Nielsen Inks Deals Left, Right, DG; Demand Media CEO Praises Rich Media Ads

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DG Adds Nielsen Data

Nielsen is racking up the deals lately. And we’re talking about this week’s new relationships with MediaMind (read our Zach Rodgers’ analysis here and his story about Nielsen’s “TV viewing segments” for online here). DG, like Microsoft, Adap.TV, Specific Media, Undertone, and Videology, is looking for data that draws cross-platform data to add to its existing optimization offerings. “Incorporating Nielsen data into their management platform will improve the campaign management process—from planning to review—and enable marketers to make smarter decisions right out of the gate,” says Amit Seth, EVP, Global Media Products, Nielsen. Read the release.

Guaranteed Innovation

On iMedia Connection, Rare Crowds CEO Eric Picard looks at how publishers sell inventory and thinks it’s time for the ad tech world to innovate for “guaranteed” inventory rather than the remnant “bucket.” He writes, “In a perfect world, advertisers would be able to find all available ad inventory that matches their goals, with as many attributes as exist on all impressions. The problem is that existing inventory management and ad serving systems are not designed to deal well with more than two to three concurrent targeting attributes, whether for guaranteed media buys or RTB.” Read his visual screed.

Mobile Flow

On Tuesday, Facebook announced it will launch a beta version of an ad product for app developers looking to promote their apps in users’ mobile news feeds. Pivotal Research’s Brian Wieser noted the revenue impact ahead for FB in mobile: “For 2012, we expect the company will generate $100 million of mostly new advertising revenue. (…) As we have noted previously, “share-shifting” within media remains the most appropriate way to model the revenues for individual media owners’ activities within specific media. Growth of mobile advertising overall is similarly forecast to reflect a growing share of money allocated to this medium. From this approach, we believe $1 billion [for Facebook] is a realistic target for 2016.” See the ad app units.

Demanding Display

Citi analyst Mark Mahaney offers a positive view of Demand Media’s Q2 2012 results for investors. He writes that media was a driving force and adds, “Demand Media has become a potentially material play on the growth of Online Video due to its YouTube channels.” Also, read this from CEO Richard Rosenblatt via the earnings call transcript: “Engagement was up to 10-times higher than the industry average for generic ~~Right Media~~ rich media ad units and the click through rate was up to seven times higher than the industry average for a standard banner ad.” He credits social – I’d say it’s audience buying on the march in the somewhat automated world of Demand Media. Get the release.

Tough Microsoft

Despite considerable industry pressure Microsoft is sticking to its guns on Do-Not-Track, notes ClickZ’s Kate Kaye. Chief Privacy Offer Brendon Lynch blogs, “We have conducted additional consumer research that confirmed strong support for our ‘consumer-privacy-first’ approach to DNT.” The upshot? DNT will be set to “on” by default in IE 10, but user notice will be “prominent.” Read on.

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More Online Video Ads, Please!

Well, perhaps viewers of online video aren’t that enthusiastic about being forced to sit through another 15 seconds or so of ads, but a FreeWheel report suggests that tolerance remains high for additional marketing placements. (It goes without saying that FreeWheel has a vested interest in showing more ads, but they don’t want to drive away consumers either.) “It’s all about striking the right balance, and our customers continue to play with all the levers in order to be sure they offer the ideal spot load,” JoAnna Foyle Abel, FreeWheel’s VP of marketing tells Adweek’s Anthony Crupi. “The trick is to monetize your content without disastrously eroding the viewer experience.” Read more.

Google’s Agile Creativity

On Ad Age, Rupal Parekh covers Google’s Agile Creativity “playbook” initiative led by former Enfatico boss Torrence Boone and intended to engage the creative side of the agency house. Parekh writes, “Google’s laser-focus on targeting creative agencies signals a directional change compared to Google’s historical focus on the agency side, which earlier was with search shops and media agencies. Of course, another goal would be to help promote Google technology and products being baked into agencies’ creative process for brands. But the way Google tells it, the new Agile Creativity platform was a result of agencies tasking Google to do more than merely talk about their products and provide bigger insights into technology that would lead to better work for clients.” Read more.

Sell-Side RTB

Publishers have plenty to think about as they weigh their RTB options. Evolve Media’s Mike Dodge lays it all out in a column on ClickZ, pointing to some key upsides such as this one about price floors: “Few, if any, sales will transact at the high price points, but you’ll be able to see what advertisers are bidding at what price on your inventory.” Key takeaway: It takes time and testing to get it right. Read more.

The Mobile Bellwether

It’s pretty big. Publicly-traded bellwether mobile ad network Millennial Media announced its earnings at it beat expecations. The WSJ summarizes, “The company now sees full-year revenue of $176 million to $179 million, up from its prior view of $173 million to $176 million. For the third quarter, Millennial Media projected revenue between $43.5 million and $45 million, bracketing the $44 million average estimate from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.” Read more. And, read the company release in which CEO Paul Palmieri says: “We now have over 35,000 enabled apps on our mobile advertising platform, which we believe underscores the compelling value proposition we bring to our developer partners. (…) With our large and growing data asset, along with a targeted approach that harnesses the unique capabilities of mobile devices, we continue to power the app economy, both domestically and increasingly into new international markets.”

But Wait. There’s More!