The new library of cookieless deal IDs empowers advertisers to future-proof their media investments in a transforming programmatic landscape.

OpenX Technologies, Inc., one of the world’s leading omnichannel supply-side platforms, today announced the newest advancement in its suite of cookieless targeting solutions. The Cookieless Deal Library allows advertisers to easily test and scale campaigns against the full universe of cookieless targeting options and activate in their DSP of choice. 

As the advertising industry prepares to face the biggest shift in the history of programmatic, 98 percent of marketers report they're concerned about signal loss, and buyers aren’t equipped with a seamless way to test cookieless offerings within existing workflows to determine which solutions perform best at scale.

OpenX’s Cookieless Deal Library streamlines the process for buyers, enabling them to test new options with ease, maintain existing workflows, and continue to use their platforms of choice. This means it’s easy to immediately start testing multiple solutions, test them against each other, and set new benchmarks – all without incremental contracts or negotiations.

This new DSP-agnostic solution will allow buyers to easily access more than 1,000 pre-built deal IDs from a full range of cookieless tactics, which will include:

• Alternative Identifier Deals powered by: Digiseg, ID5, and LiveRamp’s RampID
• Attention Deals powered by: Adelaide, Oracle Moat, and TVision
• Contextual Deals powered by: 4D, Audigent’s Contextual PMPs, Captify, Cross Pixel, Oracle Contextual Intelligence, Silverpush, and SQREEM Technologies
• ID-Free Audience Deals powered by: Dstillery ID-free®
• CTV Deals powered by: Samba TV
• Privacy Sandbox Topics Deals powered by: Chrome
• Publisher First-Party Data Deals powered by: Audigent’s Smart PMPs

Further, OpenX’s Cookieless Deal Library marks the first time that Google Privacy Sandbox Topics segments will be made available for buyers to target in any DSP, including those that aren’t currently supporting that technology.

The Cookieless Deal Library follows the launch of ConteX, OpenX's contextual marketplace, with some ConteX deals delivering a 300% increase in delivery in non-cookied environments.

“OpenX’s status as a leader in innovation, our direct premium publisher integrations, and our attention to customer feedback makes it easy for buyers to test, learn, and act. With the Cookieless Deal Library, buyers can log in today, select from the universe of cookieless deal IDs, and start testing solutions now,” said Matt Sattel, SVP, Buyer Development at OpenX. “Platforms that are overly reliant on indirect traffic and/or that lack dynamic technology infrastructures will be at a significant disadvantage in a world without cookies. We’re all going to need to test, learn, and pivot quickly in this new landscape.”

With this new library, buyers can now find and activate deals from OpenX’s robust ecosystem of dozens of data partners and targeting solutions that don’t rely on third-party cookies for matching or activation. This is an important step in cookieless innovation, with future innovations including enhanced forecasting tools and new off-the-shelf cookieless audiences.

Integration Makes Transcoded Creatives Directly Available in Google Ad Manager's Creative Repository from Flight Control, Streamlining Ad Serving Calls for a Seamless Viewing Experience

Clinch, the leader in dynamic ad serving and personalization and creator of Flight Control, the Omnichannel Campaign Activation Platform, announced today its integration with Google Ad Manager's Creative Transcoding API, allowing videos to be served to various media owners that utilize Google Ad Manager DAI.

This integration enables fully transcoded creatives to be available directly in Google Ad Manager's Creative Repository without the need to transcode in real time when requested, and ready to serve via Dynamic Ad Insertion. This ensures that advertisers' personalized video ad content is optimally prepared for server-side ad serving calls and seamlessly integrates into publishers' content streams.

"Our partnership with Google represents a significant step forward in streamlining ad campaigns and making ad serving more efficient and effective," said Charel MacIntosh, Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Clinch. "This collaboration allows us to continue to deliver personalized video ad content with the utmost efficiency, enhancing the viewing experience for users while ensuring better outcomes for advertisers and publishers."

Key benefits of Clinch's integration with Google Ad Manager's Creative Transcoding API include:

• Ensures a quality user/viewing experience.
• Maintains an equal balance of value between advertiser and publisher, ensuring consistent fill rates for publishers and zero missed opportunities for impressions for advertisers.
• Helps to ensure monetization of inventory, particularly via programmatic channels where the use of DAI might not be apparent in bundled content or targeted private marketplaces.

"This process allows for pre-ingestion transcoding, eliminating the need to transcode during the initial impression," continued MacIntosh. "In Clinch's ad response, a Google Media ID is included, and transcoded assets sourced from Google Ad Manager's Creative Repository are then retrieved for dynamic ad insertion, streamlining the entire workflow."

This collaboration marks the latest milestone in Clinch's mission to build valuable partnerships for advertisers to increase speed to market and campaign activation efficiencies while reducing errors.

The first platform in the hospitality industry to put diners at the center of how restaurants operate, so restaurants can create better experiences and grow their business 

BentoBox, the Official Restaurant Technology Partner of the James Beard Foundation (JBF), has launched the BentoBox Marketing & Commerce Platform, an all-in-one restaurant commerce engine—encompassing modules for websites, online ordering, reservations, and events management—that will engage diners and keep them coming back.

Starting today, restaurant operators can leverage the BentoBox Marketing & Commerce Platform to stand out from the competition and bring in more business, sell during and after business hours to boost profits, connect with diners between visits, and operate more efficiently to improve their bottom line.

This announcement includes the introduction of BentoCore, the heart of the platform that houses a restaurant's diner data and centralizes menu information, marketing tools, and branding materials. BentoCore powers diner-facing modules that restaurants can activate based on their needs, including Restaurant Website, Takeout & Delivery, Digital Waitlist, Online Catering, Events Management, Reservations, Gift Cards, and QR Code Order & Pay. The activation of more modules allows BentoCore to collect more data, providing a fuller view of restaurant's diners and overall business performance, enabling more targeted marketing and smarter hospitality.

Key features of BentoCore include:

1. Diner Database: Gives restaurants a unified view of their diners.
   • It collects and stores data from diner interactions with a restaurant's website, online ordering, reservations, and more, which restaurants can then use to create more personalized marketing and hospitality experiences.
2. Menu Management: Allows restaurants to centrally manage all of their menus and menu items, taking a one-and-done approach.
   • Whenever a restaurant needs to make a change to a menu, they only need to do it once and the menu will automatically update everywhere it shows up online.
3. Brand Center: Stores diner-facing brand elements live such as logos, colors, and fonts.
   • Once the restaurant's brand elements are uploaded to the Brand Center, they can be applied to any module, making it easy to give diners a consistent brand experience.
4. Marketing & Loyalty: Includes all the tools that restaurants need to stay connected with customers and keep them coming back such as email marketing, SMS marketing, and loyalty programs. These include:
   • Automated Emails: After a customer has ordered online, made a reservation, or planned an event, the platform will automatically send well-timed emails encouraging them to do it again.
   • Email Campaigns: Restaurants are able to create custom email campaigns like newsletters and send to pre-built or custom-segmented customer lists.  
   • SMS Marketing
     • Automated SMS: After a customer has ordered online, made a reservation, or planned an event, the platform will automatically send well-timed texts encouraging them to do it again.
     • SMS Campaigns: Restaurants are able to create custom campaigns with promotions and other updates and send to pre-built or custom-segmented customer lists. 
   • Loyalty Programs: Restaurants are able to keep customers coming back by offering rewards and incentives based on the number of orders placed or amount of money spent.

As restaurants today face numerous challenges, the BentoBox Marketing & Commerce Platform enables restaurants to stand out, sell, engage more diners, and operate more efficiently. As a champion of restaurants and the hospitality industry, BentoBox is providing restaurants with technology that will create better guest experiences, better operator experiences, and faster growth.

TEGNA Inc. today announced that Premion, LLC, its industry-leading premium Connected TV (CTV)/Over-the-Top (OTT) advertising platform for regional and local advertisers, has signed an agreement and simultaneously closed on the acquisition of Octillion Media. Octillion is a next-generation demand-side platform (DSP) focused on Local CTV/OTT advertising. The acquisition will expand Premion’s capabilities in the growing CTV marketplace by combining Octillion’s cutting-edge technology with Premion’s award-winning local CTV/OTT advertising solution.

“Octillion is precisely the type of smart bolt-on acquisition we have long considered to accelerate our already successful organically grown Premion business,” said Dave Lougee, president and CEO, TEGNA.

“We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Octillion Media,” said Tom Cox, president of Premion and senior vice president, corporate development, TEGNA. “We built Premion with a local-first mindset from the start. The acquisition of Octillion Media provides us with a proven purpose-built local CTV platform to further enable product innovation, improve operational efficiencies, and drive accelerated growth. Local relevance remains a top advertiser priority, and the addition of Octillion’s technology will enhance our ability to meet ever-evolving customer needs and drive value for our clients.”

Founded in 2019, Octillion Media’s technology platform has been natively developed for local CTV/OTT advertising. Named the #2 fastest growing private media company in the U.S. on Inc.’s 5000 in 2022, Octillion has experienced impressive growth by delivering innovative CTV/OTT solutions with a focus on advertiser results and transparency. In 2023, Octillion was the first local OTT platform to achieve the TAG Certified for Transparency Seal.

“With our shared belief that transparency, quality, and brand safety are the key pillars of success for local CTV advertisers, bringing Octillion together with Premion is a natural fit,” said Gabe Greenberg, CEO and co-founder of Octillion. “We’re excited to continue to build and develop our innovative CTV/OTT product offering and activate the platform’s capabilities backed up by quantified business outcomes across Premion’s network of sellers and clients.”

As part of the transaction, Gabe Greenberg, as well as Octillion’s employees based in the U.S. and internationally will join the Premion team.

TEGNA will cover the cost of the acquisition with available cash on hand, which will not have a material impact on TEGNA’s cash or leverage levels. The transaction is expected to be free cash flow and EPS accretive within 12 months and is not expected to have a material impact on TEGNA’s 2024 financials.

The integration focuses on combining exceptional and compliant creative designs that can be beautiful and engaging yet personalized and scalable 

Category leaders in buyer and seller engagement come together to unify and tailor experiences across the customer lifecycle

Salesloft, the provider of the first and only AI-powered Revenue Orchestration Platform, today announced the acquisition of Drift, the buyer experience and Conversational AI company. The combination of Salesloft and Drift allows companies to orchestrate a personalized, omnichannel buyer journey powered by AI, providing an optimal buying experience that drives higher quality pipeline and revenue outcomes. 

“This acquisition will fundamentally change how B2B buyers and sellers engage, but also how sales and marketing teams come together to drive pipeline efficiency and revenue outcomes,” said David Obrand, CEO of Salesloft. “We are both focused on continued innovation, and together, our customers will experience improved consistency and repeatability throughout the entire buying journey all while allowing them to focus on what only they can do – guiding buyers, forming relationships, and establishing trust.”

Research shows typical buyers are 60 to 70% of the way through their journey before they ever talk to a seller. During that time, they’ve had several digital experiences via websites, online events, and ads. Sellers currently lack the technical capabilities to understand the buyer’s needs and timing across all those experiences. Salesloft and Drift will allow sellers to engage earlier, throughout the buyer journey, and across channels with tailored messages for a personalized buying experience that increases trust, conversion rates and ultimately revenue outcomes.

The combined company will have nearly 6,000 global customers and employees based in Atlanta, Boston, Tampa, San Francisco, London, Warsaw, Capetown, South Africa and Guadalajara, Mexico.

"Drift was founded to address an emerging market need for better B2B buyer experiences. Since then, buyer expectations have continued to grow and AI has changed how we work and interact with each other,” said Scott Ernst, CEO of Drift. “Salesloft shares our vision for the future of go-to-market, and together we will accelerate our ability to transform the entire customer experience."

This announcement comes on the heels of banner years for both companies. Salesloft released its newest AI innovation, Rhythm, which translates real-time buyer signals into a single prioritized workflow, and expanded its footprint in several large enterprises, including IBM. In October, Drift announced an evolution of its buyer engagement platform and introduced three new products – Drift Engage, Site Concierge, and Bionic Chatbots – that use AI to connect with and guide buyers and deliver significant outcomes for customers. The company was also named one of G2’s Best AI Products for 2024.

Logitix, a leader in live event ticketing technology and analytics, announced it has named longtime sports industry executive Kenny Koperda as Senior Vice President of Business Development and experienced marketer Lauren Ward as Director of Marketing & Revenue Operations. The company also promoted Ryan Sember, who transitioned from a successful career in team sports to Logitix in 2022, and now assumes the title of Senior Vice President of Partnerships.

Koperda brings extensive sports industry experience to Logitix, including his most recent position as the SVP of Ticketing & Premium Seating at BSE Global, the parent company of the Barclays Center, Brooklyn Nets, and New York Liberty. He spent more than six years with the New York Mets as Vice President of Ticketing, Premium, and Operations, where he was responsible for the organization's ticketing vertical. Prior to his time in New York, Koperda led New Business Development efforts with the Minnesota Timberwolves and started his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. In his new position at Logitix, Koperda will work closely with the live events industry to help teams, properties, and promoters optimize ticket sales and revenue.

Ward joins Logitix with over 12 years of experience in various sectors, including the food and beverage industry, sports, and nonprofits. Her recent role at Foxtail Coffee involved leading marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships across 60 locations. She also spent five years with the United States Tennis Association, overseeing annual marketing campaigns and on-site activations at the US Open.

Sember's rise to Senior Vice President of Partnerships is his second promotion at Logitix since joining the company two years ago as Senior Director of Business Development. He works closely with Logitix partners across all sectors, including sports, entertainment, and performing arts. Before joining Logitix, Sember was part of the leadership teams at the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Hawks.

"I'm proud of the culture that we've built at Logitix to attract some of the best in our industry to work with us," said Logitix Chief Revenue Officer Travis Apple. "We are coming off of a record-setting 2023, and adding talent like Kenny and Lauren and elevating Ryan's role set us up for further success in 2024."

TaskUs, Inc., a leading provider of outsourced digital services and next-generation customer experience to the world's most innovative companies, announced today that it has integrated with Zendesk, Inc. giving organizations who work with Zendesk the ability to combine TaskUs’ Generative AI customer service solutions with their existing infrastructure.

TaskGPT is a powerful suite of products developed by TaskUs and fueled by Generative AI and Large Language Models. Through the integration, clients using Zendesk can easily configure their solutions to deliver Generative AI-fueled responses to simple or process-oriented customer service questions, increasing their efficiency and customer satisfaction scores. Each response is accompanied by a confidence score, indicating its reliability empowering front-line staff with the flexibility to customize the selected response according to ongoing customer interactions, ensuring conversations flow seamlessly.

Since TaskUs announced its TaskGPT pilot with MoneyLion last June, which is now in deployment after showing meaningful improvement in average handle times for both chat and voice support, 15 global clients are piloting the solution. For clients who are using TaskGPT, TaskUs is seeing significant improvements in both productivity and client satisfaction.

“We are thrilled to offer our clients the flexibility to integrate TaskGPT with Zendesk and other CX solution providers,” said Manish Pandya, Senior Vice President of Digital at TaskUs. “Flexibility is the key to our TaskGPT solution, which can connect with our clients’ existing systems to deliver superior service quickly and efficiently.”