Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Curation Nation
Chalice, a maker of custom bidding algorithms, integrated with Index Exchange, and it’s not a typical partnership, Adweek reports.
What’s new is that Chalice has “containerized” its machine learning models, essentially running a virtual version of its bidding algorithm within Index Exchange’s cloud infrastructure. Normally, when an SSP serves an ad, it pings DSP servers, one of which eventually (within a few microseconds) returns a bid. The new Chalice setup with Index involves no pinging.
What’s wrong with pinging? Well, seemingly innocuous pings are quietly throttling ad tech. DSPs can’t bear the cost of listening to billions of impressions, leading to a complicated arithmetic whereby SSPs show certain DSPs only a fraction of actual supply.
This so-called containerized integration could also unlock Index’s publisher data for bidding purposes. For instance, The Trade Desk is all about OpenPath because when publishers place TTD code on their site or app, the DSP can see all sorts of nifty data that isn’t in the bidstream: How many ads are on the page? How often do ads refresh? Are video ads sound-on by default?
Curation is thought of as a sell-side service. But if advertisers could have access to the data, they’d prefer to do it themselves.
Demote IQ
Microsoft Advertising has told some retail publisher customers that it will be moving on from its retail media platform Promote IQ, Digiday reports.
It may not go through with a full-on closure, according to Digiday, but it’s already pushing demand to Criteo.
Promote IQ, which Microsoft acquired in 2019 as a way to snag high-profile customers, including Kroger, has had similar problems as other Microsoft subsidiaries. There was no road for Promote IQ to become a billion-dollar annual earner, nor was it a high-margin business. So Microsoft didn’t care much about it.
Even Microsoft Advertising had to eclipse a $10 billion run rate to get on the radar within Microsoft.
Kroger has long since moved on from Promote IQ, as have most of the largest retailers, many of which have gone down the in-housing route. Microsoft will move on, too.
Microsoft Advertising’s about-face on retail media is an unexpected windfall for Criteo. But it’s even better for third-party programmatic companies, particularly right after the end of Oracle Advertising. These are cautionary tales for brands, retailers and publishers about trusting Big Tech platforms to represent their interests.
Stick To Sports
It’s a month out from the US presidential election, and political ads are flooding into sports programming.
The deluge of political advertising is due to live sports being one of the last vestiges of must-see TV, advertising analytics firm AdImpact tells sports media blog Awful Announcing.
Political advertisers typically spend three-fifths of their budgets between September and November during an election, with October accounting for 35% to 40% of all political advertising, according to AdImpact. That coincides with the MLB and WNBA playoffs, NFL and college football games and the start of the NBA and NHL seasons.
Sports broadcasters are eager to cash in on the high rates generated by political demand, especially as political advertisers now realize that sports viewers are more evenly split between men and women. Amazon’s Thursday Night Football is the lone outlier not accepting political ads.
AdImpact tracked 198 political ad spots in MLB games during the first week of June, with prices topping out at $63,167 per spot. By the first week of September, there were 580 ads at an average price of $380,152.
But Wait, There’s More!
Publishers are bringing vertical video ads to the open web with Webflix. [Adweek]
A new initiative called the Representation Index aims to give brands scores to reflect how inclusive their ads are – or aren’t. [WSJ]
Unilever “triples” its gaming investment: A Q&A with Willem Dinger, the brand’s global head of sport and entertainment partnerships. [Digiday]
You’re Hired
Programmatic curation company Multilocal names Zach Rosen, an independent consultant, as its fractional general manager. [release]
Julian Mintz joins Albertsons Media Collective as VP of sales. [LinkedIn]
Performance marketing agency Converge appoints dentsu’s Shoshana Winter as CEO and former AKQA and Monks exec Jason Whiting as chief growth officer. [release]
