We were saddened to see another independent ad tech company, which we have respected and competed with since the early 2000s, filing for bankruptcy. In different guises Sizmek has certainly earned their place in ad tech history, initially, pioneering rich media as Eyeblaster, later becoming a leading ad serving platform proposition as Mediamind and during recent years taking on a role as a significant consolidating force in the industry. 

Over recent years, and especially after their acquisition of Rocketfuel, we actually felt that the vision and positioning of Sizmek started to converge with our own; both advocating the value of broader, independent platforms with applications across data, creative and trading. 

There was, however, one significant difference. We had built our proposition from the ground up, meaning that data could flow seamlessly, efficient workflows could be built synergistically and metrics were consistent all across the platform. In contrast, Sizmek’s overall proposition had been pieced together from acquisitions leading to a proposition that worked well in sounds bites but, due to a fragmented technology base, struggled to add significant benefits to the customers. We understand that Sizmek was seeking to address this, by rebuilding their platform, but seemingly ran out of time. 

Given the above, Adform may soon be the only global independent adtech company that offers a complete buy-side proposition across trading, data and creative. We promise to continue to take this very seriously and more diligently than ever keep developing our unique product platform to provide a viable alternative to the walled garden players. We believe this to be increasingly important to our clients, to the industry and to the society overall.

Gustav Mellentin, CEO