Dentsu Buys Covario; Programmatic Models

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Dentsu Buys Covario

Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired search and content marketing agency Covario. Convario’s Rio SEO software offers tools for local and enterprise search, social media automation and analytics. “As points of engagement and transaction come closer together, it is crucial for our clients to have a dominant position in all key areas of the consumer journey,” said Dentsu CEO Nigel Morris. Convergence, ftw. Press release.

Programmatic For Brands

Marketers looking at programmatic have several models to choose from, says a report from AdExchanger Research. WSJ picks it up: “Trading desks have proved a bright spot for holding companies over the past few years, as marketers have steadily increased their spending through automated ad systems. But the opaque practices and pricing models of some of these agency groups have recently led marketers to question how their money is being spent, and in some cases to shun the groups completely in favor of building their in-house alternatives.” More. And get the report.

Live Impressions

Pandora is leveraging its user data to ensure marketers reach their target audience at a series of concerts, according to Adweek. Though the shows are open to the public, Pandora is curating the audience using user data such as age, gender and music preferences, and is phoning and emailing invites to listeners most likely to engage with Lexus’ brand. “Data and the targeting it enables is transforming the media-buying process,” Pandora CMO Simon Fleming-Wood said. But he cautioned “there are watchouts along the way. Not all data is created equal.” Read on.

Inside HuffPo

Speaking to Digiday, Arianna Huffington touched on traffic, Facebook’s algorithms and measurement, but also on HuffPo’s changing identity. What about deep reporting and hard-nosed journalism, Digiday’s Lucia Moses wanted to know. “It’s our job to put the spotlight on good things,” Huffington said, “because a lot of brands like to advertise sections around causes, whether it’s Goldman Sachs or Johnson & Johnson or Chipotle. This is very much in our DNA and is also a great revenue source.” Huffington added that a year from now, the publication will look to include long- and short-form video, and more on mobile. Read it.

An Apple A Day

Something’s amiss with Apple’s HealthKit apps, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. In a statement, Apple explained, “We discovered a bug that prevents us from making HealthKit apps available on iOS 8 today. We’re working quickly to have the bug fixed in a software update and have HealthKit apps available by the end of the month.” Apple previously updated its policy on the health care data it collects, prohibiting the reselling of data for advertising purposes, read AdExchanger’s coverage on that.