Home Ad Exchange News On NBCUniversal’s Content Investments; PayPal Buys Modest

On NBCUniversal’s Content Investments; PayPal Buys Modest

SHARE:

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

Symbiosis

Ad Age’s Jeanine Poggi asked some observers what NBCUniversal’s investments in BuzzFeed and Vox mean for advertising. Jesse Redniss, co-founder of media consultant Brave Ventures, says the deals are mutually beneficial. NBCU lends BuzzFeed and Vox credibility as destinations for news, while BuzzFeed and Vox get NBCU closer to millennial audiences and fresher ad strategies (think: native). Alan Wolk, senior analyst at The Diffusion Group, says the investment also creates opportunities for cross-device campaigns. “To combat some of the device usage that takes place during commercials,” Poggi writes, “NBCU can create ad packages that include ads to run on those sites at the same time they are airing on TV.” Read it.

PayPal’s Modest Purchase

PayPal snapped up mobile commerce platform Modest, its first acquisition since becoming a standalone company. Notably, Harper Reed is a Modest co-founder. (Reed served as chief technology officer for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.) Speaking to VentureBeat, Reed says the exit’s about scale. “If we can build a great product, but can’t push this out to millions, then it’s boring,” Reed said. “We found this amazing cheat code to get to scale.” For its part, PayPal will use Modest for contextual commerce. Terms were not disclosed. Read on.

Sunny Skies

Digital out-of-home ads are up almost a third since last July, according to recent research. The Journal’s Nathalie Tadena reports that, despite representing only 4-5% of total ad spending, OOH sales have increased at a faster rate than other sectors. The market is bolstered by concerns in TV and digital that ads are easily blocked or skipped. The overall trend is still that TV budgets melt at a glacial pace, but it isn’t just mobile and desktop absorbing the runoff. More.

Spell Data With A “C”

According to a survey from Experian and Loudhouse Research, more than half of CIOs expect the volume of data they’re responsible for to grow by at least 33% in the next year. The surge of data at brands’ disposal is leading to another addition to the C-suite, as four out of every 10 CIOs without a CDO expect to add a data-specific executive to the top ranks. According to the research, companies with CDOs excelled in using data to drive decision-making and, interestingly, managing exposure to regulatory risk. More via Marketer.

You’re Hired!

But Wait, There’s More!

Tagged in:

Must Read

AdExchanger's Big Story podcast with journalistic insights on advertising, marketing and ad tech

Google Had Its Day In Court. Now, It’s Amazon’s Turn

Google won’t have to break up its ads business after being declared an online monopolist. Meanwhile, Amazon faces a lawsuit from the FTC alleging that it charged advertisers more than necessary for ecommerce ads.

The FTC’s Amazon Lawsuit Is Ad Tech’s History Of Opacity Repeating Itself

Buy-side experts said it’s another example of a Big Tech platform taking advantage of the lack of transparency built into programmatic ad auctions. And they’re not optimistic change is coming.

How The Fin Tech Clearco Finances Ecommerce Startups (Without Losing Its Shirt)

This week, the Commerce Media Newsletter catches up with a startup from outside the world of data-driven advertising, but with an interesting position when it comes to ecommerce advertising. That’s Clearco, a Canadian fin tech company founded in 2015.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 26: Halo Collar CMO Seth Solomons attends a Celebration to Shine a Light On Dog Safety With Halo Collar on April 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Halo Collar)

How Halo Collar Uses Data And Incrementality To Raise Both Awareness And Sales

Halo Collar, a dog collar brand with direct-to-consumer origins, is preparing for its retail expansion by honing its first-party data strategy and incrementality measurement.

tech family cartoon technology family

CartographAI Launched To Help Advertisers Pick The Right Tech Vendors. Now, It’s Helping Vendors Market Themselves, Too

The company is launching an accelerator program to help tech vendors pitch their solutions in a way that makes sense to advertisers.

Comic: Weather Bar

Neuroscience And AI Are Transforming The Weather Company’s Measurement Stack

TWC is building a monetization model that treats weather as both a contextual and an emotional signal, and it’s using AI sales agents to bring it to market.