AppNexus Twixt_Automated Guaranteed_Whitepaper_FINAL

Automated
Guaranteed:
Recasting the
relationship between
digital media teams
and technology

INTRODUCTION
THE STATE OF DIGITAL MEDIA BUYING
TWIXT MEDIA BUYING SURVEY
MEDIA TEAMS WANT TO DELIVER MORE VALUE TO CLIENTS
AUTOMATED GUARANTEED
MEET TWIXT – MEDIA BUYING SIMPLIFIED
AUTOMATED RFP PROCESS & NEGOTIATION
SIMPLIFIED REPORTING
EXECUTION / AUTOMATED TRAFFICKING
SUMMARY
ABOUT US
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TWIXT – AUTOMATED GUARANTEED 02
twixt@appnexus.com | appnexus.com/twixt | ©2015 AppNexus Inc. All Rights Reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
In 1965, Gordon Moore, one of the inventors of the integrated circuit (a.k.a.
computer “chip”) and co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of
transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled almost every
year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore hypothesized that this
trend would continue for the foreseeable future. And it has; Moore’s
hypothesis has become Moore’s Law. In layman’s terms, Moore’s Law means
that computers get twice as powerful (at the same cost) every 18 months.
Sometimes visibly, sometimes not, Moore’s Law describes the underlying
dynamic transforming our daily experience, driving rapid evolution in the way
we live, work, communicate and collaborate.
The automotive industry provides a variety of examples of Moore’s Law in
action. Electronics contribute 90% of innovations and new features in modern
automobiles, from the obvious entertainment, navigation and connectivity
systems to less obvious engine management, fuel economy and safety
systems. And we’re not even talking about self-driving cars yet! Viewed
another way, electronics now represent 30% of automobile production costs on
average. In 1980 that was only 2%.
Just as importantly, but less visibly to most consumers, Moore’s Law has
remade the automotive manufacturing process —Just In Time
Manufacturing or “JIT”—by which cars are made. JIT manufacturing
comprises a series of processes aimed at increasing efficiency while reducing
overall production time. Manufacturers using JIT are able to lower error rates
and costs through a combination of automation, information sharing and
empowerment of human workers throughout the production process.
That last bit is important; workers see direct benefits in JIT-enabled
environments, too. Workers are encouraged to receive training and develop
multiple skills that enable them to move across different teams as needed,
thus increasing their value. JIT was also a catalyst to transform suppliers from
“vendors” into “partners”, because of the necessity of syncing supply with
variable demand. JIT was such an important and positive innovation that all
auto manufacturers (indeed the vast majority of manufacturers in general)
have adopted it.
TWIXT – AUTOMATED GUARANTEED
03

As Moore’s Law worked its magic, automobile manufacturers combined JIT
processes with programmatic automation software, called Enterprise
Resource Planning (or “ERP”), to dramatically improve the model. JIT requires
information sharing between teams up and down the supply chain – the faster
and more detailed, the better. ERP enables auto manufacturers to see real time
data on every aspect of the manufacturing and distribution process – right
down to the actual sales in dealerships. A key advantage to ERP is that people
in different departments are able to view and interact with the same
information. This insight and automated workflow has enabled disparate teams
to work more efficiently and effectively than ever before.
Just as Moore’s Law transformed the global auto industry, it is repaving
Madison Avenue.
Examples of technology’s impact on media consumption are myriad and
ubiquitous. As with the automotive example though, Moore’s Law is also hard
at work behind the scenes. In less than a decade, an “ad tech” revolution has
created a dynamic, liquid, automated and transactional environment for
buyers and sellers – a new way of buying digital media that is generally
referred to as Real Time Bidding (or “RTB” for short).
RTB uses software and computer processing power to electronically execute
trades, the trades being the result of auctions of individual digital ad
impressions in real time as the impressions are created. RTB is pretty
amazing. It’s a tremendous innovation and a perfect applied example of
Moore’s Law. It has been a key catalyst to increasing supply chain efficiency,
improving results and better matching demand with supply in the digital
media market.
But it’s only one part of a bigger story yet to be written.
The substantial majority of most digital media budgets are still planned and
executed the old-fashioned way. That is, by hand. The history of other industries
suggests that manual processes are ultimately no match for Moore’s Law. And
sure enough, we find Moore’s Law beginning to engage on direct buys themselves.
Echoing the transformation that took place in automotive manufacturing
processes, automated workflow technology is emerging to give buyers and
sellers more insight, more visibility up and down the supply chain, better tools for
collaboration and generally more time to do the things they are experts at doing.
04

It’s important to note that, similar to the automotive example, these are
human beings using computers not as replacements for themselves, but as
improvements to themselves. These are computerized tools that let people
leverage their unique skills and talents.
Augmentation, not just automation.
This is an increasingly common theme in popular dialog. During his TED Talk,
best-selling author and MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson describes how “racing
with the machine beats racing against the machine.” He tells the story of the 1997
match between Garry Kasparov, the Russian world chess champion, and IBM’s
supercomputer Deep Blue. Kasparov lost the match, the first defeat of a reigning
world chess champion by a computer under tournament conditions. But from this
loss, Kasparov gained a valuable insight. He speculated that a team of players
collaborating with an inexpensive computer and simple chess program could
beat any human chess-master or supercomputer. He was right. In formal
tournament settings, human/machine chess teams have so far beaten any
computer or human working alone.
The win-win collaboration between chess players and computers is a powerful
example for the media teams of today. Today’s planners and buyers can choose to
race with computers, using software to collaborate and become more efficient
and effective at delivering results for advertisers rather than spending their time
performing repetitive manual steps that can and should be automated out of
their way. They can use technology to compete against their client’s competitors
in the arena of driving customer behavior and profits rather than competing with
technology in the arena of completing repetitive tasks. The former is where client
value is created and personal growth is achieved. The latter is an unfulfilling and
ultimately futile pursuit.
This paper will explain how media teams can work with Automated
Guaranteed technology to deliver more value for clients.
“RACING WITH THE MACHINE BEATS
RACING AGAINST THE MACHINE”
—Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Professor and bestselling author
of “The Second Machine Age”
05

REPETITIVE PROCESSES IN DIRECT BUYING TODAY
RTB has been the primary focus of digital ad
market participants (and investors) in unleashing
the power of Moore’s Law on Madison Avenue and
this new technology has been nothing short of
transformative. Since its commercial introduction
in 2009, RTB’s share of the ad spending market has
risen steadily across every form of digital “Display”
advertising, which as we use it throughout this
paper encompasses desktop, mobile/tablet and
digital video. According to IDC, US digital Display ad
spending reached $20 billion in 2014. Of that $2.9
billion was executed via RTB. By 2018, IDC
estimates that US digital Display spending will
reach $39 billion, with $7.1 billion being executed
RTB. That’s $0 to $7B, approaching 20% of all
Display spending, in less than a decade.
Clearly, RTB is an incredible innovation but it’s also
only part of the equation. After all, what about how
media teams plan and buy guaranteed inventory?
Has the ad tech ecosystem provided a similar level
of improvement to those processes as well? The
answer is no. For the majority of digital Display
budgets, campaigns are planned, purchased and
executed in much the same way they were when
the first display ad was sold - way back in 1994.
As the graphic below illustrates, the direct buying
process is still largely comprised of repetitive
tasks like exchanging emails to send and answer
questions on RFPs, cutting and pasting excel and
PowerPoint proposals together, manually tracking
and re-integrating revisions as planning and
negotiation progresses, and uploading various
documents to multiple platforms—all of this for
each media property on a plan. It’s an inefficient,
time-consuming, error-prone process.
THE STATE OF DIGITAL MEDIA BUYING
Client sets
campaign budget
Agency develops
concepts &
execution plan
Budget allocated
among different
media
Digital buyers
determines what
sellers to RFP
Digital buyers
creates RFPs and
emails to sellers
Sales teams work
with planning teams
to create the best
proposal possible
Buyer traffics
campaign and
sets live,but still
has to send tags to
publications,
troubleshoot,etc.
Campaign set live
Contracts and IOs
signed after
several rounds of
revisions Digital buyer
reviews materials
Buyers requests
information and
changes
Sales changes all
materials and
resends

Make no mistake. This is not to say that buying
direct is a bad thing—quite the contrary, in fact.
Direct buying accomplishes things that can’t be
done any other way. In assembling a direct buy,
media planners discover and evaluate new
media partners. They work with partners to
vet innovative ad solutions and executions.
They intelligently combine new and tested
components into a strategically crafted and
achievable media plan. They work with the client
to define meaningful metrics specific to clients’
goals and objectives. (and about a million other
things). Media planners and buyers are expert
at this process and add a ton of value.
For example, the agency team for a leading
quick-service restaurant marketer needed a
way to measure success of a fantasy football
sponsorship beyond what a click-thru rate was
capable of conveying. Tracking a click to a
purchase at one of the marketers 13,000
restaurants wasn’t a realistic success metric.
The publisher and media teams collaborated to
define a unique success metric based on an
engagement metric. The unique measurement
metric revealed higher than anticipated
engagement times with consumers and was
instrumental in defining program success. This
is clearly a case where direct buying and smart
media planners working together delivered a
winning program with meaningful insights for
all involved.
The relationships created through direct buying
can also be a catalyst for developing creative ad
products. For example, an advertiser may want
a custom ad solution for a product launch. In
many cases, publishers are willing to change a
front page with a custom takeover, such as
synced ad units. The New York Times famously
did this with Apple on several product launches.
There are many more examples that
demonstrate the importance of building
meaningful one-on-one relationships between
clients, agencies and publishers that RTB can’t
replicate. RTB was never meant to replace the
value of face-to-face meetings to marry creative
ad concepts with savvy media strategy.
Finally, let’s not forget that delivery guarantees
aren’t available via RTB. Marketer’s sales
forecasts and manufacturing plans rely on
outputs from marketing mix models that rely
on media delivery as an input. Without
predictable, guaranteed delivery the entire
supply chain can be disrupted. Needless to say,
large global marketers aren’t fond of surprises
of this nature.
Clearly, the ad world needs good media
planners and buyers! But here’s the problem:
given that most digital media is still bought and
sold directly using an antiquated manual
process, media planners don’t have the time
do what they’re best at. Like the automobile
manufacturing teams before the days of JIT,
media planners are hardworking, insightful
human beings who are essentially forced to
perform robotic tasks, versus adding value to
the overall process and utilizing multiple high
value skills.
Surely, there must be a better path. And
fortunately, there is. Instead of chasing paper
trails, buyers can use Automated Guaranteed
technology to leverage their skills to help
clients execute their visions.

TWIXT MEDIA BUYING SURVEY
As a team of media industry professionals, with diverse
backgrounds spanning agencies, publishers, brands and ad-tech
companies, we at AppNexus have seen first-hand many of the
great innovations in media planning and buying (in fact, Brian
O’Kelley, our CEO, is one of the inventors of RTB!) But we’re also
keenly aware of the many areas of the process that have yet to
achieve their full potential.
That was the main impetus behind our Twixt Media Buying Survey.
Recently, the Twixt team at AppNexus asked over 500 agency digital
media team members for feedback and insights about their current
direct buying processes. We wanted to understand better their
day-to-day pain points. We were also curious about the areas
where they thought they could best streamline their workflows and,
perhaps most importantly, what they could accomplish with the
time they saved.
The survey was enlightening. First, we learned that media
planners and buyers spend an average of three hours per day
performing repetitive manual tasks. That’s about 30% of their
time on average devoted to work that does not advance or
leverage their strategic vision. More than a third of the sample
was forced to waste even more time than that!
Q: HOW MANY HOURS PER DAY DO YOU SPEND ON REPETITIVE CAMPAIGN TASKS, LIKE TRAFFICKING OR
RECONCILING DATA, INSTEAD OF DOING HIGHER VALUE ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR CLIENT BUSINESS?
8–10 hours/day
4–7 hours/day
1–3 hours/day Weighted Average: 3 hours/day
1 hour or less per day
3%
33%
35%
29%

Buyers told us that reporting and execution (I/Os, trafficking,
etc.) were the most painful parts of the campaign life cycle but
there was time wasted in a wide variety of different activities
along the way.
Interestingly, the “other” bucket drew no responses; the survey
appeared to correctly identify the major productivity drains and
sources of frustration for media teams. The survey responses
clearly describe a world where media teams are racing against
the machine rather than racing with it.
Q: WHAT PART OF THE CAMPAIGN LIFE CYCLE WOULD SAVE YOU THE MOST TIME IF IT WERE
AUTOMATED PROPERLY?
0%
10%
26%
29%
6%
16%
13%
Other
Optimization
Reporting
Execution
Negotiation
RFP Process
Partner Discovery

16%
55%
16%
13%
Learning more about my clients business needs
Researching and testing new partners/technology
Looking for new ways to improve existing process
Researching industry trends
MEDIA TEAMS WANT TO DELIVER MORE VALUE
TO CLIENTS
The survey further revealed that managers and individual
contributors were very much aligned in what they wanted to
spend more time doing. Managers (unsurprisingly) wanted their
teams to focus more on delivering results and insight to clients.
Meanwhile, individual team members emphasized wanting to
develop their skills as media professionals and expressed
genuine, unprompted interest in delivering more value to
their clients’ business.
Q: IF YOU COULD AUTOMATED THE REPETITIVE PARTS OF THE CAMPAIGN LIFE-CYCLE, WHAT HIGHER
VALUE TASKS WOULD YOU PREFER TO SPEND TIME DOING?
Q: IF YOU MANAGE A MEDIA PLANNING/BUYING TEAM, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THEM TO SPEND
MORE TIME DOING?
Optimizing, testing new products, doing
lift studies, and providing client insights
› Learning the client’s business
› Learning about vendor capabilities
—industry trends
› Optimizations and identifying areas
for improvement
› Reading insights and planning campaigns
› Talking to vendors to understand market
› Brainstorming ideas/looking into new
vendors or test opportunities
› Strategy
› Meeting with interesting partners,
developing strategy

Even with these clear and aligned goals, busywork has a
persistent habit of intruding upon these high-value tasks. As one
media planner put it, she’s searching for a way for her team to
save time and become more “proactive” at delivering value for
their clients—rather than being in a constant “reactive” state.
“I WOULD LOVE TO FREE UP OUR TIME
SO WE CAN MOVE FROM CONSTANTLY
BEING IN REACTIVE MODE TO
OPERATING IN A MORE PROACTIVE
CAPACITY AND GETTING AHEAD OF
THE TREADMILL.”
—Media Planner, New York City
Imagine the possibilities if teams actually could spend less time
on repetitive tasks. Teams racing with the machine would have
more time to focus on developing more creative media strategies
with media partners, and more meaningful metrics to measure
success. They could deliver better media outcomes that better
drive their client’s business objectives. In turn, their agencies as
a whole could leverage these improved results to create more
opportunities and win business away from competitors with
teams stuck on the treadmill cutting and pasting their days
away. Once again, teams racing with the machine win the day.

AUTOMATED GUARANTEED
Automated Guaranteed (or “AG”) is the key to unlocking the true
potential of media planners and buyers. Just as the automotive
industry (among many others of course!) has benefitted from
innovation in process automation, so can the digital media industry.
Automated Guaranteed technology enables media buyers to automate
their “traditional” workflow, making a team’s buying process faster,
more efficient, and less error-prone. It gives media planners more time
to deliver the most important benefits of direct buying: strategic media
plans with delivery guarantees, working more closely with publishers
and their agency counterparts to develop breakthrough concepts,
and meaningful, insight-rich client interactions. All this gets
accomplished without the headaches and inefficiency that plagues
their current workflow. As a report from research firm IDC explains,
“Implementing automated guaranteed…should be a no-brainer.”
IDC predicts explosive growth for automated guaranteed. The
prediction is that by 2018 automated guaranteed will account for
56% of US programmatic spending and 53% of global
programmatic spending.
2018 PROGRAMMATIC DIGITAL AD SPENDING
Source: IDC WW Programmatic Advertising Forecast 2015-2018, July 2015
World Wide TotalU.S. Total
$53 BILLION
$28 BILLION
53%
56%
Total Spend % AG Spend

Q: WHAT PART OF THE CAMPAIGN LIFE CYCLE WOULD SAVE YOU THE MOST TIME IF
IT WERE AUTOMATED PROPERLY?
Twixt is the best in class automated guaranteed
platform for the open marketplace.
We created Twixt to enable media teams to work
more efficiently throughout the entire media
buying process, so they can focus on delivering
more client value in areas such as reporting,
insights and partner discovery. We started by
automating the RFP process, since we knew it
was one of the most labor-intensive tasks for
teams. Media teams using Twixt automated RFP
spend less time shuffling emails, ad specs and
spreadsheets. And because the entire process is
contained in a single interface, teams are able to
better collaborate with each other and track the
process and results—all in one place. Twixt is
helping teams work more efficiently in their
current media buying process, laying the
groundwork for teams to excel in a fully
automated guaranteed media landscape.
Twixt’s capabilities align to what media teams
say they want from a unified buying platform
solution. Twixt’s current capabilities address
about half of the pain media planners and buyers
are faced with every day. With the integration of
automated trafficking capability seamlessly into
Twixt’s user-friendly workflow (early 2016), Twixt
will address nearly 80%. And we’re just getting
warmed up!
MEET TWIXT—MEDIA BUYING SIMPLIFIED
CAPABILITIES
2016
Early 2016
0%
10%
26%
29%
6%
16%
13%
Other
Optimization
Reporting
Execution
Negotiation
RFP Process
Partner Discovery

AUTOMATED RFP PROCESS & NEGOTIATION
Twixt’s intuitive design makes it easy to use and efficient at
managing all aspects of the RFP process in one place. Media
teams using Twixt spend less time shuffling emails, ad specs,
spreadsheets and more time delivering client value.

SIMPLIFIED REPORTING
Twixt’s ad server integration simplifies reporting, so media teams
spend less time shuffling data in Excel and more time delivering
insights to clients.

EXECUTION / AUTOMATED TRAFFICKING
Over the coming months, Twixt will be integrating with Yieldex
Direct to deliver a complete automated guaranteed buying solution.
Trading desk programmatic products, holding company preferred
deals and open RFPs in one unified application.

SUMMARY
2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Moore’s Law. Five decades on, this
technological tsunami continues to transform our world, as exponential
growth in computing power unlocks human potential across almost all fields
of human endeavor. Madison Avenue has already witnessed the impact of
Moore’s Law in the rapid rise of RTB—and we’re about to see it again in as
Automated Guaranteed adoption accelerates.
Across a variety of industries and applications, the marriage of fast-
calculating machines with human insight has proven—time and again—to be
a value-added formula that wins the day. Instead of “racing against the
machine” like Garry Kasparov in 1997, with Automated Guaranteed technology
media planners and buyers are now able to “race with the machine” in service
of the greater good of their agency and clients.
The advancement of Automated Guaranteed will free cycles for media planners
and buyers to spend more time with clients, better understanding objectives
and defining meaningful metrics for success. It will help augment media
planners and buyers’ skills, allowing them more time to think strategically
with media partners and adapt to feedback to deliver better outcomes.
In the media market of the future, the winners will be those who most
effectively combine people and technology to drive results. We hope this
report provides a useful perspective on the trends that will shape this market
and how Automated Guaranteed technology like Twixt can be employed to
help media teams get the most out of their unique skills.
Happy racing!

ABOUT US
Twixt is a complete media buying solution that gives media buyers access
to Trading Desk programmatic products, holdco preferred deals and
automated guaranteed, coupled with the ability to RFP for custom solutions
and/or new partners in a seamless, integrated manner.
Twixt helps buying teams work more efficiently by streamlining repetitive
and cumbersome tasks. Since RFP and campaign data lives in one place,
teams using Twixt can continuously learn and improve from detailed buying
history. With Twixt’s help, teams can focus on delivering deeper insights and
stronger differentiation. Say goodbye to busy-work, like wrangling ad specs,
shuffling spreadsheets, and emails.
Twixt’s intuitive user experience design means that learning Twixt is easy.
We worked closely with media buyers and sellers to create an interface that
enables buyers to onboard faster, and allows teams to ramp up quickly. And
if you do need support, the Twixt support team is there for you with live reps
and fast response times.
Visit appnexus.com/twixt for more information.
AppNexus is a technology company whose cloud-based software platform
enables and optimizes programmatic online advertising. Our technology
helps advertisers get the most out of their campaigns, publishers get the
most out of their content, ad tech companies get the most of their insights
and data, and internet users get full, democratic access to the digital world.
AppNexus exists to create a better Internet. In order to realize this mission,
we’ve set our sights on building technology that can make digital advertising
better, since ads are the very circulatory system of the Internet. They fund
most of the great content we’re used to getting for free—from music,
journalism, and film to games and instant information. They provide the
means to innovate, investigate, and entertain.

DISCLAIMER
All rights reserved.The information contained in this white paper is
believed to be reliable and current as of the date of publication,but
accuracy cannot be guaranteed.Recommendations or forward-looking
statements contained in this white paper are based on estimates of future
results at the time of publication and are inherently uncertain.Actual
results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in any such
recommendations and forward-looking statements.AppNexus is under no
obligation to,and expressly disclaims any obligation to,update or alter its
forward-looking statements,whether as a result of new information,
subsequent events or otherwise.

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