think we are going to see other supply-side players following Orange’s lead.

The new marketplace will offer participating publishers granular control, most notably over floor pricing on inventory. The Orange Ad Market will also be able to offer liquidity to sellers in the marketplace as it will be able to sell ad inventory to media buyers through OpenX. From a buyer’s perspectives the key attractions will be: access to quality inventory, transparency, RTB functionality and the ability to leverage data and perform automated buys across Orange ad inventory.

The marketplace will be powered by OpenX technology with supply being managed by Orange. Orange will also attempt to educate media buyers in European markets where Orange has a footprint.
Luc Tran Thang, Vice President of Orange Advertising, believes the new offering will it make it more efficient to buy and sell online advertising:

Today, display ad buyers have to work across a huge and diverse pool of ad inventory and individually negotiate pricing across many sellers, without having visibility of other offers. Many publishers struggle to connect with relevant advertisers, resulting in badly placed ads and falling CPMs. Orange Ad Market simplifies and opens this entire process for everyone. It creates more value for publishers and better ROI for advertisers. It is a significant new addition to what Orange offers to publishers and advertisers.

This complements how Orange Ad Network already works with advertisers and publishers. We are using technology to automate a very time consuming process therefore bringing greater efficient and value to everyone. But an automated approach can never replace the knowledge and relationships that a network of professionals have, especially when you look at the branded advertising.

There is still a lack of sophistication in the European market when it comes to trading media, but there should be a good number of exchange-buying specialists in Europe to ensure success for the new venture. I think the Orange Ad Market is arriving at the right time: the DSPs have entered market; holding companies are primed to start buying in significant volume; and the market is moving towards the audience buy.

The following are the key aspects of the new Orange Ad Market:

- Operated by Orange and powered by OpenX, the world’s leading independent provider of advertising technology for web publishers
- Orange Ad Market is the first marketplace to be launched by a leading European advertising player, creating the first European exchange ecosystem
- Open to all buyers and sellers of online display advertising, helping publishers maximize revenue and advertisers engage target audiences across multiple websites

The press release in full:

Orange and OpenX Technologies, Inc. (OpenX) today announced a partnership to launch Orange Ad Market, a new online advertising exchange model designed to lead the evolution of online exchanges in Europe. Orange Ad Market will increase the value of display advertising by helping publishers maximize revenue and helping advertisers much more easily reach their target audiences across large numbers of publishers.

The Orange and OpenX exclusive multi-year, multi-country partnership will see Orange bring the benefits of OpenX’s proven global marketplace to European users at a local level. The initial launch will take place in the second quarter of 2010 in the UK and France with planned launches following elsewhere in Orange’s European footprint.

Orange Ad Market will be a unique and powerful combination of Orange’s local market expertise and supply and demand relationships and OpenX’s global technology platform and innovative marketplace design. The Market offers a new approach to online advertising marketplaces by allowing major companies in key regions to participate directly in building exchange value chains, creating the first European exchange ecosystem.

Orange, which operates Europe’s largest Ad Network, will leverage its strong and established relationships with both publishers and advertisers to bring them into the marketplace where the advertisers will bid on the publishers’ ad inventory in a real-time auction. Through the Orange Ad Network, which has a global reach of 343 million unique users monthly,** Orange has a deep understanding of the needs of both publishers and advertisers, plus experienced local sales and marketing teams providing on the ground support. This extensive local understanding will enable Orange to empower and support their advertising and publisher partners.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Luc Tran Thang, Vice President of Orange Advertising, said: “The Western European online advertising market was worth an estimated $13bn in 2008 and is expected to grow to $15bn by 2011*. But it is a complex and cumbersome market to navigate. As Europe’s leading advertising network and a major web portal, we have long been seeking to simplify this complexity, which is faced by all advertisers and publishers. We believe that Orange Ad Market is the first step in overcoming the challenge and our partnership with OpenX is the foundation. Their superior technology platform, uniquely open approach to marketplace design and world class team will ensure the success of Orange Ad Market”.

OpenX will power the Orange Ad Market by providing the regionally specific toolset required for success in Europe alongside the core technology and market design of the global OpenX Market, which already reaches more than quarter of a billion (250 Million) unique users monthly***. Orange represents the first major partner in a global, interconnected alliance of regional partners driving participation into the OpenX Market.

“We’re extremely pleased to be partnering with Orange to develop Orange Ad Market,” said Tim Cadogan, chief executive officer, OpenX. “We think fusing OpenX’s global marketplace with the best-of-breed regional partner in such a vital part of the world is going to truly unlock the full potential of the display advertising space in Europe.”

Orange Ad Market will enable publishers to maximize their ad revenue by selling their inventory via a powerful exchange where all classes of buyers compete for each impression in a real-time auction. The auction will be run for every single impression in real-time with a minimum “floor price” set by the publishers.

The Market will feature a number of key and unique benefits:

Benefits for publishers

- Revenue maximization: In addition to their own direct (guaranteed) ad sales, publishers can increase revenue by selling their non-guaranteed inventory in a real-time auction market in which all classes of buyers compete on an impression by impression basis.
- Zero economic risk: Orange Ad Market allows publishers to set the floor or reserve price for each impression, ensuring price protection.
- Control: The platform features enable publishers to keep control over their inventory, the ads actually displayed on their inventory and the floor price set for their inventory.
- Simple user experience: Orange Ad Market’s design allows publishers participate with just one click of a button. Sales are consolidated into one monthly cheque.
- Excellent support: All tools are in local language, pricing and billing are in local currencies and all technical and customer support is provided by local teams.
- Global access: publishers have access to a larger range of advertisers at the international, national and local levels

Benefits for advertisers and agencies

- Return on investment: Enables advertisers to increase their performance by reaching their target audience at scale.
- Simplicity: Orange Ad Market provides advertisers with simple and powerful ways to buy across a potentially enormous pool of diverse, primary inventory. Advertisers can immediately access and participate on 100% of ad inventory, while making just one consolidated payment even when buying across multiple currencies.
- Efficiency: Advertisers can define and buy ad inventory based on their unique criteria across a combination of large, niche publishers and a large pool of targeting criteria.
- Transparency: Advertisers and agencies maintain complete control over where their ads are displayed.
- Global access: Advertisers and agencies can by from anywhere and consolidated they buyings at a region level.
- Immediacy: Real-time bidding on both the client and server side and immediate access to auctions ensure an instant and fair bidding process.