Jens Jokschat is Co-Founder and CEO of d3media a German-based targeting specialist for data driven display advertising. Here Jokschat discusses the d3media proposition in Germany and the growth of data-driven display in the German market

Can you give an overview of the d3media proposition?

d3media is the first German targeting specialist that aims to create value in the data-driven display space by combining state-of-the-art buying, targeting and optimisation technologies. For both performance and brand marketers.

Are you looking to service agency demand - or are you focussing on the client direct piece?

We are open to both models. Our services do not necessarily require an agency to be involved. We provide a managed solution that takes care of all the technological requirements. From a client's perspective we drive qualified users and sales to their websites. Simple as that. However, we are also happy to tailor campaigns for agencies that either do not have the capabilities for utilising data and buying via RTB or those that simply want to enhance their media plans by adding targeted campaigns. Our offers fit into any regular media plan.

Have you built your own tech - or are you using a third party DSP to trade?

The question is: how can we create the best value for the market? I do not believe "frankensteining", as somebody recently called it, is a long term strategy. That is pulling together 3rd party technologies off the rack and trying to operate them under your own label. At the same time there is no need to build all tech components from scratch on your own. d3media will build its own tech where it can create additional value compared to what's already available and where it helps to differentiate ourselves from the market. I think not being dependent on 3rd party data vendors has a lot of value. Also creating superior business intelligence that helps translate campaign data and knowledge into actionable pieces of information has tremendous value. For the time being we will be working in part with established DSPs.

How are you differentiating your porposition from existing players in the German market?

If you look at the German market today, there aren't many players on the demand side. We have seen international SSPs move into Germany. Just recently they have started to gain traction. DSPs are at an even earlier stage in entering the German market. On the managed services side that we offer, I currently see two or three other players. The way d3media differentiate from them is it serves both advertisers and agencies alike - plus we don't focus on a single industry, like E-commerce. We strongly believe that generating, analysing and using data and programmatic buying can create value for almost any advertiser. Specifically brand advertisers are often underestimated when it comes to leveraging new opportunities in optimising efficiencies in digital media buying.

Another factor is that we are not limited to buying via RTB. As long as much of the premium inventory is not being made available through RTB, it makes sense to use our direct relationships with publishers and add their inventory where it drives quality and campaign performance.

Will you be looking specifically at re-targeting - or will you look at the entire purchase funnel?

Retargeting is something we do offer as a kind of one-stop shop. It's the lowest hanging fruit to add value. However, our ambition is to grow our clients' customer base beyond people who already know the brand and have visited the site. So more interesting will be targeting campaigns that address look-alikes of clients' customers and campaigns that combine a variety of targeting and buying methods so that we can discover and optimise what works best for a given client.

Do you think that Germany is at the tipping in terms of programmatic buying? Is the German market ready for automated trading?

Quite frankly, I do not believe the tipping point is reached yet on a broad scale. Why? Some publishers I talk to are still concerned about losing control. They want to keep the direct relationships to agencies and advertisers for the entire media food chain. They don't feel comfortable providing premium inventory to an ad exchange on a larger scale. The private ad exchange model could be a solution, but not everyone has really looked into that yet. Also, as far as I know, beyond RevenueMax and now Yieldlab there are no German players in the SSP market yet, that address German publishers' specific needs. So that segment of the market is still young too.

Also data has not been available in a way that allows the market to take off. Many traditional agencies do not have the infrastructure in place, to collect and utilise data. And I don't believe every agency will enter that game, because operating technology doesn't feel like their core business.

Both publishers and advertisers have not been opening up their data to the market. In part due to uncertainties on privacy legislation and the effects of the EU directive, but also because it is a very fundamental business decision to do so. Do I believe this will change? Yes. As the value becomes clearer, and legal questions are being answered, more players will join. But it just takes time.

You are backed by some senior advertising professionals. Is the plan to scale across Europe?

Well, the founders of d3media have a combined 40+years of online advertising experience. So we have a pretty senior team with great expertise. For the next year or so, we will be focussing on making clients happy and having a good start in the German-speaking market. There are still lots of opportunity here.

Given that display inventory is becoming available through the automated channels. are we going to see sizeable pan-european businesses being built in display (video, mobile, static display)?

I think the automation in media buying indeed is a factor that helps with certain aspects of going international. On the other hand, if you look at data, you need partnerships, you need to address local legislation, you need to talk to people. You also have to know the publisher landscape very well, if you don't want to limit yourself to RTB inventory. I don't think that automation in media buying alone is a good basis for any company to internationalise its business. There's more to it than that.