AUTHOR ARCHIVE FOR:

Zach Rodgers

Zach Rodgers

Executive Editor

Zach runs AdExchanger’s editorial operations and supports programming strategy for AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO and Industry Preview events. Under his leadership the publication was recognized with a Jesse H. Neal Award in the category of “Best Media Brand” in 2016 and two regional Azbee Awards for “Best Technical Article” in 2017. He was previously Managing Editor at ClickZ, and his work has been published in The Guardian, Mashable and elsewhere.​ He is the host of AdExchanger Talks, a podcast featuring key leaders in the media, marketing and advertising technology arena. He frequently moderates at industry events. ​

Articles By Zach

  • Mobile

    Millennial Media To Buy Nexage, Mobile SSP And Exchange, For $108M

    BY //

    Millennial Media needed a good story around programmatic, and now it has one. The publicly traded mobile ad tech platform has signed an agreement to buy mobile exchange player Nexage for $107.5 million in cash and stock. The deal enhances Millennial’s credentials as an independent programmatic platform connecting advertisers with mobile supply sources, including app […]

  • Platforms

    WPP Group Supplies AppNexus With Open AdStream And A $25M Check

    BY //

    AppNexus wants to rethink the publisher ad server as a holistic platform for yield management, and it’s starting with a rather old piece of technology. The company will acquire Open AdStream (OAS) from Xaxis as part of a major transaction with WPP Group that will also give the holding company a $25 million stake in […]

  • Agencies

    Digital Stars Rise At Publicis Groupe, VivaKi Bifurcated

    BY //

    The first half of 2014 was sobering, to put it mildly, for Publicis Groupe and its CEO, Maurice Levy. In the wake of the holding company’s failed megamerger with Omnicom Group and its weak second-quarter earnings report, Levy needs to show digital strength. Some structural changes announced Tuesday may help it do that. Among the […]

  • Platforms

    The New Rocket Fuel: Questions For CEO George John And [X+1] CEO John Nardone

    BY //

    Rocket Fuel closed on its acquisition of [x+1] Friday, transforming itself from what was primarily an ad network company into a credible platform play focused on the software-as-a-service opportunity in programmatic marketing. The new Rocket Fuel has far more of the attributes of a “programmatic marketing platform” than the old one, providing clients with the […]

  • Ecommerce

    Twitter Confirms Its 'Buy' Button Is Real

    BY //

    Facebook and Twitter are keen to build more commerce functionality into the social stream. Earlier this summer Facebook began working with select commerce brands to support direct transactions on its platform, and Twitter has been expected to produce something similar after sharp-eyed users spotted a semi-functional “buy” button on the site in July. Well, now that other […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Mixpo Buys Social Ad Platform ShopIgniter

    BY //

    Mobile is social, social is mobile. Working from this premise, video ad server Mixpo began a strategy review several months ago with the intention to build out its social capability. That process concluded Tuesday when the company closed on the acquisition of ShopIgniter, a social rich media specialist with 15 to 20 employees that is a […]

  • Analytics

    Pinterest Adds Better Measures For Its Future Advertisers

    BY //

    Pinterest has the best data among the social platforms that have yet to embrace ads in a big way. It’s often said the company, like Google, is inherently intent-based, exposing potential future purchases each time a user “pins” the wrap skirt or maple countertop her heart desires. Today Pinterest is creating more granularity around user interactions with […]

  • Online Advertising

    Inc. Revenue Survey: MediaMath Topped $310M In 2013, DataXu $118M

    BY //

    Startups built on programmatic technologies are among  the fastest-growing companies in the United States, as reported Monday in Inc. Magazine’s annual 500/5000 revenue survey. Among the notable entries in this year’s list: Demand-side platform MediaMath’s revenue in 2013 reached $310.8 million, representing 490% growth over three years. Its competitor DataXu also made significant revenue strides for the second […]

  • Platforms

    Let's Go SaaS: Parsing Rocket Fuel's Purchase Of [X+1]

    BY //

    Agencies and marketers are forcing change on ad networks. Rocket Fuel’s $230 million acquisition of [x+1], announced Tuesday, was about more than one ad tech platform’s attempts to add new capabilities. While Rocket Fuel will benefit from [x+1]’s strong data management, demand-side platform, and site-side optimization features, Rocket Fuel CEO George John said on the […]

  • Platforms

    Rocket Fuel To Buy [X+1] For Estimated $230M

    BY //

    Programmatic ad network Rocket Fuel will acquire [x+1], an older ad tech company with a dual demand-side platform (DSP) and data-management platform (DMP) offering. The estimated value of the deal is $230 million. The acquisition brings Rocket Fuel a strong direct-to-advertiser capability – an area where it is seen as lacking and where [x+1] has strength through client relationships with […]

  • Publishers

    Men's Sporting Vertical Scout Media Taps Big Digital Talent With An Eye On Programmatic

    BY //

    Scout Media is pulling together an A-team of digital talent in the wake of founder James Heckman’s repurchase of the business from Fox/News Corp. The new leadership, including Ross Levinsohn as executive chairman and Ramsey McGrory as EVP of programmatic and media partnerships, will help build Scout into a larger content and commerce play with programmatic […]

  • Platforms

    Salesforce Integrates More Of ExactTarget, But Paid Media Still A Hobby

    BY //

    Memo to marketing industry observers waiting for ad tech to merge with marketing tech: It’s probably safe to go make popcorn, as this could take a while. It’s been a year since Salesforce.com acquired ExactTarget. On Thursday, the company hosted a press event in San Francisco to commemorate the deal’s anniversary, using the occasion to […]

  • Agencies

    Horizon Media, Largest US Indie Agency, Hits Reset Button On Programmatic

    BY //

    Horizon Media, the largest standalone media agency in the US with some $4.5 billion in ad spend across 100 clients, has not been a major participant in the programmatic trend. But that may be changing. Horizon is rolling out a programmatic division, dubbed HX, to handle its machine-driven ad buys for clients. The initiative, supported […]

  • Platforms

    Facebook Reports Q2, Mobile Grows To 62% Of Ad Revenue

    BY //

    Facebook reported second-quarter earnings on Thursday amid generally high expectations for the company’s advertising business, especially as it pertains to mobile and video. Investors were not disappointed. Facebook posted Q2 advertising revenue of $2.68 billion, a 67% increase from Q2 2013. Of that, mobile advertising is becoming increasingly important – it constituted 62% of Facebook’s total advertising […]

  • Platforms

    Centro Hires A CFO And Looks To Investors

    BY //

    It’s hard times for late stage advertising technology companies. Many public and private investors are gloomy on ad tech, and older startups needing new funds lately find themselves forced to choose between unattractive options, such as going public or raising money at a lower valuation, a painful event sometimes referred to as a “down round.” […]

  • Online Advertising

    Another Chapter For Triggit, As Facebook-Only DSP Pivots To Native

    BY //

    Triggit, known to many as the “Facebook-only” retargeting firm, is taking on native ads outside the Facebook platform. The company is courting publishers with the promise to support their native advertising formats and bring the kind of in-stream ad experiences it has run in Facebook’s news feed over the past year to a wider range […]

  • Platforms

    TubeMogul Prices IPO Shares Lower, Valuation Shrinks To $244M

    BY //

    Video demand-side platform TubeMogul priced the shares for its public offering Thursday, and the target price is significantly lower than the $11 to $13 per share the company previously specified. The company now expects to debut shares at a rock-bottom $7.00 to $8.00, according to an updated S-1. The company had previously hoped to raise $93 million, […]

  • Agencies

    Agency VC Still Going Strong, Says KBS+ Ventures

    BY //

    Like the rarely seen zedonk (half zebra, half donkey), agency-led VC is an odd little hybrid — a sometimes-awkward marriage of investing and marketing services. But the genre has staying power. Investing arms within WPP Group, Publicis Groupe (VivaKi Ventures), Interpublic Group, and MDC Partners are all notable players that have been researching and making […]

  • Online Advertising

    Matomy Rekindles IPO, Seeks $347 Million Valuation

    BY //

    The on-again, off-again IPO plans of Israel-based Matomy Media Group are on again. The performance-based ad tech company began three days of so-called “conditional trading” on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday in preparation for its official debut on Friday. It will seek to raise $70.1 million at a $347 million valuation. Matomy previously attempted […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Facebook To Acquire Video Ad Platform LiveRail

    BY //

    Facebook has agreed to buy video ad platform LiveRail, the companies said today. The acquisition will build Facebook’s capabilities around video, both on its own platform and on those of other publishers. LiveRail customers include Major League Baseball (MLB.com), A&E Networks, Gannett and Dailymotion, giving Facebook its first video ad server integration with premium video owners.  Terms of the deal weren’t […]

  • Publishers

    PubMatic Builds Out Programmatic Direct

    BY //

    PubMatic had a good spring. The company won top honors in Forrester’s sell-side platform shoot-out, acquired a mobile ad server (Mocean Mobile) and hired up to support its product initiatives around programmatic direct. The macro strategy, according to CEO Rajeev Goel, is to provide a full stack spanning all publisher ad revenue. That means guaranteed […]

  • Social Media

    Twitter Takes The Wraps Off App Install Ads Product

    BY //

    Three months after launching a pilot program for mobile app install ads, Twitter has made the offering available to all advertisers. The format is a bid to capture surging app promotion budgets that have been a boon to Facebook, Pandora and dozens of mobile-specific ad networks and demand-side platforms (DSPs) over the past two years. Ride-sharing service Lyft, EA […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    IgnitionOne Raises $20M To Shop For Mobile DSPs And Social Ad Startups

    BY //

    There are dozens of digital ad startups ready to sell in the mobile and social categories, and IgnitionOne aims to grab a couple. The company, which bought data-management platform Knotice in March, will use a new $20 million investment from SoftBank and others to continue its streak of M&A. “My belief is that social is going to […]

  • Agencies

    Agencies Brace For Change As Brands Lean In To Programmatic

    BY //

    When they write the history of programmatic advertising, June 2014 will go down as the month when you needed two hands to count the number of big advertisers running their machine-driven media buys in-house. Procter & Gamble, American Express and Mondelez all recently joined the small club of brands embracing exchange-traded media (existing members include Kellogg’s, […]

  • Agencies

    IPG Mediabrands CEO Matt Seiler: Automation Trend Will Force New Agency Pay Models

    BY //

    Matt Seiler is remarkably on-message. For the past five years, the CEO of Interpublic Group’s media investment arm, Mediabrands, has banged the drum about the need for performance-based compensation for agencies. More recently he also took up the banner of automation, proposing to automate 50% of all media investment by the end of 2015. Interestingly, the automation rallying […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    GroupM Quits Open Ad Exchanges? Not So Fast

    BY //

    GroupM made waves last week when Ari Bluman, chief digital investment officer for North America, said WPP Group’s media agencies will stop buying impressions in open auctions by the end of 2014. It turns out that’s not quite the case, as Brian Lesser, CEO of WPP’s Xaxis programmatic platform, made clear in public comments Tuesday […]

  • Advertiser

    Mondelez, Heineken Take The Programmatic Bull By The Horns

    BY //

    The big brands have woken up to programmatic buying, and will not be going back to sleep. The gang of marketers directly controlling their exchange-traded media platforms keeps getting larger. Its membership now includes Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg’s, American Express, Procter & Gamble, Allstate Insurance, 1-800-Flowers and Unilever. Mondelez International is the latest to seize a more […]

  • Online Advertising

    Magna Report: RTB Strong Even As Direct Deal Automation Surges

    BY //

    As agencies, media companies, and platform players converge on the south of France for the annual Cannes Lions festival, the overall state of their industry appears to be strong. In its latest media spend forecast, Magna Global remains bullish on both total media owner advertising revenues and programmatic revenues. Meanwhile, total media spend will grow […]

  • Agencies

    IPG Mediabrands Programmatic Boss Michael Brunick Exits

    BY //

    The steward of Interpublic Group’s trading desk strategy has left the holding company, AdExchanger has learned. Michael Brunick, SVP for programmatic within IPG Mediabrands’ Magna Global media investment unit, will join Unbound, a consulting firm focused on helping publishers and advertisers seize the programmatic opportunity. “One of the biggest trends since middle of last year […]

  • Data

    Facebook Lets Competing Advertisers Target Off Each Other's Site And App Data

    BY //

    One of Facebook’s hidden assets is the waterfall of data signals it gets from other websites and apps. These signals wend their way to Facebook from social plugins, conversion pixels and retargeting cookies embedded on millions of websites and mobile apps. Facebook’s code snippets tell the social network whenever a user lands on a product […]

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