The dander was up at AdExchanger’s Clean Ads IO in New York on Tuesday as the CEOs of two ad blockers engaged in a contentious debate with two prominent adversaries about the rock-and-hard-place situation publishers presently find themselves in. “It might be ironic that an ad blocker can really play a very important role in […]
A new Snapchat campaign from 20th Century Fox for “X-Men: Apocalypse” will drive awareness and ticket sales for the movie’s Friday premier. Snapchat has run plenty of branding-oriented campaigns, but this new effort is one of very few forays that include a direct-response component (in the form of a Fandango e-commerce call to action), a […]
It’s hard to scroll through Facebook without encountering some short-form video from NowThis (like Donald Trump “awkwardly sort of apologizing” to Fox News host Megyn Kelly) in your news feed, and the socially distributed media company wants it that way. Founded four years ago by BuzzFeed and HuffPo execs Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, NowThis […]
After decades of specializing in hardware and on-premise servers, IBM is emphasizing its new-wave agency IBM Interactive Experience (IBM iX), a mashup of design, systems integration, analytics and the Internet of Things, with billings in the billions. IBM iX made three digital, design and brand agency acquisitions in a single week this winter when it snapped […]
Publishers are still working out journalism on mobile devices. While basic responsive design is usually a given today, mobile article formats haven’t dramatically changed. Most innovation happens on platforms like Facebook Instant Articles and Snapchat Discover – not on owned-and-operated sites. Which is why Quartz’s app, a conversational news app launched in February, is a […]
The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) took the wraps off of its anti-fraud certification program on Monday, the culmination of more than a year and a half of foundation and coalition building. The program allows members of the digital supply chain – buyers, sellers and third parties – to earn a seal in exchange for proving […]
The web gets surfed and apps get downloaded. That’s the way it generally works. But Android Instant Apps – the ability to stream apps without having to install them – changes the math on that equation. Google trotted out its new app regime at its I/O developers conference on Wednesday amongst other flashier fare – everything from […]
Viacom and American Express on Tuesday announced Vantage Intent – a Viacom product powered by AmEx – to help advertisers use purchase intent to find audiences across TV, digital and social. As a premium offering within the data and audience platform Viacom Vantage, Vantage Intent is designed to analyze roughly $1 trillion worth of AmEx’s […]
SAP entered the digital advertising market this week, creating a DSP and DMP from scratch it’s dubbing SAP Exchange Media (XM). Wolfgang Faisst, co-founder and head of SAP XM, acknowledged that despite an ecosystem of “thousands of ad tech companies,” SAP decided to step up because of demand for end-to-end integration. Because SAP XM connects […]
As some industry insiders speculated, IBM is starting to merge its Weather Co. asset with its cognitive supercomputer Watson, a move that will benefit its marketing cloud and commerce businesses. “Everyone wondered why an IT company like IBM would make such an acquisition, a company that produces forecasts for 2.2 billion locations every 15 minutes,” […]
Facebook’s head of ad tech, David Jakubowski, will participate in a panel discussion on sell-side impressions at the May 24 CLEAN ADS I/O conference in New York. As Facebook expands its Audience Network, it faces a number of challenges. Keeping out fraud. Achieving high viewability. Ensuring off-site placements still drive performance. By directly integrating with publishers versus […]
Since its split from PayPal – and the $925 million divesture of its enterprise technology business last summer – eBay has been relatively silent. But judging by its latest quarterly earnings in late April, eBay is busy rethinking its business strategy. The ecommerce marketplace surpassed some analysts’ expectations when it posted a 6% revenue increase […]
Eliza Nevers, Christian Calderon and Michael Oiknine will participate in a panel discussion on mobile fraud at the May 24 CLEAN ADS I/O conference in New York. AdExchanger: What’s the single biggest thing marketers contending with mobile ad fraud should be focused on? MICHAEL OIKNINE, CEO of Apsalar: Fraud has become such a problem in large part […]
Andy Kauffman, Marriott’s VP of digital marketing, loves running tests. “We’re very comfortable failing as long as we learn from that and iterate going forward,” said Kauffman, who oversees product and digital brand strategy for Marriott.com. “It may be an overused term, but we really do embrace a test-and-learn approach.” There are dozens of multivariate […]
Activision Blizzard, the gaming and interactive entertainment brand behind the “Call of Duty” franchise, and which acquired Major League Gaming (MLG.tv) for $46 million in January, is betting that e-sports will go mainstream. Its media imprint, Activision Blizzard Media Networks, aims to build the “ESPN of e-sports,” spearheaded by former ESPN CEO Steve Bornstein. On […]
Whether or not Ghostery is an ad blocker depends on how you define “ad blocker.” Also depends on who you ask. It’s an awkward question for a company that wears two seemingly different hats in the online ad industry. The first is as one of two primary privacy compliance technology providers powering the Digital Advertising […]
Clients want their agencies to operate in fluid, multidisciplinary teams. That’s hard to achieve for larger holding companies traditionally siloed into distinct arms. Disparate units working toward internal goals often find themselves competing instead of collaborating to meet client KPIs. Hearst-owned marketing agency iCrossing is challenging this model with a new structure that promotes omnichannel […]
When Gawker Media first started selling ads programmatically in late 2014, it only sold through private marketplaces (PMPs). Since then, the publisher behind Gawker, Jezebel, Lifehacker, Gizmodo and other sites has expanded its programmatic offerings. First it added an open marketplace option and then it implemented header bidding. Programmatic revenue has grown by triple-digit percentages […]
Peloton’s biggest problem with digital advertising is that it’s difficult to succinctly explain its product in a banner ad. The four-year-old company, which started on Kickstarter but projects $150 million in revenue this year, sells exercise bikes with video screens. It also live-streams classes funded by monthly subscriptions, sells bikes in showrooms and runs an […]
Blood in the water brings sharks, and high CPMs bring bots. And political spenders, who often outbid brands on targeted inventory, are uniquely vulnerable to digital fraud and bots. “All the ingredients that typically happen for fraud are a part of the political marketplace,” said Mark Schlosser, senior sales director at the ad fraud security […]
After two years as director of mobile for North America at Essence, Jeremy Sigel is pleased that his position has become obsolete – and he has advice for mobile chiefs at other agencies. “Don’t hold onto mobile,” said Sigel, who stepped down as head of mobile on Tuesday and stepped up as global director of […]
When Google rolled out its CRM matching program Customer Match last fall, it seemed to follow in the footsteps of Facebook’s Custom Audiences, which launched in 2012. But Google’s strategic partnership with Salesforce, revealed Tuesday at the latter’s annual Connections conference in Atlanta, Georgia, boosts both companies’ ability to make identity-based matches based on CRM and […]
Advertisers are spending less on desktop pre-roll and shifting more dollars into cross-screen formats, if video ad platform TubeMogul’s first-quarter results are an indicator. Nondesktop pre-roll spend (including mobile, social, TV and traditional display ads) grew from 37% last year to 43% – or close to $50 million – of total spend running through TubeMogul’s […]
Comcast’s acquisition of French video supply-side platform StickyAds on Monday will give its video ad tech division a serious boost. Comcast’s video ad server FreeWheel will be able to streamline the way big TV broadcasters allocate inventory by embedding StickyAds’ private exchange tech into its own video ad server. The capability will let FreeWheel’s TV […]
Updated with comment from FreeWheel’s CEO. Comcast has acquired StickyAds.tv, a French video ad tech startup focused on publishers. Re/code first reported the news Sunday night, and Comcast confirmed it Monday morning. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Business Insider claimed the deal was an all-cash transaction and worth “at least $100 million.” […]
The claim that Facebook Instant Articles is about a faster user experience is a red herring. While that may be one goal, the program has a strong business rationale: It extends Facebook’s walled garden and creates a new foothold for its $1 billion Facebook Audience Network ad platform. Instant Articles does not allow third-party monetization. […]
After completing his first full quarter as CEO of performance marketing company Criteo, Eric Eichmann seems confident. Criteo had “very strong top-line growth,” Eichmann told AdExchanger ahead of the company’s Q1 earnings call on Wednesday. Revenue was up 41% year-over-year to $162 million at constant currency minus traffic acquisition costs and that performance was consistent across […]
Here’s a scenario that has played out millions of times in recent months: A user clicks a Taboola or Outbrain link to arrive at a content page of marginal quality, such as the ViralWalrus.com slideshow “These 16 Celebs Served Real Jail Time.” When the reader clicks the right arrow button to see the second page […]
Video ad platform Videology laid off about 32 staffers – or about 8% of its workforce – in recent months [Update: Videology said they occurred in January], as the company pivots to larger enterprise and linear TV deals. The company has since hired about 25 people and claims the transitional impact to its organization was immaterial. […]
Marketers and CFOs are struggling to speak each other’s languages, and agencies are getting drowned out amidst the noise. When a brand’s marketing and finance teams can’t align on a goal, the agency fails to meet client KPIs. Agency responsibilities are either passed off to new players in the space, like tech firms and management […]
