Boston-based in-store beacon company Swirl revealed its $18 million Series C round on Thursday. Led by Twitter Ventures, Hearst Ventures and SoftBank Capital, with participation from Longworth Venture Partners, this latest capital injection brings Swirl’s total funding to $32 million. It’s evidence that beacon technology is reaching maturity, said Hilmi Ozguc, CEO and founder of […]
Pangia Games doesn’t have money to waste. What app developer does? Monetization and user acquisition are tricky for anyone – although it certainly helps to have extra cash to throw at the problem. But the smaller devs out there, like Pangia, need to get creative. “We’re a team of two,” said Nick Barbato, managing partner at […]
Merkle|RKG’s Digital Marketing Report, released this week, notes strong disparities between the display ad effectiveness and cost of rivals Google and Facebook. In short, Facebook drives conversion rates, but Google is among the cheapest on a CPC basis. Though Google click growth dipped to 0.2% YoY, the Google Display Network (GDN) pulled 11% of all […]
“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 Hagai Shechter, CEO and founder at Fraudlogix. Online ad fraud is a problem nearly as old as the online advertising industry itself. By now the existence of fake traffic, including bots […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here. Digital Spend Inches Closer To TV The IAB released its Internet ad revenue report on Wednesday, revealing that digital ad spend grew 16% YoY in 2014 to total $49.5 billion. Compare that to broadcast and cable TV spend, which totaled $65.7 billion combined last […]
As it grapples for profitability, ad net/programmatic media platform Rocket Fuel has initiated layoffs as part of what it called “a new efficiency program that is expected to reduce the publicly traded company’s operating costs by $30 million annually.” Read the release. The move comes just one month after co-founder George John stepped down as […]
As it has done like clockwork for the past eight or so quarters, Facebook on Wednesday reported strong audience and ad revenue growth led by mobile. An aggressive investment in video is adding to its momentum, though exactly what video contributes to its top line is unclear. Facebook’s Q1 2015 revenue from advertising totaled $3.5 billion, an increase of […]
Berlin-based mobile ad platform Fyber (formerly SponsorPay) wants to become what it calls a full-stack “specialized supply-side platform.” “Specialized” refers to its focus on the world of freemium apps, said Janis Zech, CRO and co-founder of Fyber, which announced its acquisition of German ad tech company Falk Realtime on Wednesday for €10.75 million, which translates to […]
Answers.com, long a haven of performance marketers seeking scale and efficiency, has bigger dreams: to create enough value for advertisers to seek it out for direct sales. The publisher, which reaches 73 million unique users on desktop and 35 million on mobile, first added a direct sales arm in 2013. But its efforts to establish […]
When it comes to shopping ads, it’s not all about Google anymore. While Q1 US spend for Google Shopping Ads (formerly Product Listing Ads) was up 37% year over year, Bing/Yahoo is starting to encroach on Google, at least in the United States, where spend increased 72% last quarter, according to the Adobe Digital Index […]
Nielsen is chomping at the bit to start measuring total audience, but it also needs advertisers and publishers to figure out what exactly they want, especially in video. In its Q1 2015 earnings call, Nielsen reiterated last quarter’s commitment to push forward on “Total Audience Measurement” as its top 2015 priority. Total Audience Measurement, as described by CEO […]
“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 Mike Peralta, CEO at AudienceScience. As the digital media industry continues to push for a deeper understanding of ad viewability, some advertisers, including Havas, GroupM and Unilever, are making it […]
Mail.ru, the Russian internet company, today launched a mobile ad platform called myTarget, opening up the Russian mobile audience to advertisers within Russia as well as internationally. The Russian online advertising market has historically been very insular, which is an issue that Mail.ru wanted to tackle, according to CEO Dmitry Grishin. “It’s usually local advertising […]
Devs: Yahoo is looking at you. On the heels of arguably lackluster Q1 2015 earnings and the week before is NewFront event in New York City, Yahoo revealed two video ad units on Wednesday. Native in-feed video and video app install ads will now appear in Yahoo’s digital magazines and apps, as well as on desktop and […]
Measuring viewability can feel like a math class where each student has a different answer to the same problem. Each vendor employs different methodologies, which makes it difficult for publishers and advertisers to consistently agree on ad viewability. While the Media Ratings Council is working to iron out this problem – it even has a few reconciliation guidelines – […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here. Google Flexes Its Algorithm On Tuesday, Google updated its algorithm to incorporate a site’s “mobile-friendliness” into search result prominence. “This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results,” Google explained in a February […]
Although Yahoo continues to plow ahead on mobile, the company’s Q1 2015 disappointed. Yahoo’s revenue clocked in at $1.04 billion, missing analysts’ estimate of $1.06 billion. During the company’s investor call with analysts, CEO Marissa Mayer suggested programmatic has lowered the prices that Yahoo can command for its inventory. “We see a lot of advertising […]
When holding companies Publicis Groupe and Omnicom reported their respective 2015 first quarter earnings on Tuesday, each had to field investor inquiries about agency rebates and kickbacks. Omnicom outwardly denied participating in the controversial activity, at least in the US. “Our media agencies in the US don’t seek rebates,” Daryl Simm, CEO of Omnicom Media […]
“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 Kristin Marlow, managing director at Accordant Media. The recent Nielsen acquisition of eXelate, an independent data management platform (DMP), marks the latest in a string of major mergers that have […]
It’s a tough road for a stand-alone second-screen app. Beamly, the social TV network formerly known as Zeebox, would appear well positioned to help publishers engage millennial audiences across all platforms. Its install base grew from 2 million monthly active users in 2011 to 10.5 million today, and Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Viacom have a joint […]
“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 Andrew Shebbeare, founding partner and global innovation director at Essence. I believe we are entering the second age of programmatic. If the first phase of this revolution was characterized by […]
Acxiom vet Nada Stirratt is looking to spread the good word about location-based advertising in her new role as CEO of Verve Mobile, announced Monday. “The last few years have been about Angry Birds and app downloads, but now the market is finally talking about reaching consumers in particular locations,” said Stirratt, who comes to […]
To grow its base of 350 enterprise clients, social media management tool Tracx is growing – and is planning for more. In February, it raised $18 million in Series C, and Tuesday, it unveiled the hiring of former Experian Marketing Services VP Amy Inlow as CMO. CEO Eran Gilad said Tracx’s first 350 clients rolled […]
Placed “isn’t looking for one-off deals – we’re looking for scale,” company CEO David Shim told AdExchanger. The location analytics player, which uses an opt-in mobile panel to track offline behavior, announced a flurry of partnerships on Tuesday, including with cross-device solution provider Drawbridge, app monetization platform TapJoy, digital out-of-home company Vistar Media and demand-side platforms […]
The viewability standard may be better served by saying what it isn’t, rather than what it is. “Viewability does not guarantee that an ad will be looked at, or that an ad will be appealing, or have an impact or generate awareness or change brand perception,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP of research, analytics and measurement at […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here. Snapchat Advertisers Demand Granularity Advertisers are clamoring for more info on Snapchat’s audience, according to a report in The Information. Today, Snapchat provides estimates on how many people engage with its “Live Story” videos. (CEO Evan Spiegel recently tweeted that a Coachella Live Story […]
On Monday, Interpublic Group snapped up a minority stake in Samba TV, a startup that offers TV analytics and attribution tools. IPG did not disclose the value of its investment. IPG Media Lab initiated the relationship and managed the integration of Samba TV’s data and tools with IPG Mediabrands’ Audience Measurement Platform. “IPG, like every […]
This story is part of a series on publisher coalitions and co-ops around the world. Read our earlier pieces on Pangaea and the Association of Online Publishers in the UK, La Place Média in France, SouthernX in Africa, Project Agora in Greece and Romania, Apex in Australia and CPAX in Canada. The problem with programmatic in Israel was that there weren’t many options. Google and […]
United Airlines services more than 5,000 flights a day to 400 different destinations around the world. It uses desktop, mobile app, in-flight Wi-Fi, email and mobile web data to create an “intelligent, congruent customer experience,” said Nick Harris, senior manager of marketing channel optimization for United Airlines, at Ensighten’s Agility conference last week. However, connecting […]
Utility, clarity and simplicity are the three main ingredients in the new Epicurious Smart Timer app for the Apple Watch, announced Monday. Apple is scheduled to release the Apple Watch on April 24. The Epicurious Smart Timer was designed to be paired with the Condé Nast-owned food site’s existing iOS app. Users can activate the […]
