MarTech Interview with Ben Regensburger, CEO at Peach

Ben Regensburger, CEO at Peach shares a few digital ad best practices in this quick-chat:

__________

Welcome to this MarTech Series chat Ben, tell us more about your journey and your role as CEO at Peach…

At Peach, we orchestrate the creative workflow from production to playout, and we support the entire advertising industry by automating and streamlining complex creative workflows. 

My role as CEO is to keep the company focussed on continuously making it easier for clients to collaborate in their respective creative workflow streams allowing them to focus on developing creative content instead of how to manage the content. 

Advertising is not complicated, ads get made and delivered to the people it is most relevant to, while data on ad and media effectiveness gets analysed to see what could be improved. It doesn’t sound complicated, but it is! 

Over the years, the rise of digital and social channels has added significant complexity.  

Peach is simplifying things, making it easier for creative agencies, media agencies, production, advertisers, broadcasters and media owners to work across the entire ad-tech ecosystem.  

Marketing Technology News: Peach and Innovid Integrate Platforms – Bridging a Gap in Creative Ad Workflow

We’d love to hear about Peach’s latest innovations and integrations, what’s in store in the near future that users can look forward to?

Since we launched a new convergent video offering with a linear TV and digital video distribution platform in 2020, we’ve been growing at a fast pace, with the last twelve months being a real game changer for us.

We introduced a new developer API into the market followed by a series of integrations, including one with talent rights organisation The Team Companies. Platform integrations include YouTube, Google Campaign Manager, Comcast Technology Solutions and Amazon Advertising’s Sizmek Suite. At the back end of 2021 we connected production with distribution more seamlessly through our integration with Frame.io.

In addition, we’ve been supporting the broadcasters in getting advanced broadcast video on demand infrastructures setup so the creative workflow can really work seamlessly.

We acquired Adtoox, expanding our geographic footprint to the Nordics and Advalidation strengthening creative QA in the digital space.

This year, as we celebrate our 25 years in industry, we continue to grow, collaborate and develop the advertising ecosystem, making it easier for creative agencies and brands to get assets to the right place, at the right time. We’ve just announced a new integration with Innovid where we are providing more efficiency for brands and agencies to create and manage video advertising across all media types, with a visible audit trail.

We are enhancing the developer API for partners to pull content from Peach, not just to push content to us. There will be more workflow enhancements on linear and digital to make life even easier for our users. And last but definitely not least, we will be rolling out Advalidation to more media owners and bringing the same benefits to advertisers.

What are some of the common challenges you see advertisers today face in their video advertising workflows? How can they address them with better tech capabilities and processes?

Over the course of 2021, we’ve seen a significant rise in advertising spend for converged TV and as a result, seen a different set of challenges and complexities that have come with it. 

The most common challenges we see are:

1. Creative Complexity: The whole concept of TV is to provide broadscale reach, so once ad slots are more addressable, we will have campaign sizes which are smaller, meaning there will be a higher frequency of campaigns adding to complexity in the workflow. On top of this the creative complexity increases with multi version ad formats and campaigns across different platforms and devices.

2. Measurement: The measurement of converged TV audiences brings a whole series of challenges. How do we get to a common currency for both linear tv, addressable tv and video on demand, as many of the ads are running on different infrastructure sets?

Technology in Workflow: There will be challenges to advertisers especially in ecommerce as they bring the creative work in house, meaning that they will have to do more of the ground work like sourcing, content management and clearance in local markets – needing media owner integrations technology to do this. Advertisers like to choose the best technology, so it is not uncommon for multiple technology vendors being used to cover workflow needs. This brings challenges in interoperability and we are the company supporting the creative industry which has put interoperability front and centre. 

Marketing Technology News: Peach Announces Integration With Frame.IO – Integration Creates “Game-Changing” Cloud-Based Ad…

As video advertising grows, what are some of the key trends that you feel will dominate the market?

• 1. Automation: A big trend is automation – as the volume of assets starts to grow, so will the increasing complexity and scale of converged campaigns, and we currently see lots of manual effort which should and could be automated. 
• 2. Best in Class Technology: Another key trend is the development and emergence of best in class technologies covering different aspects of the creative workflow. The technology platforms being used are not always connected to each other, so there is clearly the opportunity here to create seamless experiences for customers. Take for example our integration with The Team Companies. As we join up distribution and talent & licensed element management, we are creating a streamlined workflow to help global advertisers reduce exposure to usage rights violations that will save them time and money.

Along with that, what key top video ad technologies will start coming to the forefront more?

Premium video publishers, particularly those with live streams will start to explore server side ad insertion further. There’s a tough trade off between controlling the user experience and allowing programmatic activation.  

There is also the IAB Tech Labs new updates and specifications on ad pods and ad pod bidding in CTV environments. Aimed to make online video more like tv in terms of the control on frequency and pod clashes (same category or same advertiser in the same ad break) to enable buyers to plan their creative strategies accordingly. 

A few thoughts on how you feel martech and adtech as a segment will move in 2022?

Brands and agencies will continue to pick the best of breed to solve specific issues in their workflow and to manage their customer journey. This leads to the increasing proliferation of martech apps and platforms. 

Players like Peach which provide an ecosystem to seamlessly orchestrate and integrate data and workflows will benefit the most.

Marketing Technology News: Major League Rugby Signs Historic Partnership with TAPPP to Bring Gaming To Its Live Broadcasts