Adify International has now rebranded as Tectonic and have signed a deal with Red Aril to push its DMP outside the US. Here Kevin Tan, CEO of Tectonic, explains the company's new positioning and the move into data.

Can you give some overview of the re-branding of Adify International? Will Tectonic be focusing on new areas?

KT: The rebranding is simple. The Adify name is synonymous with vertical ad networks. It is our view that publishers have many challenges in this new online advertising world and that there are a myriad of solutions to help publishers address these challenges. The digital world is undergoing tectonic shifts and Tectonic Digital Solutions will provide a range of solutions to help publishers increase both revenues as well as their audiences in the new ecosystem. Our rebranding and new name reflects our positioning in this new world. Real-time data management solutions have jumped the fence and now address the needs not just of the advertising ecosystem -- which is an early adopter of technology -- but also of enterprise marketers. One of the first solutions that we are bringing to our publisher partners is the best-in-class data management platform, Red Aril, which addresses both the advertising and enterprise marketing ecosystems.

How will the new partnership with Red Aril work? Will you be re-selling their tech internationally?

KT: Yes. We build custom solutions for our customers, and we have a strategic partnership to resell Red Aril as part of those solutions globally. This is a key step for us.

Who will the DMP be aimed at – buy or sell side?

KT: Both, and more. The key value of the DMP is building audience profiles from non-personally identifiable, online data and any additional offline data that our customer has. Our customer owns these profiles and can used them to smarten any marketing system that touches their audiences or customers. This solution is of particular benefit to publishers who wish to maximize the value of their audiences.

How will this new offering help publishers?

KT: To date, the publishers have been the most aggressive adopters of DMPs because they stand to gain the most from higher advertising dollars spent on a potent combination of quality inventory and targeted audiences. Publishers who have the ability to build profiles of their audiences while retaining control of those profiles will benefit the most.

Will publishers be able to sell their own data-sets using this DMP technology? If so, are you integrating with DSPs or other buying platforms?

KT: Publishers can sell their data or not; Red Aril integrates with DSPs. But rather than selling data, I believe it makes more financial sense for publishers to use their data to sell targeted audience. The difference is that the publisher controls the audience profiles and simply uses them to increase the relevance and performance of campaigns, content, whatever they would like. In the end, whoever controls the audience/customer data has the biggest lever. This is a critical point, if publishers need to retain complete control over their audience profiles and ensure that these profiles are not used by others without their approval to target ads across networks or other inventory.