The Rubicon Project Says Ad Server Is Dead, Details Future Plans

Digital advertising infrastructure company the Rubicon Project today at the PaidContent 2010 conference has outlined its corporate strategy going forward. Essentially, the company is declaring that you’ll soon be able to stick a fork in the ad server, and to underline its vision it has published a fairly interesting manifesto on its website that’s well worth a read if you have a vested interest in the Internet advertising marketplace.

The company also announced that it has tapped Allen & Company as its financial advisor to support the company’s goals, which it says will include strategic acquisitions, platform expansion and other paths to accelerated international growth.

The Rubicon Project, which launched in 2007, in its manifesto takes aim at players in the ad server technology market, saying that it is currently in a ‘dangerous’ state of status quo. The company says it will fight to overcome the increasing price erosion that publishers have witnessed over the past few years because the balance in the marketplace has so far favored the demand-side of the equation.

Frank Addante, CEO and Founder of the Rubicon Project, in a statement said:

“Ad serving technologies currently available to publishers of high-quality digital content are outdated, making it extremely difficult to effectively manage today’s sales organizations.

Working with companies whose real goal is to access more inventory on behalf of their own advertisers isn’t in the best interest of, and may even be dangerous for, publishers. Revising that legacy technology, upgrading it, and tacking on bells and whistles isn’t enough; publishers need technology designed specifically to meet their needs.”

At the PaidContent conference in New York, the company has revealed plans to expand its platform in 2010 to offer additional ad serving, forecasting, and campaign management functionality across both premium guaranteed and non-guaranteed media sales, but also technology for automated demand access, self-service advertising sales, a centralized publisher data platform and self-service advertising sales, among other plans.

The event is being streamed live as we speak.

The Rubicon Project to date raised about $42 million in venture capital over numerous rounds from investors like Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, IDG Ventures and GE/NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Fund.