GE Gets Predictive; Growth Numbers

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GE Gets Predictive

“Predictivity” — the name says it all. GE, in partnership with Amazon Web Services, Accenture, and others, are getting into the “big data” and analytics game with a cloud services offering. There’s nothing said about ads in the press release, but…listen to the quote from Amazon CTO Werner Vogels in the release: “GE’s domain knowledge and R&D capabilities combined with the strength of AWS’s global infrastructure, breadth of services and big data expertise will help enable customers to solve problems in ways we haven’t even imagined yet, such as improved accuracy in healthcare treatments or extreme levels of energy efficiency.” Sounds like good targeting. Read the release. And, more on All Things D.

Growth Numbers

In a quarterly report, ZenithOptimedia Group projects the global ad economy will grow by 3.5% in 2013 rather than the 3.9% they originally reported. According to MediaPost, the U.S. accounts for one-third of all ad spending, followed by smaller and more dynamic markets. ZO Head of Forecasting Jonathan Barnard predicts mobile will grow “five times faster than desktop Internet.” Read more.

Ad Tech And The Agency Board Member

AdAge takes a look at the conflict of interest created when an agency exec sits on a startup board. TWC’s David Kenny and MediaLink’s Michael Kassan say such advisory seats are crucial for both parties, but disclosure is a must. “While [Kenny] earned equity from most board positions, he said he never worked with a company that derived more than 1% of its business from his agency.” Read it. The issue has bubbled up after Tremor’s S1 revealed Laura Desmond, CEO of big video spender SMG Global, was granted a whole lot of equity, as observed by the eagle eyes of Stuart Smith.

Privacy Biz

Evidon’s business model along with its well-known (in the ad industry) Ghostery plugin are the subject of an MIT Technology Review article. In addition to providing the free Ghostery service that brings transparency to cookies set in browsers across the web, according to MIT Tech, Evidon’s revenue-generating products include… : “Companies (…) use Evidon’s data to check whether the code they want to deploy is present on every page. The majority of Evidon’s analytics customers are large retailers and brands.” Read it.

Party Of The Third Part

Mediasmith announced its selection of Medialets for third-party mobile ad serving. Why? A lack of “standards in mobile means that a single campaign’s data can leverage different methodologies, making it impossible to effectively gauge success.” Hence the need for a third-party ad server, claims the release. Read more.

Still More Investing

On the heels of WPP Digital’s investment in Fullscreen on Monday, WPP Ventures (WPP Digital’s progeny) invested in a “Pinterest-like” social media platform called Muzy yesterday. The latest investment round is $4.4 million, angel-backed by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The social media site has about 20 million users and is adding 1 million a month, according to TechCrunch. Read more. That’s a lotta logins.

Mobile Ads Worth More — To Facebook

Facebook charges more money for mobile ads than desktop, the opposite of what most ad platforms do, according to Social News Daily. Mobile still only accounts for 2% of all company ad budgets and CPMs are typically much lower on mobile than desktop. However, consumer trends say you’d better be ready for mobile, Ms. Or Mr. Publisher. Read more.

Data Race

Salesforce has gotten a leg up in the race to dominate the marketing data market after its ExactTarget acquisition, according to LiveRamp’s Travis May in an AdAge column. Although they are up against other major players like Merkle and Adobe, there is still a large amount of fragmentation in the data-management space. Read more.

Dynamic Microsoft

Microsoft is getting creative with its ad offerings for Windows 8 apps. According to a Microsoft blog post, “Nearly 60% of people exposed to ads on Windows 8 perceived the brands as innovative. cutting edge and trustworthy.” Read the post. More about five brands using the ads can be seen here.

Device Idea

Sell-side platform PubMatic announced last week that’s it’s using a combination of AdTruth and TrustE to provide targeting other than the cookie-based variety. The company said it will talk more about the solution in a panel discussion at Cannes. Read the release. Like TapAd, Drawbridge and others, ad platform companies are looking for ways to not only solve for mobile, but for cross-device identification and targeting of consumers while still respecting consumers’ privacy.

Yield And The Paywall

As yield lovers well know, the cost of renewals is incredibly important for subscription services, and Scout Analytics (AdExchanger Q&A, April 2013) has developed a calculator as part of its Renewal Performance Management solution. The calculator gives companies an idea of what they need to break even — and also the potential for revenue. The calculator is here, and the press release from earlier this month is here.

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