Digital advertising on the internet is at a tipping point, with big-tech walled gardens like Google and Facebook on one side and the Open Internet on the other. Using our platform, we broke the mold on B2B advertising to show advertisers a powerful alternative to the walled gardens. Leveraging the power of data, digital channels such as CTV and digital OOH not typically used in B2B efforts, we proved that by advertising on the Open Internet, you can connect directly with your audiences at the right time and the right place, and provided an effective alternative to Google and Facebook.

The Trade Desk is a media buying platform built to enable advertisers to buy ads online outside of big-tech walled gardens. Specifically, we help advertisers reach audiences across millions of websites, streaming services, and apps on the open internet. In 2021 we were relatively unknown, with awareness among only one in four marketers. And even though consumers spent 2/3 of their time online on the Open Internet, advertisers were still spending 2/3 of their digital dollars with the walled gardens. Many advertisers expressed frustration with the unfair business practices, conflicts of interest, and lack of transparency of big-tech, but they still spent the bulk of their dollars with them because they believed they had no choice. We set out to show them we were a viable alternative to the big-tech walled gardens that could deliver what was important to their business in a fair and transparent way.

What matters? That was the emotional core of this campaign for an ad-tech company. We were built to enable a better advertising ecosystem, offering a choice beyond the walled gardens that benefits brands, publishers, and people. Our technology fuels journalism, entertainment, shopping and more. How could we tell such an all-encompassing story? By demonstrating what matters to them, matters to us and can be found on the Open Internet.

Our campaign was built around a simple idea, Because __________ Matters. This device allowed us to deliver messages to a variety of audiences based on their needs. From our mission “because the open internet matters,” to social responsibility messages like "because trusted journalism matters." Topics like ROI or reach and benefits like “because your next career move matters." It provided a structure flexible enough to deliver all that we do and was connected by the tagline "Built for What Matters."

Traditionally, our approach was focused on people close to our business; digital planners at agencies and programmatic marketers. But to grow, we needed to influence decision makers at brands who were upstream in the process but less educated on ad-tech. To do it meant widening our net and segmenting audiences to ensure we were connecting with them in relevant ways.

We identified three key audiences who did not know our brand well. We knew we had to grow awareness with:

- AdTech Community: Digital marketing industry players and .

- Marketing Leaders & Budget Influencers: Brand-side leaders & decision makers

- Software & Tech Industry Ecosystem: Players in software and technology that we compete with for talent

We looked to connect with them in omni-channel ways across the Open Internet, on business publications, CTV and even digital OOH in marketing/advertising hubs like New York, San Francisco and London.

We really focused on using this campaign to leverage all the best and latest features on our platform to leverage the power of programmatic. Using programmatic through our own platform for as much as 70% of our spending, we leveraged channels like CTV & Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) that are not traditionally used in B2B campaigns. For years, we’ve been counseling marketers to switch to a programmatic-first mindset. So this time we made a concerted effort to practice what we preach and demonstrated the power of the Open Internet. We took a programmatic-first approach to drive targeted reach & frequency in the most efficient way possible. Finally, we leveraged social, thought leadership and and email stream to continue the conversation.

This campaign initially launched in North America and soon after rolled out across EMEA and APAC, all using a similar playbook leveraging this highly flexible tagline to localize around the world.

Overall, we didn't just meet or exceed our goals, we smashed them. From driving significant increases over our goals for Brand Awareness and Consideration to driving huge increases in marketing touch points and attributable revenue, the campaign was an unmitigated success. Beyond that, this campaign helped lead to more inbound requests to participate in our thought leadership and help drive our inventory partnerships. And finally, our success in marketing and growth as a business was being recognized by the media, resulting in The Trade Desks debuting as number 27 on the Fortune Future50 for the first time ever.

In the end, we exceed all our goals, increasing brand awareness +68%, consideration +26% and grew pipeline revenue +44%. All while reducing cost per acquisition by -70%.

Lawsuits and regulatory efforts against big tech (Google and Facebook) created a negative news cycle that presented an opportunity for our brand. And we took full advantage of that opportunity by creating messages that directly addressed these stories and presented the Open Internet as an alternative.

In addition, while we had been experiencing steady growth over the past 10 years, we saw a significant growth in the CTV business due to an accelerating consumer shift to cut the cord of traditional cable and move to streaming TV services during

the pandemic. This shifting dynamic was certainly a tailwind for our business and every other ad tech platform providing access to CTV inventory. That said we were able to capitalize on this tailwind with relevant messaging about CTV within this campaign.