Programmatic ad-buying specialist The Trade Desk (TTD 2.66%) recently shared the date it will unveil its overhauled platform: July 7.
"Brands and marketers are pioneering a new marketing normal -- one that requires an innovative approach to data-driven advertising," The Trade Desk said on a new portion of its website where it teases the platform's upcoming release. Called Solimar, the new platform reimagines the ad-buying experience "to help you meet this moment," the company says.
Before the new platform is revealed, here's a look at what we already know about it.
Image source: The Trade Desk.
A significant undertaking
The Trade Desk first revealed it was working on a platform overhaul in its third-quarter update last year.
"We are still relentlessly committed to innovating and staying on the leading edge of our industry," said The Trade Desk founder and CEO Jeff Green in the company's third-quarter earnings call. "We never take leadership for granted, and we are always looking to improve our platform and deepen our relationships with our customers."
Solimar will be the company's "biggest release" in The Trade Desk's history, Green has said several times in recent earnings calls.
Aggressive investment in its technology has been a key ingredient for The Trade Desk in growing its revenue more than fourfold over the past four years. The company's latest product release will likely once again reveal The Trade Desk's prioritization of innovation. The last time the tech company released a new version of its data-driven advertising platform, it proved to be far more than a facelift. The company put nearly 40% of its engineering resources for almost two years to work on readying the platform. The massive upgrade, which The Trade Desk referred to as the Next Wave, even accelerated the ad tech company's market share gains. Given the way management has talked about Solimar ahead of its release, the new platform is likely a similarly significant undertaking.
Game-changing new features
While any knowledge of Solimar we have today is vague, the company has shared some insight on what to expect from the platform.
Solimar will feature a redesigned user interface and an ad-buying experience that brings buying and planning tools together in a more user-friendly way. Further, The Trade Desk's artificial intelligence and machine learning assistant, Koa, will also see a significant upgrade that will make it more useful for campaign insights. In addition, the platform will include "a new measurement marketplace that provides advertisers with more transparent reporting," Green explained in the company's third-quarter earnings call.
The CEO added:
This represents an even more compelling measurement alternative to the walled gardens who continue to grade their own homework. Everything about this release points to the primacy of first-party data and the ability to unlock the value of that data in an ad campaign, especially in Connected TV.
In The Trade Desk's first-quarter 2021 earnings call, Green summed up the upcoming platform by saying he believes it "will be a game changer for the advertising community and for our company."
The Trade Desk will livestream the platform's unveiling during an event on Wednesday, July 7, at 1 p.m. EDT.
