NYIAX, a platform built in partnership with the Nasdaq in 2017, spent last year building partnerships with major holding companies to drive advertising as it continues to build out an omnichannel marketplace. This year the company has focused on expanding available inventory.

The strategy for NYIAX seems to have paid off during an unlikely year of major challenges worldwide amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and political upheaval in the United States.

The pandemic forced meetings online. “People prior to the pandemic few around the world trying to get to meetings,” said NYIAX co-founder Carolina Abenante. “You can get more done if you just stay in place.”

Brands have heard many stories about the growth of retailers and home-delivery services through online orders, but few details have surfaced about the growth of companies supporting the advertising media as advertisers seek out high-performing unique ad inventory, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite this year’s obvious challenges, Greg Toothaker, chief revenue officer overseeing partnerships at NYIAX, says the company has seen spending increase on its platform by 268% in part by doubling ad space inventory as a result of partnerships with Atedra and JW Player.

The partnership with Atedra is the first company to gives NYIAX clients access to digital out-of-home advertising inventory.

Geneviève Michaud, vice president of alliances at Atedra, which is based in Canada, said the United States and Europe have become a major focus in the past year.

The Atedra programmatic partnership allows advertisers buying DOOH to reserve or buy future inventory supplied across the NYIAX marketplace — making the inventory immediately available to buyers — and provides all with transparency throughout the life cycle of the transaction.

The JW Player partnership gives NYIAX clients access to a lot of video inventory.

Michael Schwalb, general manager of partnerships data at JW Player, which has been powering video on some of the top publishers for the past 12 years, sees anonymous data grabbed from about one billion devices monthly on mobile and desktop web. 

JW Player focuses on contextual categorization, which can help advertisers as support for third-party cookies disappear in Apple and Google browsers. The technology can identify sports, cooking or financing videos, breaking down each into subcategories.

“Video supply has grown during COVID-19,” Schwalb said. “I see the real growth across video performance targeting in 2021.”

NYIAX has also benefited from the shift toward compliance related to data rulings such as Europe’s General Data Privacy Regulations, and California’s Proposition 24, which focuses on consumers’ personal information, and transparency.