Twitter's Ad API Arrival; Facebook Is The New Broadcast

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Twitter’s Ad API Arrival?

For the past three years, Twitter has been saying it’s going to release an advertising API. Well, according to anonymous ad executives who speak to Techcrunch’s Ingrid Lunden, that moment will finally arrive some time this quarter. “I have been in discussions with Twitter and they contacted us right before the holidays saying it was getting close to having their advertising API ready,” one executive told Techcrunch. It’s not clear though if Twitter’s ad API will be separate from its general tech platform, as Facebook does, or if it will somehow be tightly integrated with the whole. Read more.

My Agency, My Systems Integrator

Razorfish grew significantly last year, not only on the strength pure “marketing,” says AdAge. “CTOs and CIOs frequently hire Razorfish for projects, creating new revenue streams that — even in the face of dwindling ad budgets — woefully few shops are capturing.” That puts the Publicis digital shop in company with the enviable likes of SapientNitro, Cognizant, and Globant. Billings grew 20% to $60 million on the strength of several big wins (Samsung, Target, Uniqlo) and incremental business from Delta, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft and Nike. Razorfish made AdAge’s “Agency A-List.” More. Also on the A-List, for its “big data” cred, is 360i. Read that.

Facebook Is The New Broadcast

For many marketers, the central idea of social media is that you can slice and dice your desired audience with ease. But for consumer packaged goods, who are looking more for brand awareness, scale is the name of the game. Laurent Faracci, U.S. chief strategy and marketing officer of Reckitt Benckiser, speaking at Facebook’s first CPG Summit, was there to say that the social network was the new mass medium all on its own. “The Facebook effort is part of a broader push by Mr. Faracci to rethink how RB goes about marketing, structures its staff, manages agency relations and evaluates results,” AdAge’s Jack Neff wrote. “That includes moving from a purely cost- and reach-focused ‘efficiency’ drive to a broader look at efficiency plus effectiveness.’” Read the rest.

Customize That Pre-Roll

Gannett’s rich media ad provider PointRoll has launched three interactive in-stream video packages, including: Social, Branding and Video AdChooser. The idea is to make it a little easier for marketers to add still more interactivity and customization to their standard in-stream video ad campaigns. “Whether advertisers would like to incorporate branding elements or simply enable consumers to select the ad of their choosing, our turnkey packages are a simple, cost-efficient way to increase engagement for your next in-stream video campaign,” said Todd Pasternack, VP, Digital Innovation, PointRoll. Read the release.

Mobile Meals

More of us are using mobile apps to get fed, says IAB/Viggle research pegged to the annual snack & ads (oh yeah, and football) blitz known as the Super Bowl. Most interesting here: almost as many consumers are downloading restaurant specific apps as are installing “aggregators” like Seamless and Yelp. Of the 67% who have ordered via mobile, half downloaded a chain specific app while 55% have used things like Urbanspoon and Zagat. Coming soon: edible phones. (Skip the middle man!) Press release.

Free Video Ad Serving Here

Google is trying to disrupt the world of video advertising – too! On the DoubleClick for Publishers blog, the company announces that its free display ad server will now include free video ad serving. DoubleClick-er Andrew Kuo writes, “Video ad serving is free up to 400K ad impressions a month. Until April 30th, we’re offering a free unlimited trial, so you can serve as many video ads as you want. After this trial offer has ended, impressions over 400K a month will be charged a nominal ad serving fee on a CPM basis.” Read more. And, new cheaper AdWords API pricing, too. Ad verification, tag management, video ad serving.. all free from Google. But are they the same high octane that large advertisers require? Service remains a differentiator for ad tech vendors let alone a deeper feature set.

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Graph Search Signal

On ClickZ, GroupM Next CEO Chris Copeland takes his turn at Facebook’s Graph Search. Questions remain for Copeland, “For Graph Search to flourish people will need to engage with brands on a much greater scale then they do at present. I do not doubt the connection numbers that Facebook cites in the Graph Search launch. I am suspect about the quality of brand interactions that can provide meaningful signals and guidance to fellow graph connections.” Read it.

Acquisition Trail

IBM is ready to spend big dollars on acquisitions according to a Monday meeting on its workforce product strategy. ZDnet’s Rachel King writes, “Speaking during a press conference at IBM Connect 2013, Mike Rhodin, senior vice president of Software Solutions at IBM, cited that the tech giant’s software group will spend approximately $20 billion in acquisitions, which has already been outlined in the corporation’s 2015 roadmap. Essentially, IBM is buying up the resources it needs to make its software (and workforce) ‘smarter.’” Could data-driven ad tech be of interest? Workflow.. how about MediaOcean, Centro or Facilitate Digital? Read more.

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