Tech Talk: DDB, Facebook, Blis, Glispa, PubMatic and more

DDB Worldwide to meet at Singapore’s Equator

DDB Worldwide network has launched a global centre of excellence for creative technology and innovation in Singapore. Called Equator, it is the first such centre for DDB globally and will provide technology solutions for clients worldwide.

Led by Jeff Cheong, president of Tribal Worldwide Asia, DDB’s digital arm, it will develop, pilot and integrate innovative products and services for clients in areas such as platform engineering, experience and ecosystem, mobility solutions, omni-channel commerce, data-driven marketing and the internet of things (IoT).

Equator will be staffed by over 50 technologists from Tribal Worldwide Asia, the agency having spent the last six years putting together a team of specialists for mobile technology, user experience, ecommerce, and enterprise solutions consulting.

The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) supports the centre, and Equator will also contribute to the development and grooming of young creative technologists. It will set up a satellite office in tertiary education institution Temasek Polytechnic by the end of this year and participants will also go through an agile learning programme and work on several live projects.

Chuck Brymer, CEO of DDB Worldwide

Equator is a tremendous step forward for the DDB network to offer innovative technological solutions for clients. We are excited to partner with the Singapore Government and we look forward to creating transformational ideas and tools that can generate growth for our clients.  I know that Jeff [Cheong] and the team will do amazing work to help make this a reality.

Facebook launched new solutions for SEA businesses

Facebook announced it is launching new solutions to help businesses in Southeast Asia grow cross border and internationally.

The new solutions are:

• Finding new customers, in new countries: Businesses can now use a new feature in the Lookalike Audiences tool to reach customers in new countries who are similar to their existing ones. They can do this by uploading a list of existing customers or high-potential leads.
• Finding new countries to grow: Any business who wants to increase installs of app, increase engagement in app or increase conversion on site can now target people Worldwide or in a specific region. Facebook will then deliver ads to selected regions and then optimize delivery to the countries with the greatest return.
• Resources to optimize campaigns: To help businesses optimize global campaign strategy, the company is releasing new webinars and a handbook on international marketing techniques.

According to Facebook, in Southeast Asia as 52 percent of people on the platform are connected to at least one business in a foreign country.

Country	Percentage of people in [country] connected to at least one SMB within the same country	Percentage of people in [country] connected to businesses in other countries around the world	Top five countries
Singapore	69%	75%	The US, Malaysia, the UK, Australia and India
Thailand	73%	47%	The US, the UK, Germany, Japan and Singapore
Malaysia	76%	71%	The US, Singapore, the UK, Indonesia and India
Indonesia	61%	45%	The US, Malaysia, the UK, Singapore and Japan

S4M’s new Fusio platform features built-in fraud detection

S4M (Success for Mobile) has released its new Fusio by S4M platform to provide clients with a guaranteed anti-fraud adserving technology to identify non-human traffic and account for trusted KPIs from ad impressions to post-click actions within mobile sites and applications.

This development follows the company’s recent MRC accreditation, becoming the only platform currently certified on application installs, opens, and visits on mobile sites.

The platform features a new user interface, including campaign duplication features and drag and drop interactions. Now ad ops teams can set up complex campaigns in a few clicks. In addition to highly customisable widgets in each dashboard, campaign analytics offer powerful reporting and alerts for better campaign optimization, to remove suspicious traffic and drive efficient performance.

The platform is fully built on Rest APIs, so all campaign data can be automatically generated from the platform, making it easier for an advertiser to connect Fusio into an existing technology stack.

Pierre Wurmser, chief product officer at S4M

The new platform is revolutionary for marketers. They can track and analyse their customer engagements effortlessly from mobile touchpoints and access the critical data for strategic optimizations all in real-time. The advantage of a mobile-native platform empowers brands to deploy dedicated strategies and KPIs to evaluate impact and drive performance.

Blis launches global location­verified ad exchange

B​lis has launched Blis Exchange, a fully programmatic, location­-verified ad exchange available to advertisers, DSPs and publishers worldwide.

By working with premium publishers and global exchanges, adding precise location data to inventory traded programmatically, Blis Exchange is intended to eliminate the problem of inaccurate location data for agency trading desks and DSPs.

The exchange works across mobile web and in­app inventory. It enriches both formats with precise, verified location and audience data enabling advertisers to capitalise on this accurate targeting.

Greg Isbister, CEO of Blis

The value of accurate and verified location data is clear. Blis Exchange allows advertisers around the world access to value­enhancing data along with the marketplace to trade within. This will improve both the performance of location­based advertising, as well as creating an increase in publisher yield.

 

Glispa acquires Avocarrot

Glispa Global Group has acquired Avocarrot, to further bolster its native advertising monetization business for app developers.

Based in San Francisco and Athens, Avocarrot is a high-growth native advertising Supply-Side Platform (SSP) leveraging programmatic advertising and Real-Time-Bidding (RTB) technologies to help automate the buying and selling of mobile advertising.

Avocarrot’s programmatic exchange will soon integrate with Ampiri with a single user interface, a single SDK, and a combined integration of ad-networks and DSPs, all on the same platform. Integration with the Glispa Audience Platform will provide valuable user insights for profiling for increasing revenue.

Gary Lin, founder and CEO of Glispa Global Group

Avocarrot brings immediate value to Glispa Global Group and together we’re offering one of the top independent, native advertising solutions on the market today. With two acquisitions this year and the launch of the Ampiri native ad mediation platform we’re solidly positioned to drive monetization for app developers and help them reach their full revenue potential.

PubMatic launches revenue management platform

Automation solutions company PubMatic has launched Seven, a comprehensive revenue management platform intended to give publishers full control of their digital assets and provides media buyers with the ability to purchase verified audiences and premium inventory at scale across all screens, channels, and formats.

With the Seven launch, new offerings including the company’s Unified Ad Server and OpenWrap will be housed within these four solution areas of the platform, in addition to all of PubMatic’s existing offerings, including the company’s SSP, RTB, PMP, Analytics, Header Bidding, Curated Audiences.

Unified Ad Server is touted ad the first built specifically to enable seamless workflow across all ad revenue channels, whether guaranteed direct sold campaigns, private marketplace, private marketplace guaranteed, automated guaranteed, open exchange or integrated wrapper.

While OpenWrap, is available to publishers globally and is the open-source version of the company’s enterprise-grade Wrapper Solution open-source.

Kirk McDonald, president of PubMatic

The rapidly changing nature of digital has led our industry to focus on reactive strategies rather than solutions that enable long-term success. More now than ever before, technology needs to be independent, and to allow publishers and buyers to have control over their business strategy. Seven gives publishers the tools they need to build a competitive advantage in today’s complex ecosystem.

IPG Mediabrands & Innovid to improve viewer experiences across OTT devices

Video marketing platform Innovid have expanded its partnership with IPG Mediabrands, the global media holding arm of Interpublic Group, making the announcement at dmexco 2016.

The partnership includes the development of new products to manage IPG Mediabrands’ global over-the-top (OTT) advanced video delivery and that enhance the end viewer experience, such as optimized UIs and TV-to-mobile integrations for more engagement, as well as unified analytics to measure and improve connected TV video ad campaigns.

New products includes interactive TV-to-mobile (TV2M) technology that allows the viewer to input a mobile phone number with a remote control to receive extra content from the connected TV ad, such as a digital coupon or website address, via text or SMS.

Chad Stoller, EVP of global innovation at IPG Mediabrands

As audiences become more segmented across so many different devices, brands are thinking about ways to amplify messaging for greater reach and optimal engagement. Our collaboration with Innovid allows us to offer our clients unprecedented, cross-platform reach and a whole new way of thinking about video that values the viewer—rather than the consumer—as the most significant part of the equation, and we believe this shift will drive meaningful engagement.