Allison Schiff is the managing editor of AdExchanger, where she covers mobile, Facebook (sorry, Meta), measurement, privacy and the app economy. Allison received her M.A. in journalism from the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland (her favorite place), and a B.A. in history and English from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
Malicious bots are getting more sophisticated and bot blocking companies are raising more cash – the arms race is in full swing. One such company, Distil Networks, announced $21 million in Series C funding on Tuesday as part of its bid to keep combating what CEO Rami Essaid called “a growing problem.” The round, led by […]
Although Opera Mediaworks is no longer packing its bags and moving to China, newly minted CEO Will Kassoy is still bullish on the opportunity there. “China is a huge market for advertising,” said Kassoy, who took the reins from former company chief Mahi de Silva in December after roughly two years as CMO. Kassoy joined […]
If you’re a developer looking to monetize and attribute spend across devices, Facebook and Google might soon become the only shows in town. “Bummer,” called out an audience member at Grow.co’s MAU event in New York City on Tuesday. As programmatic buying grows on mobile, so does the need for an analytics infrastructure that traces […]
Sprint is starting to see the mobile wallet as a natural complement to and extension of its native app. Mobile wallet is on a user’s device by default – Apple Pay on iOS and Android Pay on Android – which creates a lower barrier to entry for brands that don’t have an app or want […]
With its acquisition of Yahoo on Monday, Verizon – and therefore AOL – is sinking its hooks into a treasure chest of cross-device data. “It’s very large and very deterministic,” said 360i president Jared Belsky. Cross-device connectivity was ostensibly one of the big motivators behind Verizon’s acquisition of AOL in May 2015, and now the same […]
It’s been a bumpy road for Fiksu – from app marketplace rock star to ad tech cautionary tale – but now comes the next chapter. On Monday, the mobile app marketing platform, which was acquired by private equity firm Noosphere in early June likely as part of a fire sale, announced that it’s splitting itself into four […]
If a brand is able to handle its own growth hacking, user acquisition, audience creation, tracking, measurement and testing, then fair enough – there’s no real reason to work with a digital agency. “But if you’re not Machine Zone or Supercell with a 50-person team that’s really good at that, then you do need us,” […]
It’s probably not a good idea to use Google Translate on legal language. Roughly two weeks ago, the Chinese government released online regulations that include new rules governing paid search results, embedded links, video ads and email advertising. A buried clause within the edict also seems to outlaw ad blocking – and when Adblock Plus realized […]
Accenture’s digital services group Accenture Interactive “never set out to disrupt the agency relationship,” said Bob Barr, its managing director and global B2B commerce lead, but that’s pretty much what’s happening. “Just from a digital perspective, we’re a [roughly $7] billion agency,” Barr said. “When I tell that to people, they just stop and go, ‘Huh. […]
Kiip is having its moment. The mobile rewards platform announced its $12 million Series C on Tuesday, bringing its total funding to $32 million. Led by new investor North Atlantic Capital with participation from US Cellular (also a new investor) and existing investors Verizon Ventures, Relay Ventures, HWVP and True Ventures, the cash is destined to […]
Deals fall through all the time. But the failed acquisition of Opera’s ad business could be a signal that China’s western buying spree is liable to hit a few regulatory snags. In February, a consortium of Chinese companies, which comprises mobile game maker Kunlun and security software provider Qihoo, announced its intention to buy up all of […]
App users that don’t convert or engage in some way are not healthy for a developer’s bottom line. On Monday, Facebook rolled out a product to help publishers attract users that are most likely to keep using an app after they download it. Facebook also expanded dynamic product ads and its full-screen mobile ad unit, […]
The “one-size-fits-all marketing epitomized by the TV upfronts is out of step with the way people consume media in the market today,” said GE CMO Linda Boff at the second annual AppFronts hosted by General Electric on Thursday in New York City. The event invited 13 apps to pitch themselves to marketers. Even though people […]
Designer fashion retailer Monton is trying on messenger bots for size. On Thursday, the brand, which targets the trendy millennial aged 25 to 30, exited beta on a product discovery tool that allows Facebook Messenger users to chat with the brand and scroll through recommendations based on previously selected items. The images link directly to […]
Augmented reality seems to have hit its mainstream stride with the runaway popularity of Pokémon Go, and users are having a blast – but location-based marketers are also getting pretty stoked. “This is like the best high-profile marketing campaign for location intelligence that anyone could ask for,” said Foursquare president Steven Rosenblatt. For those living under […]
Congress is starting to pay attention to ad fraud – and it’s looking to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for answers. To be precise, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) drafted a letter to the FTC on Monday calling for the commission to take a closer look at the negative economic impact of digital […]
Now available on your mobile device: all the crummy, spammy experiences you’ve come to expect from desktop. Shady affiliate marketing tactics are a particular annoyance for publishers and users alike, especially forced redirects that unexpectedly shunt users to an app store, either by way of an intrusive popup or a mobile webpage overstuffed with display […]
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has no trouble getting people interested in March Madness, when the fans are rabid. It’s the rest of the year that poses a challenge. “The hardest thing is that we have a brand everyone wants to be a part of – but only at the end,” said Chris Dion, the […]
While the VC well has runneth dry for many of the middlemen of ad tech, the cash is still flowing for companies focused on the cross-device space, mar tech, artificial intelligence and mobile marketing automation. Flowing with caveats, however. “It’s not that capital has dried up, but rather that investors are being more deliberate in […]
As proprietor and chef at Café Avalaun, a gluten-free restaurant just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, Brian Doyle would rather cook, bake and make crêpes than spend his life on marketing. “We don’t do a lot of traditional advertising because it’s expensive and it’s hard to know if you’re actually hitting your target audience,” said Doyle, […]
If the content is good, the distribution – paid, earned or otherwise – nearly takes care of itself, said Anthony Ingham, global brand leader at W Hotels & Resorts. “We’ve steered away from peppering tactical ads in mass numbers across multiple channels,” Ingham said. “We start with the premise of trying to create the best content, and then […]
App publisher Betternet is eschewing banners in favor of native because the results are better and the experience is less annoying for the user – but getting enough quality demand can be a challenge. “This year I observed that the fill rate for most of the ad networks we work with is sometimes even less […]
When StickerRide talks about driving impressions, the word “driving” is literal. The Moscow-based startup, which launched in the US on Tuesday, offers a platform that enables the drivers of private cars to turn the sides of their vehicle into ad space. It’s a bit like outdoor on the go. US CEO Christian T. Lundgren describes […]
InMobi was the first mobile ad network to get whipped by the Federal Trade Commission under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for tracking geolocation without parental consent – and it’s not going to be the last. “What happened here is a wake-up call for regulators,” said Allison Fitzpatrick, a partner in the advertising, […]
Mobile search has become a cornerstone of Reckitt Benckiser’s ecommerce strategy. “Mobile commerce is increasing exponentially, which is why it’s so important to reach people when they’re down the funnel and actually trying to buy a product,” said Shubhankar Goel, associate brand manager of ecommerce at Reckitt, which owns household brands like Lysol, Airwick, Mucinex, […]
Independent mobile supply-side platforms (SSPs) are going extinct, the result of commoditization and natural evolution. “It’s been really hard to be a single-point solution player in the ad tech space for a long time, but now it’s almost impossible,” said Christopher Hansen, chief product officer at IgnitionOne. “Just take a look at the Terry Kawaja […]
Social commerce sounds good on paper, but turning likes into purchases has proven difficult in practice. Project September, a social shopping app from the founders of Gilt, aims to change that. Named for the start of the fashion year, the Project September app, which launched in April, has “tens of thousands of users” so far, […]
Facebook, which recently took the wraps off a tool that lets advertisers link location-aware ads to store visits, may have more than 1.5 billion users, but scale isn’t the only prerequisite for cracking offline attribution. “My question for Facebook would be: Do they know the spatial outlines of every McDonald’s in America?” said Duncan McCall, […]
For the buy side, the only fair way to measure mobile ad impressions is when they’ve actually rendered on a device. Otherwise, advertisers might be getting taken for a ride by publishers using different methods of counting, said Richy Glassberg, CEO of Medialets, a mobile ad platform and mobile ad server that’s been under WPP […]
As of Wednesday, there’s a new lord of the manor at AOL Platforms. Tim Mahlman, formerly president of publisher platforms at AOL, has been promoted to president of AOL Platforms, effectively filling the shoes left empty upon Bob Lord’s departure to IBM in April – but with one big difference. “It’s the first time AOL appointed […]
