LinkedIn Native Expansion; Direct-Response Over Branding

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LinkedIn Catches Up

Linkedin is testing Directed Sponsored Content, which gives marketers a chance to fine-tune sponsored ads. Facebook and Twitter already offer similar capabilities, known as “dark” publishing. “Expect the new option to be part of LinkedIn’s pitch to agencies over rosé on the Croisette,” Adweek predicts. Read on.

Direct-Response For The Win

An eMarketer report released Tuesday highlights a subtrend within the increasing amount of ad spend dedicated to digital. The report deconstructs digital spending by objective, and the findings show that direct-response advertising increased from a higher base and earned more than brand advertising. Also noteworthy is that approximately one-third of all digital ad spend is now directed towards mobile. Read the report.

The Onboarding Craze

Leveraging offline consumer data for digital marketing is trending, as evidenced by Google, AOL and Acxiom’s onboarding acquisitions this month. The missing puzzle piece is attribution, and more companies are striking more partnerships to measure the impact of digital campaigning on offline purchases. Says Chris Scoggins, SVP and general manager of Datalogix’s digital services,”The measurement piece is really, really important. They’re going from test budgets to actually moving real dollars from one bucket to another.” Ad Age has the story.

Deconstructing Acxiom’s Acquisition

Forrester analysts Fatemeh Khatibloo, Tina Moffett, Susan Bidel and Sri Sridharan offer collective thinking on the impact of Acxiom’s LiveRamp acquisition. First-party data privacy and security concerns are growing, which could prove problematic for offline-to-online marketing efforts. Yet, they argue that the acquisition could set Acxiom up to displace traditional MSPs and recognize the potential impact of LiveRamp on the AOS ecosystem. ”But is that worth $300 million? Our collective answer is ‘no.’ It’s simply too high of a price and too high of a revenue multiplier for a technology that Acxiom may have a hard time selling.” Read more.

The NYT On Native

MediaPost taps The New York Times for some insight on native and its importance in the transforming ad tech landscape. “The disruption being caused by the shift from desktop to mobile is far more dramatic than any disruption that we have seen in recent years, including from print to digital,” said the Times’ EVP for advertising, Meredith Kopit Levien. “There is no concept of adjacency in mobile. The message needs to be right there in that same stream.” Read more.