Platforms

Facebook CPM-based ad prices jumped more than 400% in Q4 2013, according to some 240 billion impressions analyzed in Adobe’s Q4 2013 Social Media Intelligence Report. However the holiday season delivered “warning signs” for Facebook in the form of tepid growth in the visits and revenue it’s driving to retail sites, relative to some of […]

Michael Barrett, the former CRO of Yahoo and CEO of AdMeld, which was acquired by Google in 2011, has joined Millennial Media as its new CEO.  Co-founder and CEO Paul Palmieri will depart and join venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. In the press release (see it), Michael Barrett said: “I am honored and thrilled […]

Yoyi Media, one of the major DSPs in China, will launch a data management platform called Data Bank for clients in early 2014, according to CEO Roy Zhou. “If you want a good result, regardless if you’re a direct response client or a branding client, you need to have very good data,” Zhou told AdExchanger. […]

Facebook has added another weapon in its mobile ad quiver, announcing Wednesday in a blog post that it is testing a mobile ad network with a group of advertisers and publishers that uses Facebook’s targeting capabilities to place ads in third-party apps. Brad Smallwood, VP of measurements and insights, declined to provide additional information about […]

Since Russ Fradin initiated Dynamic Signal following the $300 million acquisition of his previous startup, Adify by Cox Enterprises (which Cox has since shuttered), he has transitioned away from paid media and helps brands tap customers’ social media influence. The idea behind Dynamic Signal is to simplify the process by which passionate customers can advocate brands […]

Social data analytics company 4C Insights has raised $5 million in Series B funding from Jump Capital. 4C originated last fall when ecommerce ad-tech company The Echo System merged with Twitter Ads API partner and Facebook PMD Voxsup, founded by Northwestern University Professor Alok Choudhary. 4C currently employs between 30-40 people, but expects to grow […]

Entrepreneur and paid-search pioneer Bill Gross, who in 2003 sold search company Overture Services to Yahoo for $1.6 billion, has set his sights on a new venture: mobile advertising. Gross’ mobile ad firm, UberMedia, started as a developer of free utility apps in 2010 before transitioning into mobile advertising last year because it needed a […]

Last year was a big year for demand-side platform (DSP) and ad network Rocket Fuel. The company went public in late 2013 and analysts remain largely bullish on its continuing growth prospects. Known mainly for its offerings in the traditional display ad space, the Redwood City, Calif., firm is ramping up its pursuit of mobile […]

Friday’s announcement that ePrize, a provider of multichannel engagement and loyalty solutions, has rebranded as HelloWorld represents more than a new company name. It also underscores the introduction of a “rich engagement platform” combining mobile CRM, live event activation, loyalty programs and in-store activation capabilities. The architecture of this platform comes from components either built […]

Fred McIntyre, CEO of social marketing platform Awe.sm, has noticed that while the present-day patterns of media consumption are exciting, they also pose challenges to the DNA of cost planning for publishers and marketers. “If you look at media consumption across most categories in television, radio, online and social, they’re going up in each category,” […]

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 Lauren Moores, vice president of analytics at Dstillery. More than ever, consumers connect with brands through mobile communications and perform transactions on mobile devices. According to comScore, 2013 was the […]

Last summer, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) unveiled its guidelines for behaviorally targeted mobile advertising, which included a consumer opt-out tool, similar to the organization’s blue Ad Choices icon. AdExchanger spoke with DAA managing director Lou Mastria about what advertisers can expect as the DAA prepares to implement its guidelines and mobile AdChoices tool. AdExchanger: […]

Yahoo Chief Operating Officer Henrique De Castro has been canned, according to a regulatory filing. Re/code’s Kara Swisher reported on the story first. De Castro’s departure date is Jan. 16. A former Googler, De Castro is credited by industry insiders with helping to build Google’s display ad business and making YouTube profitable. De Castro joined […]

A denim-clad Jack Dorsey took the stage Wednesday morning at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York, claiming to be a man of “very few words and even fewer characters.” “We hear [the word ‘technology’] so much it tends to lose its meaning,” the chairman of microblogging mainstay Twitter and CEO of payments […]

Data-management platform (DMP) Lotame rolled out Wednesday its Mobile DMP suite to help businesses collect and manage audience data from mobile devices. The product, which can be added to Lotame’s current DMP offering or used as a standalone product, includes several features designed to help companies monetize their mobile inventory and engage with consumers on mobile […]

Twitter has rolled out two new prongs to its “Tailored Audiences” targeting regime, which debuted last month as a vehicle strictly for website retargeting. Among the new segmenting features are CRM matching and Twitter ID targeting. The latter allows the serving of ads based on a user’s public characteristics, such as keywords appearing in a […]

The race to reach consumers on mobile devices has advertisers juggling a mountain of data as they try to deliver relevant ads. Mobile ad network AdTheorent, whose clients include Samsung, Pepsi and IBM, argues that weather conditions, along with other data points, should be included in ad-serving decisions. AdExchanger spoke with CEO Anthony Iacovone about […]

Alibaba Group’s $206 million stake in US startup ShopRunner this fall foreshadowed the Chinese commerce giant’s interests in cross-country expansion. With a looming IPO expected this year and reports of a possible Nasdaq or NYSE listing, all eyes are on the company’s monetization moves. Often referred to as “the Amazon of China,” Alibaba owns close […]

In a rare instance, Yahoo’s advertising products shared the limelight with the company’s consumer-facing ones when Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer unveiled the company’s new ad products among other new offerings at the Consumer Electronics Show. Ad agency execs responded to Yahoo’s new ad products optimistically, however, some areas remain unclear, such as the development of […]

Speaking in New York today, far from the frenzied CES crowd in Las Vegas, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff heralded what he perceives as a shift from an “anonymous, B2C world to one of one-to-one marketing where the consumer has opted in.” Benioff told a gathering of partners, customers, media and analysts on Wednesday that Salesforce.com’s […]

Yahoo is mothballing some of the most prominent and widely known parts of its ad tech system, including pioneering real-time bidding platform Right Media and its data management software Genome, executives announced at the company’s CES presentation. And in their place, Yahoo Advertising will serve as the umbrella for a variety of capabilities, with the […]

Pandora’s evolution bodes well for advertisers looking for enhanced targeting opportunities in a multiscreen world. At CES 2014, Pandora and WPP Group media agency Mindshare toured how the online radio service is acclimating to an omnichannel environment, in the process developing enhanced personalization capabilities that both Pandora’s users and advertisers can leverage. At the core […]

Online business directory company YP announced Monday its acquisition of mobile ad firm Sense Networks for an undisclosed sum. Sense Networks offers location and behavioral-based ad targeting capabilities. Sense Networks analyzes data sets such as the latitudinal and longitudinal information in ad requests from mobile apps to help advertisers target mobile users. Its offerings include […]

Although China’s mobile users represent the world’s largest smartphone market (research firm IDC predicts China’s smartphone shipments will exceed 450 million in 2014), numerous challenges constrain non-Asian advertisers’ ability to get a foothold. Still, there’s recourse for advertisers looking to break into the Chinese market, largely in the form of partnerships. Chinese mobile advertising is […]

Driving continued mobile app engagement is a continuing challenge for businesses — and the stakes continue to rise. Mobile app downloads will reach 102 billion in 2013, up from 64 billion in 2012, according to a September report from Gartner. The research firm also said that in-app purchases will account for 48% of app store […]

Twitter’s Wednesday release of conversion tracking is the company’s latest direct-response push. Beta advertisers, including retailer Alex and Ani, food-delivery and takeout service GrubHub Seamless and political agency Targeted Victory, used the tool to measure ROI on Twitter ad campaigns. Targeted Victory initiated CPA campaigns to meet a target number of “sign-ups” for a National […]

Facebook’s acquisition Tuesday of sports-centric social analytics and real-time trending platform SportStream signifies it’s not letting up in its tête-à-tête with Twitter. “Twitter has natural advantages in the social TV space,” commented Martin Kihn, a research director at Gartner. “It’s the go-to platform for real-time event-driven conversation, facilitated by hashtags. … On the other hand, […]

Pushing hyperlocal mobile advertisements is becoming increasingly viable for businesses as tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter, as well as startups, enter the space. One such hyperlocal ad startup is Thinknear, which was acquired by GPS solutions provider Telenav for $22.5 million last year. AdExchanger spoke with Thinknear CEO Eli Portnoy about the evolution […]

Social advertising has become table stakes for multiplatform marketers. On the vendor side, the emerging leaders providing social-ad technologies share a few key commonalities to meet that demand, according to an inaugural Forrester Wave: Social Advertising Platforms report released Tuesday. In a series of interviews with 21 digital marketers, Forrester Research found the average amount […]

It took the better part of a year, but Facebook has overcome its internal angst about “motion” in the News Feed with the debut of cross-channel, auto-play video ads. The offering (officially in beta) instantly creates the largest digital video buy ever, with potential daily reach covering nearly half the U.S. population. Mindshare purchased the […]