Another Yahoo Exit; Verizon Locks Down Data

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Yahoo Shakeout Claims Scott Burke, Kathy Savitt

The revolving door continues at Yahoo. Ad tech chief Scott Burke exited last month, replaced as head of ad platforms by Prashant Fuloria, as first reported by Re/code’s Kara Swisher and confirmed by AdExchanger. And Yahoo confirms media division head Kathy Savitt is departing. Savitt will join STX Entertainment to head up the production studio’s digital operations. “The lack of traction in reviving [Yahoo’s] core business, especially advertising, has begun to take its toll,” Swisher writes. Read it.

Verizon Joins Walled Garden Gang

Digiday’s Garett Sloane takes a detailed look at Verizon’s data mining and advertising long game, and the telecom giant’s strategy allegedly includes a data lockdown. “Verizon has been notifying partners that they are cutting off agreements for their precision insights product,” said one unnamed source with knowledge of the situation. “It means that Verizon might only offer its targeting data through its own platform from now on.” With AOL and Millennial Media in its back pocket, Verizon is gunning for a seat at the table with Google and Facebook. More.

United Front

Google and Twitter are joining forces to launch their own version of Facebook’s Instant Articles. The offering, first noted by Re/code and rumored to debut this fall, will let publishers push news content to users on mobile devices. So how does it differ from Facebook’s efforts? Google and Twitter’s version won’t host publishers’ content directly, but rather will show a cached web page (think: a snapshot preview of the publisher’s content). That cache will carry with it any ads publishers originally sold next to the content. Potential ad revenue split is unclear, but tech firms’ message to Facebook is crystal: Together we stand. More.

Pitchapalooza Chips Start To Fall

Johnson & Johnson is moving its $1 billion US media business back to UM’s J3, an Interpublic Group agency. One year ago, J&J took its business from J3 to Omnicom’s OMD. “Consumer and customer insights and expectations for Johnson & Johnson brands are rapidly evolving regionally and globally,” a J&J spokeswoman told Ad Age. “In order to adapt to and exceed expectations, Johnson & Johnson continually evaluates the resources required to meet consumer and customer needs and support growth opportunities for our brands. ” The assignment includes brands like Neutrogena, Aveeno, Xarelto, Zyrtec, Listerine and Tylenol. Read it.

Aim For The Stars

Carat has big automation dreams, AdNews’ Pippa Chambers reports. The Dentsu Aegis media agency wants to be 100% digital and 40% programmatic by 2020, according to CEO Simon Ryan, with 60% of its media strategy underpinned by analytics that same year. “These predictions are based on the force of change that is currently occurring and the necessity of being more ROI focused,” Ryan said. “Data from clients, media and associated media, and client partners such as Quantium, will also see an increase in media that is automated and data to lead future-proof investment and drive ROI for clients.” Read on.

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Programmatic Ist Gut

In anticipation of dmexco, LiveRail checked in with The Trade Desk’s director of bizdev, Lukas Fassbender, on the state of programmatic in Germany. “There was a tipping point in mid-2014 when the market as whole began to be really interested in the programmatic market,” Fassbender said. “The availability of premium inventory has increased tremendously. There has been a huge surge in deals between agencies and publishers that are being executed programmatically.” But while premium inventory in Germany has increased, according to Fassbender, there’s still enough of a shortage to stall wider adoption. More.

See No Fraud, Hear No Fraud, Speak No Fraud

Industry leaders are chiming in on ad fraud with examples of their own. AppNexus co-founder Mike Nolet posted on LinkedIn about one network, PLYmedia, that appears to be racking up “views” of video ads that run in a loop in the background. PLYmedia then shuttles those fraudulent impressions between MediaMath and LiveRail or Adap.tv. Read it.

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