SA publishers join up to create digital co-operative

Like it or not, programmatic advertising is going to play an increasingly large role in the digital publishing landscape. South Africa is not immune to that, with a number of local publishing houses already involved in co-operatives exploiting the technology and new ones forming all the time.

The latest such co-operative, called AdJoin, is a joint effort between Us-based online advertising firm Rubicon Project, local programmatic buying house MaxAxion, and Kagiso Media.

Launching in April 2016, AdJoin is a bid to serve local campaigns and global buyers looking to reach the African marketplace at scale, bringing together both its own and third party media partners.

According to a press release sent to Memeburn, the co-op provides “one single programmatic solution for driving influence at scale and allowing them to cut-through an increasingly fragmented market”.

Buyers, it says, can use first-party data and the most creative, engaging advertising formats on the market; Display, Rich Media, Native and Video, in one simple programmatic buy.

“It’s an exciting time at MaxAxion as we see this almost two year long project come to fruition through Rubicon Project’s technology platform. Having the ability to access premium audiences is compelling for both brands and agencies as we look to disrupt a market once monopolised by the larger media houses,” said Daniel Courtenay, CEO of MaxAxion.

Vincent Maher, Kagiso Media’s Chief Innovation Officer says automated media buying is the future of digital advertising. “AdJoin gives publishers the benefits of scale and advertisers what they have been looking for from digital all along, simplicity”, he said.

According to the release, AdJoin selected Rubicon Project based on their experience as a platform for multiple publisher cooperatives around the world and the renowned success of initiatives such as global co-op The Pangaea Alliance and La Place Media in France, where competitive publishers have banded together in countries such as France, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

“We are thrilled to be powering AdJoin, the first publisher co-op in Africa,” said Oliver Whitten, Head of International for Rubicon Project. “The aggregation of these regional publishers’ inventory and data assets means AdJoin media owners are able to offer advertisers a great proposition to rival that of digital giants in terms of continental reach and data.”

AdJoin is the first publisher co-op Rubicon Project has powered in Africa and the 10th globally.