Supply-side platform TripleLift today announced it has hired Dave Helmreich, previously chief commercial officer at TV ad tech business Innovid, as its new CEO. TripleLift’s previous full-time CEO Dave Clark departed the company last summer, and an interim ‘Office of the CEO’, chaired by former Datalogix CEO Eric Roza, has led the company in the meantime.
Helmreich is tasked with accelerating TripleLift’s strategic initiatives and growth plans, building on its positioning as ‘the creative SSP’. The company for a long time was most closely associated with native ad formats, and as it has expanded into a wider variety of ad types, it’s continued to emphasise the role SSPs can play in enhancing the creative side of advertising.
“For too long, technology has been used solely to optimise processes and squeeze margins, while the role of creative has been largely overlooked,” Helmreich said in a statement. “With its strong foundation in native and cutting-edge creative technology, TripleLift is redefining the advertising landscape. I look forward to leading the company as we continue to deliver exceptional value to consumers, publishers, and advertisers, and drive innovation in the industry.”
Helmreich’s experience in the CTV world through his time at Innovid will likely be valuable to TripleLift too, given how CTV, as is the case for most SSPs, is a major area of growth.
“Dave is a consummate leader, entrepreneur, and operator with over two decades of ad tech and martech experience,” said Roza, who is also operating managing director at Vista Equity Partners, which owns a majority stake in TripleLift. “Combining technical depth and commercial acumen, Dave is a people-centred leader with a deeply analytical mind. I am confident that Dave will be a huge asset driving TripleLift into the future.”
Creative evolution
Despite the challenges facing the SSP sector in recent years, as buy-side players have forged direct links with sellers, we’ve seen a number of major players finding interesting ways to differentiate from competitors and demonstrate their value. TripleLift’s positioning around creative is a good example of this, and the company says Helmreich’s appointment comes off the back of a year of rapid growth.
Alongside (and linked to) this creative focus, TripleLift has also found success in the retail and commerce media space. Last year the company signed a significant partnership with Amazon, claiming to be the first SSP to support the Amazon Ads Native Response ecommerce format on third-party supply, while just last week it was announced as a beta participant for Amazon Ads’ new traffic sharing and shaping tool, Dynamic Traffic Engine.
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