The company is launching this service to better connect buyers and sellers by infusing simplicity and improved access into the TV ad buying process.

FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the television advertising industry, today announced the launch of its Beeswax Inventory Desk. 

This new offering provides buyers, such as agencies and advertisers, using FreeWheel’s Beeswax technology with a simpler and more efficient way to access premium video ad inventory from the company’s publisher clients and other supply partners. The types of premium video ad inventory available namely span connected television and programmatic video streaming.

The Beeswax Inventory Desk, which functions as an inventory curation service, is designed to better match buyer demand with premium video ad inventory supply. Today’s TV ad ecosystem needs more effective and efficient ways to directly connect the buy and sell sides, and this solution aims to address three current industry needs: the need to remove unnecessary sources of friction, drive greater return on marketing dollars for marketers and improve the viewer experience.

The new Beeswax Inventory Desk unlocks several new opportunities for both sides of the TV ad buying ecosystem:

Buy Side (Advertisers and Agencies):

• Many buyers are unable to have direct, easy access to premium video ad inventory through current industry offerings. Many also do not have established, one-on-one relationships with leading premium video suppliers.
• With this new service, buyers now have a seamless, direct path to premium video supply. The Beeswax Inventory Desk delivers a curated package of premium video ad inventory to meet campaign objectives with automation and efficiency.
• Additionally, buyers reap the benefits of expedited activation and white glove service with fewer programmatic ad hops, resulting in a more optimized supply path to reach their audiences.

Sell Side (Publishers):

• Publishers are increasingly looking to diversify demand sources in today’s TV ad ecosystem
• The inventory curation service helps publishers easily match their supply with demand from buyers on the Beeswax platform and drive new revenue opportunities.
• It eliminates the need for unnecessary product, commercial or operational work. The Beeswax Inventory Desk handles all the heavy lifting on behalf of publishers. They simply need to opt-in to participate.

Currently, there are more than 40 Beeswax customers actively using this new offering. This number includes nearly 250 sourced deals from FreeWheel supply-side customers, including inventory from A+E Networks, AMC Networks and NBCUniversal. Furthermore, the company has seen a 670% increase in spend on deals sourced from the Beeswax Inventory Desk in Q4 2023 versus Q3 2023.

"We know that friction, complexity and fragmentation are key challenges that buyers and sellers across the TV advertising ecosystem face today,” said Matt Clark, VP, Strategic Partnerships, FreeWheel. “And so, one of the ah ha moments behind this service was, ‘How can we make the TV ad buying process simpler, better and with fewer headaches for all so that advertisers’ dollars can work harder and viewers can enjoy a more improved ad experience?’ It is our hope that this new offering will help create a win-win across the TV ad ecosystem.”

“In an era of fragmentation and complexity, FreeWheel’s Beeswax Inventory Desk helps bring some much-needed simplicity as well as direct connections across the TV ad ecosystem,” said David Pudjunis, VP, Digital Revenue Operations & Partnerships, AMC Networks. “Specifically, this exciting offering attracts a new set of advertisers to our content by allowing us to create custom packages that fit the needs of their clients’ campaigns – driving better business results across the board.”

Another current user, Jeromy Sonne, CEO and co-founder of Decibel Ads, said the solution has made the ad buying process simpler, easier, more transparency and efficient.

“This solution has made it faster and easier for our teams to pull in new premium ad inventory for customers. It removes much of the guesswork and greatly reduces the back and forth of wondering whether we’re getting the best – and most fair – price from publishers. In some instances, we’ve helped drive eight figures of incremental revenue for our customers, all while significantly increasing the addressability, relevance, target and reach of their ad campaigns,” he said.