Place Exchange, an SSP for out-of-home, completed its spinout from its former parent company Intersection, a major OOH publisher. Ari Buchalter, who served as CEO for both companies, now takes over as CEO of Place Exchange. Previous COO of Intersection, Chris Grosso, replaces Buchalter as CEO of the publisher.

In anticipation of vaccine rollouts and public spaces opening back up, out-of-home was expected to be a leading channel for advertisers in 2021. According to Buchalter, the expansion of programmatic capabilities within OOH saw triple-digit growth for Place Exchange, even during the worst times in 2020. And in the first four months of 2021, Place Exchange had already matched the sales of the previous year, he added.

So while many advertisers were pulling back on their OOH spending overall, the introduction of more programmatic inventory and reporting functions offered something new for advertisers to try in the heart of the pandemic. Place Exchange was always open to other publishers, even when it was operated by Intersection as parent company. But now, Place Exchange looks to continue to evolve the OOH space by introducing more independence.

“It’s critically important to have an open, transparent and independent SSP fully aligned with media owners,” said Buchalter.

With programmatic OOH, advertisers can integrate their spend in the channel with other programmatic media. “When we integrate the SSP with a DSP like The Trade Desk, Amobee or others, advertisers are experiencing the exact same workflows, same exact reports, and attribution in a way that no other supply-side platform has done,” Buchalter added.

Advertisers can now choose from a great deal of premium inventory to cover national or local markets and select the screens that index high against their target, he said. On the flip side, advertisers using Place Exchange can also measure performance after the ad exposure, in the form of other actions taken by consumers on digital channels and in-store.

Why we care. OOH as a programmatic channel is a gamechanger for marketers looking to reach consumers who are out in the world and close to purchase. By streamlining the OOH buy, brands save time and extra cost incurred when OOH is managed offline through individual sales calls. Another part of the OOH ecosystem we’re watching is the way in which publishers are generating non-ad content on video OOH displays to entice viewers. Marketers will find this inventory more brand safe than running the same ads on social platforms alongside controversial user-generated content.

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To ensure that customers and prospects have ideal interactions with their brands at every touchpoint, marketers first need in-depth information about the journey that buyers currently navigate on their way to making a purchase, as well as how they interact post-purchase. In addition, businesses must understand what customers and prospects are trying to achieve and how existing touchpoints are falling short.

“Right now, an experience renaissance is afoot,” says Accenture Interactive, declaring that entire businesses should be organized around the delivery of exceptional experiences that respond to customers’ “new, often unmet and frequently changing needs and enable them to achieve their desired outcomes.”

Great customer experiences are easier to imagine than to actually understand and deliver, however, which is why tools that help marketers analyze the customer journey — customer journey analytics (CJA) software — are finding a spot in businesses’ technology stacks. That’s also why we’ve just unveiled an all-new MarTech Intelligence Report exploring the sector on marketers’ behalf. We found interest in these solutions driven by the complexity of the customer journey, a result of the proliferation of devices and customer touchpoints, as well as evolving consumer behavior.

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It seems as though marketers have been stuck with the same ad channels for a while now. But with its data-driven approach to measurement and targeting, the rise of Connected TV advertising has made it a viable third ad channel for those looking to differentiate from the competition. Learn how it’s possible to utilize Connected TV as a performance marketing channel similar to other tried and true methods. We’ll explore everything from targeting in-market audiences to tracking conversions to measure success.

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The B2B precision demand marketing platform Integrate has announced significant financial support for walk-on college athletes, so-called because they do not have access to traditional athletic scholarships or sponsorships.

The announcement came in celebration of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against NCAA restrictions on compensation for college athletes, as well as the NCAA’s new interim policy allowing athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness.

Jeremy Bloom, co-founder and CEO of Integrate, has a history of activism on this issue. Bloom, a former Olympic skier and University of Colorado Boulder football player, sued the NCAA in 2004 to obtain a waiver so that he could accept the endorsements necessary as a professional skier while continuing to play college football. He lost and his football career was cut short by two years. He has committed to spending millions of dollars to support eligible athletes and the college sports landscape over the next several years.

Why we care. There is no shortage of good causes for companies to support, and Bloom has chosen one close to his heart. He recently collaborated with Vice TV and Pulse Films on the feature-length documentary “Vice-Versa: College Sports Inc.,” which speaks directly about the manner in which the NCAA has profited from “the blood sweat and tears of its mainly black athletes.”

Marketing operations and marketing resource management software company BrandMaker announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a leader in performance management solutions, Allocadia. The resulting combined business will offer end-to-end orchestration and optimization for marketers in strategy, campaigns, content and branding.

The companies boast a complementary presence in both North America and EMEA, and a workforce of 300 people in seven countries. The marketing services support over 300,000 global users.

Moving forward, the company will continue to support and grow the full suite of BrandMaker and Allocadia products, while also developing new solutions.

Allocadia supports marketing efforts by the likes of Charles Schwab, Autodesk and Juniper Networks, a clientele valued at more than $25 billion in marketing dollars. BrandMaker serves over 300 enterprises, including BestBuy, Deutsche Bank and Daimler.

Why we care. This is consolidation in a space that is heating up. Marketing may have its roots in the creative thinking that builds strong brand identity and sparks winning campaigns. But management and operations are no longer an afterthought. With marketers now helping fuel revenue and growth, hard skills are needed. 

Brandmaker and Allocadia come together in support of those skills by combining the former’s Ops and MRM capabilities with the latter’s planning, budgeting and performance metrics. It looks like a comprehensive marketing operations package, and we’ve got a feeling we’ll see some more of these down the road.

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Stephanie Buscemi, who rose to be EVP and CMO at Salesforce, leading a team of 1,700, and moved on in March 2021 to become CMO at data infrastructure vendor Confluent, is adding new responsibilities to her portfolio.

Announced yesterday, she is joining the Board of Directors at Clari, the revenue operations platform. Clari provides forecasting, pipeline management and revenue intelligence across all revenue operations — the kind of offering which has relevance to businesses trying to align marketing and sales on the same goals. Clients include Okta, Adobe, Workday and Zoom.

Why we care. Buscemi, with senior marketing positions at SAP and Salesforce under her belt, is a heavyweight among tech CMOs. Clari has an opportunity to ride the RevOps wave and will be looking for the kind of advice and guidance Buscemi can bring.

“It’s common at mega-enterprises to have engineering resources dedicated solely to marketing. That means the need and skill to coordinate technical people and initiatives takes on a new meaning. You have to be a pseudo-product manager in helping develop internal products and processes. This is why I’ve started telling marketers to study product management best practices in order to improve at their jobs.” Darrell Alfonso, Global Marketing Operations Manager, AWS