The interactive ad industry is widespread with buzzwords, catchphrases and acronyms. Which new, abbreviated, “next gen” solution will unleash its “game changing” power on the digital marketing landscape? Will Demand Side Platforms (DSP) rule this brave new world? At Epic Media Group, we don’t believe so. With information moving so quickly, it is no surprise that there are so many opinions and a great deal of confusion. Hot topics like data, transparency, real-time bidding (RTB), trading desks, and search re-targeting further complicate the industry landscape for most industry onlookers rather than simplify it – fueling circular conversations that last for months.

Demand Side Platforms are making noise, sure, but just like a trendy new band, the sound may be different to your ear. Simply put, a new genre does not make all previous genres irrelevant. In fact, if you deconstruct the name Demand Side Platform it becomes far less complex than it seems. As our CMO, Mike Sprouse, recently pointed out on this blog, advertisers want online advertising to be simpler and we think that will begin happening in the near future. Simplification begins with our industry’s acronyms.

The term “platform” – a word we use a lot at Epic Media Group – means a plan of action, scheme or design. Platform is also defined as a raised, level surface – like a train platform or a stage. Technically speaking, it is a hardware architecture and framework that allows software to run.

Strong platforms should be designed to support all of a company’s business channels, allow for cross-channel functionality, and leverage massive amounts of data and data analytics to deliver advertiser campaigns across all channels. The “P” in DSP references the capability to place bids, in real time, for impressions available on inventory exchanges with a user interface that provides some degree of reporting. A strong technology platform must encompass a lot of things and is an integral part of any ad intermediary’s business.

“Demand-Side” is just another way of saying Advertiser-Side. So a DSP simply provides access to a technology set designed to serve the demand or advertiser side of the business. In other words, DSP’s focus on the advertisers’ goals, which is precisely what companies like Traffic Marketplace concentrate on.

The difference between the top ad networks and Demand Side Platforms is that networks buy inventory directly from publishers that – in our case through a very stringent, in-house compliance process – are then cleared as “brand safe”. Demand Side Platforms buy inventory largely from the exchanges…the very place where advertisers previously forbade the networks from running their campaigns due to concerns about (you guessed it) brand safety.

By definition, the top networks are considered Demand Side Platforms in practice and have been for years. The primary differences are: 1) How the inventory is sourced and 2) the inventory source itself. The top ad networks are an integral part of today’s display advertising ecosystem and are constantly undergoing measures to boost their capabilities.

Be looking for our next blog post in a few weeks which will debunk myths about top networks and explain why these companies are no longer simply “ad networks” by the traditional definition.

Charlie Black
General Manager & Strategic Development – Platform; Epic Media Group