AdMore, Rubicon Team to Push Programmatic TV

In a deal that could bring more money into the still-young programmatic TV market, Rubicon Project has formed an alliance with AdMore.

RELATED: Morgan Stanley initiates coverage of Rubicon Project

The partnership gives clients who currently buy digital ads through Rubicon Project’s marketplace automated access to commercial inventory on AdMore’s 1,700 national and local television affiliates, which reach 100 million homes measured by Nielsen.

Brendan Condon, CEO of AdMore said teaming up with Rubicon “is a direct response to the rapidly increasing demand for programmatic TV solutions we’re both experiencing throughout the marketplace.”

Working with AdMore “helps to solve the media fragmentation challenge for advertisers looking to reach local and national audiences across linear television," said Dax Hamman, chief product officer, Rubicon Project. “As more and more marketers seek cross-device and second-screen engagement with consumers, the opportunity to now target, negotiate and buy audiences across every format . . . is a true game changer for the industry.”

Rubicon Project’s clients are both media companies and marketers, It has been focused on selling digital video, digital display and mobile advertising.

“More recently, we’ve started to make some moves in both out of home and now with television,” said Jay Sears, senior VP of marketplace development at Rubicon Project. “What the big national brand advertisers, they want to put their message in front of the right person, right time and be able to do that across all these media,” said Sears. “And the AdMore news today is a key component of bringing linear television into that mix.”

While Rubicon sells some media in real-time-buying or auction formats, Sears says the company’s Guaranteed Orders, which replicates and automates the traditional one-on-one sales process, is the fastest growing part of its business.

AdMore sales will go through Rubicon’s orders market.

“Together we can make it really easy for those national brands and advertisers to purchase [television] in an orders context, which we know is the context in which buyers and sellers are most comfortable,” Sears said.

Condon says AdMore will give Rubicon Project clients access to a broad and diverse array of programming and audiences.

“It’s not that easy, especially in an automated way to get access to those consumers and that where we come to the table,” he said.

Condon, also CEO of AdMore’s parent company Media Properties Holdings, says the deal will help programmatic TV grow.

“I think every year you’ll see sizable increases in the usage and therefore the expenditures on programmatic platforms," he said. “When I think about the marquee advertisers and brand Rubicon brings to the market it will have a sizable impact on our business. Obviously it’s up to us to deliver for them and we’re very confident we can do that.”

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.