NEW
YORK, Aug. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today,
Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: DRCT) ("Direct Digital
Holdings" or the "Company"), a leading advertising and marketing
technology platform operating through its companies Colossus Media,
LLC ("Colossus SSP"), Huddled Masses LLC ("Huddled Masses") and
Orange142, LLC ("Orange142"), announced that it has partnered with
Beeswax, a FreeWheel-owned programmatic buying platform.
The ad tech group, which is the ninth Black-owned company on the
NASDAQ U.S. stock exchange, will collaborate with Beeswax to expand
access to, as well as simplify the path for, buying multicultural –
alongside general market – connected TV ad inventory.
The integration works like this: Colossus SSP, a Direct
Digital Holdings-owned supply-side platform, works with both
multicultural and general market publishers, giving its users
access to a more diverse range of CTV ad inventory. As such,
marketers and agencies that use FreeWheel's Beeswax to buy CTV ads
can now reach a wider array of viewers.
This partnership and its accompanying capabilities are
noteworthy as they provide a much needed and timely solve for many
of the issues that marketers and agencies are facing today,
including a dynamic, complex and fragmented TV ad ecosystem and a
consumer landscape that is becoming increasingly more multicultural
and diverse.
On a more technical note, this partnership includes integrations
on both the buy and sell sides of CTV ad buying. On the buy side,
Direct Digital Holdings' two digital marketing companies, Orange142
and Huddled Masses, will work with Beeswax to serve CTV ad
placements for marketers. On the sell side, as outlined above,
Direct Digital Holdings will work with Beeswax on simplifying and
expanding access to both multicultural and general market CTV ad
inventory via the group's supply-side platform, Colossus
SSP.
"The media and marketing landscape today is very nuanced – from
fast-changing innovations to constant industry fragmentation to
audiences that are becoming increasingly more diverse and harder to
reach, across multiple screens," said Mark
Walker, CEO, Direct Digital Holdings. "Taking that into
account, we sought a partner who brought a real-time, holistic
understanding of the ecosystem, as well as a track record of
creating simple and much needed, innovative solutions that remove
friction and address and resolve the needs of marketers today.
FreeWheel, through its work with Beeswax, exemplifies and
understands these key traits and we're excited to be working with
them."
"We are humbled and thrilled to team up with a partner who not
only understands this space, but also is minority owned," said
Tess O'Brien, VP, Head of Revenue,
Beeswax. "We look forward to working with Direct Digital Holdings
to drive innovation and growth in CTV, while helping to provide
Beeswax's clients with an easier pathway to access multicultural
content within the programmatic ecosystem."
About Direct Digital Holdings
Direct Digital Holdings (Nasdaq: DRCT), owner of operating
companies Colossus SSP, Huddled Masses, and Orange 142, brings
state-of-the-art sell- and buy-side advertising platforms together
under one umbrella company. Direct Digital Holdings' sell-side
platform, Colossus SSP, offers advertisers of all sizes extensive
reach within general market and multicultural media properties. The
company's subsidiaries Huddled Masses and Orange142 deliver
significant ROI for middle market advertisers by providing
data-optimized programmatic solutions at scale for businesses in
sectors that range from energy to healthcare to travel to financial
services. Direct Digital Holdings' sell- and buy-side solutions
manage approximately 136,000 clients monthly, generating over 250
billion impressions per month across display, CTV, in-app and other
media channels.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We
are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the
advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the
technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to
ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across
all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the
ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, San
Francisco, Chicago,
London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A
Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through
the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information,
please visit freewheel.com, and follow us
on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Beeswax
Founded in 2014 by a team of former Google executives, Beeswax is
the programmatic buying platform that gives media buyers ownership
and total control. Its Bidder-as-a-Service™ platform gives brands,
media companies, and advertising technology firms greater control,
flexibility, and transparency over their programmatic advertising.
Beeswax customers include Uber, DraftKings and Nexstar. Beeswax is
headquartered in New York City and
has raised $28 million in funding
from leading investors including Foundry Group, RRE, You & Mr.
Jones, and Amasia.vc.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may
contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal
securities laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended,
and which are subject to certain risks, trends and
uncertainties.
As used below, "we," "us," and "our" refer to Direct Digital
Holdings. We use words such as "could," "would," "may," "might,"
"will," "expect," "likely," "believe," "continue," "anticipate,"
"estimate," "intend," "plan," "project" and other similar
expressions to identify forward-looking statements, but not all
forward-looking statements include these words. All statements
contained in this release that do not relate to matters of
historical fact should be considered forward-looking
statements.
All of our forward-looking statements involve estimates and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking
statements. Our forward-looking statements are based on assumptions
that we have made in light of our industry experience and our
perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected
future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate
under the circumstances. Although we believe that these
forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions,
many factors could affect our actual operating and financial
performance and cause our performance to differ materially from the
performance expressed in or implied by the forward-looking
statements, including, but not limited to: our dependence on the
overall demand for advertising, which could be influenced by
economic downturns; any slow-down or unanticipated development in
the market for programmatic advertising campaigns; the effects of
health epidemics, such as the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic;
operational and performance issues with our platform, whether real
or perceived, including a failure to respond to technological
changes or to upgrade our technology systems; any significant
inadvertent disclosure or breach of confidential and/or personal
information we hold, or of the security of our or our customers',
suppliers' or other partners' computer systems; any unavailability
or non-performance of the non-proprietary technology, software,
products and services that we use; unfavorable publicity and
negative public perception about our industry, particularly
concerns regarding data privacy and security relating to our
industry's technology and practices, and any perceived failure to
comply with laws and industry self-regulation; restrictions on the
use of third-party "cookies," mobile device IDs or other tracking
technologies, which could diminish our platform's effectiveness;
any inability to compete in our intensely competitive market; any
significant fluctuations caused by our high customer concentration;
any violation of legal and regulatory requirements or any
misconduct by our employees, subcontractors, agents or business
partners; any strain on our resources, diversion of our
management's attention or impact on our ability to attract and
retain qualified board members as a result of being a public
company; our dependence, as a holding company, of receiving
distributions from Direct Digital Holdings, LLC to pay our taxes,
expenses and dividends; and other factors and assumptions discussed
in the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Conditions and Results of Operations" and other sections
of our filings with the SEC that we make from time to time. Should
one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should
any of these assumptions prove to be incorrect, our actual
operating and financial performance may vary in material respects
from the performance projected in these forward-looking statements.
Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date
on which it is made, and except as required by law, we undertake no
obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained in
this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date on
which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or
unanticipated events or circumstances, and we claim the protection
of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Media Contacts:
Direct Digital Holdings
Laura Goldberg
laura@lbgpr.com
FreeWheel/Beeswax
Elaine Wong
elaine_wong@comcast.com
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SOURCE Direct Digital Holdings