Berlin – zanox, the leading performance advertising network in Germany and Europe, strengthens its commitment in the Real-Time Advertising market and acquires a majority stake in the performance display provider, metrigo. Founded in Hamburg in 2011, metrigo provides integrated solutions for data-driven and targeted display advertising on a Real-Time Bidding basis. The founders and managing directors of metrigo, Tobias Schlottke, Christian Müller and Philipp Westermeyer, will remain in charge of the further development of the company. On the zanox side, Martin Rieß, as zanox Country Manager DACH, will take up a position in the expanded executive board of metrigo. Through its takeover of metrigo, zanox will further accelerate the expansion and internationalisation of its new “zanox Performance Display” product segment.
“Together with metrigo, we will strengthen the zanox Group’s technological competence in ad technology even further. The metrigo team, the proprietary DSP technology and the display competence that metrigo brings are the perfect complement to zanox’s unique performance DNA,” says zanox CEO, Thomas Joosten. “At the same time, we are delighted with the support shown by our shareholders, Axel Springer and PubliGroupe; with this, they have demonstrated a clear commitment to zanox and to performance marketing as an important strategic mainstay.”
As the first evidence of the forthcoming cooperation and the synergies between the two companies, metrigo will be supplying its managed demand side platform (DSP) for zanox’s new “zanox Performance Display” product segment. With “zanox Performance Display”, zanox provides its advertising customers with greater reach for display campaigns with performance targets. The offering unites data-based targeting intelligence with the leading RTA technology from metrigo. “In the next step of development, we will also be bringing this experience, expertise and advanced technological competence in real-time and data-driven advertising into our affiliate network,” adds Stefanie Lüdecke, CSO at zanox. With this, zanox will open up a further pathway to efficient media purchasing for its quality publishers, enabling them to boost the reach and quality of their traffic effectively. “Display advertising plays an essential role as an early point of entry within the customer journey. With zanox Performance Display, we are creating an additional offering for our advertiser customers,” says Lüdecke
“Through this integration into the zanox Group, our customers can look forward to the steady expansion of our service spectrum in the fields of data and tracking. Furthermore, access to the global zanox network will support us in continuing our very rapid growth, also on the international stage,” says metrigo founder and managing director, Christian Müller. Across the world, over 4,300 companies rely on the zanox network for the effective marketing of their products and services.
metrigo was founded in 2011 by Tobias Schlottke, Christian Müller and Philip Westermeyer and currently employs 20 people at its offices in Hamburg. The company offers customised, highly innovative and data-driven solutions for sales-oriented display advertising campaigns. Companies such as Zalando, mobile.de, SportScheck, Mister Spex and blau.de rely on metrigo’s managed demand side platform. metrigo forms part of the porfolio of the Berlin company builder, Project A Ventures, which provided a substantial portion of the initial investment, as well as of Performance Media and Martin Sinner. “We are pleased that, through its acquisition by zanox, our metrigo venture has gained a strong partner and can continue its successful development. Thanks to superior technology and excellent service, metrigo has evolved very quickly to become a leading provider in the field of Real-Time Advertising,” says Dr. Florian Heinemann, co-founder and managing director of Project A Ventures. metrigo was advised by Parklane Capital during the acquisition process.
With the introduction of the automated real-time trade in ad spaces (Real-Time Advertising – RTA), online advertising is experiencing a paradigm shift that will change the purchase and sale of display advertising forever. Experts consider RTA to be one of the digital channel’s most significant advantages in the race between the various media genres for future media budgets. For example, in a study commissioned by PubMatic, the American market research firm, International Data Corporation (IDC), predicts that income generated by Real-Time Bidding (RTB) platforms worldwide will increase from 2.7 billion US dollars in 2012 to 20.8 billion US dollars in 2017. Accordingly, the RTB-share of the total spending on online and mobile display advertising will rise from eight percent (2012) to 26 percent (2017). IDC foresees market growth in Western Europe from 297 million Euro (2012) to over 2.4 billion Euro (2017), as well as an increase in the display market share from five percent to 23 percent.
