Homegrown Maple Network Exchange courts federal government advertising dollars
Alternative to Big Tech internet giants
Publishing industry group News Media Canada is partnering with the advertising platform Maple Network Exchange in a bid to attract the federal government’s advertising dollars away from Silicon Valley giants.
Maple Network Exchange (MNE) was launched by a group of Canadian publishers, including Postmedia Network Inc., which publishes Financial Post, in 2020 in a bid to create a homegrown alternative to large online advertising companies.
Developed by the Montreal-headquartered tech company Sharethrough, it works similarly to other programmatic networks, with the main difference being that it is 100-per-cent run by Canadians.
“It was designed as a fully self-serve platform,” said Mark Petch, the business development director for MNE. “So if you are a brand, and perhaps you’re not big enough to have use of a media agency, or if you’re bringing that function inhouse, you can purchase on this platform without issue.”
Now the group is actively courting the business of the federal government, noting that public servants will be able to launch campaigns in under 30 minutes and allow federal departments to reach more than 85 per cent of Canadians through its alliance of news publishers.
“It allows the feds to advertise in premium, trusted news sites, as opposed to online ads. And the real advantage to it is that the ad dollars then stay in Canada with the Canadian publishers,” said Paul Deegan, the president and CEO of News Media Canada. “So in addition to reaching premium audiences, you’re helping Canadian news publishers, which obviously is beneficial in terms of Canadian journalism.”
Deegan estimates that the total addressable advertising market in government departments — where heads of communications are able to purchase media directly from media outlets for campaigns that have a media buy of $25,000 or less — is $10 million.
In addition, a few “medium-sized” Canadian companies and agencies are also taking advantage of the platform and he doesn’t discount the possibility of working with small businesses in the future.
Petch said although there’s been only one test with a provincial government campaign, it was successful in terms of clickthrough rate.
Recent additions to NMC’S ranks include CBC/ Radio-canada and the Saltwire Network.
Its founding members are Black Press Media, Brunswick News Inc., Glacier Media Group, The Globe and Mail, La Presse, Metroland Media Group Ltd., Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., Village Media, the Winnipeg Free Press and Postmedia Network Inc.