Senior Editor
James covers the intersection of commerce, media and advertising technology.
AUTHOR ARCHIVE FOR:
James Hercher
Articles By James
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Starting As CMO During The COVID-19 Pandemic
One thing Adam Singer learned when he was looking for a job over the past six months or so, was that Fortune 500 businesses aren’t equipped for remote workforce management. One CMO didn’t feel comfortable hiring someone in Austin, where Singer moved this year, because she’d never managed someone remotely before. A well-funded tech startup […]
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NCS: Toilet Paper Hoarding Increased Sales 845%
We’ve all heard the anecdotes about people hoarding fortresses of toilet paper. And you’ve probably seen the empty store shelves where home and cleaning supplies used to sit. Now the numbers are coming in that give shape to those trends. Sales of toilet paper were up 845% last week compared to the month prior, according […]
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The OOH Renaissance Was Here – And Then There Was Coronavirus
2020 was going to be a breakout year for out-of-home media. GroupM forecasted 8% growth in the OOH category this year – the fastest-growing (and only growing) traditional media channel. And digital signage had finally reached meaningful scale and been integrated into major DSPs. While it’s still too early for updated OOH projections, the spread […]
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EMarketer Lowers Global Ad Spend Forecast Due To Coronavirus – And It Won’t Be The Last Time
EMarketer lowered its 2020 global ad spend forecast on Thursday, revising estimates down from $712 billion to $691.7 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on media and commerce. That $20 billion global decline is actually an optimistic forecast, and the ad industry should expect more losses and another downward revision when eMarketer releases its […]
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VideoAmp Takes Over Conversion Logic, Last Of The Indie MTA Vendors
VideoAmp has acquired Conversion Logic, the multitouch attribution provider, the company said Tuesday. Conversion Logic’s chief client officer, JP Pereira, will also join VideoAmp as SVP of marketing science. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. And Pereira is one of only “a few key individuals” from Conversion Logic who will go to the video […]
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Unlike Other Marketing Clouds, Zeta Global Is Betting On Its DSP. Can It Pay Off?
Zeta Global, the cloud-based CRM and data services company, plans to break into the marketing cloud arena with a demand-side platform (DSP). “Every conversation starts with, ‘Zeta who?’” said co-founder and CEO David Steinberg. But Zeta has become a known quantity in ad tech. Over the past year, the company has emerged as an exit […]
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Coronavirus Stopped All Sports. Will it Crush Sports Marketing This Year?
American pro sports came to a screeching halt on Thursday, with the NBA, NHL and Major League Soccer each suspending season play, and the MLB pushing back spring training and opening day games. The ATP, the US pro tennis organization, cancelled all tournaments for the next six weeks. The cascade of postponements started Wednesday night, […]
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PODCAST: The Big StoryThe Big Story: The Ills Of The World, And Of The Internet
The Big Story this week (this month, rather) remains the impact of the Coronavirus on media, marketing and global economies. The team examines how the pandemic and ‘social distancing’ affects the advertising industry, which is notoriously built around personal relationships and networking. As Allison Schiff notes, many ad deals come about extemporaneously, whether it’s sitting […]
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How Equity Analysts Are Assessing COVID-19’s Impact On Media And Marketing Sector
Monday’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) related market crash was the worst in the United States and the United Kingdom since 2008. Given the spiraling situation, what will be the impact on the media and marketing sector? The performance of individual stocks and the guidance from equity analysts offer some early clues. Ad-based companies are often the first […]
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What Happens To The Bloomberg Ad Money Now?
Michael Bloomberg’s Democratic primary campaign is finished, but is the Bloomberg media machine exiting the race as well? There is only speculation about how and how much Bloomberg will invest to back Joe Biden, who he endorsed when he dropped out, or on liberal advocacy campaigns. He seems intent on remaining a force in the […]
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Marketers Struggle To Relearn The Former DoubleClick ID
Third-party cookies are going away and Google is restricting ID sharing. What does this mean for Google’s suite of advertising IDs and the advertisers and publishers that rely on them for monetization? It’s one of the most consequential questions for the world of online advertising, but nobody has a clear answer. Google operates two different […]
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OAREX: Ad Payments Have Stabilized, But Payment Gap Remains An Issue
Digital media payment issues have settled down from a year ago, when Sizmek went bankrupt with tens of millions of dollars owed to ad tech companies and publishers, but there are still troubling trends in the market, according to the OAREX Q4 2019 online advertising payments report released on Tuesday. The data for the report […]
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AdExchanger Politics: Super Tuesday Ad Strategies
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. Super Tuesday is the presidential primary’s most important day, with 14 states, a third of delegates up for grabs, and a […]
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As LinkedIn Allows Richer Use Of Audience Data, Madison Logic Taps In
The B2B advertising company Madison Logic launched an account-based marketing (ABM) integration with LinkedIn’s Marketing Analytics API on Tuesday. The product connects LinkedIn data with campaign delivery and performance for a better understanding of B2B advertising at an account level. ABM is the B2B industry approach that focuses on specific job titles or account holders […]
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The Trade Desk Starts To Flex Its Muscles With DSP Scale And Media Deals
The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green painted a rosy picture for 2020, telling investors during the 2019 earnings report on Thursday that he’s never been so confident about the company’s growth prospects. The Trade Desk earned $215.9 million in Q4 2019 and $661.1 million for the full year, up 35% and 39%, respectively, from the […]
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OPINION: On TV & VideoCan Comcast’s Blockgraph Bring Data Matching And Crypto Tech To TV?
Comcast’s FreeWheel ad server business has been developing a blockchain-based data onboarding service called Blockgraph since December 2018. The system is finally ready for a broader push into the TV ad industry, said Blockgraph GM Jason Manningham. Last year, Blockgraph ran the first campaign where a marketer’s first-party CRM data was directly matched to a […]
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The Tool Brands Are Using To Get Directly Into An Online Retailer’s Cart
Although Amazon, Walmart and Target know which brands are sending them fruitful traffic, the brands themselves are often in the dark. Some of the top-spending brands don’t have meaningful dot-com sales of their own, and even when they direct traffic to retailers with an affiliate link, people don’t always convert immediately or on the same […]
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Comcast Doubles Down On Ad-Supported Streaming With Deal For Xumo
Comcast has acquired the OTT streaming service Xumo, the companies announced Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Xumo is best known for its free, ad-supported app on platforms like Roku and Apple TV. It licenses content and other networks to create a linear-like television experience. Xumo’s ad revenue is undisclosed, but it’s a […]
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Brand Velocity Partners Combines PE Investments With … An Ad Agency
Brand Velocity Partners (BVP), a private equity firm founded in 2019, is creating a new business model as both a marketing services provider and as an owner of small brands. BVP’s first deal was in January for Original Footwear, which makes gear for police departments and military groups. Last week, it acquired Magma Products, a […]
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Ofer Druker On Tremor Video’s Plan To Buy Scale And Share In Ad Tech
Tremor Video has had a dizzying few years in ad tech. In 2017, Tremor Video sold its demand-side business to Taptica, while shortly afterward the sell-side unit rebranded to Telaria and merged with Rubicon. Once the name was available, Taptica re-rebranded as Tremor Video. In 2019, Tremor acquired RhythmOne, an ad network and exchange, and […]
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EMarketer: TV And Bloomberg Will Fuel Political Ad Spend This Year
Political advertising in the United States from 2019 through 2020 will total $6.9 billion, up 63.3% from the last presidential cycle, according to eMarketer’s first political spending forecast published on Wednesday. If electoral budgets do play out as eMarketer forecasts, it will show the enduring hold TV has in the political media world. Television will […]
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Criteo Expects 10% Revenue Drop In 2020, As CEO Clarken Lays Out Survival Plan
Criteo is tightening its belt for the dust bowl days of retargeting. Revenue decreased 3% year over year to $653 million in Q4 2019, according to Criteo’s earnings report Tuesday. And the company expects revenue to drop 10% in 2020. But CEO Megan Clarken, the former Nielsen chief commercial officer who took over in November […]
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Has The IAB Lost Its Way?
Is the IAB living up to its mandate as the standards maker and voice of the digital ad industry? IAB working group participants, board members and industry insiders voiced their concerns to AdExchanger about how the trade group will navigate issues such as user privacy and platform consolidation. The IAB is the largest and most […]
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How LiveRamp Plans To Win After ‘Seismic Impact’ Of Chrome And Regulatory Changes
LiveRamp earned $102 million in Q4 2019, a 28% YOY increase, the company said in its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday. That’s healthy year-over-year growth, though LiveRamp’s guidance is for revenue acceleration this year of 32% to 33%. Two incoming changes to the digital media ecosystem will have a “seismic impact” on data and advertising […]
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AdExchanger Politics: Polling Perils, In It To Win It
Welcome to AdExchanger Politics, our reimagined news round-up in which senior editor James Hercher will track the latest developments in political advertising, augmenting our political marketing commentary and news coverage. Want it by email? Sign up here. The latest news: • The Iowa Democratic caucus ended in confusion and delay on Monday night, carrying into Tuesday […]
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Dynamic Yield CEO On How Retailers Can Catch Up With Digital Personalization
Your experience scrolling your social media feed will be very different from your friend’s. But when you go into a retail store, you’ll have the same experience as everyone else who steps in. So while digital-first companies like Amazon and eBay are built to create personalized experiences, brick-and-mortar retailers are not, said Liad Agmon, founder […]
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Alphabet Reveals YouTube Revenue – $15B in 2019 – And More Granular Data
YouTube drove $15 billion in ad revenue in fiscal 2019, according to Alphabet’s Q4 and FY results, released Monday. Read the release. This is the first time Google has disclosed YouTube’s revenues, which have grown briskly over the past three years – from $8.2 billion in 2017 and $11.2 billion in 2018. Alphabet will now […]
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How Pepsi Proves It’s Worth Going All-In On Super Bowl Marketing
A 30-second Super Bowl spot costs $5 million, and could be seen by 100 million live viewers. Depending on your perspective, it could be either the greatest opportunity or the biggest waste of the year. We know one brand’s perspective, at least. PepsiCo, a long-time Super Bowl partner, is back in force this year with […]
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Walmart Media Group Tests Xandr And The Trade Desk For DSP Role
Walmart Media Group (WMG), the retailer’s advertising business, is running a bake-off between Xandr and The Trade Desk to be its DSP partner for off-site advertising. Xandr and The Trade Desk each supported sponsored product campaigns for Walmart in Q4 last year, with the goal to drive site traffic at the lowest cost per click […]
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Amazon Emphasizes Brand Advertising Ambitions In Q4 Earnings
Amazon’s advertising business grew by about 40% year over year, in line with the annual growth of the overall “Other” segment, CFO Brian Olsavsky told investors during the company’s Q4 and year end 2019 earnings call Thursday. Advertising revenue is still a drop in the bucket compared to the $280.5 billion the entire company brought […]