ADTECH

Infobox Company
type = Subsidiary of Advertising.com/Platform-A
foundation = 1998
location = Frankfurt, Germany flagicon|Germany

ADTECH is a leading international supplier of digital marketing solutions. The company's flagship product is the Helios IQ ad management platform. It enables publishers, agencies and ad networks to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online ad campaign – including display, video and mobile formats. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, ADTECH is the ad serving platform of [http://www.platform-a.com/ Platform-A] , AOL's digital advertising business. Globally, ADTECH works with customers in more than 25 countries. It was acquired by AOL on May 15, 2007. [cite web|accessdate=2008-04-15|url=http://corp.aol.com/press_releases/2007/05/aol-acquires-adtech-ag|title=AOL Acquires ADTECH AG|publisher=AOL|date=2007-05-15]

History

ADTECH was founded in 1998 in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2000, the American Internet holding company CMGI acquired a controlling interest (80%) in ADTECH. The investment in ADTECH was the company’s first investment in a European company. During the same year, ADTECH became a private limited company.

Origins

ADTECH’s ad serving technology has its roots in 1994 in Silicon Valley when Imgis Inc. established the basis for centralized ad serving using high-speed servers from Silicon Graphics (SGI). In 1998 Imgis Inc. was renamed AdForce Inc. Based on AdForce Inc.’s technology, ADTECH opened its first data center in Frankfurt (Germany) in 1998.

Growth

In the fall of 2000, ADTECH delivered its billionth banner ad since the opening of the original data center in September 1998. By 2001, ADTECH had delivered its ten billionth banner ad. In 2002 ADTECH supplied its 100,000th advertising campaign and delivered more than 100 million banners every day. In the first quarter of 2008, volume increased to over 70 billion ads per month.

Helios IQ

In 2004, the AdForce technology was replaced by ADTECH’s own ad serving solution Helios IQ. Shortly after, the second ad serving data center was launched in Frankfurt.

Global Expansion

In 2006, ADTECH began to strongly focus on global expansion and growth, opening additional sales offices in the United States, Australia, Thailand and South Africa. In the years before, several offices had been opened in Austria, UK, Italy, France and in Scandinavia.

AOL Acquisition

On May 16, 2007, AOL announced its acquisition of ADTECH AG. ADTECH was acquired to provide AOL with an advanced ad serving platform that includes an array of ad management and delivery applications, enabling Website publishers to manage, traffic and report on their online advertising campaigns.

ADTECH now operates as an independent and wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL's Advertising.com division. The company is the ad serving platform of Platform-A.

According to Lynda Clarizio, president of Platform-A, ADTECH’s ad serving technology is a complement to Advertising.com/Platform-A's display, video and affiliate advertising networks, and makes it possible for the companies to provide Website publishers with a comprehensive solution for ad management and monetization. Through this acquisition, publishers are able to better manage their own advertiser campaigns via ADTECH, as well as better monetize their available inventory via Advertising.com/Platform-A's diverse solutions and extensive advertiser base.

ADTECH continues to be based in Frankfurt, Germany. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. [http://corp.aol.com/press_releases/2007/05/aol-acquires-adtech-ag; The Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2007; Associated Press, May 16, 2007 http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=42737072570147]

Products

The Helios IQ ad management platform is ADTECH AG’s flagship product. It enables publishers, agencies and ad networks to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online ad campaign – including display, video and mobile formats. ADTECH’s ad management solution offers near instantaneous campaign deployment, inventory management, live monitoring, user tracking and targeting, interactive reporting, and more.

According to ADTECH, its ad serving platform differentiates itself from other ad serving companies like DoubleClick and Microsoft Advertiser via its scalable, enterprise-class infrastructure and user-friendly tools – providing intuitive and feature-rich user interfaces, superior inventory management and forecasting capabilities, and robust and flexible reporting.

Integrated Ad Management: Display, Video and Mobile

In September 2007, ADTECH announced its plans to develop a new, integrated suite of display, video and mobile ad serving technologies for digital publishers. The company presented the benefits of the new platform to the U.S. market at the ad:tech New York conference in November 2007. The new suite brings video and mobile advertising plus new behavioral targeting capabilities to the company’s display ad serving solutions.

This integrated platform provides a one-stop solution for all three forms of digital advertising. According to ADTECH, incorporating video and mobile advertising into the existing Helios IQ ad serving platform creates significant new marketing opportunities for their customers.

As with Helios IQ, the two new systems provide exceptional consistency and simplicity for publishers, ad networks and agencies. Working in collaboration with technology partners Lightningcast and Third Screen Media, ADTECH is merging the new video and mobile applications directly into the Helios IQ user interface and reporting system. [netimperative.com: “ADTECH merges display video and mobile”, September 9, 2007, http://www.netimperative.com/news/2007/09/10/ADTECH/?searchterm=ADTECH]

The video solution appeals to Web publishers that want to manage and control ads displayed in on-demand videos, live streams and video downloads. ADTECH supports all common video ad formats as well as ads synchronized with video plays. The solution also offers smart playlist functionality, which allows customers to specify the sequence of requested content and ads.

According to ADTECH, through the solution’s mobile advertising component, digital advertisements can be distributed to mobile devices of any type, including mobile and smart phones. ADTECH customers are also able to apply selective targeting options to address advertiser needs. [ [http://www.adtech.info/news/pr-071008.htm ADTECH - Your ads will love it! - News -> ADTECH announces integrated ad serving platform; launches new behavioral capabilities ] ]

Research

Since 2004, ADTECH interprets the banner requests to their ad servers for periodical Web analyses in Europe. ADTECH surveys document different aspects of Internet usage, ranging from browser trends to click-through rates. [http://www.adtech.info/news/pr-08-03.htm; http://www.adtech.info/news/pr-070510.htm] They often serve as a reference in professional articles about trends in the digital marketing industry. [Examples of articles quoting ADTECH surveys: NMA magazine: “Microsoft IE is top browser for web users in Europe”, August 30, 2007, http://www.nma.co.uk/Logon/ResourceBarrier.aspx?RequiredServices=17,|&PipelinedPage=/Articles/34789/Microsoft+IE+is+top+browser+for+web+users+in+Europe.html&PipelinedQueryString=liArticleID%3d34789; netimperative.com: “European browser market – Can Firefox catch IE?” August 19, 2007, http://www.netimperative.com/news/2007/08/20/Firefox_IE/?searchterm=adtech;new media age: “Microsoft IE is top browser for web users in Europe", August 30, 2007.]

External links

* [http://adtech.info/ ADTECH]
* [http://platform-a.com/ Platform-A]
* [http://advertising.com/index.php Advertising.com]
* [http://www.aol.com/ AOL]
* [http://corp.aol.com/ AOL Corporate]
* [http://www.thirdscreenmedia.com/ Third Screen Media]

References