Google's Local Exchange; Meredith's Programmatic Perspective

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Local Exchange

Google says it’s offering a helping hand to local publishers who may not have the ability to take on programmatic alone. A new private exchange has launched in a deal with the Local Media Consortium, which comprises more than 800 newspapers and 200 broadcast stations. The participating publishers will also have access to the DoubleClick platform and AdSense. “What we’ve seen over last several years was a rise in realization by quality brands that they want to be associated with other quality brands,” Richard Gingras, head of news and social products at Google, told Forbes. “The real question was how could we extend that opportunity to brands in local markets that don’t have the same wherewithal to make these kinds of sales.”

Publisher Perspective

The programmatic ball is often in the publisher’s court and Meredith is taking steps to make the most of automated technologies. Adweek caught up with Chip Schenck, its VP for programmatic sales and strategies, who gave the scoop on the integration with traditional sales. His method: “We want to incentivize our sellers to be as much of the conversation as they have to be.” Read on.

Twitter In Hollywood

Twitter is thinking beyond TV for its Amplify program and now wants to integrate its second screen tie-in capabilities to movie theaters. “It’s a big audience and it’s big reach, and we’d like to find a partner who wants to literally own this and be associated with it day in and day out,” said Cliff Marks, NCM Media Networks’ president of sales and marketing, in an interview with Ad Age. Read the rest.

Multichannel Exchange

A year after Opera Software spun off its mobile advertising, content distribution and monetization businesses into Opera Mediaworks, the company has launched two new products: Opera Mediaworks Ad Exchange (OMAX) 2.0 and AdMarvel for Ad Networks. OMAX 2.0 is “all about giving publishers more control over their inventory,” said CEO Mahi de Silva. AdMarvel for Ad Networks was previously available on a limited basis, but it is now generally available. “We’ve opened the AdMarvel platform to all our clients with a full data support team to assist them,” de Silva added. Here’s more info about OMAX 2.0 and more on AdMarvel for Ad Networks. The more hooks the better seems to be the mantra for some mobile ad tech companies.

New Money

A year after launching its cross-channel ad management platform, AdStage is growing and launching new products. Helping that growth is a $1 million round of funding led by Digital Garage, as well as a partnership program. “The industry has historically punished ‘ad tech’ companies because they were really agencies masquerading as tech companies,” said Sahil Jain, CEO and co-founder of AdStage. “We’re ushering in a new era of ad technology and using this new capital to pour fuel on that fire.” More coverage on TechCrunch.

The New Yahoo

Marissa Mayer spent a year trying to rebrand Yahoo at the expense of advertising, but now a vision is starting to emerge for the struggling tech company, according to a New York Times profile. The focus right now appears to be “native.” The company still struggles with revenues, however. “We made a deliberate decision to invest, and that ultimately caused our operating income to decline somewhat,” Mayer said. “But we’re motivated by making the right decisions for the company to get us on a long-term path for healthy growth.” Read more.

Programmatic Branding

Joe Weaver, who in recent years has spearheaded Mindshare’s trading desk unit, has left the WPP agency for a role with TubeMogul, advocating the branding potential of programmatic video. At Mindshare his team built programmatic launch pads for Kimberly-Clark and others. LinkedIn. And MediaBistro.

Apple’s Way

In the world of tech acquisitions, Apple prefers smaller buys and acquihires over major deals, as The New York Times outlined. “They’re pre-emptively investing in areas where they think there are opportunities to grow,” said Ben Bajarin, a consumer technology analyst for Creative Strategies. “Without doubt Apple is a bit more focused and lean in their approach and disciplined about the things they buy.” Read more.

State Of Programmatic

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Oracle/BlueKai