As Executive Editor, 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.
AOL’s programmatic revenue grew 250% in the fourth quarter, and now accounts for 39% of AOL’s non-search revenue. In Q4 the company “integrated the first set of private marketplaces,” Armstrong said, for a total of 15 private marketplaces. AOL’s shift to programmatic led to a recent restructuring of its sales force, another area of heightened attention from investors. AOL recently […]
As publishers respond to requests for private marketplace and automated guaranteed deals, logistical challenges mount. Publishers must bring in an advertiser’s data and package inventory, and make it discoverable to buyers. Which is why PubMatic on Monday rolled out a buyer-side portal where an advertiser can shop for automated guaranteed inventory. PubMatic founder and CEO Rajeev […]
Concerned about buying inventory around pirated content? A certification created by the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) will empower vendors to buy inventory from publishers serving unpirated content. “Brands can now say we only want to deal with people who are TAG-certified. We’ve created a marketplace dynamic and structure in the ad ecosystem,” said Stu Ingis, […]
The company formerly known as Yellow Pages has worked hard in recent years to transfer its historical strength – helping consumers find local businesses via large printed books – into a business that’s now booking more than $1 billion in digital revenue. YP acquired mobile ad firm Sense Networks one year ago and continues to refine and experiment with […]
WPP Digital President and Xaxis Chairman David Moore stepped up as chairman of the IAB Tech Lab Board of Directors on Monday. His goal is to help the IAB establish standards to promote interoperability within the ad tech diaspora. Efforts will include creating a code base to make it easier for tech companies to implement […]
The phrase “native programmatic” gets thrown around a lot, but for most advertisers and publishers, it’s still not a reality. Native, by definition, defies standards, though the IAB has identified six types of native formats: in-feed, paid search, recommendation widgets, promoted listings, in-ad with native elements and custom “can’t be contained” units. But this variability makes […]
You know the Twitter earnings narrative by now. Enthusiasm around strong revenue from advertising products is dampened by concerns over the growth rate of monthly active users (MAUs). Such was the case with the company’s Q4 Thursday, in which Twitter’s ad revenue doubled from the previous year to $432 million, beating Wall Street estimates. Mobile […]
When you put five magazine magnates in a room and ask them about the future of print, things get a little tense. “Fear is not a strategy,” said Condé Nast President Robert Sauerberg, asked if he was afraid of print going away. “I’m not afraid of anything. I have the greatest brand in the world.” […]
Taboola has raised $117 million to fuel its turf war against chief rival Outbrain and smaller competitors. The money will support the company’s global expansion, product development and future acquisitions during a period when content recommendation companies are paying large sums for exclusive publisher deals. Fidelity Management and Research Company led the round, which brings […]
If you read an article that infuriates you, how will that affect what you click next? Comments and voting platform Vicomi hopes to find out – and make money in the process. Its “feelbacks” module, which officially rolled out in January, requests that readers choose one of five emotional states after reading an article. The […]
Ad tech observers tend to assume it’s early innings in the “programmatic-direct” game, but that may not be the case. Newly reported revenues from one early startup suggest the game hasn’t started yet. iSocket, a programmatic-direct platform company acquired by Rubicon Project in November, posted full-year revenues of just $207,000 in 2013, according to a filing with the […]
Home furnishings company IKEA looks for consumers undergoing life changes – like moving, having a new baby or becoming empty nesters – and tries to get them to set foot into its retail outlets, where most purchases occur. Even its website, which has ecommerce features, is generally used as a tool for customers to plan […]
When Rant Inc. founder Brett Rosin created RantSports.com out of 150 sports blogs he pulled into one centralized hub, it became the foundation of what would soon turn into a massive portfolio of properties. Rant, founded in 2010, is no longer just RantSports. The media company now includes RantChic (fashion), RantStore (ecommerce), RantFinance and RantPolitical […]
During Yahoo’s earnings call Tuesday, CEO Marissa Mayer went into some detail about Yahoo’s plans to leverage Flurry’s developer connections to launch a mobile ad network. Mayer said mobile app developers who have downloaded Flurry’s free analytics will be able to turn on monetization with Yahoo Gemini, its native solution, as well as BrightRoll video ads. More than 600,000 apps […]
AOL took its first step toward becoming a “video-led content company” with the launch of AOL Rise, a morning show formatted as two-minute clips tailored for mobile devices, said Dermot McCormack, president of AOL video and studios. AOL hopes people will watch AOL Rise instead of browsing the web or tuning into televised morning shows when […]
Relativity Media has acquired a minority stake in publisher-platform Say Media, the companies said on Wednesday. In addition, the film and content studio will use Say’s content platform to support its entertainment releases and its other divisions, including sports, TV and branded entertainment. “When I first came here, I really wanted Relativity to begin to own […]
Pinterest, which just made its Promoted Pins tool generally available, will soon offer more features for its paid advertising products, said Pinterest COO Dan Faul at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference on Thursday. These features will include integrating rich targeting features with a brand’s first-party CRM data and solutions around branding and direct-response advertising. Despite this […]
Targeted ads are here to stay. But so is a consumer’s right to privacy. “The FTC recognizes that targeted advertising benefits consumers,” said the FTC’s director for the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Jessica Rich, at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview on Wednesday. “The business model clearly benefits consumers and we have no interest in jeopardizing it.” While […]
PubMatic has created an API that allows media buyers to find and buy private marketplace deals through their DSPs. The second phase will bring automated guaranteed deals into their platforms through the same API. Early DSP partners include DataXu, MediaMath, SiteScout, The Trade Desk and TURN. “We’re confident this will put us in a leadership […]
In April 2014 during its NewFront, Glam Media became Mode Media. The de-pinking of the company, President and CRO Dan Lagani said, “caught up the company name with where the business was.” The men’s site Brash.com, Foodie.com and parenting side Tend.com attracted audiences no longer overwhelmingly female. Hot pink walls in the office were painted […]
The three-year-old Brazilian music website Sua Musica attracts 3 million monthly unique visitors who listen to and download music from emerging local artists. With a user base focused on discovery and sharing finds, it’s become one of the most successful test publishers of Spot.IM, a chat overlay platform launched in 2012. Spot.IM looks like a […]
Yahoo has promoted Flurry executive Prashant Fuloria to head up all advertising products, the company confirmed on Friday. Fuloria’s title is SVP of Advertising Products, a job with oversight of Yahoo’s display, native, video and mobile ad products. He will report directly to Marissa Mayer and will oversee Scott Burke (who runs Yahoo Ad Manager Plus and Yahoo Gemini, and who moves […]
Instead of investing $25,000 to create a couple of different marketing segments, online luggage retailer eBags wants to invest only a couple thousand to create about 50 different segments. It’s part of eBags’ move from demographics to psychographics, one of many ways it’s refining its approach to digital advertising. Around since the dot-com boom and […]
A year after AOL acquired Gravity, AOL-owned publication The Huffington Post has standardized the content personalization tool to power internal and external content recommendation links. This means it’s history for Taboola, HuffPost’s previous recommendation module. Gravity has powered the publisher’s “Suggested For You” internal module for the past six months, and it replaced the Taboola-powered external module […]
Publishers don’t just brag about their content anymore – they talk about their technology, which amplifies their voices in a world of social sharing, content recommendations and sorting algorithms. But what’s the balance between being a technology company and content creator? On the eve of the Industry Preview conference, AdExchanger asked three of the panelists […]
As the Financial Times reported last month, The Washington Post is making its content management system (CMS) available to partners, like universities and fellow newspapers. The University of Maryland, Yale and Columbia have already adopted the CMS. Additional users may come from the more than 200 newspaper partners with which the Post has established subscription-sharing […]
With its acquisition of Selectable Media this week, Meredith picked up two new ad products: one that requires users to choose a video to watch before viewing content, and another enabling native-style placements that link to a branded content page. The companies did not disclose the terms but said the exit made money for Selectable […]
Although programmatic direct solutions – which automate direct relationships between sellers and buyers – started cropping up around six years ago, growth has been slow. But that’s likely to change. eMarketer predicts automated direct deals will grow from $800 million this year to more than $8 billion in 2017, which would make programmatic direct 42% […]
If banner advertising has peaked, native advertising is still on its way up. Proponents of native cite better consumer engagement and higher rates for publishers. London-based market research firm Mintel pegged the current native advertising market at $1.8 billion, predicting it will rise to $9.4 billion by 2018. Of course, “native” is a broad term […]
Movie advertising timelines are rough. Over 80% of a campaign spend occurs within two weeks of a movie’s premiere. If something isn’t working, it’s usually too late to fix it. Moviepilot — part publisher, part platform, part agency – is helping them change that. The secret of its insight into moviegoers’ habits and intent: data. The […]
