TRY-huset – an award-winning Norwegian advertising ‘superbrand’ made up of agencies across advertising, PR, content, technology, media, and user experience – recognised there was a problem with transparency, privacy, and cost when it comes to programmatic advertising, and wanted to do something about it.
The company was contacted by adtech firm Adnuntius and presented a concept (Stian Remaad, CEO and Co-founder, Adnuntius; and Hanne Gilje Sekse, Head of Digital, TRY Opt pictured).
The idea was that the partners would work together to establish a 100% transparent ecosystem, where both publishers and buyers can account for all the money that is spent. However, within this network, TRY would not be the only buyer. Instead, the goal is to create a marketplace where all buyers can join and be partners on equal terms.
The partners have now established and launched a company called ‘C ALT’ to manage the marketplace. C ALT – which means ‘see everything’ in Norwegian – is equally owned by the two partners. Within this setup, Adnuntius will be the technology provider, providing the software and all the other elements required to make the marketplace work. TRY will act solely as one of the buyers in the marketplace and contribute to make sure the platform is user friendly, both concerning design and functionality, as well as efficient.
The marketplace has been tested with two of Norway’s largest media publishing groups in TV2 and Aller, as well as one of Norway’s biggest advertisers. During these tests, 100% of revenue was accounted for and there was a 67% reduction in technology cost. In addition, advertisers received 17% more ad impressions and overall cost reduction of 10%.
On the back of the results, Adnuntius and TRY began the process of onboarding other large publishing groups, having received positive feedback from all of Norway’s major players. Now, they are inviting other media agencies to join TRY as a buyer within the network, and also to potentially become co-owners of the network. Publishers and advertisers are also invited to join as co-owners.
Based on the knowledge that tier one agencies are looking at their own private marketplace technologies, C ALT will be looking to onboard other agencies that want to create fair and efficient marketplaces, and want to make the ecosystem better, whatever size the agency may be.
Elsewhere, Adnuntius is looking to launch C ALT in the Nordics and similar marketplaces in other markets it operates in as well, because it’s a concept that can work anywhere and be easily launched in markets around the world.
The company has recently onboarded the Bangkok Post as one of its early customers in Thailand. And has started to deploy the publisher side of marketplaces in other Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
In Europe, Adnuntius has started building publisher interest in Sweden, and is working through partners in the UK, Denmark, Austria, and Spain. Looking particularly at Spain, the adtech firm is working with Spanish media giant Prisa. In this instance, the marketplace is going to be both Prisa-branded and -controlled, rather than a co-ownership situation like in Norway.
