Sizmek unveils unified ad serving platform it says can replace Google’s walled garden
The platform gives advertisers access to its AI-powered DSP, along with the company’s DMP and dedicated ad server.
When Sizmek scooped up Rocket Fuel’s demand-side programmatic ad platform (DSP) last summer, Executive Chairman Mark Grether said the merger would create the “largest independent marketing platform built for agencies and brands.”
The DSP world is a crowded one, studded with stalwarts like Trade Desk and MediaMath. But with the introduction of a new, unified platform featuring a revamped DSP and data management platform (DMP) tied to its own ad server, Grether says Sizmek is now “a truly transparent, powerful, open and independent alternative” to the walled gardens of Google.
Sizmek is referring to Google’s restrictions on using its DoubleClick ID, which allows marketers to pull cross-platform measurement data from its DoubleClick ad serving platform, now rebranded as Google Marketing Platform. In May, Google told media buyers who use its data transfer service that they will no longer be able to use the ID to generate reports, limiting them to Google’s own Ads Data Hub for those metrics.
Sizmek’s platform assigns a unique code within its platform that allows marketers to pull data from all their own sources, including Google.
The platform also includes a newly designed interface that ties the DSP, DMP and ad server together. The ad server, Sizmek told me, is what sets them apart from other companies who also have a DSP and DMP.
“We’re basically combining all three products into one single platform and that makes us the only global, viable alternative to DoubleClick,” Grether said. “An agency [using our platform] has the advantage of having one look and feel. … It also means that the data — which is not just programmatic data — can be leveraged in the DSP and used to make decisions.”
In addition to the user benefit of a unified platform, Grether said Sizmek’s Rocket Fuel AI makes a “significant difference in how you can now manage very complex programmatic campaigns in the user interface.”
“I just came out of a meeting the other day with a very big agency who works on a large global automotive client and they’re telling us that what historically took in the neighborhood of a couple of hours is now going to take them in the neighborhood of minutes,” Grether said.
Are more DoubleClick ID replacements on the way?
It’s likely that we will start to see more alternatives to DoubleClick. Just this month, ad platform Flashtalking and marketing intelligence platform Neustar announced that they are teaming up to work on an integrated approach to identity management and ad management, which they call “a vital collaboration at a time when cross-channel data-driven marketing is the norm, and there is a rising expectation for a unified view and integrated data capabilities.”
“The removal of DoubleClick IDs creates an immediate need for an open, ecosystem-friendly solution for marketers and their agencies,” Flashtalking CEO John Nardone said in a release announcing the partnership.
About The Author
Robin Kurzer started her career as a daily newspaper reporter in Milford, Connecticut. She then made her mark on the advertising and marketing world in Chicago at agencies such as Tribal DDB and Razorfish, creating award-winning work for many major brands. For the past seven years, she’s worked as a freelance writer and communications professional across a variety of business sectors.
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