The Ozone Project, a joint initiative from some of the UKs largest news publishers, has ramped up investment to accelerate its premium digital advertising platform.
In response to continued advertiser demand for easy, streamlined access to premium audiences at scale, Ozone’s founding shareholders – News UK, Telegraph Media Group, Reach PLC and Guardian News & Media – are supporting a significant expansion in Ozone’s capabilities.
The investment follows Ozone’s success in 2020, delivering four-fold growth, with similar growth expected in 2021. Ozone was recently named ‘Media Brand of the Year’ at Campaign’s Media Week Awards, with judges calling the project “a brilliant collaboration – creating an answer to the industry challenges”.
A three-fold investment in people, including staff from Telegraph Media Group and News UK, will boost Ozone’s capabilities and enable a number of new product initiatives that build on its current audience solutions. Throughout 2021, the investment will:
• Accelerate the roll-out of Ozone Marketplace, offering a cleaner, premium publisher alternative to open market programmatic trading. Currently in beta with a number of key advertisers, Ozone Marketplace meets the advertiser need for access to compliant first-party data, with transparency and an increase in working media. This bespoke set-up offers advertisers flexibility in audience and inventory products through a single private exchange.
• Support the launch of a self-service platform for SMEs, new solutions that meet customers’ needs for performance and outcome-based campaigns, and the rollout of new digital display and video formats.
• Support publishers’ standard digital format sales and operations – incorporating all display and video solutions – through an advertising centre of excellence. From January 1, 2021 News UK and Telegraph Media Group will be the first publishers to use this service, creating the opportunity for future expansion with other publisher partners. This means buyers have the additional benefit of being able to buy IAB format campaigns to deliver exclusively on News UK and Telegraph Media Group sites directly from Ozone in addition to Ozone’s audience products.
Damon Reeve, CEO, The Ozone Project, said: “We are really excited about the increased service and value this investment will enable us to offer to our advertiser and publisher partners. In our first two years Ozone has grown strongly to meet a market need for quality and trust in digital advertising. This investment gives us an opportunity to broaden out to more advertisers and with a richer product set, building a better digital future for all.”
Dominic Carter, CCO, News UK, said: “I’m delighted that The Ozone Project can now accelerate the delivery of its vision and further invest in its suite of products. Ozone has rightly been winning plaudits for its premium programmatic innovation and this investment allows us to draw more deeply on its potential.”
Nick Hugh, CEO, Telegraph Media Group, said: “This is an exciting collaboration with The Ozone Project, who will now exclusively deliver all digital display and video advertising for Telegraph Media Group. This investment will deliver positive results for our clients and the wider industry whilst we expect others to follow suit.”
Piers North, Chief Revenue Officer at Reach PLC said: “This expansion will take Ozone to the next phase, building on its successful performance in 2020 as our preferred partner, ensuring it remains one of the UK’s leading premium digital advertising platforms.”
Keith Underwood, Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Guardian News & Media, said: “This investment and expansion of Ozone builds on a strong performance in prior years and reflects increasing advertiser demand for innovation and easy access to the quality and scale of audience provided by some of the UK’s most trusted news brands”
