Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
AOL On Verge Of “Abandoning” Bebo
Actually, the vernacular here is “abandoning” as AOL, which bought Bebo for $800 million, will likely sell it for something around $10 million. As Mike Arrington points out on TechCrunch, it’s likely worthe more, but this gives AOL a whopper of write-off. Mashable broke the story. And, read more from TechCrunch. PEHub says the price tag is even lower – at $2.5 million.
What Is Facebook Up To
Media6Degrees and 33Across are featured pundits in a piece discussing Facebook and its actionable targeting data – or its potential. Media6Degrees Tom Phillips tells PCWorld, “With the amount of volume [Facebook has], they only have to do simple things. They can make enough money selling big marketers volume impressions online […].” 33Across CEO Eric Wheeler thinks that Facebook may end up selling the ability to retarget users and adds, “Facebook could decouple its user data from its platform and license it to companies like 33Across (Wheeler says that he’d love to have access to Facebook’s data) […].” Who wouldn’t love gobs of Facebook targeting data? Read more.
Vizu On Online Video Branding
Yet another reference from the ad technology ecosystem to the film “A Few Good Men” as Digiday Daily’s John Gaffney talks to CEO Dan Beltramo of online brand awareness measurement company Vizu. Beltramo tells Gaffney of recent brand success with video, “One of Vizu’s publisher partners, ShareThrough, recently conducted a video campaign featuring exclusive creative for a major video game release. The campaign drove a 110% brand lift in purchase intent…” Read more.
If you haven’t seen JEGI‘s Tolman Geffs’ presentation – it includes a cameo by family film favorite, The Wizard of Oz – that he gave at the IAB’s Innovation Days event during InternetWeek, you can see it now courtesy of YouTube. The presentation is an update of his IAB Annual Leadership Meeting presentation in February in which Geffs identifies – among other trends – the slices of the marketing dollar which are being divvied up by intermediaries. Download it.
Associated Content And Breakfast
Have you been wondering about the lead up to Yahoo!’s acquisition of Associated Content? Nick Carlson of The Business Insider has the whole – I mean WHOLE story. An excerpt: “Hilary Schneider, Greg Mrva, and Yahoo media boss Jimmy Pitaro met with [Associated Content CEO] Patrick and Mike for breakfast at a hotel just off Times Square in New York. Jimmy showed up late and ordered an orange juice. Hilary ordered “something healthy” – maybe egg whites.” Wait. There’s more.
Brains At The Agency
In a post on the Universal McCann blog, David Cohen – who is likely the same David Cohen how is also EVP and US Director of Digital Communications at Universal McCann/Media – discusses what he calls “The Digital Brain Drain.” Agencies can’t find the talent they need. Cohen says, “The depth of talent at the middle to senior level is very limited. There are a lot of the same folks circulating from one agency to another. We simply don’t have enough practitioners in the market to handle the growth we are experiencing.” Read his thoughts on a solution.
You Know You Want To
GRP Partners VC Mark Suster issues a missive from his blog that it’s better to just do it rather than wait around and wait for somebody to give you permission adding, “It’s not about abusing situations but about knowing when to push the boundaries.” He expects all of his portfolio companies to follow this credo, too. Read more.
More Video! More Facebook! More Ads!
TubeMogul provides its latest facts, figures and charts on Facebook video viewing on TechCrunch. Evidently Facebook viewers love to watch video and click on the ads. Here’s one TubeMogul finding noted by TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld: “Roughly 40 percent of Facebook video ads, give or take, are watched all the way through across different video ad types. On the Web in general, video ad completion rates hover around 25 percent.” See more.
Starting Over
Angel investor Chris Dixon shares an exercise he uses to make sure he and his startup team are developing a product that they really want and that will overcome any bias. Dixon concludes by asking the reader, “If you started over today, would you build the same product? If not, consider significant changes to what you are building.” Read more.
New OPA Study
The Online Publishers Association (OPA) released highlights (full version to come on June 30) from a new study focusing on the benefits of big media sites: “A Sense of Place: Why Environments Matter.” One finding suggests big branded sites score well for the trust factor according to the OPA: “Audiences on media sites are significantly more likely to believe these sites’ advertisers are high quality and reputable (24%), compared to portal channels (20%) and social media (8%).” 24% – that’s it? This is why publishers should get in the data game. See the release.
TagMan Gets CTO
Tag management technology company TagMan has hired Ave Wrigley, as its Chief Technical Officer. Wrigley comes from content provider ITN where he was Head of Technology. View Wrigley’s LinkedIn profile.
