Amazon's Twitch Buy Is An Investment In Infrastructure; TV Buyers And Programmatic Video

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Media = Infrastructure

In a think piece on Amazon’s Twitch acquisition, NYT media columnist David Carr writes, “Gaming is a bandwidth hog, and Twitch is able to host multiplayer games, large events and commentary because the company invested in at least 15 data centers jammed with servers.” Amazon may hope to dominate in video and games, and their related ad opportunities, the way it did in commerce. By beating everyone else on infrastructure. More.

Programmatic Video And The TV Buyer

TV buyers could have a hand in how programmatic video develops, eMarketer claims in a report. “Programmatic video won’t develop exactly in the manner of the broader programmatic display space. The first efforts to create programmatic video platforms tended to parallel similar efforts for display, but TV buyers will have an important voice in the development of next-level platforms.” But will buyers have a say in how cross-platform video exchanges unfold? Read it.

Ad Tech M&A

Aggregate deal value in the tech, media, commerce and communications industries rose 220% in August 2014, compared with the same month a year ago, says Petsky Prunier in its latest M&A report. As for ad tech, “Analytics & Targeting and Mobile Technology were the most active Marketing Technology subsegments with each eight transactions announced, worth a combined total of $87 million in aggregate reported value. While CRM was the highest reported value subsegment with seven deals, worth $198 million.” Charts.

Weather Reorg

As part of a sales restructuring at The Weather Company, Vikram Somaya, GM of the company’s WeatherFX data/reach extension unit, will pick up oversight of all technology and ad products. “Somaya will be charged with building a suite of location-based triggers to WeatherFX, as he has done with weather-based triggers,” writes AdAge. Read it. Further proof location is ascendant in the mobile ad buy.

Algo Bazaar

A startup called Algorithmia aims to play matchmaker between underused algorithms developed by academics and businesses, MIT Technology Review reported Tuesday. With algorithms playing a larger role in media buys, could there be an application for advertisers and their agents? As Aaron Kechley, DataXu’s SVP of products, told AdExchanger last year, “There are no one-size-fits-all algorithms in marketing – different designs have different strengths and weaknesses. Rather than chasing ‘the best’ algorithm, you’ll have more luck with a system that can provide flexibility and choice of algorithms designed for a wide range of marketing needs.”

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Training For Automation

Writing on Medium, Martini Media CRO John Ruvolo ponders the future of sales training in an automated world. “Who is going to be having the adult conversations with marketers? Will it be a once-young 40-year-old seller who hasn’t been given useful training and finds that entertainment and free jeans aren’t as persuasive as they used to be? Or will the machines have eliminated that poor soul years before?” Read it. And, more thoughts here from Upstream Group’s Doug Weaver.

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