P&G Shifts Media Spend; eBay Enterprise Keeps Unbundling

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

P&G Earthquake

Largest US advertiser Procter & Gamble has finalized its first media-spending shift in almost 20 years, and it’s a doozy. Omnicom has taken over the majority of P&G’s budget (with Carat swiping a third and the incumbent, Starcom MediaVest, retaining some brands). Ad Age spoke to the company’s global brand chief, Marc Pritchard, who said losing consolidated buying power is less important than category-specific streamlining. “We will more frequently look at our agency lineup, particularly in media, given the rapid acceleration of capabilities in the digital world.” More. Notably, the assignment will lead to the creation of a third media agency network at Omnicom, with P&G as the anchor client.

Everything Must Go

eBay’s recently spun off commerce and marketing platform, eBay Enterprise, keeps selling chunks of itself. Following the divestiture of its Clearsaleing attribution tech to Impact Radius (AdExchanger story), the company has offloaded its retargeting solution to London-based Ve Interactive. Read the announcement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. A source questions how much technology is left in the eBay Enterprise retargeting biz, after the company shifted those campaigns to Chango and eBay Audience Platform. Related: How Chango poached customers from its reseller partner eBay Enterprise.

Who’d Buy Yahoo? (Cont.)

Are Yahoo’s media and ad tech holdings bound for carrier glory? Verizon would consider bidding on Yahoo, CMO Fran Shammo said at an investor conference on Monday. WaPo story. While we’re deep in speculative territory, such a move would bring about a scenario long discussed in Internet circles: a merger of AOL and Yahoo. No one expected that to happen under the umbrella of a telco giant, but the world turns in funny ways. Another big co lately mentioned as a possible buyer is SoftBank (which owns Sprint). Whither AT&T?

Environmental Concerns

A pessimistic take on the state of digital advertising at The New York Times dives into the struggles of online publishers, with DigitasLBi North America CEO Tony Weisman saying, “Ads are getting more pervasive and more difficult to easily get past.” But many are finally adapting (to mobile, HTML5 and user-first best practices). According to Times reporter Sydney Ember, “Ads have become so annoying, consumers and industry executives say, that they could sink the Internet if they were not also helping support it.” Read on.

Ask Questions Later

Snapchat might be a black box for measurement, but that isn’t scaring off publishers. A parade of media companies have recently developed dedicated Snapchat teams. Now Mike Shields of The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Refinery29, which is doubling down on its content for the disappearing-message service. Media companies must produce continuously to remain on the high-profile Snapchat Discover page, but we’ll see if it pays back any new readers or if that money joins tablet-specific editions and pop-up ads on the island of misfit publisher initiatives.