London-based Adstream (not to be confused with AppNexus’ Open Adstream), which specializes in video delivery and digital asset management, on Monday acquired the AdServices division of US-based media and entertainment production firm Deluxe.
The move gives Adstream greater presence in North America and sets the stage for global expansion.
Adstream did not disclose the deal price but claimed it was in the eight figures. It will add 80 Deluxe AdServices employees in New York and Los Angeles to Adstream’s US operations.
Adstream is the system of record for about 6,000 global agencies and brands for the transcoding and delivery of digital assets. It also supplies analytics and creative versioning for video.
Both AdServices and AdStream simplify the way brands and agencies traffic creative, secure content rights, deliver an ad and ultimately measure the impact of a campaign. AdServices, however, has more US business.
One tailwind that supported the acquisition was the rise of programmatic video and convergence of content cross-screen, where AdStream sees additional opportunity.
“The requirement of programmatic means advertising has to be much more targeted with many more variations of creative targeted down to the individual,” said Gerry Sutton, CEO of Adstream. But these demands are “requiring shorter cycle times around the brief, putting more pressure on brands to produce creative much faster.”
To date, Adstream has dabbled in programmatic mostly by partnering (one of its larger partnerships included Comcast’s AdDelivery). Ian Wheal, the company’s global strategy director, said Adstream is integrated with platforms like Innovid and continues to look at other DSPs and ad servers that push content.
“However, those platforms are very focused on one channel of media: digital video,” he added. “We’re delivering video in all forms, whether paid, earned or owned on-site.”
Sutton also said Adstream differs from some of its competitors – Extreme Reach/BrandAds and Adobe Primetime, for example– in that it is an enterprise platform that services clients at a global scale.
Adstream was pretty pervasive in Europe, but it also had a strong foothold in Australia, where it was founded, Asia and Latin America.
Although AdServices’ employees are based mainly in major media markets like New York and Los Angeles, Adstream will retain a team in Miami to focus on Latin American expansion.
“Brands [like Kraft] and agencies [like IPG] are putting real effort into merging their technology platforms with the creative layer,” Sutton said. “We’re thinking about how our platform might play a role in [that] new agency construct.”
