Verizon Media DSP expansion unifies programmatic, premium and native inventory

Verizon Media is expanding its demand side platform (DSP) and bringing its programmatic, premium and full native marketplace inventory together.

The DSP should now give advertisers a unified solution to control their ad buys across all formats and inventory opportunities. Verizon Media said its DSP has seen “significant growth year over year” with new features and functionality across channels including mobile, display, video, connected TV, audio and DOOH, all leveraging Verizon’s first-party data.

The company’s native marketplace provides access to experiences through native video, AR, carousel, DPA, moments and more across Verizon’s owned and operated sites including Yahoo, HuffPost and TechCrunch, as well as partnerships with digital and content companies.

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“Given the current climate, brands want simplicity, flexibility and performance,” said Iván Markman, chief business officer at Verizon Media, in a statement. “Our expanded DSP is purpose-built for that landscape. It goes well-beyond programmatic and makes it easier to reach audiences wherever they are. From performance to branding, it’s built to evolve with the needs of today’s advertisers. When marketers need to switch gears, the ability to effortlessly shift their media mix is critical. We’re giving them the flexibility to meet whatever goals they have and on any screen.”

Verizon Media recently introduced Smartplay Prebid, a server-side integration that the company said exposes inventory and conducts auctions faster with more demand partners by using the prebid open-source framework. The company also pumped up advertising data and analytics to help technical teams highlight any errors, timeouts and tracking issues after they occur, and identify and respond to trends in ad performance and segment data including device and demand partner.

During the first quarter, total Verizon Media revenues were $1.7 billion, down 4% year over year, which the company said was “driven almost entirely by COVID-19 impacts. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, year over year revenue trends continued the steady improvement seen in full-year 2019. Verizon Media has seen increased levels of customer engagement on its platforms, but advertising rates have declined in the current environment.”