The subject of ‘programmatic premium’ may still be surrounded by ambiguity and ill-definition, but the French RTB market nevertheless is driving on with its adoption.

Many saw the launch of La Place Media and Audience Square as the first signs that premium French inventory would be accessible and scalable through the programmatic channels. Platform-based video buying has also been on the end of a significant growth curve, and yesterday saw the addition of even more scale for that opportunity through the launch of stickyXchange by StickyAds. It is fair to suggest that France is majorly invested in defining the future of premium buying via programmatic controls.

Speaking to ExchangeWire, president and co-founder, Herve Brunet of StickyAds said of the launch that, “stickyXchange is a premium and private video exchange that serves to satisfy the needs of both advertisers and publishers. Essentially advertisers want both a brandsafe and qualitative environment. The best way to offer guarantees like these is to only partner with media groups with great premium content. Our adExchange is private because only publishers who qualify as media sites with good content will be accepted. In return, publishers have great control of their inventory in terms of who can buy their ad placements, their pricing strategies, blacklists, etc.

The launch of stickyXchange also represents somewhat of a major coup for the RTB industry: scalable supply of premium content. “Overall, we expect our 200 french publishers to be part of our video adExchange. All of our publishers are media groups, 40% of our inventory is from TV broadcasters, we have a historical partnership with WAT.tv, which belongs to TF1, who is the largest broadcaster in France and 17 other TV broadcasters. We also partner with Print group, radio media and pure internet players like MSN,” Brunet added.

From an operational perspective, the exchange will offer flexibility to each publisher in showing URLs on bid requests, but also offer flexibility around customised pricing floors on an advertiser basis, control around blacklists and also fully supporting the most recent open RTB Video protocols. StickyAds clearly believe that standard video ad formats, such as pre-rolls, will all be purchased programmatically; hence their investment into the development of stickyXchange, thought to be over 1million Euros and 15 months in R&D investment.

Unsurprisingly, the move by StickyAds has been met with encouragement from leading buy-side players:

Brett Wilson, CEO and Co Founder of Tube Mogul, comments:

“TubeMogul's brand marketer and trading desk clients are elated to be among the first to buy targeted video ads on StickyADSTV's exchange, which is bringing more top content from leading television and media companies to real-time buying in France and Spain than ever previously existed. This move is in direct response to major advertisers who are demanding the unrivaled control and impact that real-time buying makes possible, and the result will allow for branding across screens with new scale and effectiveness. As with all TubeMogul's content integrations, advertisers will precisely control the exact audiences and publishers to advertise with at all times.”

Jean-Baptiste, Head of VivaKi Nerve Center, France, adds:

“The launch of stickyXchange is a very positive sign for the instream video market and for the development of RTB in France. After Google AdX/Youtube, this is the first offering of full RTB premium inventory that will no doubt call the rest of the publishers to move away quickly, especially since stickyXchange is an open platform and publishers in contract with their competitors like Smartclip or Advideum might be tempted by the RTB experience with SE.

"Specifically for Vivaki, and its trading desk AOD Video, stickyXchange will allow us to increase further campaign performances through URL, by URL optimisation, a larger dataset from the publisher and flexible auction models. Also, stickyXchange allows us to negotiate and activate with some private deals with publishers. 2013 will be an exciting year for Video Adexchanges!”

Sebastien Robin, Head of Operations at Affiperf Global, adds:

“The launch of stickyXchange is a major step forward for the video RTB market, as we were facing a lack of premium liquidity in France. It proves also that both direct sales and programatic buying can coexist in the premium environment for the good of the industry”

It appears the French market has created a lot of momentum behind the adoption of premium buying through programmatic and sometimes (not always) real-time channels. The introduction of the stickyXchange may well go some way to convincing brand advertisers that premium scale can be activated programmatically, it just might come in the form of an instream video ad and not a static 300x250 gif.