Adacado

Revolutionizing AdTech: BCN's Smart Stack for Cross-Media Success

ADZINE interviews Carsten Sander about BCN, a cross-media marketing and technology platform formed in 2024 as a joint venture of Burda, Funke, and Klambt. A year later, Burdaforward joined BCN as a client. BCN represents more than 300 media brands, including Focus, Grazia, TV Spielfilm, ADAC Motorwelt, Bild der Frau, and Gofeminin, with a digital online reach of 57 million. The company is building an operating system for cross-media advertising, integrating print and digital campaigns via a central data foundation, a custom booking system, and an internal tech-management framework to enable faster decisions and greater efficiency. The discussion covers shifts in the industry, the move toward a cookieless future, emphasis on first-party data and ID solutions, and the role of AI in automation, optimization, and sustainability. Sander highlights the human role in the Smart Stack and envisions AI ‘agents’ to automate routine tasks while preserving human oversight.

Cookie-Less Alliance Boosts ADAC Campaign Performance

A cookie-less ADAC campaign marks a notable shift in identity-based advertising as NetID and Utiq join forces. In collaboration with Mediaplus Group, the two deterministic ID solutions were used for an Outstream-Video campaign promoting ADAC membership, with Mediaplus’ AI-driven contextual targeting delivering ads in thematically relevant content. NetID and Utiq handled frequency control and reach, creating a novel alliance for both companies. The test aims to improve targeting while preserving privacy, in contrast to cookie-based methods. Early results show widespread KPI gains vs prior cookie campaigns: click-through rate up 13%, video completion rate up 25%, and reach up about 30%, driven by activity in cookieless environments like Safari and Firefox, with roughly 3 million impressions. NetID was founded in 2018 by RTL Deutschland, Prosiebensat.1 and United Internet; Utiq, founded in 2023, is a joint venture of Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica and Orange. The ADAC is Europe’s largest automobile club.

Programmatic Advertising Revolutionizes Linear Radio in Hessen

Programmatic advertising is being applied to linear radio in Hessen. HR Werbung, on behalf of ARD Media, piloted a real-time, programmatic campaign on hr1 and hr3 for ADAC Auslandskrankenschutz. The technology comes from Amy, a Hamburg-based AdTech company founded in 2022. The pilot used the Active Agent DSP to buy real-time radio inventory (FM and DAB+) with two different spots aired over two weeks, reaching 11.63 million contacts among listeners aged 30–69 across Hessen. Amy integrated traditional radio workflows and handled audio asset management from agency to publisher, while enriching inventory with first- and third-party 'ma-Daten' to compute per-hour audience shares. A May 2024 field study with about 400 listeners examined digital vs. terrestrial radio usage; results show digital listening can predict terrestrial reach, enabling a DMP-driven extension of digital reach into terrestrial use via MA data in SSP. ARD Media and Amy emphasize seamless programmatic and traditional radio integration.