Critical Mass has lasting expertise in analytics. The digital agency specializes in optimizing websites and other user experiences by placing data at the center. For some clients, such as Nissan, it acts as the measurement hub for all shops in the roster. The agency’s Marketing Science group is led by Shaina Boone, who oversees about 30 […]
“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Lauren Moores, vice president of analytics at EveryScreen Media, a Media6Degrees company. Celebrities know they’ve hit the big time when the paparazzi camp out on their lawns and the tabloids […]
Independently owned-and-operated outdoor specialty retailer Rock/Creek has realized early return as one of Twitter’s early beta advertisers. The brand was founded 25 years ago as a Chattanooga-based canoeing company. It operates five standalone stores in addition to an ecommerce platform, but has yet to mobile-optimize its site. Fifty-one percent of retailers cited this very optimization […]
Under two separate deals that took place this week, Microsoft, Nokia, Verizon and Vodafone took steps that speak to the companies’ expectations for the smartphone market and the telecom industry as a whole. Microsoft’s decision to acquire Nokia’s devices and services division could help it shore up its place in the smartphone ecosystem while Verizon […]
This story continues our series on programmatic media in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Check out our earlier pieces on Brazil and Russia. The final installation, on China, will publish in the coming weeks. India’s growing Internet population would seem to make it a prime market for RTB and programmatic buying. But the […]
Ned Brody can officially join Yahoo as SVP for the Americas, five months after resigning his post as CEO of AOL Networks, the unit that houses the company’s ad-tech properties. Brody had been constrained from heading to Yahoo by a noncompete clause, which could have kept him from starting the job until April 2014. But […]
With agencies continuing to voice concern about their battles with clients’ procurement officers, some high-profile agency executives have called to pay for performance. Perhaps they should look no further than today’s direct-response business — traditionally driven by search advertising — where agencies like WPP GroupM’s Quisma have been operating for more than a decade. Quisma continues […]
A new report from Germany-based ad exchange AdScale shows that US advertisers, agencies and vendors are not the only ones seeing rapid growth in real-time bidding (RTB). The average cost per thousand (CPM) for standard ad space purchased via RTB now averages close to 35% more than the average CPM of campaigns booked without RTB […]
Twitter’s wading deeper into the TV pool. The end goal? Unlock more viewer data to balance the scale on social engagement and determine the opportune time to push paid media promotions. With its latest acquisition of real-time social data analytics platform Trendrr, which is used by a range of media companies and TV networks such […]
After announcing that he had been appointed to an intelligence review panel, Peter Swire, co-chair of the Tracking Protection Working Group (TPWG), which is tasked with creating a universal standard for the “Do Not Track” browser feature, has resigned from the TPWG. A seasoned negotiator, Swire was brought in last November to salvage the DNT […]
The rise of programmatic buying has been a boon for some unscrupulous publishers that have learned to game the system by unloading junk ad impressions on exchanges. Now the money grab may be ending as exchange operators respond to improvements in fraud detection and to buyer demands for legit inventory. At least one such player, […]
Data scientists are fueling the growth of the ad-tech industry, as well as many other industries. Straddling art and science, data science requires a solid understanding of machine learning, computing and algorithms, in addition to strong problem-solving and communication skills. The other thing about data scientists: There’s not enough of them. In order to meet […]
Doing the real-time dirty work for online advertising may not be as sexy as buy side platforms and your favorite late model DMP, but 50-person strong Aerospike doesn’t mind. In fact, many ad tech companies including AppNexus, BlueKai and eXelate use Aerospike’s database product to fuel real-time, big data interactions. Today, the company announced (see […]
Now and then the question comes up. How vulnerable is the digital ad ecosystem to the technical problems that occasionally knock out trading in the major financial markets? One such glitch hit Nasdaq on Thursday, freezing out investors for three hours. Time to revisit! Once the preferred way of explaining RTB to one’s relatives, the “financial […]
Facebook is investing heavily in measurement products to help prove out the value of its ads. Its offline conversion tracking on behalf of CPG marketers is perhaps the key example of this. In one indicator of that program’s importance, the company recently promoted Fred Leach, who helped develop it, to head R&D measurement and partnerships across verticals. […]
Pinterest has always been a little different than the rest of the social pack –primarily because pinned products means pinned intent. The platform is inherently commercial. When Pinterest debuted price alerts in early August, it appeared to be a move on the visual social network’s part to help retailers reactivate purchase intent based on items […]
It’s been six months since botnets entered the advertising lexicon in a big way, thanks to research and publicity efforts by self-styled fraud fighters and firms that specialize in detecting nonhuman traffic. March stories in Adweek, AdExchanger and other publications shined a spotlight on the pervasiveness of nonhuman Internet traffic and its threat to the value […]
Mobile advertisers must get better at understanding their customers or risk repeating the mistakes made in traditional display advertising, according to panelists at Neo@Ogilvy’s client event, Mobile Day, which took place yesterday in New York City. “The challenge for many brands is that the user experience breaks down when consumers go from one device to […]
Google’s launch Tuesday of Data-Driven Attribution for Google Analytics Premium users left some questions on the table, including how pertinent offline data would be to the product, where “earned” media fits into the mix and what implications there are for “non-Google” marketers and the entire attribution ecosystem. Forrester Research, which released a Forrester Wave Report […]
With its new partnership with a number of TV media sellers, announced yesterday, Interpublic Group has begun to make good on its pledge earlier this year to “automate” 50% of media. The use of “automation” here is perhaps a bit misleading however, since what IPG is really trying to solve is a workflow problem – […]
Given the recent IPO and M&A frenzy, it should come as no surprise that some ad-tech players saw strong revenue growth in 2012, as reported today in the Inc. 500/5000 list. But even keen observers might be impressed by the surges at some data-management providers, in particular DataXu (ranked No. 5 among the entire list with […]
Marketers are looking for better methods to assign value across the entire customer journey and Google appears to be answering the call. Today, building on its Multichannel Funnels and Attribution Model Comparison tools for Google Analytics, Google has rolled out Data-Driven Attribution globally for Google Analytics Premium customers. Bill Kee, product manager for attribution at […]
The guys who came up with Interpublic Group’s display ad-trading strategy have embarked together on a joint consulting venture. Their new company, Unbound, will serve as a systems integrator to brands and publishers as they make decisions about programmatic ad technologies. “We saw a pretty big gap in the marketplace. There’s no real technology-and-service systems […]
Interpublic Group is making good on recent pledge to automate 50% of its cross-channel buying activity by 2016. The holding company’s Mediabrands division has signed up a group of broadcast partners to install an automated media buying system that will span TV, radio, and digital out-of-home ads. The list of the IPG Mediabrands’ initial partners […]
Fees remain the most common way for marketers to compensate advertising agencies, according to the 2013 Trends in Agency Compensation survey released by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Out of 98 client-side marketers, 81% indicated that they continue to use some type of fee compensation for various agency types and services. Labor-based fees, which […]
Media agencies have more influence than ever, thanks to the runaway train of audience fragmentation and the infrastructure/manpower needed to address it. This trend is nicely articulated by Publicis Groupe’s acquisition of digital agency Engauge Marketing – not because Engauge is a digital media agency (it’s not) but rather because it’s a creative and content-centric […]
With 12 years experience in digital, Jeff Burkett has seen his share of sell-side ad tech at The Washington Post. His latest role, senior director of sales operations, is perhaps a sign of the times for the publishing world in general, as Burkett is now building his reach to the print side of “ops” while […]
It all comes down to who owns the digital identity and the addressability that follows. Late this spring when Amazon launched the Login with Amazon service, it gave access to 200 million-plus active Amazon users to app developers and site owners. “Login with Amazon is the latest offering in an array of services that make […]
Links may be the workhorses of a publisher’s marketing strategy, but to Pete Sheinbaum, former CEO of the online newsletter Daily Candy, they represent a multitude of opportunities. After the publisher was acquired by Comcast in 2008, Sheinbaum founded LinkSmart, which offers tools to help publishers manage and monetize their links. AdExchanger sat down with […]
A new Google patent for a wearable “gaze tracking” technology (US patent #8,510,166) has fantastical implications for how advertising could evolve in a world full of head-mounted interfaces such as, oh, Google Glass. The possibilities include far-out concepts such as billboard viewability reporting and “pay-per-gaze” billing for ads. In its patent claim, Google describes a […]
