“For Publishers today, it’s no longer a question of if you should build one, but how you should  build it”

Given the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on ad spend, publishers will need to shift the way they are operating their ad sales. Building a Self-Service Platform is one key enabler to cutting costs and opening up new revenue streams, but the choice of how to have it built is not always an obvious one. 

Self-service ad platforms will play an essential role in the near future.
In the absence of Self-Service, the only way small- and medium-sized businesses’ (SMBs) can buy ads from their trusted publishers, is through the publishers’ sales team. This process is time-consuming and costly—but it is still the reality for many publishers.

As we covered in our last newsletter, we predict that when the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the SMBs will sit on extensive inventory stock and a significant need for building awareness. We talked about how it will become difficult for SMBs to advertise because of the expected surge of competitiveness in the ad market. Media buyers, planners, and SMB advertisers will have a hard time getting their new orders, paused campaigns, creatives, and change requests processed by the traditional publishers’ AdOps departments. Publishers will have to focus on serving the larger brands, media agencies, and planners, which will drive the SMBs to increase their advertising on social networks through their self-serve Ad managers.

The ad-buying process for the traditional publishing industry is still just that: traditional.  Calling up or emailing a representative to plan, negotiate, order, send creatives, as well as get statistics once the ad has gone live. Publishers needs to come up with a more efficient process than manually completing direct orders and working with each SMB advertisers individually, because  it’s incredibly costly.

By offering a self-service ad platform, publishers will be able to cut overhead costs with up to 90%.  Automating the entire process cuts down on both time and resource costs. It will also allow each advertiser to buy and manage their campaigns 24/7 which is a particularly important factor for SMB advertisers.

DanAds has encountered many different setups during our 8 years of building Self-Service Advertising Platforms. The main objectives of the platforms also range from cost-cutting to gaining efficiencies, to reaching new types of advertisers. Hearst Magazine, TripAdvisor, eBay, Bloomberg Media, and SoundCloud are all companies who are already benefiting from the advantages of  a self-service ad platform in different ways, and we see the trend spreading with a clear spike of interest from publishers within different sectors.

Developing a self-service platform isn’t easy. Setting up the software requires serious technology investments, market behavior and A/B testing know-how, as well as system integration expertise. There is a set of questions a publishers need to ask themselves before they get started. What is the primary objective of the platform? How many third party suppliers   needs to be integrated? What financial gains are we expecting and where does that leave us in terms of investment levels?

Given the level of complexity involved, it will be interesting to see whether the traditional publishers will have a crack at building it themselves or partner up with a self-service technology provider. 

There are pros and cons with both options but what we have seen during the last 8 years is that by building it yourself,  you most likely end up with a far more sophisticated platform than it needs to be due to legacy from existing use of third party systems.
Simplicity is a key success factor when it comes to setting up a self-service ad platform and this is easily lost when building a system from the inside-and-out. Using a self-service and advertiser-focused set of eyes is something that we would recommend to anyone going through this process.

Whatever route you choose – the self-serve ad platform-based model is where the publishers need to be headed, and with the right technology partner, you can transform your organization, and meet the market faster.

Want to bounce off ideas and learn more about navigating through the jungle of Self-Service Advertising choices? Reach out and we’ll talk!

We are proud to announce that Techarenan, a known entity in the Nordics within stimulating entrepreneurship and growth, have named DanAds as one of the 50 most innovative and promising companies in the Nordics!

Techarenan is a platform for innovation and entrepreneurship that brings together the most innovative startups from the Nordics, industry leading companies, policy makers and politicians. A platform created to boost innovation and stimulate growth in the Nordics.

We are looking forward to the finals in November!

Read more about TechArenan Challenge and the nominated companies here:

Finalbolag 2020

Current effect on Ad spend and Post-Corona prediction by our Co-founder Peo Persson 

It has hardly escaped anyone that the advertising market, along with most industries, is taking a massive hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a new report by IAB US, nearly  ¾ of media buyers, planners, and direct advertisers believe that the current crisis will have a more significant impact on advertising than the 2008 financial crisis. Seventy percent of buyers have already adjusted or paused their planned ad spend.

Furthermore, a study conducted by Econsultancy shows that even though the majority of marketers (77 percent in the UK and 64 percent in North America) predict consumer delays in significant spending decisions, most also predict a rise in other areas. Ninety-one percent of the UK and 87 percent of North American marketers predict an increase in the use of online services.

Given COVID-19 impact on the advertising industry, it is clear that self-service ad-buying platforms will play an essential role in the future of the industry. We predict that when the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the small, medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will sit on a large stock of inventory, and a significant need for building awareness. 

It will become even more difficult for SMBs to get the awareness of their service or products because the market will face the most prominent competitiveness that we’ve seen in a long time. Media buyers, planners, and SMB advertisers will have a hard time getting their orders, paused campaigns, creatives, and change requests processed by the traditional media AdOps organizations. This due to the fact that they will be understaffed and overworked. AdOps’ focus will be serving the larger brands, media agencies, and planners, which in turn will drive the  local and regional SMBs to increase their advertising on social networks.

The traditional media could quickly solve their internal issues by following the same steps of Hearst Magazine, TripAdvisor, eBay, and Bloomberg Media by evolving Ad Operations into a self-service model, offering self-service ad-buying features. By providing self-service tools, media owners can accept low-value deal and reduce Ad Sales and AdOps workload by 90%. Working with the right self-service infrastructure that syncs with all internal Ops and Management systems, all campaign information will be automatically passed into the operational system from the advertisers’ order check-out.

DanAds relevant expertise, passion for the Ad technology, market knowledge, and commitment to results make us the global leading provider of sophisticated self-service ad technology, and your best partner to start guiding you to evolving your Ad Operations into a self-service model.

Peo Persson, Co-founder and Executive Vice President Sales, DanAds

Bloomberg Media today launched Boost, a self-serve mobile advertising tool that allows brands to optimize and amplify existing social media content for quick distribution across Bloomberg’s trusted editorial ecosystem. With Boost, marketers can easily repurpose social assets into display ads within Bloomberg Media’s premium inventory, enabling them to improve and track performance, and significantly increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.

This new solution helps brands of all sizes maximize the social content they’ve already created to connect with Bloomberg Media’s unrivaled audience of business decision-makers — with no additional production, overhead or creative work necessary.

“With the launch of Boost we are able to provide brands both big and small with new, innovative advertising solutions that reflect their needs in a rapidly evolving media landscape,” said Spencer Sloe, Global Head of Ad Product and Innovation at Bloomberg Media. “With just a few clicks, marketers can connect with our highly engaged audience by integrating their social ads alongside Bloomberg Media’s trusted editorial content.

Built in partnership with global ad tech platforms Polar and DanAds, Boost enables brands to strategically target Bloomberg Media’s influential audience, using an on-demand option to deploy new phases of campaigns already created and appearing on their owned channels across most major social platforms.

Boost is the latest addition to Compass, Bloomberg Media’s suite of innovative digital advertising products. The Compass portfolio provides partners with a full spectrum of messaging solutions ranging from the turn-key Ad.apt format, to the tech-forward amplification tools such as TRIGR, and the new collaborative Spotlight approach, which leverages Bloomberg Media’s multi-disciplinary team of creatives, data scientists, and technologists to develop highly customized, premium ad experiences tailored to brand objectives.

Read the Interview with Spencer Sloe from Bloomberg Media

Are you a publisher with your own paid or opt-in customers? 

Then DanAds Promote Technology would allow your signed-in customers to easily advertise their content in front of more potential readers on your website. If implemented effectively it will give your sales figures a boost and help your customers gain more visibility and sales.
Judging by the success of Amazon Promoted Products, which half of all Amazon sellers are estimated to use, we are convinced that many digital services could get the same effect using DanAds Promote Technology.
As with everything we do, our Promote Technology is a 100% Self-Service Solution, so your customers can build, book, manage and pay for their promotions without your involvement.

Read more why you should use promote and subscribe to our newsletter

DanAds, the world-leading provider of Self-Service Advertising infrastructure, has previously attracted some of the world’s biggest digital properties, such as eBay, TripAdvisor, Hearst Magazines, Discogs, Philips, and Bloomberg Media. Now, the company announces their latest addition to their client list – Philippine’s number one online publisher ABS-CBN.

ABS-CBN Corporation is the Philippines’ leading media and entertainment organization. It is primarily involved in content creation and production for television, online, and over-the-top platforms, cable, satellite, cinema, live events, and radio for domestic and international markets. ABS-CBN is now able to streamline their ad operations and expand their offering to advertisers with the launch of DASH; Digital Advertising Self-serve Hub.

ABS-CBN DASH is utilizing a custom self-service technology from DanAds to power a new advertising tool for ABS-CBN websites, that enables advertisers to set up orders, manage campaigns and build their creatives.

“This is an excellent partnership for DanAds. ABS-CBN operates various engaging platforms, including television, radio, OTT, and online platforms. Working with clients such as ABS-CBN will add even more knowledge to our platform offerings, based on all their media
services, says Peo Persson, co-founder at DanAds.

“DanAds offered an easy and flexible solution for developing a robust self-service solution for our community. We see a lot of excitement around the tool thus far, and look forward to our continued work together,” says Elaine Uy-Caspit, OIC-Head of Digital Media Division at ABS-CBN.”

About ABS-CBN

ABS-CBN Corporation is the Philippines’ leading media and entertainment organization. The Company is primarily involved in television and radio broadcasting, as well as in the production of television and radio programming for domestic and international audiences and other related businesses. ABS-CBN produces a wide variety of engaging world-class entertainment programs in multiple genres and balanced, credible news programs that are aired on free-to-air television. The company is also one of the leading radio broadcasters, operating eighteen radio stations throughout the key cities of the Philippines. ABS-CBN provides news and entertainment programming for eight channels on cable TV and operates the country’s largest cable TV service provider. The Company also owns the leading cinema and music production and distribution outfits in the country. It brings its content to worldwide audiences via cable, satellite, online and mobile.  In addition, ABS-CBN has business interests in merchandising and licensing, mobile and online multimedia services, glossy magazine publishing, video and audio post-production, overseas telecommunication services, money remittance, cargo forwarding, TV shopping services, theme park development and management, property management and food and restaurant services, and cinema management, all of which complement and enhance the Company’s strength in content production and distribution. The Company is also the first TV network in the country to broadcast in digital. In 2015, it commercially rolled out its digital TV box, ABS-CBN TVplus, to prepare for the country’s switch to digital TV.

DanAds, today announced SoundCloud, the world’s largest music and audio streaming platform, as their latest client to use their self-service ad technology.

DanAds, one of the fastest-growing media tech-companies, has already attracted some of the most prominent players in the ad industry, such as eBay, Discogs, Hearst, Philips, and Bloomberg Media. Now, the company announces yet another successful partnership with SoundCloud.

“Personally, SoundCloud is a company that I really love, and I’m a big fan of it. This partnership will add even more knowledge to our platform offering against streaming services. We have been working with both the music and video industry for a couple of years, and we see now how our structure fits the needs streaming platforms like SoundCloud is looking into exploring, says Peo Persson, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at DanAds.

“Through our industry-leading self-service infrastructure, SoundCloud will be able to secure future scalability regarding guaranteed direct advertising. Their platform is white-labeled and integrated directly with the SoundCloud users’ accounts. Artist or labels can promote a song or an album, with just a click on a button.”

SoundCloud is the world’s largest music and audio streaming platform – 200 million tracks and growing. With a buzzing community of artists and musicians constantly uploading new music, SoundCloud is where users can find the next significant artists alongside chart-topping albums, live sets, and mixes for every occasion.

“For us, DanAds solution offered the best and most flexible way for us to engage in the self-service advertising space. “We’re very excited about the partnership and the launch,” says Jeffrey Mayer, Director of Commercial Partnerships at SoundCloud.

“We have done tests the last months with a couple of hundred users, and we are happy with the results. We have seen an immediate need to create better efficiencies and minimize touchpoints when SoundCloud users want to promote an artist or songs”.  

In this monthly newsletter, we aim to keep you updated within the Self-Service field, our Company, and Industry Developments.
This time you will hear an update on our latest partnerships from our co-founder, a short debrief from our last event, as well as greetings from our world-class DanAds team.
Click and read the full newsletter here!

We believe it’s essential to do everything we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Starting from last week, we have implemented a work-from-home strategy for all employees. As we work in a digital, global company; we do not anticipate any service disruptions and will be supporting both our clients and employees with the challenges they are facing due to COVID-19.

We just came back from a very successful AdMonsters Publisher Forum in Santa Monica, right before Covid-19 started escalating for real. This was AdMonsters 50th Publisher Forum so far, so they know how to make them! Attending the conference was a whole bunch of Publishers and Sponsoring Tech Providers, including some of the biggest Publishers in the US, eg. Bloomberg, Hulu, Fox, CBS, Expedia, NY Times, and Disney.
The main objective for us was, of course, connecting with both existing and potential clients as well as taking part in the main topics our clients are dealing with daily. Some of the key topics circulating the conference were about Publishers monetizing their 1st party data and insights, offering brand safety, complying with CCPA regulations, re-evaluating their revenue mix, as well as delivering relevant content and ads for end-users.
Building on this, we had the opportunity to share our perspective at our break-out session, covering how Publishers can Evolve their Ad-Operations through Self-Service.

Read the full presentation here!