CANNES — Twelve months after it launched an ability for advertisers to introduce custom logic to ad buying, AppNexus claims 25 clients are using the tool.

Last year, the ad-tech platform bowed AppNexus Programmable Bidder (APB), a way for buyers to connect with AppNexus via API. One part of that was Bonsai –  a way to let  advertisers “decide the values of distinct impression parameters and prioritize them via a tree logic and structure they create”, according to the company.

AppNexus president Michael Rubenstein tells Beet.TV more than 25 companies are now “developing amazing capabilities on top that”.

“They are writing custom algorithms for a particular advertiser or campaign,” he says. “They are using a proprietary programming language that we built for data scientists called Bonsai”.

Rubenstein says customization will be king.

“Programmability is the next big thing,” he predicts. “The ability to customize the platform is where this industry is heading.

“Today, you see a small number of brands controlling their data … 10 years from now, this is going to be ubiquitous.”

 

 

This video is part of a series titled “Exploring Data & Technology as Catalysts for Creativity.”  This series was produced at Cannes Lions 2016 in cooperation the Xaxis. The series is sponsored by comScore.  For more segments from the series, please visit this page.