Smartology Launches German Language Contextual Advertising Technology

Reuters and W&V sign as first publisher partners

Smartology is launching a German language version of its contextual digital advertising technology platforms, SmartMatchTM and SmartMobileTM. Driven by client demand, the move will allow advertisers to expand their global reach beyond English-speaking consumers and German publishers to increase their revenue streams.

Digital advertising spend in Germany is forecast to be $6.94 billion in 2016. (Source: Statista)

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Current Smartology publisher partner Reuters has signed up to adopt the new language version for its German site, along with media business publication W&V.

Jeff Perkins, Commercial Director EMEA at Reuters, comments: “Smartology’s advanced technology, combined with its focus on customer need, has helped us to deliver consistently high returns for our commercial partners’ English language international campaigns.  The new German SmartMatch offering will enable us to provide the same level of support in this market, which will benefit all parties. Reuters look forward to working with Smartology as it continues to launch in new languages.”

Smartology’s bespoke technology uses semantic profiling to match each item of an advertiser’s branded content with editorial pages on the same or closely-related topics.  Brands significantly increase ROI on their advertising budgets, while publishers can charge a premium for content because ads can be so highly targeted.

Dörte Sältz, whose previous positions include global digital sales roles at BBC Worldwide, Business Week and the Financial Times, heads up Smartology’s new entity as CEMEA Commercial Director.  Initially based at the company’s London office, she says: “Very simply, Smartology offers advertisers and publishers a straightforward way to increase their returns by engaging readers with content that is timely and relevant.  Launching in Germany is a great opportunity to demonstrate that intelligent advertising works across different languages.”

Susanne Tacke, Head of Sales at W&V says: “The SmartMatch platform will allow our advertisers to reach their target audience with relevant and brand-safe content.  Because it is based on real-time activity it clearly adds to the reader’s experience.  As a result, brands get more visibility for their advertising spend, while we are able to maximise the value of our editorial content.”

Global advertising agency MEC works with Smartology in Germany and Switzerland.  Huw Jones, Head of Global Solutions at MEC Switzerland comments:  “We have used SmartMatch for several clients and seen significant engagement uplifts as a result, particularly when compared to what we would expect from regular brand campaigns.  Matching relevant advertiser and editorial content yields strong results.  The extension to Germany is really positive move, and we look forward to seeing equally strong results in this market.”

“As the largest market in mainland Europe (see Note 1), Germany is an exciting prospect,” explains Mark Bembridge, CEO at Smartology.  “Launching SmartMatch and SmartMobile in a new language for the first time is a milestone for the company, but one that is supported by existing clients as well as new prospects.  It’s also a key stepping stone as we look to expand into other languages and markets.”

Note 1: eMarketer : Western Europe Digital Ad Spending: Uneven Growth Across the Region (November 2015). http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Western-Europe-Digital-Ad-Spending-Increases-Three-Times-Rate-of-Total-Media/1013213#sthash.wzJVW5Xp.dpuf

About Smartology

Founded in 2010, Smartology has developed an innovative and cutting-edge semantic solution for digital advertising that enables brands to optimise their content libraries by focusing on its relevance in relation to editorial articles.

Smartology’s profiling and matching technologies are at the core of its SmartMatch platform, which integrates with a media owner’s ad serving platform.  Using natural language processing and algorithms, it semantically profiles content from both the media owner and the advertiser and builds a model of the significant concepts within it.  These concepts are weighted and organised into content profiles which are used by the SmartMatch system to select the most relevant content from the advertiser, be it editorial or video, to display alongside any given article on the media owner’s website in real-time.

Smartology’s media owner partners include the Economist, the Financial Times and Reuters and it counts over 40 global brands, such as Blackrock, London Business School, Mishcon de Reya, RBS and Robeco Bank, as advertiser clients.

More details are available on the website: http://www.smartology.net/.