Aiming to remove what it believes are the common barriers to buying premium over-the-top video, the FreeWheel Advertisers division has launched new OTT buying capabilities for agencies and advertisers.
The move facilitates end-to-end automated buying within its Strata platform and the network of 1,200-plus agencies using the platform can now access programmatically the full OTT marketplace through exchanges and direct premium publisher integrations.
While these capabilities are available to all Strata users, FreeWheel believes that its offering is particularly important for mid-sized and independent media buying agencies who are often faced with barriers to efficiently buy OTT inventory. These include minimum spend levels enforced by demand-side platforms (DSPs), the complexity of managing multiple campaigns for local clients across different vendors and geographies, and lack of transparency in ad placements.
“Our clients are very interested in tapping into new opportunities to connect with audiences on OTT, but the solutions available to them don’t meet the needs of every agency,” explained FreeWheel Advertisers general manager Joy Baer. “We developed this new industry offering for our clients based on their collective input, which included the expressed need for geo-targeting, greater transparency and pricing efficiency. By solving for these challenges, we’ve opened up OTT for a new base of buyers.”
FreeWheel Advertisers will execute the buys through an integration with Simpli.fi, a DSP purpose-built to meet the complexities of localised campaigns. This integration is designed to make it easy for Strata users to buy OTT programmatically, similar to the way they buy digital media. Moreover, there is no minimum spend generally charged by DSPs, and no need to leave the existing workflow that buyers use every day for media buying and management.
FreeWheel Advertisers plans to extend its local OTT programmatic offering to all forms of TV, beginning in the second half of 2019.
While these capabilities are available to all Strata users, FreeWheel believes that its offering is particularly important for mid-sized and independent media buying agencies who are often faced with barriers to efficiently buy OTT inventory. These include minimum spend levels enforced by demand-side platforms (DSPs), the complexity of managing multiple campaigns for local clients across different vendors and geographies, and lack of transparency in ad placements.
“Our clients are very interested in tapping into new opportunities to connect with audiences on OTT, but the solutions available to them don’t meet the needs of every agency,” explained FreeWheel Advertisers general manager Joy Baer. “We developed this new industry offering for our clients based on their collective input, which included the expressed need for geo-targeting, greater transparency and pricing efficiency. By solving for these challenges, we’ve opened up OTT for a new base of buyers.”
FreeWheel Advertisers will execute the buys through an integration with Simpli.fi, a DSP purpose-built to meet the complexities of localised campaigns. This integration is designed to make it easy for Strata users to buy OTT programmatically, similar to the way they buy digital media. Moreover, there is no minimum spend generally charged by DSPs, and no need to leave the existing workflow that buyers use every day for media buying and management.
FreeWheel Advertisers plans to extend its local OTT programmatic offering to all forms of TV, beginning in the second half of 2019.
