City AM turns on programmatic with Ad Eye deal
City AM is to make its advertising inventory available through Ad Eye’s marketplace, a move the publisher hopes will fuel its wider efforts to create premium ad experiences in a cost-effective way.
The publisher is banking on last-to-market advantage to validate the deal, having delayed its move as peers quickly established a proposition to offset the dwindling value of their ad rates. By allowing advertisers to buy its ads automatically via Ad Eye’s marketplace, City AM wants to maximise the value it can get from its impressions as well as offering better targeted buys.
“The move into programmatic advertising is a natural step for the publication – the first UK newspaper to ban readers who use ad blockers from its website – as advertisers are increasingly keen to take advantage of our growing and targeted readership,” said City AM’s chief operating officer Charles Yardley of the partnership.
“Furthermore, the operational efficiencies’ created by Ad Eye provide measurable, and scalable proficiencies for us as a publisher and those coming to the site to buy.”
It forms part of the freesheet’s renewed push to innovate, which saw pave the way for other UK publishers to try out anti-ad blocking software on its site last October.