Honda and eOne first brands to use VivaKi’s new premium programmatic ad service

Marco Bertozzi, executive managing director EMEA for VivaKi, said the move is partly aimed at encouraging more brand advertisers to view programmatic trading as part of their media plans.

“This is to attract premium advertisers, some of whom think this [RTB) space isn’t really a route for them. So we are ring-fencing very carefully to our marketplaces the very best inventory out there,” he said.

The agency has seen a steady increase in the amount of brand budgets going toward programmatic trading, with round half of its inventory traded now coming from brand, rather than direct-response trading, according to Bertozzi.

Advertisers can choose from homepage skins, large formats, rich media and video, with all campaigns optimised against viewability, from a selection of 300 private marketplaces including The Guardian and The Telegraph.

Bertozzi said: “It is clear that our advertisers want the opportunity for bespoke, premium campaigns delivered programmatically. AOD Premium ensures their needs are met and has already seen a new set of advertisers join the AOD client list. This is the new frontier within programmatic and I am excited about the opportunity.”

Kurt Unkel, AOD global president said: “As one of the first advocates of private marketplaces we realized the benefits of developing truly premium relationships with publishers for clients very early on. Key to this was collaboration and education on all sides.”

“Given the benefits to both publishers and advertisers alike it is no surprise that we are seeing huge growth in this area – AOD Premium ensures our clients get what historically has been non-programmatically traded inventory through RTB, giving them increased transparency, greater control and a better consumer experience.

Simultaneously publishers are realising the potential of programmatic for their business through maintaining control over availability of inventory, floor pricing and volume.”

The move follows the announcement that WPP’s trading desk Xaxis and ad tech firm 24/7 Media have merged, creating a combined turnover of $750m (£457m).