OpenX announced today that it is launching a new platform for publishers. OpenX Enterprise is looking to optimise yield across guaranteed, non-guaranteed and real-time inventory. The company is tieing its ad sever and ad exchange solutions together with the view of offering publishers a holistic approach to inventory management. OpenX has on-boarded Excite Japan, Groupon and Orange in Europe. Orange is already using OpenX to power its exchange - and will now use the platform to manage its top-tier inventory as well. OpenX Enterprise will also enable publishers to build segments using first and third party data - which they can sell to data buyers in the European market. ExchangeWire spoke to Jason Fairchild, Chief Revenue Officer at OpenX to discuss all the features offered by the new platform.

How will OpenX Enterprise manage yield across guaranteed, non-guaranteed and RTB-enabled inventory?

JF: Today many publishers find revenue management inefficient and complex because they have to utilize different tools to manage different demand channels. For example, some publishers today use their old ad server for exclusive and guaranteed campaigns and then use a separate and unintegrated service to attempt to optimize non-guaranteed and real-time bidded demand.

OpenX’s new platform maximizes publisher revenue by optimizing all ad revenue channels in one place. Specifically, OpenX Enterprise will enable publishers to elect to have all revenue channels compete on a yield basis, subject to their specific rules, e.g. advertiser exclusion, floor pricing, etc.

By way of a simple example, if a publisher has a guaranteed campaign at 4.00 CPM, and a non-guaranteed performance deal at 1.00 per click, and 8 RTB bidders (which come “pre-bundled” within the OpenX Enterprise platform), the publisher can choose to have those channels compete on an effective CPM basis, so that the highest yielding ad is displayed. In this case, the highest yielding ad could come from any one of those channels. This dynamic approach to having revenue channels compete is becoming increasingly important since the industry is facing a disruptive force as agencies seek to channel their dollars through more efficient channels such as programmatic buying, e.g. RTB, and publishers will need sophisticated tools to manage those new revenue channels in an intelligent way.

How does this “holistic” approach to inventory management compare to current supply-side ad server offerings in Europe?

JF: Well, the current crop of ad serving technology solutions was designed in the late 1990s, which is obviously well before all of the new buy-side capabilities that we have seen emerge over the past year or two. So we think our “holistic” approach to revenue management, along with our radically re-invented workflow and data management capabilities, and the fact that we are the only truly independent and neutral technology provider in the ad serving category, meaningfully differentiates OpenX Enterprise in Europe.

Do you think the dominant player in the market, namely DoubleClick’s DFP, has failed to evolve and match innovation on the buy-side?

JF: Again, without singling any one player, we think it's fair to say that until now, no company has introduced a sell side platform that can match the level of innovation that has been introduced over the past few years on the buy side.

And that’s why we’re introducing OpenX Enterprise, a completely new platform that combines the totally updated capabilities of a true premium ad server with breakthrough technology that enables publishers to maximize yield across all their ad revenue channels in real-time and in one place.

Do you think the huge investment on the buy-side over the last two years has disadvantaged the publisher? Is the ad server still critical to supply-side innovation?

JF: If you think about the level of investment that has taken place on the buy side, with DSPs, retargeting companies, data companies and other tools that enable buyers to surgically buy inventory based on a massive information advantage, that has indeed disadvantaged the publisher. It’s akin to throwing stones at tanks.

So in fact we think there’s never been a more important time to provide publishers with truly innovative technology that enables them to compete in the media space on a level playing field. Our belief is that legacy ad serving technology is inadequate to compete with the new buy side technologies, which is precisely why we’ve designed OpenX Enterprise as a “full stack revenue server” since it manages all revenue channels and includes ad exchange technology built right into the platform. The new platform arms publishers with the same level of advanced technology that buyers have, which we think is very healthy for the entire ecosystem.

What motivated Orange, one of the largest publishers in Europe, to move onto the OpenX Enterprise platform?

JF: Although we can’t speak for any specific publisher, it’s becoming apparent that a number major publishers, including Orange, Excite Japan and Groupon, are looking for a revenue management platform that helps them manage their advertising across all demand channels, and across all ad formats. That said, we are pleased that Orange has characterized OpenX Enterprise as “both more revenue intelligent and business oriented.”

Can you give some more detail on the Excite Japan and Groupon partnerships? Is the Groupon deal a global agreement?

JF: We're excited that both Groupon and Excite Japan are becoming early adopters of OpenX Enterprise for a number of reasons, particularly since their selection of our approach demonstrates that the platform is truly global, providing a new, and we think superior, choice for publishers around the world.

In terms of Groupon, they’re using OpenX Enterprise in two ways. First, they are serving ads on their own site. Second, they are using the technology to serve ads into their email campaigns, a usage that shows the complete flexibility of the platform. Groupon has actually provided a case study in which they discuss their selection of OpenX and the increased revenue they’re already enjoying, the details of which can be found here:

http://openx.org/insights/documentation#you-know-groupon----they-chose-openx-enterprise

Excite Japan is a top 20 publisher in Japan and their selection of OpenX is also interesting because it’s the first example of what we believe will be many publishers in that huge market using a combination of OpenX Enterprise as their advertising technology in conjunction with OpenX Market Japan as their ad exchange/monetization solution.

To expand a little bit, OpenX Market Japan is an online advertising exchange partnership between OpenX and CCI/Dentsu. CCI/Denstu will operate OpenX Market in Japan by leveraging its extensive relationships with advertisers and publishers to drive supply and demand into the exchange. OpenX will power the exchange technology and run the real-time auction – which is now of course seamlessly integrated into OpenX Enterprise for sellers like Excite Japan.

How will the improved workflow tools help publishers manage and sell their own inventory?

JF: If you step back and look at legacy ad serving technology, you begin to realize that it was invented in a totally different time, and many of the ways legacy ad servers handle ad operations are simply outdated. As an example, ad operations teams are forced to use an entirely different language than the team at the same company who actually sells the same ads. We like to think we took the same approach to reinventing ad serving that Apple took with reinventing the cell phone, i.e. if we were starting from scratch, how should an ad serving technology ideally work?

Our team has a lot of experience in this space, and after meeting with countless ad sales and ad operations groups, we knew that minimizing the need for spreadsheets used to facilitate the translations required to execute on a signed insertion order was a huge win. So we made sure that the new OpenX Enterprise could be used by diverse teams and would not require constant translation or spreadsheet management.

Can you explain how publishers will own their data with OpenX Enterprise? How does this compare with DFP?

JF: We're really excited about the innovation OpenX Enterprise introduces in terms of how publishers can manage their data. Every other SaaS ad serving technology is hosted under a domain name other than the publishers’, and other ad serving providers assert ownership of data we believe is the rightful property of publishers.

In contrast, OpenX Enterprise operates under the publishers’ own domains, and publishers have total ownership and control of their data in our system. And, since data is one of the foundational tools that the new generation of sophisticated, technology-enabled buyers have at their disposal, we think giving publishers total access to their own data, along with the tools to make data actionable, e.g. make it easy to sell against that data, is an absolute requirement in terms of leveling the playing field between buyers and publishers.

Can you give some overview on how a publisher will be able to use first and third party data to build segments?

JF: Again, we think providing publishers with total access to data, and the tools to manage data, represent the most important gap between buy side technologies and the current crop of legacy ad serving technology. With OpenX Enterprise, publishers can pull in third party data from any source; create segments from their own first party data with total flexibility, combine first party and third party data in unique ways, e.g. sports fanatics (sourced from first party data) actively in the market for new running shoes (sourced from third-party data), forecast against those segments, and, most importantly, have their sales force sell against those segments. All in one place.

This gives publishers an unprecedented level of access to and control over data, which is a key step in helping publishers truly understand the value of their inventory. And understanding the value of inventory is the most important part of leveling the playing field between buyers and sellers, and a key component in helping sellers increase their ad revenue.

Will this enable publishers to build and sell their own data?

JF: Yes. Publishers can create their own segments and sell against them with total flexibility. For example, if a publisher wants to create a segment of inventory based on users who view more that 20 pages of a certain part of their website within a given time frame, OpenX Enterprise helps them do that. If a publisher wants to create an inventory segment based on users who have been to their website more than X times in a given day/week or month, OpenX Enterprise helps them do that. Any combination of action, frequency and recency can be utilized to create proprietary audience segments and insights.

We also support geographic segments, demographics segments and behavioral segments. In each case, OpenX Enterprise can easily forecast against each of those segments, which then allows a publisher’s sales force to sell against those segments. And all of this data is fully controlled and owned by the publisher.