So before we get into the class, let's actually talk about programmatic. What the heck is programmatic? And how is it different from what has been done before? Well, at a high level programmatic can be described as an automated process of buying and selling media. So what makes it automated Well, before programmatic and what still happens right now, is what's called the i o process. And that would be if I've created a website or an app, I'm a publisher and I want to monetize my inventory.

I would go directly to an advertiser, I go to someone like Coca Cola, Nike, McDonald's, I'd go to the agency, and I would say, I have the supply. I would like to sell it to you for a fixed rate, the advertiser would agree, we would sign an IO or an insertion order, and agree that I will sell you a set amount of impressions for a flat rate. You will buy them for me from an additional step here. at a time, and that'll be that. Now, that's so happens a lot. And a ton of spend is still spent that way.

However, there are issues with it. The first issue is flexibility. If you are an advertiser and you agree to buy a certain amount of impressions from publisher upfront, if a few months into the contract, you decide that actually, you don't want to buy as much from them, you'd like to shift your budget, some manual process to make that change. And sometimes you can't change it based on your IO terms or your contract terms. The second thing is that for a small publisher, small apps, it's hard to get to that IO. If I create my own app, and I have, you know, a few hundred users, it's unlikely that Nike or Coca Cola or McDonald's are going to take the time to meet with me, let alone actually play some pie with me because I just don't have the scale that a client like that really needs but Doesn't mean that my content isn't good doesn't mean that Nike is opposed to running on my content, it's just not efficient for them to do that through an IO.

The programmatic process allows it to be automated. I, as a publisher can work with a programmatic partner, who will then say, I'm going to take your inventory, as well as that as hundreds of others. And I'm going to bundle it up and give it to an advertiser. And now a bundle of those hundreds or thousands of smaller publishers now becomes an attractive offer for a major advertiser. They can now say, yes, you have the scale that we need, you have the reach that you need the content and the quality is good, the price is good. We'll buy from you.

And we're not going to dictate how many impressions actually go on each one of these apps and properties, maybe only get a few hundred impressions, maybe I'll get a lot more. But the programmatic process allows that transaction to take place and not as a publisher go Have to SAP a sales team, I don't have to worry about trying to get a meeting with a major publisher, I can do an integration up front and let it run. Also, even these major publishers like ESPN Wall Street Journal, New York Times, they're selling millions of dollars a year through this IO process, but they're not selling out or they're usually not selling out. Even if a major publisher has sold 90% of their inventory, they'd still like to get something for that leftover 10% programmatic can allow them to do that. That leftover 10% is what's referred to as remnant inventory or your leftover your unsold through a direct IO process.

What those major publishers can do is work with a programmatic company and say, anything that isn't sold directly to our team you can have access to and if you can find an advertiser through a programmatic channel who is willing to buy that inventory, then we'll sell it to them. Now, they're probably not going to get as much They will from a direct buy, but they'd rather get something rather than nothing. So they allow a programmatic party to come in and get access to their inventory. Now, high level that sounds great win win for everybody. But obviously it's a lot more complicated than that. So I'm going to start to break down all the different moving pieces and what I actually mean by this programmatic process.