Don’t call Lotame a DMP.
Even in its 18th year, Andy Monfried’s company continues to reinvent itself. Last week, Lotame announced the global launch of Lotame Curation in North America, EMEA, and APAC.
Curation was previously focused on curating publishers and inventory to support media quality (such as an inclusion list). But that has evolved. This shift is driven by cookie deprecation and advertisers’ increased reliance on first-party data. Curation now refers predominantly to curated deals where selected (curated!) inventory is bundled with first-party data from publishers and packaged into PMPs, then matched to audiences using a Deal ID signal to DSPs.
This approach is more SSP-driven, compared to legacy DSP activation of third-party data and cookies. The goal is to allow advertisers to access high-quality, bundled, customized inventory and audience data from multiple SSPs directly. This should drive improved match rates and better pricing, with better ROI all around.
Why This Matters:
Despite Google’s stay of execution for cookies, Lotame’s move into curation highlights an ongoing shift away from them, as the industry prepares for Google’s eventual rollout of its consent-driven deprecation mechanism in Chrome. Curation offers advertisers a solution powered by first-party data that is cookie-proofed, essentially.
Lotame notes this in their announcement: “Leveraging first-party publisher data and cookieless signals to map website visitors with target audience segments on the supply side results in 30-40% higher match rates—and increased addressability—compared with cookie-based matching within DSPs.” The company adds that early trials for Lotame Curation showed 20% better campaign efficiency, a 15% improvement in video completion rates, and a 21% enhancement in viewability. These are strong metrics for both Lotame’s new offering and for the broader adoption of curation.
Moreover, the launch of Lotame Curation signals the growing demand for programmatic transparency, and to create a streamlined path from advertiser to inventory. Curation also empowers SSPs and publishers, which is a notable change as adtech often feels DSP and buy-side-oriented. This shifts control back to them, allowing more influence over their destiny.
Experts React:
Andy Monfried, CEO and founder of Lotame, says, “Lotame Curation is the perfect marriage of our 18 years of data expertise and commitment to supporting independent publishers’ valuable content, a vibrant and coveted environment for brand dollars.”
The Weather Channel isn’t featured in the Lotame Curation announcement but was quoted in another Lotame release recently, with Dave Olesnevich, the Head of Data & Advertising Products, noting that “working with Lotame… has allowed us to push the boundaries of what’s possible with data analytics.”
Our Take:
The launch of Lotame Curation follows a series of new and modern product launches from Lotame as it continues to shed its DMP legacy.
Earlier this year, the company launched Lotame Collaborate targeting data clean rooms. The offering was an evolution of Lotame’s data exchange platform, PDX, which was introduced in 2019. Using Lotame Collaborate, multiple parties can share permissioned data within the platform, allowing marketers to combine authenticated (logged-in users) and non-authenticated data (non-logged in). Lotame Onboarding was a—you guessed it—onboarding tool for marketers and publishers to match first-party data with digital IDs.
Clearly, the goal for Lotame is to continue its evolution, becoming an even more comprehensive and interoperable data platform. In that way, the company is somewhat of a barometer for the way in which advertisers and publishers use data.
