Publisher Competition; L’Oréal Ready For Programmatic

publishersroundup Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

For Publishers, It’s Scale Fast Or Own Your Niche

Mid-size publishers are being forced to compete with the scale of digital powerhouses or package their audience through programmatic channels, driving down the value of their inventory. “The number one issue for publishers is scale,” Yieldbot chief Jon Mendez tells the WSJ’s Mike Shields. “Hearst’s competition isn’t Meredith. It’s Google, Facebook and Twitter.” Ironically, the issue may be more severe for larger publishers than for those with a smaller, focused audience. Skift, which covers the travel business, provides value to advertisers because, in the words of CEO Rafat Ali, they “know so much more about [their] audience in a way that giants don’t.” Meanwhile, The Economist, Reuters, CNN International, The Guardian and the Financial Times are banding together to eke value out of their broader audiences. (AdExchanger story)

Because Programmatic’s Worth It

French cosmetics giant L’Oréal is ready to try on automation. “We all know that programmatic is going to be a big shift in the way we buy media,” L’Oréal Chief Digital Officer Lubomira Rochet told Ad Age. “In terms of the underlying technologies, it’s like a matrix. We’ll go through a lot of test and learn in the coming months, so we can prove models to see what’s best for L’Oreal in terms of technology, governance, setup and everything.” One of those options is creating an in-house programmatic unit, à la rival marketer Procter & Gamble. Read it

Xaxis Buys Into Apps

Xaxis keeps buying ad tech. The WPP-owned programmatic hub snapped up ActionX, a specialist in mobile app and cross-screen ads. ActionX’s tech will be integrated into Xaxis to support deep linking and custom messaging to mobile users. Press release. Read AdExchanger’s previous coverage of ActionX’s multiscreen retargeting tech. Last year, Xaxis bought Euro ad net BannerConnect.

Mobile Budgets Rising

Adweek reports that though mobile marketers see the value of transacting programmatically, the adoption of automation is lagging. Seventy-six percent of mobile marketers agree that mobile programmatic is important, but only 27% of the 200 executives polled have actually purchased mobile ads programmatically, according to the IAB. But in its 2015 “Marketer Perceptions of Mobile Advertising” report, released Monday, the IAB also says that 9% of those surveyed increased their mobile budgets over the past two years by more than 50%, and 65% are spending more on mobile today than in 2012.

Spotlight On Video

UK publishers are enjoying a 20% boost in revenue from online video, according to the Association of Online Publishers and Deloitte’s Q4 Digital Publisher Revenue Index Report. The percentage increase is far above the previous quarter’s 3.4% growth in online video. “Publishers continue to embrace online video as a platform and they are being rewarded with strong growth figures,” said Deloitte’s Howard Davies. “Research suggests it’s proven to be effective in shifting consumer perception and brands are responding to that.” The Drum has more.

Mobile Video Heats Up

Operaworks Media CEO Mahi de Silva tells Beet.TV that mobile video revenue grew from 9% of the firm’s total revenue in 2013 to over 50% last year. “Mobile video is clearly the fastest-growth segment within mobile advertising,” he said. “We’re seeing that consumers really engage with [mobile] video. We get to see engagement rates [and] completion rates in the high 80 or 90th percentile, whereas on desktop it’s a fraction of that.” Watch the interview.

Algo Vs. Algo

DSP Choicestream has rolled out a new optimization approach. The platform “lets the algorithms duke it out in the arena and see who wins,” ChoiceStream CEO Eric Bosco tells AdExchanger. He adds, “There are a lot of parallels between trading algorithms in advertising and finance. In finance, they have six different ways to figure out which way the stock went, up or down. They run it on Tuesday, check the results on Wednesday, and use it to predict on Thursday.” The finance analogy for ads: not dead! Read the release.

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