Allison Schiff is the editor-in-chief 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.
“Premium” can be a slippery term, but Opera Mediaworks defines it thusly: the ads publishers actually want to appear near their content and the content advertisers actually want to show up near their ads. That need was the instigator behind Opera Select, the mobile ad company’s new private mobile marketplace offering, unveiled Thursday. Publishers that contract […]
When it comes to ad spend, Cidewalk is more interested in Main Street than multinational brands. The app-based service, which was spun off Wednesday into a separate business unit from its parent company, mobile ad network Chitika, allows SMBs to create and target local ads across roughly 10,000 well-known apps, including MLB, The Weather Channel, […]
Competition in the various app stores is fierce, and app publishers like Indonesia-based gaming developer Alegrium are feeling the burn. Contending for traffic volume with big developers and brand advertisers, tracking the quality of users by channel and coping with ever-increasing cost-per-install (CPI) rates are what keep Alegrium CMO and GREE vet Jennifer Lin up […]
The average tech stack runneth over, but that’s not exactly a good thing. According to joint IAB/Winterberry Group research, more than half of marketers use between five and 10 point solutions and roughly 27% of marketers use between 11 and 20 different technologies to manage their programmatic campaigns. One industry insider quoted in the report, a […]
The next billion weigh heavily on the mind of agencies and the brands they represent. “There are roughly 1 billion people online on planet Earth. By 2017, the next billion will be there – and mobile phones are the primary means of making this happen,” said Mike Parker, McCann Worldgroup’s global chief digital officer. He was […]
Location data platform AdNear is going off-road with its data collection. The Singapore-based company is in the midst of completing a series of tests using drones to collect wireless data, a key ingredient in AdNear’s audience profiles. AdNear has been conducting its drone experiments in several key markets, including Los Angeles, since January. The […]
Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress didn’t always have a “Hall 8.” Today, that’s where they keep all the mobile ad tech – and it’s huge. An entire pavillion packed with vendors and bustling with brands and agency reps looking to get serious about mobile innovation. “The first year I came here, it was very much about the […]
Creativity on mobile – or the lack thereof – was top of mind at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. “The notion that creativity hasn’t been cracked on mobile – I find that depressing,” said Lindsay Pattison, CEO of Maxus Worldwide, speaking at an IAB event sponsored by Facebook and NASDAQ during the big show. “Most clients […]
On Monday, more than 90,000 tech vendors, manufacturers, marketers, agency reps, carriers, analysts, reporters and sundry members of the C-suite from more than 200 countries descend on Barcelona for Mobile World Congress with a single acronym on their lips: IoT — The Internet of Things. But connected cars, smart washers, chatty fridges, intelligent garage doors and the […]
NASCAR fans are loyal fans – and loyal fans are gunning to engage. But until last week, NASCAR, which acts as a governing body for stock car racing in the US and around the world, didn’t have a way for its fans to show their loyalty through the organization’s mobile app, a linchpin of its overall […]
IronSource is counting its cash. The Israeli ad distribution and app monetization company, which announced an $85 million round in September, said Wednesday that it’s brought in an additional $20 million from a group of unnamed investors led by Access Industries. These two funding events represent the first time ironSource, which works with Yahoo, Google, […]
Women who wear Louboutin stilettos are more likely to watch boxing, have at least four credit cards and compost regularly. Snowboarders overindex for gambling, eating at Applebee’s and always being first in line to buy the newest tech gadget. Diet Coke drinkers likely drive a Mercedes-Benz, shop at Ann Taylor Loft and listen to the radio […]
Getting freemium users to become paid users is a nuanced process that varies from person to person. Users on the brink of turning their free trial into a paid subscription need only a little nudge. Others, admittedly a much smaller number of people, will quickly pay for subscriptions. But neither group is the ideal target. […]
Yahoo hopes to entice the mobile dev community with a suite of tools around app monetization, ad buying and search served through the Flurry SDK. The man leading that charge is Prashant Fuloria, Yahoo’s SVP of advertising products, who came on board after Yahoo’s July acquisition of Flurry, where he spent two years as chief of […]
Yahoo is buoying its push to be a mobile player with a mobile dev suite, revealed Thursday at the company’s first-ever mobile developer conference – but the products, and Yahoo’s plans, are highly contingent on an important factor. Will developers see the value in Yahoo’s app-monetization tools? Flurry’s SDK now includes demand from both Gemini, […]
This is what Yahoo’s been cooking ever since it snapped up Flurry in July – a mobile developer suite made of five new and enhanced mobile products. And these are the top-line takeaways: Gemini native ads and video ads from BrightRoll are now available via the Flurry SDK. And comScore will integrate with Flurry to let developers […]
If an ad isn’t seen, that ad shouldn’t be counted. That’s Facebook’s position on viewability in a nutshell. As the debate around viewability swirls, Facebook outlined its point of view in a blog post Wednesday. “It doesn’t make sense for advertisers to count impressions that never enter a person’s viewable area,” said Brad Smallwood, Facebook’s VP of measurement […]
When Yahoo eyes the future, it sees the words “premium mobile media company” appended to its name in lights. That’s been the hope since Marissa Mayer became CEO in 2012. Recent acquisitions of video DSP BrightRoll and app analytics company Flurry speak to Yahoo’s plans and Mayer herself articulated those plans at the Goldman Sachs tech conference in […]
It’s a mobile world and Rocket Fuel wants a piece of it. The ad network, known historically as a desktop display player, announced Tuesday the launch of Local Lift, a tool that purports to drive in-store foot traffic and measure the results by connecting mobile clicks to store visits. Although this isn’t Rocket Fuel’s first […]
Demand-side platforms (DSPs) have dominated the exchange world for a long time now. But Telefonica-backed mobile exchange Axonix is looking to change that dynamic with the launch of a white-label product that will allow publishers to create their own branded mobile exchanges. “This is about swinging the power pendulum back from the demand side, where […]
Mobile is the mother of all invention at BabyCenter, an online content hub for pregnancy and parenting-related content. Founded in 1997, BabyCenter has always maintained a digital-first mindset – but the changing consumption habits of its more than 40 million global monthly users, mainly current and expectant mothers, means that mobile is fertile ground for […]
Measurement mogul Nielsen is bullish on its evolving digital measurement capabilities – but panels aren’t going anywhere, said CEO Mitch Barns. “The future of measurement is not about choosing between panels and big data,” Barns told investors on an earnings call Thursday. “It’s about combining high-quality panels with granular data sets for the best of both […]
Search doesn’t have the sexiest rep – but there’s a reason for that. “The story was very straight for a long time – Google owned search, so what else was there to talk about?” said Mike Yudin, CTO of programmatic search company adMarketplace. “But now we’re seeing the great unbundling of search and I think that’s a […]
The majority of TripAdvisor’s revenue came from advertising in Q4 2014. Of TripAdvisor’s reported $288 million in fourth-quarter revenue – up 35% from Q3 – $181 million came from click-based advertising (63% of total revenue) and $36 million from display (13% of total revenue). Display CPMs were up for more than 2,000 advertisers in TripAdvisor’s network, President […]
It’s not a case of déjà vu – Israeli performance player Perion has completed its purchase of MakeMeReach, a Paris-based company that specializes in using social networks to monetize apps. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal, revealed Wednesday, comes less than a week after Marin Software bought French social advertising player SocialMoov for just north of $20 million. [In […]
The vodka market is as crowded as a downtown bar on a Saturday night – and Stolichnaya is looking to differentiate. That’s where the millennial male – a social animal – enters the picture. “Our key target is millennial men, ages 25 to 35,” Stoli brand director Sarah Gorvitz told AdExchanger. “We call them ‘authentic experiencers.’” For […]
Two years ago, Dairy Queen was spending about $200,000 a year on research. Today, the brand spends upwards of $1 million to mine consumer insights. “Previously, a lot was done based on emotion,” said Barry Westrum, EVP of marketing at American Dairy Queen Corp. “Now, decisions are backed with data.” Historically, Dairy Queen is a […]
It’s becoming acceptable for men to moisturize – and Unilever is very happy about that. “I’m also happy the world is recognizing that men should be portrayed as parents, as bright human beings and not just bumbling idiots,” said Kathy O’Brien, VP of skin and marketing services at Unilever, speaking at the ANA’s Brand Masters […]
There’s more to mobile than just meeting a KPI. That’s the idea behind a new self-serve analytics tool launched Thursday by mobile user acquisition platform Taptica that aims to help advertisers dig a little deeper into what their mobile users are up to. “Last year was all about KPI – our advertisers were focused on defining […]
Now that Right Media Exchange (RMX) has been officially sunsetted by the powers that be, the Yahoo Ad Exchange has become a private marketplace of sorts, where demand can plug into Yahoo-owned and -operated supply. Yahoo has made a concentrated effort to streamline its ad business in the past year. The company used CES 2014 as […]
