As Editorial Director, Sarah oversees AdExchanger's news and feature coverage and event content. Sarah has written extensively about publishers, sell-side technology and Google. Understanding and explaining the business implications of technically complex topics is her forte. Over her years at AdExchanger, she's documented the rise and maturity of programmatic tech, as data-driven advertising has spread far and wide in its marketing applications.
Vox Media Chief Revenue Officer Ryan Pauley has dealt with a lot since the pandemic hit two months ago. His team first had to deal with the cancellation of South by Southwest, where Vox Media usually sets up a large presence. Then advertisers panicked and pulled spend. And now those same advertisers are reentering, albeit […]
Cool culture didn’t go into hibernation during the pandemic – but where people go to find entertainment has changed. As the publisher that seeks to be the epicenter of cool, UPROXX is changing how it distributes content to meet the changing behavior of people stuck at home. “Digital media companies need an eye toward not […]
Forrester’s Media Agency Wave, released Tuesday, gave the highest ratings to the agencies that used data platforms to improve both media execution and ad creatives and created a more centralized, integrated experience for their clients. IPG media agency UM led the 10 media agencies evaluated for the report. To qualify, each agency needed $10 billion […]
During a time of economic uncertainty, should a CMO put her brand on the sidelines? Or should she increase media investment – especially if buying ads is cheap? NerdWallet’s CMO Kelly Gillease has been in the midst of that marketing calculus as the brand recalibrates its strategy for the rest of 2020. “We decided that […]
Samsung Ads is making its CTV video inventory available programmatically for the first time to buyers, via the supply-side platform SpotX. Previously, the only way buyers could access Samsung Ads-represented inventory was through an IO. Tests started last year and continued though Q1 with a major buyer. Although Samsung Ads hadn’t intended to add programmatic […]
People just can’t get enough news during the coronavirus pandemic – and it’s not just national coverage. Local newsletters are experiencing record sign-up numbers. Advance Local, which operates local news sites including Syracuse.com, MassLive.com, OregonLive.com, LehighValleyLive.com and NJ.com, moved quickly to provide newsletters to people seeking frequent updates about the pandemic. Most of the publishers owned […]
Facebook bought GIPHY for $400 million Friday, with plans to more tightly integrate with Instagram. Axios was the first to report the deal. “By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct,” Facebook said in a blog post announcing the […]
The coronavirus pandemic has led advertisers to rapidly switch directions, adjusting media buys and ad creative on the fly as the market changed overnight. “Automation feels like a necessity,” says Tara Walpert Levy, VP of agency and brand solutions at Google. “Both to try to help people capture any profitable growth they can, and to […]
A pandemic isn’t exactly how obé Fitness, a startup providing at-home workout classes, expected to achieve hockey-stick growth. But with gyms closed and people cooped up at home, obé Fitness’s membership increased by a factor of 10. For co-founder Mark Mullett, the disease that’s caused this surge has also cost a steep personal toll. “To […]
Spiceology historically dedicated all of its attention to selling spices to professional chefs online. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. With the future of the restaurant business uncertain, the company decided on March 16 to completely pivot to its consumer business for the foreseeable future. Within six weeks, Spiceology went from selling 40% of its products […]
In its first quarter call as a combined company Thursday, ViacomCBS hailed its strength and said the coronavirus pandemic would accelerate its plans for subscription streaming services. Advertising revenue grew 2% to $2.5 billion, excluding the impact of last year’s Super Bowl and the canceled NCAAA tournament. Otherwise, advertising declined 19% year over year. Pluto […]
Rubicon Project is laying off 8% of its combined staff this quarter to reduce short-term costs in response to its merger and the coronavirus pandemic. Originally, Rubicon Project and Telaria expected to achieve $15 million to $20 million in cost synergies post-merger, but the coronavirus pandemic led the newly combined company to increase cost-cutting to […]
The coronavirus pandemic is bringing record numbers of people to The New York Times – but advertisers are fleeing due to the economic upheaval caused by the crisis. The worst will come next quarter, when the Times predicts its advertising business will take a 50-55% nosedive. Beyond that, there’s limited visibility. Throughout March, more than […]
Now that advertisers have triaged their media plans to accommodate consumers sheltering in place, head of DISH Media Sales Kevin Arrix is thinking about which of those changes will be long term. He bets the pandemic will push more marketers into measurable TV media. “Advertisers are going to use data and technology to make sure […]
Disney Parks are closed. Broadcast and TV advertising is down. Movie releases and Broadway shows have no theaters to play in. Cruise ships are docked. Live sports have been canceled, decreasing ESPN viewership. Disney retail stores are closed, and film production has halted. Many companies are weathering the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic because […]
Although Google Ad Manager’s policy changes make it a frequent subject of criticism among some publishers, in practice publishers don’t cite these changes as negatively impacting their businesses, according to Advertiser Perceptions’ latest survey of the SSP market. The report polled 150 digital ad sales and operations professionals at sites with more than 3 million […]
Seeing “out of stock” while shopping online has become a familiar experience over the past two months, as products disappeared from online shelves. Online equine shop SmartPak wanted to make that unpleasant consumer experience better. Though only 2% of products it sold were affected by coronavirus-related supply chain issues, SmartPak knew it was losing sales […]
Instead of using media to drive sales, Campbell’s wants to help people cooking at home during COVID-19 use its products – and enjoy themselves in the process. The CPG has kicked off a campaign across Group Nine Media properties that teaches how to use its family of products, which include Campbell’s soup, Prego pasta sauce, […]
One month ago, 24% of ad buyers had paused their campaigns, according to an IAB survey on how COVID-19 has impacted spend. That number has since increased to 37% of buyers, according to the trade org’s latest survey. Overwhelmingly, those who are now pausing their spend had not yet decided whether or not to do […]
Quick-service restaurants have only recently embraced online pickup and delivery. These new systems are now being adopted at a breakneck pace as the coronavirus forces the world to shift to contactless delivery. COVID-19 is accelerating existing QSR trends around use of technology to enable contactless delivery, said Yum! Brands CEO David Gibbs during the company’s […]
2020 hasn’t exactly gone as planned. As the newly appointed president of the IAB, David Cohen barely had time to shake hands with the rest of the leadership team before the nationwide onset of social distancing and working from home. Meanwhile, IAB Tech Lab President Dennis Buchheim, a frequent flyer who normally spent his time […]
With multiple brands centered on food and home, Meredith has been providing help and inspiration to people sheltering in place during the coronavirus pandemic. During the first two weeks of April, traffic for Meredith’s food brands – Allrecipes, EatingWell, MyRecipes and Food & Wine – surged 117%. Traffic to its home and garden brands, which […]
OpenX said Tuesday it has laid off, furloughed or cut hours for 15% of its employees. Most of that percentage were layoffs and furloughs, and the number of people whose hours were cut was small, the company said. OpenX reduced the salaries of its leadership team by 15% to 20%. CEO John Gentry said he […]
For ad sellers dealing with pandemic’s economic effect, the battle is over. The siege has now begun. “The novelty of us not being together, not being able to be with our customers or go to events, is wearing off,” says Doug Weaver, founder of sales training consultancy The Upstream Group. Instead of face-to-face trainings and […]
If brand dollars are increasingly flowing to native social media ads on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, why not bring those ad formats to digital media companies? Bloomberg Media just launched Boost, a self-serve tool that allows brands to repurpose existing social media ads for mobile ad slots on Bloomberg. “For a small amount of […]
It’s difficult to buy or sell homes when everyone is stuck inside. But instead of staying quiet during the coronavirus pandemic, the online real estate resource Zillow wanted its brand to show up. In a situation “where the market is not moving,” at least at the outset of shelter-in-place orders, Zillow’s CMO Aimee Johnson wanted […]
NBCUniversal’s Fandango snapped up Vudu from Walmart for an undisclosed price Tuesday, making it the latest independent streaming service to get gobbled up by a big media player. “We are moving into the consolidation phase of the streaming business,” said Forrester principal analyst Jim Nail, citing this deal and Fox’s acquisition of Tubi in March. […]
The coronavirus pandemic brought everyone online, leading to a surge in traffic. But it’s expensive to process all the programmatic ad requests that come with that traffic. Plus, CPMs are falling industrywide. So two weeks ago, The Trade Desk asked exchanges to stop sending duplicate bid requests for the same ad impression. The request initially […]
For the next five months, Google is waiving its Ad Manager ad serving fees for news publishers around the globe, which have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Read the blog post. Many have seen ad revenue fall as national and local advertisers pull back, and as coronavirus-related keyword blocking makes it difficult to […]
One of LiveRamp’s top priorities is to get publishers to adopt LiveRamp Authenticated Traffic Solutions (ATS) – an email-based identity solution designed to be used in place of third-party cookies. So it brought in former ViacomCBS GM of programmatic Jason White to lead them toward the promised land of authentication, the company said Thursday. White […]
