• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 30, 2014

Havas, a programmatic pioneer among agency holding companies that created both the first agency trading desk and DMP (data management platform), is claiming another first this morning -- launching what it calls a “meta DSP.’ A DSP, or demand-side platform, is ad tech speak for technology that enables the demand-side (advertisers, agencies or their trading desks) to bid for audience impressions on auction-based exchanges. Havas claims its new version, dubbed Affiperf, is the first to offer brands the ability to do that “seamlessly across multiple demand side platforms.”

“This represents a significant leap forward in what is now called ‘the age of programmatic,’” Havas boasts in this morning’s announcement -- adding a lot of rhetoric, but not many specific details about how it does what it claims, or exactly what the benefit is other than to centralize the process “with one single point of contact.”

Havas bought what likely was the first true DMP when it acquired Artemis as part of its acquisition of Hook Media in 2001. That eventually became the basis for launching Adnetik in 2009, which it 

claimed was the first agency trading desk. Adnetik was eventually spun off into an independent “marketing technology company” and re-branded Digilant.