BitTorrent Courts Ad Dollars; Baidu's Mobile Tracking

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BitTorrent Media

File-sharing giant BitTorrent is courting advertisers, but it’s a tough sell given the company’s reputation as a piracy hotbed, Digiday reported. “It is going to be a tough road for BitTorrent to convince marketers that it is a legitimate platform to do business with,” Red Peak Branding CEO James Fox said. Sites like BitTorrent have historically offloaded media through exchange environments, but that may be getting harder. Fox added that BitTorrent could attract niche advertisers by going rogue and embracing its counterculture position (think Vice). Black hat targeting? More.

Baidu’s Location Triggers

Baidu launched a location-based advertising service on Wednesday, dubbed Baidu Connect, that allows retailers to advertise on nearby mobile devices. The release follows the company’s push into O2O services, through a partnership with Dalian Wanda Group and Tencent. During the launch, Baidu also unveiled a $10 million investment in IndoorAtlas, a company that specializes in tracking smartphones indoors. Reuters has more.

Big Time B2B

Despite early reticence, LinkedIn’s ad engine is finding its groove. Starwood Hotels & Resorts will spend $30 million on a social campaign focused on the social business platform, as part of an effort to rally the B2B market around its Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program. SPG SVP of Global and Digital Chris Holdren said, “The majority of b-to-b creative shows photos of empty boardrooms or generic people. Instead, Starwood enlisted its sales team to pick top business customers to be the faces of the campaign across different categories.” Adweek has more.

Raising The Targeting Bar

Campaign accuracy is down – but it’s not how it looks. Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings data found that only 59% of online ad impressions served across consumer segments reached their intended audience, down 10% from last year. The researcher posits that advertisers are defining segments more narrowly, thus raising the bar. “As the industry changes, so does the definition of success,” said Randall Beard, Nielsen’s global head of ad solutions. More on that.

Google’s Calculations

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The Collusion Boogeyman; Can Performance AI Resist Rage Bait?

Google is pushing deeper into artificial intelligence and super-fast data processing with a new hardware research initiative focused on processors. The competitive impetus, as reported by Bloomberg: “to keep the lead in markets such as Internet search and online advertising.” AI, smart thermostats, ultra-personalization. It’s a Googley future.

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