As a staff reporter at AdExchanger, Alison covers advertising agencies and the digital audio landscape. Previously a copywriter at MarketSmiths, she has written digital marketing copy and produced campaigns across multiple verticals. Prior to that Alison worked in editorial at award-winning travel journalism site Fathom. She has a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Michigan.
While Turner divisions like CNN and Bleacher Report have been producing podcasts for years, the broadcast giant never formalized a podcast sales strategy across its network. But with podcast advertising poised to double to $659 million by 2020, according to the IAB and PwC, it made sense for Turner to extend the reach from its […]
Snap’s chief strategy officer, Imran Khan, is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, it announced in an SEC filing Monday morning. Khan did not disclose his next role. He plans to stay at Snap for an unspecified interim period to help with the transition and recruit a new chief business officer. “This has been […]
If there’s one takeaway from the IAB’s fourth annual Podcast Upfront in New York City on Thursday, it’s that richer measurement has made podcast advertising more enticing to ad buyers. This year, Apple and Spotify began sharing more granular analytics with publishers, and the IAB released the 2.0 spec of its podcast measurement technical guidelines. “This will […]
When CKE Restaurant Group, the owner of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, launched a Kellogg’s Froot Loops-inspired mini doughnut last Thursday, it needed to make sure customers walked through its doors to buy. So CKE went all-in on digital with a campaign that spanned YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify and Twitter and included a custom partnership with […]
WPP may have a new CEO, but it still has the same old problems. During its Q2 earnings report Tuesday, the holding company posted its first quarter of growth in a year, with like-for-like revenues up 1.6% for the first half of 2018 and 2.4% for Q2 to $9.6 billion. But the company’s strongest region, […]
WPP is set to knight its new CEO. Multiple publications Tuesday reported that as early as next week, the holding company is set to name Wunderman and WPP Digital CEO Mark Read the firm’s second-ever chief executive, following the departure of founder and longtime leader Martin Sorrell in April. (Update: WPP confirmed Read’s ascension on […]
Over the past year, GroupM media agency Essence has reduced its investment in third-party data segments for certain clients by more than half. While the decline has been most prominent in Europe, it began well before GDPR took effect and is totally independent of the regulation, said Ryan Storrar, Essence’s head of media activation in […]
This is the latest installment in “PII,” a series featuring the talent that makes the wheels turn in our data-driven advertising world. Lindsay Pattison isn’t messing around about increasing diversity in WPP’s top ranks. The former global CEO of GroupM agency Maxus was promoted to chief transformation officer of WPP last year. While the job’s purpose […]
Bacardi sees a big branding opportunity in digital audio. The rum brand turned to SoundCloud to launch an experiential activation with electronic music trio Major Lazer as part of an ongoing campaign that centers on music and dance. Starting Tuesday, artists from the US, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico can upload Bacardi-inspired tracks to SoundCloud […]
Believe it or not, many marketers still use last-click attribution. Goodway Group President Jay Friedman has had enough of it. So, he’s pushing the indie programmatic platform to tie all campaign measurement to lift-based metrics. “By requiring a lift-based approach, we can avoid vanity metrics,” he said. “It’s changed the dynamic of our relationships with […]
It’s no longer a secret that Amazon is becoming a dominant player in the digital advertising industry. It’s also no secret among agency buyers that Amazon’s platforms are notoriously difficult to use. While forgiving Amazon’s ad platform for being a work-in-progress, agencies complain of clunky interfaces, limited automation and minimal reporting granularity. The lack of […]
Roku’s platform business, which encompasses advertising and subscription revenue, grew 96% in Q2 to $90 million. Roku’s ad business now makes up two-thirds of platform revenue, Scott Rosenberg, VP of advertising and audience development, said Wednesday during the company’s Q2 earnings call. Rosenberg didn’t break out a figure for ad revenue but said a majority […]
Omnicom said Thursday it had acquired Credera, a small management and technology consulting firm with offices in Denver, Dallas and Houston. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Credera works with Fortune 500 companies including Southwest Airlines, Chili’s and The Container Store to build consumer tech platforms, integrate mar tech systems and consult on organizing […]
As media becomes more measurable, buyers are demanding tangible business results across every channel. Terrestrial radio is no exception. That’s why on Wednesday, radio attribution platform Dial Report joined forces with broadcast trafficking and sales platform WideOrbit to enhance its closed-loop attribution system for broadcast radio. “The collaboration with WideOrbit is making our data better,” […]
After a three-year stint as Havas CEO, David Jones realized the agency model needed more than a revamp. It needed a complete restart. “It got to a point where it would be far easier to build a technology company that does marketing than to try to change a big legacy business into that,” he said. […]
Spotify has terminated its relationship with AdsWizz since Pandora acquired the programmatic audio platform for $145 million in March. Spotify confirmed the news Tuesday, shortly after Pandora’s second quarter earnings call. “We did sunset our partnership with AdsWizz,” said Spotify in an emailed statement to AdExchanger. “That being said, we remain dedicated to offering advertisers […]
The Trump administration’s Commerce Department is in talks with tech and internet providers, including Facebook, Google, AT&T and Comcast, to craft a proposal addressing online privacy. The Washington Post reported the news Friday. Why now? The administration is succumbing to pressure amid global criticism that a lack of online privacy regulation led to foreign meddling […]
From AT&T buying Time Warner to Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox, there’s been no shortage of media mega-mergers in the market. But those macro-deals overshadow smaller mergers and bolt-on acquisitions that made up the bulk of activity in the media and telecom sector for the first half of 2018, said Bart Spiegel, US media […]
While most of Spotify’s ad-supported revenue comes from direct-sold inventory, its programmatic self-serve platform is growing fast – and now brings in 20% of total ad revenue. In Q1, Spotify reported that its programmatic revenue grew 94% in 2017 but did not break out a figure. Spotify launched its self-serve platform, Ad Studio, in the […]
Forward-thinking public relations firms are becoming savvy programmatic media buyers as the worlds of earned and paid collide. Paid social has been a core skillset for PR professionals for some time, but PR firms are now hiring talent from media agencies and building sophisticated programmatic strategies as clients ask for more measurable outcomes. “PR is […]
AT&T reported Q2 earnings Tuesday for the first time since its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, which it has renamed WarnerMedia, closed in June. Revenue for AT&T’s Advertising and Analytics unit, which includes the AdWorks addressable TV group, grew 16% sequentially to $1.8 billion, CFO John Stephens said during Tuesday’s earnings call. Advertising and […]
IPG beat the holding company sector in Q2 with a strong organic net revenue YoY increase of 4.6% to $1.95 billion. Meanwhile, Omnicom and Publicis, which reported Q2 earnings last week, were down 0.9% and 2.1%, respectively. WPP has not reported Q2 earnings yet, but saw just 0.8% growth in Q1. IPG is raising its […]
What’s the point of integrating data sources if you can’t activate on them? That’s the rationale behind the Salesforce Ventures-led $23.8 million Series E investment in SessionM, announced Monday. SessionM helps companies consolidate first- and third-party data sources and activate them around the customer journey. While it has elements of a customer data platform, its […]
The inability to manage reach and frequency is the biggest threat to digital advertising, according to Merkle CEO David Williams. Merkle has spent the past two years trying to solve that issue for the open ecosystem with M1, a media-buying platform that uses PII-based IDs to target known individuals. Merkle also has a publisher network, […]
Publicis Groupe’s performance dipped in Q2 as clients pulled programmatic spend in response to GDPR. Organic growth was down 2.1% for the quarter and 0.4% for the half-year. Net revenues for the first half of the year dropped 8.2% to $5 billion. In Europe, net revenues were down 3.6% YoY to $745 million. Overall, Publicis […]
Omnicom is shedding nonstrategic assets to invest in data, technology and analytics. That strategy was made clear by management on the company’s Q2 and H1 earnings call Tuesday, when Omnicom reported organic growth in North America was down 0.9% for Q2 and 0.5% for the first half of the year. Worldwide revenues for the quarter […]
The only common currency for advertising is attention. And that’s where Hearts & Science CEO Scott Hagedorn is betting the farm. “The common currency of reach is not legit,” he said. “Attention is a finite resource. It’s the one element that binds TV and digital.” Hagedorn, a longtime Omnicom exec, is trying to help his […]
The digital and programmatic space needs a refresh because clients are getting burned and returning to more traditional media principals, according to Colin Kinsella, Havas Media’s North American CEO. “A lot of buyers want to get back into TV, radio, out-of-home and print because they feel like digital can get lost,” he said. “The most […]
Launching a people-based data platform is the agency holding company trend du jour. Omnicom on Thursday announced its own version of such a platform, called Omni, that connects the media planning, buying and creative process across a single audience definition. “We’re moving some components that were in activation closer to planning,” said Slavi Samardzija, global […]
Arun Kumar, chief data and marketing technology officer at IPG Mediabrands, will play a central role in integrating Acxiom Marketing Solutions (AMS) into the holding company. The $2.3 billion acquisition, announced last week, gives IPG 1,600 data scientists, 200 product and technology specialists and first-party data on 2.2 billion global consumers. With AMS, IPG also […]
