Popular audio-recognition app Shazam, which has amassed 475 million users to date, set its sights on TV Tuesday with the release of a network sales platform called Resonate. Initial launch partners include: A&E, AMC, FUSE and dick clark productions. Kevin McGurn, the company’s chief revenue officer and former SVP of sales for Hulu, said television […]
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 […]
Amazon’s enterprise self-serve ads platform, designed for agencies and brands, is intended as a programmatic complement rather than a replacement for direct-sold inventory. Publicis agency VivaKi is the first and only agency Amazon Media Group is working with at present for the self-serve platform rollout. Over the last three years, Amazon has spoken with agency […]
What’s the hottest new digital toy? If you’re Facebook and Twitter, it’s the buy button. To recap: Facebook published a blog post explaining its experimentation with a buy button – currently with select small and medium-sized businesses – with which users can purchase goods directly through the Facebook platform. This announcement followed Twitter’s own dalliance with […]
Ecommerce giant Amazon on Thursday reported Q2 revenue of $19.3 billion, up 24% from $15.7 billion last year. Amazon buckets ad revenues in an “other” category ($1.2 billion for Q2, a YoY 38% increase from $844 million), which includes Amazon Web Services (AWS) and branded credit cards. One of the biggest focuses for Amazon in […]
Walmart’s widely revered as a retail maven, but media buyer? It’s a brand-new capability for the $473-billion company, which on Friday revealed more details about the digital marketing platform it’s developed, the Walmart Exchange (WMX). Like Amazon, which has turned massive amounts of shopper data into monetization opportunities for brands via Amazon Media Group’s demand-side […]
Amazon’s not lifting its foot off the gas pedal in the drive for more developer ad dollars. After revealing the Fire Phone only weeks ago, the ecommerce company tried to incent new app creation via a two-month promotion offering $6 CPMs on the Amazon Mobile Ad Network. The company is also making a European push, […]
Amazon preluded its “big reveal” Wednesday (Fire phone) with a word to app developers: “We’re where you want to be.” The company also struck a deal Wednesday with BlackBerry to offer the Amazon Appstore as a lifeline to BlackBerry’s fledgling of an apps ecosystem. Amazon’s Appstore sits somewhere in the 240,000 app range, coming close to tripling its […]
Procter & Gamble’s reported push to automate 70-75% of digital ad buys by year’s end underscores the convergence of TV, CPG marketing and programmatic media. “The closer we can tie shopper cart data to media, the stronger we get,” said Jen Mennes, director of media and public relations for Post Foods, during The Advertising Research […]
Following a March launch of its first programmatic platform Video Reach, video ad tech company YuMe showed 40% growth in revenue year-over-year, totaling $37.3 million for the first quarter. While some might say YuMe is late to the programmatic party, cofounder and CEO Jayant Kadambi said the company is methodically building out a diverse set […]
Consumer product goods (CPG) ad spending is in flux, as shown by the public comments of marketers like Kimberly-Clark and technology shifts such as the matching of offline data with online users to track the effectiveness of digital ads. The impact of this shift may be most visible in the area of digital video. In a […]
Ecommerce startups have turned toward television advertising, signaling shifting interest from reaching a niche group of consumers to mass audiences. Some, such as subscription ecommerce startup Birchbox, are investing money in the medium for the first time. Birchbox debuted its “Open For Beautiful” television campaign Monday, which will be supplemented with shoppable online video and print […]
Big box retailer Walmart’s software and technology accelerator @WalmartLabs has acquired Adchemy, the developer of a SaaS platform that essentially makes retail product search smarter. Silicon Valley-based @WalmartLabs, which employs 2,100 people, was founded three years ago as a way to develop and scale technology to tap into online buying patterns of the store’s 245 […]
As the digital video ecosystem gets more crowded, players that plan for cross-device content delivery and who can partner with multiple platforms will win. Both Amazon and Yahoo have been working toward this by mastering their respective delivery methods, increasing audience scale and developing premium inventory. Consider Amazon’s Wednesday launch of its Fire TV set-top […]
Walmart.com VP of Marketing Brian Monahan provided a glimpse into the retail giant’s strategy for bridging online and offline commerce Tuesday at Ad Age’s Digital Conference. More than 240 million people in the United States visit Walmart’s stores, clubs, sites and apps on a weekly basis, Monahan said. And as consumers increasingly move across digital […]
Target’s December data breach, which exposed the credit card and other personal information of as many as 110 million customers in late 2013, was calamitous for Target, scary for its customers, and an “early Christmas present” for identity protection brand LifeLock Inc., according to the company’s head of media. But rather than sit back and […]
Amazon’s rumored development of an ad-supported, free streaming media service, reported first by the Wall Street Journal Thursday, but subsequently denied by a company spokesperson, could solidify its relationship with FreeWheel. FreeWheel is a video ad platform used by Comcast and Amazon among others. When Comcast announced its intent to acquire FreeWheel earlier this month, […]
Despite the recent headlines generated around Newegg.com’s battles with patent trolls, the company is best known as an ecommerce retailer of computer hardware and software. The company is privately held, and has an estimated revenue of $2.8 billion. A large part of Newegg’s growth has to do with its continuous customer acquisition. At Adobe Summit 2014 the […]
Many know Expedia.com for its bevy of hotel-booking businesses such as Hotwire and Hotels.com, but its burgeoning media services division is a lesser-known Internet name. Expedia Media Solutions provides access to an active audience of 70 million monthly users. The business connects advertisers to in-market travelers across a wide range of supply sources and partners […]
Are brick-and-mortar retail chains setting their sights on demand-side platforms (DSPs)? The rumor that Tesco’s customer insights subsidiary, Dunnhumby, will acquire Sociomantic, a DSP provider, adds fuel to the possibility. And whether or not the rumored acquisition is true, industry experts expect to see more retailers working with DSPs. If the deal occurs, Dunnhumby will […]
The repercussions of cable heavyweight Comcast’s planned acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and video ad-serving platform FreeWheel are still unknown. One of the biggest questions for ad industry insiders is the extent to which the preexisting relationship between Amazon and FreeWheel, announced in early February, will continue. Although neither Amazon nor FreeWheel have confirmed whether […]
Although Google is the $4 billion darling of the US display ad space, players like AOL, Amazon and Facebook are closing in on that share. Most noticeably, Facebook, which for the first time last quarter served more ad impressions on mobile devices than on the desktop, experienced a 50.5% increase in US digital display ad […]
Palo Alto and Paris-based startup Ifeelgoods is betting consumers will gravitate toward personalized offers over traditional loyalty concepts like deep discounts. The digital rewards network founded in 2010 has launched a Personalized Offers Platform for marketers and established a strategic partnership with VivaKi for an initial rollout to Publicis Groupe agencies Razorfish, Digitas and Performics. […]
Three years ago, eBay rebooted its advertising business after stepping back from a five-year alliance with Yahoo, initially established as a way to offset Google’s growing influence online. “[2011 was] the year we formed a partnership with Triad Retail Media and, earlier that year, we bought WHERE Ads, which became the PayPal Media Network,” said […]
Although the jury is out whether consumers will completely cut the cord on traditional TV consumption and migrate en masse to Web streaming, publishers are preparing for the cross-platform possibilities presented by shifting viewer habits. “We’re moving toward consistent measurement,” commented Sarah Baehr, SVP of digital for independent media buying agency Carat, citing the cross-platform […]
FreeWheel, a technology and services company cofounded seven years ago by Jonathan Heller, Doug Knopper and Diane Yu, helps media companies like NBCUniversal and Viacom connect TV buyers with premium digital video inventory. It also worked with Amazon to help power video ad content for the ecommerce giant. Knopper, who also serves as FreeWheel’s co-CEO, […]
EBay and Acxiom on Monday forged a partnership to bring Direct Matching services to European advertisers. “Direct Matching” connects eBay’s transactional-level data with Acxiom’s access to third-party datasets, as well as brands’ own customer and prospective databases to identify potential matches for targeting purposes. This represents Acxiom’s latest move as it attempts to expand the […]
Despite investor Carl Icahn’s proposal to spin PayPal off from its parent company, eBay announced plans to allocate “a disproportionate share” of investments to PayPal in 2014, focusing on developing PayPal “ubiquity,” mobile and connections between online and offline commerce. Together, eBay and PayPal create “mutually reinforcing network effects,” eBay CEO John Donahoe declared during […]
Nathan Jokinen, once the manager of new business development and digital vendor marketing at Target, was introduced last Wednesday as the VP of strategic development at advertising technology company Adconion Direct. After nearly a decade spent with the big-box retailer, which this holiday season introduced in-store pick-up for online orders, Jokinen spoke with AdExchanger about […]
Whether one defines Amazon as a technology company, a retailer or both, what marketers should really be paying attention to is the company’s growing position as a media company and how they can better play ball with the platform, insiders say. “Who can get a better CPM rate lower in the funnel than Google?” said […]
McGrath left Prebid in June following five years as board chairman after stepping down as SVP of product management at Magnite. But now, overseeing Prebid will be his full-time job.
Telly, the startup that gives away free smart TVs in exchange for data and ad exposure, is making its home screen ads available for brands to buy programmatically – and pushing for industry standards to help attract more spend.
L’Oréal adopted creative AI platform Springboards to generate creative ideas that led to a collaborative, ongoing ideation process.
Google won’t have to break up its ads business after being declared an online monopolist. Meanwhile, Amazon faces a lawsuit from the FTC alleging that it charged advertisers more than necessary for ecommerce ads.
Buy-side experts said it’s another example of a Big Tech platform taking advantage of the lack of transparency built into programmatic ad auctions. And they’re not optimistic change is coming.
This week, the Commerce Media Newsletter catches up with a startup from outside the world of data-driven advertising, but with an interesting position when it comes to ecommerce advertising. That’s Clearco, a Canadian fin tech company founded in 2015.
