Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Google Addressing Television
Addressable TV took another step forward yesterday as Google announced a deal with satellite TV provider DirectTV. Julie Boorstin of CNBC writes about the new partnership: “And this could really transform the TV ad business by enabling demographic targeting on a national scale. Marketers have been shifting ad spending away from TV to the web because its much easier to narrowly target online ads and measure their success. The growth of Google TV provides more reason to look to cable.” And these are just the initial baby steps. Read more.
AdSafe Media brings its research lens to ad exchanges for its second quarter report. A sample data nugget: “Inventory transparency is the lowest on Ad Exchanges. Ad Exchanges served 64.4%; IAB Category I inventory (with full transparency regarding referring URL), Ad Networks served 82.6% and Publishers directly served 97.4%.” Read the press release (PDF). Download the report (sign-up required).
Facebook + AOL = Ad Love
According to Claire Atkinson, Aol and Facebook are talking about some sort of crazy hookup. Atkinson writes, “The two companies have been talking for several months about a partnership that would allow Facebook to tap AOL’s mojo in selling online ads, according to three separate sources.” Three’s a charm! Read more.
Optimizing At The Agency’s Peril
Paul DeBraccio of site rep firm Interevco says on min Online that the optimization of digital ad campaigns by agencies – i.e. the culling of underforming sites – is every digital publishers worst nightmare. But: “A little known fact is that optimization costs the agencies money, too, and that cost is increasing more and more these days, and most media directors dread this necessary and tedious task.” Read about the costs.
Mouse Intent
Computer scientists Eugene Agichtein and Qi Guo of Emory University say that they have developed an online tool to detect intent from the actions of a mouse – the one connected to your computer. Agichtein says, “We used controlled experiments to develop a model for the way people use a computer mouse when they plan to make a purchase.” Read more
(source: @jonathanmendez)
The Privacy Payoff
Stephen Baker postulates on his personal blog that consumer privacy will create all new marketing opportunities and then gives examples of how a couple of money-making, privacy-related business models could evolve. But, he concludes, “Turning privacy policies into marketing opportunities seems like a no-brainer. Smart filters will sell. But given the power of the free and public data economy, I suspect the privacy-wing will remain a niche market. In BusinessWeek lingo, a six-column story, not a cover.” Read more.
BT And Transparency
On the Privacy Choice blog, Jim Brock says that there needs to be more transparency in behavioral targeting and notes about AddThis: “For publishers signing up today, there’s no reference to behavioral data collection in the signup process for the AddThis widget.” Read more.
DOOH For Q2
DOOH strategy provider Adcentricity released its Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH) for Q2 report. According to Katy Bachmann of Mediaweek, “Some (vertical) ad categories are still hesitant to try out the [DOOH] medium. ‘Food, beverage and candy categories are still kicking the tires,’ [Adcentricity CEO Rob Gorrie] said. ‘I don’t expect big spenders like Coca Cola and Procter & Gamble to come in until 2011.'” Read more on Mediaweek. Download the report (sign-up required).
1 Take: The Early-Stage, Funding Process
From the world of venture capital, Foundry Group’s Seth Levine talks about how the germ of an idea can become a company through the collaboration of the entrepreneur and the VC/angel – in this case, he identifies his work with Trada and its founder Niel Robertson. Levine writes of his group’s process, “We like to be involved early (in this case before an idea for a business even existed) and we think of our angel investments as a down payment on a subsequent investment in the business (we’ realize that we need to give early businesses some time to develop).” Read more.
