Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
CPG And Cheap Video Ads
DIGIDAY’s Mike Shields follows up his article on illicit practices in the online video advertising space as he interviews Marc Fonzetti, a media director for North America at Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a CPG company with wide-range of well-known brands. Shields asks if RB has cheapened the video ad industry by its quest for low cost, media buys through video ad networks. Fonzetti responds, “I don’t believe that we’ve cheapened the market; I think we’ve helped legitimize it,” and then he explains how his company maintains quality placements. Read more.
Rich Ad Exchanges
PointRoll CEO Rob Gatto tells ClickZ’s Kate Kaye that it’s hard to be an expandable, rich media unit on an ad exchange since, according to Gatto, “Neither the trading desks where agencies conduct media buying, nor the DSP technologies they use to enable it indicate whether or not inventory will allow for expandable units.” He points to Iframes as one culprit. Read it.
Morgan: No More Acronyms!
Dave Morgan thinks its time to “holster” the acronyms and simplify the discussion for those looking to buy and sell in digital. He writes in his MediaPost column: “Using acronyms without explaining what they mean — unless the meaning is truly self-evident — is assumptive, arrogant and can be intimidating. It’s an ‘all about me’ practice.” Read more.
Holding Company Revenues
Agency holding company MDC Partners (owner or partial owner of Crispin-Porter, kbs+p, The Media Kitchen and trading desk Varick Media among others) announced its Q2 2011 revenue report last Thursday. Highlights included: “Revenue increased to $240.5 million versus $169.9 million in Q2 2010, an increase of 41.6%; Organic revenue increased 21.2% for Q2 2011.” Also the company said that it’s technology and digital services made up 51% of the company’s revenues. Read the release.
More Yahoo! Display Woes?
On The Business Insider, Nicholas Carlson says that Yahoo! is allegedly selling display ads against pornographic images on its photo sharing site, Flickr. Carlson says, “Alerted by an activist, representatives of brands say they had no idea their ads would show up next to pictures of naked people – and sometimes children.” Read more.
Appointment Chatter
Aol CEO Tim Armstrong’s appointment of Ned Brody to run Aol ad sales continues to reverberate as The Wall Street Journal’s Emily Steel picks up the story and talks to Curt Hecht, CEO of the Vivaki Nerve Center, who tells Steel, “We’re still trying to get our heads wrapped around [the appointment] honestly.” Read more. In another story by Steel, she looks at the trends of matching celebrities with Internet companies such as Justin Timberlake and Specific Media recently announced deal at Myspace. Read it.
But Wait. There’s More!
- Google buys patents from IBM – L.A. Times blog
- An RTB Love Story: Energy Shot Upstart Gets Retail Blast From Display-Only Campaign – MediaPost
- On RTB and Brand Advertising – Brand.net blog
- Yahoo, Alibaba Make Peace—at a Price – press release
