Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Amazon Self-Serve?
In Adweek, Tim Peterson puts together a comprehensive piece on Amazon ad strategy plans – including the roll-out a new self-service ad platform in 2013. He writes, “According to trading desk executives with knowledge of Amazon’s plans, the platform is expected to let buyers leverage Amazon’s valuable data—to an extent. The self-serve RTB platform would hypothetically function similarly to Facebook’s Ads Manager in terms of how buyers could target their ads.” Read more.
Former interclick CEO Michael Katz has been reportedly let go from his ad executive role at Yahoo!’s Genome division according to All Things D’s Kara Swisher. Swisher reports that the timing may have had to do with a retention bonus that Katz was due at the anniversary of the interclick acquisition by Yahoo. Swisher adds, “While it is an unusual thing to part on willfully difficult terms with an entrepreneur, as it sends a bad signal to others considering joining the company, Yahoo’s new leadership has been playing hardball with a lot of top execs it is parting ways with, and is also limiting departure packages.” Read more. Former Yahoo Ross Levinsohn, who spearheaded the acquisition, tweeted yesterday, “MK is a class act and great visionary. Wishing him the best of luck in whatever is next.”
How’s Hulu? Fine, Thanks.
Pre-IPO Hulu divulges some of its numbers in a post on the company blog by CEO Jason Kilar. Hulu will make nearly $700 milliion this year as Kilar adds that it’s not all ad revenue, “We have more than 3 million paying Hulu Plus subscribers. The number of Hulu Plus subscribers has more than doubled over the past year.” Read more – and get the visuals.
Instagram Data Sharing
Facebook is going to lengths to capitalize on its burgeoning mobile audience. Yesterday brought an updated privacy policy for Instagram, which among other things gives the photo service permission to generate more Facebook hooks into Instagram data. Says the new privacy policy, “We may also share certain information such as cookie data with third-party advertising partners. This information would allow third-party ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you.” Read more. Also on TechCrunch. Are Insta-ads near?
In Other Facebook SoLoMo News
Nearly half of Facebook’s U.S. visits are now happening on mobile, and it has augmented its “Nearby” location search offering for Android and Apple iOS users to capitalize on this activity — adding options for businesses to make themselves more discoverable to users on the go. Greg Sterling notes on his Screenwerk blog, “You can imagine this represents a powerful new incentive to create a Facebook Page. It also means that the data source will be businesses themselves rather than third party data vendors.” Read it. You can also see how this could be rolled into a location-based ad product targeting mobile users.
At-Scale Custom Ads
The WSJ’s Evelyn Rusli and Shelly Banjo report that Facebook and Wal-Mart rolled out 50 million ads in a recent Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign touting Wal-Mart’s discounted deals on toys and TVs across Facebook’s mobile news feeds, and reaching tens of millions of consumers in the process. But the highly-tailored ads may not be easily replicable, even for other major marketers. “There are always going to be advertisers who want their own custom program,” says eMarketer’s aid Debra Williamson. “But realistically, a media company can’t customize for every single advertiser.” Read more.
Slow-Publishing
The NYT’s media columnist David Carr profiles Brian Lam, formerly of Gizmodo and now a new site, called The Wirecutter. Carr reports that the site posts just six to 12 items a month. And while ad clickthrough rates on The Wirecutter are pretty high for an even an established site –10 to 20 percent, is the claim — the real money is coming from affiliate fees, mostly by Amazon, for referrals to their sites. Read more. Ecommerce invades the publisher.
You’re Hired!
- Welcome to Tobias Peggs, the new CEO of Aviary – Aviary blog
- Akamai Names Chief Scientist Tom Leighton as CEO – All Things D
- Digilant Strengthens Executive Leadership for 2013 – press release
But Wait. There’s More!
- 2012 already has 11 days in which online retailers sold more than $1 billion – Internet Retailer
- More Evidence of Strong 3rd Quarter for U.S. Ad Spending -The NYT’s Bits blog
- An essential guide to changing ad platforms – iMedia Connection
- FTC Director Vladeck Stepping Down, Leaving Activist Legacy – Ad Age
- Social Media Dominates Smartphone Internet Time, Accounting for Almost One-Third of Minutes – press release
