Cannes Lions held it’s 70th International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, June 19-23, 2023. This year, Amazon Publisher Services (APS) was part of a panel titled, “Monetization and the Future of Publishing,” hosted by Audigent, one of the leading tech solution providers available within the APS Connections Marketplace. This intimate event session moderated by Jake Abraham, Chief Commercial Officer of Audigent included Scott Siegler, Director of APS Demand and Activation for Amazon Publisher Services; Sarah Warner Harms, Platform Sales at Microsoft; and Amanda Gomez, VP of Revenue Operations at the New York Post.
Photo from left to right: Sarah Warner Harms, Platform Sales at Microsoft; Jake Abraham, Chief Commercial Officer at Audigent; Scott Siegler, Director APS Demand and Activation at Amazon Publisher Services; and Amanda Gomez, VP Revenue Operations at the New York Post
How can publishers find better first party insight strategies and the right providers to support them?
Publishers are looking for new ways to build first party insight strategies, while also leaning into the addressability space, and the various providers out there to support them.
Amazon Publisher Services knows these publisher problems well. Siegler spoke about how APS is working to bring optionality to publishers with solutions like the APS Connections Marketplace, where APS makes it easier to get started working with third party providers who might bring incrementality to things like addressability. The APS Connections Marketplace is also working hard with our third party and first party buyer providers so that signals introduced to the service and providers that we bring in are more than just point solutions, they are available everywhere and hand in hand with optionality and liquidity. We’ve heard our publishers and know the next need is about measuring all of this.
“There is an opportunity for publishers to reclaim some agency over the audiences they have built over time and have invested in. It’s not easy though. I do think in general; the first party publisher insight opportunity is there. We’re just now though, seeing some of the tools come to market segments to help them and it’s going to take a little bit more time,” said Siegler.
“One thing that we’re seeing with our APS Connections Marketplace is that we’ve integrated a myriad of addressability vendors. We’re seeing that category have quite a bit of interest, and what that tells us is that publishers want to experiment with as many third parties as possible and optionality is important. But this needs to be easier and more measurable than it has been,” added Siegler.
How does APS help publishers that have constrained resources
For many publishers, they have lean teams handling ad tech compared to the size of their audience. They need and want the help to grow their revenue.
At APS, we view ourselves as an infrastructure provider. APS initially launched with header bidding infrastructure, trying to help make things as easy as possible for publishers and now we work with a large amount of major Supply Side Platforms (SSPs).
“To improve liquidity, we released the APS Connections Marketplace, which provides a lot of optionality in terms of the providers that you could potentially use in areas such as addressability, and then fans out these signals out to all of the top SSPs. But the other piece that’s equally as important is the measurability part and helping our publishers understand how these things are actually working. Which is why our team is working diligently towards solving this through formalized Lift Analysis for publishers,” Siegler said.
How can the advertising industry work better together
Brands are trying to reach audiences. Media publishers have engaged audiences. APS provides the infrastructure to help publishers integrate with as many buying solutions as possible. Then you also have world class SSPs and finally, you have solutions like Audigent, helping to make the ad experience most effective for all involved. “It’s a collaboration,” said Siegler. “If we’re all going to be successful, then we need to create benefits for the hard-earned attention from the publishers across the value chain, with all parties working more closely together to see a true win in this space.”
Learn more about the APS Connections Marketplace.
Photo from left to right: Jake Abraham, Chief Commercial Officer at Audigent; Sarah Warner Harms, Platform Sales at Microsoft; Scott Siegler, Director APS Demand and Activation at Amazon Publisher Services; and Amanda Gomez, VP Revenue Operations at the New York Post