Holding Companies Sharply Reduce SSP Partners; Coke Thirsts For Data

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Tax Cuts

Top ad agency holding companies are taking a hatchet to their mar tech vendor rosters. Havas consolidated from more than 40 ad tech partners to single digits, with most of the downsizing falling on SSPs, Ronan Shields reports for Adweek. Havas cut out exchanges that would resell inventory within the supply chain, and is adding contractual transparency for tactics, like supply path optimization or bid shading, when a DSP underprices a bid to avoid overpaying. WPP’s GroupM has cut more than half of its total ad tech and supply partners from two to three years ago, said Evan Hanlon, the media-buying group’s chief strategy officer. “Everyone is moving in this direction, and what we want to see from partners is radical transparency, audit compliance and exposure of take rate,” he said. More.

Coca-Cola’s Data

Coca-Cola is looking for more first-party data from historically untapped sources, such as vending machines that accept credit cards and mobile wallets, Campaign reports. “We need to figure out a unified solution across the whole landscape – that is where the independent market can survive,” said Vidyarth Eluppai Srivatsan, Coca-Cola’s APAC marketing technologies leader, at ATS Singapore earlier this week. “Otherwise there is going to be status quo with all walled gardens. That is where we want to invest strategically.” More. Coke also just launched a software product for restaurants that manages orders from digital devices and shares customer analytics. More on that.

Inbox Commerce

Verizon Media is the latest company to beat the “revenue diversification” drum. Yahoo Mail now includes a “Deals” tab that encourages shopping from the app. Other sites and apps, like TechCrunch and Yahoo Finance, will make it easier to purchase items, either within the site or through a link. Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan hails from Alibaba, and said that commerce will be a core part of the company’s strategy. He told CNN that although Verizon Media sites only run advertising, 75% of the content “has commercial intent.” More.

Prime The Pump

With the return of Amazon’s annual Prime Day event in July, rivals are countering with their own specials. CNBC reports that Target is reprising its online “deal days” during the Prime discount period. And eBay is hosting a “crash sale,” a wink at last year when eBay offered flash sales after the Amazon site crashed on Prime Day. More. But even if those retailers see a bump, it will likely be a blip next to Amazon’s uplift. Last year on Prime Day, Amazon issued a press release bragging that it added more new Prime members than any previous day.

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