CINCINNATI – (December 10, 2019) – Empower, a pioneer in the programmatic media space for creating the first fully transparent agency trading desk known as ClearTrade® proudly joins forces with ad tech startup Martin to deliver performance improvements in programmatic media through customization and reduced third party vendor fees. The entire Martin team has and continues to work inside Empower’s HQ in Cincinnati and collaborate with the ClearTrade team and clients.

“As we continued to build out improvements to our product, we saw substantial opportunity to better leverage technology within the ClearTrade platform and began seeking out the right partners,” Empower CEO Jim Price said.

Empower is based in the heart of Cincinnati’s start-up scene in Over-the-Rhine where the agency has been a valued mentor and investor to promising entrepreneurs within The Brandery, a nationally ranked accelerator. Already serving as a champion for entrepreneurs like the Martin team, it wasn’t long before Price explored the possibility of a partnership. At the time, the tech startup was developing a virtual marketing assistant to help solve some of the most common marketing challenges faced by small business owners.

“After many collaboration sessions and experiencing firsthand the key shared values of trust and transparency, we officially partnered with Empower’s ClearTrade team in early 2018,” said Tanja Mimica, CEO and Founder of Martin. “Together, we set out to realize the shared vision of an improved, client-customized, trustworthy, and higher-performing programmatic solution in the marketplace,” she said.

Ad tech companies take a cookie-cutter approach to programmatic media because they are inherently much more focused on universal software for mass market appeal than individual client service and agility. ClearTrade and Martin in partnership have added client – and campaign – specific customization to programmatic buying to uniquely deliver incremental performance and reduce costs one client at a time.

“Our collective minds bring a seamless solution in solving the modern era problems within programmatic media,” says Empower’s Senior Director of Programmatic, Laura Morris.

The ClearTrade team brings performance improvements to advertisers’ programmatic media campaigns through customization in:

1. Media buying algorithms: An alternative to one-size-fits-all bidding algorithms in DSPs, clients receive custom algorithms developed to their unique business objectives.
2. Data. Built and prescribed to create a more proprietary data advantage for clients over time, while reducing their data costs.
3. Inventory. We take direct seats with the supply side and with our publisher partners to circumvent some of the middleman costs placed by other tech companies
4. Attribution: We measure the true value of digital media using incremental lift measurement, not vanity metrics. We answer the most important question marketers are asking: how many incremental conversions did my campaigns drive?

On the horizon in 2020, Martin and Empower are taking further steps toward providing clients radical transparency in programmatic media and further reducing ad supply chain fees.

Since the launch of ClearTrade in 2013, Empower has trailblazed a series of strategic partnerships to strengthen its programmatic platform capabilities and inventory access. In 2015, Empower tapped industry leading ad server for premium video, FreeWheel, and TubeMogul, a leading enterprise software company for brand advertising – to help make Full Episode Player (FEP) advertising programmatically a reality. Later that year, Empower engaged Savveo to offer local broadcast programmatic TV transactions. In 2016, Empower accelerated programmatic TV access even further by engaging Videa and WideOrbit – integrating the technology and supply sides of the programmatic equation.

About Martin

Martin is an advertising technology company developing customized bidding solutions for sophisticated media buyers to increase return on media spend. Visit martin.ai to get in touch.