NEW YORK — Supply-side platforms and holding companies are forging deeper partnerships as SSPs evolve beyond their traditional role of simply facilitating inventory transactions, according to Caley Lewis, VP Americas at Index Exchange.
“SSPs are no longer just simply facilitating inventory to the DSPs, or actually playing a more valuable role in making sure that we’re driving that benefit or supplemental benefit to the DSPs and subsequently the buyers and agencies,” Lewis told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at a post-upfront leadership summit with Omnicom Media Group.
This shift stems from SSPs recognizing their unique position in the ecosystem. “We sit squarely in between the two,” Lewis explained. “We have a unique purview when it comes to where we are able to drive our added value.”
Beyond commercials
The collaboration now extends across multiple divisions within holding companies. Index Exchange works with data divisions, investment teams, sports divisions, and pharma divisions—each with distinct needs.
“We’re co-building within the data divisions or the product suite,” Lewis said. “How are we helping to evangelize all of the different offerings that they have at a HoldCo level and make it work in a broader, maybe even more kind of Swiss Army knife way to allow them to take that back to their clients in new business pitches.”
One example involves helping data teams establish best practices for getting data across to inventory with publishers while enabling scale across DSPs. “We also are working with the sports divisions now that holding companies have, as well as the pharma divisions that HoldCos have. Each of those needs are very different,” Lewis noted.
No diplomacy needed
When asked if Index Exchange serves as a diplomat between SSPs and agencies, Lewis offered a different perspective. “Not so much as a diplomat necessarily, but I do think because of our unique position in the ecosystem, we can act as an advocate or even a consultant at times because we have data and a viewpoint that maybe the DSP and the buyers don’t necessarily have.”
This consultative role includes voicing where standards need to be established and creating connective tissue between inventory, DSPs, and media plans for holding company clients.
The rise of sell-side decisioning
A key shift driving deeper partnerships is the movement of decision-making closer to inventory. “We’re starting to see the shift of all of the decision making being done at a DSP now start to happen closer to the inventory,” Lewis explained. “So within the SSP and the publisher side.”
Index Exchange has doubled down on sell-side decisioning as a core value proposition to holding companies. “We are able to enable this sell-side decisioning and make sure that we’re supplementing what the DSP can do,” she said. “We’re working in conjunction with them, but we’re making smarter and making sure that we are reporting back and communicating those values to our whole co-partners.”
This intelligence helps holding companies inform their strategies for new business pitches and client retention.
Consolidation ahead
Lewis sees continued consolidation in the ecosystem driven by product innovation rather than just commercial considerations or traditional supply path optimization.
“It’s really looking at where SSP partners show up and partner in a meaningful way,” she said. SSPs that embrace this evolution will likely thrive, while others may face consolidation.
The partnerships between SSPs and holding companies are still evolving. As Lewis noted, the goal is to be “a solution-oriented partner and not just, dare I say, dumb pipe, to facilitate the buying from the DSP to the publisher.”
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