Platforms

Since we kicked off our series of Q&As with Facebook Ads API badge holders (scroll down for full list), Facebook’s partner regime has continued to shift. Most recently it created a new class of Preferred Marketing Developers called “Strategic PMDs.” Brand Networks is among the 12 companies promoted to that new program. The company was […]

Jeff Levick, chief marketing solutions officer at streaming music app Spotify, sat out most of Advertising Week this year. Instead, the former AOL global ad sales chief has been working on longer term plans that involve branded playlists and building out the mobile ad offerings, while leaving the conference-going and client meetings this week to […]

Snack giant Mondelez (Nabisco, Cadbury, Trident) began trading as a standalone company this week after splitting from Kraft Foods (Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House). CEO Irene Rosenfeld said specialization will let the company focus on expansion, especially in developing markets, per Reuters. That means nailing mobile, since many people in developing economies are skipping PC ownership […]

Video ad platform Videology’s purchase of demand side player LucidMedia is part of a continuing strategy to break down the walls between serving buyers and sellers across all devices and platforms.  Even though this is its second recent deal, following the acquisition of  Collider in August, the company says that it’s not about to embark on […]

For the past couple of years, Jonathan Mendez, founder and CEO of Yieldbot, has been focusing his company’s efforts on unlocking the value in publisher data – specifically “intent.” Last week, Mendez discussed with AdExchanger the evolution of his company’s analytics product and its move towards media. AdExchanger:  Since I last spoke with you on […]

Looking to provide an alternative to the ever-popular cookie targeting used in online display advertising today, Keith Pieper has decided it’s time to “pivot” his 10-person startup – was Pretarget (AdExchanger March 2011), now Sequential Media – and pursue the cookieless future. Pulling from Pretarget learnings, “Crowd Targeting” is Sequential’s core, patented technology that Pieper […]

It’s increasingly clear that new school ad broker Facebook has pegged its sales strategy to a decidedly old school way of looking at media – that is, digital reach and frequency planning embodied by Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings product. Speaking at the IAB’s MIXX conference today, Facebook head of measurement and insights Brad Smallwood preached […]

AOL opened up its presence for this year’s Advertising Week by giving its “premium, brand-focused” Project Devil ads something of an upgrade. Although not greeted with the same kind of anticipation that is associated with the latest iPhone version, Project Devil is as crucial to AOL’s revenue generation as the smartphone is to Apple’s. For […]

Yahoo is taking the wraps off a new contextual ad network powered by Media.net. The publisher offering goes by the catchy name Yahoo! Bing Network Contextual Ads, though despite the reference to Microsoft’s search product, Redmond is not involved. Most people will interpret this a second attempt by Yahoo to create a competitor to Google’s […]

With experience in the Wall Street professional services world, Ampush CEO Jesse Pujji and his co-founders, Chris Amos and Nick Shah, have seen the big data of financial trading desks and their offshoots. And, that’s one reason the trio decided to move into the online ad business and start Ampush in 2010. Pujji told AdExchanger […]

In beginning his new mobile ad startup, Admobius, co-founder Dan Grigorivici admits he’s no “spring chicken” when it comes to the ad technology landscape. He’s worked in a range of product-related capacities spanning digital agencies Carat and Digitas, mobile ad network Quattro Wireless (sold to Apple) and behavioral ad network Tacoda (acquired by Aol). Along […]

Agency trading desks are understandably eager to ramp up with the Facebook Exchange, which promises to broaden the reach and frequency of their programmatic buying efforts. But right after the FBX launch they weren’t equally able to use it — which has led to some hand wringing. WPP’s Xaxis had a direct seat, while Publicis’s Vivaki […]

AddThis, the social sharing tools and analytics provider formerly known as Clearspring, is trying to solve a problem that has long plagued the business of using online data – how to incorporate information from the physical world consumers mainly inhabit alongside their digital characteristics, profiles and behaviors. In its bid to address those digital data […]

With Facebook Exchange now three months old and officially out of beta, agencies have started to get a sense of the possibilities. In many cases they’re working through holding company trading desks to source audience and measure results on the fledgling marketplace. For Omnicom Group agencies, that means collaborating with Accuen. AdExchanger spoke with Josh […]

When building a technology platform, self-service isn’t always the Holy Grail it seems to be – at least initially, as Spruce Media founder and CEO Rob Jewell discovered. A couple of years ago, his company was an early Facebook Ads API partner, and after seeing Kenshoo and Marin Software take a self‑service approach to channels […]

Facebook is rolling out a “small test” of mobile ads on non-Facebook sites, a spokesperson told AdExchanger today. The move is an extension of its current ad sales and serving relationship with Zynga, and the first time the company has signaled interest in combining its data with outside media impressions. Yes, it’s an ad network. […]

How far into the social marketing story are we? Unified Social is betting this summer’s big acquisitions (Buddy Media, Vitrue, etc) are just the opening volleys, and that the coming years will see the rise of enterprise class social dashboards capable of integrating presence management, paid media, and downstream “earned” media tracking. The company’s Social […]

Facebook today removes the “beta” label from its fledgling real-time-bidding ad exchange (official blog post), and has given its 15 platform partners permission to crow about their early results. And crow they have… Here are two big takeaways from the wave of FBX data coming out this morning: (1) Facebook Exchange dramatically increases the amount […]

Several months after Adobe acquired media buying services and platform company Efficient Frontier (and Context Optional, the Facebook ad optimizer it arrived with), the company has unveiled its full slate of ad analytics for earned media in the form of Adobe Social. Adobe Social promises to track every campaign and determine whether commenting and other […]

With audience buying a critical part of digital advertising –  or traditional advertising channels, for that matter – where does the tablet fit in? Some think of it as “lean back” experience similar to TV.   If so, should brand marketers get excited and start targeting devices with tablet screen resolutions? On the other hand, perhaps the […]

Even before ex-Googler Marissa Mayer became Yahoo’s latest CEO two months ago, rumors were circulating that the company had been planning on selling off its Right Media Exchange. And as much of the attention around Yahoo’s programmatic ad platform strategy swirled around its “big data” offering Genome, the idea of jettisoning Right Media, the ad […]

Reddit seems to be in the news a lot lately as users flock to the platform in search of communities related to events or interests of the day, such as a “subreddit” on politics – or President Obama’s “Ask Me Anything” appearance – or how about cute cat pictures? The community site has few ads […]

A job description for Gokul Rajaram might look like this: “Lead ad product strategy for the world’s dominant social media platform. Scale world of mouth marketing in a way that’s relevant to a billion or so users with myriad devices, nationalities, languages, and cultural reference points. Do it in a way that unlocks the spending […]

It was 17 years ago that he founded the pioneering Internet advertising company, DoubleClick – and over four years since he helped sell it. But, original DoubleClick founder Kevin O’Connor can’t get the entrepreneurial bug out of his system and has targeted “recommendations” with a 60-person firm he co-founded in 2009 called FindTheBest. Like the self-explanatory […]

Facebook’s new Sponsored Results search ads became official last week, and early data from Nanigans suggests they may hold a good deal of appeal for performance-driven marketers. Since going live, the sponsored results ads have delivered Nanigans customers 23x higher click rates while costing 78% less than the average cost-per-click commanded by Marketplace Ads. In […]

Although internet radio streamer Pandora continued to post a loss a year after going public, signs of progress on driving mobile revenue was enough to give investors confidence following the company’s Q2 earnings on Wednesday, as shares were up 12 percent. Ad spending on Pandora in the quarter grew 53 percent and makes up the […]

Is Twitter’s new “Certified Products” program analogous to Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Developer directory, which has become such an important entry point for advertiser demand? Yes and no. Yes, in that both programs aim to create an “approved” list of vendors that can help businesses leverage its platform for marketing, CRM, and other purposes. Also, both offer […]

In contrast to the recent stumbles by Facebook, LinkedIn has done fairly well since filing its IPO (the stock was even up slightly on Tuesday, closing at $107 a share). But that doesn’t mean LinkedIn doesn’t have the same pressures to show a diversified source of revenues. And from the looks of things right now, […]

When online video first started catching fire with viewers and advertisers, a number of companies were vying for something of a “new TV” experience. Most have fallen short. But as users get more acclimated to viewing all screens equally, video startups have a greater chance than ever before of creating a scalable business with web-based […]

Yesterday, “Facebook Performance Advertising” company, Nanigans, announced the hiring of former Yahoo! sales executive Marc Grabowski as it’s Chief Operating Officer. Given his sales and marketing responsibilities, Nanigans appears to be looking to grow its “feet on the street” and revenues as well as leverage Grabowski’s experience in the data-driven display world. See the release. […]