Programmatic Deal Breakdown Predicted; Mobile Carrier Offers Network-Level Ad Blocking

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Programmatic Parting?

Expect programmatic breakups in 2016, says VivaKi’s president of global clients, Marco Bertozzi. But who’s breaking up with whom, exactly? He doesn’t specify, but it’s clear Bertozzi’s skeptical of the direct-to-client deals that many ad tech vendors have worked toward. Deals that were originally established because “an advertiser … wanted its own tech deal to go around the agency or publishers,” or because “procurement or the CEO [asked] questions of the brand manager and [made] them act.” These partnerships, Bertozzi argues, were formed under intense strain and will lead to a harsh awakening for ad tech. Read Bertozzi’s column in Campaign US.

Carrier-Level Ad Blocking

Digicel recently became the first mobile carrier to install network-level ad-blocking technology. Shine, the Israeli company that provides the tech, says it has other carrier clients that prefer to stay quiet. Now Lara O’Reilly of Business Insider has Robert Franks, managing director of digital commerce at the British mobile carrier O2, all but announcing plans to do the same. “When I say we are looking at these technologies, we are not just paying lip service to them, we are absolutely having conversations which are well-advanced in terms of what that technology would do in in our network and other layers and how we would position this with customers.” More.

Wary About Whereabouts

“This app would like to use your current location.” The answer to that question for more and more mobile users is, “Don’t allow” – even when the utility is clear, like with weather apps. According to data from Skyhook Wireless, 35% of weather app users choose not to share their location – and that’s a pretty good number when compared with other popular app categories. Only 38% of users share location with social networking apps, a number that drops to 23% for travel apps, 18% for photo and video apps and 16% for news apps.

All Aboard

Fox Networks’ president of advanced advertising wishes he could, ironically, “go door to door and help people install ad blockers.” Joe Marchese, founder of video ad platform TrueX, which Fox acquired last December, writes for WSJ that, “The situation with digital advertising is so dire that the only fix might be to reset.” It’s about as likely to happen as counting to infinity, but the ideal result would be a clear value exchange between a publisher and an individual, with flexible ad restriction or blocking options available for the visitor. More.

But Wait, There’s More!