SpotXchange On Auto-Play In RTB Video Auction; Candidates Are Microtargeting

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

Overcoming Auto-Play

SpotXchange announced that among the attributes it will provide RTB bidders in its video ad exchange is the ability to understand whether a video ad is “auto-play” on a page or not. One of the complaints from advertisers is that their video ads are being delivered when the user isn’t initiating viewing with a video player, therefore video ads could be considered wasted or the impressions overvalue. AdExchanger asked SpotXchange CEO Mike Shehan to chime in on the issue and he said, “So I’m not saying there isn’t value in auto-iniatiated inventory. It’s valuable, but it’s not as valuable as user-initiated inventory. In our marketplace, we have a lot of inventory that sells for $3 CPM and a lot of inventory that sells for $25+ CPM. Placements that are user-initiated, are on great brand name URLs and exhibit excellent performance metrics (CTR, completion rates, engagement rates, etc.) will be more competitive in our marketplace and naturally those publishers can set higher ask prices and will naturally fetch higher bids.” Read the release.

Data Viz Biz

With investments from Jerry Neumann’s Neu Venture Capital, the founders of Invite Media and others, Lucky Sort appears to be aiming to staking its claim to the data viz biz with an angel round of $500k. As TechCrunch points out, if the name sounds like something out of Las Vegas, well, the Chief Scientist, Norman Packard, is a former roulette wheel hacker. The company promises about coming products on its website, “Coming in May 2012, the TopicWatch applications for iOS and Web are designed for use by anyone who needs to be rapidly informed. TopicWatch is designed to be intuitive for non-programmers.” Read it.

Vote Targeting

The New York Times’ Tanzina Vega looks at how “microtargeting” is being used by political candidates to effect negative ad campaigns. “Campaign consultant groups” include Aristotle, CampaignGrid and Targeted Victory. After explaining the technical aspects of the cookie-ing process Vega writes, “These ads can be bought quickly — using an auction process to obtain ad space — when campaigns need to move rapidly to aim at an audience, for example, to counter a bad debate performance or an unflattering newspaper article.” Retarget the debate now.

Facebook Ad Net Cometh

On AdMonsters, Rubicon Project’s Jay Stevens discusses the industry and his company’s offering. Looking ahead in 2012, Stevens comments on the possibilities of a Facebook ad network and is unequivocal, “Perhaps the single biggest movement, will be Facebook as they look to become a network in their own right, enabling the advertisers on their platform to extend the reach of their campaigns outside the Facebook environment.” Read more.

Paying The Agency

Echoing an agency prediction made by Mediabrands CEO Matt Seiler, Leapfrog Online vp Jason Wadler says on Digiday that pay-for-performance time has come. In fact, he says, “The reality is that this evolution is about far more than how agencies are paid. It’s about how they engage with the brand, entrench themselves in the business and find ways to drive the right outcomes that make those registers ring and not merely highlight the many reasons why they can’t.” Read it.