OpenX recently hosted its third annual conference, bringing together senior publishing executives and ad buyers for frank and direct discussions on the state of programmatic, as well as insight on the OpenX product road map.

OpenX CEO, Tim Cadogan opened the event on the promise and potential of programmatic sophistication. Stating that only five years ago, programmatic advertising was merely a concept. Today it’s an industry worth $7 – $8 billion. While that’s an astounding (and rare) rate of growth, it’s only the first chapter for programmatic.

 

 

Tim discusses how over the past five years, the programmatic industry has shifted from scale to sophistication; previously programmatic only supported standard ad formats on one screen with one buying model and now it is equipped to support any format on any screen with an array configurable buying models. This evolution has led to a myriad of opportunities for marketers to reach and engage consumers in the most effective way.

As programmatic begins to encompass a bigger set of dimensions for trading inventory, buyers and sellers will demand increased simplification and trust. In his presentation, Nicholas Cumins, SVP Product at OpenX, makes the case for  a simplified and transparent marketplace, and lays out how OpenX is building it into its programmatic roadmap.

 

 

As the day progressed the conversation switched to viewability. As a concept, viewability seems very straightforward, but once you buy a few billion viewable impressions you realize it’s anything but. In his presentation, Ryan Chan shares lessons from his experience at Quancast, a leader in audience measurement and viewbaility.

 

 

To discuss how viewability is playing out across the value chain, OpenX’s Paul Sternhell, GM Ad Server, led a panel discussion on “Viewability in Focus: Four Perspectives on the Road Ahead.” The panel included industry experts:

• Mitch Weinstein, SVP/Managing Director, Ad Operations, Magna Global
• Susan Parker, VP, Digital Revenue & Analytics, Hearst Newspapers
• Scott Knoll, CEO and President, Integral Ad Science

 

Finally, Tim and Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis and Chairman of the IAB, closed the conference with a fascinating conservation that addressed the joint responsibility of all stakeholders to provide a quality marketplace and applauded the industry for its commitment to eradicating waste. Think about it, when did advertisers ever measure how many people opened a magazine to quantify the value of an ad? What’s happening now is unprecedented in media and OpenX is excited it be a part of it.