WideOrbit, Mediaocean Automate Local Ad Deals

WideOrbit and Mediaocean are partnering to automate the buying and selling of local broadcast ad spots, to make it easier for media buyers to add local television inventory to brand campaigns.

The companies will collaborate on improving processes and “developing integrations that eliminate time-consuming tasks that can make local TV buying too costly and inefficient for national media buying agencies.”

The partnership brings together two companies that are deeply integrated into the broadcast television advertising ecosystem. WideOrbit’s WO Traffic is used by broadcast station groups to manage more than 90% of U.S. local TV ad revenue, while its WO Programmatic helps more than 1,000 stations in 180 media markets offer their inventory directly to media buyers.

Mediaocean provides the foundational software for agencies and advertisers buying traditional and digital media. Mediaocean’s Spectra and Prisma platforms power more than $150 billion in global media spending and are used by all major ad buying agencies that purchase local television advertising.

The workflow improvements will come through an integration of Mediaocean’s Spectra platform and WideOrbit’s WO Programmatic Sales Console. The companies will initially work together to streamline avail proposal and response processes for local media buyers and the television stations.

“Through this partnership, we are delivering on our commitment to automate the buying and selling of traditional and digital media in a neutral and open way,” said Bill Wise, Mediaocean co-founder and CEO. “Integrating WideOrbit more tightly into the buying process empowers our agencies and advertisers to more easily build campaigns that engage local television’s massive, valuable audiences.”

“The WideOrbit-Mediaocean partnership is a huge win for everyone in TV advertising,” said Eric R. Mathewson, WideOrbit founder and CEO. “Buyers will benefit from workflow automation that streamlines the entire buying process, from proposal to air to invoice while stations should see more interest from national brands in local broadcast TV audiences and inventory.

Mathewson continued: “By deepening our relationship with Mediaocean, WideOrbit delivers on our promise to continually improve on solutions that allow ad buyers and sellers to do business however they choose. We will continue to focus on products, integrations and innovations that make local broadcasting as compelling to ad buyers as any other media platform.”

Avail proposal and response automation will be available for Mediaocean agency clients and stations using WO Traffic in 2Q 2019.