IAB Unveils Standard API For 'Programmatic Direct' Trading

Just over one year ago, news broke that AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yieldex had agreed to come together to adopt  “programmatic direct” as their trading method of choice and worked to create a standard API -- dubbed OpenDirect -- for the programmatic trading of premium inventory.

This morning the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released the official API, OpenDirect 1.0, for public comment. MediaMath and Bionic Advertising Systems joined AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yieldex to develop the API specifications.

“Programmatic direct,” also sometimes called “programmatic premium,” is a hybrid trading method involving both direct sales tactics and automation.

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The IAB’s OpenDirect 1.0 specifications can be read in full here. It’s over 100 pages long, so we can’t cover it all in this space. However, the IAB highlights two things that “should be noted," so we will highlight them here:

“The API takes an advertiser first approach,” the document reads. “Both advertisers and agencies must sign up with the publisher and receive credentials. Advertisers may perform their own buys or provide consent to have an agency perform buys on their behalf; for an agency to perform buys on behalf of an advertiser, the advertiser must provide consent. The process of signing up and providing consent is publisher defined.”

In addition: “To book a line, the line must have a creative assigned to it. The creative may be the actual creative that the advertiser plans to run or a placeholder creative that is later replaced with the actual creative when it becomes available. However, the line will run with whichever creative is assigned to it (the actual creative or placeholder creative).”

The IAB contends the specifications will increase workflow efficiencies for publishers, give them greater control of packaging, pricing and delivery of inventory and give them a realizable way of automating reserved inventory.

Forbuyers, theIAB says the standard will provide accesstobiggerpoolsofuniqueusers, increaseefficiencyby using justoneAPIintegrationacrossmultiplepublishersandallowbuyerstobookguaranteeddeliveryandaccesstomediaofferings that are notavailableonanexchange.

This common set of API specifications sets the stage for direct programmatic ad sales and will allow buyers who want to access guaranteed inventory via automated processes avoid multiple, costly, custom integrations,” stated Scott Cunningham, VP of technology and ad operations at IAB.

2 comments about "IAB Unveils Standard API For 'Programmatic Direct' Trading".
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  1. michael Kaushansky from Havas Helia, November 8, 2014 at 9:37 a.m.

    This is a huge step operationalize the ecosystem and add efficiency.

  2. John Hawkins from Big Mobile, November 12, 2014 at 7:25 p.m.

    Lots of great ideas in this.

    I think the big problem will be managing the growing numbers of credentials, both for publishers and agencies. This is something the OpenDirect 1.0 specification cannot address and it will fundamental to the uptake of the API.

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