Liz is a former Reporter for AdExchanger.com where she covered agencies and wrote the daily news roundup. Previously, she worked as a music journalist for BestNewBands.com, and has also worked as a freelance writer and editor for Elite Daily and L/A Mag. Fluent in French, Liz worked for a time at l’Alliance Française de Washington after earning her degrees in political economy and French from Bates College in Maine.
As agencies face increasing pressure to produce more content with shrinking budgets, some are streamlining production with in-house capabilities. At least, that’s what WPP had in mind when in 2009 it partnered with Hogarth Worldwide, a global marketing implementation firm. As a sister organization to WPP, Hogarth acts as a production and global distribution resource […]
In a move that illustrates the fast-growing importance of programmatic video, News Corp. will acquire UK-based Unruly for $90 million, the companies revealed Wednesday. News Corp. will pay as much as $86 million more for Unruly’s social video advertising platform, contingent on meeting certain performance goals. The deal gives News Corp. access to Unruly’s data […]
Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi will officially release a tool called Quality Index (QI) at the end of this month, designed to streamline inventory sources, manage multiple KPIs and cross-check viewability. QI has been in Beta since late 2014, and will be part of an internal UI called the VivaKi Operating System (VOS) Platform that VivaKi is building […]
DataLab USA, a boutique analytics firm that works mostly with financial services and insurance companies, is betting on advancing addressable TV through customized algorithms. “Our role in the data world is to aggregate all the aggregators,” explained Alex Aigner, DataLab Digital’s COO. “We’ve commoditized how we build custom algorithms. Whether those algorithms are used for […]
The ongoing media reviews have created inroads for agencies to use creative, informed by data, as a strategy to win new business. In a bid to take advantage of this growing opportunity, Initiative, the IPG Mediabrands-owned agency, hired Nick Childs as its first-ever global chief creative officer on Sept. 1. “As a lot of media […]
Prague-based Socialbakers added Robert Lang as its new CEO on Wednesday. The social media metrics firm described Lang as a key Criteo executive who helped the French ad tech company expand internationally. Lang replaces Jan Rezab, a founder of the company. Rezab will stay on as executive chairman. Coming from Criteo, Lang said he saw […]
Last week’s stock market dip and subsequent recovery could have particularly troublesome consequence for ad tech firms looking to play on public markets. Though market volatility is a constant, last week’s flux put a spotlight on a handful of ad tech firms often mentioned as IPO candidates, among them AppNexus, Quantcast, Collective, Dstillery, PubMatic, Integral Ad Science, […]
Even if terrestrial radio still has the bulk of audience, the growth – and ability to target – is in streaming audio. And an international brand like Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos needs its tune to reverberate across a global stage. This is one of the reasons why it signed on to use a native […]
Correction: The original version of the story included incorrect data indicating Publicis Groupe had the most to lose in the “pitchapalooza” wave of agency reviews currently underway. In fact, Omnicom Group and Dentsu are slightly more exposed. The below story makes that clear and includes a corrected chart reflecting actual impact on revenues for the […]
Interpublic Group’s global media arm, IPG Mediabrands, has hired Charles Godbold as global director of media intelligence systems. Godbold starts Oct. 1 and will report to IPG Mediabrands global CEO Henry Tajer. Godbold is the founder of Media Pilot Pty Ltd., a consultancy that developed media analytics, and media auditing firm Mediasenz Pty Ltd. In […]
A troupe of traditional broadcasters has a message for media buyers: Your perception of audio streaming audiences is skewed, according to a study by Advertiser Perceptions released Tuesday. The study, commissioned by terrestrial broadcasters (including Cumulus, Westwood One, iHeartMedia, CBS Radio, Cox Media Group, Hubbard Radio, Radio Advertising Bureau and Radio One) found media buyers […]
A number of ad tech vets made Inc. Magazine’s annual 500/5000 revenue survey this month, but there were also some notable new additions and absentees following acquisitions last year. Inc.’s survey, which was released late last week, features the revenues and employee growth figures of independent companies considered to be among the fastest-growing in the […]
In his four years as Havas NA’s SVP of marketing analytics and data consulting, Leon Barsoumian has worked to marry programmatic and analytics. From a programmatic standpoint, the French holding company has two key offerings, Affiperf and Artemis. In 2010, Havas debuted Affiperf, a global trading desk that Havas calls a “Meta DSP” and is […]
Technology is advancing so rapidly that industries have little time to update their privacy policies to comply with social norms, regulations and legislation, said Trevor Hughes, president and CEO of the International Association for Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Rapid technological development leads to what Hughes calls a public policy gap, where the leading edge of technology […]
Large networks like CBS, iHeartMedia and Scripps have been vocal about their recent investments in podcasting, and Hubbard Broadcasting joined the chorus earlier this week by acquiring a 30% stake in podcast network PodcastOne. PodcastOne is an online hub that houses 200 shows, including podcasts from personalities such as Adam Carolla, Snooki, Dan Patrick, Shaquille […]
Charlene Li, CEO of Altimeter Group, will appear at AdExchanger’s Omni.Digital conference on Sept. 10, an event designed to educate marketers on advanced solutions for building seamless cross-channel brand experiences. For digital advertisers, emerging channels present new inroads to consumers, but new challenges accompany those budding opportunities. “Clients have limited time, they have limited budgets […]
Ad tech partnerships are fast and frequent, as vendors move to establish a presence in disciplines where they were formerly lacking, or to bolster their inventory pool. Certainly, these integrations are easier with the emergence of standards like openRTB, but there’s still more to it. “Now that everyone can support openRTB, you have to do […]
Pandora took its Sponsored Listening product out of beta on Monday. The mobile ad format lets brands sponsor an hour of uninterrupted listening for Pandora users in exchange for 15 seconds of engagement with an ad. “Advertisers are hungry for a model that lets them buy attention and we’ve seen really great interest from the […]
Pandora is enjoying rising ad prices aided by its SMB sales efforts, CEO Brian McAndrews told investors during the company’s second quarter earnings call. “Our advertising investments, particularly in local, are paying off,” McAndrews said, adding, “RPMs were up 25% year over year, to a record $49.94.” According to McAndrews, Pandora’s success with local advertisers […]
AOL Platforms moved five video formats out of beta on Thursday, an update to the pre-roll format that dominates video advertising. The interactive video ads will run across AOL properties such as The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and AOL.com, and publisher partner video content, via AOL’s video content service, AOL On. The ads are available programmatically […]
Questions remain about Interpublic Group despite the strong second-quarter revenues reported Wednesday. On a call with investors, IPG chief executive Michael Roth spun the rash of media reviews – which some have nicknamed “pitchapalooza” – in a positive light, positioning the wave of media agency jump balls as an opportunity to win business. But any […]
Advertiser agency reviews took center stage during Omnicom’s Q2 call. Chief John Wren claimed the holding company is well positioned to weather the storm of media reviews, which have spurred the reevaluation of nearly $30 billion in media billings, according to estimates from Pivotal Research, because of Omnicom’s investments in its data-management platform, Annalect, and its programmatic […]
Open auctions generated 70% of total programmatic revenue in the US last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) first-ever Programmatic Revenue Report. Programmatic display advertising totaled $10.1 billion last year, the study found, and made up 20% of 2014’s $49.5 billion total Internet ad revenues. The report, prepared in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers US […]
EBay has confirmed plans to sell eBay Enterprise, its enterprise commerce and marketing services business, to a handful of equity and commerce firms for $925 million, one day before it spins off PayPal as a standalone entity. The divestiture creates a new standalone commerce and marketing tech company. Marketing components within the eBay Enterprise stack […]
Zeta Interactive closed a $125 million round of debt and equity funding on Wednesday from GSO Capital Partners, the credit division of Blackstone. Zeta Interactive, which changed its name from XL Marketing in 2014, is a marketing technology company whose clients include ADT, National Geographic, Time Inc., T-Mobile, US Airways, ConEdison and Century 21. According […]
When Ellen Pao stepped down from her post as CEO of Reddit on Friday – ceding the spot to Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman – it left Reddit’s monetization situation murkier than ever. In a question and answer session on Reddit’s popular AMA (Ask Me Anything) section, Huffman wrote, “Reddit has a lot of cash. Monetization […]
The health care system is evolving due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is why MDC Partners introduced a dedicated agency catering to the vertical: Antidote 360. “Health care is moving from a medicinal mindset to a lifestyle mindset,” said Antidote 360 co-founder Jennifer Deutsch, who is also the EVP and general manager of MDC agency […]
The volume and scope of ad tech/marketing tech M&A activity in 2015 shows investors want in on marketing stacks with scalable infrastructure that can support programmatic growth and increased automation of marketing functions, says a duo of investment firms. Such were the findings in reports from The Jordan, Edmiston Group (JEGI) and Petsky Prunier. The […]
Whether you’re an avid or periodic podcast listener, you’ve likely encountered an advertisement for Squarespace. The website creation platform’s ubiquity on the podcasting circuit came through a combination of luck and design, beginning with audio advertising experiments five years ago. The marketing team at the time was small, between 15 and 20, some of whom […]
The music streaming space got a bit more crowded on Tuesday with the launch of Apple Music, rivaling streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Google Play. But as the war to win audiences escalates, questions about Apple’s model linger. After a three-month free trial, Apple Music will become a subscription-based platform for a monthly fee […]
