Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Sourced Traffic Is For Suckers
Bloomberg Businessweek’s cover story next week is a dive into the world of fraudulent traffic. A while ago advertisers hoped digital display would be as effective but more efficient vs. TV advertising: similar reach, but way less cost. But last year, Heineken’s senior media director, Ron Amram, was stunned to discover that digital ROI was 2-1, compared to TV’s 6-1. Much of the problem was due to nonhuman traffic. Bloomberg cybersecurity reporter Michael Riley, who co-authored the article, told AdExchanger in an email that the investigation “quickly ran into a wall of front companies, fake publishing empires, and layer upon layer of middlemen designed to disguise the source of fraudulent clicks.” For brands and ad tech players: Be wary, whether they’re based out of Russia, Israel or Brooklyn, these are the most sophisticated Potemkin Villages you can possibly imagine. Read on.
NDN No More
News Distribution Network, the video monetization platform for all AP member companies (see AdExchanger’s coverage), has dropped its NDN moniker in favor of the name Inform. Along with the rebrand comes a unified publisher offering for content delivery and personalization, born from three acquisitions NDN made over the years. Now at 27 million uniques and 230 million video views a month, CEO Greg Peters says a big development imperative will be more mobile personalization. Press release.
Power To The Pubs
LiveRail announced the launch of the Partner Program, designed to connect proven media buyers with publishers searching for specific advertisers. While the blog post touting Partner Program never uses the word “premium,” the initiative is meant to facilitate deals between partners and select clients. Whether you see it as programmatic absorbing direct deals or as the natural next step for a platform like Facebook, it’s clear publishers are exerting more influence over the kind and quality of advertiser that appears on their sites. More.
This Is (Not) The End
The programmatic ecosystem has taken big hits lately (stories about ad blocking or brands pulling back on spending, etc). These articles are partially substantive and partially PR-motivated. But Google’s VP of display and video advertising, Neal Mohan, has some bracing stats about programmatic’s prospects. Mohan writes at the DoubleClick blog that the number of advertisers on the platform have doubled in the past 18 months and that mobile programmatic spending is expected to go from $4.7 billion this year to $22.8 billion in 2019. More.
The Value Of Video
App publishers can now promote their goods using mobile video ads on Twitter’s feed. In a blog post, company product manager Ivan Santana said the ability to “(show) people a preview of your app” nearly tripled conversion rates, according to Twitter’s internal data from beta testing. Now app publishers looking to drive installs can show how awesome their product is, rather than using 140 characters to tell it. Read on.
You’re Hired
- Adelphic Hires Nicholas Mills As General Manager, EMEA – press release
- Deloitte Digital Brings In Razorfish Alum Paul do Forno To Grow Ecom – Deloitte Blog
- Discovery Adds DirecTV’s Paul Guyardo As Chief Commercial Officer – Adweek
- zeotap Hires Ex-InMobi VP Neeraj Singh To Lead Advertising Business – press release
- Mother NY Hires TBWA LA’s Peter Ravailhe As CEO – The Drum
But Wait, There’s More!
- Facebook Takes 360-Degree Video Out For A Spin – WSJ
- The Internet’s Vanishing Point? – TechCrunch
- Privacy Trade Org Releases Annual Report – IAPP
- AddThis Expands Relationship With Oracle Data Cloud To Provide Global Data Reach – press release
- AppDirect Acquires AppCarousel To Deliver Apps Everywhere – Computer World
- Are Ebooks Declining, Or Just The Publishers? – Stratechery
- Havas Makes $75M Acquisition In Its Biggest Deal For 15 Years – Ad Age
- Mobile Engagement Platform, CleverTap, Launches In The U.S. – press release
- How Legacy.com Is Turning Obits Into Business – Digiday
- Bloomberg’s Caine Makes Multi-Screen Ad Pitch – Beet.tv
- Business.com Releases 2015 Demand Generation Report, Delivering Recommendations For B2B Marketers – press release
- Oculus Connect: 5 Key Questions At The Big Virtual Reality Conference In Hollywood – LA Times
- Cost Of Ad-Blocking Will Only Be $1 Billion, Research Firm Says – Fortune
- appFigures Launches Integration With Adobe Analytics – press release
