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.
If Google Chrome follows Apple’s ITP and Firefox’s ETP to create a cookie blocker that limits third-party tracking, what would it look like? Google is considering its options, according to an article by AdWeek that said multiple teams at the company – not just its advertising division – are contemplating how to limit third-party data […]
Pluto TV is the anti-Netflix. It’s free and ad-supported. Users scroll through channels and watch whatever show is already playing, replicating the channel surfing that’s a hallmark of old-fashioned TV watching. Viacom spent $340 million in cash to acquire Pluto TV in January, validating the concept and its audience. The deal felt like “Cinderella getting […]
McCormick, the 130-year-old seasoning manufacturer, worked together with BuzzFeed’s food publication Tasty to co-develop Tasty-branded seasonings. For BuzzFeed, selling co-branded products is a revenue opportunity that supplements its ad business. For McCormick, which usually sells in supermarkets, it’s an opportunity to reach millennial chefs and to directly get both customer data and distribution – usually […]
As all online advertising exchanges – including Google – switch to a first-price auction format, marketers and publishers can trust they will be run fairly. The auction type ensures that the exchanges, acting as the auctioneers, have no incentive to cheat. “First-price auctions wipe out a lot of ways auctioneers would be tempted to bend […]
When Campbell’s made its $6.1 billion acquisition of CPG company Snyder’s-Lance last May, it wanted to bring its marketing prowess to snack brands that hadn’t received media investment in decades, like Kettle, Cape Cod and Snyder’s of Hanover. “They were more product innovation focused, and less advertising focused,” said Karen Marks, VP of integrated marketing […]
The power of the brands owned by Meredith – including Better Homes & Gardens, People, Food & Wine, Family Circle – first attracted Catherine Levene to join the publisher as chief strategy officer in January. “I’m a big believer in trusted brands, and this company has a huge portfolio of trusted brands. The opportunity is […]
Years ago, TV buyers didn’t bother with connected TV (CTV) because it offered little benefit for a lot of hassle. “Digital players were the earliest adopters. Because it was TV-like, everyone wanted to get into the video game.” said Gibbs Haljun, total US investment lead at Mindshare. But young viewers leaving linear TV changes that […]
Bid shading is a technique buyers use in first-price auctions to avoid paying too much, and its importance has increased as every major exchange has switched over to a first-price auction. “Bid shading uses an aggregated view of the market to avoid overpaying,” said Matthew McIntyre, head of programmatic EMEA for Essence. “DSPs or exchanges […]
Google’s move to create unified, first-price auctions for publishers using Google Ad Manager doesn’t just change the auction type. It impacts pricing, header bidding, publisher floors and how publishers see AdWords demand. Under the new rules, all exchanges will bid for an impression at the same time, and Google will lose the “last look” it […]
Google will move to first-price auctions for Google Ad Manager, its publisher exchange and ad server, by the end of 2019. At that time, it will also run a single, unified auction and remove last look, ceding a key advantage Google held in a second-price world. Google Ad Manager will be the last major exchange […]
Cars.com knows that most people shopping for a car come to its site, which creates some of the best in-market auto data available. The only downside? The higher the quality of data, the smaller the audience for marketers to target. Cars.com counts about 7 million people in-market for cars at a given time. In contrast, […]
Rubicon Project’s revenue increased 32% in Q4, earning $41.4 million on $301 million in ad spend. It met its goal for a positive adjusted EBITDA and, as a bonus, became cash flow positive a year ahead of projections. The news sent Rubicon’s stock up 15% in after-hours trading. But Rubicon also noted pressure in its […]
Ad buyers need to be on the lookout for a new problem called “declaration fraud,” where buyers paying for full-screen mobile video ads instead get itty-bitty versions that take up less than 5% of the screen. The trick takes advantage of the same loophole sellers used to spoof domains prior to ads.txt. Here’s how it […]
Marketers’ push for viewability, ads.txt and GDPR eventually led to the Chapter 7 bankruptcy of RockYou, an ad network and media holding company, on Feb. 13. The bankruptcy filing listed $14.9 million in liabilities to 738 different ad tech companies and publishers. Most notably, RockYou owed $2.1 million to Facebook, where it likely paid to […]
Once upon a time, direct-to-consumer startup Parachute sold high-quality sheets online, touting efficiencies by cutting out middlemen. Five years later, Parachute sells sheets, towels, mattresses, bathrobes and baby blankets to consumers online and in five stores on each coast. “Bedding was a vehicle to gain customer trust, but it was never the end goal,” said […]
Marketers were slow to move their advertising dollars from desktop to mobile, but they are transitioning to connected TV more quickly, according to Roku CEO Anthony Wood. Advertisers’ quick adoption of connected TV contributed to its $151 million in Q4 platform revenue.Total revenue totaled $275.7 million. Next year, Roku expects more than $1 billion in […]
Verizon’s Visible, a low-cost, digital-only phone carrier, is using direct-to-consumer principles to attract millennials who are leaving a family plan for the first time in their lives. No stores exist. Consumers sign up for Visible by downloading an app. A new SIM card arrives in the mail for the $40-per-month service. Like direct-to-consumer brands, Visible […]
Last June, Well+Good was acquired for $10 million by Leaf Group, which will pay another $9 million if it hits performance targets through 2020. Bootstrapped, profitable and diversified, in terms of its revenue streams, the wellness publisher avoided the pitfalls of raising too much money, going all-in on Facebook or relying on only one source […]
Normally, when Kellogg’s launches a new product, it goes all out with national marketing and big TV budgets. But Kellogg’s broke all its own rules when its 12-person “speed team” created and brought to market two new products in less than a year: Joybol, a protein-packed smoothie bowl, and Happy Inside, a prebiotic and probiotic […]
Six-year-old women’s underwear brand ThirdLove considers data critical to its whole business, not just its marketing plan. The direct-to-consumer company was founded by husband-and-wife team Heidi Zak and David Spector, who both hail from Google’s advertising business. “The biggest thing I learned [at Google] was about testing and optimization,” Zak said. “Even if something didn’t […]
Hearst Magazines named Mike Smith as its first chief data officer Thursday. When Smith joined Hearst in 2013, he introduced programmatic to its sites and oversaw programmatic buying. As chief data officer, Smith will oversee data use in programmatic campaigns, branded content, direct sold campaigns, sales operations and editorial. “When Troy [Young] became president of […]
Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital acquired the programmatic agency MightyHive last December to marry hands-on-keyboard expertise with dynamic creative expertise from MediaMonks. The acquisition kicked off a formal working relationship between S4 CEO Sorrell and MightyHive CEO Pete Kim – who are bonding over their similar Type A personalities. Sorrell’s reputation for all-hours emails and constant […]
The amount of online media with audience data attached is shrinking, thanks to Apple, which now blocks third-party cookies in Safari, and GDPR, which requires user consent to show personalized ads. But when advertising cookies are missing, marketers have limited, costly alternatives. Some demand-side platforms (DSPs) don’t offer any contextual buying. Or buyers must pay […]
Supply-path optimization (SPO) lets buyers find the best way to access the inventory they want. But the next stage of SPO is emerging, where buyers will negotiate with exchanges to create their own low-fee paths to supply. In that spirit, the agency Goodway Group and the exchange PubMatic inked a deal Wednesday where PubMatic will […]
The battle between buying audiences and buying context is over. Glossy, splashy magazine brands know they’ve lost the cheap CPM game to Facebook, Instagram and Google. But they’ve regrouped in recent years, figuring out how to connect with advertisers and consumers and shore up revenue by diversifying away from advertising. At Tuesday’s American Magazine Media […]
Blavity CEO Morgan DeBaun saw a gap in the media market: a lack of content for black millennials like herself. In 2014, she left her tech job to launch Blavity. “We needed a place, a platform and a media brand that could speak to our stories as part of the young, black creative culture,” DeBaun […]
While some of digital media’s biggest stars and flashiest names make big cuts to make their businesses profitable, others are weathering change just fine. The difference? They’ve always focused on sustainable growth and profitability. Venture-backed companies typically made three key mistakes, according to these publishers. First, and most importantly, they grew costs before revenue. Second, […]
Lately, one of the most popular pieces of apparel worn by professional football players and coaches is a t-shirt featuring NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wearing a clown nose. It’s a blatant sign of disrespect, and a popular way for people to signal their opinion of the unpopular NFL exec, particularly after he makes a controversial […]
BuzzFeed, Verizon Media and Gannett all had layoffs this week, as the media business struggles to find its way in a digital climate. Over 1,000 jobs went away. BuzzFeed laid off 200 people (15% of its staff), Verizon Media laid off 800 people (7% of its staff) and Gannett laid off more than two dozen […]
OpenX signed a five-year deal with Google Cloud Platform worth more than $110 million that will move its infrastructure completely to the cloud. OpenX is transitioning to the cloud within six months, and it expects the transition to be completed by Q2 of 2019. Once complete, OpenX expects its publishers and buyers will see several […]
