John Ebbert

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Contact this author at john@adexchanger.com

Affiliate Marketing Going 'Mainstream' Says VigLink CEO Roup

Friday, May 17th, 2013

“Affiliate marketing has gone much more mainstream,” says VigLink CEO Oliver Roup. That’s his hope, at the very least, since his 28-person company is built on the commission-based lead gen business model that has been a cornerstone of web marketing.

Roup adds, “[Affiliate marketing] has gone from coupons to content. Though coupon sites were dominating up until a few years ago, what you’ve seen since that time is mainstream publishers, who deal in real content are starting to delve into the affiliate world.” Huffington Post and Wanelo are among the larger media companies using VigLink products today which, he asserts, “proves” that affiliate marketing is less on the fringes than ever.

And with Q4 2012 year-over-year revenue growth of 118% according to Roup, VigLink wants to continue to scale. Bigger sites mean more inventory, which leads to more potential leads and more revenue to affiliate marketers, VigLink publishers – and VigLink itself. And it all begins with the use of the innocent text hyperlink: when a sale is consummated, upstream credit is assigned to VigLink publishers along the clickstream who originally sent the traffic.

AdExchanger spoke to VigLink CEO Oliver Roup last week about his company and industry trends.

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Domob Claims Mobile, In-App Ad Supremacy In China

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

Based in Beijing, China, Redpoint Ventures-backed Domob says that its mobile in-app ad network is booming and well-positioned to take over the Chinese mobile ad market, according to its co-founder and COO Zhang He. Moreover, the company’s executive team is now in place, plucked from Chinese internet services companies Baidu and Sohu.com among others.

But can Domob pull off something like an AdMob, which sold for hundreds of millions and became the backbone for Google’s mobile ad efforts?

It’s too early to tell.

Nevertheless, the work of the company’s 150 employees seems to be paying off. Zhang told AdExchanger that a recent study showed Domob is #1 among mobile ad networks in China and addresses 33 million uniques via 60,000 Chinese mobile app, creating over 400 million ad impressions daily.

Clearly, it’s not the billions of PC display ad impressions that occur every day on Right Media Exchange or DoubleClick Ad Exchange. But, as Zhang admits, “China is actually about two years behind the US market. Nevertheless, we’re expecting 600 million mobile users by the end of this year in China.”

He looks forward to a day when consumer goods, hotels, IT and finance brands pump today’s mobile marketing spend through his company’s ad network.

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Multi-Faceted 'Context' Remains Key In Mobile Ads For PHD's Wolinetz

Monday, May 13th, 2013

In her role as Managing Director of Connected Platforms at media agency PHD, Andrea Wolinetz helps manage client opportunities that are digital but don’t necessarily fit a silo such as “mobile” or “social.” She offers Foursquare as a prime example of this conundrum in the agency: “Should you call your mobile specialist because it’s a location-based application? Are you supposed to call your social specialist because it’s a social-based engagement once you’re in it? Or are you supposed to call your search specialist because all of the platforms in which you would buy, in terms of paid opportunities on Foursquare, require good understanding of bid-based marketing, modelling and keywords?”

Wolinetz spoke to AdExchanger last week about what she’s seeing from her cross-digital-channel agency “seat.”

AdExchanger: Speaking of "connected platforms," is connected TV beginning to provide some scalable opportunities to your clients?

ANDREA WOLINETZ: It’s starting to. In the past 18 months, we have seen the "second screen" moving to the "first screen," if you will. What I mean is, there’s all this talk about mobile video, mobile viewing opportunities and “second screens,” and yet what I think is interesting about connected platforms is that it’s taking native mobile behaviours and bringing them to a much larger screen.

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Lazerow Discusses Buddy Media And "Don't Run Out Of Money" At VentureCrush

Friday, May 10th, 2013

The venture capital community convened for the annual VentureCrush event in New York City today, featuring a gaggle of venture celebrities. Several of the VCs hailed from firms active in the ad tech space, such as Accel Partners (investors in Krux, MoPub, MyThings, etc.), Greycroft (33across, TagMan, Collective) and Sequoia Capital (HubSpot, Drawbridge, Chartboost).

Of note, Yahoo was the top "Platinum Sponsor" of the conference, as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and her corporate development minions likely want to make clear that Yahoo intends to be a buyer of venture firm portfolio companies in the future. "Is the next mobile Facebook or Google in the house?" Or maybe just an acqui-hire or ten will do.

Among the discussions moderated by Ed Zimmerman of conference host Lowenstein Sandler was a panel centered around the acquisition of Buddy Media (acquired by Salesforce.com in 2012) with Buddy's CEO Mike Lazerow, Greycroft's Alan Patricof, who was a venture investor in Buddy Media, and Gary Vaynerchuk, who was a Buddy "angel."

As the insights vacillated between entrepreneurship and investment, Mike Lazerow revealed he's an active angel investor himself and that, no surprise, a key to getting any Lazerow greenback is that you'll need to be a great founder — great ideas, passionate, tireless.

Lazerow also claimed that during Buddy's August 2011 $54 million venture round, it never dawned on him that an "exit" might be coming in the form of Salesforce, adding that his job as a founder is always "Don't run out of money." But Lazerow did admit the importance of laying the groundwork through building relationships.

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QR Codes Are Ready For Programmatic, Says Scanbuy's Mike Wehrs

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

Do people really want to scan that little black-and-white pattern better known as a QR code?

Mike Wehrs, CEO of QR code marketing tech company Scanbuy, doesn’t give any ground, saying QR codes are here to stay and a new partnership with AT&T helps prove it.

Wehrs told AdExchanger this week, “We have distribution and partnership agreements with Verizon, Sprint and now AT&T. The AT&T relationship, specifically, is for any of their internal uses. They use our code platform system to generate any of their identifiers and to put it on their collateral material, their phone boxes, their POS displays, whatever it is that they want to do.” But does the consumer want to use it?

Wehrs discussed his company and QR code trends with AdExchanger recently.

AdExchanger: Looking at the QR Code model itself, has it evolved at all? And are you starting to see a change in traction, or is it still a slog?

MIKE WEHRS: There has been a significant change. I put this in line with every other major technology innovation that has happened in the world. I can put this in terms of comparing to the Web, for example. In the beginning, what did people do with the Web? They put up basically “brochureware” – in other words, they just put up a website and then they wondered why they received no interaction.

Next, when people learned how to use the medium, you saw significant changes. At first, there was basic interactivity. And then there was tracking capability and targeting. And then you get as advanced as we are today.

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RTB 'Hockey Stick' Has DG's Peer39 Ready For 50% Growth By Q3

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

It’s been over a year since ad tech and video ad distribution company DG acquired semantic data provider Peer39 and folded it into DG’s MediaMind online division. During that time, Peer39-er Alex White has had a front row seat to his company’s integration into DG with his new role as GM of DG’s Data and Trading operations.

White says that although being in a larger company can sometimes make it harder to get things done, the new resources have provided significant benefit to Peer39's business. According to White, DG has quietly built infrastructure support that will allow it “to scale at the speed of RTB,” which might have otherwise become prohibitive for an independent Peer39.

AdExchanger spoke to White last week about Peer39 and the use of his company’s data in digital advertising.

AdExchanger: Looking at the Peer39 products in particular, is it all about integrating your semantic technology into exchanges, or are there other opportunities?

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ValueClick Reports: 2013 Is 'Transformational'; Affiliate Marketing Opp Ahead

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

ValueClick announced after the stock market closed today that it has seen revenues grow 13% over Q1 2012 to $165.4 million on (GAAP) earnings of $0.34 versus $0.25 from a year ago. Read the release.

Aol's Daily Finance aggregated ValueClick earnings expectations before the release, saying that "the average [Wall Street] estimate for revenue is $166.7 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.39." It's unclear if this is GAAP or non-GAAP. Nevertheless, Wall Street didn't seem impressed prior to the call, as the company's stock price tumbled 13% in after-hours trading – presumably on the revenue "miss" and diminished expectations about the future (keep reading).

ValueClick is a bit of a bellwether for the world of demand-side platforms, and specifically ecommerce media retargeting, since the company bought Dotomi in 2011. Dotomi's CEO and President John Giuliani took over the reigns as CEO of ValueClick late last year.

Giuliani is quoted in today's earnings release as saying 2013 is "transformational" for his company – code for "may be bumps along the way." But later in the release he says, "Google's recent decision to exit this market is a seismic shift in the competitive landscape, and we are prioritizing resources to take full advantage. The affiliate marketing industry and its customers are at an inflection point, and ValueClick stands alone as the company with affiliate marketing at its core." Can retargeting fuel the ValueClick fires? They've got the big-brand affiliate relationships through Commission Junction.

You can listen to the rebroadcast of the webcast here. Or you can read AdExchanger's "live" blog of the earnings conference call below.

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Collective Eyes Multi-Screen, Programmatic Publisher And IPO

Monday, May 6th, 2013

Having co-founded Collective in 2005, CEO Joe Apprendi has seen his company’s ad network reconfigured, if not entirely reimagined, as programmatic audience buying transforms the publisher ad network model. And as placement has given way to audience buying in recent years, Apprendi and his team have looked to keep pace with products such as its audience buying platform, known as AMP, and its newer TV Accelerator product aimed at media buyers looking to address TV audience online.

Today, Apprendi pins Collective’s future on multi-screen addressability: “We put the audience right at the center of our technology platform. Any screen that we can address with data in absolute or near real-time, that’s where Collective is playing. Those screens include the desktop environment, the mobile environment with tablets and smartphones, and eventually connected TV.”

Though declining to discuss exact revenues, Apprendi says business is booming with clients who include 76 of the top 100 spenders in the US. He also claims that the average spend of those 76 increased by 40% from 2011 to 2012, while headcount at Collective is now “north” of 300.

AdExchanger spoke to Apprendi last week about his company and industry trends.

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HookLogic's Jonathan Opdyke And Michael Barrett On The Ecommerce Ad Exchange

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

With HookLogic’s purview in the ecommerce media arena, one might not think that former Yahoo CRO and AdMeld CEO Michael Barrett would be a logical fit for the company’s board, which was announced last month. But according to HookLogic CEO Jonathan Opdyke, the fit was “natural,” given Opdyke’s own thoughts on the future of exchanges, let alone the imprimatur that Barrett brings.

AdExchanger spoke to Opdyke and Barrett earlier this week about HookLogic, industry trends and the company’s new Retail Search Exchange, which Hooklogic positions as a solution for ecommerce publishers to tap search engine marketing and programmatic budgets. Read more.

AdExchanger: Michael, why connect with HookLogic in particular?

MICHAEL BARRETT: After the Admeld experience, my short stint at Yahoo helped solidify my thinking. Although SSPs definitely work well for publishers and are their ally, going back to the publisher hammered home some of the macro trends that have occurred in the last five years since the advent of exchanges and programmatic buying.

The CPM story wasn't getting any more attractive for publishers. As a matter of fact, one could argue that it was getting less attractive. Overall in the market, the revenue picture wasn't terribly damaged because you're probably selling more at a higher rate on the lower levels, but it was having a drag on your premium pricing.

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Placements Are Dead, Long Live Audience Says Krux's Chavez

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

With Krux’s initial conception of its publisher data management platform (DMP) nearly complete, CEO Tom Chavez is thinking about what’s next for his 2.5-year-old company. Chavez says, “We had a broad idea of all the pieces that we wanted to conquer, and within the last year, those puzzle pieces have come together. It spans not just data protection where we started, but more importantly into management – the segmentation and authoring of audience segments as well as tag management.”

From Chavez’s perspective, and considering what he says he sees from publishing clients, the DMP is hitting its stride.

AdExchanger spoke to Chavez about his company, industry trends and what’s next.

AdExchanger: So do you call yourselves a DMP right now?

TOM CHAVEZ: It’s a funny thing. Two years ago, I resisted the moniker. It wasn’t clear what DMP meant. In theory, it could apply to about 25,000 different companies on the planet. But now, as it has taken shape in our space, people understand that data equals data about consumers: what they want, where they’re headed, what they like, and what they’re doing on the web.

I’ve accepted the term. I’m still not convinced that it’s the most apt descriptor. At this point, it‘s the term that fires off the right patch of neurons for everybody.

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