Platforms

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 […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Privacy On Pause COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in the United Kingdom’s investigation of ad tech privacy practices. The country’s data protection agency paused its probe into the sector’s use of personal data due to business disruptions, TechCrunch reports. The investigation stems from a […]

There’s no traditional upfront season this year, but Facebook is still looking for its seat at the table. And it comes bearing gifts. On Friday, Facebook said it will extend its full set of native targeting capabilities to a small group of test advertisers using Facebook Reserve (previously called Facebook Showcase), its tool for buying […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. YouTube Flexes YouTube represents a quarter of all AVOD and SVOD viewership in the United States, growing 80% year over year, per Comscore. Among ad-supported services, YouTube has the highest reach and streaming hours, the company said in a blog post. Time spent watching […]

Rubicon Project is laying off 8% of its combined staff this quarter to reduce short-term costs in response to its merger and the coronavirus pandemic. Originally, Rubicon Project and Telaria expected to achieve $15 million to $20 million in cost synergies post-merger, but the coronavirus pandemic led the newly combined company to increase cost-cutting to […]

Pinterest made $272 million in Q1 this year, a 35% jump from the same period in 2019, but its net loss increased by $100 million because ad spend crumbled in March. The company “began 2020 on strong footing,” said Pinterest CFO Todd Morgenfeld during the company earnings call Tuesday, but April ad spend declined by […]

Gaming is growing like gangbusters in a socially distanced world, but it’s not immune to macroeconomic trends. Take Activision Blizzard’s mobile gaming arm, King, home to the wildly popular Candy Crush franchise. Activision Blizzard, which also owns the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft franchises, reported its Q1 earnings on Tuesday after market close. […]

Media and Games Invest (MGI), the German holding company that acquired mobile location player Verve in January, is creating a separate business unit for its ad tech assets. The new unit, announced on Tuesday, is called Verve Group, and comes along with a mini reorg. Sameer Sondhi, previously SVP and GM of global business development […]

Although Google Ad Manager’s policy changes make it a frequent subject of criticism among some publishers, in practice publishers don’t cite these changes as negatively impacting their businesses, according to Advertiser Perceptions’ latest survey of the SSP market. The report polled 150 digital ad sales and operations professionals at sites with more than 3 million […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Facebook Warned  Facebook could lose its MRC accreditation. The MRC warned Facebook that it might lose its seal after failing to address concerns about inflated video ad metrics that arose in 2016 and led to an audit in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reports. […]

The story of Twitter’s first quarter is familiar: a strong start to the year … and then a rapid ad revenue decline in March as COVID-19 began to take hold. Twitter posted modest growth in Q1, a 3% YoY increase to $808 million, while total ad revenue was $682 million, up $3 million compared to […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Primed For TV  Amazon beefed up its ad-supported OTT ranks with the hire of Maggie Zhang, former EVP of video research and insights at Dentsu Aegis Network. At Amazon, Zhang will develop reach and measurement products for Prime Video advertisers in a role that […]

Facebook is far from immune to the economic effects of the coronavirus – but it’s doing fairly well, all things considered. The stock spiked more than 18% after hours on Wednesday on news that ad revenue grew 17% in the quarter YoY to $17.44 billion, which was better than expected. Still, ad revenue cratered over the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cashing In The new hottest thing on Instagram is … giving away cash. Facebook and Google ads are a slow, expensive way to accrue followers. With cash giveaways, brands acquire hundreds or thousands of new users in one swoop. Influencers provide a list of […]

Alphabet had a surprisingly strong performance in Q1 2020, with revenues up 13% from last year to a total of $41.2 billion, according to the company’s earnings report on Tuesday. YouTube revenue passed $4 billion in Q1, up from $3 billion a year ago. But Google is preparing for a much tougher Q2. “Q1 was […]

OpenX said Tuesday it has laid off, furloughed or cut hours for 15% of its employees. Most of that percentage were layoffs and furloughs, and the number of people whose hours were cut was small, the company said. OpenX reduced the salaries of its leadership team by 15% to 20%. CEO John Gentry said he […]

TikTok on Tuesday said it has opened up its advertising API to Sprinklr as its first beta partner for video ad creation and management. Sprinklr is a full-service marketing platform that allows brands to buy, optimize and measure campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest and LinkedIn. “Sprinklr is a partner for one of our […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Here To Stay Hotel and hospitality companies are well known for their marketing partnerships with food, cosmetics and retail brands. But a recent tie-up between Hilton and Lysol, the cleaning product brand owned by Reckitt Benckiser, on new cleaning protocols across all Hilton hotels […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Alessandro De Zanche, an audience and data strategy consultant. Sports federations, leagues, clubs and athletes are fighting for their future. In a matter of weeks live sport evaporated due to COVID-19, with some events […]

Snap is seeing a boost in user activity but a dip in advertiser spend in the wake of COVID-19. Daily active users reached 229 million in the first quarter, growing across all regions and on Android and iOS, the company announced Tuesday in its Q1 2020 earnings report. That represents a 20% increase from the […]

The coronavirus pandemic brought everyone online, leading to a surge in traffic. But it’s expensive to process all the programmatic ad requests that come with that traffic. Plus, CPMs are falling industrywide. So two weeks ago, The Trade Desk asked exchanges to stop sending duplicate bid requests for the same ad impression. The request initially […]

The mobile gaming category – a more than $60 billion-a-year market – is thriving amid the brewing economic crisis. But unlike other publishers and platforms experiencing engagement spikes without the corresponding uptick in ad revenue, mobile game publishers are seeing massive boosts across the board. Nearly every metric (other than CPMs and cost per install or […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Game On Facebook launched its new gaming app Monday, speeding up the planned June release. The app will compete with Microsoft’s Mixer, Amazon’s Twitch and Google’s YouTube. Facebook Gaming, as it’s called, gets a cut from viewer-to-player transactions, but will eventually also include advertising. […]

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 […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Junior Streamers Children’s TV shows are losing out to new streaming options. Just look at Disney. Disney Plus passed 50 million subscribers last week while prime-time viewing on its cable network, Disney Channel, slumped 37% in mid April. The network is cutting back on […]

Game developers have a lot on their plate beyond developing games. There’s testing, marketing, monetization, ad serving, analytics, optimization, user acquisition and a heap of other commercial considerations. “But developers – they just want to make games,” said Andrew French, chief operating officer at Coda, a London-based game publishing platform founded last year to provide automated technology […]

You are reading AdExchanger Politics, our news roundup in which senior editor James Hercher tracks the latest developments in political advertising, augmenting our political marketing commentary and news coverage. Want it by email? Sign up here. Political advertisers are spending more on digital media, but they have yet to embrace the largest emerging and tier-two online ad platforms, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Peacock Takes Flight Peacock launched on Wednesday as a free add-on for Comcast Xfinity and X1 Flex subscribers. The NBCU-owned service will launch nationally on July 15 with an ad-supported option and a premium tier at $4.99 per month. NBCU stuck to its original […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Movie Night (On The Couch) TV networks hope nostalgia will win over home-bound viewers. NBCU launched a franchise last week called “Stay-In Theater,” simulcasting family movies across its family of networks. NBCU will cut national commercial time for the broadcast from 35 minutes to […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Ad Tech Oscars The 2020 AdExchanger Awards finalists were announced on Thursday. “Best In-House Media Operation” pits some of the best-known brands in the world: Bayer, Disney Parks and Experiences, Sprint, Nestlé and Uber. It’s also no surprise that finalists exhibiting the best […]