LiveRail Launches Deal ID Support, Breaking Barriers to Streamlined Programmatic Buying & Selling of Premium Video

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 31, 2013) - LiveRail, the leading video monetization platform for publishers, today announced the industry's first implementation of Deal ID for Video. Deal ID empowers premium publishers' advertising sales teams to take greater control over their programmatic inventory to negotiate, prioritize, optimize and control pricing, sell-through and inventory access with pre-negotiated deals. With the incorporation of Deal ID into LiveRail's VPX (Video Private Exchange) toolset, premium publishers can now create differentiated video offerings and maximize the RTB experience for preferred brand advertisers and agencies.

Deal ID enables SSPs and DSPs to transact programmatically, thanks to a unique identifier, against a specific pre-negotiated relationship between an individual publisher and brand advertiser. This helps both buyers and sellers of premium video inventory:

• Publishers - Deal ID allows publishers' direct sales teams to include programmatic access as part of their overall sales strategy, driving deeper, more strategic relationships with their key advertisers. Using Deal ID, media sellers can override their default ad rules for a specific buyer, opening portions of inventory that are otherwise unavailable programmatically, provide priority access, discounted pricing or more flexible packaging. 
  
  
• Advertiser/Buyer - Deal ID enables advertisers to reap the benefits of programmatic while still leveraging strategic publisher relationships for superior pricing and access. With Deal ID, large advertisers can negotiate key deal terms upfront, and then use the efficiencies of automation offered by their preferred DSP to execute against that deal, reducing operation costs and improving campaign performance.
  
  

"Deal ID is the technology that helps bring the human element to programmatic sales. It enables sellers and buyers to combine the best of strategic deal-making with the operational and performance benefits of programmatic execution" said Mark Trefgarne, Founder and CEO, LiveRail. "Deal ID is especially important in video, where the high value and relative scarcity of premium publisher inventory and brand-centric needs of advertisers mean that it's still important to have a human relationship with the person on other side of the table."

At the recent LiveRail Video Publisher Forum, several industry leaders highlighted the type of opportunity that Deal ID for Video provides for them, including:

• Joe Weaver, Managing Director, Mindshare: "Everything we do is rooted in some sort of data intelligence. The private deals that we are doing actually inform direct buys, and I don't think a lot of publishers think about it like that."
  
  
• Mark Balabanian, Senior Director at Turn: "Deal ID is an important innovation for programmatic channels because it reduces risk for advertisers and increases value for publishers by enabling direct transactions. The brands that leverage Turn Platform for video advertising appreciate the transparency, flexibility and control that Deal ID facilities for direct deals."
  
  

Separately, Jason Lopatecki, Chief Strategy Officer at TubeMogul; and Anooj Pakvasa, Programmatic Sales Director at IDG TechNetwork, offered their individual and unique perspectives on Deal ID for Video:

• "Deal ID makes creating private marketplaces easy and is one more step in fulfilling the vision of a completely programmatic buy -- or at least an ad buy that doesn't require four operations people, 10 emails and a fax," said Lopatecki.
  
  
• "Deal ID has been a crucial tool in delivering premium media, transparency and, most importantly, performance to display clients. We look forward to LiveRail's iteration and the ability to create successful video programs," said Pakvasa.
  
  

About LiveRail
LiveRail is the leading publisher monetization platform for video with more than 3bn impressions delivered via its platform each month. LiveRail provides premium publishers with the technology and services to sell their video inventory smarter and safer, across all devices. Recently recognized by Digiday Publishing Awards as the Best Monetization Technology for a Publisher, LiveRail is used by hundreds of major publishers who benefit from sophisticated analytics, advanced controls and unparalleled transparency ultimately generating maximum yield for every ad impression.

Founded in 2007, LiveRail's senior team is led by its founders, Mark Trefgarne (CEO) and Andrei Dunca (CTO). LiveRail Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with offices in New York, New York, London, England and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. LiveRail is backed by Pond Ventures. For more information visit: www.liverail.com.