Following AppNexus’ acquisition by US telecoms giant AT&T, the company announced the launch of its new joint advertising venture, Xandr at its inaugural Relevance Conference in Santa Barbara, California.
Xandr will encompass all aspects of the existing AT&T advertising and analytics businesses, including its advanced TV service AT&T AdWorks, data and analytics business ATT.net and its recently acquired ad-tech unit AppNexus.
Advertising and analytics head Brian Lesser said in a statement that “Xandr is a name that draws inspiration from AT&T’s rich history, including its founder Alexander Graham Bell, while imagining how to innovate and solve new challenges for the future of advertising.”
Four key advantages include advanced advertising technology (AppNexus), data, premium content, and AT&T’s distribution to more than 170 million direct-to-consumer relationships across wireless, video and broadband.
“Our purpose is to make advertising matter and to connect people with the brands and content they care about,” Lesser commented; “Throughout AT&T’s 142-year history, it has innovated with data and technology, making its customers’ lives better. Xandr will bring that spirit of innovation to the advertising industry.”
The company also used the launch to announce collaborations with Altice USA and Frontier Communications to aggregate and sell their national addressable TV advertising inventory. This initial step starts to create the foundation of a national TV marketplace for advertisers and premium content publishers.
The company also presented its findings from the Xandr Relevancy Report, which found that 64% of those surveyed believe advertising enables independent voices to be heard on the internet, while 70% like it when ads go beyond just selling a product.