Platforms

Facebook has cut two partners from its mobile ad measurement program for failing to honor its policies around data retention and disclosure, AdExchanger has learned. The companies, HasOffers and Kontagent, violated their agreements with Facebook, including holding onto data longer than their contracts allowed and failing to require their advertisers  — app developers — to […]

FreeWheel, a technology and services company cofounded seven years ago by Jonathan Heller, Doug Knopper and Diane Yu, helps media companies like NBCUniversal and Viacom connect TV buyers with premium digital video inventory. It also worked with Amazon to help power video ad content for the ecommerce giant. Knopper, who also serves as FreeWheel’s co-CEO, […]

It’s a tumultuous time for the usually staid ad-tech subsector of sell-side platforms (SSPs). As The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday (registration required), PubMatic will chase direct competitor Rubicon Project into the public markets, seeking a valuation of more than $1 billion. Additionally, PubMatic has replaced its top marketer, Larry Harris, with Razorfish and […]

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) kicked off day one of the Annual Leadership Meeting (ALM) by rallying advertisers to raise the bar on marketing. To do this, however, marketers and advertisers need to be more vigilant around traffic fraud. Additionally, they must also realize that consumer attention spans, especially in mobile, are short. Holding Agencies […]

Location-based marketing technology company MomentFeed is betting big on the hyper-local search and marketing movement. Founded in 2010, the Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) company has raised $3 million in seed funding and recently closed a $6 million Series A round. According to its chairman and CEO Robert Blatt, MomentFeed is “the first company to […]

The advertising industry has been wrestling with what exactly constitutes ad viewability. Trade organizations like the the Media Rating Council (MRC), among others, are working to develop and refine guidelines on this issue. The MRC in particular has approved several viewability measurement solutions. Only a handful of vendors have been approved so far, such as […]

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said 2013 delivered the “best results we’ve had in a decade.” Although the company reported 13% overall growth in revenue year-over-year in the fourth quarter, growing from $599 million to $679 million, AOL noted net and operating profitability was affected by a “pre-tax restructuring” that cost it $13.2 million. This was […]

Google’s shift of ads and commerce chief Susan Wojcicki Wednesday to SVP of YouTube, which has 20.5% stake in the US video ad market, and which eMarketer estimated had $5.6 billion in gross ad revenue last year, comes at a critical time for the online video platform. With Wojcicki’s appointment, Salar Kamangar, SVP of YouTube […]

Twitter’s first quarter as a public company was hot and cold. Ad performance was the hot part. Q4 2013 ad revenue on the Twitter platform grew 121% to $220 million, of which mobile advertising accounted for more than 75%. The MoPub mobile ad exchange, acquired during the quarter, delivered $8 million in revenue. Audience trends […]

Rubicon Project’s Tuesday IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was a widely anticipated moment of financial transparency for the sell-side platform (SSP), but it wasn’t the first programmatic player to initiate a public offering. Rocket Fuel and Criteo both went public last fall, creating an interesting point of comparison for Rubicon […]

Komli Media, a digital media technology provider in the Asia-Pacific market, has launched a Remarketing Demand Side Platform (DSP) geared to enterprise clients. The goal is to help digital marketers convert site visitors into customers using custom tools that blend the advantages of both remarketing and DSP services into a single platform. “DSPs have typically […]

Yahoo and mobile ad-serving platform Mocean Mobile jointly announced Tuesday the launch of the Mocean Mobile Marketplace. Mocean Mobile brings mobile inventory from publishers such as Nokia and Univision to Yahoo’s Ad Exchange. Publishers in return can access Yahoo’s ad-targeting capabilities and other services. The Mocean-Yahoo partnership comes one week after Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer […]

Mobile app developers rarely use traditional paid media to advertise their products. That might change, according to the mobile advertising firm Motility Ads, which is helping app publishers like King.com, Wooga and SGN create TV commercials to promote their games and drive downloads. AdExchanger spoke with VP of business development Josh Rinsky about the company’s […]

Although Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer emphasized the importance of mobile advertising to the company’s growth during Tuesday’s earnings call, she acknowledged that Yahoo’s mobile ad revenue has yet to become a significant portion of the company’s total revenue, which could greatly hamper the company’s future profits. The company’s mobile revenue “is still not material,” Mayer […]

In Q4 2013, Facebook for the first time derived more than half of its ad revenue from impressions served to mobile devices. Mobile ad revenues were $1.2 billion, 53 percent of the overall $2.3 billion in ad revenue it garnered for the period, the company reported Wednesday. It’s a significant milestone for the company, which has long […]

During Yahoo’s Q4 2013 earnings call Wednesday, CEO Marissa Mayer said the company intended to focus next year on mobile, social, video and native, and explained why former COO Henrique de Castro will not be replaced. Display advertising, excluding traffic acquisition costs, was $491 million, down 6% compared to $520 million for Q4 of 2012. […]

If you’ve ever seen an online meme or a viral image (and these days who hasn’t?), chances are you either viewed it through the photo-sharing service Imgur (pronounced “imager”), or it was uploaded there first. Founded in 2009 by then-Ohio University computer science student Alan Schaaf, Imgur has seen its financial support structure evolve from […]

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 […]