For all the complexities within the world of programmatic advertising, it still boils down to human relationships and trust. Magnite is the combination of two legacy companies (Telaria in New York and Rubicon Project in LA) which now draws upon its significant strengths as a unified organization to literally BUILD OUT the infrastructure pipeline for handling transactions of premium CTV (connected TV) inventory. As CEO Michael Barrett mentioned during Magnite’s solid earnings call yesterday, they are competing with Comcast’s FreeWheel supply platform as well as Google’s, but Magnite is now the largest independent Supply Side Platform (SSP) that can deliver CTV, at scale, as well as other media within their omnibus structure: OLV (online video), streaming radio/Podcasts, etc. Magnite’s pending acquisition of SpotX will further solidify their number one independent SSP status and only increase the moat.
Now back to human relationships. Michael Barrett and the Magnite crew draw upon years of experience in advertising to create special anchor partnerships that will help propel their company that much quicker. Because of those good relationships, Disney chose to partner with Magnite. And Barrett mentioned yesterday that they have extended (and expanded!) their business ties with Disney for another 18 months. Disney is rolling out their streaming/on-demand initiative throughout the world and for their ad driven channels, Magnite will continue to monetize/cross-sell it. Next, factor in that one of the largest international marketing companies, Omnicom U.S., uses Magnite to power their new programmatic platform, Marketplace, and you realize that significant tailwinds are starting to blow. And they’ve only just begun…
“So it’s Disney obviously being a far-reaching media empire with many, many media formats. The exclusivity or the preferred partner lies around the cross-platform inventory. So if you were to buy inventory from the DX HP that Disney cross platform sell. All of that goes through Magnite. And specifically if you were to buy Hulu only and didn’t buy any of the cross-platform inventory that too would go through Magnite. You’re capable of buying ESPN without going through Magnite, but conversely Magnite is very capable of selling ESPN inventory as well. So we have access to all of it.” -Michael Barrett on the earnings call yesterday.