Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Google Uncorks Q1
Eric Schmidt was not on the earnings call, but Susan Wojcicki, VP of Product Management was – in fact, that was her first-ever appearance on the quarterly conference call (I think). Display and new monetization efforts were front-and-center. Regarding overall quarterly results, in the words of The Business Insider’s Henry Blodget, “Solid quarter, in line with expectations. Nothing to hyperventilate about.” Read it. In the call’s transcript from Seeking Alpha, Wojcicki says, “We are also doubling down on our new AdExchange, the second pillar in our display strategy. It is ramping nicely and publishers and advertisers are getting great results. Some publishers are increasing their yield by as much as 130% when compared to ads sold directly to ad networks.”
Later, Wojcicki addresses a question from Needham’s Mark May who asks how Google will differentiate its remarketing product. Wojcicki replied, “So you brought up some questions about remarketing and what we are doing there that is unique. I would definitely agree with you that display is a very vibrant space and there is a lot of innovation that is happening right now in the display market and I think ultimately that innovation will enable the market as a whole to grow. But one of the things that we have that is very unique from a remarketing perspective is users or advertisers can refine users across the content network.” Read Google’s Q1 2010 earnings call transcript in its entirety on SeekingAlpha. From the release, the company reported this: “Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 15% over the first quarter of 2009 and increased approximately 5% over the fourth quarter of 2009.” Read the Google Investor Relations release. Did you know that Google has $27 billion in cash? Now you do.
GCA’s Kawaja On IAB Rev Report
GCA Savvian investment banker, Terence Kawaja, gives his views in an IAB guest commentary regarding the recent IAB revenue report created by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Kawaja’s 11-slide, audio presentation contains many insights and includes – as he describes it – an “eye chart” of an ad ecosystem map. It’s slide 4 and not to be missed. Make sure to go “full-screen” on the map. See/Hear now.
Adchemy Generates Lead
On LeadCritic, Adchemy gets a shout out as one of a small group of service providers suitable for lead generation. LeadCritic writes, “In the mortgage space I surveyed 4 significant lead buyers which constantly mentioned receiving excellent quality leads from LeadPoint, QuinStreet, MortgageLoan.com and Adchemy.” Read more.
Disrobing Twitter’s Ad Model
Zach Rodgers dissects Twitters new advertising model on ClickZ. Rodgers identifies one particular feature that will likely provide panels of discussion at upcoming advertising conferences: “The key element in Twitter’s new monetization scheme is an ad ranking algorithm called a “Resonance Score.” Twitter will calculate the score for a given Promoted Tweet by analyzing all the ways people interact with it…” Read more.
Data marketplace Magnetic announced a long list of new partnerships with demand-side platforms who will use the company’s search data to assist in retargeting audience. DSPs include DataXu, Lucid Media and Rocket Fuel Inc., Invite Media, MediaMath, XA.net and [x+1]. Read the release as targeters try to move down the funnel.
Former PointRoll CEO Saridakis Lands
The eagle has landed at GSI Commerce in the form of DoubleClick alum and past CEO of PointRoll, Chris Saridakis. Read more. No word on whether Saridakis will follow outgoing CEO Michael Rubin footsteps and become the next Undercover Boss.
DSPs Are Good For Publishers
Demand-sider Mark Mannino unleashes his blogging mojo in Part I of a piece aimed at publishers – and why platform-based buying is good for publishers. Central to his thesis is the importance of universal frequency capping which he says a buying platform provides. Mannino, a baseball fan, also stresses that publishers deserve to stop feeling like the manager of perennial also-rans, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Read more.
Software Is Media
VC Fred Wilson argues on his personal blog that “All software should be characterized and thought of as media.” Speaking to the souls of software programmer’s everywhere, Wilson adds, “Like media, the interfaces that present software to us need to be stylized, designed, and elegant. Software can be beautiful and the best software is beautiful.” Read more.
Razorfish In The Clouds
In a release, Publicis’ Razorfish announced that it will begin a cloud computing practice. So what does this mean? For starters, the agency has received accreditation from cloud provider Amazon Web Services (AWS). The release notes: “Razorfish combines its own design and technology integration capabilities (including cloud expertise) with AWS cloud computing web services for Razorfish clients.” Read more.
Gamer Audience
SPIL Games which attracts over 115 million uniques per month to its games site according to ComScore has partnered “Betawave as its strategic partner in concepting and introducing novel advertising solutions that improve results for marketers while respecting and serving the user experience.” Read more.
