Welcome to the Next Chapter for Programmatic

The programmatic space has evolved over a short time, but with changes have come tremendous opportunities. In that light, I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished so far at Turn, and am enthused about the new possibilities with our acquisition by Singtel-backed Amobee, as we begin our next chapter as one of the world’s largest buy-side platforms.

Those who know me have heard me say often that it’s “early days in programmatic.” I’ve had the same catchphrase since 2010, when Nat Turner asked me to help run Invite Media with him and Zach Weinberg. By “early days,” I mean that this is a young industry with great potential.

Turn was an early leader in the industry, beginning as an ad network and pivoting from a DSP into what is today: an omnichannel DSP, data management platform and analytics provider working with top global brands and agencies. We’ve built some truly impressive technology along the way through real computer science, as you can see from our patent portfolio.

After I joined Turn in September 2015, we refocused on our roots as a technology and data science company and went to work solving new problems for marketers, especially across video, data and insights. We realigned our team to create a culture that fosters success and innovation.

In this new chapter — together with our new partners — we’re ready to meet whatever comes across the fast-changing marketing landscape. There are amazing possibilities in the new product offerings, geographies, and opportunities to help brands better understand consumers.

Something I’m really proud of at Turn is our laser-focus on becoming the source of truth for marketers. We have given customers confidence in the integrity and quality of the inventory they access through our platform; we’ve created an industry-leading video product that delivers true ROI; and, we’ve aligned our team to be the trusted advisers that can mine data and deliver insights to tell an advertiser what works, what doesn’t and why.

Through this acquisition, Turn is combining with Amobee, a Singtel Group Digital Life company. The team will have more than 800 people focused on growing what we have built to date, with more than 200 people in the product development organization, and 1,000 global brand and agency customers. The team and our customers have a lot to look forward to:

• We now have the resources and scale to be the largest independent buy side platform. We’re going to accelerate the Turn mission of being the global source of truth for marketers.
• We’ve had a lot of success with our video product over the past year. We’ll put similar emphasis on further enhancing our mobile, DMP, and analytics offerings.
• Turn built some great products. We just got a whole bunch more of them. Together with Amobee, we have full programmatic buying capabilities across all channels that complement our omnichannel offering. For example, we will integrate social media channels including Pinterest and Snapchat into our omnichannel DSP.
• The Amobee Brand Intelligence real-time consumer insights platform, cookie-less identification technology, and deterministic device graph will be integrated with the Turn DMP, offering brands unprecedented insights about their consumers. Through Singtel’s global operator relationships, we’ll also gain exclusive access to cross-device data.

As you can tell, I see greatness coming in the next chapter for Turn and Amobee. The ad tech space is not without its challenges. However, we uniquely have the opportunity to grow and build an even more exciting and valuable company for our customers, investors and employees. It’s early days in programmatic, so think of this as day two, the day we built an unstoppable platform to provide the world’s marketers with their one source of truth.

Luma Partners advised Turn on the transaction.

About Amobee

Founded in 2005, Amobee is an advertising platform that understands how people consume content. Our goal is to optimize outcomes for advertisers and media companies, while providing a better consumer experience. Through our platform, we help customers further their audience development, optimize their cross channel performance across all TV, connected TV, and digital media, and drive new customer growth through detailed analytics and reporting. Amobee is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tremor International, a collection of brands built to unite creativity, data and technology across the open internet.

If you’re curious to learn more, watch the on-demand demo or take a deep dive into our Research & Insights section where you can find recent webinars on-demand, media plan insights & activation templates, and more data-driven content. If you’re ready to take the next step into a sustainable, consumer-first advertising future, contact us today.