• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, April 22, 2016

JUICE Mobile, a mobile ad tech firm, announced the launch of a mobile futures market for mobile advertising this week. The market will allow advertisers to secure premium, guaranteed mobile inventory in the future.

In broad strokes, futures markets work by allowing buyers and sellers to negotiate the price of a specific amount of inventory months before the delivery actually takes place. With the new model, agencies will be able to purchase inventory in bulk on behalf of multiple advertisers at a set rate.

There are other upfront buying options for other media, but JUICE is the only company that provides this service for mobile advertising. Buying in this manner helps to reduce some of the volatility of the marketplace, when demand increases around major events.

“The RTB market is great when you want to buy an impression for 'right now,’ but when you are planning for tentpole events, such as the back-to-school season or Black Friday, and everyone wants the same inventory as you, the price goes up and supply gets scarce,” stated Neil Sweeney, CEO of JUICE Mobile. “Nectar® Futures allows you to hedge your bets and mitigate these risks.”

Most major holding companies and 1,500 premium publishers use Nectar, JUICE’s programmatic platform. JUICE developed a programmatic direct service for the platform, and a futures market is a logical maturation of that step.

Buying up front also eliminates fraud, as all parties are disclosed beforehand and inventory is confirmed to be premium.

Direct buying works well for smaller single buys, but futures will allow advertisers to plan for and participate in larger tentpole events.