Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
App Store Cold War
App Annie published its “2015 Retrospective” on Wednesday, highlighting the new frontiers of app monetization. A big part of it is literal frontiers, with markets like India, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam experiencing an app revenue surge in tandem with smartphone penetration gains. Other frontiers are of the platform variety, as downloads on Google Play are now more than double those of iOS. Apple continues to shine in what’s probably a more important statistic though: fewer downloads, but higher revenues.
AI Persuasion
In an interview with Adweek, Omnicom-owned PHD’s new marketing technology director, Ben Samuels, says programmatic will eventually encompass artificial intelligence. “At that point, the role of media really changes from one of trying to get in front of a user to one of trying to influence a personal digital assistant to deliver that message to an end user. Programmatic is 100 percent going to play in that space. This isn’t today, but our focus is on thinking about how programmatic will evolve.” Siri, can I interest you in a handbag? More.
Check Your Pipes
In a wide-ranging interview with WSJ, ESPN CEO John Skipper peels back the curtain on the network’s struggle with cord-cutting and new consumption habits – or industry “sturm und drang,” as he puts it. “We are still engaged in the most successful business model in the history of media,” he says, defending cable TV (which is surpassed only by heat and electricity as popular household services). The word “still” is the most important in that sentence, though – ESPN isn’t abandoning the model, the model is abandoning it. More.
Brave Face
Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla, hit the press rodeo on the launch of his new browser, Brave, which will have ad blocking preinstalled and other user controls that take power from brands, publishers and, in particular, third parties that tag sites for tracking or measurement. Brave will track its users, but won’t enable advertisers to use its data for targeting. It’s an interesting PR play, but gaining user adoption in the browser field is easier said than done, not to mention establishing a revenue stream. (Bear in mind, Mozilla is a nonprofit.)
Industry Preview
- How Do Service-Side Execs Cultivate Trust? – MediaPost
- Rik van der Kooi on the value of search at #IP2016 – Bing ads blog
But Wait, There’s More!
- IBM Revenue Slides, But Cloud Biz Grows – WSJ
- Spotify Snags Two Startups For Social Messaging – The Drum
- New Strategic Partnership For AOL And Taboola – release
- IBM Is In Talks To Buy Ustream – Fortune
- The FANG Playbook – Stratechery
- IPG’S Golin Joins WIth TapInfluence – release
- Pinterest Is Pitching Its First Video Ad Unit – Digiday
- Spotify Rival Deezer Lands $109M Series E – CNBC
- Time Inc. Partners On A Voter-Targeting Publisher Offer – release
- Nielsen To Add Facebook For Measuring TV Impact – Adweek
You’re Hired!
- The Trade Desk Promotes Anne Hallock To SVP – release
- Ogilvy Names John Seifert As Next CEO – Adweek
