Platforms

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 […]

Small advertisers stick with what they know during a recession – and what they know is Facebook. As of January, Facebook had more than 8 million active advertisers on its platform, of which multiple millions are no doubt small and medium-sized businesses. Facebook doesn’t break out how many SMBs there are in its overall advertiser base […]

Quantcast laid off just under 5% of its staff and implemented tiered pay cuts due to the economic impact of coronavirus. The salary cuts are tiered according to compensation level, with some employees taking 5% cuts and the highest-paid employees taking 30% cuts. Its global staff numbers more than 600 employees, according to Quantcast. CEO […]

MediaMath reduced its workforce by 8% through a combination of layoffs and furloughs due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Remaining employees will take a 10% pay cut and MediaMath paused 401(k) matching. “We are preparing our businesses to weather these uncertain times and taking actions that will strengthen our position for the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Unblocked Google and Twitter lifted their bans on coronavirus-related advertising. Twitter will allow marketers to feature their pandemic responses in paid tweets, Ad Age reports. Twitter initially banned COVID terms to forestall misinformation, but now feels that “the messaging that brands and businesses can […]