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  • The Cautious Courtship Of Programmatic And Linear TV

    Procter & Gamble’s reported push to automate 70-75% of digital ad buys by year’s end underscores the convergence of TV, CPG marketing and programmatic media. “The closer we can tie shopper cart data to media, the stronger we get,” said Jen Mennes, director of media and public relations for Post Foods, during The Advertising Research […]

  • Customers First, Company Needs Next, Individual Agendas Last

    “Marketer’s Note” is a weekly column informing marketers about the rapidly evolving, digital marketing technology ecosystem. It is written by Joanna O’Connell, Director of Research, AdExchanger Research.   I had a wonderful conversation with Renee Horne, AVP, Social Business at USAA, at last week’s Merkle CRM Summit, in which she noted something that could make a […]

  • Apple Starts Blocking Some Apps For Rewarding Ad Views And Shares

    Monetizing apps in the iOS environment means playing by Apple’s rules, and occasionally adapting to changes in how those rules are enforced. Sometimes those changes can impact the way ads are served and tracked, as happened back in February when Apple (briefly) put a barbed wire fence around the use its Identifier For Advertising for […]

  • AppNexus Tries M&A, Mulls 2015 IPO

    The world’s largest independent ad tech company broke character this week. Before snatching up Paris-based ad viewability firm Alenty, as AdExchanger was first to report, AppNexus had been historically inclined to build rather than buy owing to its strong engineering culture. But that may be changing as bargains present themselves in the form of mature […]

  • SAP: ‘We Are Way Too Complex’

    The underlying theme of SAP’s massive annual show SapphireNow in Orlando, Fla. this week was simplicity, or SAP’s lack thereof. CEO Bill McDermott heralded the dream of enabling the enterprise software company to “Run Simple,” while acknowledging the company’s skeptics. “Yes, I do realize there will be some of you, especially the pundits, who say we can’t,” […]

  • AppNexus Buys Paris-Based Viewability Firm Alenty

    Two months after the Media Ratings Council (MRC) green-lighted viewable impressions as a viable metric for transacting display ads, real-time bidding platform AppNexus has acquired French viewability vendor Alenty for an undisclosed sum. The deal closed Monday, AppNexus confirmed to AdExchanger. Paris-based Alenty was founded in 2007 by CEO Laurent Nicolas and CTO Nicolas Thomas. It claims to […]

  • To Transform Into ‘Uncarrier,' T-Mobile Undid (And Retooled) Marketing

    When T-Mobile discarded two-year customer contracts one year ago as part of its “Uncarrier” initiative, the company had to retool its enterprise to match the new business model, starting first with the marketing organization. With less of a “lock in” with consumers, communication could no longer be few and far between. Messaging could no longer […]

  • Marin Software Acquires Perfect Audience For $23M

    Online advertising-management provider Marin Software has acquired retargeting platform Perfect Audience for $22.8 million. The deal adds to Marin’s social media and display advertising retargeting arsenal and to the flurry of funding rounds, IPOs and acquisitions in the retargeting space over the past year. San Francisco-based Perfect Audience was founded under the Y Combinator seed accelerator program […]

  • ExactTarget’s Future After Scott Dorsey: CEO To Step Down

    Story updated with comments from Jay MacDonald of Digital Capital Advisors Salesforce.com’s ExactTarget Marketing Cloud has lost its fourth C-level exec since the CRM giant acquired the marketing tech company last June. ExactTarget CEO and co-founder Scott Dorsey is exiting the company this summer (following former CMO Tim Kopp, CFO Steve Collins and Chief Administrative Officer […]

  • Another Boost For Offline-Online Linking As Datalogix Scores $45M

    Datalogix nabbed $45 million in Series C funding, led by Wellington Management Company. This latest round brings its total to $111.5 million, according to CrunchBase. The company intends to use the funds to build out its product and attract more clients. The company’s main business is linking online consumer activity with offline shopping behavior. It is one of […]

  • Publishers, Let’s Talk Programmatic CPMs

    “Marketer’s Note” is a weekly column informing marketers about the rapidly evolving, digital marketing technology ecosystem. It is written by Joanna O’Connell, Director of Research, AdExchanger Research.   I just had a very interesting conversation with a reporter who’s trying to understand why so many publishers link “programmatic” to declines in ad revenue and/or profitability in […]

  • FTC To Congress: Regulate Marketing Data Providers

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) welcomed direct marketers and data companies back from the holiday weekend with a 100-plus page report (called “Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability”) and a recommendation that Congress enact legislation to ensure industry transparency and customer control over how their data is used. The report singled out nine […]

  • FreeWheel Cofounder On The Profound Differences Between Programmatic TV And Display

    This upfront season, a number of media conglomerates flirted with programmatic TV. ABC, for instance, is beta testing data-driven ad sales via video ad server FreeWheel’s new FourFronts Programmatic tool. Likewise, NBCUniversal’s ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino has spoken of opening up portions of premium network inventory to programmatic sales. As marketer and media company interest […]

  • Facebook Programmatic Whiz Jonathan Shottan Jumps To Pinterest (And TellApart)

    Need more proof Pinterest is preparing for a big monetization push? The social platform has hired Jonathan Shottan, a former Facebook ad product exec who led Facebook Exchange and due diligence on ad tech M&A. Shottan, who has also signed on as an adviser to TellApart, joins Pinterest as product manager for advertising. His first […]

  • The Prospects For A Google CMS

    As AdExchanger reported Friday, Google is working on a CMS, likely with its own ad server baked in. The solution is expected to unify the functions of a content management system with the DoubleClick for Publishers toolset – ad serving, sales management, yield optimization, and so on. Google has declined to comment on or confirm the […]

  • The Fading Divide Between Data Services And Digital Agencies

    Just a few years ago, brands needed to be educated around the messaging and measurement technologies available in the digital age. That imperative has since shifted as marketing departments try to figure out how they take that technology and maximize results. As a side effect, the line between data and marketing services providers like Experian […]

  • Christian Juhl Named Global CEO At Essence

    There’s a new guy in charge at Essence, the 9-year-old agency best known as a key partner to Google on its programmatic and other marketing activities. London-based Essence has promoted Christian Juhl, previously in charge of its North American operations, to run the company as global CEO. With his promotion, founder and previous CEO Matt […]

  • The Second Party Data Opportunity

    “Marketer’s Note” is a weekly column informing marketers about the rapidly evolving, digital marketing technology ecosystem. It is written by Joanna O’Connell, Director of Research, AdExchanger Research.   I had an interesting conversation about the “second party data” opportunity with some senior level publishers not too long ago, and it got me thinking about this subject […]

  • Will An AT&T-DirecTV Merger Provide Scale For Addressable TV Advertising?

    AT&T’s plans to acquire satellite and pay TV provider DirecTV for an estimated sum of $49 billion, revealed Sunday, gives the carrier more reach – but it also could help the carrier scale its addressable TV initiatives. “AT&T and DirecTV combined will have a massive base of customers to market to, and that is a […]

  • Google Explores A Unified CMS And Publisher Ad Platform

    Google is developing a content management system (CMS) that would unify editorial, advertising and perhaps commerce activities for media companies, AdExchanger has learned. Beginning in 2013 Google started talks with some big publishers about offering software to help manage content and advertising in a holistic way, multiple sources said. Among the executives involved in some of those early discussions […]

  • Programmatic: Not 'When' But 'What Next?'

    “Marketer’s Note” is a weekly column informing marketers about the rapidly evolving, digital marketing technology ecosystem. It is written by Joanna O’Connell, Director of Research, AdExchanger Research.   Today marks the release of AdExchanger Research’s inaugural State of Programmatic Media report. Based on data gleaned from more than 450 completed surveys and a range of in-depth […]

  • Acxiom To Buy LiveRamp For $310M

    Data management firm Acxiom will acquire LiveRamp, provider of a data onboarding software used by many in the advertising industry to match offline data to digital audiences for ad targeting and measurement. The deal is worth $310 million and is expected to close mid-summer, the companies said. Taking up with Acxiom will let LiveRamp scale its product and expand […]

  • Facebook Ad Partner Nanigans Commits To SaaS, COO Marc Grabowski Departs

    Changes are afoot at Nanigans, as the Facebook ad partner repositions to serve in-house marketers strictly on a software subscription basis. The company has stopped signing new managed services business and will focus on getting its self-serve platform into the hands of marketers in the ecommerce and app verticals. As part of this singular focus […]

  • What Are The Attributes Of Quality Mobile Inventory?

    Valuing mobile ad inventory is challenging as advertisers struggle assessing viewability, attribution and other measurements. To find out how media-buying agencies tackle this problem, AdExchanger asked agencies, “What are the attributes of quality mobile inventory?” Click below or scroll down to read their responses. Jenn Cox, mobility lead at Starcom USA Jason Pope, VP of AOD at VivaKi JiYoung Kim, […]

  • SAP’s CMO On Its Plans To Be A “Big Part” Of Advertising’s Future

    Jonathan Becher has a lot on his mind this week. As CMO of global German enterprise software company SAP, which employs 67,000, he spearheads the messaging for a multi-billion dollar public business. And on Sunday, that business announced the departure of Vishal Sikka, one of its product pioneers who tirelessly evangelized SAP’s high-speed-everything engine HANA. […]

  • Publicis-Omnicom Deal Nixed

    What a fiasco. A “merger of equals” between Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group that was to be the largest acquisition in advertising history is now off as the two companies have proven unable to overcome a range of impediments, including tax concerns, integration pain, and the personalities of the chief executives. “The challenges that still […]

  • DMPs, Tag Management and Attribution On A Collision Course

    After AOL’s and Google’s respective acquisitions of Convertro and Adometry, the space held by independent marketing attribution vendors immediately shrank. Remaining companies include Visual IQ, C3 Metrics, DataSong, DC Storm, and Encore Metrics. But what is the future of these attribution pure-plays as enterprise stacks invest in cross-channel technologies? “I see a complete collision course with […]

  • Questions For AOL's Tim Armstrong, Platform (Not Media) Executive

    Still thinking of AOL as a media company? Tim Armstrong wants to change your mind. On the company’s Q1 earnings call Wednesday, its CEO repeatedly invoked “platforms,” “mechanization” and, of course, “programmatic” as the underpinnings of the business. AOL’s Tuesday acquisition of multitouch attribution vendor Convertro also hammered this message home. Armstrong’s platform ardor almost […]

  • Buying Attribution: Google, AOL Acquisitions Raise Flags On Media Neutrality

    Following Google and AOL’s acquisitions of multitouch attribution vendors Adometry and Convertro Tuesday, several questions arose. The first, and perhaps easiest to answer: What was the driving force for the purchasers and how will the technologies plug into their existing platforms? “The macro rationale for both of the acquisitions seems to be the growing need […]

  • AOL Turns In Solid Q1 Revenue, Driven By Its Programmatic And Video Stack

    “Mechanization,” “piping,” and “programmatic” are the keywords at AOL these days as the company puts the pedal down on its ad tech plans. One day after scooping up multitouch attribution vendor Convertro for $101 million, AOL revealed revenue from the company’s ad platform business grew 55% during the first quarter 2014 to $186 million, despite a 3% decline in […]