New Tech Platform Aims to Help African Media Monetize
The startup has already built out the full ad tech stack and integrated it with major demand-side platforms used by the biggest global advertisers like P&G, Coke and Unilever.
NAIROBI, Kenya — For too long, African media companies have been leaving substantial digital advertising revenue on the table by relying on big tech platforms like Google and Facebook to connect them with advertisers, according to a new ad tech startup, writes Winston Mwale
At the AllAfrica Media Leaders' Summit in Nairobi on Friday, Victor Munyua, founder and CEO of Yehtu, unveiled his company's suite of advertising technology tools tailored specifically for the African media market.
The tools include a supply-side platform, demand-side platform and data management system.
"We have to take control of the technology that sits on our screens," Munyua told the summit audience of media executives from across the continent.
"With that, we collect our own data, we understand our audience."
Munyua, a veteran of the digital advertising industry who previously worked at Google, said African publishers have been ceding too much control and revenue to the tech giants.
His company's new platform is designed to help publishers directly connect their premium inventory to major advertisers' buying platforms without intermediaries taking a cut.
"Advertisers don't want to buy random sites on Google anymore," Munyua said.
"They're coming and saying, are you premium? Are you trusted? And if you can answer that question, you can do it."
Yehtu's platform promises full transparency on pricing publishers' ad inventory at its true market value.
It also provides tools to help optimize and increase those ad rates over time.
"We will show you how much your inventory is worth," Munyua said. "And not even just that, we will help you optimize and increase the value of your inventory so that you're making more money."
In addition, the platform includes audience data tools to help publishers gather deeper insights about their readership for better ad targeting and monetization.
"We must be able to sell our audience at the price that we need," Munyua said. "Take control."
He stressed the importance of transitioning away from traditional web tracking using third-party cookies, which are being deprecated, towards building direct relationships and trusted first-party data with audiences.
"People want a trusted web, a premium web, a personalized web," Munyua said. "We don't want random sites."
The startup has already built out the full ad tech stack and integrated it with major demand-side platforms used by the biggest global advertisers like P&G, Coke and Unilever.
"All you have to do is connect your information to their buying platform," Munyua told publishers.
"Your publisher [ad server] connects to theirs, we sell to them, they buy."
Founded by executives with a combined 60 years of experience in digital media and advertising across Africa and at major tech companies, Yehtu is aiming to help African media make up the revenue it has been leaving on the table.
"We're not our enemies by any means. We're our friends," Munyua said of big tech companies. "So we need to stay open. It's our organism. It's our content."