Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Barrett To Yahoo!, Y! Ad Tech Plans
Former Admeld CEO Michael Barrett is movin’ on from his post-acquisition Google role. All Things D’s Kara Swisher reports that Barrett will be joining Yahoo! as EVP and CRO and “will be in charge of ad revenue and operations worldwide, including units in the U.S., Europe and Asia reporting in to him.” Lots of interesting tidbits embedded in this piece including – Google may end up offering automated ad products to Yahoo! and “while there have been a variety of multi-billion plans drawn up by some to double down on Yahoo’s ad tech business, that effort has now been supplanted by a feeling that the company needs to quickly get out of businesses it cannot win in or see growth,” says Swisher. Read the official Yahoo! PR on Barrett, too. In response, Bill Wise, CEO of MediaOcean and a former Yahoo!, tweeted, “Google’s loss is Yahoo’s gain (when have you ever read that?)…”
Big Data and Ads
An article in the Washington Post highlights how “big data” is coming to the rescue of advertisers search for the “right audience.” In the piece, AddThis CEO Ramsey McGrory pours fuel into the data-driven fire, “Isn’t that what advertising is about? It’s about the potential of generating action. It’s about putting an offer in front of somebody, based on what you believe is the target audience, to generate the action you want.” Read it.
The Digital Difference
In a feature article on Ad Age, Jack Neff gathers hard evidence that digital not only works for CPG companies, but in many ways is better than traditional channel alternatives. P&G marketing chief Mark Pritchard tlles Neff, “‘The ROI work that we’ve done so far has demonstrated that digital is better than TV. While you can still get very broad reach from TV, that to an extent dilutes some of the ROI.’ Digital still has ‘a smaller range of reach, but it’s more targeted, and that’s what gives it a higher ROI.'” Read more.
Australian telecom Telestra has made an investment in online video content distribution company Ooyala. Similar to Singtel’s recent acquisition of Amobee and investment in mobile ad exchange Nexage, telecom companies continue to extend their tentacles and explore new business models as old ones evaporate. According to TechCrunch, Ooyala has landed $35 million in this latest round, which brings total investment to-date to $79 million (Crunchbase).
Tablets Are For Publishers
On the OPA blog, Online Publishers Association chief Pam Horan intros a new study on the emerging opportunity in tablets for publishers as the consumer goes cross-channel. Read more. In the study, “Paid apps account for 23% of all tablet apps downloaded in the past year; and The tablet app market has doubled with an estimated $2.6B spent in 2012, up from $1.4B in 2011*,” says the press release. Get the study (PDF).
You’re Hired!
- LeapFrog Appoints Greg Ahearn As Chief Marketing Officer – press release
But Wait. There’s More!
- Fairfax to shed 1900 staff, erect paywalls – The Age (Australia)
- Inside Google’s Plan to Build a Catalog of Every Single Thing, Ever – The Atlantic
- Facebook Agrees to Give $10 Million to Charity in Ad Lawsuit – The Wall Street Journal blog
- War of the platforms: Facebook, Apple, Android, Twitter – Andrew Chen
- nterpublic to Expand Outside Europe as Zenith Cuts Ad Forecast – Bloomberg
- The First Graduates From Advertising High – The New York Times
