Senior Editor
James covers the intersection of commerce, media and advertising technology.
AUTHOR ARCHIVE FOR:
James Hercher
Articles By James
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IAB Europe And IAB Tech Lab Go Live With GDPR Consent Framework
IAB Europe and the IAB Tech Lab released on Wednesday a commercial version of the Transparency and Consent Framework, a new publishing standard meant to reconcile ad tech with GDPR regulations. From a consumer point of view, the experience would be similar to the current standard for web browsing in Europe, where there’s already omnipresent […]
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Improvado Raises $3M Funding Round To Blaze A Trail In Middleware Tech
Trigger warning: This article contains references to yet another three-letter acronym in the advertising technology ecosystem. Improvado is an extract, transform, load (ETL) data startup focused on the agency and advertiser landscape. The company raised a $3 million seed round with backing from a range of familiar ad tech names, including Auren Hoffman, the CEO […]
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Oracle Data Cloud Buys Grapeshot
Oracle has acquired Grapeshot, a UK-based contextual targeting startup, the companies announced Tuesday. Grapeshot provides pre-bid insights based on the media being considered. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Grapeshot will join the Oracle Data Cloud, where it will be combined with Moat to strengthen the company’s brand safety service. The company initially focused […]
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Even After YouTube's Rough Year, Alphabet's Growth Looks Unstoppable
The Alphabet revenue train is full steam ahead, as the company reported more than $31 billion in revenues in the first quarter of 2018, a 26% jump from the same period last year, the company announced in its earnings report Monday. Programmatic and the core search business were the biggest driver of that growth, rising […]
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IAB Tech Lab Acquires DigiTrust In Homecoming Deal
The IAB Tech Lab, the research and development arm affiliated with the trade group, has acquired the nonprofit online identity consortium DigiTrust. Terms of the deal are unknown, though a key feature is the acqui-hire of Jordan Mitchell, DigiTrust’s founder and CEO, as the Tech Lab’s senior VP of members and operations. The Tech Lab […]
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AdRoll Integrates With Magento In Search Of Early Stage Ecommerce Players
AdRoll and Magento Commerce announced a partnership on Friday to combine the companies’ ecommerce platforms, incorporating AdRoll’s ad targeting and attribution directly into the Magento cloud management service for online sellers. Bay Alarm Medical, which sells medical alert systems, has been working with Magento for four years and with AdRoll for almost a decade, said […]
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NYIAX And Rebel AI Team Up To Support A Blockchain Ad Model
The blockchain-based advertising marketplace NYIAX on Friday announced new leadership appointments and a partnership with Rebel AI, another blockchain ad tech startup, as it looks to scale. Bill Wise, the CEO of Mediaocean, has gone from a NYIAX adviser to executive chairman of the board and Richard Bush, formerly the company product chief, is being […]
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AT&T’s Stephenson Takes The Stand In DOJ Suit, Citing Need For Data-Driven Ad Business
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson testified on Thursday in defense of the company’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, which is being contested as an antitrust violation by the Justice Department. Stephenson reiterated AT&T’s defense that without strong content to incorporate into its mobile, streaming and linear distribution, the telco is being left behind by online […]
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Why Rovio Is Testing Whether Virtual And Augmented Reality Ads Are For Real
Marketers use augmented reality and virtual reality primarily for entertainment industry stunts, but programmatic AR and VR advertising are showing early signs of life. The Finnish mobile games developer Rovio, of “Angry Birds” fame, focuses on performance marketing to drive app downloads, but the company is running pilot campaigns with the AR/VR programmatic tech vendor […]
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Why Ad Tech In Search Of An Exit Has Reason To Hope
Is opportunity fading for ad tech startups to go public or be acquired at a healthy premium? The answer is no, at least not for everyone, said Elgin Thompson, managing director of the technology investment advisory firm Digital Capital Advisors, at AdExchanger’s PROGRAMMATIC I/O in San Francisco last week. A look back at IPO filings […]
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How Del Monte Uses Amobee To Track Shopper Audiences
Because it can take a month or more to tie digital media to offline purchases, CPGs like Del Monte are used to relying on proxy metrics like viewability or engagement. But Del Monte is piloting an Amobee product released Wednesday called Sales Accelerator, which aims to collapse that timeline to about a week and help […]
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How Broadcasters Hope To Make Money From Live Online Newscasts
A handful of major news companies are trying to figure out how live news broadcasts fit in digital media. The challenges are steep. Streaming live news requires large, ongoing investments, and it’s difficult to monetize audiences, as live news can be a hotbed of brand safety concerns. Plus, Facebook’s recent algorithm shift lowered the ratio […]
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Facebook Political Transparency Tools To Limit Inflamed Opinions And Dark Posts
Facebook on Friday implemented new transparency and verification processes for political advertisers. Last October, the company said it would begin allowing only authorized advertisers to run electoral ads, which explicitly advocate for or against an active political candidate. But those limits will now apply to any advertisers who want to run “issue ads” that more […]
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M&A Deal Values Are Up In 2018 As Cash-On-Hand And Ecommerce Values Soar
Despite broad concerns about the viability of online media and advertising, M&A in the sector is heating up thanks to the growth of ecommerce and commerce-based media solutions, like Apple’s purchase of digital subscription service Next Issue Media for an undisclosed amount. The total number of deals in media, marketing and technology dropped by 7% […]
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Google's Answer To Header Bidding Is Now Generally Available
Google header-bidding solution Exchange Bidding has exited beta and is generally available to all publishers who use Doubleclick for Publishers (DFP), the company said Wednesday. Google also said it is alpha testing an expansion of Exchange Bidding to new ad formats like video and buying methods like programmatic. It expects to release a beta version […]
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What GDPR Costs Digital Media And Technology Companies
With the May 25 start date for GDPR enforcement approaching fast, companies across the digital media, tech and data ecosystem are in overdrive to finalize product changes and prep their data governance and legal teams for scrutiny by the European Union. Tech takeover: Technology upgrade costs will likely remain high for a couple of years […]
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Why Connecting Influencers To Programmatic Was A ‘Shoe’-In For DSW
Allison Holbrook, digital media manager at DSW, and Kolin Kleveno, head of programmatic at 360i, will speak at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO conference on April 10-11 at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. For the past three years, the shoe retailer DSW used influencers to reach prospective shoppers in their teens or early 20s, more as a […]
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Despite Its Mystique, Cambridge Analytica Didn’t Offer Advertisers Anything Special
Cambridge Analytica was notorious long before its controversial use of Facebook data became news. But even before it defected from Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign to Donald Trump’s in 2016, the company was angling for marketing dollars. In September of that year, it had about 25 Fortune 500 businesses in its funnel, AdExchanger was told at […]
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OPINION: The Sell SiderSalon’s Plan For Media Growth: Test Everything And Everyone
A publisher’s job nowadays is “to be a systems integrator and experimenter,” said Ryan Nathanson, COO of Salon Media Group, a news and culture publisher known for liberal commentary. That’s been Nathanson’s approach since taking the reins of Salon’s operations a year ago. The company has explored new payment and supply chain vendors, for example, […]
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What You Need To Know About The Justice Department’s Challenge Of AT&T-Time Warner
The trial that will resolve the US Justice Department’s challenge to AT&T’s $85 billion proposed acquisition of Time Warner will begin on Wednesday. The case, the first major US media merger to go to trial in decades, will indicate how the government may oversee telco and media consolidation going forward. If successful, the DOJ’s challenge […]
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Made To Order: How Allrecipes And Hidden Valley Are Getting To Alexa Users
Here’s the central mystery of our time: What will Amazon let brands do on Alexa? That’s something dressing and ingredients manufacturer Hidden Valley is testing right now, via an integrated marketing product from Allrecipes designed to link its native inventory to grocery orders on AmazonFresh. Clorox-owned Hidden Valley and other grocery brands work with Allrecipes […]
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How Dish Uses Non-Cookie Browser Data To Recognize Online Audiences
Dish Network hopes to perform attribution and cross-device targeting using non-cookie-based browser data, said Brad Stamulis, Dish’s director of digital marketing. The satellite TV provider is using a solution called fTrack, from online ad platform Flashtalking, which recognizes consumers based on about 50 data points – including browser type, user location, screen size and orientation, […]
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IAB Europe Releases GDPR Standards For Passing Consent To Ad Tech Buyers
The IAB Europe GDPR working group has released for public comment its framework for transmitting user consent data up the supply chain, from publishers to technology companies and marketers. The final version is scheduled to come out mid-April. Read the tech specs. The framework provides standards so that publishers can provide transparency into their data […]
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Drawbridge Exits Media Business In Europe Before GDPR Storms The Castle
The cross-device identity company Drawbridge abandoned its advertising business in the EU and is trying to reconcile its data business with GDPR regulations beginning in May. Drawbridge founder and CEO Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan confirmed the company’s reversals in Europe in an email to AdExchanger. Drawbridge will transition its EU partner services to the company’s New York […]
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Why REI Is Going Out-Of-Home For Its Outside-The-Box Marketing
When the outdoor recreation retailer REI closed its shops for Black Friday, the biggest sales day of the year for many stores, it was testing brand appeal against strong short-term revenue, as well as its out-of-home (OOH) media and data services. REI has grown its OOH media from nothing two to three years ago to […]
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PODCAST: AdExchanger TalksPodcast: Kerry Bianchi On The Shift From Service To Software
Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. Our guest this week is Kerry Bianchi, president and CEO of Visto, formerly Collective. Bianchi has overseen a major transition of the company since taking the helm from founder Joe Apprendi one year ago. That transition includes a sale of the legacy managed services business. […]
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How Digital Platforms Are Battening Down The Hatches On Political Ads
When Facebook, Twitter and Google executives were summoned late last year to testify before Congress on political interference and advertising in the 2016 election, they were steadfast that they could manage the issue through ad policies and disclosures. Early bipartisan calls for legislation have mostly faded and, for now, self-regulation is the name of the […]
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CPGs Focus On Marketing In Tough US Retail Landscape
The world’s largest consumer product brands are struggling to grow their US businesses. While some of the challenges are macro-economic, like increased transportation costs, the biggest factor is the growth of retail private-label brands, which can’t be acquired or stamped out like startup competitors. Large CPGs are also adjusting to new direct-to-consumer and ad-heavy startup […]
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How The Olympics Is Changing – And Not Changing – Its Brand Marketing Controls
The majority of snowboarding gold medals in the 2018 Winter Olympics were won by competitors in head-to-toe Burton gear, so why do the sports outfitter’s social media pages seem oblivious to the company’s biggest brand event of this half-decade? It’s because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) goes to unmatched lengths to preserve the Olympic’s official […]
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The Trade Desk Continues Growth Run And Sets Out TV Ambitions
Advertisers spent $1.55 billion on The Trade Desk’s platform in 2017, helping the DSP grow its annual revenue 52% to $308 million, the company disclosed in its Q4 2017 earnings report Thursday. Shares increased more than 10% during after-hours trading. The Trade Desk also cleared another milestone, with mobile surpassing desktop display last year for […]