Shiny Ads

Founded in 2009 by Roy Pereira, Shiny Ads operated as a digital advertising technology company from its base in Toronto, Canada. The firm specialized in creating sell-side automation solutions to improve revenue and profits for digital publishers dealing with premium ad inventory. Shiny Ads provided an end-to-end programmatic direct advertising platform designed to eliminate inefficiencies for publishers in the process of selling and buying this premium inventory.

The company developed a suite of products aimed at automating the advertising sales process for different segments of the market. In 2012, it launched "Self-Serve for Professional Advertisers," a platform that provided an online interface for ad agencies and advertisers to manage their own ad buys directly, from insertion orders to creative uploads and payments. This allowed publishers' direct sales teams to concentrate on more complex, high-value transactions. The platform gave publishers control over pricing, campaign approvals, and user access. Shiny Ads also introduced a "Direct Programmatic Guaranteed" product, which enabled demand-side platforms (DSPs) and agency trading desks to programmatically purchase guaranteed premium inventory directly from a publisher's ad server. The system was designed to integrate with major ad servers like DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) and OpenX.

Throughout its operation, Shiny Ads secured $1.8 million in funding from investors, including a $500K seed round in March 2011 with participation from Maple Leaf Angels, Cowen Equity, and York Angel Investors. The company's trajectory culminated in its acquisition by Rubicon Project (now Magnite) in November 2014. Rubicon Project, an advertising automation firm, acquired Shiny Ads and iSocket for under $30 million, primarily in stock, to bolster its capabilities in automating guaranteed direct ad orders. The technology from Shiny Ads was subsequently integrated into Rubicon Project's offerings, forming the basis of its Seller Cloud Self-Serve platform, which empowered publishers to create and manage direct buying relationships. Keywords: Shiny Ads, Roy Pereira, ad tech, programmatic direct, sell-side platform, premium ad inventory, ad automation, self-serve advertising, guaranteed inventory, direct order automation, Rubicon Project acquisition, digital publishers, ad sales automation, demand-side platforms, advertising technology, ad server integration, programmatic guaranteed, publisher revenue, premium ad buys, Magnite