We spoke with Peo Persson, CPO and co-founder of DanAds. Prior to founding DanAds in 2013, Peo held a number of senior roles in media and the IT industry and has almost a decade’s worth of experience working in media innovation.
DanAds (www.DanAds.com) is the leading provider of self-serve advertising technology. Among DanAds’ clients are some of the world’s leading publishers, including Hearst Magazines and Bloomberg Media Group, as well as some of the world’s largest online tech and streaming platforms such as Roku, Tripadvisor, and SoundCloud.
1. What does the future hold for digital advertising?
“Without a doubt, the future of digital advertising lies in self-serve technology. We are increasingly seeing self-serve gain traction in multiple industries, owing, in part, to the convenience it has afforded service users during the pandemic.
By enabling businesses of any size to utilise an automated platform to build their ads, set their own campaign budgets, and monitor results at a time that suits them, without the need to speak to a salesperson in the AdOps team, the technology is opening up the world of digital advertising to so many. What’s more, it can lift the lid on additional revenue streams for publishers of all kinds to help fund quality journalism, or even seamless digital experiences for their userbases.
Some of the biggest ‘traditional’ publishers in the world have already committed to building self-serve platforms, such as Bloomberg Media Group and Hearst Magazines. Streaming services and other digital platforms (such as Tripadvisor, Roku, and SoundCloud) are increasingly utilising self-serve as a way of broadening their offering to advertisers, moving more in-line with the expectations of the modern marketer, who relies on efficiency and integration to achieve top-level results. Even TikTok recently announced it will be jumping on the bandwagon, and this is only the beginning.”
2. How is the increasing demand for transparency within the digital advertising space changing the way publishers sell off their inventory?
“At DanAds, we’re working to democratise the online advertising industry for everyone and bring much-needed transparency back into the supply chain. Publishers who advertise via tech giants like Google often lose a large proportion of audience monetisation and revenue to intermediaries, such as media agencies and trading desks. With this complexity of supply chains it makes it very difficult for brands to see exactly where their budgets are being spent.
Those publishers who sell off their inventory programmatically are increasingly looking to invest in more cost-efficient, quick and smooth adtech, such as self-serve, which provides a direct line between the business and advertiser, offering a one-stop solution that enables automation of all ad operations, sales, and creative asset management. Self-serve platforms also enable local and small businesses, for whom the barrier to entry may have previously been too high, to reach the target audience of their choice.”
3. How is self-serve changing the game for publishers and advertisers?
“Many publishers want cheaper and more transparent advertising tech solutions, but often do not have the resources or the expertise necessary to develop their own. Self-serve is changing the game by providing publishers with a solution that allows them to give control back to the advertisers, makes it easier for businesses of all sizes to enter the market, and helps publishers receive a greater share of advertising revenue.”
