P&G's Mobile Ad 'Secret'; Human RTB

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P&G’s Mobile Ad ‘Secret’

Procter & Gamble’s deodorant brand, Secret, is running mobile ads on teen publishing site The Chic Fashionista that look to combine “engaging” marketing elements with Facebook and Twitter content that promote an anti-bullying message. The campaign, dubbed “Mean Stinks,” uses ad tech firm Kontera’s PageLift dynamic content mobile ad unit. “Mobile ads have become fairly simple with text and imagery, full-screen images, and layered in interactivity and rich media – at this point there is not a lot of innovation,” said Ammiel Kamon, Kontera’s EVP and head of mobile, tells Mobile Marketer’s Chantal Tode. Read more. And, read the release.

Human RTB

In a new study by Advertising Perceptions on behalf of Casales Media’s new Index sell-side platform, it appears that the humans running the show are the key (can you say, “Human Centered Automation“!?). From the study, “Advertisers and publishers are relying on the human element in programmatic ad buying and selling to drive the growth of RTB and private exchanges. With half of advertisers and publishers trying RTB, both sides expect significant spending growth in this segment over the next 12 months.” Read the release. And, download the report (PDF).

Biz Dev Tips

ComScore’s Kirby Winfield offers hot-off-the-stove, ad tech-related biz dev tips in a post on his personal blog. He begins with “Treat a signed agreement like a qualified lead – Biz dev is a lot like venture capital investing. In my experience, if you sign ten deals, five will fail outright, three will contribute de minimus returns but add strategic value, and two will pop and become true revenue contributors. That means you need to treat each deal signing as a qualifying stage and keep the pressure on post deal. ” Read ’em all!

CPG Quant Blues

It goes without saying that CPG marketers need young analytical talent, but the startup siren siphons many bright b-school grads, writes AdAge’s Cotton Delo. “The very best analytical minds are apt to quaver at the thought of being pigeonholed at a traditional marketer with a narrow job description where they might be tasked with managing the discounts given to retailers, for example.” Wharton prof Peter Fader says his brightest customer analytics students go into consulting and investment banking. More.

FBX Europe

In Europe, ad exchange/marketplace Hi-Media says it can now offer access to the Facebook Exchange. Talking about its independent marketplace, CEO Cyril Zimmerman says in the release, “The inventories of the Facebook Exchange platform are added to the 20 billion Ad impressions already available through Hi-Media Ad-eXchange. The Group’s marketplace promotes the audience of websites that are in the top 300 most important in each of the 9 European countries where the Group operates.” Read more. Et, en Francais (PDF). Hi-Media announced last year that it would use AppNexus for its ad exchange. AppNexus is a Facebook Exchange partner.

Patent Play

In “The Patent, Used as a Sword,” New York Times reporters profile the use of patents in the tech business. Stat from the article: “In the smartphone industry alone, according to a Stanford University analysis, as much as $20 billion was spent on patent litigation and patent purchases in the last two years – an amount equal to eight Mars rover missions. Last year, for the first time, spending by Apple and Google on patent lawsuits and unusually big-dollar patent purchases exceeded spending on research and development of new products, according to public filings.” Read more. And then, there’s a celebration of the “creative act of copying” in Fast Company here.

Targeting Klout

Sounds like Facebook Ads API partner Social Code (AdExchanger Q&A) has created its own version of Klout targeting for social ads. From the release: “With ‘Social Influencer Targeting,’ for the first time, advertisers can reach users who are most likely to respond and engage on the brand’s behalf, driving social recommendations and valuable earned media,’ said Laura O’Shaughnessy, CEO of [Washington Post Co.-owned] SocialCode. ‘Our research shows that each engagement results in 38 earned impressions, highlighting the importance of targeting and cultivating an engaged community.’ Read more.

Preemptive Acqui-hiring

Second-hand clothing marketplace Twice has a novel approach to recruiting talent, offering $1 million to buy any company seed funded by Y Combinator, 500 Startups or TechStars. The idea, as TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reports, is to capitalize on the tougher fundraising environment. “Because of the glut of startups raising seed and angel funding, some are now struggling to raise a Series A round. But Twice is also hoping to take advantage of a more common problem startups face: the majority of these companies simply fail.” Read more. Will we see similar efforts to pick off ad tech startup talent?

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