OpenX Fills Knowledge Gaps with The School of Programmatic

OpenX launches educational initiative to empower digital advertising industry professionals to realise the potential of programmatic.

LONDON – 19 November 2015 – OpenX, a leader in creating programmatic advertising marketplaces, today announced the launch of its educational initiative, The School of Programmatic. The programme has been launched in response to a recent survey commissioned by OpenX in which 100% of the 183 respondents – comprising UK based media agencies, publishers and technology providers – said they need further education into programmatic advertising.

The survey revealed that programmatic education is required at all levels from the trading room to the boardroom. Key elements of programmatic that respondents are keen to understand in more detail include how it works, what the jargon really means, how the technology stack fits together, and how to implement data management.

The survey also found respondents are eager to understand the issues surrounding programmatic in more detail, with a quarter of participants listing fraud, transparency, security, brand safety and non-human traffic as their main concerns.

“The phenomenal growth in programmatic advertising has created a number of knowledge black spots throughout the industry,” commented Andrew Buckman, Managing Director EMEA, OpenX. “We hope anyone working in the field of programmatic advertising, from both the supply and demand sides, will benefit from a deeper understanding of this cutting-edge technology that our new School of Programmatic will provide.”

The School of Programmatic is a series of free sessions designed to provide a wide range of professionals including publishers, app developers, trading desks, media services, agencies, and client side marketers with the confidence to use programmatic to optimise the buying and selling of online advertising. Speakers will include senior executives from high profile publishers including eBay, Gumtree, Future Publishing and Zoopla. Common challenges that will be addressed include deciphering industry jargon, understanding how the technology stack fits together, tackling fraud and bot traffic, effective collection and use of data, and how to determine metrics to measure programmatic campaigns. Starting in January and scheduled throughout the year, the face-to-face sessions will take place in central London.

The Association of Online Publishers (AOP), realises the need for more in-depth programmatic education. Richard Reeves, Interim Managing Director, AOP, said: “Programmatic has become an integral part of digital advertising. However, as evidenced by OpenX’s survey, industry understanding of its inner workings remains limited. OpenX’s School of Programmatic is a welcome initiative. With its specifically targeted sessions, the educational programme will enhance and encourage better understanding to assist all parts of the advertising ecosystem to work together to realise the programmatic opportunity.”

Visit www.openx.com/school-of-programmatic to sign-up for The School of Programmatic sessions.

About OpenX
OpenX is focused on unleashing the full economic potential of digital media companies. We do this by making digital advertising markets and technologies that are designed to deliver optimal value to publishers and advertisers on every ad served across all screens.

Today, as the #1 independent exchange, we operate one of the first, largest, and highest quality programmatic markets for digital advertising across screens. In addition, we offer a complete supply side platform powered by the unique OpenX Demand Fusion technology that merges network and Real-Time Bidding, and a comprehensive ad server.

At OpenX, we have built a team that is uniquely experienced in designing and operating high-scale ad marketplaces, and we are constantly on the lookout for thoughtful, creative executors who are as fascinated as we are about finding new ways to apply a blend of market design, technical innovation, operational excellence, and empathetic partner service to the frontiers of digital advertising.

www.openx.com @openx