German publishers partner to take on Facebook, Google and Amazon

Industry Contributor 3 Jun 2019 - 2 min read

German publishers partner to take on Facebook, Google and Amazon

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Tags: media, marketing, publishing, advertising, Axel Springer, Funke Mediengruppe, Gruner+Jahr and RTL Group, Facebook, Google, Amazon, brand safety

Germany’s largest publisher sales houses, which represent the country’s four biggest publishers, are uniting to take on the tech giants (Digiday).

Key points

Axel Springer, Funke Mediengruppe, Gruner+Jahr and RTL Group will pool inventory, creating a combined audience of 50 million monthly unique users
That’s larger than Facebook’s audience in Germany – and brand safety is a key selling point, according to chairman of sales house Media Impact, Carsten Schwecke
They are pitching to agencies and advertisers to lock in rates a year ahead. If successful, the group will invest in the technology ready to go live in 2020
“Growth has been assumed by Google, YouTube and Facebook. Amazon is … also growing. We want to get back our fair share.” – Carsten Schwecke
“This is the base of our future growth: to find the right mix of reach, relevance, service and highest ad quality that you can generate for advertisers and agencies.” Carsten Schwecke

Australia’s big publishers were in talks about a similar move six years ago. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn’t happen. The German version has gone public and now appears to hinge on advertisers and agencies committing spend.

Touting brand safety may appeal to advertisers more these days than in the past, given rolling issues at Google and Facebook, and moves from big advertisers to establish ‘trusted publisher’ networks as a result of being stung by bad actors.

But marketers still have to put their money where their mouths are.

If Germany’s gang of four gets the commitment it needs to greenlight investment in an easy to use platform capable of delivering data and contextual targeting, perhaps it will “get back its fair share”.

But if agencies and marketers don't commit, what do the publishers do then?