The Forrester Wave Video Advertising DSP 2015 Q4

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The Forrester Wave™: Video Advertising

Demand-Side Platforms, Q4 2015

The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

by James Nail

November 30, 2015

FOR B2C MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

FORRESTER.COM

Key Takeaways

TubeMogul, Videology, And The Trade Desk

Lead The PackForrester’s research uncovered a market in which

TubeMogul, Videology, and The Trade Desk are

leaders. AOL, BrightRoll, DataXu, Google, Tremor

Video, Turn, and Viant offer competitive options.

Cross-Screen Capabilities And Assurance Of

Inventory Quality Drive Video Ad DSP Growth

The video advertising DSP market is growing

because more B2C marketing professionals see

these platforms as a way to take advantage of the

explosive growth of digital video consumption.

Marketers need a technology platform that

helps them manage an increasingly complex

video environment, where viewing behaviors

fragmented across devices, ad fraud, and

viewability are key issues.

Television Capabilities Differentiate The Video

Advertising DSP Market

As consumer viewing of television and video

content continues to diversify across devices,vendors that can help advertisers stitch together

their desired audience will lead the pack. Vendors

that can provide inventory from all types of video

viewing and can integrate TV planning with digital

video to fill audience gaps will earn a share of

advertisers’ television and digital video budgets.

Why Read This Report

In our 21-criteria evaluation of video advertising

demand-side platform (DSP) providers, weidentified the 10 most significant vendors and

researched, analyzed, and scored them. This

report shows how each provider measures up

and helps B2C marketing professionals make the

right choice.


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© 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®,Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester

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distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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Table Of Contents

Marketers Must Follow Consumers As They

Embrace Digital Video

A Fragmenting Video Landscape Requires

New Media Strategies

Advertisers Embrace Digital Video For Reach,

Flexibility, And Measurement

Advertisers Seek A Solution To Manage

Complex Video Campaign Execution Needs

Video Advertising DSP Evaluation Overview

Advertisers Focus On Inventory Quality And

Cross-Screen Capabilities

Evaluated Vendors Give The Buy-Side

Comprehensive Video Ad Features

Leaders Support Planning And Execution Of

Both TV And Digital Video

Vendor Profiles

Leaders

Strong Performers

Supplemental Material

Notes & Resources

Forrester conducted product evaluations in

September 2015 of nine vendor companies and

surveyed a total of 82 client references among

their customers. The evaluated companies are

AOL, DataXu, The Trade Desk, Tremor Video,

TubeMogul, Turn, Viant, Videology, and Yahoo

BrightRoll. In addition, we evaluated Google’s

DoubleClick Bid Manager, although the firm opted

not to be a participating vendor.

Related Research Documents

Digital Disruption Rattles The TV Ad Market

How Software Is Eating Video Ads And, Soon, TV

Making Sense Of The Video Ad Ecosystem


The Forrester Wave™: Video Advertising Demand-Side Platforms,

Q4 2015


by James Nailwith Luca S. Paderni, Brigitte Majewski, Richard Joyce, Rebecca McAdams, and Laura

Glazer

November 30, 2015

9

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The Forrester Wave™: Video Advertising Demand-Side Platforms, Q4 2015

November 30, 2015

© 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.

[email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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Marketers Must Follow Consumers As They Embrace Digital Video

Video’s sight-sound-motion delivery of emotionally engaging brand stories has long been the gold

standard in advertising. But, as consumers embrace new ways of watching video content, advertiserscan’t rely on old planning approaches to deliver the reach that they were used to with TV. This is

even truer now that video is freed from limitations of the broadcast and cable distribution. In the 21st

century, all advertisers need to learn how to use digital video to achieve their marketing and branding

objectives. Combined with the advent of programmatic buying, advertisers need new technology tools

to help them plan, buy, execute, and measure video campaigns across the entire spectrum of video

content and devices.

A Fragmenting Video Landscape Requires New Media Strategies

Video is booming. With devices, bandwidth, and new video content formats at their fingertips,

consumers’ video entertainment is breaking free from the television set. This challenges both traditional

television and online display advertisers as:

› Television upfront spending declines for a third year. Upfront sales of television ads have

historically been a story of ever-increasing year-over-year sales until recently. For the 2015

to 2016 season, upfront ad sales declined 3%, according to Media Dynamics. 1 The media

consultant firm notes this is the third straight year of declines for broadcast networks and the

second for cable networks.

› Viewing on digital devices explodes. Observations that younger viewers increasingly watch

video on their smartphones and laptops are one driver fueling the declines in upfront spending.

Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® data shows that 90% of online Millennials watch at least

some TV online on a weekly basis versus only 58% of older adults.2 Meanwhile, video platform

provider Ooyala reports that viewing on mobile devices accounted for 44% of over-the-top video

viewing among its customers in the second quarter of 2015.3

› But viewability and fraud issues plague digital video ad opportunities. While online display

advertising has battled viewability and fraud for years, the higher costs per thousand (CPMs) for

video make it an even more appealing target for fraudsters. The Association of National Advertisers

in collaboration with fraud detection firm White Ops found that one-quarter of video ads were the

result of bot fraud, twice the rate for display ads.4

Advertisers Embrace Digital Video For Reach, Flexibility, And Measurement

Advertisers have long favored television because its ability to deliver sight-sound-motion ads tells a

more engaging brand story. More recently, they have been quick to add online video to their advertising

plans, making video advertising the fastest growing ad format through 2019.5 In addition to better

message communication compared to banners and other online ad formats, advertisers see digital

video’s potential for:


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› Recapturing elusive audiences. The TV ratings declines are a symptom of a measurement

system lagging changes in consumer viewing behavior, not consumers abandoning the network

content they have long loved. In announcing the availability of its total audience measurement

tool in December 2015, Nielsen noted that for one unnamed broadcaster’s drama program, only

15% of viewers aged 25 to 34 watched the episode live at the scheduled air time while 18% time-

shifted their viewing to watch on a PC, tablet, or smartphone.6 Nielsen executive vice president

Megan Clarken summed up these changes saying, “Live and DVR is very dominant in the older

demographics, very less predominant in the younger demographics.”

› More automated and precise buying. Advertisers have embraced programmatic buying for online

display advertising because it automates otherwise laborious negotiations and enables the use of

data to deliver ads only to viewers who precisely match their target. Having gotten a taste of this

capability in display advertising, brands are pressing media companies to offer these benefits in

their video content as well.7

› Better accountability. Broadcast television’s power is somewhat blunted by its mass nature: the

advertising planner only has broad demographic data about who is watching the programming.

As more video is streamed at the request of individual viewers, planners have better data not only

about each viewer, but about the impact of the actions that viewer takes as a result. Multitouch

attribution studies combining the individual viewer data from comScore, Nielsen, and Rentrak with

relevant purchase data from firms like Datalogix, IHS Automotive, and brands’ CRM databases are

becoming more commonplace.

Advertisers Seek A Solution To Manage Complex Video Campaign Execution Needs

As part of this Forrester Wave evaluation, Forrester fielded an online survey to 82 customers of the

platforms included in this evaluation to understand how they manage cross-screen video buys, what

capabilities they value most today, and what they expect from video platforms in the future. These

users of video advertising DSPs told us:

› Television and online video are increasingly planned together. About one-third of respondents

told us that a single group handles planning and buying of both television and online ads (see

Figure 1). But another 39% said that while different groups manage television and digital video,

they jointly plan and execute campaigns. Only about one-quarter said digital video was totally

independent of television advertising or that they only run digital video campaigns. Planning and

buying online video that best complements a TV ad schedule requires specialized data and tools.

› Today’s advertisers want tools that give quality, flexibility, and control. Like programmatic

display advertising, video advertising engages a complex ecosystem of technologies. It also

requires different buying processes depending on the “premium” nature of the ad inventory.8 When

asked about the video marketing capabilities they currently use, at least 50 survey respondents

selected 15 from a list of 21 (see Figure 2). Since digital video is vulnerable to the same

unscrupulous practices that plague display advertising, and because video prices are higher than


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display, advertisers currently use capabilities to measure viewability, avoid fraudulent inventory, and

screen out potentially offensive content. Advertisers also look for flexibility in the KPIs they measure

their campaign by, the ad formats they use, and the type of programmatic buying process they use.

Ad delivery controls to limit frequency or sequence ad creatives round out today’s capabilities.

› Video planners will look for cross-device capabilities; mobile video ads next. We also asked

which capabilities will be important for video DSPs to offer in the next three years. While quality

capabilities remained among the top needs, cross-device capabilities to identify individuals and

optimize ads jumped into the top 10 along with the ability to use the advertiser’s first-party data.

Mobile ad inventory beat out over-the-top TV ad inventory as the most critical future type of video

inventory (see Figure 3).

FIGURE 1 TV And Digital Video Planning Converges

“How is your firm organized to manage television and digital video advertising?”

Base: 86 survey respondents

Source: The Forrester Wave™: Video Ad Platforms, Q4 2015 Customer Reference Survey

A single group

handles both

32%

Different TV and

digital groups,

but plan jointly

39%

Different TV and digital

groups operate

independently

17%

Only digital,

no TV

7%

Other

5%

71% of respondents

coordinate TV and

digital video


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FIGURE 2 Advertisers Want Quality, Flexibility, And Control

“Does your company use the following capabilities in its video marketing?”

(Please select one response per row.)



Attribution for leads, sales, revenue, or otherbusiness impacts to ads

Brand lift measurement

Attribution for actions such as site visits,search volume, etc., to ads

Both audience guaranteed andnon-guarantee types of buys

Both private marketplaces andopen exchanges

Both auction and direct publisher buys

A bidding engine that provides flexibility insetting bid parameters and prices

Selecting ad placements based on type ofcontent (e.g., sports, travel, cooking, etc.)

Ability to eliminate fraudulent inventory

Data from third-party sources for planningand targeting ads

Third-party ad viewability verification

Ad delivery controls (e.g., frequency capping,creative sequencing, etc.)

Support for ad formats such as VPAID, VAST, MRAID

Ability to define and avoid content deemedinappropriate for my brand

Support for a variety of KPIs (e.g., CPM,clicks, reach, etc.)

Currently using Plan to use in the next 12 months No plans to use

53

55

60

62

63

65

65

66

66

67

67

68

69

71

72

15

13

11

8

10

4

6

4

7

5

3

5 3

3

3

1

8

8

5

6

3

7

5

5

3

3

6

4

2

3


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FIGURE 3 Cross-Screen Capabilities And Mobile Inventory Top Future Needs

“Please rate the importance or unimportance of a video DSP platform

offering the following capabilities in the next three years.”



1

2

4

5

5

3

3

2

2

1

2

21

20

18

16

18

18

17

16

13

12

53

52

53

54

55

55

57

58

62

62

Identification of individuals across

screens/devices

Cross-screen, cross-device optimization

Support for ad formats such as VPAID, VAST, MRAID

Importing my first-party data to use inplanning and targeting ads

A bidding engine that provides flexibility insetting bid parameters and prices

Ad delivery controls (e.g., frequency capping,creative sequencing, etc.)

Support for a variety of KPIs (e.g., CPM,

clicks, reach, etc.)

Third-party ad viewability verification

Ability to eliminate fraudulent inventory

Ability to define and avoid content deemedinappropriate for my brand

Not important Somewhat important Important Critically important

Support for first-party data and cross-screen capabilities will grow in importance3-1


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FIGURE 3 Cross-Screen Capabilities And Mobile Inventory Top Future Needs (Cont.)

“Please rate the importance or unimportance of a video DSP platform offering extensive

advertising inventory in each of the following types of placements in the next three years.”



Not important Somewhat important Important Critically important

10

6

9

7

4

3

3

3

4

3

23

17

14

15

12

16

9

11

10

6

31

33

33

29

35

30

37

34

25

25

12

20

20

25

25

27

27

28

37

42

Professionally-produced web-based video content(e.g., Stylehaul, Machinima, etc.)

Video-on-demand

Linear television

Web-based user generated video(YouTube, Vine, etc.)

Addressable television ads

Television content streamed over the Internetto a computer or laptop

Television content streamed via apps

to mobile devices

Television content streamed to over-the-top devices(e.g., Roku, game consoles, SmartTV, etc.)

Mobile web

Mobile apps

Advertisers demand mobile video inventory 3-2


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Video Advertising DSP Evaluation Overview

To assess the state of the video advertising DSP market and see how the vendors stack up against

each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top video advertising DSP vendors(see Figure 4).

FIGURE 4 Evaluated Vendors: Vendor Information And Selection Criteria

Vendor

AOL

DataXu

Google

The Trade Desk

Tremor Video

TubeMogul

Turn

Viant

Videology

Yahoo

Product evaluated

One by AOL: Video

The DataXu Platform

DoubleClick Bid Manager

The Trade Desk Demand-Side Platform

Tremor Video Demand Side Platform

TubeMogul Platform

Turn Campaign Suite

Viant Advertising Cloud

Videology Platform

BrightRoll DSP

Vendor selection criteria

The vendor must support buy-side advertising clients.

The vendor must support ad inventory in both desktop/laptop Web, mobile Web, and mobile app video.

The vendor must support ad inventory in at least three forms of television content: live linear, streamedvia network or MVPD app, streamed via connected TV device, MVPD VOD, or MVPD addressable ads.

Advertisers Focus On Inventory Quality And Cross-Screen Capabilities

After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we

developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 22 criteria, which

we grouped into three high-level buckets:

› Current offering. Our 11 evaluation criteria are grouped into 7 capabilities. Five of these reflect

the capabilities needed to support the core tasks in managing a campaign: planning capabilities,

TV campaign extension, transaction capabilities, campaign execution, and measurement. Of the


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final two criteria, one looks at the breadth of ad inventory across the entire spectrum of video types

available, while the other reflects the satisfaction ratings on 15 capabilities that the reference clients

of each participating vendor indicated in an online survey that Forrester administered.9

› Strategy. To determine whether the company has a strategy that will meet the expected changes

in this fast-evolving area, Forrester evaluated the breadth of expertise of the management team

and the product strategy for its robustness in addressing the need for cross-device individual

identification, incorporating all forms of digital and video advertising, and the ability to provide

quantitative, scientific measurement of campaign results.

› Market presence. These eight criteria examine four areas of each firm’s position in the market:

customer base, revenue, revenue growth, and global capabilities.

Evaluated Vendors Give The Buy-Side Comprehensive Video Ad Features

Forrester included 10 vendors in the assessment: AOL, DataXu, Google DoubleClick Bid Manager, The

Trade Desk, Tremor Video, TubeMogul, Turn, Viant, Videology, and Yahoo BrightRoll. Each of these

vendors has:

› Capabilities to enable the buy side. In order to qualify, vendors had to have a set of features

designed to enable advertisers or their agencies to plan, buy, and execute video advertising

campaigns. While some of the included vendors offer platforms intended to be used by both buy

and sell side, pure sell-side platforms were excluded from consideration.

› Broad video content including inventory in television programs. With consumer viewing behavior

shifting to diverse online, over-the-top, and TV everywhere options, advertisers need a tool that can

reach these viewers to fill the increasing gaps in traditional television ad plans as linear TV ratings

sag. We focused on vendors who tap into the entire spectrum of video opportunities, including linear

television, while excluding vendors who handled web-native video alone.

Leaders Support Planning And Execution Of Both TV And Digital Video

The evaluation uncovered a market in which:

› TubeMogul, Videology, and The Trade Desk lead the pack. These three vendors built their

technologies from day one in anticipation of television programming and advertising becoming

more digital in nature. Their understanding of the way traditional TV planners and buyers operate,along with their vision of the new capabilities this digitization will enable to make TV more flexible

and measurable, put them ahead of other vendors in this space (see Figure 5).

› Strong performers provide a strong technology platform but lack linear TV inventory. Other

vendors come to video with technologies originally developed for other types of advertising.

BrightRoll and Tremor Video have evolved from being video ad networks, and their need to bolster


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DSP functionality means some more television-focused functions are not yet present. Vendors

from the display advertising side, including DataXu and Turn, have added video inventory to their

offerings but lack capabilities that support the branding objectives that video primarily serves. Viant

envisioned a new platform and built its Advertising Cloud through a series of acquisitions that show

strong promise. DoubleClick Bid Manager is relatively new to the video space and opted not to

participate in the evaluation, but given the importance of this vendor in online advertising, Forrester

included it as a nonparticipating vendor.10

This evaluation of the video advertising DSP market is intended to be a starting point only. We

encourage clients to view detailed product evaluations and adapt criteria weightings to fit their

individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool.

FIGURE 5 Forrester Wave™: Video Advertising Demand Side Platforms, Q4 ‘15

Challengers Contenders LeadersStrong

Performers

StrategyWeak Strong

Currentoffering

Weak

Strong

Go to Forrester.com to

download the Forrester

Wave tool for more

detailed product

evaluations, feature

comparisons, andcustomizable rankings.

Market presence

Full vendor participation

Incomplete vendor participation

AOLBrightRoll

The TradeDesk

Tremor Video

TubeMogul

Turn

Viant

Videology

Google

DataXu


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FIGURE 5 Forrester Wave™: Video Advertising Demand Side Platforms, Q4 ‘15 (Cont.)

Challengers Contenders LeadersStrong

Performers

StrategyWeak Strong

Current

offering

Weak

Strong

Go to Forrester.com to

download the Forrester

Wave tool for more

detailed product

evaluations, feature

comparisons, and

customizable rankings.

Market presence

Full vendor participation

Incomplete vendor participation

AOL

BrightRoll

The TradeDesk

Tremor Video

TubeMogul

Turn

Viant

Videology

Google

DataXu

Vendor Profiles

Leaders

› TubeMogul’s video-first heritage empowers the buy side. TubeMogul was founded as an online

video platform and designed to serve brand-focused advertisers, a departure from most online

advertising’s direct response bias. Its emphasis on serving branding objectives is confirmed by the

strong offer of TV network private marketplaces and the platform’s capabilities in planning onlinevideo that complements a linear TV schedule. TubeMogul customers gave it strong ratings for its

data sourcing and management abilities, fraud prevention, and ad delivery controls. Ad agencies

and marketers who want to directly manage their programmatic video buying will find the self-serve

platform compelling.

To maintain its leadership position, TubeMogul needs to strengthen its cross-device individual identity

graph, the weakest capability area as highlighted by its customer references, but key to the ability to

give brand-focused advertisers optimal control over the reach and frequency of their campaigns.


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› Videology excels at mastering the convergence of television and online video. Videology

designed its solution with the view that the TV buying process would eventually be automated

and the thinking behind TV planning would drive online video buying. As a result, Videology has

the most sophisticated media optimizer to analyze the right allocation of TV and online video

to optimize reach and campaign cost, a compelling feature for media planners grounded in a

traditional TV discipline. The firm serves both advertisers and publishers — notably Comcast’s

Spotlight ad sales — but maintains its neutrality by not owning any advertising inventory.

Videology’s bidding engine and in-flight optimization client reference scores lag, and the firm

will need to improve these functions as video advertising evolves from content placements to

impression-by-impression buying.

› The Trade Desk combines strong programmatic technology for digital video inventory. This

firm, a Leader in our demand-side platforms Q2 2015 Forrester Wave, has built a strong technology

platform for digital media buying based on its roots in online display advertising.11 These digital

roots show in its strength in digital video inventory, bidding engine, and in-flight optimization

capabilities. The Trade Desk received the highest customer satisfaction ratings of all participants,

and most capabilities scored significantly above the median for each. The firm aspires to move

beyond its display heritage to be the platform for everything digital, and these broad capabilities

are best for ad agencies and marketers with large budgets distributed across all forms of display

and video ad opportunities.

The Trade Desk’s digital roots expose weaknesses for more brand-oriented advertisers: planning

screens that focus on impressions without the ability to calculate a campaign’s unduplicated reach

and frequency and only average brand lift measurement capabilities.

Strong Performers

› Turn offers a solid video DSP but can improve on ad inventory quality controls. Given Turn’s

history as an early provider of programmatic advertising, it’s no surprise that the firm scores highly

for core DSP capabilities, such as its bidding engine and in-flight optimization. It has augmented

these strengths by tapping into all the major video and television inventory sources, such as

clypd and One by AOL: Video Marketplace. Turn’s “media path to conversion” and “optimal reach

and frequency to drive actions” analyses will appeal especially to brands in high consideration

categories where the consumer decision path is long and likely moves across many touchpoints.

Turn’s customer reference scores for its fraud prevention capabilities were well below average, and

we found its viewability and brand safety features middle of the pack. Like other programmatic

platforms that started in the display space, its platform lags in offering tools to plan digital video

buys that fill gaps in TV buys.

› Viant’s integrated stack aims to slash the “technology tax.” Viant has assembled its Advertising

Cloud from a series of acquisitions with the goal of squeezing costs out of today’s ecosystem of

disparate specialist services, such as viewability, DMP, attribution, etc., that constitute the so-


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called technology tax that siphons off up to 60% of the online advertising budget.12 The firm further

differentiates itself with its offering of 1 billion proprietary deterministic cross-device, people-based

profiles derived from Myspace, which it acquired in 2011. Its focus to date has been on digital

media, including video (through its 2010 acquisition of Vindico), but the firm plans to launch its

Xumo platform in connected TVs in the next six months to build its TV inventory and viewer data.

Advertisers who don’t want day-to-day management of their campaigns will appreciate Viant’s

managed services focus.

Viant needs to enhance its bidding engine, ad delivery controls, and planning capabilities and expand

beyond connected TV inventory to have a full video solution to move into the Leader category.

› Tremor Video makes the transition from ad network to video marketplace. Started as a video

ad network in 2007, the firm saw the market move away from the network model and has spent

two years evolving its capabilities to serve both buy and sell side with its VideoHub. Tremor Video

shows strong progress in its DSP, offering credible capabilities in all areas and particular strengths

in its audience forecasting and in-flight optimization, while its customers further rated its brand lift

and attribution measurement abilities highly. This combination of features is well suited for brand

advertisers who allocate a significant portion of their budget to digital channels.

While the firm needs to continue to strengthen its fraud and brand safety capabilities, it also needs

to build out its television inventory and tools for converging TV and digital video planning, which

the firm told us is on its road map for 2016.

› BrightRoll offers strong digital video inventory for digital advertisers. BrightRoll was a pioneer

video ad network, launching in 2006, and pivoted to the programmatic space with the launch

of BrightRoll Exchange in 2010. Yahoo’s acquisition of BrightRoll in 2014 should have bolsteredthe DSP’s cross-device individual identity graph with first-party deterministic data, though client

reference scores indicate this hasn’t been fully realized yet. BrightRoll users give it strong marks for

inventory availability, and Yahoo’s integration of mobile analytics tool Flurry strengthens BrightRoll’s

mobile advertising offering. Advertisers whose budget is predominantly digital will benefit from this

breadth of ad inventory.

But BrightRoll’s platform is built around online display advertising processes and metrics that don’t

fully support the objectives of a converged TV/online video plan. To become a leader, BrightRoll

needs to improve its tools to help media planners understand how digital video will extend and

complement their TV schedules.

› DataXu’s strong platform hasn’t fully translated to video’s branding power. As a Leader in the

DSP Forrester Wave, its buy-side platform starts with strong in-flight optimization capabilities and

a powerful bidding engine. The vendor backs its claims of strong fraud prevention with a money-

back guarantee that differentiates it in the market. Large advertisers who don’t use TV and whose

business has a direct response focus will find the platform capable for their needs.


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But the firm’s omnichannel approach only applies to digital channels, including video, and it lags

others in linear TV inventory and planning capabilities. In addition, its display heritage comes

through in its focus on impressions and clicks, and with other actions and gaps in its ability to

serve brand objectives.

› DoubleClick Bid Manager shows potential to be a strong competitor. DoubleClick launched

its video capability at the end of 2013 and opted to be a nonparticipating vendor in this evaluation.

Despite the limited information Forrester was able to gather, the firm earned Strong Performer

status, particularly for the strength of its in-flight optimization and cross-device individual

identification, which benefits from Google’s broad first-party relationship with over a bill ion Internet

users globally. Television is a high priority for DoubleClick, and it demonstrated a clear vision and

strong strategy for how it will expand its capabilities. It is also committed to further integrating

the measurement capabilities acquired through Adometry, enabling users to optimize to business

results. The firm reported strong growth since the launch of its video capability, and DoubleClickwill be an easy addition for advertisers already using the platform for their display advertising.

› One by AOL: Video is a new platform that needs improvement to fulfill its promise. The One by

AOL: Video platform launched in April 2015 as the result of a series of acquisitions, including video

platform Adapt.TV in 2013 and attribution technology Convertro in 2014. AOL’s 30 owned media

properties, such as the Huffington Post and TechCrunch, give the platform a strong foundation

of first-party deterministic identities. The platform also offers unique television capabilities, with

audience data for all television programming and its proprietary “tRatio” metric. Advertisers will

appreciate the ability to use digital ads to fill gaps in TV schedules as audiences rapidly migrate to

non-linear viewing options.

Despite these strong capabilities, One by AOL: Video earned the lowest satisfaction scores among

all participants, suggesting the firm must better integrate these capabilities. The firm has two

additional integrations in process: Millennial Media and Verizon customer data. If successful, it has

the potential to be a future Leader.


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Supplemental Material

Online Resource

The online version of Figure 5 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product

evaluations and customizable rankings.

Data Sources Used In This Forrester Wave

Forrester used a combination of three data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each

solution:

› Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation

criteria. Vendors provided detailed descriptions and supporting evidence pertaining to their current

offering, strategy, and market presence. Where necessary, we conducted vendor calls or writtenrequests to gather additional details of vendor capabilities as they relate to the evaluation criteria.

› In-depth briefings and product demos. We met with each vendor for a two-hour briefing and

demonstration of their products’ functionality, including two scenarios we designed to provide a

standard process for understanding key features. We used findings from these product demos to

validate details of each vendor’s product capabilities.

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› Customer reference survey. To validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also

conducted an online survey with up to 10 of each vendor’s current customers.

The Forrester Wave Methodology

We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated in this

market. From that initial pool of vendors, we then narrow our final list. We choose these vendors based

on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have

limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation.

After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop

the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria,

we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires,

demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review,

and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies.

We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or other

scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave document — and then score the vendors based on a

clearly defined scale. These default weightings are intended only as a starting point, and we encourage

readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool. The final

scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and market

presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and vendor

strategies evolve. For more information on the methodology that every Forrester Wave follows, go to

http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/forrester-wave-methodology.html.

Integrity Policy

All of Forrester’s research, including Forrester Wave evaluations, is conducted according to our Integrity

Policy. For more information, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/integrity-policy.html.

Endnotes1 Ed Papazian, the president of Media Dynamics, notes that this decline “hasn’t been seen before” and in total,

spending is down 11% since the 2012 to 2014 season. Source: Wayne Friedman, “Broadcast, Cable Upfront Spending

Drops Again,” MediaPost, September 9, 2015 (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/257973/broadcast-

cable-upfront-spending-drops-again.html).

2 Millennials are defined here as 18 to 35 year olds, while older adults are 36 and older. Source: Forrester’s North

American Consumer Technographics® Online Benchmark Survey (Part 1), 2015.

3 Younger consumers continue to drive the adoption of mobile video, seeing it as the core of their entertainment

universe. Source: “Ooyala Q2 Global Video Index,” Ooyala (http://go.ooyala.com/wf-video-index-q2-2015).


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4 The ANA/White Ops study notes: “Almost a quarter of video ad impressions in the study were identified as bot fraud,

as were 11 percent of display ad impressions, while 17 percent of programmatic display bot traffic was fraudulent, and

bot fraud for retargeted ads averaged 19 percent.” Source: Michael J. McDermott, “Fraudsters, Liars, and Cheats,”

Association of National Advertisers, March 1, 2015 (http://www.ana.net/miccontent/show/id/ana-2015-mar-fraudsters-liars-cheats).

5 Forrester forecasts a 21% compound annual growth rate for video advertising on PCs through 2019, and an almost 40%

growth rate on mobile devices. Source: Forrester Research Online Display Advertising Forecast, 2014 To 2019 (US).

6 Source: Jason Lynch, “A First Look at Nielsen’s Total Audience Measurement and How It Will Change the

Industry,” Adweek, October 20, 2015 (http://www.adweek.com/news/television/first-look-nielsen-s-total-audience-

measurement-and-how-it-will-change-industry-167661).

7 As advertisers grow more comfortable with the new way of buying video ad inventory, television programming

delivered online, in apps and across devices will be progressively pulled into programmatic buying’s orbit and will

eventually arrive at television’s doorstep. See the “How Software Is Eating Video Ads And, Soon, TV” Forrester report.

8 Different types of video content have higher or lower value to advertisers, largely depending on the perceived level of

production quality; advertisers often consider video content produced for TV broadcasting at the top of the pile. Asthe advertising industry gains experience with programmatic buying, the practice is morphing beyond its original open

real-time bidding format, creating four types of programmatic buying models. See the “How Software Is Eating Video

Ads And, Soon, TV” Forrester report.

9 Forrester invited vendors participating in this Wave to provide up to 10 client references each. Forrester fielded an

online survey to the 88 references provided, asking them to prioritize the importance of DSP platform capabilities and

rate their satisfaction with their vendor on 15 of these capabilities. These results formed the basis of the customer

satisfaction criterion in the Forrester Wave model.

10 Occasionally, vendors we choose to include in a Wave decline to actively participate in the process. If the analyst feels

the vendor is important in this market, he or she may choose to include it in the report as a nonparticipating vendor.

Nonparticipating vendors do not go through the formal evaluation process; instead, Forrester uses public information

and data gathered via briefings and/or independently sourced client references.

11 To learn more about our assessment of the demand side platforms market, see the “The Forrester Wave™: Demand-

Side Platforms, Q2 2015” Forrester report.

12 The term “technology tax” refers to the significant percent of the advertising budget that is spent on intermediary

technologies and data sources such as ad servers, DSPs, et al., instead of purchasing media. For one estimate of the

size of this “tax,” visit the following link. Source: “The Technology Tax,” Aol Platforms (http://www.aolplatforms.com/

research/technology-tax).

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