• by Charlene Weisler , Op-Ed Contributor, October 29, 2014

Jim Hackett, VP of tech operations for eXelate, started in the backend / web development area of the financial industry before moving into the advertising sector in a range of tech start-ups. At eXelate, he is responsible for technology implementation, including the creation of segments that power programmatic buying platforms using disparate data sets. One could say that eXelate is the data power behind programmatic decision-making and that Hackett is the great mind behind that power. I might add that he is a graduate of my alma mater, SUNY Binghamton.

In my interview with him, Hackett talks about eXelate and the role it plays in the media industry, the data ecosystem, how segmentation works and how the media landscape is evolving over the next few years.  Below is an excerpt from the interview, complete videos of which can be viewed here:

CW: Tell me about eXelate.

JH: eXelate’s data exchange for online advertising works with hundreds of online publishers to gather behavioral information about users. We package this information into segments and our larger ones are around travel, auto purchase, and shopping information. We also have demographic segments. We also have a modeling system where, if we are given a signal around any type of event that we are getting from data providers, we can take that signal and map it across our entire data universe to come up with a model that would say that people with these other attributes are very like this attribute. So, we are able to model out panel audiences that are provided to us by other data providers and still maintain data privacy.

CW: How do you fit into programmatic?

JH: We are a bit unique in the industry because we don’t actually run any media. We don’t manage campaigns. We don’t drive campaigns or conversion metrics. We provide data that allows those campaigns to run more effectively.

CW: The word “platform” has different meanings depending on where we are. What is your definition of platform?

JH: For us a platform is anywhere we push data and the data can be analyzed for a media buy. So the platforms that we push our data into are advertising exchanges such as Google Adx, but we are also integrated with essentially all of the DSPs or the SSPs.

CW: How do you think connected TVs will impact your business?

JH: We are currently integrating with mobile and the way we define our integration there is cross-platform. So we are not focused on mobile per se. We are building out a cross-platform capability and mobile happens to be the first. Things are become more and more digital and it is already happening in TV. A few months ago I met with Visible World. What they are doing with the RTB of TV is very interesting.   

CW: Do you have standard segments? Do you create custom segments? How does the process work?

JH: We have both. We have a standard taxonomy that is broken out into three major categories – demographic, interest and intent…. In the demographic area, we have things like age, gender, income level, career, job types – that sort of thing. In interests, we have things like auto owners -- like “I own a Nissan”. In intent, we have things like “in market to purchase a Nissan”. It is a similar concept for things like CPG products, where there are products that you might be more interested in or you are a general consumer of those types of products, as compared to something like “Today, I want to buy an iPhone.” That is where it parses out with intent. All of this is on the syndicated side – the eXelate exchange side.

We also allow branded partners to create their own categories for whatever purpose they want. Examples of that might be for Nielsen or Mastercard, where those segments are defined directly by them….

Outside of all of this, we have the ability to create any custom segment that an advertiser would like…. On the branded side, one thing we have seen over the past year or so is that those brands have the ability to create very customized segments for some very specific advertisers and push those to specific platforms only for that advertiser….