Q+A: How Canvas Worldwide are leveraging SPO and programmatic tech with Magnite to drive value for their clients

As one of the leading US media agencies, Canvas Worldwide seeks the most optimal paths to supply, finding and engaging with consumers in brand-safe environments to drive positive outcomes for their clients. In the last few years, Canvas Worldwide has furthered its programmatic leadership by leveraging Magnite’s tech and access to premium inventory to create efficiencies, transparency, and new opportunities. Having recently entered into a Supply Path Optimization (SPO) agreement with Magnite, we caught up with the VP of Programmatic at Canvas Worldwide, Sally Lee, to find out more about their evolving programmatic ambitions.

Why is SPO so important to Canvas Worldwide, and what impact does it have on your programmatic strategy?

Supply path optimization is important to Canvas as it allows us to drive efficiency in how our advertisers buy in-market and reach their consumers. Through SPO, we have a more transparent and streamlined way of accessing inventory which allows us to not only be closer to the supply we buy but also the publishers themselves, strengthening our relationship. Overall, this allows us to get better outcomes for our clients and is why we signed an SPO deal with Magnite.

How important is CTV to Canvas Worldwide clients, and what is making it easier to invest in the growing format?

With the growing amount of cord-cutters, CTV/OTT buying has become incredibly important to Canvas. Connecting our clients to those audiences is made easier with Magnite who, for instance, have helped us build a custom OTT library that allows us to efficiently buy the OTT inventory we need.

Increased transparency is another significant factor when it comes to investing in growing formats like CTV. One of the best benefits of having Magnite as a preferred SSP is their transparency reporting. Magnite’s transparency reporting helps us understand what inventory we are buying and where we are reaching our consumers to have a more holistic view of campaigns to optimize against so we can continuously improve efficiency and performance.

What challenges are Canvas Worldwide advertisers facing, and how are you resolving them?

Each client has varying requirements – budgets, formats, publishers – so simplifying workflows while maintaining transparency and control is critical. For instance, access to curated inventory from the relevant sellers at scale saves us a huge amount of time with the control to ensure media is run across brand-safe environments. Magnite enables the Canvas Programmatic Buying Team to access the supply that we need at scale with the flexibility and targeting capabilities to drive both efficiencies and performance. From publisher PMPs to live sports OTT inventory, Magnite makes it more seamless to move traditional direct buys to programmatic.

How is Canvas Worldwide using programmatic technology to benefit their clients?

Programmatic makes our clients’ budgets work harder and smarter, finding the optimal supply paths combined with the right data and technology to drive campaign efficiency and efficacy. Streamlined supply and programmatic workflows have reduced operational complexity while also allowing us to negotiate price with publishers. From a testing and innovation standpoint, we’ve seen great success in leveraging Magnite’s ExpressLane product to get closer to publisher supply and streamline our auction supply chain for Display and OLV buying.

What are you most excited about looking towards the future in 2024 and beyond?

Here at Canvas, we are actively trying to innovate and test new solutions to drive more value for our clients. Having Magnite as a preferred SSP partner allows us to accomplish this mission through their tech and integrations with data providers, measurement partners, and media owners to give us comprehensive access to all major formats and channels. We look forward to working with Magnite to find efficiencies in audience data matching, further streamlining how we access publisher inventory, and future partnership opportunities.