Yandex Has A Strong Quarter; Meredith Sees Programmatic Benefits

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Yandex’s Strong Quarter

Russian search giant Yandex reported a solid Q3 Thursday, with revenue hitting $331.5 million, up 28% YoY. Display advertising accounted for 6% of total revenue in 2014’s third quarter, totaling nearly $20 million. O&O display revenue shrank 3%, but ad network revenue grew an impressive 19% YoY, and don’t forget the company’s acquisition of ad tech platform AdFox. More on that.

Meredith Reaps Programmatic Benefits

Publisher Meredith Corporation saw Q1 2015 revenue grow 4% YoY to $371 million. Read the release. Audience reach for its national brands increased 8% YoY to 180 million monthly visits across print, digital, mobile and video, with about 60 million uniques per month on its digital and mobile properties. CEO Stephen Lacy pointed to 20% growth in digital ad revenue, led by Allrecipes.com, which performed “just absolutely lights out.” CFO Joseph Ceryanec also noted “large gains from our initiative to capture programmatic-related opportunities.” Programmatic grew 100% according to Lacy, though he acknowledged the base is small. This growth occurred because Meredith got its data assets aligned, which allowed it to better monetize its traffic and enter the marketplace with the ability to target online audiences.

Indexing Social Performance

Social analytics company Socialbakers partnered with Lenovo to create a social marketing performance tool for brands. CEO Jan Rezab explained that The Social Health Index, released Thursday, gives brands “a way to quantify their return on investment into social relative to their competition. Our development of this index with Lenovo provides a simple way for brands in any industry to do this.” Read on via The Drum and go HERE for AdExchanger’s recent Q&A with Rezab.

Ads Non Grata

Ad-free social network Ello raised $5.5 million in new venture funding by the Foundry Group, Bullet Time Ventures and FreshTracks Capital. What’s more, the startup is reorganizing as a public benefit corporation. “It basically means no investor can force us to take a really good financial deal if it forces us to take advertising,” Ello co-founder and CEO Paul Budnitz told the New York Times. “It points us in the right direction, and it protects us.” So how will Ello monetize? Budnitz said Ello will eventually offer widgets for purchase (think Apple’s app store).

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