Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Fox Audience Network For Sale?
Rafat Ali of PaidContent says that his publication has confirmed News Corp’s consideration of selling the Fox Audience Network (FAN). Has Rupert Murdoch tired of the audience buying (and selling) platform? Pay walls for all? Ali writes that current FAN revenue rumors hover around $100 million – the same amount that was paid for Strategic Data Corp’s assets in 2007. Read more.
AdSafe Partners And RTB
Verification company, AdSafe Media, announced a list of strategic partners for its technology including AudienceScience, Break Media, Collective, Invite Media, Kitara Media, Media6Degrees, MediaMath, Ourstage, Rocketfuel Inc, Scripps Networks, Traffic Marketplace, [x+1] and Turn. Read more. On MediaPost, CRO Kent Wakeford looks at real-time bidding (RTB) platforms and identifies the “lessons [that] can be taken from the recent banking debacle to ensure that RTB platforms are able to deliver on all the hype”. What appears to be (unconfirmed) Yahoo!’s Ramsey McGrory debates the financial markets analogy and adds, “RTB provides no such risk accentuation (downside). Rather, it creates a more liquid market, minimizes redirecting b/w intermediaries and improves the user experience by delivering better advertising with reduced latency.” Read the article and comments.
New Report On RTB, Online Advertising
A new whitepaper called, “Getting Real – Ad Exchanges, RTB, and the Future of Online Advertising” has been published by investment bankers DeSilva+Phillips. The 18-page document concludes with a cautionary statement for some: “This is not a time for publishers, ad networks, ad agencies and others in the ecosystem to be complacent or hesitant as to their next steps. Failure to innovate and respond to evolving customer requirements will significantly undermine their future prospects and profitability.” Download the whitepaper.
In an effort to understand its offering better, ESPN announced ESPN XP, “a new audience measurement initiative designed to take into account television, radio, Internet, print and mobile.” The coming World Cup of soccer, or do you say football?, will be the first test event. Read more from PaidContent’s David Kaplan.
The Mobile Intender
At the CTIA Wireless event iana Google’s director of mobile advertising, Diane Pouliot, said that one-third of all Google searches done on a mobile device have some sort of local intent. According to Mobile Marketing Watch, Google’s mobile product manager, Paul Feng, “suggested further tweaking of [mobile ad] formats in the near future – changes that may even involve new forms of user interaction, including navigation.” Read the coverage.
ContextWeb Announces Exec Changes
ContextWeb has announced that Tim Murray, formerly of Dialogic and AT&T, will become its new CEO as ContextWeb’s former CEO will remain with company in the roles of Chairman of the Board of Directors and as President of the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange. Read more.
Pontiflex Reports CPL Business
According to the company, their CPL business is on fire as “its client base has grown by 297 percent from January 2009 to January 2010… The company tripled its revenue in the same time period.” Read the release. The news comes in advance of the company’s CPL Summit on April 1 in New York City. JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan is scheduled to give the keynote. See the agenda.
24/7 Real Media Maxif-ies
24/7 Real Media announced that it has partnered with Maxifier in order to leverage Maxifier’s optimization technology within 24/7 Open AdStream ad serving solution. Are things getting more SSP-like at 24/7? Optimizing campaigns according to audience data would be a nice addition. According to the release, “Publishers can also create their own measurement parameters that align with their business goals, factoring in the overall budget, CPM and eCPM, as well as agency and advertiser criteria.” Read it.
Google Analytics Opt-Out Plug-in
Taking the offensive on offering consumer’s choice regarding behavioral tracking, Google quietly announced last week that it would offer a browser plug-in which would allow consumers to prevent tracking of their user sessions through the popular web analytics tool Google Analytics. Read the Google Analytics blog. And, read Anil Batra’s take.
OfferPal Media Buys Tapjoy
Virtual currency and social gaming monetization platform, OfferPal, delivered some real currency to popular app monetization platform, Tapjoy, as it looks to expand in the mobile space according to Mike Arrington of TechCrunch. Arrington says, “Tapjoy keeps between 1/3 and 1/2 of the revenue [from its platform], passing the rest on to publishers.” Read more about the nice margins.
Kawasaki On Hiring
VC, former Apple exec and co-founder of Alltop, a news aggregation site, Guy Kawasaki is interviewed in the New York Times about this wide-ranging experience. Amongh the nuggets, Kawasaki says that the first couple of interviews in any hiring process should be conducted by phone “because when you interview in person, many variables come into play that have nothing to do with competence. So is the person good-looking or not? Is the person dressed appropriately or not? Lots of factors can sidetrack you.” Read more.
360i Gets Oreos
In its first, big, announced ad deal since the acquisition of parent company, Innovation Interactive, by ad holding company, Dentsu, digital shop 360i said that it has landed the digital account for Kraft’s Oreo cookies. Read more. 360i takes over the duties from Razorfish. DraftFCB remains the above-the-line agency.
Havas Reports; Aegis And Havas Get Closer
Havas reported that it was doubling the company’s dividend and proposing a stock buyback in spite of the fact that profit decreased in the 4th quarter of 2009. The decrease was less than was expected by analysts. “Digital revenue at Havas accounted for 16 percent of sales,” according to BusinessWeek. The publication adds that Vincent Bollore, who owns a large stake of Aegis and Havas – says that closer ties are possible. Could DSP technology and service needs be merged? Read more.
