Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Google/AdMob Deal Review
The Wall Street Journal looks at the FTC’s inquiry into Google buying AdMob. From a distance, it appears that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission might scuttle the deal due to anti-trust concerns. The WSJ reports, “[The FTC] sent letters to AdMob’s competitors asking them to testify in sworn statements about the potential impact of the purchase.” This happens every time a big player like Google makes a purchase (witness Microsoft buying off Yahoo! search and the ensuing review). It’s very doubtful the deal will be stopped even if Google itself may rue the $750 million it coughed up to beat out Apple for AdMob and a place at the table for the still-nascent mobile ad market. Read more. (No subscription? Try this.)
PointRoll Reaching For Attribution
MediaPost covers PointRoll’s new Open Initiative platform which “works by connecting rich media engagement metrics with other campaign data to better understand the relationship between advertisers’ creative and media goals” according to MediaPost’s Gavin O’Malley. Read more.
Burst Media Still Kicking
Burst Media announced that it has acquired the 16th largest ad network in the UK, On The Phone Media Limited, for an undisclosed sum. The OTP Media specializes in vertical content and fits with Burst Media’s vertical targeting strategy according to the release. Read it.
Premium Inventory Consolidation
In an OMMA magazine article, Steve Smith asks if science can save display advertising with all-to-familiar references to challenges for advertisers and publishers in the display space. Collective CEO Joe Apprendi is quoted in regards to publishers, “It is going to be much tougher for them to monetize and break even just on ad revenue.” Smith suggests “We may see more consolidation among top-tier brands in order to achieve scale for premium inventory.” Read more.
RTB Or Not
From his personal blog, kbs+p Chief Digital Officer Darren Herman delivers his thoughts on whether or not RTB is necessary for today’s marketer and invites others to chime in. Herman concludes, “I believe that the long term winners in this category will not be the scientists, but rather the artists who know how to apply the processes, procedures, and strategies for their clients.” Read more – including the comments.
Padmedia
Great name! Millennial Media (the next mobile ad network to be bought?) announced and “that it is releasing an SDK and the PadMedia Creative Suite™, with new creative ad formats, built specifically for the iPad™. The PadMedia creatives will be formatted and available on other tablet devices later in 2010.” Read the release.
The Audience Measurement Game
On the Google AdWords Agency blog, Google announced that the DoubleClick Ad Planner is going to get more robust than ever when it comes to Audience Measurement. Using “a hybrid measurement methodology,” the Ad Planner leverages data gathered through Google Analytics and the popular Google toolbar installed in many internet browsers among other sources. Read more.
Armstrong Wielding Axe For Bebo
It seems like only yesterday that AOL spent $850 million on a social media site called Bebo. Today, it appears Bebo will either be sold or shuttered altogether as Tim Armstrong has made it clear to his ground forces that the AOL (or Aol.) horse & buggy has a new master – increasing profitability. Read more from ClickZ.
Platform Apple
The New York Post’s Holly Sanders Ware says that Apple is ready to start delivering ads through its own mobile platform and will release full details shortly. Sanders Ware writes, “The thinking is that Apple would build the platform into the operating system, giving developers an easy way to plug ads into their apps and other content.” Read more.
eMarketer: UK ‘tudes And U.S. Spend
eMarketer released a pair of articles containing nifty graphics destined for the sales presentation of digital ad sellers. Looking at UK online audience through a WSJ survey, no surprise that people want content for free and that mobile is still early. But, there is a significant group who know they’re going to have to pay someday. See it. eMarketer brings together data for predicted spending growth across digital and traditional channels courtesy of UBS. Digital and TV will grow at the same rate this year says the graphic. See that one.
The Publisher Bloat Argument
Mike Turro, director of tech at M. Shanken Communications, asks on his Amplify blog if publishers have what it takes to survive in the digital world given the arrival of the iPad: “If publishers insist on feeding it with a complex, bloated, press oriented supply chain they will always be vulnerable to digitally native start-up.” Read more.
