AdExchanger.com

Aol Renews Search Deal With Google; TellApart Innovates With Retargeting Solution In 24 Hours; CPCs Increasing

Here's today's AdExchanger.com news round-up... Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Aol Still Googles

Aol has renewed its search deal with Google for five years and PaidContent's Staci Kramer writes, "The expanded search and content deal now covers mobile search and puts AOL’s content on YouTube." Read more. Doug Anmuth from Barclay's Capital writes in a note to investors: "We believe AOL's search renewal w/GOOG announced this morning improves the deal across the search product, AOL content distribution, and mobile, and carries better economics through a modestly higher TAC rate. However, we believe it is essentially in line with expectations and may even disappoint some who were looking for something more strategic around mapping, display sales, or a potential equity stake." And, read Ad Age's interview with Aol CEO Tim Armstrong.

TellApart Innovates Retargeting

In response to a public request by Federated Media's John Battelle, and in one day, TellApart came up with its own answer to the retargeter's dilemma: "to not just chase folks around the web in hopes they might irritate us into submission." In a two-step, opt-out process, TellApart CEO Josh McFarland and his team offer a way for consumers to opt-out of future ads by a particular TellApart advertiser campaign and opt-out of TellApart campaigns altogether. See Battelle's follow-up post highlighting the solution. Is TellApart's solution the new "i"? At the very least, it would seem another important part of the toolkit for the conversation between the marketer and the consumer has been created - in 24 hours.

Newspapers Now And Forever

VivaKi's Rishad Tobaccowala thinks that newspapers aren't going anywhere no matter how little you think of the offlline format. In an op ed on AdWeek, Tobaccowala writes, "I believe most people who claim to never read newspapers spend more time with them than they know. As I see what folks post on Facebook and the links in my Twitter feeds, I see a huge amount of news articles. Clearly, folks are interacting with the product." But, he still sees plenty of change coming to the newspaper industry. Read about it.

ROI Is #1 For SMBs

A recent survey by Looksmart revealed that small business owners care about - no surprise -every penny they spend on advertising. Specifically, the study found "63% of search advertisers cite ROI as one of the most important factors to PPC campaigns, traffic quality comes in at a very close second, with 53% stating this as one of their top objectives." Read more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Ad Exchange News | No Comments »

AdExchanger: The Quarterly Outlook For Advertising

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem...

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Comic Strip | No Comments »

Facebook CTO Taylor Talks Ads; McCarthy Strolls Right Media Exchange Memory Lane; The Invite Media Mafia?

Here's today's AdExchanger.com news round-up... Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Facebook CTO Speaks On Ads

In a note to clients, ThinkEquity analyst Atul Bagga shared an interview with Facebook CTO Bret Taylor about plans for the social media monster. Among his questions, Bagga asked, "How do you monetize the platform? Do you see the opportunity primarily with advertisement, or, longer term, do you see virtual currency also becoming a more-meaningful opportunity?" Taylor replied, "Our first focus isn't directly monetizing the platform. We're trying to create as much value for the people that use Facebook as possible with the idea that if using Facebook has value to you, and we expand that value by making Facebook useful for all the applications you use across the Web and on your phone that would make Facebook even more useful for you, which will lead to a lot of monetization opportunities in the long run. Advertising is our main focus. Virtual goods is an important part of our platform, but it's much smaller right now, and we're reinvesting almost all that back into Facebook Credits."

Right Media Memory Lane

Pat McCarthy has uncorked on his Conversion Rater blog a lengthy, detailed post on his experience as a member of the original Right Media team. He begins, "This is simply my perspective as I know that others at Right Media and Yahoo! had completely different opinions and feelings about everything that occurred from 2004-2010. That being said, let’s take a walk down memory lane." Walk now.

Havas Reports Stronger Q2

Yet another ad holding company has reported a stronger Q2 2010 in comparison to the previous year. According to AdWeek's David Gianatasio, "Havas said its net income surged 22.5 percent in the first half to $62 million on a 4.2 percent rise in revenue to almost $927 million, compared to the same period in 2009." Read more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Ad Exchange News | 2 Comments »

Former Microsoft And aQuantive Exec Scott Howe Joins Turn Board, Hints At New Startup

Demand-side platform Turn announced that Scott Howe has joined its board of directors. A former aQuantive/Atlas/DrivePM exec who joined Microsoft as part of the multi-billion dollar aQuantive acquisition in 2007, Howe should provide Turn with deeper relationships with both agencies and marketers among other benefits. Read the release.

Howe discussed his new board duties as well as his own plans and views about the digital ad ecosystem.

AdExchanger.com: Where does the demand-side platform fit in the digital ad ecosystem over the next 1-3 years? Will it become commodotized as a business model?

Every online advertising forecast that’s been released suggests that digital advertising is expected to post continued strong growth, and new formats (e.g. video, mobile, social) are going to grow at an even faster rate.  Within that growth, the one common denominator among all advertisers is the need to purchase and evaluate their media effectively.  In a world of increasing choice and complexity, the role of the DSP becomes critical. And while most agencies are carefully evaluating options and the competitive space may seem crowded, this isn’t an industry that I would expect to quickly commoditize given the size of the prize for companies who can unlock better advertising performance. In other words, the driving purchase criteria won’t be the cost of the DSP technology, but rather the value the DSP can provide to the overall media plan.

What are your plans - joining a board or two? how about getting into venture capital? Or will the entrepreneurial bug bite?

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Platforms | No Comments »

OpenX Exchange Targets Japan With Dentsu

OpenX announced the next step in its strategy to try and "end around" the growing momentum of Google's DoubleClick Ad Exchange juggernaut as well as exchange giant Right Media Exchange. The company announced a partnership similar to its Orange Market deal with Dentsu and CCI (Dentsu's "media rep firm" subsidiary) to launch OpenX Market Japan. Key components of the deal are localized versions of the OpenX Exchange for its partners. And for OpenX, it gets a top 5 ad agency holding company and CCI to drive demand and supply through its exchange and address what OpenX identified in an interview as the 2nd largest advertising market. OpenX CRO Jason Fairchild told AdExchanger.com that he believes OpenX is in the midst of proving a viable, go-to-market strategy with Orange and now Dentsu. The company was careful not to characterize the partnerships as merely an opportunity to improve the quality of OpenX Exchange's biddable inventory and emphasized the overall growth potential spurred by these new mega-corporate relationships. Read the release. Also, read more coverage from ClickZ'z Adaline Lau and The Wall Street Journal.

Share It!

Posted in Ad Exchange News | No Comments »

Tallwave Positioning As Digital Business Accelerator Says Prez Boberg; Venture Fund Coming In 2011

Dan Boberg is President of Tallwave, a digital business accelerator.

AdExchanger.com: Where do you see Tallwave fitting in the venture capital, angel and seed investing world? Is it competitive to these silos? Is it similar to Betaworks, for example?

DB: Tallwave is a digital business accelerator that combines traditional consulting practices and start-up incubation services with a focus on cutting edge digital marketing strategy and delivery.  We support a portfolio of emerging companies and also provide digital consulting and media services.  On the portfolio side we focus on marketing technology and media companies.  Our consulting practice has a broader scope which includes  ecommerce, web applications companies and more.  We plan on raising our first venture fund in 2011.  Tallwave is already working with a set of portfolio companies and our fee-based consulting practice is exceeding goals in this first year of operation.

In forming Tallwave, we brought together partners with strong line level as well as executive experience from Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and iCrossing.  Our partners bring diverse backgrounds including channel sales, digital advertising, product design, product marketing, and finance.  We have a CFO with experience as the CFO of two public companies which is another strength in helping develop early stage companies. We support these companies through capital formation, business planning and strategy, product design, financial planning, marketing strategy, marketing delivery and shared services / outsourcing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Venture Capital | No Comments »

Fallacies About Web Privacy In The WSJ; Google Suggests Direct Sales, Self-Serve Display Tool

Here's today's AdExchanger.com news round-up... Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Fallacies About Web Privacy In The WSJ

Emory University professor Paul Rubin makes the case for what he sees as recent obfuscation, misleading statements by various parties as it relates to the use of data in online advertising and consumer privacy. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Rubin begins: "Privacy on the Web is a constant issue for public discussion—and Congress is always considering more regulations on the use of information about people's habits, interests or preferences on the Internet. Unfortunately, these discussions lead to many misconceptions. Here are 10 of the most important..." Read his top 10.

To Publishers With Love And The Immediate Ad

Google Director of Product Management Jonathan Bellack authors a post on "The Official Google Blog" about the future of display advertising as it concerns publishers and the "quantum leaps" in innovation to come. From the sounds of it, a self-service tool that will allow publishers to sell inventory directly to buyers appears imminent: "Imagine if publishers—even the smallest website—had tools that enabled advertisers to click a button on their site to upload an ad, let them pay for it with a credit card, and then deliver this ad—through the publisher’s ad server—within minutes. This sort of 'immediate ad' will become possible as ad serving technology continues to simplify the process of buying and selling ad space." Read more.

High Value Exchange

Xuhui Shao, CTO of demand-side platform Turn, discusses the recent debate around privacy and how digital advertising companies use cookie tracking to facilitate targeting. Shao believes there needs to be a high value exchange created between consumer and marketer which is facilitated by ad tech companies. He writes, "In digital advertising, we strive to find similar approaches that are both effective and privacy friendly. One such approach is the 'act-alike model,' a close cousin to the “look-alike model.'" Read about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Ad Exchange News | No Comments »

Video Ad Network Open Book Video To Offer Property By Property Transparency Says CEO Prohaska

Matt Prohaska is CEO of Open Book Video, an early-stage digital video ad network.

AdExchanger.com: Can you talk a bit about how Open Book Video was "born"? How is the company funded? And, what happened in your previous role at Smartclip?

MP: Open Book Video was born after hearing from publishers and advertisers that there was a strong desire for more transparency from their ad network buyers or sellers, respectively. We are forming new partnerships and relationships with each group to bring more visibility and confidence into each deal.

Open Book Video is privately funded right now and we've had several investors approach us so we ideally announce both funding partners and breaking profitability by the end of this year.

Regarding Smartclip, after a few months of solid traction at the company where I was running North America, what I wanted us to continue doing differed from the board and the inherited team. So we decided to part ways, and I wish them well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Digital TV and Video | No Comments »

Retargeting Under Microscope In NY Times; TellApart CEO Responds; TagMan Gets Good Health

Here's today's AdExchanger.com news round-up... Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Retargeting In Focus

The New York Times Miguel Helft and Tanzina Vega take a look at retargeting of consumers through display advertising and reference the experiences of Ad Age's Michael Learmonth and a consumer named Julia Matlin who are retargeted by Zappos ads. In discussing Matlin's experience, The NY Times writes that after she visited Zappos site, "...Then the shoes started to follow her everywhere she went online. An ad for those very shoes showed up on the blog TechCrunch." Read more.

TellApart Responds

Identified as a retargeting vendor in the NY Times piece, TellApart CEO Josh McFarland responded in a TellApart blog post that emphasized what McFarland sees as a need to respect the consumer. He writes, "Aside from the obvious & staid options mentioned by the Times’ commenters (opt-out, clear cookies, use Adblock), how do advertisers show respect for their consumers in this new world of display advertising? TellApart recommends and commits to the following..." See the list.

TagMan Has Good Health

TagMan has claimed another client as the company announced in a release that "Good Health Media (GHM), one of the fastest growing health ad networks, (...) has picked TagMan as its global 'container tag." GHM's investors include Metamorphic Ventures, Mike Perlis of Softbank and Joe Apprendi of Founder Collective (also the CEO of Collective). Read more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Ad Exchange News | 1 Comment »

Is There A Divide Between Media And Creative?

"the creative" is a column focused on the creative side of digital marketing.

Today's column is written by Barry Lowenthal, President of kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners' The Media Kitchen.

The original thesis presented to me by AdExchanger.com was that technological innovation is occurring on the media buying side but there is less innovation on the creative side. In fact, according to AdExchanger.com, there may be a rapidly widening gulf.

I’m not sure this thesis is entirely accurate.

Although my perspective is shaped by my own agency situation, and not based on an industry-wide survey or vantage point, I’ve noted that media buyers have actually grown closer to the creatives as innovative technologies help bring ideas to life.

The shift from buying media placements direct from sites to buying audiences and individual impressions in real-time on public and private inventory sources represents one of the most important media buying and targeting shifts the industry has seen in a long, long time. This shift has not only changed the way media folks think about media buying, it’s also forced the creative to think about segmentation, relevance, and messaging, which directly affects content creation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in the creative | 4 Comments »

Chitika Offering Local Ad Exchange And Ad Network Models To Marketers Says CEO Kolluri

Venkat Kolluri is CEO of Chitika, an advertising technology company.

AdExchanger.com: A bit of history first - what pivots has Chitika made in its strategy since it was founded?

VK: There was one major, defining moment in Chitika’s history – that’s when we decided that knowing when NOT to show an ad is the most valuable asset in our inventory.  Since then, we’ve been refining and evolving our understanding of when not to show ads.  We’ve begun incorporating ideas like technographic segmentation to create something of a click oracle that will tell us whether or not someone is likely to take action on an ad.

Chitika just launched a local ad exchange. Why?

As we evolved our prediction technologies, we found one particular area that we saw as a huge opportunity for advertisers, publishers, and users – the intersection of search, mobile, and local.  We found this intersection to have some of the highest intent that we couldn’t serve.  Over 100 million monthly local search mobile impressions, and we needed something special that would make everyone involved happy.  That’s LAX.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share It!

Posted in Platforms | No Comments »