Integral Ad Science - closing a critical technology gap
I joined Integral Ad Science to run product for their publisher business, and soon after was given responsibility for mobile and video product as well, including CTV.
When I joined IAS was facing a significant issue - they had no ability to generate their own VAST tags, and relied on a third party vendor to generate tags for them. To make matters worse, that vendor was acquired by DoubleVerify one of their key competitors, and the service was about to be discontinued.
We were to resolve this very critical issue in about a year, resulting in an immediate boost to revenue and our ability to measure on all platforms.
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In order for a verification company to be able to measure video, they need to be able to add code to the existing VAST tag, either through a secondary wrapper tag or potentially by directly modifying the tag itself.
VAST has been an extremely successful standard, and as a result it is used to deliver video to virtually all devices where digital video is viewed - desktop, mobile, CTV, etc. A problem arises because the measurement code required to measure correctly differs based on where the ad is delivered. If a company like IAS did not have the ability to dynamically generate the correct VAST tags for each type of device, they would not be able to offer a truly competitive measurement service across all devices.
My team identified and brought in two potential providers who could help us generate our own tags, and tested them against each other, ultimately selecting Publica. We were then able to negotiate with Publica to buy the technology and incorporate it into our own tech stack, rather than remain dependent on a third party.
We were also able to avoid what we thought was too costly an acquisition and just gain the technology as a win-win for both us and Publica, who was not focused in this area.
IAS was apparently impressed enough with Publica that they later acquired them for a much higher price.