The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green On The Duopoly; The New York Times Expands With Programmatic

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Jeff Green Speaks

The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green takes the duopoly down a notch in an interview with Business Insider’s Mike Shields. “Google is one of the greatest inventions in my lifetime. But, if you think about it, 70% of their P&L is about making money from Google.com. … Similarly, all Facebook does is monetize Facebook. They are a destination,” he says. “Investors … give Google and Facebook way way too much credit for being the answer to all advertising’s problems.” Read it. Also in this Q&A: lessons from Rocket Fuel and why the shakeout is a good thing. Previously: Watch Green’s well-received presentation at PROGRAMMATIC I/O San Francisco.

Culture Shock

The New York Times is taking over the world – programmatically. Digiday dives into the Times’ global expansion strategy, where programmatic sits squarely at the center. The publisher is running hundreds of programmatic campaigns across Asia and Europe, where programmatic direct revenue has doubled over the past three months. The Times’ premium, brand-safe environment pitch is appealing to brands across borders, but quirks of local markets make it tricky. Sara Badler, global programmatic head, says, “Clients are very specific in how they buy, and a lot of the agency trading desks are looking for ways in which they can buy for multiple advertisers in one deal or doing more audience guaranteed deals.” More.

When ‘Paid’ Looks Like ‘Earned’

It’s become standard practice. A brand will buy a sponsored post with a major publication, then promote that post on Facebook in a manner suggestive of independent editorial content. Tom Goodwin, Zenith’s head of innovation, tweeted the example of a clothing startup’s paid Facebook post featuring a GQ story secured in a branded content deal. Goodwin calls the tactic a “current marketing hack.” Just like Amazon benefits immensely by breaking down the wall between digital advertising and shopper marketing, Facebook sits at a lucrative intersection of paid and earned (and “earned”) media.

Tremor Before Our Growth!

Tremor’s sell-side business continues to catalyze the video ad platform’s growth. New CEO Mark Zagorski noted during the company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday that programmatic spend on the seller platform was the biggest factor driving total spend increases (44% YoY to $78.6 million). The demand side saw some increases as well; Tremor’s “higher-function” products like data targeting, pricing models and cross-screen optimization grew 26% YoY.

Rewarding Good App Citizens

The Google Play Store will boost discoverability for apps that “meet their performance and quality expectations,” writes Play Store product manager Andrew Ahn at the Android Developer blog. For this update, it’s looking more closely at crash rates, rendering times and battery usage as metrics for quality. “We noticed that half of 1-star reviews mentioned app stability,” Ahn says. The change also keeps Google at the crest of the app-install wave, which is moving from pure installs as a conversion to second-time usage, in-app sign-ups or other signs of retention, thus weeding out fraudulent or low-worth installs looking to swipe easy performance dollars.

Too Fast, Too Slow

A few challenges have caused Acxiom to temper its projections around its Audience Solutions and Marketing Services divisions. During the company’s Q1 2018 earnings call Thursday, CEO Scott Howe noted that “the timing of bookings” in its Marketing Services went more slowly than expected. Conversely, Audience Solutions is going through some pricing model changes that, while anticipated, are happening faster than expected. Basically, Audience Solutions clients who use Acxiom’s data are quickly adapting a licensing model at an accelerated rate which, Howe said, is creating headwinds. Company CFO Warren Jenson emphasized that the lower revenue guidance is not happening because of client loss. More, for specifics on Acxiom’s financials.

But Wait, There’s More!