Deutsche Telekom’s Alliance With Equativ Strengthens Advertisers’ Ability to Maximize the Addressable Advertising TV Landscape
Deutsche Telekom, majority owner of T-Mobile, today unveils its partnership with Equativ to shape the future of targetable TV advertising through programmatic marketing in Germany. By leveraging extensive reach in premium digital environments and precise targeting, the alliance empowers advertisers to minimize unnecessary expenditures while airing their commercials, while at the same time connecting with consumers in meaningful and captivating environments, effectively capturing audience interest and increasing customer engagement.
This strategy not only maximizes advertising efficiency but also enriches the overall customer journey by delivering pertinent messages precisely when and where they matter most. For Deutsche Telekom, advertising is one of the strategic business areas outside its core business in which it wants to grow in Germany. This is why MagentaTV, its versatile streaming service, will enable addressable TV on devices from mid-2024.
Together with Equativ, the leading independent ad tech platform, excelling in ad serving and server-side ad insertion, MagentaTV will advance programmatic, ad server-based TV advertising in Germany. As a first step, Equativ’s subsidiary Nowtilus, the Server-Side Ad Insertion Platform, will enable major TV broadcasters to market their own inventory programmatically and in a targeted manner on MagentaTV. The Serverside.ai solution enables Deutsche Telekom audience-based replacement of TV advertising in the MagentaTV offering. With innovative strength, a clear focus, and joint expertise, the Equativ and Deutsche Telekom teams are implementing ways to monetize high-quality inventory in linear TV, FAST, and live sports. Additionally, Equativ’s ad serving expertise will be used for Deutsche Telekom’s own inventories, such as MagentaSport.
To further expand this business in Germany, Deutsche Telekom has engaged its corporate venture unit T.Capital in the initiative as well as Equativ’s majority shareholder, private equity firm Bridgepoint, to help maximize the strategic value for all stakeholders involved.
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Dr. Jörg Richartz, Vice President Sales & Marketing TV at Deutsche Telekom, assesses the partnership: “Addressable TV is a growth driver for MagentaTV outside our core business. Through our Magenta Ad Solutions, we will enable major broadcaster groups, such as RTL Deutschland and P7S1, to target their advertising customers’ TV spots on MagentaTV in such a way that they reach their target groups in the best possible way. Our partner Nowtilus is a central component in our technical infrastructure for addressable TV. The fact that we are now underpinning our commitment with a strategic investment in the parent company shows how convinced we are of their solutions.” He adds, “In the future, we would like to further intensify our relationship with Equativ. For our own offerings such as MagentaSport or the planned FAST channels on MagentaTV, we are currently examining how we can integrate and use their digital product range even more.”
“We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Deutsche Telekom and MagentaTV, revolutionizing programmatic TV advertising in Europe, especially in Germany. Leveraging our full CTV suite, we empower major TV broadcasters to market their inventory programmatically on MagentaTV.” stated Arnaud Créput, CEO at Equativ. He adds, “Committed to further innovation, this partnership opens up exciting opportunities for enhancing market-leading advertising and customer engagement products, to better support Deutsche Telekom as an advertiser through curated programmatic direct buying solutions. Additionally, it will reinforce our shared dedication to Utiq, positioning it as the premier privacy-safe advertising ID backbone in Europe. With Deutsche Telekom’s T.Capital and Bridgepoint on board, we’re poised to maximize strategic value, reinforcing our growth trajectory and unwavering commitment to the video and connected TV space.”
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Jean-Baptiste Salvin, Partner at Bridgepoint, added: “With several investments in the Martech and Adtech industries, including MiQ and Equativ, Bridgepoint has demonstrated its strong interest and capacity to back the most innovative and successful operators in the digital programmatic ecosystem. We are delighted to welcome the investment of Deutsche Telekom within Equativ to develop together the future of Addressable TV.”
Alexander Helmke, Managing Director of T.Capital, takes a look at the added value resulting from this investment: “We are convinced that Equativ, as an independent and innovative provider of digital advertising solutions, is continuously strengthening its competitive position through technological expansion and targeted acquisitions. In addition, the company has a highly competent management team that has made product development and quality its core task. We see great potential both in the company itself and in MagentaTV’s cooperation with Equativ. We are therefore pleased to support the partnership with a strategic investment.”
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Equativ Enhances Curation Offering to Drive Greater Addressability in a Changing Identity Landscape
New York, Paris, London, 15th April 2024 —Equativ, the global independent ad tech company, today announced the latest enhancements on Equativ Buyer Connect (EBC), a self-serve curation platform built for control and simplicity. EBC provides agencies, data providers, and media owners with an all-inclusive toolkit for creating, enriching, and scaling media products that can help amplify performance and grow their businesses. Following significant investment in the past year, and with the increasing importance of controlled media buying solutions due to the loss of third-party cookies, the platform now offers expanded addressability options, facilitating more direct, efficient, and transparent transactions for both buyers and sellers.
The extended offering also boasts a host of features driving innovation at scale and unlocking competitive differentiation using bespoke media products. This includes fueling simplified creation of data-enriched deals across multiple media owners with substantial reach. Buyers get direct access to high-quality supply from Equativ’s marketplace while media owners who make their inventory available for curation can gain incremental demand, driving equitable value across the ecosystem.
Additional platform benefits include:
- Creative versatility: Diverse audience targeting across high-quality inventory and impactful creative formats, covering connected TV (CTV), online video, and display.
- Efficient deal management: Ability to package multiple deals into a single deal ID to build strategic marketplaces around key strategies like CTV and sustainability, with greater transparency into the supply path.
- Future-proofed media buying: Privacy-first solutions like contextual targeting power safe addressability at scale, while Equativ’s partnerships with leading clean rooms enable secure and seamless activation of first-party audience data.
- Agnostic identity approach: Delivering advertising use cases (data onboarding, frequency capping) using alternative IDs across any demand-side platform (DSP), facilitating enhanced delivery and measurement of key performance metrics.
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Omnicom Media Group is among the leading media and marketing agencies using EBC’s curation tools to build marketplaces that maximize performance against its global advertising objectives. Highlighting their recent campaign successes, Carlos Aguilar, Head of Programmatic at Omnicom Media Group, shares: “In 2023, Equativ’s SSP successfully drove 50% of our campaigns with its focus on curated inventory, making sure our ads are of high quality and cost-effective. This approach is also aligned with Omnicom’s key principles: transparency in the supply chain, premium inventory selection, customer protection and quality brand safety, and optimization of competitive costs.”
Audigent is one of the forward-looking data providers exploring the potential curation creates to propel privacy-centric, transparent, and sustainable data usage. Commenting on the company’s long-standing collaboration with Equativ, Chris Meredith, GM of Supply Side Partnerships at Audigent says: “Partners like Equativ demonstrate leadership in curation through their significant investments in integration and infrastructure, which are serving to unlock the full potential of curation for their partners and clients.”
“The addition of further curation capabilities to the EBC platform helps drive our goal to streamline supply paths by facilitating clear, straightforward, and flexible deal creation, as well as smart data-led targeting,” comments Parag Vohra Chief Revenue Officer for Equativ. “ In the near future, the addition of immediate campaign activation capabilities will see Equativ become the only end-to-end curation platform.
To learn more, please reach out to Equativ’s representatives.
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Equativ and Greenbids Partner to Power Sustainable Programmatic Operations
Equativ, the world’s top independent ad network, has announced a ground-breaking new partnership with Greenbids, an advanced optimization engine that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to power sustainable ad operations.
Partnership for sustainable programmatic operations
The collaboration is a significant step toward Equativ’s double goals of increasing media efficacy and assisting in the decarbonization of programmatic advertising. In a revolutionary move, Equativ has made it possible for Greenbids to develop smart bidding models that support efficient and sustainable media buying by giving them access to detailed data from its supply-side platform (SSP). Positive results from early trials include a 40% decrease in gCO2PM (grams of CO2 equivalent per thousand impressions).
Environmentally-focused advertising
The union is a reflection of the increased emphasis on ecologically responsible measures to lower the carbon footprint of digital advertising, which contributes more than 3.5% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Players in the ecosystem are realizing the need for positive change and adjusting campaign planning, production, and execution to reduce the number of resources they use, spurred on by industry initiatives like Ad Net Zero.
Equativ-Greenbids sustainable operations plans
By giving priority to the most efficient routes, Greenbids’ solution will increase mutual deal value by building on Equativ’s extensive supply path optimization (SPO) capabilities. Media buyers can minimize energy consumption by reducing the number of hops and wastage by ensuring that spending is allocated to relevant inventory that matches specific country, device, and audience parameters. In addition to reducing carbon emissions, direct access to high-value demand will increase publishers’ overall yield; trials have shown an 83% increase in supply-side platform (SSP) revenue.
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Here’s what they said
Antoine Verselder, product marketing manager at Equativ said,
Sustainability isn’t a fleeting trend; it’s becoming an increasingly integral consideration for consumers and businesses. Until now, many companies in the advertising space have struggled to move with this evolution and maintain their bottom line — our partnership marks a pivotal shift on multiple levels. For Equativ’s clients, it provides the opportunity to gain a distinctive competitive edge and fuel greater revenue by layering sustainable practices into their ad operations. In wider terms, it also illustrates that environmental and profitability goals don’t have to be in conflict — they can be seamlessly combined and achieved. As well as underscoring our ongoing commitment to ethical progress, we believe this collaboration has vast potential to transform the industry at large.
Guillaume Grimbert, CEO of Greenbids, added,
In an era where sustainability and innovation intersect, our partnership with Equativ signifies much more than just a huge technical leap forward. Together, we’re shaping the future and creating a new paradigm for programmatic trading that’s efficient and ethical at the same time. Blending Equativ’s in-depth data with our sophisticated algorithms, we’re making it simple to automatically optimise bidding activity for profitability and purpose – and setting an example other pioneers can follow.
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Equativ Partners with IRIS.TV for Enhanced Contextual Ad Targeting
The world’s top independent ad platform, Equativ, has officially partnered with IRIS.TV, the only data platform designed specifically for organizing, connecting, and enabling video-level data. Through the collaboration, a new marketplace will be able to provide brand-appropriate, contextual ad targeting for online video and CTV advertising using IRIS_ID’s smart content identifier, IRIS.TV. Equativ takes pride in its brand- and privacy-safe approach to optimizing ad impact while upholding customer rights. Media buyers will be able to use publisher-declared content, AI-assisted contextual targeting, and metadata. It will guarantee that advertisements are shown next to the content that is most appropriate for their audience and brand,
What is IRIS_ID?
For video-level data, IRIS_ID is a global content identifier. Outside of fenced landscapes, it is utilized by the IRIS.TV Contextual Video Marketplace to enable marketers to target the topic of video across any screen in real-time and at scale. An IRIS_ID is given to a video when it is ingested into the IRIS.TV Contextual Video Marketplace. After that, this identifier is sent to several data partners via the bid stream, where they utilize it to evaluate the video content and supply contextual information. Buyers use this information to assess whether inventory is appropriate for a particular campaign. IRIS_ID is a useful tool for publishers as well as marketers. It benefits publishers by acquiring more revenue from their video content and enables marketers to reach their target audiences with relevant ads.
Premier Full-Stack Integration for contextual targeting
It is IRIS.TV’s first full-stack partnership. Equativ’s advanced ad server, supply-side, and demand-side platforms (SSP and DSP) can now use granular video-level data thanks to the partnership with IRIS.TV. Equativ will establish a new marketplace through direct integration where publishers will have easier access to demand from media buyers and be able to easily integrate the IRIS_ID to provide contextual ad targeting that is appropriate for brands for online video and connected TV (CTV) inventory. By leveraging comprehensive insights about on-screen digital content, the smart content identifier facilitates secure data sharing and makes it simple to effectively drive relevant advertising.
Benefits of the partnership
- Simplified and safe revenue generation- The IRIS_ID gives publishers a shared data signal that they can use to boost CTV and video ad revenue while keeping strict control over their priceless assets.
- Smart contextual targeting- Ads are positioned next to content that is most appropriate for their audience and brand when media buyers use AI-assisted contextual targeting, which is twice as effective as demo and publisher-declared content metadata.
- Scalable deal configuration- This refers to the flexible ability to optimize and arrange multi-publisher deals in the manner that buyers desire. This is all while creating distinct deal IDs that are easily obtainable by any DSP of their choosing.
- Strict guidelines- Data management procedures adhere to the same standards as large display advertising. These include brand suitability segments created in accordance with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) framework. Furthermore, it ensures compliance with the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
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Privacy-by-design solution for publishers
The privacy-by-design solution offered by IRIS.TV enables publishers to safely share video-level insights with advertisers. It assigns an IRIS_ID—a universal content identifier—to each video after seamlessly ingesting and normalizing all of the metadata for that video. Data partners have access to this IRIS_ID. These include Pixability, Oracle Advertising, and GumGum’s Verity for advanced enrichment and segmentation that is enabled by AI frame-to-frame analysis. Publishers can pass the IRIS_ID into the bid stream through Equativ’s platform. It will allow flexible programmatic transactions via direct, private marketplace (PMP), and pre-bid deals.
Deprecation of third-party cookies
This collaboration occurs at a time when persistent changes in data access and usage are shaking up conventional methods of digital media buying and monetization. The impending removal of third-party cookies in 2024, along with growing data privacy regulations, is making more contextual-based solutions necessary. Contextual approaches that can provide consumers with more engaging and privacy-compliant ads are becoming more and more popular. Brands, agencies, and advertisers are realizing how important it is to investigate alternative data sources. This is especially true in the rapidly expanding CTV space.
Here’s what they said
Sean Holzman, EVP, Ad Platforms and Agencies at IRIS.TV commented,
Accessing content data at the video level has been a major challenge for many contextual intelligence solutions looking to enter the video and CTV arena. The IRIS_ID is engineered around solving this issue and supporting an open ecosystem where video owners, distributors, and advertisers can tap detailed video-level data to deliver the right ads in the moments that matter. By integrating the IRIS_ID with Equativ, we look forward to providing advanced ad decisioning capabilities that are unique in the marketplace. This integration will also enable players across the industry to access and connect to high-value and privacy-centric data. This access will help them achieve deeper audience understanding and, ultimately, provide a better user experience.
James Grant, SVP and Head of Agency & Enterprise CTV Partnerships at Equativ added,
Maintaining addressability is essential to not only accelerate growth in the CTV space but also help protect its future viability. While subscriptions are becoming an important element of monetization strategies, the exploding popularity of FAST platforms means there is a growing need for technologies that help supply and demand side players connect and trade efficiently. We are committed to constantly honing and extending our CTV capabilities, developing contextual and curation tools that fuel greater yield without relying on cookies, and moving to become an ID-agnostic platform. Working with IRIS.TV to access content signals via the IRIS_ID is the next phase of that progression, which will bring a rich new avenue of data to make ads even more impactful.
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Equativ Incorporates NinaData for Enhanced Contextual Targeting
Equativ, the top independent ad tech platform, has integrated with NinaData, a Finnish buying intent platform. Equativ’s Buyer Connect (EBC) digital ad curation platform now offers access to NinaData’s sophisticated contextual targeting and buying intent features. Additionally, it will make it possible for media buyers to successfully target the intended audience segments with appropriate ads at scale. Additionally, it won’t make use of first-party data or cookies.
NinaData’s Buying Intent platform
NinaData has unveiled the world’s best predictive buying intent tool for digital and programmatic advertisers. It makes use of the most recent generative AI technology to propel brands’ in-the-moment web outcomes. With NinaData’s LLM, purchase intent predictions will be delivered in place of text or picture solutions utilizing ChatGPT, and marketers will be shown precisely where these audiences may be reached.
NinaData – Equativ Integration
The Buyer Connect platform from Equativ gives buyers a number of tools, such as real-time media planning, to manage their private marketplace transactions effectively. Advertisers looking for privacy-focused addressability solutions will have additional access thanks to the integration with NinaData’s generative AI-powered purchase intent capabilities. In a setting that prioritizes privacy above all else, this will assist marketers in reaching consumers at the precise moment they are making a purchasing decision.
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Here’s what they said
Valtteri Pukander, CEO of NinaData said,
We’re thrilled to partner with Equativ and bring our contextual LLM targeting capabilities to the company’s platform – by leveraging our buying intent targeting alongside Equativ’s Buyer Connect platform, advertisers can automate and streamline the ad buying process at scale, saving time and resources. Equativ is highlighting its commitment to privacy-first solutions by integrating our contextual advertising platform that doesn’t require any first-party data or user consent to provide buying intent insights.
Matthew O’Reilly, senior director, of platform partnerships at Equativ commented,
By bringing together a portfolio of partners that offer industry-leading data solutions, such as NinaData, our Equativ Buyer Connect offers media buyers seamless access to a multitude of targeting options designed to meet the needs of today’s privacy-centric marketers. Together, we are delivering high-performing contextual ads that drive results for advertisers and publishers while protecting consumer privacy.
About NinaData
With its main office located in Helsinki, Finland, NinaData is the first industry-leading Generative AI system that enables meaningful and private interactions between programmatic advertising operators and advertisers. The technical expertise of the NinaData technology team is combined with a wealth of industry experience and a lengthy history of developing scalable, high-value, and high-performance architectures for AI analytics of media content. The management and data scientists of NinaData blend methodological expertise with real-world application knowledge. They have previously held positions as co-founders of prosperous businesses, AI engineers, AI business managers, and researchers in machine learning.
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Equativ Partners with Utiq for Ethical Programmatic Marketing Practices
Equativ, the top independent ad platform in the world, revealed a partnership with Utiq. It is a European AdTech firm that offers an authentic consent service powered by telcos to support ethical digital marketing. The merger blends secure data management with programmatic effectiveness. Furthermore, it enables insight-based media monetization and ad targeting, driven by a shared commitment to safeguarding user privacy. With its Authentic Consent Service, Utiq better supports free and ad-funded services by providing customers with a more relevant advertising environment. Through real-time, end-to-end encrypted signal matching, it links Utiq’s Telco partners, publishers, and marketers.
Equativ – Utiq partnership
The alliance responds to the ongoing need for a third-party cookie replacement that operates successfully outside of walled gardens and ensures responsible data use. In light of the fact that many media environments have already restricted the use of third-party cookies in advance of Google’s 2024 deprecation deadline, it is vital for companies that are having trouble getting direct access to verified first-party audience data to use tracker-free alternatives.
Utiq’s programmatic integration
Equativ’s data activation capabilities have been enhanced through integration with Utiq’s service, including features that enable publishers and advertisers to supplement first-party audience segments with owned information and design unique auction packages. With Utiq’s technology, you also have the choice of quickly converting information that has received clear authorization into data signals that can be transferred across the supply chain, facilitating efficient and secure programmatic trade on all sides.
Users choose their privacy preferences carefully and then obtain their consented data encrypted. Equativ’s supply-side platform then sends it to the demand-side platform of each publisher’s choice. Utilizing distinct telco signals in this way establishes a solid, durable connection that works on all browsers and devices, enabling increased scalability for publishers and advertisers.
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Benefits of Equativ and Utiq’s programmatic integration
With alternatives available through open programmatic auctions, direct deals, and private marketplaces, Equativ and Utiq will work to provide a cookie-less solution to continue generating crucial targeting, retargeting, and frequency capping activity.
Principal advantages of the alliance include:
- Addressability measurement: Advertisers can attain and evaluate broad cross-environment and device reach, including cookie-free browsers like Firefox and Safari.
- Privacy Inspection: Passes rooted in consent abide by all data privacy laws worldwide, protecting users and enhancing customization while also driving up inventory value.
- Valid information Utilizing data only when a legitimate contract with a telco partner is in place reduces the danger of fraud, while never combining audiences prevents contamination.
- Greater sustainability: Reducing the number of high-quality partners in the supply chain and enabling more stringent ad frequency limits reduce carbon emissions.
Here’s what they said
Commenting on the partnership, Benoit Hucafol, VP of Product Management at Equativ, stated
Upholding addressability is vital to secure the future of the wider and open web. At Equativ, we see improving the availability and diversity of cookie-free solutions as an essential part of that; equipping media owners, brands, agencies, and advertisers with tools they can use to continue serving relevant and responsible ads. By partnering with Utiq and supporting their alternative ID across our advertising chain, we aim to empower privacy-safe marketing and industry-wide change, while facilitating effective monetization and driving our advertisers ROIs through personalized targeting and frequency capping.
Will Harmer, Chief Product Officer at Utiq, said
Respecting user privacy has been a challenge for the marketing industry, but considerations around non-compliant consent must now be a priority for all concerned. Our mission is based on serving the long-term interests of the entire ecosystem, and integral to this is that people should have the ability to share their data in the way they choose, with full confidence it will be used fairly, whilst receiving free, high-quality content in return. We’re delighted to be working with an innovative partner like Equativ that shares this same goal.
About Equativ
Prominent independent ad tech platform Equativ was created to promote the objectives of both publishers and advertisers. Equativ combines client expertise and engineering excellence to serve the interests of the supply side and demand-side. It does so with equal professionalism and technical sophistication. Furthermore, it empowers its clients to achieve maximum impact while respecting consumers’ rights. It also offers brand- and privacy-safe solutions. Equativ, which has headquarters in Paris and New York, employs more than 550 people worldwide. To deliver on the promise of advertising technology, Equativ provides the market with its own independent ad server, SSP, buyer tools, and media services.
About Utiq
Utiq offers a Telco-powered Authentic Consent Service. It is a European AdTech startup that enables ethical digital marketing. It enables consumers to easily and simply govern their data. Utiq assists in the development of an ecosystem founded on transparency and trust. Through its private and encrypted consent hub and consent pass solutions, Utiq enables brands and publishers to offer pertinent ad-funded experiences to their consented audiences while adhering to the strictest privacy standards. Telecommunications companies Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange SA, Telefónica S.A., and Vodafone Group plc support Utiq, which was introduced in 2023.
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