GroupM Scoffs At Merger; Programmatic Ireland

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Scale Counts For…

In a press release late Sunday, Dominic Proctor, Global President of GroupM, WPP’s media investment unit, threw the following barbs after the Publicis and Omnicom merger announcement: “This is an interesting move. They are making it clear that a primary motive for the merger is achieving scale in media buying. However, neither Omnicom nor Publicis was able to bring their investment teams together effectively as individual companies, so it will be fun to see if they can now do it together. Getting scale in media investment management is critical for clients, but it only works if it all joins up. We welcome a competitor in this space. Media investment management relies heavily on scale, but scale counts for nothing if it continues to be disparate.”

More Publicis-Omnicom

Advertising Giants Announce $35.1 Billion Merger – The New York Times
[John Wren] The Quiet Man of Ad Land (subscription) – FT.com
Why The Mega Merger of Advertising Giants Omnicom & Publicis Impacts Tech Business – GigaOm
The Winners and Losers of Publicis-Omnicom – Digiday
What Sorrell, Jones, Nadal Say About Publicis-Omnicom Merger – Ad Age
Les Deux Géants De La Publicité Publicis Et Omnicom Fusionnent (video en francais) – AFP
“Publicis Omnicom merger rationale in one picture #scalematters” (image) – Terence Kawaja on Twitter

No Longer Keen

Yahoo!7 has decided not to join other Australian publishers in creating a premium advertising marketplace, according to Mumbrella. The exchange would have consisted of Yahoo!7 along with News Corp Australia, Fairfax Media and Mi9. “There was an assumption made that Yahoo!7 would be keen. We would welcome with open arms any premium publisher who wanted to be in there. But with Yahoo!7, discussions didn’t get far,” said one executive. Read more.

Bridging The Gap

Mobile ad tech company Drawbridge isn’t letting a lack of mobile cookies stand in its way — the company announced a new tool for retargeting that works across apps and the mobile web.“Many marketers have already acquired millions or even tens of millions of users; they now need to turn their attention to tools and techniques that allow better engagement marketing towards this user base,” says Drawbridge founder and CEO, Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan. Read the release. And, more on TechCrunch.

Mobile Privacy Promises

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration drafted a voluntary code of conduct for app developers, according to Forbes. If implemented information such as what data is being collected (browser history, financial info, location, etc.) and who it’s being shared with (ad networks, carriers, etc.) would be disclosed to users. Although there is no real obligation for developers to adhere to the code, if they do publicly commit to the code they can be held legally responsible by the FTC. Read more.

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Programmatic Ireland

Irish broadcasting company RTÉ is selling nearly all of its inventory programmatically using the Adap.tv platform, according to a press release. “Programmatic trading can command high rates and provide a cost-effective solution for broadcasters looking to generate revenue outside their core market,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, managing director at Adap.tv Europe. Read the release. Read more coverage here.

Private Pinterest

Following in Twitter’s privacy footsteps, Pinterest is allowing users to opt-out of being tracked, according to the New York Times. From a Pinterest blog post, “We’re excited to offer everyone a more personal experience, but we also understand if you’re not interested. We respect Do Not Track as an option for people who want to turn off this collection of browsing activity from other sites.” Read more.

You’ve Been Malvertised

MIT Technology Review turns lemons into lemonade with a post detailing how it was duped by a masquering malvertiser pretending to be a Gilt Groupe rep named “Nick Sampson.” After serving his ad, “We investigated and quickly understood that our ad was directing people to a fraudulent clone of the real Gilt site. ‘Nick’ was likely part of a scam to steal credit-card numbers.” Read more.

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