Marketers

The direct-to-consumer brand revolution has been going strong for a decade, but the coronavirus pandemic has created new opportunities for B2B and wholesale manufacturers to flood the consumer market. Rastelli’s, a New Jersey-based food supplier, fortuitously started a consumer branding business last year, said director of marketing Zachary Paul. Instead of selling products through grocers […]

  Advertisers responded to COVID-19 with cookie-cutter platitudes, such as “In these uncertain times” and “We’re in this together.” Now, the same brands are grappling with how to respond to protests across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police department officials. The challenge goes beyond whether an advertisement is on […]

TripleLift is trying to encourage brands to buy ads next to news content, and has curated a group of 1,600 news publishers into a private marketplace. Those buying within the Help Journalism PMP also won’t have to pay TripleLift’s ad tech fee for the rest of Q2. GroupM has signed more than a dozen of its […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. A Short Stint The average tenure of CMOs in the United States dropped again in 2019, to 41 months from about 43 months in 2018. That’s the lowest number on record since 2009, according to a report from executive search firm Spencer Stuart. The […]

Direct-to-consumer sales at Skullcandy are up more than 100% year over year. That doesn’t mean the audio, headphone and earbud company isn’t feeling the effect of the coronavirus situation like most everyone else. “Of course we are, “ said CMO Jessica Klodnicki. But the uptick validates Skullcandy’s long-term strategy to diversify its sales channels. It […]

During a time of economic uncertainty, should a CMO put her brand on the sidelines? Or should she increase media investment – especially if buying ads is cheap? NerdWallet’s CMO Kelly Gillease has been in the midst of that marketing calculus as the brand recalibrates its strategy for the rest of 2020. “We decided that […]

YouTube is expanding the amount of inventory it’s availing in the upfront this year through a new offering called YouTube Select, the company said Tuesday. YouTube Select grows the pool of inventory advertisers can purchase on a guaranteed upfront basis by bringing more channels into Google Preferred. The new channels, called “emerging lineups,” are organized […]

If you haven’t heard of Constellation Software before, you’re about to start. The $21 billion market cap Canadian software conglomerate acquired mobile app analytics company TUNE on Tuesday, with plans to buy more performance marketing companies in the near term. Peter Hamilton, TUNE’s CEO, declined to share the deal price. Specifically, TUNE is being acquired […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cut Me Some Slack Advertisers are trying to get out of their TV deals as the pandemic timeline lengthens. Brands including GM, Pepsi, Domino’s and General Mills are trying to cancel commitments to broadcast and cable networks, threatening to upend the deal-making process, The […]

Twitter really wants a piece of the performance advertising pie. On Tuesday, Twitter said it has acquired interactive mobile ad company CrossInstall. No deal price was disclosed. All of CrossInstall’s 70 employees will be joining Twitter. CrossInstall is a mobile-only DSP focused on user acquisition with its own home-grown bidder and proprietary creative offering, including […]

CPGs like Pepsi and Kraft-Heinz urgently need to develop ecommerce and direct-to-consumer business lines, whereas Anheuser-Busch InBev – having invested already in ecommerce – can now shift its media spend to support it. “As you’re hearing from everybody else, ecommerce has become a high-growth channel at this point,” Pepsi CEO Ramon Laguarta said Wednesday during […]

Pinterest would’ve had a pretty decent first quarter if it wasn’t for … the coronavirus, of course. But engagement is at an all-time high, and the immediacy of what people are searching for is changing, said Arthur Sevilla, Pinterest’s head of global vertical strategy. The shift first became noticeable in early April. “It’s gone from […]

A year ago, if you overheard someone say “BOPIS is all the rage,” you could be forgiven for mistaking the reference for obscure ’90s-era slang. But nowadays, “buy online pick up in store” is as normal as, well, doing groceries. And it’s going to change retail advertising forever. Publicis Groupe forecast in 2019 that it would […]

“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 Michael Berkowitz, solutions architect at Jounce Media. In the age of supply-path optimization (SPO), marketers are more deeply evaluating how their bids reach publishers, and many brands and agencies are […]

“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 Augie Ray, vice president analyst, customer experience and marketing, at Gartner. Brands are struggling with what to say in advertising and outbound communications during the COVID-19 pandemic. The desire to be […]

Retail foot traffic and recessions be damned, people need to snack. That fact has boosted Mondelēz, despite the coronavirus crisis and economic downturns. And, unlike in previous recessions, Mondelēz is investing to win market share, instead of cutting spend to protect the bottom line, CEO Dirk Van de Put told investors on a quarterly earnings […]

  Is COVID-19 the beginning of the end for upfronts? Buyers and sellers have long questioned the necessity of flashy presentations, especially as the broadcast TV business declines. Disney chairman Bob Iger recently predicted an end to the antiquated upfront process altogether as a result of the economic crisis. Ad buyers have been pushing to […]

“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 Danilo Tauro, global media manager at Procter & Gamble. The top demand-side platforms (DSPs) have grown substantially in the last few years, boosted in part by the growing integration of […]

Intellectual curiosity and a well-tuned BS detector. If the students in his digital marketing seminars come away with both, independent training consultant Steven Golus says he’s done his job. “You’ve got to have people who can do sniff tests in this industry, and to do that, you need a really good sense of the mechanics,” […]

YouTube has broadened its measurement partner program and made it easier for buyers to find the right service provider for their needs. On Monday, YouTube added Channel Factory, Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify, Sightly and VuePlanner to the program. Existing partners include Pixability, Zefr, Tubular Labs and Wizdeo. But OpenSlate, which had been a member of […]

At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, DTC sleepwear brand Lunya had to furlough staffers, shut down retail stores and lay off part-time workers to break even through the downturn. “It was painful pivoting,” said Lunya’s Founder and CEO, Ashley Merrill. But there were bright spots. Lunya’s business is more than 80% ecommerce. The company […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.  Today’s column is written by Jay Prasad, chief strategy officer at LiveRamp TV and Data Plus Math, and an IAB Video Board Member. The goal coming out of upfronts used to be as simple as securing enough network inventory […]

Brands that haven’t gone dark still need a steady flow of creative, but production shoots are on hold. So with everyone practicing social distancing, brands are repurposing stock assets and using influencers as content creators. “People are looking for any cost-effective solution that gets them high quality ads,” said Alex Collmer, CEO of creative automation […]

You won’t catch Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers, Instagramming his lunch or stress-baking sourdough bread during the day. He’s at his computer by 6 a.m. and working until 6 or 7 at night from his home office on Long Island (aka, his grown daughter’s former bedroom). These long days […]

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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Buck Stops Here Brands are delaying agency payments as they manage cash crunches due to the coronavirus pandemic. The trend “threatens the collapse of the entire supply chain,” Ad Age reports. Hard-hit brands are asking to extend payment terms, which can already run […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Lightening The Load NBC said it will reduce its ad load in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ad sales chairman Linda Yaccarino wrote a blog post detailing a plan to reduce ads across categories, including news and late-night talk shows, to free more time […]

Over the last two weeks, there probably wasn’t a lawyer in America who didn’t field at least one phone call from a stressed-out client asking about activating force majeure to get out of a contract. With events on ice for the foreseeable – media buys either canceled or postponed and commercial productions ground to a […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Pretty Good, Eh? File this one under, “Not an April Fools’ joke.” Postmedia, one of the largest Canadian news media conglomerates, is making all of its online content free this month, thanks to a partnership with Mary Brown’s, a fried chicken chain based in […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Sorry, Not Sorry Apologies, ad industry, it looks like enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act will kick off as planned on July 1. Trade orgs, including the Association of National Advertisers, requested that the attorney general hold off on enforcing the law until […]