ComScore’s partnership with Google, which integrates the former’s Validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) measurement into the latter’s DoubleClick products, has come out of beta. The partnership was first revealed in February 2014. During a Q2 earnings call Tuesday, comScore CEO Serge Matta noted that “vCE is the first independent measurement system to be directly integrated into Google […]
Ted Gurley, a Univision VP specializing in digital sales to political and advocacy groups, compared the current state of the TV industry to retail half a decade ago. Back then, the existence of brick-and-mortars seemed to be on a precipice as ecommerce companies came to power. But traditional stores surged back by integrating digital into […]
Performance marketing agency Merkle is one of the first agencies to use Google’s cross-device measurement platform, as well as an early strategic partner with Facebook’s Atlas cross-device product. As such, it has unique insights into what company CSO John Lee refers to as Facebook’s and Google’s “distinct pros and cons,” with the caveat that it’s […]
Publishers, users and advertisers hate in-banner video. It creates a poor user experience and, for advertisers, it doesn’t even drive ROI like pre-roll video. “If you want the entire video to be viewed and have complete attention, in-stream works best,” said Anush Prabhu, chief channel planning and investment officer for ad agency Deutsch Inc. In-banner […]
The competition among cross-device providers is no longer a one, two or even three-horse race, but looks more like a mad steeplechase with 20 animals of various sorts, including thoroughbreds, rabbits and perhaps snakes. The biggest consumer platforms, like Facebook and Google, are often given the best odds, but some dark horses are moving up […]
As feeds become the new standard for web design, there’s a greater need to develop ad units that accommodate them. Such was the thinking behind the IAB’s Wednesday release of specifications for three kinds of in-feed advertising channels: social feeds (notably sponsored Facebook or Twitter posts), product feeds (which encompass ecommerce sites like Amazon and […]
Alliance Data Systems CEO Ed Heffernan isn’t thrilled with data marketing unit Epsilon’s 5% top-line performance, he said during Alliance Data’s Q2 earnings call Thursday. “That isn’t an acceptable long-term number,” he said, adding he thinks its potential is 7% or 8%. Getting to that potential will require double-digit growth in Epsilon’s tech offering – […]
From 2007 to 2013 ad-block downloads grew steadily to about 50 million users. In 2013, that number more than doubled, and is on pace to do the same this year. The result has been an influx of startups meant to help advertisers address a problem that in two years has gone from low-level annoyance to […]
Anyone interested in a modern-day Greek tragedy should check out the country’s economic situation. But all tragedy ends with catharsis, and it’s why RTB House is upping its investment in the country. The two-and-a-half-year-old demand-side platform (DSP) from Poland is bringing on a business partner Alexandros Rigas. “We’re mainly working with shop owners, which is […]
Google cited strong growth in revenue from its DoubleClick unit, YouTube and mobile search in second-quarter earnings reported Thursday. Total revenue for the quarter was up 11% year over year (YoY), somewhat less than the 22% reported for the same period in 2014. Read the earnings release. “Our strong Q2 results reflect continued growth across the breadth of […]
Ari Paparo is a longtime builder, explainer and sometimes lampooner of ad tech. And now he’s a CEO. The former product executive with Google, Nielsen and AppNexus has taken the wraps off his new company, Beeswax, which provides a licensed “Bidder-as-a-Service” technology geared to two primary constituents: (1) ad tech firms, such as ad networks […]
Many industry analysts expect B2B media marketing budgets to finally reach pre-recession levels by the end of 2015, following a drop-off in 2009 that removed almost one out of every $5 spent on B2B outlets. And those revenue streams are migrating to programmatic technology and new native strategies to develop brand awareness. One of the […]
Chango recorded 2014 revenues of $43 million prior to its acquisition by Rubicon Project, according to a new US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. But the company was not profitable, despite being an early player in the lucrative retargeting niche. It reported a loss of just under $1 million for the year. Read the 8-K. […]
Zipcar traditionally messaged its members through email and social media. But those efforts didn’t reach all members. “Not everyone follows us on social channels or through email, but everyone is on the web,” said Millie Park, Zipcar’s senior director of member marketing. “We wanted to find ways to communicate with them through appropriate targeted messaging.” […]
Microsoft and AOL observers have a lot of questions in the wake of the companies’ landmark search and display ad deal, announced Monday. Here’s a big one: How will AOL, a company of some 4,500 employees, possibly absorb 1,200 new sales, marketing, biz dev and engineering people? Once the partnership is consummated, AOL will have […]
The IAB’s native advertising working group is building out recommendations that specifically address the promulgation of feeds. The group, which developed the OpenRTB 2.3 native formats, is narrowing recommendations into three categories: social feeds, news feeds and product feeds. Its focus on feeds indicates an ongoing trend in which traditional website layout, which has tended […]
Messaging apps now attract just as many users as social media platforms. The combined users of Viber, WeChat, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger now outrank Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, according to recent BI Intelligence research. But marketers have struggled to tap into that audience. Emojis might be a brand’s way in. “Emojis have become for […]
The mistaken belief that there’s an infinite supply of targetable inventory on the Internet keeps fraud viable. That’s a key takeaway from a presentation last Thursday by Videology and White Ops at Videology’s New York City office, following a partnership between the two companies in May. “Online ad spending spikes up in November and December,” […]
While affiliate marketing is hardly new – perhaps you’ve heard of Google and Amazon – for some publishers its real value comes from the data and optimization it enables, as opposed to the incremental revenue it generates. At least, this is what Alicia Navarro, CEO and co-founder of content monetization company Skimlinks, was led to […]
Are You a Human is looking to up its human headcount. The digital security and human traffic verification company plans to spend the majority of its $4.2 million in Series A cash, announced Thursday, to roughly double its current headcount from 25 to around 50 by the end of the year. The fresh injection, led […]
Everyone knows Google needs to counter Facebook’s people-based marketing approach, unveiled with much fanfare last year as an answer to the twin measurement problems of device fragmentation and the crumbling cookie. On Wednesday it did so to an extent, making cross-device measurement of media exposures and conversions available in all DoubleClick ad products. The announcement, […]
In the latest chapter to a rather convoluted M&A tale, AppNexus will snap up ad tech firm Real Media Latin America (RMLA) from Peter Gervai, the Brazilian entrepreneur who paid $1 some 13 years ago to take it off 24/7 Real Media’s hands. The companies didn’t disclose the deal price or Sao Paulo-based RMLA’s revenues, but its […]
In the insulated world of political tech, market forces are insignificant compared to the capricious political winds. Imagine, for instance, if Pepsi had to let go of a significant chunk of its engineering talent if it was outsold by Coke at the end of a four-year period. This is a practical concern for political tech […]
Two months into a quality control effort designed to curb fraud, domain masking and other sketchy practices in its marketplace, AppNexus has offered some details on those cleanup efforts – and even given them a name. The company’s supply hygiene initiative, dubbed IQ, consists of three measures aimed at boosting transparency and accountability of media sold […]
Update 6/15: Google says Mohan will stay put. Original story: Re/code’s Kara Swisher just reported that Neal Mohan, for many years the architect of the DoubleClick family of products and top product guy in Google’s sprawling display ad business, is leaving the company to take a similar role with Dropbox. Read it. AdExchanger has reached […]
The fox can’t guard the chicken run. GroupM is not down with Facebook and Google’s reticence around third-party verification tags. “You can’t measure yourself,” said John Montgomery, COO of GroupM Interaction, North America, speaking at AdExchanger’s Clean Ads I/O conference in New York City on Wednesday. The fact that Facebook is working closely with the […]
According to a study conducted by the ANA and White Ops in December, 83-89% of agencies and media vendors see fighting ad fraud as a requirement, but only 26-28% actually have the tools in place to accomplish those goals. The latter may look like a discouraging figure, but Heineken senior media director Ron Amram sees […]
Brands need to feel confident that their ads are being seen – and “because we said so” is not an acceptable answer. That’s why Yahoo is bringing third-party verification tags from comScore, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, Moat and several others onto its owned-and-operated properties and onto third-party sites within the Yahoo network. Yahoo is slated to […]
How can consumers opt out of cross-device tracking if they don’t even know it exists? “When people are surprised, that can have negative consequences on trust, a brand and enforcement,” FTC commissioner Terrell McSweeney said to a crowd of 150 people in the advertising community – many of them lawyers – at the Digital Advertising […]
When Google announced last month its ad networks would move to HTTPS by June 30, it marked another Internet giant adding security features that benefit the user – but that also inconvenience publishers and advertisers. HTTPS makes websites more secure by authenticating websites and web servers and by encrypting client-server communications. In the past, adapting […]
