Travis Johnson is Head of Cadreon Australia. Here he talks about the launch of the Cadreon online performance platform, the benefits of being DSP agnostic and how data integration and sharing between DSP’s allows them to leverage first and third party data sources for advertisers.

He also shares results from ZUJI, Hyundai and L’Oreal and discusses how Cadreon is driving 20% - 30% increased performance, while in some cases, also delivering higher value customers and larger average purchases.

Can you give an overview of Mediabrands and the Cadreon online performance platform offering in Australia?

Mediabrands is one of Australia’s fastest growing media communications groups. The business includes major media communications agencies Initiative and UM, MagnaGlobal (investment intelligence), Reprise Media (search and social media), Orion (barter), Ensemble (branded entertainment), and Mediabrands Analytics. Mediabrands Australia has 332 employees and offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. The company is headed by Executive Chairman Henry Tajer.

Cadreon Australia reports to the Interpublic Group of companies and is an independent online performance platform that enables marketers to reach and engage their online target audiences at any scale in real time. The new business maximises the effectiveness and efficiency of digital communications and is the first in Australia to integrate inventory and data from multiple domestic and international demand side platform partners.

Can you explain in more detail how providing a performance based ‘customised marketplace’ works and its benefits for your clients?

Weeks before we begin a campaign we collect data from our client’s key digital touchpoints to understand what audience/s are the most prolific and valuable in meeting our campaign objectives. By analyzing this data we compile a thorough behavioural picture of the most responsive audiences – what they are interested in, where they are based geographically, their gender, stage in the purchase process and so on.

We then create a customized marketplace for this client’s campaign; meaning we add our specific audience profile to previous campaign learnings and additional data sources and match this with the available inventory pools and publishers.

The net effect is providing Cadreon’s clients the most accurate targeting and efficient optimizations to quickly deliver significant improvements in campaign results.

Does the Cadreon platform provide access to inventory across casual social gaming, video and mobile? Will both local and international inventory be available?

Cadreon currently provides us access to display, video and mobile inventory on both Australian and overseas websites. The platform has the ability to adapt to future digital channels including both gaming and addressable TV advertising. To broaden our reach and enhance results in different verticals we have forged unique supply arrangements with key domestic publishers that are neither currently available through public exchanges nor wish to deal with our competitors.

Does the Cadreon platform offer clients real-time audience buying? What impact will programmatic buying have on online media buying in Australia?

Cadreon buys audiences in real time and to date has provided impressive performance improvements for clients. As agencies review their campaign results and assess what to include on future media schedules we expect that by delivering the best performance Cadreon will naturally grow share against other publishers or ad networks. Having said that, we believe that premium websites and environments will continue to play an important role in delivering integrated and innovative solutions that leverage the website’s content or brand.

How does Cadreon differentiate itself from competitors in the space?

Cadreon differs from other offerings in that it’s a single optimization, billing and reporting platform that is DSP agnostic and operates with a raft of Australian and international DSPs. As such we’re not relying on a few key players, and can plug in new offerings as soon as they are developed. Our San Francisco-based head office gives us a significant competitive advantage in that we are able to take advantage of DSP partners that may be established in the USA, but a long way from being set up in Australia and accessible by other agencies.

The buying arrangement Cadreon employs is also quite a different approach; we don’t believe in beating up publishers to provide us stupidly low CPMs off the back of big volume promises. We actually think that locking in rates and committing volume defeats the purpose of the real-time buying of the best performing inventory. To deliver on these bulk deals our competitors will need to pass on poorly performing inventory to their clients. Instead we’ll rely on our proprietary technology and smarts to buy the right audience from the right publisher at the right time, and pay our media partners fair rates.

What challenges do advertisers and agencies face when it comes to audience buying and management in the Australian marketplace?

Many clients are still focused on environment/content as a proxy for the sort of people they want to reach and are most comfortable aligning their communication with the websites they themselves visit. Buying from ‘blind’ networks and chasing a particular audience across a wide range of lesser known websites has been uncomfortable for some clients; not helped by some less scrupulous ad networks receiving bad press when ads have appeared on undesirable websites.

With Cadreon being able to reveal site by site performance data and share this with clients we hope to instil greater confidence and get over this hurdle.

Other immediate challenges relate to the availability of quality third party data (there isn’t much) and scarce people with expertise in managing exchanges and DSPs.

You currently have ZUJI, Hyundai and L’Oreal using the Cadreon platform, can you share some of the performance results?

We’re very pleased with all client results so far and in only a few weeks have more than two dozen clients using the platform. Whilst the measures of success vary by client, Cadreon has typically driven performance improvements of around 20%-30% better than their previous digital efforts. Interestingly, not only is Cadreon driving more cost effective acquisitions, in many cases it’s also delivering higher value customers and larger average purchases.

How does data fit into the picture? Are you leveraging first party or third party data to deliver more value for advertisers? Do you think the Australian data market grow this year?

Data integration and sharing between DSPs are an important advantage of the Cadreon platform and allows us to leverage both first and third party data sources. The Australian third party data market is in very early stages compared to the experience of our overseas offices however once organizations see our appetite for profile data and look into what they already have, then we hope they will monetize this information.

What trends do you see coming over the next year in video, mobile, casual social gaming and IPTV?

Even with new video inventory companies launching on what feels like a weekly basis, for the foreseeable future we expect demand to outstrip supply – particularly of brand safe environments. Social gaming was the big topic at Cannes this year and with the exponential growth of smart hand held devices we expect the time spent with games – and brands featured within these games – to substantially increase, however it’s still early days in being able to quantify to clients the positive business impact of gaming integration.

Mobile will grow substantially next year and offering a diverse range of possibilities to advertisers from NFC (near field communications) to more immersive custom websites, better targeting capabilities, reliable ad serving data and integration with DSPs and Cadreon.

IPTV is in its formative stages and will really change the TV landscape as we know it. From an advertiser’s perspective we’re very enthusiastic about the possibilities however there are some critical factors that must first be addressed, being the penetration of Smart TVs and faster broadband to Australian homes.

What’s next for Mediabrands and Cadreon in Australia?

Cadreon is enjoying exponential growth with weekly staff and client additions. We’re projecting the Australian business to have more than 50 clients by this time next year.

Ansible is Mediabrands mobile operation and we’re observing its rapid growth in the USA. We’re carefully observing the appetite by our clients and suitable market conditions for expanding this business into the Australian marketplace.

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