Mediamath Acquires Adroit, Combines DSP with Dynamic Ads

As data-driven efficiencies in online advertising advance, demand side platform Mediamath may have marked another stage in that evolution. The firm acquired dynamic ad creation company Adroit Interactive last week, combining Adroit’s tools for creative customization and segmentation of ads with its own audience targeting and buying platform.

The companies have worked together since Q4 of last year, integrated their technologies, and tested that initial integration. One advertiser that matches consumers to relevant local deals used the system to target specific messages to consumers in most DMAs across the country. “Our buying platform was able to buy media across all these areas, and then the creative took over to assemble the right geographic message,” said Mediamath CEO Joe Zawadzki.

Mediamath integrates with third-party data providers such as Blue Kai, and media suppliers including Yahoo’s Right Media, Microsoft’s AdECN, and Google’s DoubleClick exchanges.

Just as DSPs like MediaMath help agencies and advertisers make more efficient and targeted buys across a broad array of inventory, Adroit enables them to customize the ad creative and messages sent. For auto advertisers, financial services firms, travel service providers, retailers – or any other advertisers with large customer databases and needs to target specific messages – creating hundreds of ads with customized offers or information can be a daunting task.

“You get to the point where you can’t scale that by hand,” said Adroit CEO Greg Smith.

It’s why firms like Yahoo unveiled dynamic ad platforms as far back as 2007. About a year ago, Yahoo also announced partnerships with dynamic ad customization firms such as Tumri and Teracent. In November, Google got in on the act with its acquisition of Teracent.

“We will and do continue to support other dynamic creative solutions,” like Tumri and Teracent, stressed Zawadzki.

While Yahoo announced partnerships with DSPs including Mediamath last month, it’s unclear whether the firm or others in the space have combined DSP and dynamic ad customization capabilities.

Still, the approach Mediamath has taken in its acquisition of Adroit seems quite natural. Advertisers and agencies with the need to buy large amounts of media in an automated, efficient manner and target specific audiences with custom messages will likely also have the need for a dynamic ad creation service.

Even agencies that recognize the value of using systems like these to put their data to better use are deterred by the complexity of navigating multiple technologies and making sense of the results. The combined Mediamath and Adroit systems could remove some of those obstacles, said Zawadzki.

Massachusetts-based Adroit has seven people on staff including Smith, who said the team will stay there while he’ll now work from Mediamath’s New York office. Mediamath has around 95 people, most of whom are based in New York. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

More acquisitions by Mediamath are to be expected, suggested Zawadzki, adding, “It’s always sort of a build, buy, partner strategy.”