In our Ask the Expert Series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with Brian Chisholm, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at OpenX.
About OpenX
OpenX is an independent omni-channel supply-side platform (SSP) and a global leader in supply-side curation, transparency, and sustainability. Through its 100% cloud-based tech stack, OpenX powers advertising across CTV, app, mobile web, and desktop, enabling publishers to deliver marketers with improved performance and dynamic future-proofed solutions. With a 17-year track record of programmatic innovation, OpenX is a direct and trusted partner of the world’s largest publishers, working with more than 130,000 premium publisher domains and over 100,000 advertisers. As the market leader in sustainability, OpenX was the first AdTech company to be certified as CarbonNeutral™ and third-party verified for achieving its SBTi Net-Zero targets. Learn more at www.openx.com.
Collaboration solves programmatic challenges
Could you share the story behind the partnership between OpenX and Experian and how this collaboration differs from typical data-provider/DSP or SSP relationships in the market? What unique challenges in programmatic advertising does this partnership solve?
OpenX first partnered with Experian in 2019 when we were building the industry’s first data-driven supply-side curation platform. Being the only SSP with a proprietary people-based identity graph (further enriched by Experian) gives OpenX a unique set of capabilities that are only growing in value in the market. We are seeing retail media networks, large agency planning platforms, and indie and specialty shops lean into OpenX’s tools to match, activate, and measure people-based audiences through our robust curation platform and premium supply.
Enhancing campaigns with data enrichment
How does combining Experian’s marketing data with OpenX’s technology create tangible benefits for advertisers, agencies, and publishers?
Last year, we expanded our partnership with Experian to enrich our digital IDs with Experian’s Digital Audiences, essentially making Experian data available directly to marketers across all OpenX supply and formats, including CTV. For marketers, this direct integration increases both match and activation rates. Meaning, not only do we match more of the starting audience universe to our system, we then provide more opportunities to identify and transact on those users in the bidstream. The result is greater reach for buyers even in previously unaddressable environments like Safari or mobile web – and publishers benefit from the increased addressability OpenX provides their supply.
Delivering impactful inventory solutions
OpenX has been enhancing its curation offerings beyond just providing curated marketplaces. Could you describe the strategic shift you’re making in how you package and deliver inventory?
At OpenX, we have a broader and more dynamic view of curation. It’s not just about gathering data or bundling inventory; it’s about layering on identity-based precision, enabling the targeting of the right audiences with premium, brand-safe inventory for our clients.
We saw the value of curating inventory and audiences on the supply side early on. We started by building capabilities for our own exchange and then found that our approach created tremendous value for data owners and marketers alike. Over the past five years, we’ve been continuously investing our curation platform capabilities to super serve those partners. As a result, we have what we think is by far the most robust and flexible platform in the market. We can match and integrate with any kind of data, curate supply at a granular level, activate audiences and help measure outcomes in multiple ways. We also provide turnkey integrations to third-party platforms.
Balancing customization with scalability in deals
There’s often tension between customization and scalability when it comes to curated deals. How does OpenX strike the right balance to meet varied advertiser objectives while ensuring operational efficiency for publishers?
Truthfully, we’re not finding that scale suffers with curation. We currently have 237 million monthly active users in our exchange that we can match and activate curated deals against. That’s a unique claim for an SSP, and we back it up with our identity graph. This directly benefits our publishers who see a 20% increase in overall bid density and a 118%+ increase in win rate for curated deals vs. open market.
Data-driven curation done on the supply side offers efficiency and drives results for buyers, while publishers are able to activate their own first-party data programmatically, increase their monetization, and maximize the value of their inventory. As the industry continues to adapt to a privacy-first, consent-based ecosystem, data-driven curation will play a key part in ensuring both sides of the marketplace continue to thrive.
Driving results with CTV curation
Connected TV is arguably the most dynamic channel in programmatic right now. How do curation improvements accelerate more precise or outcome-based targeting in CTV environments?
I want to take this a step further and say that biddable is the future of CTV. Not only does biddable enable advertisers to purchase closer to campaign activation, it gives buyers the option to curate deals, flexibility, addressability and ease of transacting at will. No minimums, no commitments.
Our CTV strategy has been centered around combining flexibility, efficiency, and real-time optimization capabilities with access to premium, direct, glass-on-wall inventory. TV by OpenX, powers the direct activation of curated audiences at scale through data-driven, contextual, attention, and sustainability offerings.
What does this mean for buyers? Advertisers can choose from any one of OpenX’s 250+ data partners, including Experian, to target an audience via CTV inventory using OpenX’s cross-platform identity graph. This setup allows buyers to increase scale and optimize toward their desired campaign outcomes via their preferred DSP. The focus on inventory quality and scale combined with advanced targeting curation provides a key driver of performance in CTV.
Identity resolution for better CTV measurement
In a channel as fragmented as CTV, measuring performance can be complex. What role does identity resolution play in better measurement and attribution? How do Experian’s identity capabilities integrate within your platform to drive measurable outcomes?
We talked about the value of audience targeting via curation above. Another critical driver is our ability to power true closed-loop measurement for advertisers or partners like retail media networks. OpenX is able to provide automated log-level reporting via BIDS, which includes exposed IDs from our proprietary ID graph back to our partners in near real time.
This closed-loop attribution enables partners to measure real-world outcomes like ROAS, conversion rates and incrementality. Insights and learnings from data can then be used to make optimizations mid-campaign, to further improve performance. Measurement starts with having a strong foundation to identity resolution – which Experian helps us achieve.
Tailoring audience strategies in the auto sector
The automotive vertical demands highly specific audience insights—everything from in-market signals to lifestyle and aftermarket service and parts data. How does the Experian–OpenX partnership enhance audience strategies in auto?
Experian’s deterministic data, combined with the OpenX identity graph, empowers buyers with identity tools to create targeted audience segments of likely auto intenders. For verticals that have high customer acquisition costs like auto, these insights are particularly valuable, as buyers often struggle to identify their audiences at scale in environments that drive campaign performance.
Experian’s automotive data is one of our most requested audiences from buyers. We match Experian’s high-quality data directly to our platform, often leveraging Experian’s IDs, which leads to greater scale and fidelity. In addition, our platform can curate supply to a granular level to drive results for buyers.
Complying with evolving privacy regulations
With data privacy regulations multiplying—like GDPR, CCPA, and others—how does OpenX’s direct connection with Experian ensure responsible data usage and compliance?
At OpenX, we don’t see privacy regulations as a challenge but rather an opportunity. Instead, it’s a key differentiator for us. We’ve had a strong focus on data and identity since 2017, and we believe that if you’re talking about these topics but not talking about privacy, you’re missing an important piece of the equation.
Regardless of the environment — CTV, mobile, app, or web — in today’s privacy-focused world, success in data and identity is inseparable from a commitment to privacy. We support this obligation with dedicated leadership that helps our partners navigate evolving global regulations, including critical areas like child-directed content under new laws from Australia to Maryland.
Thanks for the interview. Any recommendations for our readers if they want to learn more?
To learn more about our solutions and partnership opportunities, visit the OpenX website or contact your Experian account representative to schedule your free match test.
Contact us
About our expert
Brian Chisholm, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, OpenX
Brian Chisholm is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at OpenX, where he spearheads the curation, data, and identity efforts. He and his team have been instrumental in building out OpenX’s industry-leading curation platform and partnerships.
With more than two decades of experience in digital media, Brian has developed partnerships that leverage and expand OpenX’s core technology assets and deliver material value for the company’s buyer, publisher, and platform partners. Before joining OpenX, Brian held senior roles at innovative startups and digital stalwarts, including Overture/Yahoo, SpotRunner, and Apptera.
Latest posts
Distribution via LiveRamp enables seamless cross-device customer experiences through more platforms NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, now part of Experian and the leading provider of unified cross-device marketing technology solutions, today announced an expanded partnership with LiveRamp™, an Acxiom® company and leading provider of omnichannel identity resolution, to make the proprietary Tapad Device Graph™ accessible beyond Tapad-hosted direct integrations. Through LiveRamp, Tapad's Device Graph Access now extends to more than 400 ad tech and mar tech platforms. Tapad's Device Graph™ enables marketers to understand, monetize and measure consumer engagement across all digital channels, and Tapad's unified consumer view is recognized as one of the most accurate, scalable cross-device solutions in the market today. Through the expanded partnership with LiveRamp, the Tapad Device Graph can be distributed to the hundreds of platforms used to reach consumers on digital channels and measure campaign performance – even as devices are added daily to Tapad's extensive graph. "Increasingly, marketers want access to cross-device targeting and measurement capabilities within their preferred platforms," said Anneka Gupta, chief product officer of LiveRamp. "Our expanded partnership makes it easy for marketers to access Tapad's graph through the rapidly growing set of integrations available in our partner ecosystem." This is the latest of several initiatives between the two technology platforms designed to make the integration of cross-screen platforms seamless, privacy-safe and easy to use for dynamic and engaging marketing efforts. "During the past year, Tapad has expanded its global presence and rapidly grown its data business – Tapad Coral – doubling the number of companies integrating our device graph into their platforms and growing our annualized run rate by 210%," said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad Coral and APAC. "Our expanded partnership with LiveRamp positions us to meet the increased demand for Tapad Device Graph Access and enable new platforms to apply our graph with unprecedented speed." Contact us today
Cross-Screen Pioneer Explores the Power of Connected Cars as a Vehicle for Customer Engagement LAS VEGAS, NV — (October 26, 2016) –Kate O’Loughlin, GM of Media for Tapad, addressed the J.D. Power Automotive conference audience today in Las Vegas, NV. With more than 1,400 participants representing every facet of the automotive marketing profession, the conference has become the industry's leading marketing event. Bringing the unified, cross-screen perspective to the stage, O’Loughlin discussed the vital role of connected cars in the consumer engagement process. She is a founding member of Tapad which launched the world’s first cross-screen marketing technology in 2010. Tapad was acquired by the Telenor Group early in 2016. Key points from O’Loughlin’s J.D. Power 2016 address included: The marketers who deliver relevant and engaging content in a privacy-safe setting will be in the strongest position to navigate the proliferation of connected devices, including the connected points in cars. As automakers innovate the technology in cars, marketers need to be prepared for the size and diversity of data available for understanding consumers. It’s going to be increasingly difficult to wade through the data, so now is the time to build a solid framework for understanding the person behind the data. Marketers who evolve — and take a holistic approach — to their campaign measurements will achieve marked improvements in efficiency and an enhanced understanding of their core audiences. Actionable brand engagement metrics like Viewable Exposure Time (VET) will continue to overtake traditional advertising performance metrics. VET evaluates the optimal amount of time an ad is present on a screen to incite consumer action. In early testing by Tapad, campaigns that employ VET see conversion rate performance improvements from 13 to 60%. The consumer-centric technology solutions of the future need to be as scalable as they are affordable. Learn more about Tapads’ recommended Viewable Exposure Time metric contact us today! Contact us today
NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology, today announced a new metric for cross-device marketers, Viewable Exposure Time (VET). Viewable Exposure Time measures across screens and ad formats, identifying the optimal amount of time a consumer spends with an ad before they take action. The announcement coincides with Unify Tech '16, Tapad's third-annual cross-device summit during Advertising Week NY. Frequency caps are currently used to ensure that dollars aren't wasted on redundant ads. Viewable Exposure Time evolves the frequency capping approach to include accelerating a consumer's ad exposure rate up to the optimal time spent with the brand. VET is used in affinity, digital transaction and offline purchase models as a key indicator of marketing budget well-spent. Beta users of VET span every vertical, though interest is especially high from CPG, Automotive, Telecommunications and Retail. Viewable Exposure Time unifies and upgrades marketers' predictors of advertising success by leveraging cross-screen engagement across digital and television, with vendor-agnostic viewability scores for video, rich media and display. "Today's current measurement options, like click-through rate (CTR) and TV gross ratings points (GRP) tell an incomplete story," said Tapad GM of Media Kate O'Loughlin. "Tapad is focused on measuring what really matters to marketers – building an efficient connection with a customer. Innovation in metrics was long overdue." More than just a measurement tool, Tapad also provides clients with VET activation. Factoring in time spent with ads in viewable seconds and minutes, these analytics inform marketers about which audiences are underexposed, enabling them to adjust campaigns and deliver according to optimal viewable exposure time. This effectively increases conversion rates at the lowest cost. Contact us today