Yahoo has integrated major publishers for its Yahoo Backstage, a publisher-direct offering that connects advertisers to media and advertising opportunities across multiple channels with fewer carbon emissions.
The platform offers curated, premium publisher inventory to customers, with the promise of enhancing engagement, brand visibility, and return on investment, according to the company.
Among the publishers that are taking part in the platform are DirecTV, E.W. Scripps, LG Ad Solutions, Mediavine, Realtor.com, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros Discovery. Nearly 40 of the over 100 premium publishers participating in Yahoo Backstage are connected TV publishers, Yahoo said.
“Yahoo Backstage also offers a more sustainable buying practice by reducing the number of technology participants within a buy and supporting MFA-free inventory,” the company said in a press release.
According to Jounce Media, Yahoo Backstage is the largest MFA-free supply source on the open Web. MFA inventory has 26% higher carbon emissions than non-MFA inventory, according to a study by Scope3 and Ebiquity.
“We’re interested to test Yahoo Backstage to drive efficient and sustainable programmatic media,” Kristy Conrad, head of programmatic at Starcom, said in a statement. “Premium inventory plays an extremely important role in the online experience we’re driving for our clients and customers, and Yahoo’s strong relationships with the industry’s top publishers helps us reach them effectively. It's great to see Yahoo making these strategic moves and we look forward to our continued work together."
The platform aims to solve one of the biggest challenges in digital advertising -- waste. The study by Scope3 and Ebiquity analyzed more than $375 million of digital advertising spend from 43 brand advertisers, finding 15.3% of advertising spend is “wasted on inventory that generates no value to their business while generating excessive amounts of CO2 emissions.”
Earlier this year, Scope 3 raised a $20 million Series B funding round, led by Google Ventures, that will go toward the development of the company’s collaborative sustainability platform to help with decarbonizing media and advertising. According to the company, the platform visualizes the ad ecosystem and identifies its emissions and carbon reduction potential.
