Publisher Power; Uniting Not Dividing

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Publisher Power

Gannett is looking to grab advertising spend that might have traditionally gone to agencies through the creation of its G/O Digital platform (see the site). The company is corralling its own companies, such as BLiNQ, Shoplocal, Key Ring, GannettLocal and DealChicken, and offering a digital marketing menu a la carte. Vikram Sharma, president and CEO of the new venture, tells Ad Age, “We see media continue to be an important part of that, but we also see the value we can bring to our merchant partners by offering marketing services.” Read more. And, here’s the release. A similar story to Hearst’s acquisition of iCrossing in 2010, for example. And, on that note, when will agency SapientNitro get acquired?

Uniting Not Dividing

Sell-side platforms/exchanges Rubicon Project and Admeld are uniting! Well, kinda. Metamarkets brought on former Rubicon-er Ron Claypool as VP of client services and David Hertog as VP of marketing. Hertog drove marketing at Google’s Admeld and then at DoubleClick. Read more.

Mobile Targeting

On the same day Millennial-Jumptap was announced, mobile ad company 4INFO said it was partnering with SaaS Acxiom to allow advertisers better targeting for mobile campaigns. 4INFO CEO Tim Jenkins said in a press release, “We’re enabling an industry first: allowing marketers to target only their existing customers with mobile advertising on a one-to-one basis or by segment, without having to worry about reaching beyond their target or to uninterested consumers.” Read more.

Optimizing The Creative

Google says that it’s updating its DoubleClick Studio — which supports the DoubleClick ad server — for ad creative with something called Layouts. Given all the efficiencies stated, somebody may be about to lose their job at a marketing services company if all this is true: “Samsung Turkey launched a rich media campaign in 90% less time than they could have before Layouts. They built a three-video [Google Display Network] lightbox ad in 15 minutes and completed quality assurance in three hours with no revisions. Not only was the turn-around time greatly reduced, but the campaign was also successful in driving consumer engagement.” Read more. You could argue some ad creative “ninja” could be hired to run all this, too.

Dissecting Failure

When Syncapse filed for bankruptcy last week it left many wondering how it happened. The Globe and Mail analyzed it and discovered, among other issues, that RIM/Blackberry accounted for a whopping 89% of Syncapse’s revenue. The company’s CEO, Michael Scissons, said in a statement sent to The Globe and Mail, “Despite our best efforts, multiple factors relating to evolving customer needs, market pricing changes, customer revenue concentration and rapid changes within partners like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube left the company in a position where this action was necessary.” Read more.

Publishing Trophies

Altimeter Group analyst Rebecca Lieb throws her opinions into the ring on “Bezos-po” in an article for iMediaConnection. She writes, “There’s a philanthropic aspect to keeping a venerable institution like [Washington Post] afloat, but it’s a trophy acquisition, too, something that can’t possibly be lost on [Amazon.com CEO Jeff] Bezos.” Read more.

Return Of Sambreel

Notorious adware firm Sambreel is still in business, injecting ads into YouTube pages viewed by individuals who have installed its plug-ins. Spider.io takes a peek into its latest practices, finding brands such as Cadillac, Domino’s Sprint, Kellogg’s, and Marriott have showed up in unauthorized ad space on the video site. Read more. Last year we noted SSPs and exchanges had taken steps to eradicate Sambreel ads. But even if some is still getting through, it’s probably minimal. “I think most of the supply side stepped up on this one and blocked this type of inventory. We see very little of it these days,” m6d’s VP Media Operations, Alec Greenberg, tells us.

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