MediaMath corrals agencies, publishers and ad tech for 'transparent' media supply chain

Dive Brief:

Independent ad tech firm MediaMath launched Source by MediaMath, a network designed to be accountable and addressable by leveraging AI for a cleaner supply chain. The company announced the launch at The Association of National Advertisers (ANA)’s Masters of Marketing Week, which kicks off today in Florida.
A number of big agencies, publishers and ad tech companies are onboard at launch, including Rubicon Project, Business Insider, Crackle Plus, Havas Media, IBM Watson, News Corp, White Ops and more.
Simultaneous with the launch, MediaMath committed to a 100% accountable and addressable supply chain by the end of 2020.

Dive Insight:

The clean-up of the digital media ecosystem has been a hot topic for the advertising industry for the past couple of years, following demands by big advertisers like Procter & Gamble for a clearer picture of where their budgets are being spent and greater standardization in how digital campaigns are measured. The Source by MediaMath network marks a major independent effort by agencies, publishers and ad tech companies to address these issues and to offer a viable way to market other than Facebook and Google, which currently command the lion's share of digital media budgets while being loath to open the door on their advertising operations.

The digital media supply chain has been plagued by murkiness as programmatic buying as grown, automating the process along the way while simultaneously making it difficult for buyers to understand how their dollars are being spent. Source by MediaMath includes some key partners that, working together, have the potential to create a viable transparent digital media supply chain. This includes Rubicon Project, which has been building a direct and transparent digital supply infrastructure. A partnership with Telaria helps ensure the platform extends to programmatic TV so that Source can leverage a consistent, portable user-level ID across desktop, mobile and TV to support marketing efficiency. White Ops is also part of the effort to help protect advertisers, agencies and content owners from invalid traffic before it is purchased.

"Our clients are demanding a more sophisticated approach to programmatic, with custom and curated options that just aren't meaningful without full control of the media supply chain," said Andrew Goode, EVP and head of programmatic at Havas Media Group, in a press statement. "And for us, full control means having the ability to make financial and operational choices. Growing our partnership with MediaMath via support for Source ensures that we will be able to continue to innovate and evolve within the biddable ecosystem on behalf of our clients."

With lofty goals and a big partners, Source by MediaMath hopes to scoop up advertising budgets. Whether or not brands will be willing to move dollars away from Google and Facebook, which still offer significant scale, remains to be seen.