One of the reasons that digital publishers like to talk about native is obvious: it resembles the age-old practice of high-priced “advertorials” and the natural customization of the placement dictates that marketers must deal directly with the site’s sales team. At the same time, those reasons have left agencies feeling frozen out by native ads, […]
AdExchanger is in the French Riviera, where some 12,000 people have gathered for the 60th annual Cannes Lions festival of creativity. We’ll have updates throughout the week, and a definitive (!) answer to the question, Can Big Data can play nice with the Big Idea? This morning Adobe hosted a discussion around advertising and trust, […]
A few members of the group charged with creating the spec for a browser-based Do Not Track function have signaled their displeasure with the process by supporting a “contingency plan” that would effectively end the two years of talks without an outcome. But it’s far from clear whether they can find consensus to push that […]
It would be generous to say the attribution puzzle is half-solved. A quarter or an eighth solved is more like it. But the direction is clear. Advertisers are getting better at allocating conversion credit to brand interactions up and down the funnel. Platform companies are helping them, but their efforts can sometimes seem clumsy, calling […]
Though associating display advertising with a popular character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings makes for an entertaining visual, Legolas Media and its new CEO Jonathan Shaevitz have decided it’s time to call a spade a spade and purposefully engage the guaranteed media marketplace; they’ve re-branded the company Upfront Digital Media effective immediately. The […]
The online ecosystem is different in Russia. Yandex is the search leader over Google; VK.com (originally VKontakte) and Odnoklassniki.ru are more popular social networks than Facebook. But when it comes to programmatic buying, the country looks similar to the US RTB circa 2011, thanks in part to the participation of Russia’s major internet players. The […]
On May 22, TARGUSinfo founder George Moore passed away suddenly at the age of 62. According to The Irish Times, Moore was the son of a shoemaker in County Louth, Ireland. With college degrees in hand, he left for the United States in 1972 and sold his first company in 1990. Shortly thereafter, he launched […]
Google remains on a warpath to drive industry-wide adoption of its ad tech “stack” strategy, positioning integration of past acquisitions as proof it is serving key constituencies. In March, Google called out the integration of Admeld and publisher direct sales. Today at its thinkDoubleClick client advisory board, it will highlight the inclusion of Wildfire (acquired […]
Like many efforts among digital advertising entrepreneurs, one business idea begets another. Michael Brown, CEO of Vancouver-based Adacado, is no different. The HealthPricer comparison shopping engine that he and his team developed led to the realization that they needed to find an efficient way to assemble and optimize display ad creative in real-time – a […]
When it comes to maximizing the value of photos that ricochet across Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and other sites, marketers are moving the goal posts. Whereas it was once enough just to encourage consumers to follow your site and share your images, some companies are moving to the next level with the help of more robust […]
Salesforce.com wants to be “number one” in marketing, said CEO Marc Benioff during the company’s Q1 earnings call Thursday. “We’ve acquired our way into marketing, first by purchasing Radian6, then by buying Buddy Media,” Benioff said. “And we don’t want to just be number one in listening, publishing, or social advertising, but a number of […]
Last week AdExchanger looked at the dynamic between ROI DNA, a performance-driven agency, and its preferred display-trading partner, Run DSP. (Read the story.) There are many such relationships in ad tech, where a mid-sized agency relies on a key network or platform partner to drive ROI and provide hand-holding to its planners and buyers. You […]
Ziff Davis’ acquisition of tech blog network NetShelter is part of a continuing strategy to expand its vertical content for IT pros and young men. Ziff Davis has been a serial acquirer since former Time Inc. digital chief Vivek Shah took over the company as CEO nearly three years ago, with investment assistance from PE firm Great Hill […]
For the most part, internet analysts and ad industry observers are applauding Yahoo’s $1.1 billion acquisition of microblog Tumblr. The timing appears to be right for both companies. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, fresh from a series of acqui-hires, saw an opportunity to bring a new media network with a young, socially engaged, and logged in […]
There were two adjectives Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer used repeatedly when discussing the advertising opportunity with Tumblr, which her company agreed to buy for $1.1 billion. Those words: “native” and “aspirational.” It’s what you would expect. In its short history of monetization, Tumblr has focused on organic ad formats, tentatively rolling out tools to promote […]
“Affiliate marketing has gone much more mainstream,” says VigLink CEO Oliver Roup. That’s his hope, at the very least, since his 28-person company is built on the commission-based lead gen business model that has been a cornerstone of web marketing. Roup adds, “[Affiliate marketing] has gone from coupons to content. Though coupon sites were dominating up until […]
There’s been no shortage of talk about “programmatic direct,” which involves using automated buying tools to support negotiated ad deals with presumably branding-oriented campaign goals. But for Priceline.com CMO Brett Keller, the idea is an illusion. “We’ve been using TV as our branding vehicle from very the beginning of this company 14 years ago and […]
David Bell, the chairman emeritus for Interpublic Group, offered his take on some barriers to growth in digital advertising today at Aol’s Thought Leadership Summit on programmatic advertising. Number one on his hit list was the clutter of ad tech startups. He also took aim at the power wielded by procurement officers and bashed the ad industry for […]
Online retailer Indochino uses a variety of digital ad tactics to promote its custom-made men’s suits, including search and email marketing, mobile outreach and retargeting on the Facebook Exchange. Along with attribution software company Convertro, Indochino brings together all these marketing channels and determines what is working and what is most valuable, said Antonio Guzman, […]
Aol was able to maintain its hard-won profitability and ad sales gains Q1. But just as Aol was finally able to turn US display around with a decent growth of 6%, the usual powerhouse of third-party network revenues showed signs of slowing down. Read the earnings release. The company’s third-party network revenues growth slowed to […]
With the World Cup and Olympics coming to Brazil in 2014 and 2016, all eyes are on the country’s preparations for the events, which include readying its digital infrastructure. Brands are waiting for the chance to be at the center of the worldwide stage, and several advertising technology companies have opened offices in Brazil. This […]
For all the glitz and glamour that surrounded Aol’s Newfronts programming preview on Tuesday, perhaps the most relevant news for advertisers came at the end of the showcase with a mention of the unsexiest of topics: back-office operations designed to support the thousands of hours of digital video, along with analytics. Following appearances by actors […]
A year after Twitter opened its self-serve Twitter Advertising system to businesses on an “invite-only” basis, the microblog’s Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts products will be open to anyone in the US. Read the release. This news was mentioned as Kevin Weil, Senior Director of Product for Revenue at Twitter, participated on a panel with […]
Yahoo executives talked a lot about “new” ad formats and video-centric programming during its Newfront presentation, but a vague familiarity persisted until the very end of COO Henrique De Castro’s presentation, when he made a promise to media buyers: give us a small yet sizable portion of your TV ad spending and we’ll guarantee satisfaction. […]
The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) will make a formal case this week that Do Not Track should be set to “off” by default. Members of the group charged with creating the DNT browser spec heard details of the ad industry’s proposal during a Monday call meant to prepare for next week’s face-to-face meeting in Sunnyvale, […]
In a hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee, Chairman John “Jay” Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) accused the ad industry of dragging its feet on the creation of specs for a Do Not Track browser option. “A commitment was made to honor Do Not Track requests from consumers that has not yet been followed through,” Rockefeller said […]
It’s been almost a year since Microsoft first pledged to default-enable Do Not Track in Internet Explorer 10, setting off an urgent debate about the future of third-party ad tracking which continues to this day. The company has endured attacks both withering (“paternalistic,” said Evidon) and mild (“absolutely not helpful,” offered IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg), […]
“I hear people say I can buy premium video content wherever I want. Then at the other end, I hear people say there’s not enough. And they say that they can’t even buy data on top of it, because the minute you apply data to premium, the cake becomes smaller and smaller. This is why […]
It was inevitable, as the move from buying placements to buying audience infiltrates display ad campaigns. Yesterday, Yahoo reconfirmed in its quarterly results that programmatic media has changed its business forever. The statement echoes comments made by The New York Times a few months ago, in which the publisher seemed to pin some of its […]
Recent months have seen an uptick in shady display ad practices – or at least media coverage of them. These incidents often take the form of fraudulent impressions generated either by bot traffic or browser plug-ins that manipulate ad space on a webpage. Others are simply not viewable by design, generating ad calls below the fold […]
