With the frequent use of the DSP, SSP, DMP, ATD and many other acronyms (it’s not that we don’t have enough of them) but I would suggest adding another one to this long acronym list: the WTD, or the White label Trading Desk.

It is preaching to the converted to explain the explosive growth of RTB on this forum. Most research predicts between 20-30% of display advertising to be RTB-enabled by 2015 or 2016, but I think these estimations are way off the mark. The numbers will be much higher. In some markets this percentage is already over 40% and some Agency Trading Desks are already buying 60% of their display inventory through RTB! Awareness on the client side about RTB is growing and advanced RTB and data capabilities at agency level will become a standard requirement in client pitches.

The big agency groups have jumped into this market, and we have all seen how successful they have been in setting up ATDs, but the big question is how the independent, smaller and local agencies will follow this trend. The agency groups can obviously leverage their global presence and have been able to rapidly distribute knowledge across their global teams to set up ATDs in every corner of the world. For independent agencies this is harder to achieve. An ATD team requires a significantly different skill set compared to the traditional skills available within the agency. Where do you start to set up your own team? Given the newness of the RTB industry, it is hard to find knowledgeable and experienced staff. It’s not the same as setting up an SEM team where there is an abundance of experienced people in the market. There simply aren’t enough experienced RTB campaign managers, data scientists, ad server specialists and brand safety specialists available in the market. Most of them will need to be trained, but what if you don’t have the knowledge to train them in the first place? Or how do you go about technology vendor selection? You need different platforms for different functions, like ad serving, DSP, DMP, ad verification, creative optimisation and so on. Then you need different platforms for different channels. The more advanced platforms are starting to offer cross-channel capabilities, but typically you would need a platform for display, one for mobile, one for video and so on. In the end, there is an endless list of VC-backed technology providers that all claim to offer the best thing since sliced bread.

So where does this leave the independent agency? There is a need for them to jump on the bandwagon, but it is a big challenge to get a trading desk up and running that’s capable of successfully hitting campaign goals and keeping brand advertisers off of undesirable sites.

This is where a White label Trading Desk (WTD) comes into play. A WTD is a full-service trading solution which operates as an in-house trading desk. The agency is client-facing and, in close cooperation with the WTD, will propose RTB campaigns to clients across Display, Video, Mobile, Social and Rich Media. Once the campaigns are signed off, they are executed through a seamless workflow integration with the WTD. At any point in time the agency can see what the status of the campaign is and have access to a customised reporting interface.

Funbox offers such WTD services to independent agencies through our offices in eight countries across four continents. The key is that from day one of the partnership the agency has access to the most advanced RTB service offering across Display, Video, Mobile, Social and Rich Media. This is partly offered through one or more of our 22 third-party DSP and Ad Exchange platforms we work with and supported by our proprietary brand safety platform and our Rich Media marketplace.

At Funbox we see three types of agencies who use WTD services: agencies who aren’t geared up (yet) to run their own TD, agencies who have had a go at it, but realise it is not their cup of tea or agencies who need access to a specific channel, e.g. who run their own display campaign and need additional capability for Rich Media and Mobile RTB campaigns.

The added value of the WTD is that it allows independent agencies to compete with their global counterparts in the RTB ecosystem and keep leveraging their advantage of being independent.