The US TV consortium set up to ensure advertisers can buy advanced TV ads using consistent audience segment descriptions may have just lost a key member, after WarnerMedia decided to approach the same problem on its own.
But that isn’t stopping the remaining members of OpenAP from launching in to a new phase with the project.
Whereas the initial incarnation of the group – founded by Fox, Viacom and what is now called WarnerMedia – was focused on harmonizing different providers’ descriptions of audience segments available for targeting, “OpenAP 2.0”, announced on Thursday, is “expanding the advanced audience platform into a centralized premium video marketplace with workflow automation for national linear and long-form digital video”, according to the announcement.
And it is doing so after developing the new platform with Accenture and FreeWheel, the Comcast-owned video ad-tech platform that is a sibling to NBCUniversal, which joined OpenAP alongside Univision in 2018.
How does this make OpenAP any different? Put simply, it extends the platform from just the targeting function in to buying execution, both at its own OpenAP.tv and through other demand-side platforms and APIs. Says the announcement:
“With OpenAP 2.0, buyers will now be able to build consistent, cross-publisher audience segments for both national linear and long-form digital video, and submit orders to activate these segments through a centralized cross-publisher marketplace.”
It will include analytics making clear pre-campaign performance projections and post-campaign delivery metrics, including total unduplicated reach, overall tCPM and total audience impressions.
Speaking to Beet.TV for this video interview in November 2018, John Halley, Viacom COO ad sales, said OpenAP at the time was at “phase one“.
“I think it’s very important that others join,” he said. “We’re going to be taking on other problems. We have a product roadmap that we’re developing internally, and we think within the next year or so, it should be out with some pretty exciting announcements and releases.”