How Can Viant Differentiate in a Commoditized Ad-Tech Market?
Summary
Recent weeks have brought a fresh wave of mergers and acquisitions in ad tech, and today it’s Viant co-founders Tim and Chris Vanderhook taking back full control of the company they created. Viant executives did not respond to requests for comment by press time, but COO Chris Vanderhook claimed the company was “soundly profitable” when announcing the purchase. “We want to thank Meredith for their stewardship and ongoing data partnership,” added Viant CEO and co-founder Tim Vanderhook, in a statement that gave some insight into the company’s strategic play. Adelphic recently launched a software as a service (SaaS) model—it is more common for DSPs to employ a commission of spend model—with the company hoping this plus its Viant data sources, aka “identity resolution capabilities” (such as the once-mighty MySpace) are able to differentiate it among media buyers. “From a strategic point of view,” according to AdProfs founder Ratko Vidakovic, “it sounds like the company is emphasizing features like its identity graph and its multichannel inventory sources like audio, out-of-home and advanced TV, which many perceive as the biggest opportunities in ad tech.” Ciaran O’Kane, CEO of WiredCorp, said competition in the DSP sector is likely to be tough and that Viant’s Adelphic will have to broker many more first-party data deals if it is to compete in a space that’s increasingly dominated by the industry’s biggest names, such as Google and The Trade Desk.
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