Microsoft Talks Ads; Real-Time Data Spews Forth

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Microsoft Talks Ads

Microsoft delivered a Friday update on its latest advertising initiatives. The timing may speak to the lack of compelling news. In a blog post, there’s no mention of programmatic or real-time bidding (RTB). But, if you’re a behavioral advertising believer, you’ll be happy to note that when buying Microsoft site inventory through Microsoft you will get some new behavioral targeting features. Windows 8 app audience gets a mention as do some new ad formats. Read it now.

Real-Time Data

Casale has released buying trend data for its Index SSP (sell-side platform) covering the first half of 2013. Get it here (PDF). Among the highlights: “The top five DSPs still account for a large majority of marketplace spending (70%), with the top three accounting for just over 50% in Q1 and 42% in Q2.” More in Adweek. Meanwhile, analytics and privacy icon-delivery company Evidon shares some of its Ghostery (the tracker of trackers!) data with Ad Age about top ad servers by impression. Google wins by a mile this past September, say the Evidon tea leaves. More in Ad Age.

Tech Wealth Saves News?

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has announced that he’ll invest $250 million in a new news site led by journalist Glenn Greenwald among others. This comes weeks after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos spent $25o million to buy The Washington Post. In reviewing the investment trend, The NY Times media writer David Carr reaches out to his Times colleague and exec Michael Zimbalist, who says, “(…) successful mid-career entrepreneurs are investing and willing to play the long game. They have been disrupters themselves and won’t be bringing the same assumptions to the table.” Read it.

Amazon Threat

Paypal’s biggest competitive threat may actually be Amazon, according to CNET’s Donna Tam. The ecommerce giant has amassed a lot of payment information and built a trusted platform that could give it a leg up with its newest “Login and Pay with Amazon” initiative. Other companies, such as Google and Facebook, have tried to break into the payment space, but so far their efforts haven’t gained a lot of traction. “I think Amazon is one of the handful of companies that can be a threat,” said Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya. “There’s the brand and trust associated with Amazon. … We think they have a pretty good shot.” Read more.

Scaling Native

Laney Whitcanack, chief community officer at Federated Media, thinks the best way to scale native advertising is through programmatic efforts, which she outlines in a column for ClickZ. By using pixels and tracking users, advertisers can reach users with native messages wherever they are on the Web, much like other forms of display ads. She writes, “As an industry, we need a platform that combines the data-based and automated characteristics of programmatic buying with the custom, high engagement aspects of content marketing. This will allow distribution of content to the right people, at the right time, in the right context, at scale.” Read more.

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Through The Programmatic Forest

Ratko Vidakovic, the director of marketing at SiteScout, gives his primer of three different formats on programmatic buying — display, mobile and video — and details how each category fits into the programmatic process on MarketingLand. Read more.

Expanding Second Screen

Targeting the tablet? You’d better be, says Pew Research in a new report that shows affluent audience is expanding on the second screen. From Pew: “Up from 25% last year, more than half of those in households earning $75,000 or more now have tablets. Up from 19% last year, 38% of those in upper-income households now have e-readers.” Read more. Also, read this Pew mobile data.

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