Carbon Neutral Advertising Partnership – Jonnie Byrne, LoopMe

This is techstrong tv. I'm Bonnie Schneider, sustainability contributor for the Techstrong Group. We're so happy to have you here on tetron TV.

Today, we have a special guest who's making waves in the pro programmatic advertising ecosystem with innovative AI led capabilities that drive sustainability. Please join me in welcoming Johnny Byrne, global general manager of the Intelligent Marketplace at lume, the leading outcomes based advertising platform. Johnny, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me, Bonnie. Great to meet you. Great.

Can you share a little bit about your background and the work you're doing at lume? Yeah, sure thing. So, I, I started out in traditional media, put in publishing, uh, doing ad sales, running commercial teams, um, more successfully there, but moved quite quickly into digital as publishers moved into, you know, the online ecosystem and ran successful teams there as well before moving into programmatic.

And I've been in programmatic since it kind of started in the early two thousands. So working for companies like the Trade Desk on the demand side, and also for people like, uh, digital turbine on the supply side as well. Um, so as global gm, um, my job, uh, running the intelligent marketplace is really to, um, to connect high quality publishers with high, high quality demand partners, um, within our, within, uh, the, our AI powered exchange.

And we'll talk a little bit about our AI powered exchange as we go through the interview. Um, but while it's also providing kind of best in class customer service and solutions to our clients. So it's not just about the intelligent marketplace.

We also have data products and also, uh, measurement products as well that we provide access to for our clients where it makes sense to help them succeed and grow their businesses as well. On a ju kind of a general level, um, like you said, we're a technology company that uses AI to improve brand advertising and performance outcomes. Uh, so we put the heart, the consumer at the heart of every single campaign, um, and we deliver uniquely optimized video advertising.

Um, you know, that drives results there two to five times, um, higher than the industry standards, and that's across mobile in-app C T V, and that's all for brand awareness consideration, uh, purchase intent or foot traffic, you know, driving, um, you know, consumers to bricks and mortar locations like restaurants and retail outlets. And also for, uh, measuring sales, be that offline and online. So, brands, agencies, media publishers, um, and programmatic platforms rely on us to deliver, um, their goals in a, in a, in an effective, but also in a more efficient way.

Our vision, I guess, um, is to change advertising for the better, and by building a technology that will redefine brand, brand advertising. How does the AI technology behind loot me's next generation intelligent marketplace contribute to a more sustainable system? Yeah, that's a good question.

Um, I mean, uh, the latest situation or the, the latest improvement to our ai, um, came out, um, this week. Um, so we've made, um, uh, you know, uh, big strides in improving, um, you know, the speed at which our, um, our AI is able to, um, process impressions. So what we do, um, we offer up to 40% increase in E s P buying efficiencies.

Um, so with our new dynamic filtering capabilities, um, we suppress about 98% of all of the ad requests that come through from our supply partners only sending through 2%, um, which really kind of, uh, reduces the emissions, it reduces the, the burden of listening and, and kind of processing, um, impressions that, um, DSPs just won't bid on. So by doing that, we are offering, uh, reduced emission capabilities for our clients as well. Um, but also, um, greater efficiency and sustainability for our client, our global clients, people like Google, um, magnetite, PubMatic, all those guys.

So, you know, that's, that's really what, what's what's happening. We are filtering out ad requests that we'll never see a bid. Can you outline Loop me's dynamic filtering capabilities in terms of how they not only optimize and ad delivery, but also how they align with the efficiency driven mindset of digital transformation?

Yeah, so, um, we we're always trying to optimize the AI at, at its core is trying to optimize performance, um, you know, and, and add delivery. Um, but you know, for our clients, um, the, the, you know, digital transformation and driving efficiencies at the core of what they do, our a our AI enables, um, much greater efficiency. If we are not driving a efficiency to our partners and therefore profitability, then they will reduce the amount of capacity that we're able to center them.

So they're always looking at how can they, um, process, um, fewer impressions for greater profit. And that's really at the heart of what our AI is doing. It's, it's pushing, um, much greater efficiencies through, uh, to those guys, um, but also optimizing ad delivery at the same time, Ca you know, in the advertising industry, um, there, it just says in any sector, we're hearing a lot about how to reduce, um, one's carbon footprint.

So I was wondering if you could talk about your company's sustainability initiatives and how that is reducing the carbon footprint in the advertising industry overall. Yeah, so, um, we started the process in 2001. That was our baseline year.

Um, and we, we actually achieved our, um, our carbon neutrality kind of rubber stamp, um, earlier this month. Our target was 20 20, 20 30. So we've achieved it seven years ahead of schedule, and we've done that in various different ways.

So we work with, uh, sustainability consultancy, um, to try and get to our, our net zero, um, you know, ahead of schedule, which we've done. The original goal was to reduce scope one, two, and three emissions by a hundred percent by 2030. And we've managed to do that.

Um, but we've done other steps as well. Okay. So across different elements of the business, you know, migrated hardware, um, servers from to the Google Cloud, that's made a huge difference.

Um, and that's, uh, all powered by renewable energy, right? So that was one of the, that was one of the big, that was one of the big, um, reasons that we chose Google because it's all renewable energy driven. Um, we've also made, um, all of our office infrastructure cloud enabled in order to reduce electricity consumption.

We've consolidated the company's office footprint, um, instituted changes with travel and HR policies, and we've encouraged remote working policies, and we've also incentivized green commuting as well. So, and also lastly, offsetting residual emissions by supporting, um, carbon avoidance projects as well. Interesting.

So how does Loop me's intelligent marketplace adapt to the ever-changing demands of digital transformation initiatives, um, enabling IT and DevOps professionals to stay agile and responsive? And the reason I ask that is that our audience, um, is very interested in the DevOps IT area, so I appreciate you addressing that. Um, okay.

Well, so I mean, digital transformation is a, you know, it's at the heart of e e every business inside the programmatic ecosystem. Everyone is trying to, you know, make everything more efficient, uh, more sustainable. Um, you know, for for, for our, for our businesses, we have to make sure that we're aligned and we, that we are working as closely as possible with all of our partners, um, across IT and DevOps, in order to, um, you know, staying agile is at the core of what we do.

One of our core pillars is we innovate, right? So we're always innovating, always trying to make sure that we're aligned with our partners to make sure that, you know, uh, we are driving the, the same outputs and the, and the same initiatives and the same results that our partners ha have at the higher, at the, at the top of their agenda to do. In the context of cloud native development, how does Loop Lume ensure that the its AI powered tools for carbon reduction integrate seamlessly into existing cloud infrastructures without disrupting workflows?

Well, that's a really good question. I have to say, um, we've done a really good job of, of doing that. Um, I'm not in the weeds of it personally, but all I know is that, you know, we haven't seen any disruption to any of our services at any point during the transfer.

Uh, you know, the transition from, uh, data centers into the, into the Google Cloud. Um, for us it's incredibly important, um, because when you look at disruptions, I'm talking about revenue disruptions, not just workflow. If, when you consider how much revenue throw flows through the intelligent marketplace on a, on an, an hourly, daily, weekly basis, any disruption of that to that at all will impact not only us, but also our, our clients and our partners as well.

So we've managed to do that without any, uh, without any disruption whatsoever. I'm happy to say, I dunno how they did it, but, um, it, and it doesn't happen overnight either. This is a, a project that's taken a long time to do, and you have to be, yeah, obviously go through your due diligence to make sure that, um, that there isn't any type of disruption to your service, um, because it could be catastrophic not only to us, but also to our partners.

Well, you mentioned, uh, the revenue, um, that's going through the intelligent marketplace. So how does LUME ensure data security and privacy there? Yeah, that's a good question.

So, I mean, we're a data business, right? It's, it's, um, you know, putting consumers at the core of what we do is all around data. It's all all about using data to, um, intelligently target campaigns to users and, and, and increase the ad experience for and improve the ad experience.

If we didn't have, um, our data and security and privacy buttoned up in every single market, you know, with all of the industry leading kind of seals, um, then we wouldn't be able to operate. It just wouldn't be possible to do, first of all, our partners would not work with us. It would be impossible to, um, to operate without having security and privacy buttoned up as, as, as much as we do.

We take it incredibly seriously, um, particularly the, um, you know, the, the data privacy, um, in inside the marketplaces in which we operate. Um, so we make sure that in inside, um, yeah, in inside Europe, for example, all of the GDPR and TCF two, um, compliance is, is, um, uh, fully, um, adhered to, Well many. So software developers prioritize performance and optimization.

How does E Loop mes approach to sustainable advertising impact ad performance and user experience? Yeah, so the, I mean, our, our AI is all about pr, prioritizing performance and optimization. At its core, that's what it's doing, right?

It's, it's filtering out or ad requests that aren't necessarily, um, uh, usable by our demand sources. So at its core that that's, that's what it's doing. Um, but it's also, um, marrying up the, the right campaign from our demand partners to the right user across the right platform, the right format, the right time of day, everything is aligned.

So our AI is doing two things there. It's optimizing for performance, but also increasing the user experience as well. There's no point in people coming onto, um, in, into the intelligent exchange and having a completely redundant ad experience that doesn't provide them with any kind of, um, uh, any, any, any, any type of, um, benefit whatsoever.

Well, we talked a lot about sustainability, but how does LUME ensure scalability and adaptability in managing billions of daily ad requests, uh, within the intelligent marketplace? Yeah, again, it's, it, it, you know, the AI is, this is what it does, right? It's, it filters out all, all of those, uh, ad impressions.

We are, we are managing about 300 billion ad requests a day across the exchange, across the intelligent marketplace. Um, that's a lot. Um, but there is an abundance of supply out there and what we're doing, even with, even by suppressing 98%, there is still scalability there for our demand partners.

You know, if we can drive greater scale, but at the right efficiency, then we, we, we can, you know, grow them the intelligent marketplace kind of indefinitely, as long as we have the right supply in place, and we are pushing that supply through in an intelligent, manage, intelligent manner to meet, um, meet the demand, um, and, and, and provide the, uh, supply that they, they want to see and they want to bid on. So scale is not important. It's about managing the scale and an effective way to make sure that we are, we are marrying it up in the right way.

And can you elaborate on how Loomis personalized traffic shaping and dynamic filtering capabilities, optimized ad delivery and contribute to a more sustainable programmatic advertising experience? Yeah, so the, the, the, the, the filtering is, is, um, like I said, it's suppressing about 98% of the ad impressions, right? And it's, it's personalizing a marketplace for every single demand source.

Okay. So it's, um, you know, we're able to, um, uh, personalize every single demand source in real time. We've about 80 different demand sources there.

Um, and that we are looking at what they wanna see, and we're only pushing through those ad requests and what they wanna see, and it's different every single time, but we're monitoring and optimizing that process in, in real time. And we're, we're fling up impressions to meet that demand Orly fling down those impressions when we don't see, uh, that demand source, um, you know, uh, requesting to see an ad of that particular type. So for the advertising experience, again, it's all about personalizing demand to supply shore, that the user is seeing the right ad at the right time, the right place, um, in order to make sure that their experience is optimized as possible.

Does that make sense? It sure does. Um, it definitely makes sense.

Everything that's customized, um, always, uh, seems to work well. Looking ahead, what is the future of sustainable programmatic advertising and how will Lume continue to drive innovation in this space? Yeah, well, I, I think, you know, I think we're at the beginning of it, right?

You know, there's, there's not a huge amount of, of, um, of, uh, players in the, in the programmatic ecosystem that have gone fully, you know, um, carbon neutral. Um, there's only a handful have managed to achieve it so far. But I think as businesses it becomes more, uh, more of a, a kind of a, a, a pillar of every single business, you know, globally to be more responsible and drive sustainability.

I think as that increases, we're just gonna see more, um, players, um, in the ecosystem going for their, um, you know, their sustainability kind of, um, certification. And I think it's gonna be similar to the kind of, um, um, growth that we saw in, uh, measurement with like people like double verifying i a s driving measurement there, or it and four through Pixel eight, or through human. I think it's gonna be, I I, in order to operate inside this ecosystem, I need to have those cert, those certifications in place.

Um, otherwise people aren't gonna work with us. I think it we're, we're right at the beginning of it right now. It's just gonna continue and grow and grow and grow.

It's gonna be interesting to see what impact that has on partnerships and whether that's gonna drive business or even stop someone from doing business with someone cuz they don't have that certification. Well, it sounds like it's an exciting time, uh, to be right at the forefront of it. Uh, Johnny Byrne, global General Manager of the Intelligent Marketplace at Lume, thank you so much for joining us on techstrong tv.

Thanks for having Bonnie. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.

Absolutely. Well stay with us. We're going to have more on Techstrong TV coming up after this.