Group IMD & Honeycomb Rebrand as Peach

By STS News Desk On Mar 26, 2019

Group IMD & Honeycomb, global market leaders in the fast-moving advertising technology sector have rebranded as Peach.

Building upon two decades of expertise creating technology to optimise video advertising workflows, the rebrand marks the company’s increased focus on innovation for digital media, enabling video ad delivery to any screen, anywhere, anytime — and helping clients seize new opportunities across TV and digital advertising.

Peach automates processes so video advertising can be sourced, checked, reformatted and delivered for TV broadcasters, online publishers and social media platforms in seconds. From the same online platform, users can track which media owners and broadcasters their ads have been sent to.

Most viewers will have never heard of the company, or the processes it makes possible, but Peach handles the majority of the UK’s TV ads. Each TV and digital destination has strict specifications for accepting ads: Peach automatically quality checks and reformats files into over 1,000 different formats, radically reducing the time and effort agencies spend on getting ads to destinations on time and on spec.

Recently commissioned independent research identifies severe inefficiencies within the digital advertising supply chain. Four of the six major advertising holding groups (representing well over half of Europe’s digital media spend) and over 30 independent agencies were surveyed and interviewed¹. Worryingly for advertisers, this research shows:

Manually sourcing, quality checking and reformatting files has significant impact on agency workflows: 94% of those who submit high volumes of content say issues with files lead to campaign delays, and 78% of interviewees agree that it incurs a direct media or creative cost.
Despite digital media appearing to be automated from the consumers’ point of view, behind the scenes much of the workflow is laborious: 85% of all respondents are still manually checking assets, and two-thirds say resolving ad delivery problems is a manual process.

Peach’s platform addresses these issues. With technology designed to automate processes and ensure quality, Peach stands to revolutionise digital advertising workflows as it has done with TV over the last 20 years.

CEO Simon Cox, who has long been recognised for his ability to spot market opportunity and grow businesses across the media, technology and entertainment spaces said:

“We’ve built a global technology business making TV video advertising workflows simple, quick and effective while never compromising on quality. With experts around the world and an in-depth understanding of industry challenges, we’re now building cutting-edge technology to simplify complex workflows behind digital video advertising. We’re taking the frustration out of delivering campaigns and helping clients seize the potential of the new digital media landscape. Our new identity reflects our focus on innovation in this space. It’s the logical next step in our own story of evolution and growth.”

Operating in more than 100 countries, with 35 offices worldwide and over 2,700 clients including Unilever, L’Oreal and Universal Pictures, the company is featured in the 2019 Parliamentary Review as a case study of a UK-based global technology business.

Over the last decade, Peach has expanded internationally both through organic growth and a series of notable mergers and acquisitions in Europe, China, India, Singapore and Latin America, including eBus and Honeycomb and in that time, its turnover has grown by more than 300% to £30M.

SOURCE Peach