Nasdaq technology powers new ad exchange for guaranteed contracts

A new exchange for digital advertising that’s underpinned by financial trading technology launched Tuesday. The New York Interactive Advertising Exchange (NYIAX) is built on a Nasdaq technology framework and is designed to be the first exchange for trading guaranteed advertising contracts on future ad space.

Unlike the typical ad exchange that’s centered on real-time bidding, NYIAX is designed for trading future (or upfront) inventory.

“Trading, a vital part of other market sectors, has now come to media. With the ability to trade guaranteed media contracts, advertisers and publishers can now be efficient and rid themselves of unnecessary costs and risks,” said Richard Bush, chief product and technology officer, who has led publisher solutions at IPONWEB and held several executive roles at AOL Networks.

The exchange runs on blockchain, the infrastructure behind Bitcoin that can provide a public record of digital transactions. Blockchain technology is gaining momentum as a way to manage authentications, trades and other transactions across the internet — ad delivery verification being one application.

Working with Nasdaq, the team behind NYIAX includes several veterans from ad tech and financial tech companies such as PubMatic, Dow Jones, AOL, Mediaocean and Microsoft. The team is currently onboarding a select number of companies onto the platform for a pilot period expected to run through late 2017.

“The platform immediately delivers clients upfront media buying and re-sell capabilities. As a new secondary market, a new potential revenue stream is one of the main reasons we are seeing so much interest in our pilot program,” said NYIAX CEO Lou Severine, a former AOL and Microsoft executive. “What NYIAX is doing will change everything. Once the rest of the market is exposed, advertising as we knew it for the past twenty years will be ancient history.”

If the digital market scales, NYIAX plans to extend to television, print, radio and out-of-home inventory.