Google Dominates Ad Revenue; Rubicon Project Continues Programmatic Direct Investment

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Google’s Growing Dominance

The gap between Google’s media revenue and the revenue of its competitors is growing, according to a report from ZenithOptimedia. The Publicis agency estimates that Google is 136% bigger than the world’s second-largest media owner, Disney, up from 115% a year ago. Still not impressed? Google’s media revenue is so huge it dwarfs the media revenue of Disney and the third-largest media owner, Comcast, put together. “The top digital media owners currently maintain a strong grip on the digital ad market, but they face the constant threat of displacement by disruptive innovators,” said Jonathan Barnard, ZenithOptimedia’s head of forecasting. “While some emerging-market media owners face challenges in expanding their businesses in the short term, we expect to see more media owners from emerging markets enter the top 30 over the next few years.” More via the WSJ.

Rubicon Eyes Long-Tail

Rubicon continued its programmatic direct chorus with the roll-out of a self-serve platform for publishers. “Self-Serve helps these sellers scale their sales operations, where otherwise they are constrained [or] limited to focusing on the largest deals,” Kaylie Smith, Rubicon’s head of seller cloud, told MediaPost. “It’s also invaluable to smaller or startup sellers that may not have the funds to hire a sales force, and seek to automate their entire ad sales effort.” The tech will be available to both digital publishers and mobile app developers. The release follows Rubicon’s Guaranteed Orders platform debut two months ago. AdExchanger story.

B2B, Bouncing Back

B2B media revenue climbed $27.6 billion in 2014, a 3.3% increase from 2013, according to a report released by the Business Information Network. Ad Age points out that B2B media has bounced back from the severe revenue dropoff precipitated by the global recession in 2008. Events still account for a plurality of total revenue, representing approximately $12.2 billion. However, the fastest-growing sectors are digital advertising and data services. Print remains an underwater anchor, dropping from 36% of total industry revenue in 2008 to 24% six years later.

In-App Viewability

Millennial Media and Integral Ad Science partnered to offer a 100% viewability guarantee for in-app mobile ad campaigns, Adweek reports. “The responsibility of viewability falls on us all,” commented Shenan Reed, president of digital in North America for MEC. “Brands, agencies, publishers, ad tech vendors, and industry organizations all need to work together to push this forward and create industry-wide adoption.” Read the press release. The news comes one day after ad tech firm 33Across made a similar promise – to deliver 100% viewable, fraud-free ads, or advertisers get their money back. More on that via VentureBeat.

DSP For Small Biz

Digital ad platform Centro unveiled a DSP offering aimed at brands and agencies with smaller budgets that are often constrained by minimum spend requirements. The platform comes 18 months after Centro’s acquisition of DSP SiteScout and will include first-party device ID integration, GPS targeting capabilities and private marketplace discovery and execution. “The trend to bring programmatic ‘in-house’ is irrefutable, but the gaps in resources – be that headcount or skill set – loom large, especially in this market segment,” Centro CMO Kelly Wenzel told AdExchanger. Read the blog post.

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