PLAYGROUND XYZ, the creative Ad Tech company who use its proprietary platform to author innovative new types of mobile ad formats, has announced Fairfax Media to its growing client list.

Since launching in November 2015, the company has seen rapid growth fuelled by demand for the product suite.

Rob Hall (above), CEO of PLAYGROUND XYZ said: “We set out to fill a gap in the market which was creating a new suite of new, hardworking mobile ad formats and to let brands use them at scale. That means signing up and certifying publishers that they can buy off directly. Having arguably Australia’s biggest publisher sign on is a great result and we’re ecstatic to be partnering.”

Fairfax join a growing list of premium publishing partners such as Multi Channel Network (MCN), Nine Entertainment Co, SBS, Ticketek, Conversant Media, Gumtree, Daily Mail, Mamamia and Bauer Media.

Skye Herbert, network real estate director from Fairfax said: “This partnership with Playground XYZ reinforces our commitment to providing advertisers with market-leading mobile ad products that engage with Fairfax Media’s smartphone audience of more than six million Australians.”

Adds Hall: ‘Until now, mobile has had a fairly two tiered system of types of ads you can run: At one end, the IAB formats give brands the peace of mind to run say, the same one MREC creative across your media buy. But these formats are failing to deliver key metrics for brands. At the other end of the spectrum, Publishers have their own proprietary formats which are excellent but they’re locked to that particular site.

“Now, there’s a third tier; PLAYGROUND formats. We’ve carved out a position in between the IAB and a publisher’s own formats, producing never done before ad products and letting one build scale across this incredible list of certified partners. In that sense we’ve created a new marketplace for custom advertising”.