WPP’s media buying unit GroupM said Thursday that it merged media agencies MEC and Maxus to cut costs, since the two agencies have overlapping capabilities. The yet-to-be-named firm drives a billion dollars in revenue and will be led by MEC CEO Tim Castree. “Combining [MEC and Maxus] gives us scale but also flexibility to invest […]
Keary Phillips spearheaded the tech stack behind Allstate’s programmatic in-house strategy. Now he’s at it again at Angie’s List – the digital reviews site for local service providers he joined as senior director of digital marketing last August. Although Angie’s List was founded in the mid-’90s during the peak of web 1.0 portals, ironically it […]
The share price of Electronic Arts has nearly doubled in the past two years, as it reshapes around data and connectivity. The video game company’s focus on driving player engagement has led to major changes for EA’s advertising team. That team has media buying and attribution responsibilities brands typically delegate to agencies or vendors, and […]
Sam’s Club doesn’t take a wholesaler’s approach to mobile re-engagement. “We’re always thinking about how to segment and target our users,” said Drew Frost, senior product marketing manager at the Walmart-owned, members-only retail club. “Our main focus is on finding and engaging what we call our higher-value users.” For Sam’s Club, high value is derived […]
Major publishers like Hearst, Vice, Time Inc., The New York Times and Meredith have either built or acquired agency capabilities and content studios over the past few years to create synergies between their content and the brands that monetize it. Being owned by a publisher allows digital agencies to tap editorial expertise for engaging creative […]
Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. Rubicon Project’s new CEO, the storied Michael Barrett, comes into the studio for the latest episode of AdExchanger Talks. And he doesn’t disappoint, talking in-depth about the company’s roadmap and fee structure. Barrett has known Rubicon Project since its inception 10 years ago, when […]
Google’s YouTube measurement system, Ads Data Hub, now works with media bought through DoubleClick and the Google Display Network (GDN). Ads Data Hub is designed to provide insights into ad spend and campaign performance across Google properties while respecting user privacy. It is meant to solve inconsistencies in measurement that have emerged (especially in mobile) […]
Facebook is ramping up its publisher-centric strategy by testing a self-serve product powering programmatic direct deals called Audience Direct. In its first iteration, Audience Direct helps publishers sell their video inventory, giving them more control over how they structure direct deals and, eventually, how they guarantee delivery against them. “This enables them to create direct […]
By Ryan Joe and Tilde Herrera If you’re looking for one takeaway from all of the announcements Google is flinging around at its Marketing Next event on Tuesday, it’s that the internet giant really wants to account for marketing spend in as many channels as possible. Google is powering up its attribution product, connecting local […]
Clients want more insight into the complicated process of programmatic buying. So French holding company Havas on Tuesday launched the Client Trading Solution (CTS), a customizable dashboard that allows advertisers to track their programmatic campaigns and fees across different demand-side platforms (DSPs) and exchanges in real time. So far, Spanish telco Telefónica is using the […]
Before he tried on agency life, Babs Rangaiah was a bit of a star on the CPG circuit. After more than a decade driving media innovation for global CPG Unilever, a shakeup in Unilever’s marketing org last spring led Rangaiah agency-side. Now, as a partner leading global marketing solutions for IBM’s in-house agency, Interactive Experience […]
Twitter has hired former Turn CEO Bruce Falck to lead its Revenue Product team, according to a tweet Thursday by company co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. Falck has earned a reputation as an ad tech turnaround artist, stepping in as COO at BrightRoll a year prior to its $640 million sale to Yahoo and then […]
Unlike the NBC upfront, which touted TV’s edge over digital, Turner Broadcasting took a different approach at its upfront Wednesday by emphasizing the “omnichannel experience.” “We reach 125 million viewers now across linear, OTT and mobile devices every month,” said Kevin Reilly, president of TBS and TNT, and chief creative officer for Turner Entertainment. “We’re […]
Programmatic buyers on the open exchange who think they’re purchasing inventory from ESPN or The New York Times often end up buying from imposter sites instead. At times, the amount of misrepresented inventory in the marketplace can dwarf the legitimate inventory sold by brand-name publishers. The practice, domain spoofing, will become much harder to carry […]
For years, Intel’s five-note jingle was one of the most recognizable sounds on TV and helped build solid brand awareness for its consumer-facing PC business. But a jingle isn’t going to encourage network administrators at a telco to embrace Intel’s open architecture or get senior decision-makers to consider Intel’s hybrid cloud platform. “In the past, […]
When the largest advertiser in the world wants to take you to prom, but you’re not allowed to tell anyone – that was the situation facing AudienceScience. Although AudienceScience provided the technology backbone for Procter & Gamble’s internal trading desk, Hawkeye, for the past seven years, P&G explicitly acknowledged its alliance with the ad tech platform […]
Demand-side platforms (DSPs) are putting pressure on supply-side platforms (SSPs) to improve inventory quality and cut out the games that pad the second-price auction. Ad tech insiders have told AdExchanger DSPs are being more aggressive in blocking supply sources until they clean up. The pressure could force the ecosystem to grow up. While DSPs aren’t […]
Last week, IPG Mediabrands global CEO Henry Tajer announced he will leave the company and head back to Australia for personal reasons. But executive politics and challenges facing media agencies also factored into his departure. Tajer, a 10-year veteran of IPG Mediabrands, became global head in 2015 after a successful stint as CEO of Mediabrands […]
During Bleacher Report’s flashy NewFront late last week, CEO Dave Finocchio made the following pitch to advertisers: “Use us to maintain your relevancy all year long.” Millennials, he added, aren’t watching three- to four-hour live sports broadcasts anymore and big tentpole commercials alone won’t cut it. Whereas previous generations got their news and information from […]
Snap reported earnings for the first time on Wednesday, and based on the results, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg must be feeling pretty smug. Snap reported Q1 revenue of $150 million, a 286% increase from this time last year but below the expected $158 million. Net losses totaled $2.2 billion. Daily active users (DAUs) for the […]
When it comes to location-based based data, targeting is the low-hanging fruit. The ripe opportunities center on using location to enhance behavioral profiles and connect online ad exposure with real-world activities. Easier said than done, however. Advertisers and agencies are interested, but the technology is still developing and there’s a fair amount of BS flying […]
8 p.m. Katy Perry. That’s all. 7:40 p.m. Google Preferred FTW Google Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl claimed Google Preferred (translation: Google’s top tier videos) has tripled its number of advertisers. Kyncl credited YouTube for turning publishers like BuzzFeed, Vice and AwesomenessTV into “daily destinations of can’t-miss programming.” Consumers watch over 1 billion of hours […]
Seven years after first embracing programmatic buying at scale through its secretive Project Hawkeye initiative, Procter & Gamble is saying goodbye to long-time ad tech partner AudienceScience. In its place the company will install Neustar as its data management platform alongside an assortment of demand-side platforms, including The Trade Desk. Ad Age first reported the […]
Seven independent ad tech companies debuted a programmatic consortium on Thursday that pools their supply- and demand-side cookie IDs into one shared identity asset. The consortium is helmed by AppNexus, MediaMath and LiveRamp, which provides the data matching. Other launch partners include Index Exchange, Rocket Fuel, LiveIntent and OpenX. And it’s a shot across the […]
America’s most data-driven retailers and product manufacturers increasingly use mobile channels to drive shoppers to a store. Take the big kahuna. Walmart two weeks ago began offering discounts for products selected online and then picked up at a store. Walmart clears the margin on those discounts because the retailer can push products through its stores […]
Amazon’s ad revenue may be way higher than previously thought. Like, three and a half times higher. According to new analysis from Dan Salmon, managing director for media and Internet equity research at BMO Capital Markets, the company could generate $3.5 billion in ad revenue in 2017. And he expects that figure to grow 63% […]
Procter & Gamble will slash $1.5 billion from its marketing budget over the next five years, the CPG giant said during its Q1 earnings call Wednesday. At least $1 billion will come from media, specifically by lowering rates and getting rid of supply chain waste, said Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller. P&G wants to save […]
ComScore will offer viewability and nonhuman traffic detection for free on desktop and mobile, the company said Wednesday. ComScore’s move to eliminate fees on what it terms “baseline” metrics coincides with its launch of a self-serve interface that integrates both its fraud detection and viewability reporting. The product, which was partly built on comScore’s acquisition […]
Google is adding advanced TV buying capabilities to its demand-side platform, DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM). For the first time, Google will connect its ad tech to addressable TV inventory through its broadband and TV service, Google Fiber. Google will also support local market TV buys in DBM through a partnership with WideOrbit, as well as […]
As header bidding grows, ad exchanges are sending more ad impressions per second and DSPs must evaluate more impressions than ever. The massive uptick in volume, which far outpaces programmatic revenue growth, is straining ad tech infrastructure. With more queries to sift through, it costs more to buy the same ads. And as a result, […]
