Human Demand

Founded in February 2012 by Howie Schwartz, Human Demand established itself as a mobile-first advertising technology firm, operating as both a Demand-Side Platform (DSP) and a Data Management Platform (DMP). The company focused on providing mobile audience solutions to brands and advertising agencies through programmatic buying. Its business model centered on leveraging real-time bidding (RTB) to purchase ad inventory, enhanced with proprietary data for precise audience targeting. Human Demand offered a self-serve platform that gave advertisers transparent tools to manage and optimize their mobile user acquisition campaigns for both iOS and Android.

The company's core services included executing mobile ad campaigns across standard display banners, rich media, and video formats. A key differentiator was its data-centric approach, utilizing hyper-local geo-targeting and its proprietary "AppAudience" data to enrich mobile ad inventory. This allowed clients to target mobile audiences with greater precision. In May 2014, Human Demand acquired the mobile targeting dataset of eDealya, an Israeli DMP, to incorporate social media-derived audience segments into its platform, further enhancing its targeting capabilities.

After securing $900K in a Series A funding round in March 2013 from investors including Empire Angels and ARC Angel Fund NYC, the company continued its growth trajectory. By August 2014, Human Demand was handling 65 billion mobile real-time bidding requests per month and had partnerships with all major mobile ad exchanges. This rapid growth and technological capability led to its acquisition by IgnitionOne in August 2014. The acquisition was a strategic move for IgnitionOne to integrate Human Demand's mobile advertising, cross-device tracking, and audience targeting technologies into its broader Digital Marketing Suite (DMS). The integration aimed to provide a more comprehensive, centralized marketing solution for clients.

Keywords: Human Demand, mobile advertising, Demand-Side Platform, DSP, Data Management Platform, DMP, real-time bidding, RTB, programmatic advertising, ad tech, Howie Schwartz, IgnitionOne, mobile media buying, audience solutions, hyper-local targeting, AppAudience, eDealya acquisition, mobile user acquisition, cross-device tracking, rich media ads, video mobile ads, ad exchanges, campaign optimization, visual analytics