James Hercher
James covers the intersection of commerce, media and advertising technology.
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James Hercher
Articles By James Hercher
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How Apple’s New ‘Hide My Email’ Feature May Plague Publishers And Ad Tech
Hello, subscribers, are you there? Newsletter operators may ask that question more often, after Apple announced new privacy protections for email users earlier this month at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Specifically, Apple introduced “Hide my Email,” a feature that generates fake email addresses that forward to someone’s real address, so people can sign […]
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T-Mobile Hires Ad Tech Vet Mike Peralta As It Pushes Into Programmatic
The “un-carrier” is getting into programmatic. T-Mobile has hired ad tech vet Mike Peralta, former CEO of AudienceScience, EVP at Criteo and CRO of Future, as VP of Marketing Solutions, an ad tech and analytics business unit that uses the company’s first-party mobile data. “Everyone’s watched what’s going on with AT&T and Verizon,” Peralta said, […]
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Why Amazon Fire TV Cleared Out Third-Party DSPs – And What That Means For Programmatic
Two years ago, Amazon announced a programmatic Fire TV program with The Trade Desk and dataxu as inaugural DSP partners. “This agreement is an important indicator of where the industry is going, and will become just one of many, over time,” The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green told employees at the time. But the dream […]
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Google Still Dominates Advertiser Perceptions SSP Report, But The Field Has Toughened
The recent Advertiser Perceptions survey of the SSP market shows that (drumroll ….) Google is still the dominant gateway for online advertising, though publishers are testing and adding other SSPs more than ever. The survey was fielded in February and March of this year, and encompasses 151 publishing execs, each of whom represents a site […]
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Ecom Brands Are Connecting Their Warehouses To Ad Tech With Whitebox
The ecommerce marketplace management startup Whitebox launched an analytics product on Thursday that spans the world of ad tech and that of warehouse and delivery services. There is a boom crop of ecommerce tech companies that manage advertisements and product listings on Amazon and other online marketplaces (but mostly Amazon). Amazon ad agency Teikametrics acquired […]
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Vox Media Extends Its First-Party Data Platform Across Concert
To make it easier for publishers to use its first-party data across a wide network of sites, Vox Media on Tuesday announced a new suite of tools for Concert, its publisher monetization tech, that come from the digital media company’s internal first-party data platform Forte. The new products address brand safety, targeting and optimization. Brands […]
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OPINION: The Sell SiderInside Blackstone’s $1.3 Billion Bet On B2B Data And Media With IDG
Blackstone made one of the splashiest digital media deals of the past year last week when it acquired the B2B media and mar tech company International Data Group (IDG). IDG might not attract your average consumer. but its portfolio of some 300 tech and IT publications, including CSO, TechHive and Computerworld, fuels one of the […]
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Google Tightens ‘Limit Ad Tracking’ Policies For Android Ad ID
Google will zero out the Android Advertising ID – literally – when users have opted out of personalized advertising starting later this year. The company notified mobile developers Thursday about the switch. Currently, users who have opted out of tracking and personalized advertising are still tagged by the Advertising ID when they open an app, […]
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33Across Throws Itself Into Cookieless Targeting
33Across has introduced a cookieless targeting solution in an effort to help publishers and advertisers retain the value of programmatic without advertising IDs. At the root of the cookie-free targeting product, called Lexicon, is a probabilistic identifier 33Across calls the Pub Token. The Pub Token combines contextual signals – such as the time of day, […]
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Google Clarifies Its Stance On Post-Cookie Advertising IDs – And It’s Not Good For Ad Tech
Google gave its clearest guidance yet regarding how the company will treat shared advertising identifiers once third-party cookies are removed from Chrome. And it’s not good news for ad tech companies that have championed universal ID programs. In March, Google’s director of product management for ads privacy and trust, David Temkin, confirmed in a company […]
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NBCU Completes Sports Tech Investments And Readies Olympics Pilot Programs
Are you gearing up for the Summer Olympics? So is NBCUniversal. Comcast-owned NBCU culminated its inaugural SportsTech Accelerator program on Wednesday, investing $50,000 in each of 10 startups and blessing those startups with important broadcast activations just in time for the biggest event in global sports and advertising. Eon Media, a Toronto-based software company that […]
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Walgreens Partners With OpenAP For TV Advertising IDs
What if you saw TV ads inspired by what you recently shopped for at Walgreens? To bring its shopper data to a new channel – advanced TV – Walgreens Advertising Group (WAG), the retail chain’s ad tech subsidiary, will integrate Walgreens’ first-party identity data set with OpenID, an advertising ID backed by linear broadcast networks […]
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Verve Group Launches ATOM Targeting By Cohort For iOS
On-device is so in. On Friday, the mobile ad tech business Verve Group launched an in-app targeting product for Apple devices that uses on-device data to aggregate cohorts of users rather than targeting individuals. The product, dubbed ATOM (Anonymous Targeting on Mobile), collects data from the device and the app when it’s in use, but […]
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At Long Last, Google's CMP And IAB Europe Agree To Share Consent Systems
The Google consent management platform (CMP) Funding Choices will finally integrate with the IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF), the collaborative industry solution for passing consent data signals in the supply chain. Google also said Thursday that Funding Choices now includes compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). When traffic is from the […]
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COVID Tagged Criteo For $100 Million, But Ecommerce Gains Help It Rebound
The COVID-19 crisis has sent Criteo spinning with a mix of headwinds and tailwinds. Criteo earned $438 million in Q2, a 17% decline from the same period last year, according to its earnings report on Wednesday. By comparison, Criteo’s Q1 2020 revenue had dipped 3% year-over-year. And the company attributed $100 million in lost revenue […]
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Partnerize Snaps Up Pepperjam, As Affiliate Networks Fly Off The Shelves
Partnerize said Tuesday it has purchased the affiliate network Pepperjam for an undisclosed price. Partnerize’s tech uses automation to help clients optimize their relationships with marketer partners, like affiliates, ecommerce ad deals or influencers. Pepperjam has a traditional affiliate network business where publishers link from their page to a product page, and a network of […]
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C2 Ventures’ First Investment Boostr Raises $7M At Triple The Valuation
The tech investment fund C2 Ventures (C2V), founded by mobile ad tech entrepreneur Chris Cunningham, said Monday that one of its previous investments – Boostr – raised $7 million, at a valuation that triples what it had last year. Boostr founder and CEO Patrick O’Leary did not disclose terms of the deal or the company’s […]
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Unilever Overhauls Advertising And Innovation For Post-COVID World
Unilever’s sales and marketing channels are shifting rapidly during the pandemic, and these changes will be a permanent part of the business, executives told investors on the company’s earnings report on Thursday. “Online shopping, especially online grocery shopping, will not revert to pre-COVID levels once social restrictions are no longer in place,” said CEO Alan […]
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White Ops Uncovers Advanced Mobile App Ad Fraud Scheme
White Ops has uncovered a mobile ad fraud operation with unusually sophisticated and patient tactics to embed itself in mobile phones, the company said Thursday. The investigation, dubbed CHARTREUSEBLUR (most of the 29 perpetrating apps used “blur” in the name, and apparently the White Ops threat research team is fond of the liqueur chartreuse), rounded […]
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AdExchanger Politics: Mail-In Voting Will Decide The 2020 Election
You are reading AdExchanger Politics, our news roundup in which senior editor James Hercher tracks the latest developments in political advertising, augmenting our political marketing commentary and news coverage. Want it by email? Sign up here. The outsize role that mail-in voting will play in this year’s presidential election has placed it in the eye of a storm […]
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Coca-Cola Mulls Balance Between Marketing Efficiency Vs. Growth
Coca-Cola will overhaul how and how much it spends on marketing coming out of the pandemic, executives told investors on the company’s earnings report on Tuesday. The brand cut back advertising significantly during global quarantines, since even more than other beverage brands Coke sells in places like stadiums, hotels and fast-food restaurants. But CEO James […]
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SpotX Invests In SpringServe, As TV Consolidates Supply-Side Tech
The video advertising platform SpotX has invested in supply-side ad server SpringServe, the companies said Monday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Though the deal is not an outright acquisition, SpotX and SpringServe will collaborate on new features that shared customers can use, said SpotX COO Sean Buckley. SpringServe and SpotX are both supply-side […]
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Del Monte CMO Elana Gold Talks Real-World And Media Supply Chains
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. In March, Elana Gold took over the chief marketer role at Del Monte Fresh, one of the major US fruit and produce companies, with big plans to promote whole new product lines, like a […]
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Mediaocean Acquires 4C, Bridging Broadcast And Digital Walled Gardens
Mediaocean, the de facto software for most US TV advertising, has agreed to acquire the ad tech and analytics startup 4C on Monday for $150 million. 4C raised $31 million in two rounds, most recently in 2016 at a valuation of between $50 million and $100 million. Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise told AdExchanger the two […]
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Google Reclaims The DSP Crown In Latest Advertiser Perceptions Report
After slipping in the DSP rankings to Amazon over the past year, Google has reasserted its no. 1 status for self-serve, managed service and as advertisers’ preferred platform, according to the Q1 2020 Advertiser Perceptions DSP report released on Monday. The data is based on a survey of 347 brand marketers and agency buyers, split […]
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Button Unveils New Capabilities, As Affiliate Marketing Finally Advances
The mobile commerce marketing company Button on Wednesday unveiled a product suite called Evolution, including pilot partners Uber Eats, Groupon and BuzzFeed, with more tools for attribution and personalization. For some marketers, the word “affiliate” has such a reputation for banality, it’s like Voldemort — nobody wants to hear the name, said Button co-founder and […]
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How Amazon Is Winning The War For CTV Attribution
When advertisers think of the cutting edge of OTT advertising, they’re probably not thinking of Amazon as much as they are Roku, Hulu or YouTube. Despite having great video products, Amazon has not ballyhooed itself as a source for great video inventory. There’s not lot of inventory on Prime, for instance, and Twitch functions as […]
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Microsoft Enters The CDP Fray With Its Cloud Platform And Its Own Data
This is the eighth in AdExchanger’s “Meet the CDPs” series. Read previous interviews with mParticle, Acquia-owned AgilOne, Amperity, Segment, ActionIQ, Lytics, Bluecore, Tealium, Optimove, Adobe, Treasure Data and BlueConic. Microsoft Dynamics, the company’s customer relationship product suite, has surged lately as it repositions itself as a customer data platform (CDP) competitor, which launched last year. Satish Thomas, a 14-year Microsoft veteran and […]
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Mark Zagorski Named CEO Of DoubleVerify To Lead Its CTV Charge
Ad tech vet Mark Zagorski will be the new CEO of ad verification company DoubleVerify starting July 21, the company said Thursday. Zagorski and DoubleVerify declined to comment. The CEO position at DoubleVerify opened up in early March, when its previous leader Wayne Gattinella resigned after The New York Post published a salacious article about […]
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OPINION: On TV & VideoHow Canceling The Timbersports TV Series Forced Stihl Out Of Its Comfort Zone
The Stihl Timbersports series was already a case study on successful sports marketing. Now the chainsaw and outdoor equipment manufacturer hopes to set another example for how classic TV events will transition to online video and streaming. Stihl created the Timbersports Series in 1985. It was picked up by ESPN, then a plucky broadcast startup, […]