Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Video Ad Fraud
In The Wall Street Journal, Mike Shields and Christopher Stewart cover continued video ad fraud malfeasance. In response to inquiries with buy-side victims, the WSJ summarizes, “A spokesman for J.P. Morgan Chase acknowledged the company inadvertently paid for the spots to appear. A spokesman for HTC said its media agencies have ‘robust monitoring solutions in place’ to guard against fraud. A Minute Maid spokeswoman said that ‘known fraud is automatically stripped out’ of ads counted, and billed, to the company.” Read the story (subscription).
Meanwhile, Emily Steel reports in the FT on how US broadcasters are beginning to adopt programmatic advertising methods for their online video. She says major broadcasters have been slow to adopt programmatic for several reasons, including that automation would disrupt long-standing traditions within the industry and media companies worry that automation might force ad rates to fall. Yet, during the annual upfront markets, broadcasters such as ABC and NBCUniversal nodded to automation in broadcast television’s future. Steel quotes WPP’s chief digital officer, Rob Norman: “The road to the programmatic future is rocky, but the destination is certain.” Rock it.
Omni-Twitter
Omnicom Media Group will spend $239 million on Twitter media in a deal that includes integration with Twitter’s MoPub ad exchange. “Our agreement with Twitter reflects what we look for in a media partnership – the opportunity to deliver first-to-market benefits that impact all aspects of all Omnicom clients’ digital investments, from content to placement to measurement,” Omnicom said in a statement. Such deals are becoming more frequent – or more frequently picked up by press. Facebook signed a similar multiyear deal with Publicis last week. WSJ has the story. It’s a biz dev war! Meanwhile, video ad bots persist – read that one in the WSJ, too.
Alibaba Ads
Adweek says that Amazon has not aggressively pursued advertising dollars in comparison to Alibaba, despite its established ties with advertisers, media holding companies and brands. Last year’s profits display the discrepancy: Alibaba made $3.5 billion, while Amazon made $274 million. “Though, if and when Amazon broadens its ad offerings, it will be viewed as formidable because of its consumer insights,” reports Adweek’s Garett Sloane. Read more.
Nintendo Grabbing YouTube Ad Dollars
Nintendo revealed an upcoming affiliate program to split YouTube ad revenue with users. The gaming company broke the news in two separate tweets via Nintendo’s Japanese Twitter account on Tuesday. Speaking to Polygon, one Nintendo representative said, “Nintendo has been permitting the use of Nintendo copyrighted material in videos on YouTube under appropriate circumstances. Advertisements may accompany those videos, and in keeping with previous policy that revenue is shared between YouTube and Nintendo. In addition, for those who wish to use the material more proactively, we are preparing an affiliate program in which a portion of the advertising profit is given to the creator. Details about this affiliate program will be announced in the future.” Read on.
Return To Context
Sovrn Holdings chairman John Battelle took to the Digiday podium yesterday and wants to turn the dial, at least partially, toward context and away from audience-targeting-only methods. He writes, “Programmatic has forced a separation of editorial and ad space, and we’ve lost context as a result. It’s time to get it back – it’ll be good for quality publishers, good for brand marketers, and great for our industry.” Read it.
Programmatic Integration
Writing for MediaPost, consultant and former NYT programmatic advertising director Matt Prohaska revises his previous predictions on programmatic integration. “I am behind in my prediction,” he says. “I don’t know more than five or six decent-sized publishers in the US that have truly integrated programmatic sales and operations into their overall teams yet. … Many of us know that buyers got about a three-year head start in programmatic vs. sellers, partially because the ad-tech companies were more focused on providing buy-side tools. And now some buyers have…” Read what it is.
Yahoo’s Rival To YouTube
Yahoo is purportedly launching a video-streaming service this summer that will compete directly with Google’s YouTube for ad revenue. To attract marketers, Yahoo will offer more generous revenue-sharing deals, or fixed ad rates much higher than those YouTube delivers. Yahoo’s fixed rate will be 50% or 100% higher than YouTube’s average net ad rate, Ad Age reports. Yahoo will also not require client exclusivity for advertisers on the platform, and will extend creators’ content across Yahoo’s various pages. Read more.
In-Game Advertising
In-game advertising network RapidFire acquired IGA on Tuesday. IGA’s proprietary technology, the Radial Network, delivers real-time advertising within video gaming. Ads are displayed inside a video game’s 3D environment, on billboards, buses, posters and the like. Radial Network will offer advertisers geotargeting opportunities, frequency capping, Web-based campaign reports, offline delivery and more. As terms of the deal, Radial Network will replace RapidFire’s pre-existing in-game ad-serving technology. Read the press release.
You’re Hired!
- LiveFyre Appoints Tim Laehy, Formerly Of YuMe, As CFO – press release
But Wait. There’s More!
- A Response to the Financial Times – Rocket Fuel blog
- Twitter And Omnicom Strike Exchange Deal (subscription) – The Wall Street Journal
- The CDO Role Is A CEO’s Admission Of Failure – VentureBeat
- Digital Video Advertising Becoming Next Frontier For Ad Fraud – Marketing Land
- Ensighten Launches In Australia – press release
- Is AdSense For Mobile Apps Ruining Your Google Display Network Results? – Marketing Land
