As publishers embraced header bidding, many programmatic buyers observed the trend from the sidelines. Since header bidding boosts yield for publishers by increasing competition, it follows that buyers may be paying more. But buyers wouldn’t necessarily know if that’s the case, since SSPs don’t note whether the impression comes through a header or not. If […]
Local TV and print magazines don’t share much in common. But as local TV’s digital business grows, and as Meredith’s digital properties need more video expertise, the two disciplines are converging. Tom Harty, who became Meredith’s COO and president on Thursday, is identifying where the local and national media group can collaborate by “figuring out […]
The Street CEO David Callaway wants to transform the financial news and analysis publication into a “data-driven news business.” Callaway, who was hired in June, says he will use a data trove assembled through recent acquisitions like BoardEx (a LinkedIn for company board members) to publish exclusive, high-value content for The Street and thus revive […]
In under two years, CarGurus transformed its display revenue strategy from one built on ad networks to one focused on high-value programmatic deals. The auto shopping site, which attracts 12.4 million uniques a month, according to comScore, used to sell search listings and upfront sponsorships with auto manufacturers and dealers. CarGurus farmed out its display […]
Header bidding is changing the industry and creating a new set of winners and losers. After a dismal earnings call, Rubicon Project’s stock fell 32% and lost $200 million in value Wednesday. Rubicon CEO Frank Addante said the company failed to respond quickly to the header bidding trend, sending its desktop revenue into decline. […]
French performance marketing company Criteo came out swinging yet again in its quarterly showing on Wednesday despite a 7% dip in its share price when the market opened. Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, rose 36% to $166 million in the second quarter, with mobile ad revenue generating half of it for the first time. Criteo […]
Rubicon Project CEO Frank Addante told investors on Tuesday that the company was slow to recognize the importance of header bidding to its publisher customers. As a result, desktop managed revenue declined 2% in Q2. That unexpected drop led Rubicon to lower its revenue guidance for the year. Rubicon’s FastLane header bidding product did not enter the […]
Many in the US digital media industry have cherished hope of a day in court against ad blockers. It’s a movement that began with a series of IAB summits last summer and which today is slipping along the spectrum from possibility to fantasy. A year ago, the most likely legal route focused on copyright infringement. […]
Malicious bots are getting more sophisticated and bot blocking companies are raising more cash – the arms race is in full swing. One such company, Distil Networks, announced $21 million in Series C funding on Tuesday as part of its bid to keep combating what CEO Rami Essaid called “a growing problem.” The round, led by […]
Behind every piece of PopSugar viral content, there’s data. The lifestyle pub’s recipe and video for Fruity Pebbles No-Bake Cheesecake has attracted 9.4 million video views and 238,000 shares on Facebook since it went live in June. Landing on the winning recipe required sifting through audience insights and constant tweaking so it would resonate with […]
Many teens on Kik love J-14’s celebrity-focused trivia games, returning every week to take its interactive, emoji-filled quizzes with questions like, “Which family member does Justin Bieber have a rocky relationship with?” This has pushed J-14 Celeb Quizzes to first place for weekly active users in Kik’s bot shop, which launched this spring. The shop […]
NBCUniversal finished its upfront negotiations on a high note, citing CPM increases of 12.5% for prime-time slots and even higher percentages for some networks – 13% on USA, for example. Comparatively speaking, NBC aimed for 7% to 8% CPM increases in 2015, but settled in at about 5%, which speaks to the strength of this […]
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) turned on video header bidding with Index Exchange. The broadcaster and publisher requested that Index Exchange develop the feature because it wanted “to make more data-rich inventory available to [private exchange buyers],” said Jeff MacPherson, director of monetization platforms and services at CBC. The move will also boost yield for […]
To get millennials talking about their money issues, the well-financed fintech company SoFi sponsored this week’s launch of Mic’s MoneyMic section. “It’s the last big taboo,” said Meg Ciarallo, SoFi’s VP of brand marketing. “Trojan made it OK to talk about sex, Tampax made it OK to talk about periods. But people are uncomfortable talking […]
When building a content-commerce brand, content comes first. More readers will lead to more shoppers, according to home decor brand Domino. The company has appointed Nathan Coyle, an EVP at Refinery29, as its CEO to supercharge Domino’s online audience growth. “The belief amongst the board was that among our three channels – the print publication, […]
Hearst doesn’t view itself a media company, but rather as a technology company. “We have been making a concerted effort to transform from a media company that used great technology to a technology company,” said Allen Duan, Hearst’s head of corporate technology. Hearst’s technology team builds tech for a world where content is distributed on […]
“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Rachel Parkin, senior vice president of strategy and sales at CafeMedia. Buyers talk about the need for access and transparency. Sellers talk about the power of header bidding technology. While the language may be […]
Facebook’s recent courtship of publishers – like its attempt to move them onto Instant Articles, paying them to produce Facebook Live videos and allowing the posting of sponsored posts on their feeds – hasn’t insulated publishers from Facebook’s algorithm adjustments. On Wednesday, Facebook said it will change its algorithm to focus its news feed on […]
If publishers allow programmatic to compete with direct-sold impressions within their ad server, they needn’t bother with header bidding. French ecommerce site Rue du Commerce saw a sizable boost in yield when it did just that. It belongs to a family of ecommerce sites, Régie E-Commerce (REC), which together attract 14 million uniques a month. […]
How do you crush it with organic views and shares in a sea of paid content? Raw humor and parody seem to be doing the trick for Someecards, the e-card site founded by former MRM and Avenue A/Razorfish creative VPs in 2007. As the self-described antithesis of the Hallmark greeting card, Someecards started out creating […]
After a string of court losses, Axel Springer finally landed a blow on Eyeo’s Adblock Plus (ABP). On Friday, a German court granted the German publishing giant a partial victory in its appeal of a previous decision. In question was ABP’s Acceptable Ads initiative, an open source ad-block revenue channel (meaning other ad blockers can […]
“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Jarrod Dicker, head of ad product and technology at The Washington Post. The publishing world now, more than ever, is extraordinarily fast. What used to take seconds for a URL load can now take […]
Independent mobile supply-side platforms (SSPs) are going extinct, the result of commoditization and natural evolution. “It’s been really hard to be a single-point solution player in the ad tech space for a long time, but now it’s almost impossible,” said Christopher Hansen, chief product officer at IgnitionOne. “Just take a look at the Terry Kawaja […]
A year ago, E.W. Scripps–owned video network Newsy was predominantly a desktop-focused site. A lot has changed for the publisher, whose 55-person editorial team endeavors to put its own spin on the stories of the day across verticals, from global news and policy to culture and entertainment. Newsy is now on pace to hit one […]
With TV upfront negotiations underway, digital tactics are wielding more influence as networks court buyers with cross-platform guarantees and enhanced data products. “You can still invest client dollars in proven media, but upfronts are now about online video partnerships you can make long-term investments in,” said Maureen Bosetti, the chief investment officer for Interpublic Group’s […]
Investopedia launched in the dot-com era as an online dictionary of investment terms. Its financial audience attracted advertisers, and the glossary format drove traffic from Google searches. But times have changed. Investopedia needed to conquer social, which has supplanted search as a dominant traffic driver for many publishers. And reaching investors at the beginning of […]
Creating real-time content is a challenge for any brand – but for brands operating in highly regulated industries, it’s a potential compliance risk. There isn’t a federal regulator out there that doesn’t have rules around misleading, deceptive or unfair practices, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. And […]
As more brands and publishers seek to reach millennial audiences, FOX’s video ad platform True[X] is eyeing tech like chat bots and messaging apps that are trendy with teens and 20-somethings. In a partnership with messaging app Kik, revealed Wednesday, True[X] will begin to integrate 15-second interactive video ads that allow Kik users to exchange […]
When people sign up for sweepstakes, they leave the right address. Publishers Clearing House’s (PCH) Liquid division was acquired in 2012 and uses its parent’s deterministic data sets to power media campaigns. This value prop is becoming more attractive as agency trading desks move to buying through private marketplaces and evaluating success through benchmarks like […]
Admiral, a performance marketing solution designed to help publishers reacquire and monetize audiences who use ad blockers, launched Monday with a $2.5 million seed round. Admiral identifies audiences with ad blockers turned on, works to re-establish those users (by opting in to a lightened ad experience, say, or asking to be whitelisted) and then makes a […]
The Amazon advertising boycott last week wasn’t really about Amazon’s ad platform as much as it was a dispute over evolving seller economics. And this raises a fundamental question for many ecommerce marketers and entrepreneurs, one that’s been lurking in the back of their minds: Can you even build a brand on Amazon anymore?
For the first time, Unity’s gaming audiences will be available for ad targeting outside the Unity platform, with Index Exchange using Unity’s data to curate web and CTV inventory.
Agentic commerce company Envive builds on-site agents for brands like footwear company Clove, painting a clearer picture of what their customers are looking for.
Paramount might have outlasted and outbid Netflix in the competition to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, but Netflix is not overly fussed about the loss.
Paramount is merging the ad tech stacks behind Paramount+ and Pluto TV, releasing a new performance product, offering more control over ad placements and introducing dynamic ad insertion in live sports.
The IAB’s Connected Commerce event in New York City this week felt to me like the retail media industry’s first sit-down explanation to a child who is now a “big kid” and must act accordingly.
