{"id":335171,"date":"2025-12-08T17:13:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T17:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/advertising\/call-it-a-comeback-for-telco-ad-tech\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T17:13:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T17:13:04","slug":"call-it-a-comeback-for-telco-ad-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=335171","title":{"rendered":"Call It A Comeback For Telco Ad Tech?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Back around 2015 through early 2018, telcos were very excited about ad tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They spent billions of dollars betting that they could monetize their rich subscriber data and compete with the walled gardens by acquiring ad tech assets of their own.<\/p>\n

The deals just kept piling up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n \"\"\n <\/div>\n

It was a mini gold rush.<\/p>\n

Boom, bust, reboot<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the enthusiasm was short-lived. Most telcos \u2013\u00a0with the exception of T-Mobile \u2013 rapidly lost their appetite for ad tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hoped-for synergies never materialized, and the higher-ups at carriers wondered why they were exposing themselves to potential privacy issues when advertising was a rounding error compared to the hundreds of billions they make every year from their connectivity and subscription services.<\/p>\n

And so: Oath was rebranded and sold off in pieces. AT&T sold Xandr to Microsoft after integration failures, privacy issues and underperformance. Telenor sold Tapad to Experian<\/a> at a loss. Altice sold Teads to Outbrain. Singtel offloaded Amobee<\/a> and its patchwork of other ad tech assets to Tremor International for a fraction of the original deal price. Axonix never gained meaningful traction or scale, and Telef\u00f3nica sold its stake to Blackstone after years of losses.<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade later, however, the idea hasn\u2019t gone away. If anything, it\u2019s resurfaced, this time in new markets, under stricter privacy regimes and using a different playbook.<\/p>\n

One example of this new approach comes from Novatiq (formerly Smartpipe), a UK-based tech platform that helps telcos turn their subscriber data into privacy-safe digital IDs using consented signals from carriers to target ads without sending personal information outside of the network.<\/p>\n

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Most of Novatiq\u2019s clients are based in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe, where carriers tend to be more open to new approaches for data monetization than in the US market, where operators remain cautious.<\/p>\n

There are two main reasons for that skittishness, said Tanya Field, co-founder and chief product officer of Novatiq.<\/p>\n

One, US carriers are a \u201cbit jaded from their previous experiences,\u201d Field said. \u201cThey spent an awful lot of money and they didn\u2019t get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also afraid that asking people to share their data might turn them off or even drive them away. But that concern is mostly unfounded, Field said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t personally understand their reticence, because just look at all of the data being gathered by the OTT players, and telcos have a more trusted relationship with their subscribers because they can be trusted,\u201d Field said. \u201cI\u2019ve started to see evidence, though, that the mentality is shifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Telcos, take two<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several factors are prompting this change in attitude, including stricter privacy laws that clarify what\u2019s allowed and early successes in overseas markets showing it\u2019s possible to balance user trust with new revenue streams.<\/p>\n

Novatiq\u2019s technology is integrated directly with a carrier\u2019s own systems and operates entirely within its firewall. Each time a subscriber goes online, the platform generates a temporary, anonymous code inside that carrier\u2019s secure environment.<\/p>\n

But what does that look like in practice?<\/p>\n

Together with a telco in the Middle East, Novatiq ran a campaign for Amazon that customized ads based on a user\u2019s language and whether they had already downloaded the Amazon Prime Video app. That campaign performed 300% better than campaigns that didn\u2019t use this type of targeting.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another telecom operator in the region used Novatiq\u2019s technology to optimize its marketing and cut campaign costs by 68% while increasing customer engagement by 12%.<\/p>\n

These early results hint at what\u2019s possible when carriers rethink their place in the digital advertising ecosystem, Field said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelcos are becoming massively commoditized, much like utilities,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so they need to be more proactive and open to the opportunity here \u2013\u00a0rather than seeing it as a potential problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude4f Thanks for reading! Also, ring, ring, <\/em>it\u2019s for <\/em><\/a>mew<\/em><\/a>. As always, feel free to drop me a line at <\/em>allison@adexchanger.com<\/em><\/a> with any comments or feedback.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back around 2015 through early 2018, telcos were very excited about ad tech. They spent billions of dollars betting that they could monetize their rich subscriber data and compete with the walled gardens by acquiring ad tech assets of their own. The deals just kept piling up. It was a mini gold rush. Boom, bust, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":335172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12023],"tags":[160412,160413,1254,11641,160414,160415,160418,160416,28680,160417,160411,5107,22539,16582,14943],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-335171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","tag-ad-tech-acquisitions","tag-audience-monetization","tag-call","tag-comeback","tag-consumer-data","tag-data-privacy-practices","tag-data-privacy-roundup","tag-novatiq","tag-subscribers","tag-tanya-field","tag-tanya-field-novatiq-telcos","tag-tech","tag-telco","tag-telcos","tag-telecom"],"yoast_head":"\nCall It A Comeback For Telco Ad Tech? - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=335171\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Call It A Comeback For Telco Ad Tech? - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back around 2015 through early 2018, telcos were very excited about ad tech. 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