Marketers

The destructive dreck on social platforms has brought the advertising industry to a breaking point. And so top brands, media agencies, industry associations and the platforms themselves are banding together to form the Global Alliance For Responsible Media. The organization, which launched Tuesday, will focus on making media sustainable and a force for good in […]

Michael Kassan was Mr. Cannes even before he sold MediaLink to the festival’s parent company, Ascential. This week, with Cannes Lions 2019 kicking off, Kassan spins tales of Cannes past, present and yet to come. He also talks about the evolution of MediaLink two years after the acquisition. (Spoiler: It’s going well. Kassan just extended […]

The Cannes Lions, the annual advertiser confab celebrating creativity on the French Riviera, is all about the glitz and glamour. But this year, beyond the branded yachts and magnum-sized bottles of rose, proving that creativity drove business performance will be a key ingredient in winning awards as marketers struggle for growth. Creatively, the focus will […]

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. Hulu Steals The Show Hulu is taking a page from the TV sales playbook by offering lower rates to buyers who commit large budgets ahead of time, Variety reports. Hulu was one of the only ad-supported streaming video players at the upfronts, TV’s annual […]

Nearly everything Disney does these days seems to be for the love of DTC. CEO Bob Iger told investors on Wednesday that acquiring 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets for $71 billion will create synergies for Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming vision. “I feel really confident in our plans and the plans we’ve announced, because of what we […]

Shopify powers digital marketing for many of the savviest direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. In addition to its foundational ecommerce services, Shopify provides DTC marketers with a range of creative and media buying tools through an automated chatbot named Kit. It also connects merchants to major media platforms such as Instagram, Amazon, Google and Facebook through a […]

Travel is a personal experience, and travel marketing should be too, according to Sheila Schottland, senior director of brand marketing at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “People travel for different reasons – family, business, leisure – and they have different needs,” she said. “Because these moments are relatable, we make sure that our media mix follows suit, […]

A spree of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, including Hubble, Bonobos and Rothy’s, have started running TV commercials. And aside from adding demand to the scatter market, those DTC companies are bringing digital-first measurement standards to the new (ahem, old) media channel. AdExchanger spoke with some top DTC brands about why they’re adding television to the media mix, […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Steve Carbone, chief digital and investment officer at MediaCom US. With another NewFronts upon us, there are, as always, a number of key trends, themes and questions that have emerged. Among those that have […]

Brands are being tough on platforms, pulling advertising dollars after brand safety fiascoes and thinking critically about appearing adjacent to unpredictable content that can expose them to brand-safety risks. Yet Reddit, which languished with minimal advertising for years in part due to those brand-safety concerns, is thriving. Revenue grew by a factor of three in […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Agent Amazon Amazon is on a charm offensive to bring in more agencies and non-endemic brands, like financial services companies or auto manufacturers that don’t sell on its platform today. Amazon is doing a roadshow pitching its data and OTT chops to help create […]

Twitter is angling for its sliver of the performance advertising pie dominated by Facebook and Google. A top priority for the Twitter revenue team this year is to work on enhancing its Mobile App Promotion product, the company’s answer to app install ads. The opportunity is ripe, CFO Ned Segal told investors during an earnings […]

Starting this week, luxury bedding startup Boll & Branch will add TV to its marketing mix, joining many other direct-to-consumer brands. But the data-driven company is being disciplined, which means using a different strategy than other DTC brands and the traditional marketers that dominate TV. It’s targeting a broad national customer base, not just urban […]

Snap teased an audience extension product called Snapchat Audience Network in early April, but the offering is still being baked and the beta likely won’t open until some point this summer. So, advertisers have to wait to find out how targeting will work outside of the Snapchat platform, what data will be available and what […]

“Let it go, let it go” is the theme song for any advertisers who might’ve had their hearts set on an ad-supported option for Disney+. There won’t be one, Disney revealed during an investor day event on Thursday in Los Angeles. Disney’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service, slated to launch in the United States on Nov. […]

The US retail chain Albertsons, which also operates grocery brands like Safeway, Acme and Shaw’s, is accelerating investments in the data-driven advertising platform it launched last year for consumer brands carried in stores. The idea is to turn its retail loyalty card programs into an advertising and attribution engine, since those shoppers can be tracked […]

 Large, established companies such as P&G, Verizon and Kellogg’s are building direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands to compete with the challengers encroaching on their territory. In addition to investing in or acquiring other DTC brands, there are strategic advantages to a company building its own. P&G for instance thinks of buying, building and acquiring brands as a […]

Allison Lowrie is at home with data-driven marketing tactics. As CMO of ANGI Homeservices, the IAC-owned parent of Angi (formerly Angie’s List), HomeAdvisor and Handy, Lowrie is helping the company infuse a performance mindset into how it approaches offline channels. HomeAdvisor, which connects homeowners with home improvement professionals online, advertised during the Super Bowl for […]

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

Facebook wants that upfront money. On Tuesday, Facebook said it will start letting TV buyers purchase inventory in specific programs hosted on Watch. This offering, called Showcase, resembles an upfront buy, as the inventory will be priced against Nielsen-validated demos and sold in advance at fixed prices. This content includes programs like “Sorry For Your […]

Once upon a time, direct-to-consumer startup Parachute sold high-quality sheets online, touting efficiencies by cutting out middlemen. Five years later, Parachute sells sheets, towels, mattresses, bathrobes and baby blankets to consumers online and in five stores on each coast. “Bedding was a vehicle to gain customer trust, but it was never the end goal,” said […]

Marketers are reacting differently to YouTube’s latest brand safety flare-up compared to 2017, when scores of global brands suspended YouTube campaigns over ads monetizing violent or offensive videos. There’s certainly some déjà vu, with Disney, Nestlé’s and McDonald’s halting YouTube spending after YouTube creator Matt Watson showed them advertising on a video that had a […]

Six-year-old women’s underwear brand ThirdLove considers data critical to its whole business, not just its marketing plan. The direct-to-consumer company was founded by husband-and-wife team Heidi Zak and David Spector, who both hail from Google’s advertising business. “The biggest thing I learned [at Google] was about testing and optimization,” Zak said. “Even if something didn’t […]

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

The Big Story is a breezy podcast featuring a roundtable of AdExchanger editors talking about the biggest stories from the past week. It is available wherever you subscribe to podcasts. The IAB’s Annual Leadership summit wrapped this week and increasingly, the show has moved to focus on DTC companies like ThirdLove, the startup underwear brand […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.  Today’s column is written by Lance Neuhauser, CEO at 4C Insights. To maintain incremental growth, today’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) darlings are looking to expand beyond the digital sandbox where they grew up. After years of slathering on the search and Facebook ads, DTC […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Gray Lady Rising While digital media suffers a blood bath, The New York Times is reaping the rewards of a growing digital readership. The publisher brought in $709 million in digital revenue last year and is on track to pass its goal of $800 […]

Carving out a spot in the ever-crowded direct-to-consumer streaming market is an expensive proposition – and Disney is ready to spend. DTC is “a bet on the future of this business,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors on Tuesday, the equivalent of pouring money into building a theme park. “We are deploying capital so that the […]

Attention: Attorney General, State of California Re: California Consumer Privacy Act You’re killing us here. Thanks, The advertising industry The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is set to take effect in 2020 and the advertising community is desperate for some clarification. On Tuesday, a coalition of ad trade orgs sent a joint letter to the […]