Senior Editor
James covers the intersection of commerce, media and advertising technology.
AUTHOR ARCHIVE FOR:
James Hercher
Articles By James
-
Dentsu Aegis Launches Sellwin To Consolidate Amazon Expertise
Dentsu Aegis Network launched Sellwin, an Amazon-focused consultancy, on Wednesday. The business is made up of six consultants, with access to another 130 specialists across Dentsu’s US agencies for things like ecommerce search, creating product page content and Amazon voice skills, said Sellwin President Travis Johnson. The consultancy model is new for Dentsu, Johnson said, […]
-
How Sizmek Fell, And How It Could Be Sold
Sizmek regained access to its cash this week after Cerberus, the investment firm that owns Sizmek’s debt and now owns its equity, seized its holdings and pushed the company into bankruptcy last Friday. Sizmek has resumed business operations and is covering payroll and employee benefits, after missing the previous pay period. The next two to […]
-
After A Year Of Testing, Albertsons Is Ramping Up Its Ad Platform Business
The US retail chain Albertsons, which also operates grocery brands like Safeway, Acme and Shaw’s, is accelerating investments in the data-driven advertising platform it launched last year for consumer brands carried in stores. The idea is to turn its retail loyalty card programs into an advertising and attribution engine, since those shoppers can be tracked […]
-
Will Sizmek’s Employees And Partners Get Paid?
Story has been edited to include Sizmek’s response. While Sizmek’s future will play out over the next couple of months, there are more pressing concerns about the company’s payroll and whether it will be able to resume normal business operations. Chapter 11 bankruptcy isn’t necessarily the end for Sizmek’s business – it’s the kind of […]
-
How Xaxis Is Navigating The New Online Identity Landscape
Xaxis technology and partnerships director Nishant Desai will speak at AdExchanger’s upcoming Programmatic IO San Francisco conference on April 29-30, 2019. Agencies aren’t first-party data owners, cookie trackers or data processors, but they must still keep a handle on online identity while the tech ecosystem shifts underfoot. “The notion of how advertisers identify audiences and what identity […]
-
Sizmek Files For Bankruptcy And Faces An Uncertain Fate
Sizmek filed for bankruptcy Friday night, ending the private equity-backed effort to integrate Sizmek and Rocket Fuel into a cohesive buy-side tech stack, and possibly ending the Sizmek brand. Sizmek’s bankruptcy filing estimates its assets between $100 million and $500 million. Though its liabilities are in the same range. Sizmek’s four largest outstanding debts are […]
-
IAB Europe Raises CMP Fee And Readies Consent Framework For An Update
IAB Europe has notified vendors of changes to its consent management platform (CMP) program, which registers companies that collect and manage consent data for publishers, and is narrowing the gap between its GDPR framework and Google’s GDPR consent standards. These changes also come with a significant price increase. Last week, IAB Europe notified CMP vendors […]
-
Why Anheuser-Busch Is Going Big On Ecommerce, With Or Without The Beer
Buying beer online may be uncommon, or downright illegal in some states, but that isn’t stopping Anheuser-Busch from investing heavily in ecommerce. Except since beer is such a poor ecommerce converter, the world’s largest beer brewer is focusing on merchandise and apparel to generate online sales and shopper data. Branded merch is insignificant compared to […]
-
Silicon Valley Tech Is Spending More On Ads – Largely On Itself
Internet-age companies like Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix, not to mention Chinese technology giants, are spending more on advertising, catching verticals like CPG, automotive and financial companies that traditionally spend the most on ads. There are 10 new-age tech companies among Ad Age’s top 100 global advertisers. In 2017, the most recent full year data […]
-
Disney Closes On 21st Century Fox, And Enters A New Era Of Streaming Competition
Disney closed its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox on Wednesday, more than a year after it signed a definitive agreement to acquire the entertainment company, which at the time was going to cost $52.4 billion. Disney’s initial agreement in December 2017 turned out to be less definitive than the term implies. Comcast stepped […]
-
Undaunted By Rising Costs, Skullcandy Goes Big On Social
Although Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter are getting more expensive, they remain the go-to places for brand-building campaigns. That’s the approach being taken by Skullcandy, the maker of headphones and audio devices, as it looks to grow from its action sports roots to a broader audience, according to CMO Jessica Klodnicki, who was hired in […]
-
How IRI Is Setting Up Shop For The Next Generation Of Retail Data
The 40-year-old company IRI, known for providing market share data to CPGs, has worked its way into marketer tech stacks, where its data is used for both targeting and attribution. The bulk of IRI’s revenue still comes from its longstanding market share analytics business, said President and CEO Andrew Appel. “But business is shifting dramatically […]
-
FreeWheel Making Moves On The Buy Side With First Upfront Event
FreeWheel, the Comcast-owned video ad tech company, hosted its first television upfront on Wednesday and is mounting a campaign to expand its buy-side business. The marketer outreach centers on new attribution features and the launch of FreeWheel Media, which formalizes its buy-side accounts and ad-serving business into a cohesive offering, CRO Brian Wallach told AdExchanger. […]
-
Everything You Need To Know About The Bidstream
The phrase “bidstream data” is popping up more and more, but few understand what the bidstream is and what data is available. In the world of real-time ad auctions, bidstream data comes from a publisher or app and includes basic facts about the ad unit, like publisher and URL, device type, IP address and ad […]
-
Sizmek Could Be Forced Into Sale After 2018 Revenue Miss And Ad Server Losses
Sizmek needs another investment round after facing setbacks and revenue shortfalls in 2018, and it won’t find new funding with Vector Capital, the firm that backed the acquisitions and integration of Sizmek and Rocket Fuel. Sizmek is working with Cerberus Capital Management, the PE firm that financed the debt on Vector’s deal for Rocket Fuel […]
-
How The Trade Desk Has Evolved For The Next Stage Of DSP Growth
The Trade Desk shocked many observers last May when shares jumped from around $50 to $90, and then again in August when the stock leapt to about $130. Now shares are trading at almost $200. But what’s behind The Trade Desk’s monumental growth in the past year? The company benefits from a smaller field of […]
-
Telaria Bounces Back On Strength Of CTV Media Players
The programmatic video ad tech provider Telaria earned $55.2 million in 2018, up 26% from the year before, with total profits up 20% to $16.8 million, the company disclosed in its earnings report on Tuesday. Telaria shares were up more than a third during the day and have now recovered from the company’s earnings report […]
-
Amazon Goes Big On Conquesting Ads, Despite The Blowback
Amazon is ratcheting up conquesting campaigns, both as an ad platform and as a private-label brand operator. Conquesting is when a brand tries to directly peel off a competitor’s customers or audience. It was a limited strategy in the old world of media and shopping, where there wasn’t much data to identify a rival’s loyal […]
-
YouTube’s Latest Brand Safety Scare Is Very Different From 2017
Marketers are reacting differently to YouTube’s latest brand safety flare-up compared to 2017, when scores of global brands suspended YouTube campaigns over ads monetizing violent or offensive videos. There’s certainly some déjà vu, with Disney, Nestlé’s and McDonald’s halting YouTube spending after YouTube creator Matt Watson showed them advertising on a video that had a […]
-
The Trade Desk Train Is Still Picking Up Speed With 55% Revenue Growth
The Trade Desk’s growth streak shows no sign of diminishing, with revenue of $477 million in 2018, a 55% increase from the year before, according to the company’s earnings report on Thursday. Shares of The Trade Desk were up more than 10% in after-hours trading. The company raised eyebrows last year when its stock went […]
-
Oracle Data Cloud Companies Expose ‘DrainerBot’ App Fraud Scheme
Oracle has uncovered an ad fraud operation it calls “DrainerBot,” which siphoned off ad dollars and monthly data packages. Oracle’s internet infrastructure business Dyn originally discovered the operation after it picked up suspicious activity among some mobile apps using an SDK from Tapcore, a Dutch mobile monetization company. The apps obscured web data with proxy […]
-
US Digital Marketing Spend Beats Traditional For The First Time
US digital ad spend in 2019 will surpass all traditional advertising for the first time, growing to $129.3 billion this year, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast. Digital advertising is being driven by mobile, which is now more than two-thirds of the digital category, and by TV dollars moving to streaming and online video. Oh, and […]
-
OPINION: On TV & VideoBranded Entertainment Network Sees Growth In Hollywood Data Biz
Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), an LA-based agency that specializes in product placement and influencer marketing, wants to bring a more data-driven approach to Hollywood brand marketing. Last March the company promoted Ricky Ray Butler to CEO, three years after adding Butler with the acquisition of Plaid Social Labs, the social marketing tech company he founded. […]
-
Criteo Starts To Stabilize As Retargeting Losses Continue
Criteo brought in $670 million in Q4 2018, beating expectations but still 1% below its revenue from the year before, the French ad tech leader reported Tuesday. Criteo’s earnings for the year were flat at about $2.3 billion. But CFO Benoît Fouilland said the stability is a positive sign, considering Criteo was coming out of […]
-
Highland Math Forms First Data Co-op Of Data Sellers
Data transparency is all the rage in digital advertising, but data companies themselves still exist in a world of black boxes and inscrutable spreadsheets. Highland Math was founded last year to help address the issue, by creating a consortium of data providers that pool their own returns to create a market research data set. The […]
-
LiveRamp Adds Connected TV IDs To IdentityLink
LiveRamp has added connected TV IDs to IdentityLink, its cross-device identity graph, the company said during its Monday Q4 2018 earnings report. Connected TV IDs are tied to a home IP address, and are used to distinguish households by companies that serve ads over smart TVs or OTT services, including some smart TV manufacturers, multichannel […]
-
The Booming Business For Amazon-Only Ad Partners
As marketers spend more with Amazon, they’re spawning a cottage industry of Amazon-focused ad tech vendors and service partners. Brands need specialists to guide them across Amazon’s sprawling marketing empire – a brand may deal separately with Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP), Amazon’s Alexa voice group, Amazon Fresh groceries, Twitch and the company’s packaging and shipment […]
-
Google’s GDPR Policies Throw Digital Media Into Disarray
Since GDPR came into effect last year, Google has been at the center of two connected issues around resolving identity in digital marketing. First, it planned to remove the DoubleClick ID (now the Google ID) from its log files, preventing ad tech and analytics companies from using the ID to track campaigns across the web. […]
-
Google’s Expenses Increase As It Makes Its Way Into TV
Google still brings in the big bucks, but its costs are skyrocketing as well as the digital media giant pushes its way into TV advertising. First, the basics. Alphabet brought in $39.3 billion in Q4 2018, up 23% from the same period the year before, the company disclosed in its quarterly earnings report on Monday. […]
-
Amazon Hopes To Free Up More Ad Inventory – Just Not On Prime
Amazon’s “Other” category, its miscellaneous revenue segment that consists primarily of advertising, made $3.4 billion in Q4 2018, almost doubling from Q4 2017. The “Other” category also grew by about $900 million from the prior quarter, for the first time outpacing the growth of Amazon Web Services, the cloud infrastructure business, which added $700 million, […]