Medialets, a mobile rich media advertising platform that currently supports more than 20bn monthly impressions, has launched Medialets Private Marketplace, a transparent buying platform that lets advertisers directly plan, buy, execute and measure brand advertising on the mobile properties of what Medialets describes as “the world’s top publishers”.

Medialets’ publisher clients include CBSm, NBC, Fox, CNN, Conde Nast, BBC and Sky. More than 40 of these are participating in the Medialets Private Marketplace at launch. Medialets’ advertisers include Coca-Cola, Toyota and Ritz-Carlton and Coca-Cola.

Medialets Private Marketplace is designed to bring efficiency to buying premium inventory at scale, providing agencies and advertisers with a platform that supports direct, guaranteed and reserved buys in addition to real time bidding (RTB) with full transparency on a per-placement basis.

The platform grants advertisers complete control at every stage of the campaign process, offering flexible purchasing options, a centralized repository for ad specs and placement data, a full spectrum of display ad units, campaign management and delivery, and performance reports, all through a single point of contact.

For publishers, Medialets says the platform is a complement to direct sales, making it possible to sell more Tier 1 inventory to existing advertisers, and open up opportunities with new advertisers. By eliminating longstanding obstacles for large-scale, direct premium ad buys across the mobile spectrum, the company says, Medialets Private Marketplace addresses the needs of both direct media buyers and publishers. 

In a briefing with Mobile Marketing, Medialets CEO Eric Litman told us that the platform is designed to make it easier for big-brand advertisers to spend bigger budgets on mobile marketing campaigns, with premium publishers. He said: “What we have learned is that while brand dollars want to go to publishers, brand advertising dollars mostly go to TV, magazines and the really big web properties, and sometimes those dollars find their way to indirect channels like a mobile ad network or a remnant provider, because it is easier for an agency to pick up the phone to one point of distribution, rather than to 15 different publishers.

“Our marketplace provides a model that makes it as easy to run ads with the world’s biggest  publishers as it is on a network, but the relationship is a direct one with the publisher, the pricing is  defined with the publisher, and the advertiser has complete control over, and visibility of, where the ads run. The only distinction is that operationally, they centralise the tactical details of getting the campaign up and running in one place, they place one order, and there is one repository of information about the different sizes and specs of each placement, and that is an enormous help for the publisher.”
Medialets Private Marketplace supports the full spectrum of mobile display, including rich media, video and static banners. Campaigns can run across iOS and Android platforms, Tablets and smartphones, as well as mobile apps and sites. Each Medialets campaign is supported by Medialets Muse, a dashboard that simplifies the process of creating, delivering and measuring rich media advertising. Medialets also recently introduced support for both mobile web advertising and third-party rich media vendors, increasing mobile options for both advertisers and publishers.

For a limited time, the company will waive rich media fees for advertisers new to the Marketplace. There’s more information about the new offering here.