Orange ad network will succeed with enough inventory

NMA 6 April 2010

Orange’s push into the ad exchange market makes sense but, despite the size of the brand, its success isn’t a given. It’s moving into an increasingly crowded market, with the likes of Google and Yahoo offering exchanges. But with AOL and Microsoft yet to offer rival propositions, there’s still room in this sector, so it does have a chance.

This quarter the brand will partner with US platform provider OpenX to launch Orange Ad Market. This enables media agencies to bid on publishers’ ad inventory and is a common way of monetising ad space in the US, where the market is valued at $7.5bn.

Despite the fact Right Media has been established in the UK for several years, ad exchanges are still in their early days here. Many agencies have yet to invest significant amounts in this sector, with many saying they’re still testing it. It was hoped Google’s move into the market with the launch of DoubleClick Ad Exchange would cause agencies to boost their spend significantly, but even this sparked little change.

As last week’s new media age highlighted, the success of Orange’s entry also depends on its ability to attract enough ad inventory from publishers (nma 1 April 2010).

But Orange has a trusted heritage and with the acquisition of ad sales house Unanimis last year, not only does the company have plenty of relationships with publishers to make sure it gets enough inventory, it’s obvious it’s serious about online ad sales.

NMA 6 April 2010

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