Digital Ad Spend To Increase Through NewFronts; Facebook's Business Manager

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

Digital Is The NewFronts

A new study released Monday by the IAB predicts that original digital video programming will become as important as TV programming within the next three to five years, and increased Internet ad spend will mirror that shift. The IAB’s SVP of research, Sherill Mane, commented, “The buy side is not only foreseeing strong spending at the 2014 NewFronts, but is also recognizing the significant effect it has on their perceptions and budget decisions long after the last presentation is over.” Go here for the study. Read the press release.

Managing The Spend

Facebook is appealing directly to the marketer with its ad campaign-management tools known as Business Manager. From a “Facebook for Business” post: “If you’re advertising for yourself – say, you’re on the in-house marketing team for a national brand – Business Manager shows you: 1. The Pages, ad accounts and apps linked to your brand…” Read more. Available to a few US advertisers today, a full, international roll-out of Business Manager is planned in a few weeks, says Facebook. Considering the ill will over a loss of organic reach with their Facebook pages, layering on some cool tools in order to try to make nice with marketers isn’t a bad idea for Facebook.

Saradakis Charged

Late last week, former eBay Enterprise and GSI Commerce (and PointRoll) exec Chris Saradakis as well as several others – including two of his family members – were charged with insider trading by the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Read the release and view an SEC infographic. Saradakis has agreed on a settlement. SEC associate director Scott Friestad said in a release, “Saridakis chose to dole out confidential, market-moving information to enrich relatives and friends, and the nonpublic details then spread further through multiple levels of tippers and tippees.” Saradakis quietly left eBay in January. Read an AdExchanger interview from 2011 with Saradakis when GSI bought Clearsaleing – two months before GSI was acquired by eBay. His LinkedIn profile indicates he used to work at investment bank Lehman Bros. back in the day.

The NewFront Times

The New York Times showcased its video hub redesign on Monday morning. The NYT highlighted its latest digital video programming, including a new series called “Verbatim,” which hosts actors from Upright Citizens Brigade re-enacting legal proceedings. Ad marketing will include pre-roll and sponsored videos, which will be clearly marked as advertisements, according to executive VP of Advertising Meredith Kopit Levien. AdAge has the story. Digiday, too. Separately, Yahoo announced new ad formats and a Comscore partnership at its NewFront.

Rocky Merger

During Omnicom’s earnings call last week, the company remained hopeful about its future merger with Publicis Groupe, despite tax hurdles that have slowed the process. An article Monday via Adweek suggests the merger may not be as evident as both companies claim. According to sources, the CEOs have been butting heads over merger decisions. Brian Wieser, a senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group commented, “Omnicom looks like it is trying to create a condition to get out of the merger. It’s almost like they’re looking for ideas to create plausible doubt.” Read the story in full.

Going Private

On MediaPost, former NY Times programmatic media exec Matt Prohaska reviews what he sees as the current tilt by big publishers to open ad exchanges. He writes, “I believe this will change over the next 12 months as more publishers get their integrated programmatic sales efforts going and place more inventory in the private exchanges labeled appropriately and proudly.” Read more.

Mixed Responses

SeekingAlpha reports on the Rubicon Project, with mixed coverage from IPO underwriters. Goldman Sachs, RBX and Oppenheimer remain neutral, whereas Morgan Stanley and Needham assigned Rubicon bullish ratings. Needham’s Kerry Rice say’s Rubicon’s cloud architecture “automates the complexities plaguing the digital advertising ecosystem, and in doing so creates a defensible position.”Read more.

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