A combined company will help customers take control of their data and address audiences effectively in the absence of third-party cookies

TripleLift, the advertising technology company reinventing ad placement at the intersection of creative, media, and data, announced the acquisition of 1plusX, an award-winning first-party data activation platform. 1plusX has unique technology to help both publishers and advertisers address their audiences with privacy-centric solutions.

The media industry has been changing rapidly. Third-party cookies, cross-domain and cross-app targeting, and audience choice are all evolving to better control user information. As a result, digital advertising will need to be rebuilt from the ground up. By joining 1plusX’s privacy-friendly solutions and TripleLift’s scaled media marketplace, publishers can better monetise their content and advertisers can more effectively reach their audiences.

“The combination of TripleLift and 1plusX means publishers and marketers will have a scaled, independent platform that is designed for the privacy-centric future,” said Eric Berry, co-founder & CEO, TripleLift. “Now thousands of TripleLift publishers can access 1plusX’s best-in-class technology to leverage first-party data and TripleLift advertisers can apply that same data to targeting capabilities made for the privacy era. No third-party cookies required.”

“We have built one of the most sophisticated first-party data management platforms in the world,” said Juergen Galler, CEO & co-founder, 1plusX. “Our core product, an AI-driven intelligence solution, takes in a client’s data, enriches it, and then turns it into precise audience and asset profiles in real-time. By providing user-based behaviour insights, our clients can activate them on relevant channels from the web to connected TV." Primarily operating in the privacy-advanced European market, compliance is at the core of 1plusX’s technology which processes billions of data signals each day.

Many of the largest and most sophisticated publishers in the world have benefited from these solutions. “Working with 1plusX allowed us to break free from several third-party data providers and create a full in-house data strategy in time for GDPR’s enforcement,” said Carsten Schwecke, CEO, Axel Springer All Media. “As a result, while most media companies were experiencing shrinking targeting revenues, we increased ours with the help of 1plusX. Joined together, these two companies are uniquely positioned to deliver the first-party data solutions essential to helping publishers like Axel Springer increase yield in the wake of the privacy changes taking place across our industry.” 

TripleLift is no stranger to cookieless solutions. It was initially founded by creating native ads for the open web, which are inherently contextual formats, and it offers data-driven Exchange Traded Deals (ETDs) – impression-level, outcome-based targeting signals that drive advertiser performance without the use of third-party cookies. The acquisition of 1plusX gives TripleLift customers yet another powerful tool and it reinforces the company’s ongoing commitment to supporting both publishers and advertisers through the coming industry changes.

The acquisition also allows both companies to speed up their roadmaps and bring new products to market. “We will grow 1plusX’s thriving business and create net-new products for both publishers and advertisers to leverage moving forward,” said Ari Lewine, co-founder and chief strategy officer, TripleLift. “Our ads will be enriched with first-party data. These new products are the scaled and privacy-friendly solutions our industry has been seeking.”

“Publishers are already sitting on one of the largest potential goldmines of data to fill the cookie void: publisher first-party data, which includes contextual, registration and on-site behavioural data,” said Paul Bannister, co-founder and chief strategy officer, CafeMedia. “This acquisition signals to the industry that a much-needed investment in first-party solutions is finally here and it’s being jump-started by TripleLift with this acquisition.”