Adintop, BNC publishing, Bayt, Sarmady, Al Araby Al Jadeed, Sport360, Adline, 6 of the leading MENA digital media players have announced their intent to launch, in collaboration with TailWind, “Project Agora MENA”, an audience driven programmatic marketplace of premium local publishers.
The parties together own or represent 40+ premium websites, with more than 300 Million page views per month and an impressive monthly reach of more than 40 Million MENA Audience. The coalition jointly reaches 30% of the MENA Internet population, based on data provided by internetworldstats.com, for December 2014.
Odysseas Ntotsikas, TDG’s Managing Director and Founder, commented:
“Local Publishers have long been the smallest fish in a fierce war monopolized by international giants. While the digital advertising spend has been growing, the local players’ share has been stagnant or decreasing. Publisher Alliances have been blossoming around the world as they provide the only significant way for local media companies to reclaim back their market share and regain strategic independence”.
Project Agora is already live in Greece and Romania since 2014, and it was launched in Hungary at the beginning of October 2015.
In Romania, the launch partners include the top 6 Internet publishing groups with over 70 premium websites and an overall reach of 5 million unique users per month.
In Greece, Project Agora’s partners include 5 of the top TV broadcasters and more than 60 major websites with an overall reach of 4 million unique users per month.
In Hungary, six leading digital media players joined to reach 70% of the Hungarian Internet population. There are 100+ premium websites, with more than 340 millions page views per month and an impressive monthly reach of more than 3,7 millions Hungarians.
During its first 6 months of operation, hundreds of campaigns run on Project Agora Romania and Greece from top advertisers including BMW, Deutsche Telekom, Emirates, ING, Orange, Seat, Vodafone and Unilever.
“Project Agora’s mission is to bring laissez faire in advertising by creating trusted marketplaces that add value to advertisers while protecting the interests of local publishers.
We believe that Marketplaces will be an integral part of the MENA digital ecosystem in due time as ad technology become more advanced. PA will be aiming to deliver high quality and brand-safe inventory that deliver great campaign results to the brands in the region” – commented Mazen Singer who is leading Tailwind’s MENA operations from the 1st of July. Mazen was previously Regional Managing Director – GCC of Effective Measure (The online measurement currency in MENA) for almost 5 years.