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A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Streams Do Come True Streaming subscription fatigue may be setting in. That means marketing costs to acquire and retain new subscribers will go up and advertising models will remain under pressure. “Media companies and content owners … should not only continue to strengthen their […]

The Big Story is a podcast featuring a roundtable of AdExchanger editors talking about the biggest stories from the past week. It is available wherever you subscribe to podcasts. Agencies are moving to buy connected TV (CTV) inventory, but wherever there’s construction, there’s dust. The issue is that agency buying teams are at odds over […]

Internet-age companies like Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix, not to mention Chinese technology giants, are spending more on advertising, catching verticals like CPG, automotive and financial companies that traditionally spend the most on ads. There are 10 new-age tech companies among Ad Age’s top 100 global advertisers. In 2017, the most recent full year data […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Lance Neuhauser, CEO at 4C. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) startups are thriving as more consumers expect a seamless online experience with their favorite brands. But what if you are a major brand that needs to […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Ronan Higgins, CEO at TVadSync. Vizio, Samsung and LG make up 70% of the smart TV market, with many of the other manufacturers trailing in the single digits. It’s a new tri-opoly for brands to […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Third Fine’s A Charm Google was slapped with its third EU antitrust fine in two years on Wednesday, to the tune of $1.7 billion. EU regulators determined the search giant used its dominance to block competitors from selling text ads on third-party websites’ search […]

NBC Universal and Sky, both owned by Comcast, announced this week that they’re combining inventory and targeting tools. The hope is to help global advertisers expand their reach to international markets across TV and digital. Audience Studio, NBCU’s data-driven media offering, is merging with Sky’s ad tech offering, AdSmart. The combined entity will be called […]

Disney closed its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox on Wednesday, more than a year after it signed a definitive agreement to acquire the entertainment company, which at the time was going to cost $52.4 billion. Disney’s initial agreement in December 2017 turned out to be less definitive than the term implies. Comcast stepped […]

LinkedIn is rolling out lookalike audiences following a beta testing period that began late last year, the company said Wednesday. Advertisers could already create matched audiences – basically, LinkedIn’s answer to custom audiences – built from a list of target contacts or accounts. The addition of lookalike audiences is a good look for a platform […]

When Campbell’s made its $6.1 billion acquisition of CPG company Snyder’s-Lance last May, it wanted to bring its marketing prowess to snack brands that hadn’t received media investment in decades, like Kettle, Cape Cod and Snyder’s of Hanover. “They were more product innovation focused, and less advertising focused,” said Karen Marks, VP of integrated marketing […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Sheila Colclasure, senior vice president and global public policy officer at LiveRamp. If you want your company to exist now and in the future, you will have to think and […]

The power of the brands owned by Meredith – including Better Homes & Gardens, People, Food & Wine, Family Circle – first attracted Catherine Levene to join the publisher as chief strategy officer in January. “I’m a big believer in trusted brands, and this company has a huge portfolio of trusted brands. The opportunity is […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Instashop It was only a matter of time (and money). Instagram announced that it’s begun testing a checkout feature with brands like Adidas, H&M and Warby Parker that lets users purchase products without leaving the app. Read the blog post. Previously, Instagram had to […]

S4 Capital wants to acquire a company with access to unique first-party data. The holding company, helmed by former WPP CEO Martin Sorrell, is in discussions with two companies – one in the retail space with access to 90 million customer records and another in transportation with data for 100 million customers. “We would like […]

Marketing, once largely a creative occupation, now requires understanding of data, tech and business. And many CMOs don’t have the necessary skills. “Clearly, marketing folk are not able to justify their existence,” said Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar. He added: “There is such a significant component of technology within marketing that without understanding how to leverage […]

Oracle Marketing Cloud is taking on a very customer data platform-like complexion these days. On Tuesday, OMC unveiled a slew of feature updates designed to grease the wheels between its marketing products and “bring data and intelligence together with orchestration in real time,” said Shashi Seth, SVP of Oracle Marketing Cloud. Responsys, Oracle’s email marketing […]

Although Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter are getting more expensive, they remain the go-to places for brand-building campaigns. That’s the approach being taken by Skullcandy, the maker of headphones and audio devices, as it looks to grow from its action sports roots to a broader audience, according to CMO Jessica Klodnicki, who was hired in […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Scott Moore, CEO and co-founder at Ad Lightning. Media arbitrage – buying ad space at one price, adding something of value and reselling it at a higher price to advertisers […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Price Drop, Inventory Hop All those digital buyers complaining about Hulu being sold out of ad inventory will see a reprieve. The streaming platform’s decision to lower the price of its ad-supported plan to $5.99 a month will bring more users and ad dollars […]

Jason Lapp, a longtime WPP and Kantar executive, is taking over as CEO of Kiip. Last Friday, a grand jury indicted Brian Wong, the company’s founder and now former CEO, on charges of felony sexual assault related to an encounter during the SXSW festival in 2016. An arrest warrant was filed in January. Wong has […]

AdExchanger Talks is a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. The godfather of programmatic has retired from advertising. Or has he? In his first interview since selling AppNexus to AT&T for an estimated $1.6 billion (and stepping down), former CEO Brian O’Kelley comes on the AdExchanger podcast for a nice long talk. O’Kelley, known to friends […]

“Brand Aware” explores the data-driven digital ad ecosystem from the marketer’s point of view. Today’s column is written by Yannis Barros, senior associate, performance marketing, at M.Gemi. Innovation in audience generation helped build ecommerce brands from the ground up. Think back to when event pixels granted marketers the power to hit prospects similar to past […]

Looking for AddThis audience data in the EU? You won’t find it. Oracle Data Cloud has quietly pulled the plug on that business line. Although Oracle declined to say exactly when it began shutting down AddThis, the process started at some point in the last number of months. Under the General Data Protection Regulation, unconsented […]

Years ago, TV buyers didn’t bother with connected TV (CTV) because it offered little benefit for a lot of hassle. “Digital players were the earliest adopters. Because it was TV-like, everyone wanted to get into the video game.” said Gibbs Haljun, total US investment lead at Mindshare. But young viewers leaving linear TV changes that […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Dave Zinman, chief operating officer at Drawbridge. We’ve all heard speculation that Netflix could move to ad-supported streaming this year, largely as a means of offsetting its ever-growing content creation budget. But I believe […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. It’s Amazon’s World Amazon is testing a pop-up feature for its app that suggests its own private-label goods on competitor’s product pages, taking its aggressive approach to conquesting to another level. Amazon already places display and search ads on other brands’ pages, but this […]

Adobe is betting big on Experience Cloud, which houses all of its marketing, analytics and advertising solutions, as a major growth area for its business. “All the meetings that [we] have, whether it’s with CEOs, CMOs or CIOs, they’re absolutely reflecting the urgency of digital engagement and an appetite to work with Adobe,” CEO Shantanu […]

Embattled holding company MDC Partners has a new owner. The Stagwell Group, a new-model agency holding company helmed by former Microsoft chief strategy officer and political advisor Mark Penn, said Friday it will invest $100 million to take a 30% minority stake in MDC Partners. Penn will become CEO and sit on MDC’s board. The […]

To centralize or not to centralize? That is the question holding companies have wrestled with since the advent of programmatic buying a decade ago. While Publicis Media and GroupM have broken up or reassembled their trading desks, others like IPG have kept that expertise at the center. Enter Omnicom, which said Friday it’s taking the […]