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.
Mobile monetization platform Supersonic on Tuesday released a souped-up version of its SDK, in beta for the last five months, that joins rewarded video mediation through its supply-side platform with mediation for mobile interstitials via ironSource’s technology. The two companies merged last September. Essentially, it’s a single SDK that enables developers to manage multiple demand […]
Consumer tech and lifestyle publisher Digital Trends always tries to provide what its brands request – rich media, video, custom units, home-page takeovers – but that can-do attitude is tested when it comes to native advertising and sponsored content. Since it was founded in 2006 out of Portland, Ore., product reviews have formed the core […]
Even minor tweaks to copy or layout can have a big impact on app engagement. “Little changes really do matter,” said Luca Criscuolo, head of mobile product at Germany-based Bonial.com Group, parent company of Retale, a location-based app that aggregates and mobilizes offline coupons, deals, flyers and circulars from chains and local stores. That’s particularly […]
All those telcos getting excited about tapping into their data just received a sober piece of news. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed a new set of rules that could put tough restrictions on how broadband providers use customer data. Data collection has been top-of-mind for telcos as they endeavor to monetize the […]
Even with a header bidding solution, there can still be money left on the table. Spanish mobile optimization company Marfeel is looking to address that issue with the general launch of a supply-side platform Wednesday that sets dynamic floor prices. The product was in beta for the last two months. “Basically, our platform tries to […]
TheStreet is kicking standard mobile banners to the curb. Although the financial news and services site will still use them for internal ads and self-promo, banners will no longer be part of its sales team’s repertoire for apps or the mobile web. That’s because mobile consumption is moving steadily up and to the right – […]
That settles it: Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay regulators a $1.35 million fine for failing to be transparent around its use of supercookies. The Federal Communications (FCC) said Monday that it had reached a settlement with the telco following a probe that began in December 2014 after it was first revealed that Verizon was […]
The Association of National Advertisers and the 4As might be mending fences, but transparency – or the lack thereof – is still an issue. It’s why programmatic agency Anagram decided to start setting its clients up with their own direct platform contracts, rather than stepping in as the middleman. Anagram founder Adam Cahill calls it “radical […]
It’s been a busy 10 months since AdExchanger published its inaugural Marketer’s Guide to Cross-Device Identity. Since then the market has seen significant developments, including technology evolution, merger activity and shots across the bow from government regulators. Below, we pick up where we left off with an important update to our overview of the […]
When Adam Warburton – head of mobile at British foreign currency exchange company Travelex – came to Barcelona for last year’s Mobile World Congress, his mission was to comb the exhibition halls and find a marketing technology partner. At the time, Warburton had just started at Travelex after a two-and-a-half-year stint as a mobile manager […]
Devices and hardware will come and go. “Which is why the future is absolutely about mobility,” said Lisa Donohue, CEO of Publicis Groupe’s Starcom. “Mobility and understanding a consumer’s movements, the decisions they make and why they make them.” It’s a philosophy Starcom applies to “new establishment” clients like Airbnb and to more “classic” brands […]
MWC drinking game: Take a drink every time someone says “value exchange” in reference to the ad-blocking issue. You won’t stand a chance. “We believe in the fair value exchange. If someone wants content from CBS Interactive, we will deliver it to them happily for free in exchange for them watching an ad,” said CBS […]
Location data is buzzing at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “Where you go is who you are,” said Daniel Rosen, global director of advertising at Telefónica, speaking at an MWC Mobile Media Summit (MMS) satellite event. “[It’s] hugely powerful.” That’s coming from a carrier with its own mobile exchange, Axonix, an audience buying platform fueled […]
There was a time about five or 10 years ago when “media buyers couldn’t get arrested,” quipped Omnicom Digital CEO Jonathan Nelson at the Mobile Media Summit on Monday, part of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Now the media-buying function sits at the heart of the programmatic revolution happening inside the holding companies. “It’s the […]
The debate over which will prevail – native apps or the mobile web – is moot. The question, rather, is not which will win, but when the two will merge into a more fluid system centered on content and discoverability, rather than friction and discrete downloads. “We’re going to see less disparity between the mobile web […]
In the security community, engineers have their own name for the Internet of Things (IoT). They call it the “Internet of Insecure Things.” “In the future, even light bulbs will be controlled by Wi-Fi,” said Kevin Curran, a senior member of the IEEE and a senior lecturer in computer science at the University of Ulster […]
Yahoo’s bloodletting on Wednesday also included a number of advertising and sales-related roles, AdExchanger has learned. Yahoo is in the midst of executing a board-approved cost savings scheme that will see 15% of its workforce receive pink slips. The layoffs, the first round of which went down last week, continued Wednesday with the announcement of […]
Video ad spend is on the rise. Video supply, on the other hand: not so much. “Right now, video is mostly launched either in a pre-roll environment or on a social network, so there’s no scalable way to buy other video formats across the web,” said Vitaly Pecherskiy, COO of native advertising DSP StackAdapt. For […]
Intel’s ambitious new brand strategy is no chip shot. Primarily known since the 1990s as “the computer inside,” the microprocessor manufacturer aims to break out of the box with a campaign that “stops focusing on where we are and starts focusing on why we are,” said Penny Baldwin, VP and GM of global brand management […]
The combination of content and commerce can be a complex cocktail to get just right. Alcohol delivery service Thirstie is experimenting to find the right mix. “It’s not that content to commerce is all that hard to do,” said Devaraj Southworth, CEO and co-founder of Thirstie and a former AmEx exec. “It’s just hard to […]
China is a market that gets people excited – a largely untapped potential audience of more than 1 billion people. It’s certainly one of the stated “strategic rationales” behind the recent $1.2 billion buyout offer that browser maker Opera received from a consortium of Chinese companies, including mobile game maker Kunlun and security software provider […]
Brands need to earn the right to advertise directly to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. It’s a matter of credibility, said Albert Thompson, a digital strategist at multicultural marketing agency Walton Isaacson, in charge of the Lexus business. The car brand has a longstanding relationship with LGBT media company Q.Digital, the parent to […]
Spotify was a bit late to programmatic, but now it’s raring to go. “2015 was the year we started opening up, which was huge for us, and 2016 is the year we’re going to be fully open,” said Spotify CRO Jeff Levick. “We’re going to keep expanding and investing heavily in the programmatic channel.” In […]
The one thing that investors really want from Twitter – for it to grow its monthly active users – is seemingly something that the platform can’t deliver. Twitter reported on Wednesday that revenue for Q4 2015 was up 48% year over year, hitting $710 million – with ad revenue comprising $641 million of that number […]
Twitter’s giving its reverse chronological timeline an algorithmic tweak. Rather than automatically seeing the most recent tweets first and then moving backward in time as they scroll, starting Wednesday users will see a curated lineup of roughly one dozen tweets at the top of their timeline culled from the accounts they follow. To determine which […]
If you take the headlines at face value, Google and Facebook are killing it – dwarfing all others in terms of revenue and scale – and there’s not much reason for other publishers to get out of bed in the morning. But there’s a more nuanced story going on. Certainly, Facebook and Google have become the […]
It may not be master over how its software is used, but that isn’t stopping Google from ruling its Play store with an iron first. It appears that some ad-blocking apps are not welcome. Taking a page out of Apple’s playbook, Samsung on Sunday rolled out support for content blocking within the default browser that […]
Online stock trading company TD Ameritrade is investing more in mobile advertising – but is struggling to determine the impact. “Measurement continues to be a challenge,” said Francie Staub, a Razorfish vet and current director of digital marketing at TD Ameritrade. “We’re still trying to connect the dots between exposure and conversion.” TD Ameritrade’s target audience […]
Yahoo will dismiss around 15% of its workforce in Q1, including, more than likely, a large chunk of its global sales force. Five global offices will also get the chop. The cuts are part of a $400 million cost savings plan that will seek to grow profitability ahead of a likely sale of the business. […]
Publishers are always on the hunt for new ways to monetize without killing the UX. It’s a continual challenge, said Matt Blake, chief product officer at FanSided, a Time Inc.-owned network of more than 300 sports, entertainment and lifestyle sites dedicated to fandom. FanSided sites generally only serve two banners – a leaderboard at the top […]
