For the independent demand-side platform (DSP) market, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. On the one hand, it’s unlikely any new scaled DSPs will enter the market. The costs to build a competitive platform – nine digits off the bat and another eight digits per year in operational costs […]
WPP’s media-buying unit GroupM on Thursday unveiled its own global viewability standard for display and video ads on social media feeds. Display ads must be 100% in view for one second before a user scrolls past to count as viewable. Video ads still have to be 100% in view, but can be initiated as autoplay […]
Ad tech isn’t the investment free-for-all it used to be, but that doesn’t mean the category is dead. True, some types of ad tech have lost their luster. In April, the ad tech investment firm Luma Partners, for the first time since it started doing Lumascapes five years ago, registered fewer new DSPs, SSPs and […]
As with matrimony, the road to acquisition is paved with dalliances – some serious and some … less so. For evidence, look no further than the DSP Rocket Fuel’s impending sale to Sizmek for $145 million, announced on July 18. That deal is expected to finalize in days, after Rocket Fuel’s 30-day “go-shop” deadline, during […]
It’s been a tough year for SoundCloud. In July, the music streaming and discovery platform cut 40% of its workforce, or 173 employees, to keep the company afloat – for just another quarter. The company has long faced battles with music rights holders, an expensive problem that makes the streaming business tough to monetize. SoundCloud, […]
Snap again came in below analysts’ expectations for its Q2 earnings announced on Thursday. Year-over-year, revenue grew 153% to $181.7 million in Q2 and 200% to $331 million for the half year. Quarter-over-quarter, revenue was up roughly 21%. Analysts expected Q2 revenue to clock in at $186 million. Daily active users (DAUs) grew 21% year-over-year […]
Genesis Media revealed Thursday that it has merged with video ad platform Altitude Digital. The combined entity will do business as Genesis Media. Details of the transaction were not disclosed. The merger comes months after Altitude’s former CEO stepped down. The company, which started out as an ad net, was seeking to reposition itself as […]
Brands often have a long list of people they don’t want to show ads to: customers who just bought a product, current subscribers, non-subscribers or a group of people in their CRM database they know won’t qualify or be interested in a product. To avoid showing ads to people – a technique called audience suppression […]
As its sell-side business takes off due to the success of its Prebid open source wrapper, AppNexus’ buy-side operation is treading water relative to rivals such as The Trade Desk. Now the company is considering downplaying it further. In recent months, AppNexus executives have pondered using parts of its buy-side business as a bargaining chip […]
Tremor Video, one of the earliest video ad nets, has sold its demand-side business to the Israeli mobile ad platform Taptica for $50 million, the company revealed Monday. Tremor’s buy-side assets will be housed under an independent business division within Taptica called Tremor Video DSP. All of Tremor’s buy-side employees, led by longtime Tremor exec […]
It’s been six months since GroupM launched mPlatform to unify its agencies’ access to data and technology. Since its inception, the organization has rolled out a data repository containing insights tied to known consumer IDs and now agencies across GroupM and WPP are “building it into the fabric of their networks,” said mPlatform CEO Brian […]
Brian Lesser, CEO of GroupM North America, will leave the company for a role at AT&T, the WPP-owned media buying giant announced on Friday. “Brian has been a key contributor to 24/7, Xaxis and most recently GroupM, and we are sorry to see him go, but wish him every success in his new role,” GroupM […]
Mobile app install ads are still a multibillion-dollar business for Facebook. But is Facebook taking too much credit? It’s hard to say, because Facebook is what’s known as a self-attributing network, i.e., a walled garden. A self-attributing network is just what it sounds like: a platform that, usually because of its scale, has the power […]
McCann Worldgroup has always operated under an integrated agency model. The IPG-owned network, whose agencies include media agency UM, creative agency McCann, database marketing agency MRM McCann, brand experience agency Momentum Worldwide, McCann Health, PR agency Weber Shandwick, shopper marketing agency ChaseDesign and a handful of other production and design shops, was founded in the […]
Rubicon Project has been steadily lowering its take rate over the past year to make its tech more appealing to publishers and buyers, who have pushed back against hidden fees. During its earnings call Tuesday, the company revealed that the declining take rates are one part of its strategy to offer the most value for […]
After bidding against Viacom for Scripps Networks Interactive, Discovery Communications has emerged victorious in acquiring the lifestyle cable network for $14.6 billion in stock and cash, the company revealed Monday. [Read the release.] Viacom backed out of a bidding war late last week with the rival network after making an all-cash offer that reportedly fell […]
Facebook is on a slow and steady quest to make Messenger as sticky as possible on the road to achieving its mission of becoming the WeChat of the West. “We see Messenger as an app to help people run their lives,” said Kemal El Moujahid, lead product manager for Messenger and M, Facebook’s virtual assistant. […]
Nielsen’s specialty is media measurement, not mar tech. But a slew of new Nielsen Marketing Cloud wins may help change that perception. Despite the presence of data management platforms from Salesforce, Adobe and Oracle, Nielsen Marketing Cloud just had its largest-ever quarter for new DMP client wins since it acquired eXelate in 2015. CPG marketers […]
Charter, the US cable conglomerate second only to Comcast in subscriber count, has made a strategic investment in 605 Group, the TV analytics startup founded by former Cablevision ad execs. Although financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Charter has struck a strategic data partnership with 605 to provide access to TV viewing data in […]
The ad tech rollup is real, and its name is Sizmek. On Tuesday, the 18-year-old company revealed its intent to buy public ad tech company Rocket Fuel for $145 million. If the purchase finalizes, Sizmek’s acquisition spree (excluding the earliest iterations of its evolving stack) will round out to about five companies acquired in less […]
OTT is a catch-22 for advertisers. While it reaches the cord cutters traditional TV advertisers want to target, that audience is still difficult to track in an OTT environment. Although the channel is capturing more attention (and dollars) from the traditional TV camp, digital buyers say connected TV needs to address the issue of identity […]
Performance agencies are expanding their relationships with big brands as they move more budget to digital and the upper funnel becomes more measurable. “Everything has become performance,” said Michael Kahn, CEO of Performics, Publicis Media’s performance agency and specialty practice. “Clients need to know that a brand-building effort led to a revenue outcome as well.” […]
Sizmek said Tuesday it intends to buy ad tech company Rocket Fuel for $2.60 per share in cash, valuing Rocket Fuel at $145 million. That’s a long way from where Rocket Fuel was valued when it IPOed in 2013 – going public at $29 per share at a roughly $1 billion value. Read the release. […]
Ask Facebook for access to its data and the official answer is going to be, “Nope.” But under certain circumstances, a limited number of advertisers and agencies are tapping into impression-level Facebook campaign delivery data, AdExchanger has learned. The data-sharing arrangements are euphemistically referred to as “clean rooms.” These clean rooms are safe spaces where […]
Location policy changes for Apple’s iOS 11 update coming in September and Android O, which is still in developer preview, will alter the way consumers dole out location data and have ripple effects for mobile marketing. The most consequential new policy will be on iPhones and iPads, where a blue bar at the top of […]
Story updated at 1:40 p.m. Rubicon Project has acquired nToggle, a startup that builds infrastructure to streamline bid requests, for $38.5 million, the companies revealed Monday. NToggle’s technology uses machine learning to weed out impressions a DSP is better off not bidding on through a process known as “traffic shaping.” This capability is increasingly important […]
Two years ago Hearts & Science didn’t exist. Today, it employs more than 500 to serve an expanding roster that includes two of the world’s largest marketers: AT&T and Procter & Gamble. In a recent interview, CEO Scott Hagedorn described some tenets of the Hearts & Science services model. Technology Sprints “We’re gearing up for […]
While mobile app advertising is in dire need of standards, that prospect is easier said than done. Confusion and wrongheadedness in the industry is rife, even among user acquisition specialists. “Ask a room full of UA managers to explain how mobile tracking works and I think most won’t be able to explain the whole process,” […]
If you’re an organization in dire need of digital transformation, who ya gonna call? While an enterprise software company might not initially come to mind, that’s exactly who brands like Coca-Cola and Philips turned to. For Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox Film, it’s moved from primarily a B2B company focused on partners like broadcasters, retailers, […]
By Sarah Sluis, Kelly Liyakasa and Alison Weissbrot Some publishers excel in programmatic in ways that make buyers take notice. The best way to stand out in programmatic is by integrating sales teams so it’s easy to buy programmatically and direct with a single conversation. Smart publishers don’t create incentives that make salespeople push direct […]
