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PubMatic is letting buyers purchase inventory directly from agencies and brands, without using demand-side platforms, via a new product called Activate. It’s the latest ad-tech platform to recently release products driving supply-path optimization, aiming to make programmatic buying more efficient.
The tool, PubMatic’s first new product since 2020, helps buyers access connected TV and online video inventory, much of which still goes through the manual insertion order process rather than programmatic pipes.
Launch partners include Dentsu, Havas, GroupM, Mars and Omnicom Germany on the buy side and Fubo and LG on the sell side.
While Activate was developed to answer buyer demand, it also reflects a vision for the programmatic supply chain that has fewer intermediaries, PubMatic’s CEO Rajeev Goel told Adweek.
“We’re really focusing on eliminating the DSP/SSP paradigm and instead having a single layer of technology,” Goel said.
PubMatic is not the only one. Magnite, one of PubMatic’s largest supply-side platform competitors, launched a similar tool called ClearLine last month that lets advertisers buy video inventory directly.
PubMatic’s Activate only intends to replace deals that would have been conducted manually—60% of CTV and 18% of online video transactions are expected to be made via non-programmatic insertion orders in 2023, per PubMatic—and doesn’t have DSP features like creative or bid optimization. Magnite has stressed ClearLine is not meant to replace the DSP.
Still, the moves signal a programmatic supply chain in the process of dislocation. On the buy side, DSP The Trade Desk launched OpenPath last year, cutting out SSPs for buyers wanting to purchase select publisher inventory directly.
In addition to concerns about DSPs coming for their customers, SSPs are contending with distress in the industry. Earlier this year, Yahoo shuttered its SSP and EMX declared bankruptcy. On the subsequent fourth-quarter earnings calls, Magnite and PubMatic executives positioned themselves as victors amid the sector-wide dislocation.
Filing a gap in the market
