InMobi, Rubicon Expand Mobile Exchange To Include Native, Video

InMobi, a mobile programmatic ad exchange, and Rubicon Project, the ad tech provider that powers the exchange, continue to expand their partnership.

The two companies on Tuesday announced that the InMobi Exchange has officially integrated with 10 demand-side platforms (DSPs) to support programmatic native ad-buying in concordance with the IAB’s OpenRTB 2.3 standards released earlier this year. Additionally, over a dozen DSPs can now buy mobile interstitial video inventory via the InMobi Exchange.

The exchange, launched one year ago, has always been focused on native advertising. Ever since the initial InMobi-Rubicon partnership was announced, the two companies have essentially been putting the pipes in place for programmatic native ad-buying, working closely with the IAB and a handful of other companies to release the OpenRTB 2.3 standards.

InMobi says it began testing programmatic native ad-buying on its exchange with a select group of DSPs during the first quarter of this year, and today's announcement marks the full development of the offering.

The introduction of video to InMobi's exchange beefs up the amount of “quality” inventory it houses. The video inventory available on the exchange complies with the IAB’s Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) standards.

InMobi’s ultimate goal is to usher in a “no banner” mobile advertising world, stated Anne Frisbee, SVP of global alliances and programmatic at InMobi. She added that 40% of the inventory available on the exchange is now either native or video, a figure that is expected to rise.

Adelphic, Bidtellect, Bidswift, Bidstalk, Digilant, Stackadapt and others are counted as native DSP partners. The Trade Desk, Tapad, EyeReturn, AdTheorent, Adelphic and more are among the DSPs that have access InMobi’s new mobile video ad inventory.

In addition to marking a large-scale effort to adhere to the IAB's new programmatic native standards, today's announcement also represents another win for programmatic mobile video, which has been on a hot streak recently.

According to recent BrightRoll surveys, the majority of agencies in both the U.S. and Canada expect mobile video to be the fastest-growing category in terms of digital media spend this year. It’s no surprise, then, to see that BrightRoll decided to double down on mobile video.

Two other video-focused programmatic ad platforms -- Videology and TubeMogul -- have recently reported rises in programmatic mobile video as well. Videology recently said the number of programmatic mobile video ad campaigns running on its platform increased 81% from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of 2015, while TubeMogul noted that mobile ad spend on its platform has increased 500% year-over-year.

1 comment about "InMobi, Rubicon Expand Mobile Exchange To Include Native, Video".
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  1. Andrew Hunt from Addroid, June 2, 2015 at 1:06 p.m.

    "Haters gonna hate"  - why do some ad tech companies insist that native or video spend must cannibalize banner spend?  Different ad units are good for different purposes, and fetch different prices as a result.  The truth is that digital ad spend is increasing across the board, and this means that ad tech should be talking about taking more of the voice away from print and TV, rather than "circling the wagons and shooting inward" and taking spend away from each other.  Digital is still relatively early and we should all focus on expanding the pie and finding ways to help advertisers be successful using the right ad for the right audience at the right time.  If that is native, great.  If that is pre-roll, great.  If that is a video banner, great.  Let's share our best practices, eliminate the hate, and help advertisers understand the truth instead of adding confusion in the marketplace.

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