Smartclip last week launched SmartX Platform, a programmatic video ad platform which opens up inventory on private exchanges in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Smartclip is Adconion Media Group's multiscreen video and brand advertising platform.
According to a release, SmartX Platform is a multimillion-dollar investment that took over 18 months to create from scratch. Ronald Schaber, COO and co-founder of Smartclip, stated, "We are seeing increased demand from our clients for programmatic access to premium inventory." As a result, the company decided to build their own SSP.
Smartclip has a network of over 700 publishers, and the company believes that SmartX Platform is symbolic of the next generation of video ad platforms because it provides automated trading tech within ad serving. This helps overcome some of commercial barriers RTB faces in online video. "The efficiency of RTB clearly supports the concept of automated trading, yet the solutions to protect the commercial aspects of the transactions have been limited up to this point," stated Smartclip CTO Ricky McClellen. "Most platforms have simply adopted the auction strategy of performance display RTB without focusing on the commercial strategies for both premium content and video advertising."