Samhub

About Us

Hi, we're Samhub

(previously known as Brain Nordic)

We exist to make marketing easier and more secure for all Internet users. We do it by providing trusted data, automation and smartness to all our customers.

The Future

"Safe first party data, AI and automation are the keys to the marketing future"

Martin Bergqvist, CEO Samhub

Samhub exists because there is a need for simplicity in marketing. And there is a need for more trustworthy and safer data. We exist to let advertisers & marketers meet publishers & media from a common and transparent understanding of the market and the customers in it.

We make marketing information available to anyone that want it and need it, open and available instead of locked walled gardens guarded by giants. With the right information it is easier to act correctly, drive results and be relevant to your most important asset: the Customers.

Our focus lies in ensuring accessibility, transparency and integrity. We deal in information, we deal in marketing and we deal in automation. This means what we do and how we do it needs to be clear and easy to understand so that we can build trust with our customers and in the end all users of the Internet.

The Past

"We saw a future where both technology & legislation shifted towards first party data, and acted on what we saw"

Martin Bergqvist, CEO Samhub

Digital marketing is an industry that for the past two decades has operated on intrusive tracking, with data out of control, and no privacy. With global giants monitoring our every action online. Now things are getting under control, but with this control comes new challenges.

As marketers we don’t have the same information as we did before. Now the problem is taking the right actions, which channels to focus on, how to grow with less information available in this new future.

We saw this future coming a long time ago, so now we are ready to help you face it. By adding more information in a safe and secure way we are able to help you continue to succeed in your marketing and in your customer relations.

Our focus has always been on integrity, accessibility and business use. Data and information is not the end game, it is all about what you do with it that will ultimately accelerate your business.

We are here to assist you.

The Samhub Team

A message from the CEO

We are on what I believe is a fantastic journey, we are growing and creating traction on the market. And I think that now is the time to put in place the structures, culture and sustainable mindset that we can grow with. We are relevant enough already to impact the eco system we operate in, and we know we have the responsibility to do so in a mindful way. We touch people around us every day, through the services we provide and the relationships we create. And in those touch points we need to operate in a responsible way.

I want to run a business that is ethical, transparent and mindful of the people that live their life in the space where we operate – The Internet. We do this by being genuine, true to ourselves and by treating others the way we want to be treated ourselves.

Respect for the interest of others is something that we bear with us, as we establish our services in an ever-changing world. In such a world it is more important than ever to resist the urge for quick returns and instead think in a longer perspective, be mindful and protect the integrity of the individual.

We aim not only to abide by the rule of law, we aim to be even more mindful. We create services that take the legislation into account, but also take the changes in attitude amongst the everyday Internet user in mind when it comes to these matters. We not only try to take the letter of the law seriously, but be even more serious about the heart of the matter and have the larger perspective and bigger picture in mind. Integrity is precious and part of the freedom any democratic country say they protect.

The ball stops with me. I am the one responsible for how me and my colleagues handle data, protect the individual and care about the freedoms we all want to enjoy. So it is my responsibility to implement these concepts and attitudes into our daily business.

I will do my very best to ensure these things.

Martin Bergqvist
Founder & CEO

The History of Samhub

The history of Samhub is one of change and innovation

Programmatic Advertising

2007 – First Programmatic Ad buys in the world.

2011 – 8% of ad purchases are programmatic in the USA.

2014 – 3% of ad purchases are programmatic in Sweden, ca 330 million SEK.

2015 – the increase of programmatic in Sweden is 137% YoY.

2017 – 30% of the Nordic media spend is programmatic.

2017 – Global programmatic ad spend is 188 billion dollars.

2018 – 80% of all media purchases are programmatic in the USA and UK.

2018 – every purchase is powered by 3rd party cookies for data transfers and ad targeting.

2020 – Apple starts blocking 3rd party cookies.

2021 – Google says they will discontinue 3rd party cookies.

2022 – Google moves the deadline for 3rd party cookies to 2024.

2022 – Global programmatic ad spend is 493 billion dollars.

2023 – Google says they will block 1% of 3rd party cookies in early 2024.

2026 – Global programmatic ad spend is projected to be 725 billion dollars.

Programmatic is Our History

2009 – We launched the first programmatic ad network in Sweden.

2012 – We created and implemented programmatic buying of Google Ads, Facebook Ads and Display ads in our agency platform 360.

2014 – We started the Brain project, a project to leverage over 150 websites into a unified programmatic data offer.

2015 – We implemented standardized programmatic audiences for our programmatic ad network.

2016 – We sold and exited the programmatic ad network Adapt ADX as well as the agency concept 360 we had created. The services by then grossed over 50 million SEK.

2017 – In conjunction with a management buyout we rolled out a programmatic targeting standard on Swedish DSPs.

2021 – We launched the worlds first publisher data enrichment service that was already independent of 3rd party cookies.

2022 – Our customer Stampen Media is the first Swedish publisher to be independent of 3rd party cookies.

2023 – We bring the leading data and programmatic tech companies together under the Audience Alliance flag to help solve digital marketings biggest challenge in the last two decades.

Samhub started out as Mktmedia, an incubator and innovation hub for Swedish publishers. As Mktmedia the focus was to drive digitalisation, innovation and new revenues for our owners: The Swedish Morning Press.

As the publishing industry went through a crisis the Mktmedia management were offered to make a buyout, which we did. The team focused on the last existing project in the company: the Brain First Party Data Platform. As we saw a future restricted by legislation and where cookies no longer would be able to transfer uncontrolled data we saw the opportunity to deliver safe and trusted data to publishers and advertisers.

As the company developed we realised that both advertisers and publishers need data, data that can be trusted and delivered without 3rd party cookies. We created “Strategic Audience Map” (SAM) for advertisers and “Brain Media” for publishers, and the company was known as “Brain Nordic”.

In order to be more clear to the market, and as we see our customer segments advertisers and publishers having the same challenges, we converge into the brand “Samhub” so that we will have a clear name, brand and position in the market.