Sorrell On Cannes Lions; Industry Reaction To GroupM's Exchange Stance

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

What Cannes Means

WPP Group CEO Sir Martin Sorrell inserts himself in the pages of The Telegraph with a wide-ranging op-ed on what this week’s Cannes Lions ad festival means to Europe. The festival now recognizes that “advertising is now as much about Math’s Men as Mad Men,” says Sorrell, adding, “The ethos is openness, internationalism and, above all, celebration. The judges, with the occasional exception, put aside national differences and professional conflicts to choose the very best work, whatever its origin.” On the other hand, the politics of Europe, he says, are in “stark contrast.” Read it.

Privatizing The Exchange

The Wall Street Journal reviews GroupM’s announcement that it won’t be buying through open exchanges in the near future. Industry execs weigh in and see the reasons for the move ranging from ad quality issues in the open exchanges to securing first look access to publisher inventory. Wayne Gattinella, CEO of DoubleVerify, offers his thoughts, “If nothing else, it’s definitely a loud and open challenge to the exchanges that they need to provide greater transparency into the quality of the ad impression they’re delivering.” Read more (subscription).

Local Reservation Data

On Friday, the Priceline Group acquired OpenTable in a cash transaction valued at $2.6 billion. The merger follows TripAdvisor’s purchase of LaFourchette last month, a Paris-based startup which offers similar restaurant booking services. Developing mobile integrations will be a key strategy moving forward, said executives during the Priceline Group’s investor’s call on Friday morning. Read the press release. In the end, it means heaps of local intent data for Priceline — real-time and from the app, too. More analysis from PandoDaily.

Adobe Updates

Adobe unveiled new updates to its Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) on Friday. The enhancements include DPS integration with CRM integration (yes, integration times two), as well as tools to streamline multi-platform publishing. Other new features include something called a folio showcase, push notification for deep linking and a new digital magazine service. “Content marketing is the new black,” or so it’s hoped by Adobe. Get the details via Adobe’s blog.

Power To The People

Digital agency MRY’s CMO David Berkowitz tells Digiday that Facebook’s recent changes to its consumer privacy controls will work positively for all involved. “If Facebook can educate consumers more about advertising, consumers are going to be in a far better position to reward good advertising and object to bad advertising,” says Berkowitz. Read more.

Video Ad Fraud Ad

How big is the video ad fraud problem? According to Ad Age, Specific Media’s Vindico thinks it warrants a New York City billboard. See it now.

Data Viz Update

Data visualization – beyond an Excel graph – still remains an unachieved holy grail in ads and marketing. The NY Times Bits blog gets a sneak peek on a new update from Tableau Software and though nothing is mentioned specifically, the need for more storytelling from “big data” is clear. Read and see it.

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