Dive Brief:

• RTB House unveiled a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) solution that leverages first-party publisher data to provide marketers with more precise consumer insights, according to a press release.
• The ad-tech firm is positioning the product, called ContentGPT, as a response to the pending deprecation of third-party cookies. ContentGPT’s underlying technology aims to unlock a deeper understanding of content and user interests than conventional context-based targeting and audience classification methods. 
• RTB House said it is well-equipped to handle the scale challenges associated with managing generative AI trained on the open web thanks to its experience with sophisticated real-time bidding solutions. More ad-tech providers could launch proprietary generative AI in the months ahead as marketers test out concrete applications of the emergent technology. 

Dive Insight:

ContentGPT is intended to enhance several aspects of RTB House’s programmatic product suite. The generative AI tool will support the real-time bidding specialist’s core performance-oriented services, along with improving accuracy in content targeting through its AdLook buying platform and audience segmentation through its PrimeAudience solution. These upgrades anticipate the deprecation of third-party cookies in Google Chrome next year, a long-awaited change that nevertheless is expected to alter the fundamentals of digital marketing. 

ContentGPT is built off of generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) and large language models (LLMs), taking a page from massively popular software like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The tool scrapes reams of first-party publisher data from across the open web to better key brands into consumer interests and their intent when visiting a web page, delivering a level of nuance that is superior to conventional context-based targeting, per RTB House. 

“Our vision is to become open internet marketing leaders and ContentGPT is an essential component to achieve it,” said Michael Lamb, who joined RTB House as chief commercial officer in October, in a press statement. “Ultra-accurate understanding of content across the open web is crucial for programmatic advertising, so we’re proud to be at the forefront of ensuring that brands can capitalise on this data.”

ChatGPT has sparked a rush of investments into the generative AI category since launching a year ago, with more proprietary offerings now starting to crop up in the advertising space. Generative AI is known for carrying high costs and computational demands, but RTB House believes it is prepared to shoulder those burdens given its expertise with deep-learning algorithms for programmatic media-buying. 

RTB House has played an active role in the cookie phaseout conversation. The programmatic shop is a partner on Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative dedicated to testing out alternatives to the bedrock ad-targeting tactic. In February, the Polish-based company warned that the cookie transition timeline could be further delayed if more publishers and ad-tech vendors, particularly on the supply side, did not test out Google’s FLEDGE auction, which was later rebranded as the Protected Audience API.