German publishers form data alliance to compete with Google and Facebook (GOOG, GOOGL, FB)

Thomson Reuters

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Eight of the 10 biggest publishing companies in Germany – including Axel Springer (the parent company of Business Insider and BI Intelligence), Gruner + Jahr, the Bertelsmann Group, and Der Spiegel – are pooling data from nearly 1,000 websites in the hopes of competing against Google and Facebook, Digiday reports.

This data will be pooled on the Deutsch Telekom-owned platform Emetriq, which analyzes and sifts through the data to create and populate audience segments. Once these segments are created, the data will be shared back with publishers for them to use on their own data management platforms (DMPs).

From here, publishers will have an enhanced ability to target ads against their audience segment of choice. Publishers can gain access to this data for a flat fee ranging from $5,000 to $17,000, depending on the number of page impressions a publisher has, as well as the number of ad impressions the data is used for.

This pooling strategy could be beneficial for partnering publishers in the following ways:

• A reduced reliance on Google and Facebook. Google and Facebook combined control 85% of global digital ad spend, according to the article, and this dominance is partly a result of their immense data assets. By pooling their data together, publishers are creating an alternative and comparatively large data set. Creating this alternative will reduce publishers' and advertisers' reliance on digital media heavyweights like Google and Facebook for user data. 
• Greater ad targeting capabilities for publishers. Publishers will then be able to tap into Emetriq to target ads against metrics like social demographics, behavioral and purchasing data, and contextual data. Enhanced ad targeting capabilities will enable these publishers to command higher ad rates, and attract more business from advertisers.  
• Enhances Deutsch Telekom’s ad tech capabilities. Many telecoms around the world have been exploring ad tech as a way to become competitive with digital media players, and drive new revenue streams (think Verizon's acquisition of AOL). In this instance. By establishing itself as the lynchpin of this data alliance, Deutsch Telekom – the parent of T-Mobile – is improving both its own, and its partners, ad capabilities, particularly in programmatic. 

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