RSS FeedArchive for the ‘Online Advertising’ Category

Aol's Barbell Strategy Shows Uneven Lift For Display Dollars

Tim Armstrong AOL CEO 2Aol was able to maintain its hard-won profitability and ad sales gains Q1. But just as Aol was finally able to turn US display around with a decent growth of 6%, the usual powerhouse of third-party network revenues showed signs of slowing down. Read the earnings release.

The company's third-party network revenues growth slowed to a 10% gain in Q1 from a 22% rise in Q4, a deceleration that can't easily be dismissed as typical seasonality. That's something of a surprise, considering the emphasis on building Aol's ad tech stack with its AdLearn demand side platform and the recent introduction of its Marketplace supply side platform.

Incidentally, the slowdown occurred just a few weeks after the executive who had done so much to rebuild Aol's third-party ad strategy, Ned Brody, resigned as CEO of Aol Networks, the unit that houses Advertising.com, ad serving tool ADTECH, the year-old demand side platform AdLearn, and the recently launched supply side platform known as Marketplace.

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Spotlight On Brazil: RTB Gaining Ground In A Diverse Advertising Market

Brazil SoccerWith the World Cup and Olympics coming to Brazil in 2014 and 2016, all eyes are on the country's preparations for the events, which include readying its digital infrastructure. Brands are waiting for the chance to be at the center of the worldwide stage, and several advertising technology companies have opened offices in Brazil.

This BRIC country is seen as an emerging market when it comes to its economy, and online advertising is also growing. While programmatic and RTB haven't yet made a huge splash in the country, the introduction of Facebook Exchange, US-based demand-side platforms opening offices in Brazil, and the expansion of other ad exchanges and networks in the ecosystem may change that.

"It’s a huge economy and a pretty robust ad market right now," said Bruce Journey, Chief Customer Officer for DataXu, a DSP with an office in Sao Paulo. Journey notes that Brazil is the sixth largest economy in the world: "It’s a vibrant digital community, but it is about a couple of years behind in terms of advertising, compared to where things are in the United States."

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Corrected: At Aol's Newfronts, Lines Between TV And Video Disappear

Ran HarnevoFor all the glitz and glamour that surrounded Aol's Newfronts programming preview on Tuesday, perhaps the most relevant news for advertisers came at the end of the showcase with a mention of the unsexiest of topics: back-office operations designed to support the thousands of hours of digital video, along with analytics.

Following appearances by actors like Sarah Jessica Parker, Hank Azaria and Nicole Ritchie to promote their new Aol video series, the company discussed the new deal with media buying workflow software provider Mediaocean and digital video rights manager FreeWheel, as well as a new deal with Nielsen to provide "TV comparable" ratings for Aol's online video.

FreeWheel is billing this new arrangement with Mediaocean, which is being inaugurated with Aol but will be rolled out across their respective new and old clients over the next few months as its "FourFronts solution."

"There is no such thing as online video," said FreeWheel co-founder and co-CEO Jonathan Heller in an interview with AdExchanger after the Aol presentation. "There is only TV. Marrying our distribution capabilities with Mediaocean and their presence in the buying community makes the point that in order for the video ad buying process to work, it has to be end-to-end. Or it doesn't work at all."

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Self-Serve Twitter Ads No Longer Invite-Only, Now Open To All

Kevin Weil, TwitterA year after Twitter opened its self-serve Twitter Advertising system to businesses on an "invite-only" basis, the microblog's Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts products will be open to anyone in the US. Read the release.

This news was mentioned as Kevin Weil, Senior Director of Product for Revenue at Twitter, participated on a panel with Google's VP of Display Advertising Neal Mohan and Facebook's Product Director of Ads Gokul Rajaram at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York.

Weil said Twitter is mindful that the real money is still in TV, making a bid for Twitter's place in alignment with old media rather than against it.

"Twitter is a bridge, not an island," he said. "It can connect with all the market outreach an advertiser already does, especially across TV. About 95% of the social media commentary about TV happens on Twitter. During the last Super Bowl, about half of all the TV ads had hashtags. Our message to advertisers is that Twitter and TV...make each other stronger."

The panel's moderator, TechCrunch's Anthony Ha,  then led a broader discussion with the other panelists about the importance of mobile and how the three companies approach devices.

"I tell advertisers, 'If you're building for mobile, you're building for the future,'" Mohan said. "Consumers don't think of silos – they don't think, 'I'm on my desktop, I'm on my tablet, I'm on my phone' – but they do have different mindsets. And we all have to embrace that concept. Advertisers need to be focused on consumer context, not devices."

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Yahoo's De Castro Pledges Guarantees To Buyers Who Shift TV Budgets

henrique de castro yahooYahoo executives talked a lot about "new" ad formats and video-centric programming during its Newfront presentation, but a vague familiarity persisted until the very end of COO Henrique De Castro's presentation, when he made a promise to media buyers: give us a small yet sizable portion of your TV ad spending and we'll guarantee satisfaction.

It was a fairly bold moment – some in the audience laughed at either the audacity of De Castro's offer or the nonchalance of his delivery – amid a series of pedestrian showcases of upcoming video programming.

"Pick one brand on Yahoo," De Castro told attendees who had waited in long lines at the Best Buy Theatre in Times Square. "Call us and tell us you want to shift five to ten percent of your budget to Yahoo. And I will prove that it is the best return on your investment. And if not, I don't want your money. Pretty fair?"

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Industry Renews Plea To Keep "Do Not Track" Off By Default

w3c-dntThe Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) will make a formal case this week that Do Not Track should be set to “off” by default. Members of the group charged with creating the DNT browser spec heard details of the ad industry's proposal during a Monday call meant to prepare for next week's face-to-face meeting in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Under the DAA's plan, users would have to flip a switch in the browser settings panel to turn on the Do Not Track setting. Additionally, consumers would be informed that if this setting is activated, it limits the collection and use of web viewing data for certain advertising purposes, but some data may still be collected and a description of those purposes would be provided. Read the proposal.

“For this to be workable for the business community in a way that provides consumers with a choice but also allows responsible businesses to continue to act responsibly and benefit consumers, we’d want to make sure the setting is consistent and off by default,” said Stuart Ingis, counsel for the Digital Advertising Alliance.

But privacy advocates on the Tracking Protection Working Group, which operates under the aegis of the World Wide Web Consortium, had chilly initial reactions to the proposal.

During the call, Jonathan Mayer, a privacy advocate and member of the Group, tweeted a link to the proposal with the comment "Here's the new Do Not Track deal from the online advertising industry. Neither new nor a deal."

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In Hearing, Senator Rockefeller Paddles "Do Not Track" Laggards

john-rockIn a hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee, Chairman John "Jay" Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) accused the ad industry of dragging its feet on the creation of specs for a Do Not Track browser option.

“A commitment was made to honor Do Not Track requests from consumers that has not yet been followed through,” Rockefeller said today. “I want the witnesses to explain what has gone wrong and what they can offer to make Do Not Track a reality as they promised to do.”

One of the witnesses, Luo Mastria, managing director of the Digital Advertising Alliance, pointed the finger at Microsoft and Mozilla – both of which have adopted aggressive privacy updates in new versions of their browsers.

“The DAA has offered a simple one-button mechanism that provides enhanced transparency, but unfortunately the DAA was short-circuited by the actions of Microsoft and Mozilla,” Mastria said.

Mastria was referring to the all-but-forgotten AdChoices self-regulatory program. He said more than 23 million internet users have visited the portal of the AdChoices icon – a blue icon appearing in display ads and on member websites that consumers can click to opt out of receiving behavioral advertising. About 2 million have opted out.

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With New Ad Campaign, Microsoft Bets The Farm On Privacy Issue

microsoft-privacyIt's been almost a year since Microsoft first pledged to default-enable Do Not Track in Internet Explorer 10, setting off an urgent debate about the future of third-party ad tracking which continues to this day. The company has endured attacks both withering ("paternalistic," said Evidon) and mild ("absolutely not helpful," offered IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg), imploring a change of heart.

All in vain. Immovable in so many things, Microsoft has proved equally so on the privacy question – which is at the heart of a new consumer marketing campaign that launches today.

"Your Privacy Is Our Priority" features TV, radio, print and online ads that create an emotional connection based on the idea that even big time sharers need some personal privacy.

"Through modern tracking technologies such as cookies and beacons, a site could share your browsing history with others," says the voiceover in one TV spot. "Microsoft is finding ways to give you more control over things you want private. That's why we've added protection in Internet Explorer and included Do Not Track with the belief that one day it too will give you more control."

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Quote: AOL On The 'Premium' Video Conundrum

Ran Harnevo"I hear people say I can buy premium video content wherever I want. Then at the other end, I hear people say there's not enough. And they say that they can't even buy data on top of it, because the minute you apply data to premium, the cake becomes smaller and smaller. This is why the definition of premium matters so much and this is why tier-3 inventory is so successful. Many of the players out there understand that they're not big enough to do GRP-based ad sales.

The other question is, 'How do you scale premium?' The combination of data and premium doesn't really scale in the eyes of TV buyers. That's what is holding programmatic video buying back."

-Ran Harnevo, SVP of AOL On Network,  speaking at the BrightRoll Video Summit.

Yahoo Joins NY Times And Hits Programmatic Wall

wallIt was inevitable, as the move from buying placements to buying audience infiltrates display ad campaigns. Yesterday, Yahoo reconfirmed in its quarterly results that programmatic media has changed its business forever.

The statement echoes comments made by The New York Times a few months ago, in which the publisher seemed to pin some of its display ad pain on programmatic. At the time, CFO James Follo cited a "shift toward ad exchanges, real-time bidding and all the programmatic buying channels that allow advertisers to buy audiences at scale."

Now Yahoo faces a similar crisis, long in the coming.

For many large publishers, direct-sold inventory cannot support the CPMs of the past – especially if your content is relatively undifferentiated. Yahoo is not Turner; it does not have a strong, traditional media brand (though Yahoo has tried with ABC) to consistently bring its online content to life and create unique opportunities for advertisers.

On the other hand, Yahoo remains a "scale" king with much-maligned IAB display ad placements that are perfectly suited for automated ads. Reach and frequency remain key for any direct marketer or agency buyer and, programmatically speaking, if you're buying online, you'll be buying Yahoo unless you tell your favorite demand-side platform not to – at which point the DSP may fire you. Yahoo inventory remains programmatic "gold," but that doesn't make up for the higher margin, direct-sold display business which Yahoo and many large publishers have lost.

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