Kenny Leaves Akamai; Making Sense Of Real-Time Video Buying

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David Kenny Reloads

Who thought David Kenny would be out of Akamai after a year? OK, put your hands down. The former Digitas CEO and now former president of Akamai is ready for his next challenge as he’s quoted in an Akamai release, “While I now want to return to my first passion of pursuing emerging opportunities on the consumer Internet, I will miss the great people at Akamai and their relentless pursuit of excellence in everything they do.” Read more. Before we get started on the Kenny-Yahoo-CEO rumors, what does this say about Akamai? Another moment of transition? Was Kenny next in line to the throne at Akamai after CEO Paul Sagan? Or was this year at Akamai all part of the plan? It doesn’t matter anymore as Kenny leaves to the “emerging” world where he can test his ideas beyond Akamai which has suffered from a declining stock price that may have prevented the company from being more aggressive and acquisitive in digital media. Ultimately, Kenny and Akamai likely realized they don’t need each other. Aside from that, rumors continue to swirl that Kenny’s Yahoo! board member status may change to Yahoo! CEO. You can bet agencies would love to have Kenny in charge as it would show a clear commitment to their side of the house and builds on existing efforts by Yahoo! execs Ross Levinsohn, Wayne Powers and Seth Dallaire. Yahoo! remains a hibernating bear as the company has suffered from significant attrition and a board that has moved at a glacial pace to capitalize on opportunity – or cut its losses. Meanwhile, back at Akamai, the company met Wall Street earnings expectations for the first time in several quarters and said that it was looking forward to a healthy 4th quarter driven by the usual, seasonal, commerce business. Read the conference call transcript. Rumors that Akamai could get bought also may be true – yet another reason for Kenny to leave.

Real-Time Video Buy

“Recently, a top journalist confided that he primarily thinks of real-time bidding ‘as a way to do direct-response campaigns in display,'” – and so begins a news release from video DSP and analytics firm TubeMogul. Surveys to the rescue as the company claims that generating brand awareness is also possible with real-time auctions and CTR isn’t the only game in town.” Read more – research included.

Publisher Commerce

Affiliate links service Skimlinks announced the next iteration of its in-text platform (SkimWords) to drive e-commerce business. Revenews’ Britt Raybould cautions readers, “SkimWords, like any other tool available to affiliate marketers, needs to be used wisely. Assuming a one-size-fits all approach does a disservice both to your readers and to the technology.” Read more.

Amazon Earnings Revisited

After Amazon’s earnings report, Wall Street analyst Mark Mahaney of Citi follows up with his thoughts: “Long Thesis intact: 1) AMZN’s investments are from a market-share-vacuuming position of strength; 2) AMZN faces large Double-Double Market Opportunity in Core Retail Biz; 3) AMZN materially benefits from most of today’s major Net platform trends (Mobile, Cloud, Local); and 4) AMZN’s management team has track record of succeeding through investment cycles (’04-’06).” Translation – good news ahead for Amazon.

Like Marketing

Agency maven and kbs+p’s Darren Herman offers his latest installment of “Marketing Wednesdays,” which is aimed at those looking to hone their marketing skills. Herman writes on his personal blog, “There are two ways to handle marketing: you can perform all the marketing functions inside the brand (client side) or you can hire an agency to handle some or all of the marketing functions. Today, we’ll cover reasons why you would and should hire an agency.” Read more.

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