Yahoo! Layoffs; UDID Meet ODIN For Mobile Ads; Ad Tech Capitulation

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Yahoo! Layoffs

Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson has begun to cut costs in a big way as The Wall Street Journal reports layoffs yesterday of 2,000 of the company’s 14,000 person workforce. Yahoo! sales exec Jim Heckman cites audience buying as his company’s salvation. He tells The WSJ, “‘A year ago, ‘we were facing an impending catastrophe and our revenue was declining, but we’ve stabilized it and we restored hope,’ Now, [Heckman] said, Yahoo can allow advertisers such as auto makers to do ‘microscopic audience targeting.'” Read more (subscription). And, read Thompson’s letter to employees. In the coming days, it will be interesting to see how this plays out for Yahoo!’s myriad of ad products and their teams as Yahoo! chooses where to spend, and where to pull back – which will give a better view of the company’s strategic direction.

Give Me Back The UDID

In an effort to find a solution on iOS as Apple’s UDID is deprecated, mobile ad companies are coming together for the Open Device Identification Number (ODIN) working group in order to find a solution that addresses privacy concerns while offering effective mobile ad targeting. TechCrunch’s Kim Mai-Cutler writes, “ODIN says that about 60 percent of mobile ad revenue comes from this type (UDID) of performance-based advertising. If you factor in cost-per-install or cost-per-action campaigns, which are based on when a consumer downloads an app or takes an action in an app, ODIN says that the app ecosystem could miss out on about $2.6 to $3 million dollars per day in ad revenue.” The companies want to find a solution that Apple will accept. Read more. And, go to the ODIN mobile site. ODIN is comprised of Velti, Jumptap, RadiumOne, mdotm, StrikeAd, Smaato, Adfonic and SAY Media. Finally, read the release.

Audience With Email

A new Exact Target survey helps support the company’s core product – email ads. From the release, a “taste” of the findings: “Email — 96 percent of online consumers use email at least weekly; 66 percent have made a purchase after receiving an email marketing message; 76 percent prefer email over all other channels for customer service messages.” Read more. The Business Insider offers the download here (PDF). Deep in the study, the importance of audience targeting remains: “Audience segmentation, data-driven insights, and personally
relevant content are no longer ‘nice to haves’ in email—they are ‘MUST haves’ for any marketer who wishes to stand out in the inbox.”

Scaling With The COO

Retargeter TellApart is looking to scale its operation as the company announced the appointment of its first-ever Chief Operating Officer. According to a release, new COO Tom Cheli (LinkedIn) comes from QuinStreet, “one of the largest online direct marketing and media companies in the world, where he was the EVP of Operations.” Cheli was a 12-year veteran at QuinStreet where he managed a 700-person operation. Read more.

Pre-Bid Data

AdSafe Media pumped up the volume this week as the ad verification firm announced it was bringing “pre-bid,” real-time data feeds to demand-side sources. According to the release, “AdSafe’s specific ad viewability data points include: The probability of an ad being in view; The probability of the ad scrolling into view; How long the ad will be in view; How long the user will be on the page.” Any or all of those are optimization pivot points. Read more. AdSafe also announced a “pre-bid” data deal with search retargeting company Chango but the use case is different: “AdSafe’s pre-bid Ad Safety data to score and evaluate the content of individual web pages, ensuring that ads never appear on damaging pages containing adult content, illegal, downloads, offensive language, illegal drugs or hate speech.” Read the release.

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Ad Tech Capitulation

If you didn’t make it to ad:tech in San Francisco this week, All Voices’ Joseph Thomas brings readers the ad:tech keynote address of LUMA Partners’ Terence Kawaja, who sees needed consolidation ahead. Thomas summarizes, “Overall, Kawaja praises the tightening of the fist [around ad tech] because it will ultimately strengthen the industry. He says 2012 is the year of capitulation. Duplicate companies will undoubtedly run out of money and merge with another company to survive.” Read it. And, see the video of the presentation – with slides.

Creative Is Key

A new study by Microsoft Advertising in the UK says that those new IAB Rising Stars units work but…. as Microsoft Advertising’s Tim Lumb writes, “Our research found all the campaigns we tested delivered strong increases in attention levels. However not all campaigns successfully transformed the higher attention levels into strong brand uplifts. This tells us that creative execution remains fundamental for driving brand equity.” Read it. And, download the study (PDF).

The Search Retargeting Case

Mindshare client ADT says that search retargeting works as DSP Simpli.fi published results of a case study for its search retargeting platform. The release quotes ADT Director of Online Marketing Frank Rivera and claims a 7x improvement in CTR and “ADT achieved a cost per lead (CPL) 95% lower than their benchmark cost per lead.” Read more.

Infographic Thursday

Yahoo!’s Interclick and GfK’s KN Dimestore have teamed up for a visual on audience data relevant for the upcoming Summer Olympics on London. See it now!

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