• Client:Liberty Global | Telecom | 2014-2015
  • Categories:Business Strategy, Marketing Technology

This page describes a RFI/RFP* process for an advertising technology platform. I contributed to this project as a subject matter expert on demand side platforms (DSPs).

RFI/RFP for Advertising Technology

As part of its pan-European business strategy this client focused on its efforts to:

  1. Reduce overall cost related to (digital) advertising
  2. Improve data ownership across the digital ecosystem

Advertising technology platforms, like demand side platforms, collect (generic) consumer data as well as customer data. Although this last category isn’t always CRM data it can be lists of authenticated clients. As such owning these data sets and cookie pools improve data ownership.

Also, the cost of these platforms aren’t always as transparent as one would like. Especially if the technology platforms are externally managed and fees are not specified within the overall advertising costs. So, improving cost transparency was an important side effect to this RFI/RFP process.

Approach

Choosing a DSP, or any technology for that matter, requires a list of considerations. Therefore we created a list which was used for internal discussions and as input for the RFI/RFP documentation.

1. Cost structure

Most advertising technology platforms use volume based tiers. For example number of impressions, number of users, et cetera. Firstly look at what you need, based on your current volumes. But also indicate what volumes you expect in the coming 3-5 years.

2. Technology

Above all the technology needs to offer solutions to your current and projected requirements. As these are defined as business critical. In addition to these requirements also consider topics like scalability, product roadmap, release plan and bug threshold.

3. Support model

When using advertising technology platforms the support model is critical to your business. Either because your campaign isn’t delivered as planned. Or it can not run at all, in which case you will miss out on planned conversions. In both cases it has a direct impact on your business. So, make sure to fully understand the support model. For example: in- vs outsourced, swarm vs tier-based and overall service-level-agreement.

4. Prerequisites and integrations

Some platforms do have specific prerequisites. Make sure these are properly specified in the RFI/RFP process, because these can impact initial setup costs. Secondly, also consider out-of-the-box integrations. Also often referred to as ‘exchange’, ‘marketplaces’ or ‘api extentions’.

5. Training model and learning curve

Every new technology comes with a learning curve for each individual user. By judging the complexity of the platform and evaluating the training needed you are able to assess how quickly you can use current and new capabilities offered by the platform. And as a result improve business value.

DSPs within this project

To support this RFI/RFP process, I used a version of these topics as input to evaluate the platforms. And based on the vendor’s feedback and demos Google360 (previously DoubleClick) was chosen as the preferred DSP for this client.

Other DSPs in this RFI/RFP process were (in random order):

Interested in my other projects? You can select them via this page.

 

* = RFI/RFP stands for ‘Request for Information/Proposal’. These are sourcing methods, commonly used by the procurement specialists.