
Algo Alert, Algo Alert, Algo Alert
Cross Pixel Media CEO Alan Pearlstein sees trouble in the algo as he offers a few cautionary tales about the false promise of the algorithm by some. He writes, “Some of these companies actually resort to shady tactics to mask the fact that their algorithm does nothing. For example, there are a number of companies in our space that claim to have created algorithms that can auto optimize an ad campaign to drive efficient customer acquisition.” Pearlstein says – not so fast. Read more about “the magic.”
Publishers Get Funds, Too
On DIGIDAY, Mike Shields covers the funding of all things – a publisher. Yes Virginia, publishers get funded by venture capital groups seeking extraordinary returns, too. Tech-focused publisher, TechMediaNetwork, received $33 million in funding. In addition to affiliate leads and display ads businesses, Shields reports that the company has “a healthy syndication business that includes sites like AOL, Foxnews.com, MSNBC.com and Yahoo, as well as over a hundred smaller sites.” Read more.
Native Your Monetization
MediaPost’s Mark Walsh covers this week’s OMMA Global keynote address by Union Square Ventures co-founder and prolific blogger, Fred Wilson. Wilson coins a new buzzphrase about ads in the process. Walsh writes, “Newer forms of advertising [will] fit into what he termed ‘native monetization systems’ for Web properties. ‘This is not putting up banners on the right side — this is the opposite of that,’ Wilson said.” Read about “the opposite.” In other words, ads are integrated and more aligned with the content – offers, promoted tweets, even search says Wilson.
Declining revenues at About.com has its owner, The New York Times, restructuring the operations group of the Internet company. The Business Insider quotes an NYT P.R. rep who says that 15 will be laid off out of a 22 person staff… BUT, 10 will be hired. Read more.
Affluence Breeds Exchange
What’s Warren Buffet’s favorite private exchange? Maybe this one >>> Martini Media announced that it’s opening its network to the private exchange model as the company said in a release, with “MartiniLIVE, selected advertisers will be able to set their price for premium inventory on the kinds of niche sites that attract a disproportionate percentage of the people with the most money and influence online.” Ch-ching. Read the release.
The Good 50 Percent
PaidContent’s David Kaplan covers a new Jack Myers survey of marketers and agencies which shows that among “satisfaction ratings of 80 online ad sales organizations, a little more than 50 percent of clients said that they’ve been pleased with their dealings with sellers.” And then there’s the little-less-than-50-percent. Read more.
Surveying Video
Targeting the online video ad market, online survey company and Knowledge Networks’ KN Dimestore says it has added SocialVibe, TubeMogul and BrightRoll to its roster of clients “that will leverage [KN’s] real-time survey data delivery to optimize online ad campaigns.” Read more. Competitor Vizu made its own video announcement yesterday. The competitive juices are pumping!
Privacy
- Facebook Fixes Logout Issue, Explains Cookies – Nik Cubrilovic blog
- Congressmen Seek Answers to ‘Supercookies’ (subscription) – The Wall Street Journal
But Wait. There’s More!
- Is New York’s Tech Boom Sustainable? – The New York Times
- Assumptions Are Killing Your Digital Marketing Strategies – Jason Heller on MediaPost
- Adchemy to Hire 80 After Raising $61 Million – FINS Jobs
- Right Media Expands Geotargeting Capabilities – Right Media blog