TV 2, JP/Politikens Hus, Berlingske Media, Børsen, Jysk Fynske Medie and Zealand Media are behind the launch of the new digital advertising platform, where advertisers are guaranteed Danish, journalistic quality context and full value for money.

It’s here – the Publisher Platform. At the end of 2019, TV 2, JP/Politikens Hus and Berlingske Media, announced that they would begin the development of a new digital advertising platform guaranteeing Danish quality context and impact for advertisers. They invited the other Danish media houses with the exclusive entry requirement that one should be registered with the Press Board, thus taking responsibility for the content they publish and consequently for the context in which advertising is offered on the platform.

Now the platform is ready in its first version, and in the meantime, more members have joined the association behind the operation of the platform. There are now six media houses behind the launch on 1st October: TV 2, JP/Politikens Hus, Berlingske Media, Børsen, Jysk Fynske Medie and Sjællandske Medier.

“With the large connection to the Publisher Platform, we can now offer a really strong Danish alternative to Facebook and Google. Together, we represent coverage of more than 90 percent of the Danish population over 15 years. With the new platform, advertisers avoid uncertainty about where they appear – here is easy and simple access to the Danish media houses, and guaranteed to only appear in a Danish, journalistic quality context”, says Kenneth Brenøe, digital sales manager at TV 2 and chairman of the association behind the platform.

A solution to the cookie challenge

Targeting on the Publisher Platform is based on contextual data from all participating media. Contextual targeting does not use cookies, instead you buy into the special content context that matches your brand or campaign message.

“Contextual targeting solves the current challenge of more and more users saying no thanks to cookies, which reduces advertisers' coverage by traditional targeting quite considerably. Contextual targeting works across all devices and is not limited by ITP, which in turn strengthens the breadth of the coverage when purchasing on the platform”, says Dorthe Bjerregaard-Knudsen, CEO of JP/Politikens Hus and board member of the association behind the platform.

The entire investment goes to ad purchasing

The Publisher Platform is run by a non-profit association. Each participating medium continues to carry out its own sales activities, no cross-media sales team will be set up. But the platform is common, as are the requirements for quality and transparency.

On the Publisher Platform, every penny invested goes uncut to ad purchases. Unlike any other platform, where the various tech fees are deducted from the advertiser's budget before exposure can be bought for the amount remaining, media houses here bear the technical costs.

“Publisher Platform creates new opportunities in an emerging advertising market. The goal is to be able to deliver good viewability and to ensure that the entire advertiser’s investment goes to the media, which then bears the technical costs and makes sure to deliver an effect on the campaigns”, says Kenneth Bejerholm Madsen, advertising director at Berlingske Media and vice-president of the association behind the platform.

Open ad technology

The platform is based on open ad technology provided by Xandr and with an easy and user-friendly booking interface developed by Nexta.io. A purchase requires only four steps, which makes it easy for purchasers to use the platform, whether as an advertiser you make your own media purchases or as a media agency you do it on behalf of the advertisers.

“Xandr is proud to provide the technology foundation for this groundbreaking solution in the Danish digital ad market. With this launch, the Danish media houses are leading the way in Europe towards a cookieless future and towards restoring transparency across the industry. The strategic clarity has been maintained throughout the development process, and here we really launch a new way of offering ad purchases” says Katie Blair, director Northern Europe at Xandr.

The ambition of the Publisher Platform and the timing of the launch are well in line with the dialogues we hear other publishers have across Europe. We are proud to see the Danish market be among the first, where publishers make their quality traffic available in one place, and that we support a platform that makes media purchasing of digital ads as simple as buying a flight online”, says Martin Jensen, CCO and founder of Nexta.io.