‘We’re successful because we have the best-in-class verification product’: Jason Cooper (of thorndyke) said while speaking with The Silicon Review

“For advertisers, our data and insights are considered the ground truth in DOOH campaign performance.”

thorndyke provides marketers and media owners with third-party measurement services such as DOOH verification, ad delivery, and analytics. It serves clients in Australia and beyond.

Jason Cooper co-founded thorndyke and currently serves as its CEO.

The Silicon Review reached out to Mr. Cooper, and here’s what he had to say.

Interview Highlights

Q. Why was thorndyke born? What pain points did you set out to solve?

The team behind thorndyke comes from a long history of building measurement products for digital advertising: ad servers, verification platforms, and rich media. All products are founded on measuring outcomes and ROI for the advertiser. Common questions would be, is my ad running in the right location or site, on the right day and time of day, and am I getting what I paid for? Over the years, we saw verification become table stakes for all digital advertising campaigns across desktop, mobile, video, CTV, and now social. However, we noticed that DOOH (Digital Out of Home - the big screens displayed in prominent positions outdoors) still lacked independent verification to determine whether the advertiser was getting what they paid for. thorndyke starts by addressing a very simple question – did my ad play?

Q. How does thorndyke deliver better campaign measurement and centralized campaign reporting for marketers?

Before thorndyke, there was no independent measurement for DOOH. All proof of play (POP) reports were provided by the media owner themselves and there was no third party to verify the accuracy and validity of those reports. Further, those reports would have to be aggregated into a central report for the advertiser which took time. thorndyke works by providing a centralized view of all media owner performance in near real-time and enables the advertiser to make decisions to improve campaign outcomes. Verification is stronger when it’s a third party making that determination, outside of the media owner and the agency.

Q. Can you introduce us to DOOH? What are its key features?

DOOH is the digitization of screens that display advertising creatives and messages – think Times Square or Piccadilly Circus for some of the more iconic examples. Unlike desktop advertising, it is a one-to-many environment with a huge creative canvas upon which messaging can be crafted. It’s also a digital medium that isn’t plagued by some of the other issues we see in digital advertising such as viewability and brand safety. So the opportunity for DOOH to be included as part of the campaign mix for advertisers is huge; and thorndyke’s about ensuring the advertisers get what they’re paying for.

Q. How does thorndyke create and sustain a culture of innovation?

As a team, we have been part of several acquisitions and have always worked on ‘the next big thing’ which is both exciting but also risky as sentiment can change and the market can move. We operate in a very open and transparent environment so everyone can contribute their ideas and take things in a particular direction. Also, when you’re solving hard problems you’re automatically required to think innovatively to achieve things that haven’t been done before. To a degree verification in DOOH is greenfield which has allowed us to focus on building great software that solves very real and pressing issues for the brand that is advertising in this space. And many of the clients can see new and ‘never seen before’ actionable insights that can improve the outcome of their campaigns.

Q. Tell us about the thorndyke team. What value do they bring to the company?

We are successful because we have the best-in-class verification product, and that has come about because we are a brilliant team. Most of us have already worked together in previous companies so we understand how each of us works and our skillsets complement each other. Importantly, we all come from a background in digital measurement – we have built for publishers, advertisers, and agencies but the foundation has always been rooted in trusted, transparent and robust data upon which campaign critical decisions can be made. Everyone is cross-functional and is just as comfortable talking directly to customers whether that’s one of our developers or the customer service team.

Q. What's the one thing you want thorndyke to be known for?

A trusted partner for both advertisers and media owners. An organization that has provided transparency for all parties across performance and outcomes. For media owners, it’s about becoming more accountable to campaign delivery, and for advertisers, how they can optimize towards near real-time data. And for advertisers, our data and insights are considered the ground truth in DOOH campaign performance.

Tell us, what’s next for thorndyke.

2023 is all about launching in North America. Close to 9 billion dollars is spent each year in the US in out of home and almost all of that spending has little to no third-party verification for the advertiser. We are excited about the opportunity of increasing awareness and the importance of verification in DOOH across the major agency groups. Programmatic is the other major focus for us – programmatic is the term for the automated trading of digital media via a centralized marketplace. It means the digital trading arm of each of the media agency groups can buy DOOH through a dashboard in much the same way digital media has been traded for years. However, the programmatic ‘pipes’ are lacking any meaningful third-party verification so there’s still work to do in building out support for this and driving awareness on the buy side.

Jason Cooper | Co-Founder & CEO

Jason Cooper has been building verification and AdTech products for the past 14 years. Previously Head of Product & Technology at 4th Screen Advertising which was later acquired by Opera Mediaworks, Jason went on to found Simplytics, an agency-side ad server for mobile. Simplytics was acquired by IAS in early 2014 where Jason then served as General Manager of Mobile. During this time, Jason was responsible for building out the viewability, brand safety, and fraud products for IAS. Jason’s team conceived and launched the Open Measurement SDK for in-app measurement which was then acquired by the IAB Tech Lab and is now deployed in major mobile monetization SDKs and apps including Google, Hulu & Disney. Jason holds a BBus from the Auckland University of Technology.

“We are excited about the opportunity of increasing awareness and the importance of verification in DOOH across the major agency groups.”