Ask any agency or brand leader what they want from a curation partner, and you’ll hear similar things: better data, cleaner deals, and measurable outcomes. At the same time, most teams are also managing a media strategy that spans dozens of platforms, partners, and environments. Your strategy shouldn’t be constrained by any one of them.
While those things matter, there’s a question underneath all of them that rarely gets asked directly.
Is your curation partner structured to serve you, or to serve their own position in the ecosystem?
That question matters more today than it did two years ago. The programmatic ecosystem has consolidated. Platforms have gotten larger, partnerships have become more entangled, and the line between trusted partner and another stakeholder with an agenda has gotten harder to see.
At Experian, we think about neutrality as the structural question curation has to answer first. Before data quality. Before deal performance. Before scale.
What neutral actually means
Neutral isn’t the same as passive. It means being structured to serve both sides of a transaction without benefiting from pushing either side in a particular direction. That’s the definition of a trusted intermediary: sitting in the middle of the ecosystem to create better outcomes, not to capture a larger share of it.
For curation, that means a few things we take seriously. We are demand-side platform (DSP) agnostic. We don’t route buyers toward certain platforms because we have a financial stake in their success. We honor existing supply-side platform (SSP) relationships and build integrations that work across the agencies, brands, publishers, and technology platforms our clients already use. Our goal is to work inside your ecosystem, not compete with it.
Why neutrality is harder to find than it should be
Most players in the programmatic supply chain have built their business models around a specific position. DSPs optimize for platform retention, SSPs want a larger share of available supply, and walled gardens are designed to keep signal inside their environment.
Those are understandable business decisions. But they create conflicting incentives for anyone inside those structures who is also being positioned as a neutral curation partner.
Experian’s position is different. Our value grows when the ecosystem stays open and connected. That alignment shapes how we build, price, and go to market. It’s what makes genuine neutrality possible at scale.
Neutrality is what makes everything else trustworthy
Data quality, interoperability, and performance all matter in a curation partner. But none of those capabilities deliver their full value when the partner providing them has a stake in steering outcomes toward their own infrastructure.
Neutrality is the condition that makes the rest of the evaluation trustworthy.
For teams assessing curation partners right now, I’d start there. Ask how the partner makes money. Ask who benefits when you stay inside their ecosystem. Those answers will tell you a great deal about whether the relationship is actually built in your interest.
About the author
Kevin Dunn
Chief Revenue Officer, Experian
Kevin Dunn joins Experian Marketing Services with more than 20 years of leadership experience across marketing and advertising technology, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Brands and Agencies at LiveRamp. In that role, he led growth across retail, CPG, travel, hospitality, financial services, and healthcare, overseeing new business, account expansion, and channel partnerships.
Kevin is known for building cohesive, accountable teams and leading with optimism, clarity, and a strong sense of shared purpose. His leadership philosophy centers on empowering people, driving positive outcomes for clients and fostering a culture where teams can grow, take smart risks, and succeed together.
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Early successes include revenue increases, global partnerships and fundraising NEW YORK, March 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad’s entrepreneurial mentorship initiative, the Propeller Program, has seen extremely positive results since it began in September 2016. The five early-stage startups selected from Norway have gained momentum in establishing a U.S. presence. Tapad, now a part of Experian, is the leader in unified cross-device marketing technology. The company was acquired by the Telenor Group in 2016. Among the successes within Propeller: Xeneta, the leading ocean freight price comparison platform and contracted rate database, has raised an additional $12M in funding since beginning the Propeller Program. Before the end of 2016, the company had exceeded its revenue expectations by nearly 30 percent, proving the European-focused business could succeed in the American market. “Aside from directly impacting our revenue, the Propeller Program has provided us with incredible access to a countless number of external resources, including subject matter experts from the fields of fundraising, public speaking, corporate structuring and immigration law,” said William Di Ieso, GM of North America for Xeneta. “We remain extremely grateful for the opportunity and exposure the program has provided for Xeneta.” Bubbly, an in-store real-time engagement tool for non-buyers, now has clients on four continents. After only a few months in the U.S. market, Bubbly has signed deals with one major retail brand, one major toy manufacturer and a major global consulting firm. The Propeller Program has also opened doors for greater opportunities in Scandinavia and EMEA. After an introduction to Telenor Group’s President and CEO Sigve Brekke, Bubbly is currently piloting its IoT kiosk with the company. “The mentoring sessions have been very valuable and have given us guidance as to how to best enter the U.S. market,” said Marianne Haugland Hindsgaul, Bubbly CEO and co-founder. “Learning to do business in the U.S. is not something you can necessarily learn from a book. The most impactful lessons are based on real-world experience, and that is what the Propeller Program has given us.” BylineMe, a marketplace for freelancers, publishers and brands to connect for content creation and distribution services, has built an extensive network of potential clients and investors. The company has tested its product in the U.S. market and gained valuable feedback for further development. Eventum, a property-sharing group that digitally assists in securing venues for meetings and corporate events, has closed a seed round of funding for nearly $1M. Eventum has also made key hires in the areas of business development and engineering “It is so rewarding to be able to support these Norwegian startups in a meaningful way,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder at Tapad. “Mentor relationships are critical for strategic growth, and I am proud to be able to pay forward the experiences I have gained as an entrepreneur. To me, the Propeller Program is a shining example of the magic that can happen when Norwegian innovation meets American opportunity.” Contact us today
Tapad’s TV analytics solutions now include premium national cable inventory– Travelocity asserts industry need, praises partnership — NEW YORK, February 28, 2017 — Tapad, a part of Experian, has announced its partnership with clypd, the leading audience-based sales platform for television advertising. By integrating clypd’s national cable network inventory, the partnership will expand Tapad’s extensive supply of TV inventory to include premium national cable inventory. Tapad is the leading provider of privacy-safe, cross-screen marketing technology solutions and was first-to-market with a device graph. Clypd’s robust sell-side advertising platform was one of the first built exclusively for the television industry, empowering media owners with solutions that deliver workflow automation, data-enhanced decisioning and, overall, maximize TV campaign performance. Through this partnership, Tapad’s Device Graph-powered TV tools will work in tandem with clypd’s sales platform to enable more precise audience engagement for TV ad buys. This will enable marketers to integrate their customer data or third-party digital segments into Tapad’s TV platform and use them to precisely engage their audience across clypd’s industry-leading footprint of national TV inventory. Campaigns are then optimized using Tapad’s graph-powered TV attribution, ensuring ads are aligned with the best context for each brand’s message. “Clypd is a pioneer in building TV marketplaces,” says Marshall Wong, SVP of TV market development at Tapad. “They were quick to recognize the benefits a device graph could bring to TV so that advertisers can activate linear inventory curated for any digital audience.” “Tapad’s TV activation platform increases the efficiency in which marketers can reach their intended audience on traditional linear TV,” says Doug Hurd, co-founder and EVP of business development at clypd. “Their customized, data-driven campaigns launch with precision and really increase the value marketers can extract from linear TV inventory.” “At Travelocity, we are always looking for ways to more efficiently reach our target audiences,” says Ashley Parker, head of brand marketing at Travelocity. “The combination of traditional linear TV and solutions like this offering from Tapad and clypd are bringing both the tools and the supply to make this vision a reality.” Contact us today
Dextro clients to achieve increased accuracy in cross-device consumer measurement and engagement NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Dextro Analytics, a pure play analytics company that harnesses the power of human learning and artificial reasoning to drive more informed and effective consumer marketing, is partnering with Tapad, the leading provider of unified, cross-screen marketing technology solutions and now a part of Experian. The deal is effective immediately and the scope of the partnership covers North America. Additional terms were not disclosed. Leveraging Tapad’s privacy-safe Device Graph™, Dextro Analytics will be able to significantly bolster its insight engine to decode complex customer journeys. Armed with more relevant, actionable insights, marketers can use Dextro’s cross-screen, closed-loop measurement systems to reach and engage the right customer at the right time through the right channel. “Being able to accurately map consumer preferences, behaviors and journeys in a privacy-safe and unified way across devices is still one of the biggest pain points for marketers,” said Ajith Govind, co-founder of Dextro Analytics. “At the same time, this partnership engages customers with the right message at the right time.” “Detecting latent patterns and signals, and tracing backward- and forward-looking behavioral characteristics, are keys to sustaining a competitive advantage in a crowded space,” said Manmit Shrimali, co-founder of Dextro Analytics. “With the proliferation of data and devices, connecting the dots is of paramount importance.” “Dextro is solving some of the biggest challenges in analytics today,” said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad’s data division. “Our partners consistently see notable improvements in both budget allocation and device optimizations after integrating with the Tapad Device Graph, and I have every confidence that Dextro will be among them.” For more information about Dextro Analytics’ revolutionary approach to using human learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to solve business and analytical problems, please visit http://dextroanalytics.com/. For more information about Tapad’s cross-platform advertising solutions, please visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync. Contact us today