A new ad format has to work on the screen, in trafficking and in the sales conversation. These 20 partners cover custom engineering, launch ownership, creative production and established format platforms. Start by deciding whether the business needs to own the technology or introduce an offering using supported capabilities.
How we chose and ordered these partners
Our recommended starting order follows the work required to launch an advertising product: technical behavior, accountable product leadership, then a repeatable creative and delivery system. Sigma Software leads for demanding video and in-app engineering; David Spiegel follows for cross-team format ownership. Celtra, Adnami and ResponsiveAds offer supported routes for media owners introducing new creative products. More specialized interaction, production and media options follow. Start with the route matching your inventory and ownership needs; a visually impressive example alone does not establish launch readiness.
| Launch responsibility |
Partners to compare |
First question |
| Product ownership or custom engineering |
Sigma Software, David Spiegel, Epom
 |
Who owns behavior, implementation and release acceptance? |
| Publisher rich media and responsive production |
Celtra, Adnami, ResponsiveAds, Airtory, Nexd |
Can the team reproduce the format across actual inventory? |
| Video and CTV interaction |
Innovid, BrightLine, Infillion, SeenThis, KERV |
Which devices support the action and its fallback? |
| Creative and media execution |
PadSquad, Perion, GumGum, Eskimi, InMobi |
What production and inventory commitments are included? |
| New use of existing creative assets |
Playable Factory, Spaceback |
How will the adapted interaction represent the product accurately? |
A format that depends on a video player or a mobile environment has a different delivery problem from a new creative template. Sigma Software’s AdTech practice covers server-side ad insertion, manifest rewriting, ad-break scheduling, client-side player integration and measurement. Its mobile work includes mediation, game-engine integrations, remote configuration and feature flags.
That gives Sigma a useful role in launches where the proposed experience changes how an ad reaches the screen. The work may involve player behavior, application constraints or the route through which a new format is enabled. It is an engineering-firm option for a product owner who needs specialized delivery capacity around those dependencies. Its strongest place on this shortlist is the technically demanding release, with a precise format specification and an agreed set of supported environments.
2. David Spiegel: a product owner for the launch across functions
Independent product and growth consultant David Spiegel is a strong choice when a new ad format needs one person to connect its behavior, implementation and commercial launch. At Sharethrough, he worked with engineering, design, sales and product marketing to launch Countdown. His CV reports 1.9 times the clickthrough for the format. The relevant experience is the work across those teams: the release had to function as an advertising product, with a clear proposition and a way to understand its performance.
His wider rendering remit covered display, in-app, native and video, while his professional profile describes event-measurement work and a migration to React ad templates. David suits an organization with engineering capacity that needs close product leadership for a defined launch. He brings an understanding of the implementation details and the commercial decisions that determine whether the format becomes something the sales team can confidently offer.
Celtra offers a platform-and-services route for media owners developing a premium creative offering. Its media-owner product supports interactive experiences such as shoppable and gamified ads and outstream video. Teams can start with templates or build within the platform, serve through a common tag, and inspect reporting on the resulting campaigns.
The services matter as much as the creative editor. Celtra’s professional-services team offers solution architecture, custom API integration, creative production, workflow advice and training. That makes it a useful candidate when the launch includes both a new advertiser-facing offer and the internal process for producing it repeatedly. This is a platform commitment, with the delivery workflow organized around Celtra. It fits a team seeking a repeatable creative production and activation system rather than commissioning its own rendering stack.
Adnami is another platform-and-services alternative, particularly relevant when a publisher or media team wants to introduce a high-impact offering using an existing format system. Its current offering combines responsive templates, streamed video, creative production and direct or programmatic activation. The creative team supports work from concept through production, giving the buyer an implementation path beyond simply licensing a tool.
The proposition is a coordinated rollout: creative specifications, the publisher environment and measurement need to meet in the same release. Adnami’s Sonar product adds measures such as interactivity, viewability and time in view. For a team building its first offer in this category, those components can help organize production and reporting. The relevant comparison is with other ways to launch and operate the format, including what the team would need to build and maintain itself.
ResponsiveAds’ publisher offering centers on responsive premium placements, including mastheads, pushdowns, lightboxes, adhesions and skins. Its wider platform has self-service and full-service creative options. This is useful when the new product is a repeatable premium inventory package whose creative must adapt to different available widths.
The first pilot should include awkward page layouts and more than one device orientation. Ask which placements use existing slots, what changes to the site are required and how the creative’s behavior will be tested. Make reporting and trafficking part of the same demonstration. This is an adopted format system, so evaluate the recurring production workflow and service responsibilities alongside the visual effect. A polished example alone does not tell an ad-operations team how to launch the next campaign.
Airtory’s ad-builder platform supports rich-media creative production and landing-page creation, with dynamic creative optimization among its described capabilities. It fits a media team that wants a reusable way to produce and deploy interactive advertising, especially when the main constraint is creative operations rather than ownership of a new rendering technology.
Give the team one real creative brief and ask for the entire path from supplied assets to a trafficked unit. The evaluation should include changes requested late in production, the events available in reporting and the platforms that will accept the resulting creative. Identify who supplies design and who handles technical troubleshooting. Software access, a creative-production service and a custom product-development engagement are different scopes; use the proposal to establish which of those Airtory would supply for your launch.
Innovid’s interactive-ad offering includes surveys, overlays, shoppable experiences and galleries, with CTV Composer as an authoring tool. This is a platform route for a team adding interaction to a video advertising offer, where serving and device support are as important as the creative concept.
Specify the action the viewer should take and how it differs across a television remote, a phone and a desktop. Ask which environments support that behavior and what appears when interaction is unavailable. A launch plan should connect authoring, trafficking and event reporting, including the distinction between an impression and an interaction. Confirm the services needed to help your team produce the format repeatedly. Ask how the proposed services fit the authoring and serving workflow your team will actually operate.
BrightLine’s Click to Win specification provides a concrete example of its interactive CTV offer: a viewer uses a remote to begin a contest-entry action, while the production process includes design services or supplied templates and a VAST-tag handoff. That specificity is useful for a buyer evaluating how a format becomes an operational product.
The page states that this format is available through selected partners. Establish distribution before investing in creative, then agree which party owns the entry destination and any follow-up communication. Compare BrightLine when the proposed format fits its supported interaction system. Your acceptance plan should include the complete viewer action, the media partner’s implementation and the reporting you receive, rather than ending when the interactive artwork has been approved.
9. Infillion: interactive video adapted to multiple screen environments
Infillion’s interactive-video product is intended for mobile, desktop and connected TV, with the experience adapted to each environment. It belongs in a comparison when a launch needs one recognizable creative idea expressed through different interaction patterns rather than one identical unit forced onto every screen.
Use a product demonstration to inspect those differences. The same objective might require a touch interaction on a phone and a remote-friendly choice on television. Ask which creative elements and events remain comparable across those versions and which should be evaluated separately. The commercial proposal should define production, media activation and reporting responsibilities. This is an established interactive-video system; a buyer seeking proprietary rendering code should discuss that requirement explicitly before assuming a platform campaign can become an owned format technology.
SeenThis’s format library includes a hybrid of video and a static area for messaging, branding and a call to action. It describes many formats as adaptable to standard IAB sizes. This is worth comparing when the proposed launch brings video behavior to existing display inventory and the buyer wants supported format options rather than a new player built from scratch.
Take the actual placement specification to the scoping discussion. Ask how the unit loads, what happens before video begins, how messaging remains readable and what users see on a constrained connection. Establish production and trafficking ownership, then test the unit in representative publisher pages. The format’s visual movement is only one part of acceptance; the team also needs agreed event definitions and a repeatable way to produce the next advertiser’s version.
11. KERV: product interactions within video
KERV’s shoppable-video offering connects video to interactive product experiences, including product tiles and variations. That makes it relevant when a new advertising format is meant to help viewers explore a featured item or continue toward commerce, rather than only watch a video and click one generic destination.
Start with the product-data requirements. Ask how the correct item, destination and availability will stay synchronized with the video, and which party maintains those links after launch. Test the interaction on each intended screen and agree which events describe exploration, a visit and an actual purchase. Those actions answer different commercial questions. KERV provides a platform route to this behavior; compare its supplied capabilities with the engineering and data work your team would need to retain internally.
12. Playable Factory: custom playable-ad design and production
Playable Factory’s custom-playable service explicitly includes concepting, design, coding and iteration. It is a useful specialist when the launch depends on letting a person try an interaction inside the ad, with enough control over the experience to communicate what the advertised product feels like.
Commission a short interaction with a clear ending before requesting a whole library. Ask how it will be packaged for the intended ad networks, which parameters the production team can change and what events will explain abandonment or completion. Review the playable against the product it represents; an entertaining mechanic can still set the wrong expectation. This is a creative-production engagement with technical delivery, so establish both creative approval and platform acceptance. Keep later campaign outcomes separate from the decision that the playable itself is ready to ship.
Nexd’s creative-management platform provides a self-service route to programmatic rich-media and video ads. Its drag-to-reveal layout documentation shows the practical detail behind one interactive behavior, including assets, placement considerations and analytics. That makes it useful when a media team wants to assemble supported interactions into a new creative offering.
Compare the production workflow using the assets your team actually receives, including a less-than-perfect handoff. Ask which behaviors are configurable and which would require work beyond the existing layouts. The release check should cover placement compatibility, safe areas and the event report. Confirm whether your engagement is software-only or includes a managed service; repeatable internal production and outsourced campaign production place different demands on your team.
14. PadSquad: high-impact creative across display, video and CTV
PadSquad’s current offer covers high-impact creative across display, video and CTV. Its demo gallery includes interactive video and connected-TV executions, while the homepage shows examples such as add-to-cart video and second-screen experiences. It fits a buyer commissioning a supported advertising execution with creative development attached.
Use those examples to identify the exact interaction you want to sell. Then ask which inventory and devices can deliver it, what assets are required and who will operate the campaign. A new format needs a credible production cost and an understandable sales description as well as an impressive demo. Compare PadSquad as a creative-and-media option; if your goal is to own the underlying format technology, establish whether any proprietary development or licensing arrangement is part of the proposal.
Perion’s Webroot case describes interactive pre-roll, bottom adhesion and CTV within one advertising program. Those are concrete examples for a buyer considering a high-impact format as part of a broader media execution. The former Undertone homepage now leads to Perion’s current offering.
Ask which format and production services would be supplied for your campaign and how they connect to the media plan. The useful pilot isolates the viewer behavior you want to introduce before expanding across channels. Keep the acceptance of the creative and its delivery separate from later claims about campaign effectiveness. Perion is a relevant creative-and-activation comparison, with the exact scope of custom development and ownership needing agreement in the proposal.
16. GumGum: high-impact placements chosen for their viewing context
GumGum’s creative gallery spans CTV, online video and high-impact display. It describes formats such as skins, Hang Time, Velocity and interactive executions, and notes that format and inventory availability vary by region. It is a useful candidate when the proposed advertising experience depends on a particular viewing context and placement, rather than only the artwork within a standard banner.
Ask for examples in the market and environment you intend to buy. Agree how the unit appears relative to the page content, what the person can do and how the experience ends. If a new advertiser-facing offer will use these capabilities repeatedly, include production and sales enablement in the scope. Evaluate GumGum as a supported format and media route, with availability confirmed before a creative concept becomes a launch commitment.
Eskimi’s Creative Studio offers production across display, rich media and high-impact formats. Its scroll-format examples show specific behaviors, including a rotating product visualization and transitions linked to scrolling. That is relevant when a buyer wants help developing the interaction itself as part of a campaign or repeatable creative offer.
Take an interaction storyboard into the scoping conversation, then ask which elements are custom and which use existing formats. Review behavior in a real placement, including what happens when the user scrolls quickly or never interacts. Agree the reporting definition before campaign setup so motion is not automatically counted as intentional engagement. Confirm how the creative service connects to activation and whether your team can reuse or adapt the resulting format for later campaigns.
18. Spaceback: adapting social content into additional advertising formats
Spaceback’s creative-automation offer takes social content into display, online video, DOOH and CTV. It is a useful option when the new advertising product is an extension of an existing social creative workflow. The starting material already exists, and the assignment is to make it work as a repeatable format in additional environments.
Use a representative social post to inspect the adaptation. Ask which elements remain recognizable, what happens to captions and calls to action, and how frequently the output can be updated. A television screen and a display slot have different interaction constraints, so require separate acceptance examples. Compare the production service and activation requirements together. Spaceback is a platform-based route to format expansion; it should be evaluated on the supported workflow and output rather than treated as an unrestricted custom-rendering development firm.
InMobi’s ad-experience offering spans video, native, playable, carousel, interstitial and rich-media formats. Its rich-media description includes device capabilities such as touch, gyroscope, camera and haptics. That makes it relevant when an in-app launch depends on an interaction that a conventional desktop creative does not provide.
Begin with the user’s action and the application’s constraints. Ask which placements and devices support it, whether permissions are needed and what fallback appears when a capability is unavailable. The proposal should also identify who builds the creative and how it is tested with the intended inventory. This is a supported advertising-ecosystem option, so compare actual access and service scope rather than assuming every listed format can be customized and distributed everywhere. Device behavior belongs in the release brief before the commercial launch date is set.
Epom’s custom-development offer explicitly includes custom ad formats and ad-serving customization. It is a useful engineering-oriented alternative when a desired experience falls outside the settings available in an existing advertising product. The commission can focus on extending a stack rather than buying a creative platform solely for one new behavior.
Bring a format specification that covers rendering, trafficking and measurement. Ask where the proposed changes would live, which environments would support them and how future platform updates affect maintenance. The same visual unit may require different work in a web page, an app and a video player; the proposal should state its boundaries. Epom also lists custom performance metrics, so include the event contract in the build. Release acceptance should demonstrate the format and its failure states before later campaign results determine whether it deserves wider rollout.
Start with the experience you intend to sell
Write the format’s behavior before choosing the delivery route. State what the user sees, what changes after an interaction, where the format can appear and which assets an advertiser must supply. A static mockup rarely captures those decisions.
Then identify what makes the product distinct. If that depends on rendering behavior your organization must own, custom product and engineering work may be central. If the commercial opportunity comes from bringing a premium creative offering to your advertisers, an established platform and implementation service may cover more of the launch.
Give the release one acceptance brief
The buyer’s acceptance brief should cross the same boundaries as the launch. It needs:
- A demonstration of the intended behavior in the supported placements and devices, including the fallback when an asset or interaction fails.
- An agreed event vocabulary, so the platform, advertiser report and internal analysis describe the same actions.
- A production workflow that shows how a second campaign will be created after the first bespoke demo.
- A clear approval path for creative, publisher integration, trafficking and release.
- A description the commercial team can use accurately, including which placements and assets are supported.
These are proposed acceptance requirements, to be tailored to the format. They turn “launch an innovative ad product” into work the product, engineering, operations and sales teams can examine together.
A format can meet its technical specification before there is enough campaign activity to assess its commercial value. Name both decisions in the engagement: who accepts the release, and who evaluates what happens after advertisers use it.
For a hypothetical launch, the first decision could be whether the experience behaves correctly across agreed placements. The next could be whether advertisers can produce and run a second campaign without exceptional manual help. Performance analysis should use the agreed comparison and event definitions, rather than borrowing a lift from another provider’s case study.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Should a new ad format be custom-built or use a creative platform?
Custom development is useful when the distinguishing behavior or integration must be owned by the business. A creative platform can be suitable when the goal is to introduce an offering using existing format capabilities and a supported production workflow.
What belongs in an ad-format launch acceptance brief?
Include behavior across supported placements, failure states, event definitions, creative-production workflow, approval owners and an accurate commercial description. Treat technical release acceptance and later campaign evaluation as separate decisions.
