Publishers have faced a number of challenges last year as COVID-19 cast a cloud of uncertainty over the media industry. In the coming year, publishers will confront a set of new challenges, with the end of third-party cookies at the forefront. They need to be focused on how to fill in the blanks this will create and how to solve for identity and personalization, both of which are critical for advertisers seeking to reach targeted audiences. The main strategy most are adopting today is to unify identity around email.  

I’m always looking at ways that we can better support our publisher partners and prepare them for the future. It became clear to me that expanding our capacity to further optimize site monetization was a good next step. Ad management emerged as the missing piece in our solution set to tie everything together and provide a single, unified solution for publishers to reach their audience and revenue goals. Tying together first-party engagement data, email ID and monetization data into one identifier, makes a lot of sense.  

I engaged with a number of companies that have a strong monetization product set, but what made OKO stand out, in addition to their best-in-class ad management technology, was how similar our visions are for publishers – they just have different methods for achieving them. (I’ll admit, too, I have a soft spot for Brits!). Mat Bennett and the OKO team stood out from the rest as a group of people dedicated to publisher success, which is at the core of who we are at Insticator.

That’s why this acquisition made so much sense: We do different things well and, together, we bring to publishers the one solution they need to maximize engagement and revenue. We fill in each other’s gaps and strengthen our offerings on all fronts. With the product synergies and sharing of expertise between our teams, we improve upon both offerings. The multiplier effect is already starting to show.

With the addition of OKO, we’re stronger together and have a more complete offering for our publishers. We’re excited for what comes next.