DoubleClick's Massive Scale; More Programmatic TV Partnerships

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

Google’s Stronghold

In an interview with Beet.TV, Jay Vanderzee, Google’s media platform sales head for the Americas, shed some light on DoubleClick’s scale, as well as Google’s future focus on TV. The number of transactions occurring on Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange now supersedes every stock exchange in the world combined, according to Vanderzee. “This type of transaction is now so large at this point, I find it hard to believe we’re ever going to go backwards,” he said. “We’re just at the beginning of the data revolution.” On TV, Vanderzee revealed, “We believe that the consumer is watching multiple different screens, so we have to focus on how to make a multiscreen ad platform work properly for advertisers. There are a lot of challenges that go into that, but simplifying the process of measurement and attribution ultimately is what’s on our road map.” More. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal’s Rolfe Winkler says (subscription) Google’s YouTube has lots of revenue, but no profits.

TV Targeting Heats Up

Programmatic TV buying platform AudienceXpress and TV researcher Rentrak paired up to strengthen marketers’ TV targeting game. Rentrak’s set-top and shopping data will couple with AudienceXpress’ ad serving tech for local and national cable networks. Rentrak chief Bill Livek said, “CEOs, CMOs all have this relentless pursuit of productivity. They need to cut costs and need better data and targeting. That’s why you’re seeing all these new automation platforms take hold.” Read on via The Wall Street Journal. WPP took a 17% stake in Rentrak last October.

Bloomberg Identity Crisis

Speaking to Digiday, Bloomberg CEO Justin Smith argues that platforms, not publishers, are winning at media. “It’s interesting that traditional publishers always complain about the platforms taking away eyeballs and not sharing,” mused Smith. “The reason for their complaint is quite simple: These platforms have done a better job at media than media themselves. They’ve created better media content mousetraps. They are to a large extent wiping the table on digital advertising solutions that are measurable and data-driven.” Platisher is the new black. Read on.

Taboola’s Publisher Win

Taboola will enter into a multiyear deal with the McClatchy newspaper chain to paste its content-recommendation widget on the publisher’s local news web and mobile properties, of which there are 30. Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda claims the deal marks a shift in the local digital ad market, which he says has been slower to adopt native strategies than national players. “We haven’t seen a huge shift in local buyers buying native ads,” Singolda told the New York Business Journal. “It’s a completely different budget. We don’t have any conflict between the different budgets of the local advertisers and the storytelling advertisers.” The deal echoes Outbrain’s multiyear partnership with publisher Rodale, inked on Monday, and the content rec firm’s Wednesday deal with Le Monde.

Ensighten’s App Module

Tag management firm Ensighten unveiled an App Experience Optimization module on Wednesday. The offering will be baked into Ensighten Mobile to give marketers more flexibility on mobile and native apps. “As we look at the way consumer behavior is shifting, it’s clear apps will serve as the basis for much of the consumer activity across devices,” Ensighten chief Josh Manion said. “App Experience Optimization paves the way for real-time marketing agility in an app-driven world.” Ensighten’s clients include United Airlines, Getty Images, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Vivint. Read the press release.

Sustainable Cloud Growth

On its Q4 earnings call, Salesforce.com chief Marc Benioff said the cloud CRM company “couldn’t be happier about how all of our clouds are doing,” given the company surpassed $5 billion in annual revenue. However, there are questions about long-term sustainable growth of its Marketing Cloud. Revenues were $140.4 million in Q4, a 46% increase year over year. Marketing Cloud revenue for the year was $505 million. In Salesforce.com’s 2014 annual report, it noted its CRM application service remains its largest growth driver. Newer cloud products, Marketing Cloud and the mobile Salesforce1 Platform, specifically, signify new markets for Salesforce.com, but “it is uncertain whether our efforts will result in significant revenue for us.” Earnings release.

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