StubHub Brings Programmatic In-House; iCrossing Admits Problems With DMP

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Programmatic Hub

StubHub decided to cut out the middle man and build its own programmatic tech stack, as Digiday points out, which has led to more efficiency and cost savings. Lee Engel, StubHub’s head of programmatic advertising, pointed out cutting agencies out of the picture won’t work for every type of company. StubHub was already handling its own search ads, so it naturally progressed into handling its own display as well. Read more. Check out Joanna O’Connell’s list of questions to ask before bringing programmatic in-house here.

DMP Troubles

Buried halfway through a feature on the state of iCrossing, Adweek’s Chris Heine notes the search-centric agency has had a tough time extracting value from the DMP it bought in 2011. Depending on whom you ask, Red Aril (renamed Core Audience) 2011 is either an “empty shell” or “a huge part of our go-forth strategy.” Read it.

Crossing The Channels

In a press release, sell-side platform PubMatic says that it has rolled out its video ad-serving technology and claims to provide “the industry’s first cross-platform solution to deliver video advertising across display, mobile and tablet in real time.” Read more.

The Native Year, Again

Native advertising was a hot buzzword in 2013, and Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar, predicts in a column for Mobile Commerce Daily that its only going to heat up in 2014. Social companies have already based a lot of their ad model on native, especially since it performs so well on mobile. Publishers are starting to follow suit, and companies like BuzzFeed and Quartz are reaping the benefits of this new ad format. Read more.

Buying Clouds

According to VCCircle, IT outsourcing company Birlasoft has acquired CRM platform EnablePath for an undisclosed amount. EnablePath specializes in cloud computing and Salesforce.com gold cloud alliance partner. “Customers will benefit from the combined value of high-end cloud consulting services from EnablePath, along with global delivery and support capability from Birlasoft,” said Riddle Ernie, president of EnablePath. Read more.

Facebook Acquires Branch

Facebook has agreed to acquire Branch and its sister service, the iPhone app Potluck, for $15 million. Read more. The Branch service is designed to curate online conversations to ensure that participants are knowledgeable and messages are relevant, thereby boosting engagement. In a Facebook wall post, Branch CEO Josh Miller said, “We will be forming Facebook’s Conversations group, based in New York City, with the goal of helping people connect with others around their interests.” He added that the nominal Branch and Potluck services will continue to exist outside of the Facebook venue.

Acquired (Or May Be)