MediaPost: Search & Performance Marketing Daily—What The Microsoft/Xandr Deal Means For Search And Streaming, CTV

When Microsoft on Tuesday announced it would acquire Xandr from AT&T, the companies gave little insight into the nuances of the deal, such as how the technology would integrate into Microsoft Advertising, and who would spearhead the added services across the advertising business.

Later that evening, Rik van der Kooi, corporate vice president of Microsoft Advertising, stepped down and announced Rob Wilk, head of Microsoft Advertising’s Strategic Sales team, as his successor.

While the details of the agreement remain unclear, van der Kooi shared a few insights into what advertisers can expect.

“The combination of Xandr’s world-class advertising solutions augmented with Microsoft’s audience understanding and technology will enable greater opportunity to reach consumers on the open web with a full-funnel offering, including a leading video and connected TV (CTV) solution, in a compliant and safe manner,” he wrote. 

Advertising executives also shared opinions with Search & Performance Marketing Daily, speculating on the outcome of the deal.

When asked what types of brands will initially benefit from this acquisition, Matthew Papa, senior vice president of global partnerships at Captify, pointed to gaming brands and brands trying to reach the growing and emerging gamer audiences. “They will be able to tap into an extremely powerful esports/gaming dataset from Xbox that gets under the hood of understanding this group of consumers, which has proven to be difficult for advertisers,” he said.

Brands supporting businesses will benefit by having a unique ability to unify data from across Teams and LinkedIn, empowering them to understand the behaviors, needs and priorities of high-value decision-makers. 

“Xandr gives Microsoft an actionable avenue to supply-and-demand side data strategies,” Papa said.

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