Adobe Has A New DCO Offering; Axel Springer Has Big Ambitions In The US

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DCO by Adobe

Is dynamic content optimization (DCO) really coming back? Adobe has hooked its Media Optimizer DSP’s DCO capabilities into the rest of the Marketing Cloud. Adobe’s example of what this enables: “Instead of serving a standard promotion to a consumer who researched flights and airfares, advertisers can add the consumer to a high-value segment of aggregated and anonymous consumers and deliver a custom ad with a free seat upgrade and priority boarding.” Adobe emphasizes that its DCO offering is “scalable,” which if true addresses one of the technology’s common sticking points. Additionally, Adobe revealed some mobile, video, reporting and location-based enhancements to Media Optimizer which, incidentally, is now integrated with Adobe Analytics. Read more.

Axel Springer’s American Dream

The crusty tabloid publisher whose digital ambition led to the acquisition of Business Insider isn’t about to stop there. The Wall Street Journal reports that “Chief Executive Mathias Döpfner wants [Axel] Springer to become the ‘leading digital publisher’ in the U.S.” The company is doing well financially, having widened its profit on the strength of its digital investments. More. In the US, the company faces several competitive sets at once: old-line publishers like Gannett, well-funded upstarts like BuzzFeed and Vox and perennial media “frenemies” Facebook and Google.

Commerce Big Bang

Retailer spend on digital advertising will grow by 15% this year to $15.1 billion, according to an eMarketer forecast. By 2020, that number will be $23 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 12% over the next five years and making retail the highest-spending vertical in digital advertising. Retail will grow its mobile spend by 52% this year as shoppers migrate to their phones. Digital ad spending in retail will be followed by the automotive and financial services verticals, expected to reach $14.4 billion and $12.4 billion, respectively, by 2020. More at the WSJ.

Digital Deputy

Beginning in July, Google will expand its ban on advertisements for loan payment and financial services it considers predatory. For starters, anything with a repayment period of less than 60 days or an annual interest rate over 36% is non grata, writes David Graff, director of global product policy, in a blog post. It’s not the first time Google has expressed a social position through ad policy (like blocking marketing for firearms, alcohol and recreational drugs), but just as with its Accelerated Mobile Pages product, the search giant sees itself as accountable for the state of online advertising. More at Engadget.

Trimming The Fat

To “shed costs,” The Independent will go all-in on programmatic, Digiday reports. Twenty percent of its overall ad revenue comes from programmatic, though 55% of agency deals are programmatic. The plan is to be 100% by 2017, and also to implement a header-bidding solution. “The majority of direct programmatic buys are data-driven audience buys which rely on scale for cost efficiency,” said Tim Pearce, head of publishing at Amplify. “The Independent’s relatively limited data capabilities mean that they may find it hard to compete with the large data-focused operators.” More.