Experts weigh in on Sizmek, Rocket Fuel deal

Kristina: How do you expect this to impact the digital landscape?

Daniel Elad, CEO, Take1, a GDM Group company: I think this trend of more and more DSPS being acquired (Sizmek/Rocket Fuel, Aobee/Turn) or shutting down (Audience Science) shows mainly two things:
A great technology is not enough and a deep understanding of the current and future market is essential (Rocket Fuel was ranked #4 in 2013 by Forbes among "America's Most Promising Companies"). The fluctuation in the ad tech industry dictates the fast pace of the market and those who can't keep up will quickly find their services outdated.
Google and Facebook are together generating 77 cents out of every $1 spent in the digital ad space, making it very hard for others to compete with them. In order to take a large market share from these giants, many players will eventually need to combine into larger entities

Hector Pantazopoulos, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, SourceKnowledge: In the grand scheme of things this will not impact the advertising ecosystem. The perception may be that choice is being removed from the market every time a vendor gets acquired or merged. In actuality, ad tech is a fluid ecosystem with multiple vendors and providers establishing themselves every day.

Erik Requidan, VP of Programmatic Strategy, Intermarkets: Ad tech is consolidating and you are seeing the biggest players strengthen positions to prove quality across their demand, tech and supply. In the days ahead, we will see more acquisitions and mergers like this one.

Tod Loofbourrow, CEO, ViralGains:First generation ad tech firms are getting consolidated as the world moves toward more advanced ways of driving and measuring consumer engagement, anchored by advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Kristina: What does this mean for marketers?

Daniel Elad: Marketers will need to have a better understanding of the tech partner they are choosing to run their campaigns. Some agencies have shifted their budgets into another DSP or started building their own tech. We see that happening already (P&G/Audience Science now moving to The Trade Desk). Advertisers and brands are becoming savvier and learning the industry deeper than ever, so marketers need to be prepared for any scenario, paying close attention to forming trends.

Hector Pantazopoulos: Marketers will need to diversify their spend amongst more players if they intend on taking advantage of this choice. Just because one ad player ultimately ended up retreating from the public markets, does not mean all vendors will face the same fate.

Tags: advertising, GDM Group, Intermarkets, Rocket Fuel, Sizmek, SourceKnowledge, ViralGains