New platform brings increased commercial opportunities and efficiencies to ecosystem
Index Exchange Inc. (Index), one of the world’s largest independent ad exchanges, today announced the launch of Marketplaces, an omnichannel platform aimed at helping partners transact more efficiently via Index’s robust supply footprint and advanced, modern infrastructure.
Marketplaces, currently in limited beta testing, is designed to provide new opportunities within the programmatic media landscape. The platform will unlock additional revenue opportunities for a variety of distinct business models, ultimately making programmatic media more efficient and transparent for buyers and sellers alike. During this initial phase, Marketplaces is being tested with a select group of partners to refine and enhance its capabilities.
Data activation platforms, curation experts, and commerce media networks are among the businesses that can leverage the platform to build and customize their offerings efficiently, leveraging Index’s extensive network of globally scaled integrations with media owners and demand-side platforms (DSPs) across various channels including streaming TV, display, video, and mobile app.
“The launch of Marketplaces marks the beginning of a new era in programmatic integrations; one that’s more dynamic, efficient, and streamlined,” said Andrew Casale, president and CEO of Index Exchange. “Marketplaces will enable customers to build and curate their unique offerings on top of Index’s extensive supply footprint without having to make duplicative integrations to the same media owners that have traditionally been a prerequisite to scaled success in programmatic.”
Audigent, whose leading data platform unlocks the power of privacy-safe, first-party data to maximize addressability and monetization of media at scale without using cookies, is one of the early adopters of Marketplaces. Collaborating with Index Marketplaces to optimize campaigns for buyers, it has effectively expanded their audience reach across various channels, formats, and media owners. Audigent’s initial campaigns in sectors such as financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals, politics, and technology have yielded promising results, surpassing performance targets.
“Audigent has focused on building a best-in-class curation stack and we are excited to now be working with Index, one of the world’s leading SSPs,” said Greg Williams, president of Audigent. “Together this solution drives meaningful efficiency not only benefiting publishers but improving outcomes for buyers. It’s a win-win and we look forward to continuing to partner with Index to deliver value and innovation to the market.”
Also among the global launch partners for Marketplaces are AdChat, Adelaide, Integral Ad Science (IAS), IRIS.TV, JWPlayer, LiveRamp, Multilocal, Reklaim, and SWYM.ai.
“We’re excited to be a launch partner of Index Marketplaces and to continue to innovate together,” said Sam Cox, senior vice president of product management at IAS. “Our collaboration will allow us to combine IAS’s rich attention and contextual insights with Index’s extensive omnichannel supply, ultimately curating tailored solutions that will elevate the effectiveness of programmatic media buying.”
“Multilocal’s proprietary Active Curation technology delivers high-performing supply across all verticals, and Index has been integral in providing a collaborative partnership that delivers both for us and our clients,” said James Leaver, co-founder and CEO of Multilocal Media. “2024 is going to be the year of curation, and we believe the introduction of Marketplaces further strengthens both the category and Multilocal’s offering to advertisers.”
Marketplaces also offers simplified integration for agencies, enabling them to tailor their digital advertising efforts with greater efficiency, control, and transparency, while being fully DSP agnostic. Agencies signed on to leverage Marketplaces to date include Omnicom Media Group UK (OMG UK) and dentsu Japan international brands (iProspect Japan, Carat Japan, dentsu X Japan, and dentsu international Japan office).
“OMG UK has offered advertisers supply chain transparency since 2020 through OMG Marketplace. Curation platforms are evolving, and we’re excited to work with Index Exchange to help power our solutions to offer brands curated inventory,” said Melinda Clow, managing partner, specialist activation at OMG UK. “As buyers, it is important that we have the right controls and transparency in place to deliver advertising in suitable environments. We deliver this through our Council for Accountability & Standards in Advertising (CASA), which Index Exchange is also part of. By partnering with supply curation platforms, we can make these decisions further up the chain, and in turn, offer more value and efficiency for our clients.”
This new offering connects media owners to partners with unique data assets, leading to more immediate demand and new ways to earn revenue, while giving them visibility into and control over who buys their inventory. No additional integration or coding is required for media owners, streamlining operations and allowing channel partners to select and connect with key audiences faster and more efficiently. Partners continue to use their preferred DSPs when buying through the platform, and there is no incremental expense for partners using Marketplaces, ensuring more ad investment goes to working media.
Index is planning a broader rollout of Marketplaces later in the year.
