Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
The Going Rate
Industry analysts expect upfront TV ad sales to be up 3-4% from last year, a solid rise considering ratings dipped for broadcasters as a whole, according to The Hollywood Reporter. TV nets see the result as an endorsement of their primacy – in the minds of marketers, at least – over digital video rivals like YouTube. “The inability of companies of that magnitude to guarantee brand safety was truly the straw that broke the camel’s back,” says NBCU ad sales Chairwoman Linda Yaccarino, whose upfront haul this year was up 8% over 2016. More.
Instant Measurement
Facebook is rolling out an analytics tool for publishers that shows how their posts perform on Instant Articles compared to the mobile web. Facebook previously shared an aggregate lift number across all publishers for Instant Articles, but will now let media companies monitor data on individual article performance validated by Nielsen. Read the blog post. While publishers who have gone all-in on Instant Articles (e.g., Wired and the Daily Mail) are excited about getting more granularity from Facebook, others that have stopped using Instant Articles due to low monetization rates (e.g., LittleThings) want to see more before returning to the platform, Digiday reports. More.
Hit Refresh
The IAB released the final version of its new cross-screen ad unit standard. The new unit replaces units like 300x250s and 728x90s with ratios, like 1×1 and 8×1, to better work across different size screens. “Flexible-sized ad units allow for ad delivery across multiple screen sizes and integration with responsive website design,” the IAB said in a release.The future is modular, baby.
Annexing Retail
There’s no hope in being an Amazon holdout. That’s what Sears signaled to the marketplace on Thursday when it announced it will sell its Kenmore appliances on the platform and integrate Alexa voice commands with its smart appliances. Sears, which has accumulated $10 million in losses in the past six years due to ecommerce disruption and changing consumer shopping habits, saw shares soar 24% after announcing its decision to team up with Amazon. Meanwhile, rivals like Home Depot, Lowes and Best Buy suffered a corresponding sell-off. “The launch of Kenmore products on Amazon.com will significantly expand the distribution and availability of the Kenmore brand in the U.S.,” Sears CEO Eddie Lampert told Bloomberg in a statement. More.
But Wait, There’s More!
- Amazon Lures Publishers To New Social Network By Paying Them To Post – WSJ
- People Who Get News From Search And Social Don’t Recall News Org – Nieman Lab
- PebblePost Closes Series B Equity And Debt Totaling $47 Million – release
- Why We’re Supporting Ads.txt – AppNexus
- Rocket Fuel Announces Certification With Mediaocean Prisma – release
- Facebook Is Letting Brands Create Their Own Groups Within Pages – Adweek
- Why Advertising Technology Mergers Will Continue – Campaign
- SRAX Releases People-Based Advertising Guide – release
- Google’s Brave New Friendless Feed – TechCrunch
- Video On Demand Ratings Added To Media Impact Planning – Nielsen
- Marchex Launches Audience Targeting For Social And Display – release
- Ritz Carlton Credit Card Runs 360° VR Campaign on WSJ.com – release
- French Court Refers Google Privacy Case To EU Court Of Justice – Politico.eu
You’re Hired!
- Hearst UK Appoints Robert Ffitch As CSO – release
- MFour Hires Mike Gaffney To Drive Growth As CRO – release
