Case Study: PilotOnline achieves 100% sell-through of digital inventory with Lotame DMP

Lotame DMP Drives 100% Sell-Through of Digital Inventory for Local Newspaper

PilotOnline.com, the digital arm of The Virginia Pilot reaching about 1 million monthly uniques in the Southeast, needed to boost digital ad revenue but couldn’t reliably connect local and national advertisers with specific audiences. The site also had limited first‑party data and lacked easy access to third‑party data to scale advertiser campaigns.

Using Lotame’s DMP to build granular first‑party audiences, the Lotame Data Exchange to extend those audiences with third‑party data, and prepackaged audience sets for sales planning, PilotOnline sold larger, targeted buys. The result: sales exceeded targets, 100% sell‑through of digital inventory for the first time in 20 years, a 91% decrease in CPA (saving over $100 per acquisition), and 2–3% CTRs on targeted campaigns.

PilotOnline

Jimmy Grimes

Digital Ad Operations Manager