TTD and Bidstack deal

JPutter · August 29, 2019, 3:38pm

I saw this headline and didn’t think much about it, so I went back to the CC to see if they talked about In-game advertising. In the most recent call, there was no mention of it. Perhaps another new vertical/channel/opportunity.

BRIEF-Bidstack Group Announces New Contract With Trade Desk
Aug 29 (Reuters) - Bidstack Group PLC:

NEW CONTRACT WITH THE TRADE DESK
SIGNED CONTRACT WITH DIGITAL ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM, TRADE DESK, INC. TO BOLSTER PROGRAMMATIC OFFERING FOR IN-GAME ADVERTISING
NEW CONTRACT WITH TRADE DESK WILL MAKE BIDSTACK’S INVENTORY MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ANY ADVERTISERS GLOBALLY

stocknovice · August 29, 2019, 3:58pm

Green didn’t mention Bidstack on the call, but he did indirectly address in-game advertising during his comments on the Disney partnership. The key for me was where he outlined the benefits of real-time info from programmatic ads during live events. Given the public tension between cable companies and sports networks (including Disney’s ESPN) over rights fees, this could indeed create a whole new growth lever for TTD. The quote:

Michael Levine

Congrats, again, on the quarter, Jeff. Terrific acceleration. I – wonderful to hear the detail about Amazon. But one of the other things that was interesting to see, come out this week was about the partnership with Disney. And also in the context of their, they’re basically bundling Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu ad supported at probably a much lower price point, then I think a lot of investors had expected. So love to hear your thoughts about that, and how impactful you think it could be to business?

Jeff Green

Fantastic. So as you know, Disney has been so aggressive in the last 18 months and it is actually so exciting to watch. A few years ago I was really touting between the forward thinking of AT&T and I feel just so excited by what Disney is doing as a partner and as a consumer as well. I think the new bundle they have coming out with Disney Plus and ESPN Plus and Hulu Plus for ads is really great.

And I think it’s going to be successful. But in about that same time about 18 months ago, they approached us and we just started working together. We learned something in those discussions, which is that more than 50% of the views that they’re getting on their content is coming from connected devices. And they wanted to figure out a better way to monetize that.

As somebody who’s watched them for a long time as an investor in their business, I’ve watched them try to figure out what happens – what do you do with ESPN in a world where cord cutting is happening and especially with just the business model that they have for ESPN, say a decade ago compared with today. It’s actually why I am so excited about this partnership because, one, we anticipate getting access to a significant amount of inventory as they become more digital, but also I think programmatic is better suited for live events than any other way of monetizing.

If you think about it, when a game goes into extra innings, it’s not really conducive to planning months in advance as to how many ads you’re going to see. And most advertisers are not going to spend a bunch of time thinking about, well, what if it goes into 13 innings [indiscernible] instead you make your plan and then often what those companies have had to do in the past is give away those ads, the extra innings for free. And so instead what they can do is in real-time check what demand is out there, and also make certain that, that those ads are relevant and not overly repetitive like they often are in those situations.

So, you make more money, make a better user experience. It’s really critical when more and more of the views are coming online. And the only way to support that content with the optimal user experience of today is to welcome programmatic demand, so that you get higher CPMs on each of those ad views. And it’s the reason why I think us and Disney are strategically sort of stuck with each other.

We have a fantastic partnership. It’s not because we don’t love working with each other. We absolutely love working with them, but it is strategically obvious that product, live content and the amazing offering that they have is going to continue to grow together. And our great partnership with Hulu, I think it’s just indicative of what’s to come. So, a lot of bullishness on our partnership with Disney.

JPutter · August 29, 2019, 4:08pm

You’re absolutely right, SN. I saw that in the Q&A.

But that’s not what Bidstack does. It’s for gamers (eSports, etc). It’s advertising while you’re moving through the game (was gonna insert a Frogger reference but that would show my age…)

Bidstack bridges the gap between gamers, game developers, and advertisers by enhancing the gaming experience with rich, real-world advertising.
With Bidstack, game developers can increase the longevity of their games and advertisers can reach a growing, exclusive, and diverse audience of gamers.

invain · August 29, 2019, 5:16pm

I thought this was only advertising for eSports streaming but targeted in game advertising is pretty crazy and not something I’ve ever thought about. Opportunities are endless as more and more people plug into games around the globe. Their website says 2.6b people play video games across all the different platforms. To put things into perspective (I know this is about advertising and Netflix is ad free, for now) Netflix has just shy of 150 million global subscribers.

There’s been talk about eSports investing ideas on here before but the advertising side of it is pretty interesting. I still strongly believe eSports will be one of the largest entertainment markets globally within the next decade. Currently growing around 30% annually.

stocknovice · August 29, 2019, 5:41pm

Oops. I’m clearly old school in my definition of “game” in in-game advertising.

I didn’t see the actual release, so didn’t realize it was eSports they were talking about. Regardless, it’s another pie TTD seems to have a finger in. That never hurts.

Thanks for posting.

Commway · August 30, 2019, 9:21am

In Canada, we often get the “games” but the ads are sold locally. I am sure this is done worldwide but could be a huge TTD opportunity to help national rights holder’s do a more effective job in placing timely and effective ads.

Torquepeak · August 30, 2019, 12:07pm

If Amazon opens to TTD, I wonder if that means Twitch?

Torquepeak · August 30, 2019, 12:59pm

Twitch is not included in the ad inventory available. Twitch is supplied by Amazon along with IMdB

Darthtaco · August 30, 2019, 2:04pm

Some quick revisit notes on the TTD/Amazon deal.

Beginning last October, Amazon required all ad-supported programmers on Fire TV to cede 30% of ad impressions to Amazon.

This is essentially what was made available to TTD in the deal. This was the “walled off” part.

So that’s how Amazon and ROKU, which has a virtually identical arrangement, monetize their respective platforms. At least for the ad supported content. The publisher gives 1 out of 3 (basically) ad impression spots to those companies to market and sell.

The other two out of three ads are marketed and sold by the content publishers. They are often sold in a private marketplace similar to the arrangement Amazon has created with these DSPs and may or may not have TTD as a partner.

So just as an example. Right now I’m watching Serengeti on the Discovery channel app on FireTV. Hypothetically let’s say there’s three blocks of three ads. Amazon gets one block essentially.

TTD as it happens is a DSP partner for Discovery. So before the Amazon deal. TTD could win zero or more of the six Discovery bids for their client(s).

With the new deal, TTD can win 0-9 ads now. Previously it was limited to 0-6.

But TTD doesn’t partner with all the content providers either. So previously for non partner content, they had no access. Now they could win 0-3 of those ad impressions.

We called Amazon and ROKU(to an extent) “walled off” but that doesn’t mean that all ad impressions are walled off as 2 out of 3 ads are sold having nothing to do with Amazon or ROKU. Although both also offer services to help sell those ads too.

Before we think it’s not too big of a deal then, this opens up the 30% across a much bigger reach than what TTD had directly with partners. They may not have access to much of the 70% of inventory from many of the publishers like they do with Discovery Channel.

https://adexchanger.com/digital-tv/amazons-deals-with-the-tr…

Darth