Adobe turbocharges its multi-platform video ad capability with TubeMogul purchase

Adobe is boosting its commitment to multi-platform video ads with its announcement today that it has agreed to buy programmatic video ad platform TubeMogul.

The price is about $540 million, or $14 per share. The Emeryville, California-based TubeMogul offers a demand-side platform (DSP) that enables the planning and buying of video ads on all platforms, including TVs as well as desktops and mobile.

In its announcement, Adobe said the acquisition “will create the first end-to-end independent advertising and data management solution that spans TV and digital format, simplifying what has been a complex and fragmented process for the world’s biggest brands.”

More specifically, Adobe EVP and General Manager of the Digital Marketing Business Unit Brad Rencher said that the acquisition allows Adobe to now offer a “one-stop shop” across platforms.

Adobe already provides several tools for ad management, including Primetime for linear and on-demand video programming, Adobe Media Optimizer for planning and delivery of search, display and social ads, Adobe Analytics and data management platform Audience Manager.

In its Forrester Wave report late last year on “Video Advertising Demand-Side Platforms,” that research firm scored the TubeMogul platform highly and wrote:

“Its emphasis on serving branding objectives is confirmed by the strong offer of TV network private marketplaces and the platform’s capabilities in planning online video that complements a linear TV schedule. TubeMogul customers gave it strong ratings for its data sourcing and management abilities, fraud prevention, and ad delivery controls. Ad agencies and marketers who want to directly manage their programmatic video buying will find the self-serve platform compelling.”

Gartner VP Andrew Frank told me that this acquisition of TubeMogul, which was among the first to develop a programmatic platform for video ads, “completes the picture” for Adobe’s Marketing Cloud platform.

The purchase, he said, “puts them ahead of other marketing platforms in their ability to distribute video ads programmatically.” He added that it reaffirms “the story Adobe has been telling, [that it is] bringing together the content side of marketing with data,” which it is now extending across platforms for video.

This acquisition, ad platform Sizmek GM of Programmatic Mike Caprio emailed, “is just the first in what will be a series of marriages between MarTech and AdTech — particularly scaled DSPs.”

Forrester analyst Jim Nail told me that this was mainly “a vertical integration play,” since it complements Adobe Primetime’s “executional component” with a planning and programmatic buying tool.

But, he added, Adobe’s Marketing Cloud is now also differentiated from other major marketing platforms because it is reaching beyond digital channels, to include “TubeMogul’s strength in [linear] TV,” so that marketers will be able to buy, plan and execute across every channel that uses video ads.

It could be only a matter of time, Nail added, before Salesforce, Oracle or one of Adobe’s other major competitors buys a similar programmatic video ad platform, like Videology.

[Article on MarTech Today.]

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.