The Confidential Benefit; RTB Bridge

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

The Confidential Benefit

The ability to file an IPO confidentially is a great asset to advertising companies, according to Tim Peterson at Ad Age. Some examples include Marin Software, Tremor Video and YuMe, all of which filed confidentially, giving them time to develop their investor message wisely. It also gives companies in the fairly new online advertising a chance to avoid any negative backlash during the quiet period. “I can’t think of a reason why someone wouldn’t take advantage of it,” said Tremor Video CEO Bill Day. Read more.

RTB Bridge

IPONWEB, led by CEO and Chief Scientist Boris Mouzykantskii (AdExchanger Q&A 2011) announced the launch of a beta RTB integration solution called BidSwitch. The product will be a bridge between supply- or demand-side partners. It has started with display and will eventually enable other media such as video. Read the release.

Transparency Tools

AdFin says it is upping the transparency game and releasing a cross-platform price discovery tool. The company will also provide data visualization and BI tools. AdFin CEO Jeanne Houweling says in the release, “We’re here to strengthen the entire market, and make it safe for more advertisers to move even more budget into digital.” Read the release. This is another take on the Bloomberg Terminal, according to AdFin. Brilig (now owned by Merkle), Visual Revenue (now owned by Outbrain) and MediaMath have all had the “Bloomberg Terminal” positioning, but with different product angles.

Wielding The Power Of Data

Everyone talks about big data, but do they know how to use it? A Gartner study found that 56% of respondents who are planning a big data project don’t know how to get value from the data. Matt Asay covered the study for ReadWrite, and his advice is for companies to start small and train in-house staff rather than bringing in a third party. Read more.

Video Ad Pricing

Google is making it easier to watch YouTube videos offline, Peter Kafka at AllThingsD is reporting. In a blog post the company announced that users can store a video for up to 48 hours to watch on a mobile device without an Internet connection. Uploaders will have a choice of opting out of offline viewing, however. As Kafka points out, this could drive up prices for YouTube ads given that this creates an even bigger audience. Read more.

Fraud Tracker

The industry needs the digital ad equivalent of the Bugtraq email list that is universally read in the security field, Spider.io argues in a wonkish blog post. “Everyone in the ecosystem would be able to review and debate how best to secure the legitimacy of the ad inventory being traded. Everyone would also be able to disclose specific vulnerability details … in much the same way that today’s information security researchers disclose specific vulnerabilities through Bugtraq.” More, including calls to action on terminology and taxonomy.

Mobile Funding

Mobile ad platform StrikeAd announced it just closed a $7 million round of funding led by Karlin Ventures. “U.S. advertisers are desperate to access the new Mobile economy,” says TX Zhuo, Karlin Ventures Managing Partner, in the release. Read more.

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