The Marketer's Authentic Ad; VivaKi Looks To 2012 Digital Acceleration; +1 Goes Direct For Display

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

Give Me Authentic

Ad Age’s Rupal Parekh finds that marketers are looking for more authentic, creative ways to reach the consumer. Brand strategist Heather Dupre tells Parekh, “We’re living in a world of uncertainty where everyone is questioning whether the information we’re getting is real or fake (…) Consumers are more adept at spotting fake hype.” And so, can you make “real” creative? Here are a few examples.

VivaKi Convening

In the wake of Laura Lang’s announced departure from Digitas, Publicis VivaKi CEO Jack Klues announced in a release new, digital responsibilities for Razorfish CEO Bob Lord – and that Lord will also “convene a Digital Transformation Team whose mission will be to leverage the success of VivaKi to develop a strategy that will similarly accelerate digital capabilities, technology and talent for the entire Groupe. Lord’s team is tasked to deliver its recommendations in Q1 of 2012.” Klues added that the “Digitas global CEO role will not be filled until the strategy work is completed.” The company reiterated that digital is currently 30% of Publicis’ total revenues.

Appetizing The Marketplace

On ExchangeWire, Ciaran O’Kane interviews product chief Ari Paparo who talks about AppNexus’ new App marketplace strategy. Paparo says buy-siders aren’t the only ones who will benefit from AppNexus Apps, “We expect sell-side apps to come fairly quickly. Publishers are often deeply connected with a limited number of vendors and the benefits of close integration should be clear as this program expands.” Read more.

The Guaranteed +1

Google’s taking its +1 button into the direct sold, display business as the Google AdWords blog announced yesterday that publishers using DoubleClick For Publisher ad server can use the +1 on their advertisers’ media. The pitch is simple enough: if someone +1’s the media, they’re sharing it with others in their Google+ “circle(s).” So it extends reach for advertisers, in theory, it encourages advertisers to buy more from the +1 publisher. It will be interesting to see if Advertisers would start requiring the +1 button on direct sold buys with DFP publishers. If it works, why wouldn’t advertisers want it? The upside for Google is still more signals across the web that can progressively optimize, search, display and any other data-driven channels run through the Google ad ecosystem. Read more.

In The Name Of Digital

WPP search chief Chris Copeland says its time to start planning for the future – and that means not just tomorrow. Entry-level types need to be be immersed as Copeland writes, “For the digital side to truly meet the challenges of tomorrow, we need more managers and stronger leaders who understand and prioritize the value of training and investing in employees.” Read it.

Breaking Down Silos

A brief, recorded interview with Donnie Deutsch touches a common theme that agencies are beginning to preach.. it’s about audience! Well, he doesn’t put it that way exactly, but he thinks digital should not be separated from traditional when targeting the consumer and marketers should demand agencies break up their silos of discipline. View the short interview – camera work challenges aside. This may be dutifully passive-aggressive on Deutsch’s part – most big brand marketers love silos as in, “I need a social agency. I need a digital agency.” and so on… What he is really saying is that many marketers need to stop thinking in silos. But, it’s hard to blame the marketer because the marketplace still needs a data-driven solution which brings all those channels together. Attribution, better media mix modeling, whatever you want to call it, a cross-channel dashboard for marketers is a big idea waiting in the future.

Spreading Diversity

Namely CEO Matt Straz sees an inhibiting lack of diversity in ad tech in a think piece on MediaPost. In spite of progress in terms of ethnicity, he writes, “Ad tech companies have made less progress on the gender diversity front. Male-dominated engineering and sales teams are the norm right now in our industry. About the only place you can consistently find women at senior levels in many of these organizations is in marketing.” Straz thinks more diversity would only spur growth and the opportunity ahead. Read it.

Mobile Ad Spending

More ad spend numbers! This time they are mobile-ly infused as BIA/Kelsey senior analyst Mike Boland offers a few numbers aggregated from his firm and others on Street Fight. Boland says he expects “overall mobile ad spending to grow from $690 million last year to $4.86 billion in 2015” and calls it “steep but not surprising.” See the nice graphs for your PPT.

Kids Audience: Was TV, Now Games

It’s not easy crunching big data. Nielsen admitted its mistake with The Wall Street Journal as U.S. TV viewership by kids this TV season decreased – rather than the previously reported increase. Read more. The Journal’s Sam Schechner notes, “A drop in children watching traditional TV channels comes as the number of all people under 35 years old watching TV channels continues to decline, but time spent at the TV using videogame consoles skyrockets.”

But Wait. There’s More!