A publish on Reddit’s r/adops discussion board has prompted extra questions from the purchase facet about The Commerce Desk’s transition to its new DSP interface, Kokai.
Final week, an nameless Redditor who claims to be an company media purchaser flagged a notification they obtained in TTD’s platform when attempting to create a brand new marketing campaign utilizing the DSP’s outdated Solimar person interface. The notification directed them to “create all of your new campaigns in Kokai” however famous, “You’ll be able to nonetheless handle your Kokai-created campaigns in Solimar.”
The Redditor claimed they had been “unable to launch new campaigns with out activating them in Kokai” regardless of “strategies simply final month that The Commerce Desk has no concrete plan to deprecate the Solimar platform,” seemingly alluding to a latest AdExchanger story.
So what offers? Is TTD actually sunsetting Solimar this month, regardless of assurances on the contrary? Is TTD forcing companies to undertake the brand new Kokai interface regardless of claims they will nonetheless use the interface of their selection?
Right here’s what we had been capable of finding out.
It’s as much as the companies
The notification posted within the r/adops thread is actual, in keeping with a supply aware of Kokai’s improvement who requested to stay nameless. And it was certainly proven inside The Commerce Desk’s DSP platform.
However the message doesn’t replicate TTD forcing companies to undertake the Kokai interface, the supply stated.
Slightly, the message was probably triggered as a result of the media purchaser’s company or its dad or mum holding firm determined to modify to utilizing Kokai for all new marketing campaign creation, the supply stated.
Nevertheless, the company or holdco could not have made its choice identified to all workers with TTD logins. So, if an account supervisor who was unaware of the swap tried to create a brand new marketing campaign utilizing Solimar, they’d have seen that notification, the supply stated.
When an company adopts Kokai, the supply added, TTD doesn’t make the choice to limit new marketing campaign creation in Solimar. Slightly, they stated, it’s as much as the company to resolve whether or not to permit account managers to proceed to create new campaigns in Solimar or to have them use Kokai completely.
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Businesses have their causes for under permitting new marketing campaign creation in Kokai, the supply stated. For instance, Kokai’s AI-driven optimization appears at totally different knowledge indicators than Solimar. So, if an company wished to have a unified knowledge set for all campaigns going ahead, it is smart to make use of one platform.
So, it’s probably the Redditor is working for an company or an account that has made the shift to utilizing Kokai completely, the supply added.
The nameless Reddit poster didn’t reply to a number of requests from AdExchanger to debate the notification. We had been unable to substantiate the precise circumstances that led to them seeing the notification or whether or not their company or shopper account lately determined to start out utilizing Kokai completely.
TTD declined to share any updates on the variety of companies utilizing Kokai completely. The corporate as an alternative pointed to its latest Q2 earnings report that stated over 70% of shopper spend on TTD’s DSP is now utilizing Kokai.
Selection evaluation
The Reddit thread brought about confusion amongst some trade insiders over whether or not TTD is mandating that companies begin utilizing Kokai solely.
A former media purchaser who nonetheless works in advert tech and who requested to stay nameless shared the Reddit publish with AdExchanger out of obvious concern over conflicting messages about compelled Kokai adoption.
AdExchanger requested the previous media purchaser to touch upon the reason we obtained for the notification posted within the Reddit thread. They stated it’s believable {that a} choice by an company higher-up to modify to solely utilizing Kokai was not communicated to all workers.
“If somebody with oversight approved the changeover, then it may roll downhill to different groups,” the previous purchaser stated. However they added that they’d be stunned if bigger companies or holdcos had been shifting to utilizing solely Kokai throughout all accounts.
A special buy-side supply who at present works for an advert company and who additionally noticed the Reddit thread stated they’ve been capable of proceed to make use of Solimar for brand new marketing campaign creation. This supply, who additionally requested to stay nameless, stated that their company has not transitioned to completely utilizing Kokai.
But when the selection to modify to Kokai is actually as much as advert companies, then TTD faces some obstacles in its aim to achieve full Kokai adoption by the top of this 12 months, which stays unchanged in keeping with the corporate’s Q2 earnings report. There may be nonetheless a contingent of company professionals who merely don’t like the brand new interface.
“The Commerce Desk continues to be an trade chief, and lots of of Kokai’s options, reminiscent of OpenPath and SP500+, are a internet constructive for advertisers,” stated David Nyurenberg, SVP of digital at InterMedia Promoting. “However I can’t stress sufficient how disruptive and anti-user the Kokai UI is, to some extent the place the additive friction outweighs the positives.”
Plus, some SSPs fear that, when advertisers purchase via Kokai, TTD’s direct-to-publisher provide paths OpenPath and SP500+ are turned on by default, which may result in the DSP self-preferencing its direct writer offers. This transfer would lower out the SSPs.
However the supply aware of Kokai’s improvement advised AdExchanger that companies utilizing Kokai have the selection to show off SP500+ and purchase via open change as an alternative. Nevertheless, companies do should resolve between focusing on a given group of adverts to your entire open net or shopping for solely the subset of publishers included within the SP500+, the supply stated.
Businesses may configure what TTD calls a “blue checklist” in the event that they solely need to purchase stock from sure particular publishers, they added.
And reasonably than preferencing OpenPath, the supply stated, Kokai’s default mode is discovering probably the most environment friendly provide path doable. Nevertheless, they stated, in circumstances the place OpenPath is offered as a connection to a writer, it’s most likely probably the most environment friendly path.
“Kokai will contemplate all the opposite paths obtainable and let AI discover probably the most environment friendly path to each impression,” they stated. “That’s what most of The Commerce Desk’s prospects are asking for.”
