eMarketer: RTB To Triple By 2016; Big Measurement

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RTB Really That Big

Put this in your acronym pipe courtesy of eMarketer: “Real-time bidding (RTB) will account for 13% of all US display advertising spending this year, more than triple its share in 2010.” That’s one finding from its new study on the RTB marketplace. More predictions from eMarketer: “RTB ad spending will reach $1.9 billion in 2012 as both publishers and media buyers continue to adopt RTB technology at a steady clip. Beyond 2013, growth rates will slow as the programmatic buying landscape settles and matures. Even still, by 2016, US RTB ad spending will reach $7.1 billion.” Get some charts for your PPT.

Facebook Feast or Famine?

Writing on his blog, App.net CEO Dalton Caldwell challenges those who accuse Facebook of throttling brands’ access to their own fans. “I believe this debate is missing the big picture, and what we are in fact witnessing is the unfurling of the full-fledged Facebook business model. Facebook is showing us how they will cross the chasm from low-CTR low-CPM ad-units into what investors have been waiting for since the beginning: a Facebook analogue to Google Adwords.” Read more.

Agencies Not as Glum

In their Q3 earings reports last month, agency holding companies sang the blues about budget cuts and campaign cancellations — with September being especially bad. Now they’re more upbeat — a couple of them anyway. Omnicom CEO John Wren said this at a Morgan Stanley conference yesterday: “People expect a lower growth environment across the globe, but that isn’t a disaster. I am increasingly positive on 2013, especially the latter part. I’m not hearing any horrible, scary things from clients we talk to.” Reuters story. Vivaki is also a little more positive.

Maxing Investment

Publisher-side platform Maxifier has received more funding after announcing the investment of Dentsu’s venture arm, Dentsu Digital Holdings, Inc., last month. WGI Group, comprised of Moat’s Jonah and Noah Goodhart and former Right Media Exchange CEO Mike Walrath. Read more. The use of Moat’s ad engagement technology might enhance Maxifier’s offering to inventory optimizers though there is no indication that’s part of the deal. Maxifier’s competitive set includes companies like Yieldex and isocket among others.

RTB TCOS SVP

On MediaPost, Operative CEO Mike Leo is itchin’ for a fight – or at least a debate. He wants to talk about all the middlemen inhibiting pricing for TCOS – True Cost Of Sale. He writes, “The TCOS for RTB can be found in all cuts taken in the middle. A typical RTB scenario may have a trading desk, DSP, exchange and SSP all taking 15% cuts. After all those cuts, a publisher whose inventory sold for $4 may only end up with 70 cents. The TCOS for that transaction: over $3.” Read more.

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The Penske And the Sword; Agents Of Chaos

Marketers And Consumers Disconnect

While the online ad industry bemoans the fact that marketers still spend most of their budgets on an “old” medium like TV, eMarketer points to an Adobe survey that suggests why this is still the case: TV ads are more effective. Of course, it still depends on who you ask. With respondents divided between groups of marketers and consumers, the advertisers rated online ads better than TV ads by a hair (51 percent). In comparison, roughly two-thirds of consumers said TV commercials were more effective. Who to trust? Well, if the customer’s always right… Read more.

Data Doesn’t Equal Wisdom

Perhaps marketers and consumers in the Adobe survey mentioned above might find more agreement with ads targeted through set-top boxes. The interactive/addressable TV ad space has been slowly gaining acceptance in the agency world the past few years. But as Alison Lowery, the CTO of targeted TV ad tech firm Simulmedia, writes in B&C, set-top box data doesn’t equal wisdom about consumers. “On its own without translation and transformation, set-top box data truly helps us ‘know nothing,'” Lowery says. Read more.

IT Purchasing Gets Social

The idea of paid media always seemed a bit safer when it comes to b2b advertising. Not so anymore, as earned media/social media appears to be the key driver of IT purchasing decisions, according to a Forrester study commissioned by professional social net LinkedIn (which has a rather obvious bias in promoting that view, it should go without saying). “85% [of IT decision makers] have used at least one social network for business purposes,” notes LinkedIn marketing exec Michael Weir, adding that the stat isn’t expected. “What is surprising is that 73% have engaged with an IT vendor on a social network – underscoring the value of the channel for IT marketers.” Maybe so. But does that mean that LinkedIn increase its focus on b2b marketing? That’s even more unexpected. Read the blog post.

Big Measurement

You’ve heard of “big data.” Well now sink your teeth into some “big measurement.” TruEffect’s Martin Smith says, “Aligning your practices to Big Measurement means focusing on key areas that contribute to the effective use of an organization’s data resources: from alignment and stewardship to integration and accuracy.” Read more in DM News.

Go Big Or Go

Spruce Media has raised a phat $15 million for its social ad platform and services business. That’s an impressive number for a company originally specializing as a Facebook Ad API partner which typically requires little capital to get started. Read the release. But hey, Wildfire did all right. It’s apparently time to scale for Spruce and promote its self-service ad platform. (AdExchanger Q&A from September).

Still More Funding

But Wait. There’s More!