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.
Popular YouTube channels for kids are migrating to the TV set through The Roku Channel and other ad-supported apps. Launched in 2017, The Roku Channel aggregates free content distributed on Roku’s platform along with live TV networks, premium video subscriptions and content packages geared toward different genres and age groups. When The Roku Channel launched […]
AdExchanger’s Social Distancing With Friends podcast now has its own channel. Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. As the economic downturn continues, marketers are focused on proving ROI. “There’s a doubling down on scrutiny in terms of where media dollars get invested,” says Havas Media chief data officer Peter Sedlarcik. But […]
Quibi’s woes started at the beginning. Soon after the streaming video startup launched in April, advertisers that had made multimillion-dollar upfront commitments including Taco Bell, PepsiCo, Walmart and AB-In Bev pushed for new deal terms in light of Quibi’s disappointing download and viewership numbers. While CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the app’s […]
AdExchanger’s Social Distancing With Friends podcast now has its own channel. Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Belinda Smith is fed up with the all-talk-no-action stances taken by corporate America when it comes to systemic racism. It’s time for action, transparency and accountability. “Corporations have been making noises about this conversation for […]
Programmatic spend in the United States began to rise in May, as lockdowns eased. Hard-hit brands such as retail and travel are slowly returning. Connected TV (CTV), which hasn’t been hit as hard as other media during the pandemic, looks to be the big winner in recovery as well. Data from ad tech companies including […]
Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. When Merkle launched as a direct and database marketing agency 30 years ago, it had no idea how relevant these skill sets would be to digital marketing in the future. Fast-forward to today, and Merkle’s expertise handling first-party data, building CRM databases and […]
Brand safety is not a static concept. COVID-19 has surfaced how using brand safety as a blunt instrument can de-monetize news publishers during times when information is needed most. And as the pandemic accelerates the adoption of connected TV, digital out of home (DOOH), digital audio and gaming, brands must have a nuanced approach to […]
AdExchanger’s Social Distancing With Friends podcast now has its own channel. Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. COVID-19 has changed consumers’ media habits – and their experiences with brands. “So much has been taken away from us, [people will] start to reevaluate brands in their lives, whether that’s consciously or unconsciously,” said […]
Ninety-five percent of marketers have changed their 2020 marketing plans since March, according to a Dentsu Aegis Network survey, reflecting just how acutely the pandemic has heightened the need for flexibility. “It’s either been an optimization, a budget cut, a budget increase or shifting money throughout the year to better match new consumer behaviors,” said […]
Roku is entering this year’s upfront with growing competition. With NBCUniversal’s Peacock, ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV and Fox’s Tubi available in market, as well as an ad-supported tier of WarnerMedia’s HBO Max launching next year, the OTT landscape has grown crowded. So Roku is beefing up its offering amid the pandemic by launching new products for […]
Advertisers responded to COVID-19 with cookie-cutter platitudes, such as “In these uncertain times” and “We’re in this together.” Now, the same brands are grappling with how to respond to protests across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police department officials. The challenge goes beyond whether an advertisement is on […]
The US agency sector will lay off about 52,000 jobs over the next two years as media spend declines 23%, Forrester predicts. Agencies are projected to cut 35,167 jobs in 2020 and 16,578 in 2021. The global picture is even starker, with the big six agency holding companies poised to eliminate an additional 49,695 […]
American adults streamed almost 142 billion hours of content during the week of May 11, up roughly 43% from a year ago, according to Nielsen. And The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green predicted during the company’s Q1 earnings call that reach on CTV will “rival and even surpass” linear TV in the near future. But […]
The Weather Channel and AMC Networks said Tuesday they have joined OpenAP, where national broadcasters can provide targetable audiences for advertisers. Both broadcasters will make their entire slate of national linear and OTT inventory available through OpenAP. Media buyers negotiate with the networks directly and activate through OpenAP, which normalizes audience definitions, day parts and […]
For better or for worse, the country is starting to reopen. But that doesn’t mean advertisers are simply flipping their media plans back on. As advertisers return to the market, they’re thinking critically about how consumer media and shopping habits have changed, and how strategies that worked in the past won’t necessarily work in the […]
Joe Hogan and his wife flew to the far corner of northwest Florida in early March for a long weekend. They’ve been there ever since. “If we’re still working from home in a month or two, we’re going to suffer through the heat of the summer here, I’m sure,” said the EVP of sales and […]
Criteo on Wednesday launched a self-serve ad platform for its retail media network. The platform connects demand from brands directly to supply from retailers across Criteo’s network, said Geoffroy Martin, EVP and GM of retail media at Criteo. Previously, brands could access Criteo’s retail media supply through a managed service. Criteo works with more than […]
MightyHive, the programmatic and data arm under S4 Capital, said Tuesday it has merged with data and analytics firm Digodat in Latin America. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Digodat has more than 40 employees and offices in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Colombia. The firm expands MightyHive’s Latin American presence beyond Brazil, where it […]
The remote work experiment caused by COVID-19 will transform agencies. Automation will become even more integral to agency workflows as consumer media habits shift, changing the nature of talent and services. Highly office-driven cultures will shift to a more remote, distributed workforce, as companies reduce their real estate holdings to drive efficiencies during the economic […]
Acxiom and Matterkind (née Cadreon) are tightening their partnership with a new addressable media solution for Acxiom clients released Thursday. For the first time, brands will be able to work with Acxiom for addressable media buying through the Addressable Advertising service. The media buys will be powered by Matterkind. More than 2,000 brands already work […]
Project management software maker Basecamp does not mess with Facebook and Google. “We vote with our dollars for the world we want to see, and we don’t want to see a world ruled by a handful of companies,” said head of marketing Andy Didorosi. Basecamp avoids online consumer tracking, which is “creepy,” Didorosi said. Facebook […]
Connected TV publishers manage distribution and inventory splits with a rapidly growing pool of ad-supported networks and streaming services. Wurl, launched in 2018, simplifies that headache by offering a single point of distribution across hundreds of OTT networks, including A+E, AMC and Bloomberg Media, and AVOD streaming services such as The Roku Channel and Samsung […]
Canela Media, a digital media company for Latino youth in the United States, launched a free ad-supported OTT network on Tuesday called Canela TV. Canela enters the streaming market alongside major media companies, such as NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia, and as advertisers pull back spend in the wake of COVID-19. But the team had been working […]
YouTube is expanding the amount of inventory it’s availing in the upfront this year through a new offering called YouTube Select, the company said Tuesday. YouTube Select grows the pool of inventory advertisers can purchase on a guaranteed upfront basis by bringing more channels into Google Preferred. The new channels, called “emerging lineups,” are organized […]
Think you’re busy under lockdown? Nicolle Pangis is running a company while taking care of two young girls and potty-training a new puppy. “I’d be lying to say every day is a great day,” she said, “but I’m trying to make more days great days than harder days.” From her refinished attic in suburban New […]
The departure of long-time television investment executives at two of the world’s largest media agency groups, Omnicom Media Group and GroupM, underscores the changing television marketplace, accelerated by the pandemic. At GroupM, changes to the investment team began in 2016, when longtime chief investment officer Rino Scanzoni left. He was replaced by another investment vet, […]
While advertisers can find bargain-basement pricing for quality reach on social and programmatic display, it’s a different story for premium video formats such as CTV, according to a report aggregating pricing trends across Omnicom Media Group’s client base. The report, published by Mark Oster, director of trading operations at Omnicom Media Group, found that […]
Amobee said Tuesday it will integrate with the programmatic audio exchange Triton Digital, which aggregates supply across digital audio publishers, broadcast radio station streams and podcasts. Amobee currently accesses digital audio supply from Pandora and Rubicon Project. But it’s the last major DSP to integrate with Triton, which already works with 30 DSPs. “Online audio […]
NBCU said Monday it has added inventory from Sky to One Platform, its ad offering where brands can plan, buy, optimize and measure across all of the media company’s linear and digital inventory. Adding Sky’s inventory extends One Platform’s reach to half a million monthly viewers across 160 countries. Buyers can access Sky’s global IP […]
Social media use is up, but advertiser demand is down – and that dynamic means brands that are spending right now can get a lot of quality reach for low prices. CPMs on social are down on average between 15% and 30% across the board, according to five media buyers that spoke with AdExchanger. Facebook […]
