This is the first story in a trilogy on how artificial intelligence is affecting the work agencies do. The next installments will publish on Wednesday and Friday. Xaxis, a partner of dynamic creative platform Jivox, is leveraging the latter company’s newest product, released on Monday: an AI-based dynamic creative content recommendation engine. Xaxis will layer […]
Think of IBM and you’re likely imagining heavy technologies managed by an expensive services division. But IBM Chief Digital Officer Bob Lord emphasizes that’s the old company. He’s here to help IBM reinvent itself and, most importantly, its way of doing business. “What I’ve loved doing throughout my career is helping a company pivot,” Lord […]
Welcome to episode No. 16 of AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. The mainstreaming of programmatic has forced marketers to get serious about quality – both the quality of overall customer experience and individual ad impressions. In a recent report, Forrester Research said this issue could lead marketers to scale back on […]
What works better for publishers: Snapchat or Instagram Stories? Both platforms are quickly gaining ground as ways for publishers to distribute their content to wider audiences. Snapchat made its public offering Thursday, and Instagram Stories launched last year with a competitive, video-focused offering. While each platform claims more than 150 million daily users, Snapchat and […]
Speaking Thursday at the ANA Media Conference, Procter & Gamble Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard was pleased that Facebook and Google had agreed to independent MRC audits, but he emphasized that the audits are only the first steps toward improving the media supply chain. “It’s not enough to accept [audit pledges] until the audits are […]
NBC is putting its money where its mouth is. The broadcaster on Thursday revealed it would commit to sell $1 billion in targeted media based on audience guarantees in time for the 2017-2018 upfront. Although that figure only represents about 17% of the estimated $6 billion NBC transacted through advance commitments last year, it’s […]
Snap Inc. is expected to go public on Thursday, leaving many to wonder how the most anticipated tech IPO since Facebook will be treated by investors on Wall Street. While Snap described itself as a camera company during its roadshow, investors know that its success hinges on its ability to monetize successfully as an ad […]
Spanish-language broadcaster Univision’s media sales arm has been busy the past six months. In addition to packaging Univision Digital inventory more holistically with sister portfolio properties like The Root, Fusion and The Onion, Univision has tweaked its programmatic stack on the back end. That overhaul is one of the agenda items for Dave Katz, who joined Univision […]
Marla Kaplowitz, named president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) on Friday, has made mending fences with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) a top priority. Addressing the rift between the two organizations – and, more broadly, between marketers and agencies themselves – over agency transparency has “got to happen this […]
Gracenote on Thursday rolled out its first update under new owner Nielsen, which bought it for $560 million in December. The offering is an entertainment database that combines its video, music and sports metadata offerings. The company is betting metadata will play a larger part in media monetization. Gracenote tags the programming content it tracks […]
Pandora’s audio ads are about to get personal. The streaming giant partnered with UK-based dynamic audio creative vendor A Million Ads on Thursday to bring tailored creative and sequential messaging to audio ads in-stream. The capability will launch this year in beta, but Pandora did not state specifically when. Pandora will leverage A Million Ads’ […]
Another independent demand-side platform (DSP) has found its big enterprise home. Amobee, a digital marketing firm owned by Singaporean telco Singtel, has agreed to buy Turn at a $310 million value. Read the release. Stakeholders expect the acquisition to close within 45 days. Amobee, known for its mobile capabilities, had worked with numerous buying platforms before, said […]
Nielsen Catalina Solutions’ (NCS) original value prop focused on connecting media consumption with in-store sales for CPG brands. But in the past two years, NCS has moved beyond attribution and into building programmatic audience segments. Programmatic targeting is already almost 25% of NCS’ business, with a revenue goal this year between $20 million and $25 […]
The Media Rating Council (MRC) will audit YouTube’s third-party measurement partners, Moat, Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify, Google revealed Tuesday in a blog post. While the MRC has audited several parts of Google’s ad-serving and search functions for years, YouTube wasn’t historically included, said George Ivie, the council’s CEO: “This will be a first-time audit […]
Acquisitions and more mature integrations led Oracle, Adobe and Salesforce to separate sharply from their peers in Gartner’s third Digital Marketing Hub Magic Quadrant, released late Wednesday. Of course, it’s questionable whether ad tech vendors, such as DataXu or Cxense, really qualify as “peers,” but Gartner has had a unique, if controversial, way of assessing […]
Simulmedia has sweetened its targeting capabilities for TV buyers. Through a strategic deal with consumer market research and retail analytics firm IRI, revealed Wednesday, marketers can now target their linear TV ads based on predictive purchase segments called IRI ProScores. These segments determine consumers’ likelihood to purchase based on different propensities. This is the first […]
Billboards are lighting up with the promise of programmatic. Out-of-home (OOH) is projected to grow almost 12% in spend by 2020 – faster than any other traditional media – thanks to opportunities in digital, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Digital OOH accounted for $2.7 billion in ad spend in the US […]
The ad tech ecosystem keeps Jessica Rich up at night. “The current models just aren’t working,” said Rich, who until recently sat on the front lines of advertising regulation and enforcement as director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Rich resigned her post last week after a 26-year career at the commission […]
Conagra, which owns brands like Chef Boyardee and Orville Redenbacher’s, is no newbie at negotiating for better ad quality. In 2014, it started using comScore’s digital ad effectiveness tools to negotiate delivery guarantees with publishers to ensure display inventory was in view and seen by humans. But ConAgra wants both publishers and advertisers to work […]
Publicis will write down its digital arm, Publicis.Sapient, by roughly $1.5 billion – almost half of its initial valuation – the company told investors during its earnings call Thursday. Sapient, for which Publicis paid $3.7 billion in 2014 to expand its digital assets, has become a drag on the overall business. While Sapient grew 7% […]
Veteran Tremor Video CEO Bill Day has resigned, effective immediately, and will serve as a special adviser to the company through June. Paul Caine, the non-executive board chairman for Tremor since 2014 and former Bloomberg Media CRO, will step in as interim CEO and lead the search for a permanent replacement, the company said Thursday. […]
Revenue from Omnicom’s trading desk Accuen grew $33 million in Q4 and $86 million over the full year in 2016, the company said in its Q4 earnings call on Tuesday. Q4 marked the highest incremental growth Accuen saw all year. In the two preceding years, Accuen’s contribution to Omnicom’s overall revenue fluctuated between $20 million and […]
Ascential plc, which owns the Cannes Lions advertising festival, revealed Tuesdsay that it has agreed to acquire MediaLink. The acquisition price depends on MediaLink’s performance from 2017 through 2019, and is capped at $207 million, though the companies expect the final consideration will be closer to $121 million. Read the release. MediaLink’s unaudited revenue in […]
Over the past two years, Target has activated its first-party data so that agencies and its vendor partners – brands that sell products in Target’s stores – could use it to inform media buys. Target’s data is applied through a product platform called Guest Access overseen by Kristi Argyilan, Target’s SVP of media, guest engagement […]
Sizmek CEO Neil Nguyen will leave the company in the wake of the company’s $122 million private equity buyout by Vector Capital last year. The company’s board named former Xaxis global COO Mark Grether executive chairman, but has not identified a replacement CEO. Nguyen will stay on until the end of April to ensure a smooth […]
By Kelly Liyakasa and Alison Weissbrot Snap Inc. brought in $404.5 million in revenue in 2016, six times the $58.7 million it made in 2015 and higher than some investors had estimated, the company disclosed Thursday in its long-anticipated S-1. The popular photo, video and messaging app company aims to raise $3 billion in an […]
As mobile eats the world, Facebook is making a meal out of mobile advertising. The company reported Wednesday that roughly 84% of its full year 2016 revenue of more than $26 billion was thanks to mobile ads. Facebook also saw strong gains this quarter in average revenue per user in the US and Canada, which […]
When Epsilon parent Alliance Data reported full-year 2016 earnings last Thursday, CFO Charles Horn said “the old ValueClick business” was “a three-point drag on Epsilon’s revenue growth.” Horn was referring to Conversant’s ad network business before it rebranded to pivot toward ad tech in 2014, said Epsilon and Conversant CEO Bryan Kennedy. “It’s probably 4% […]
Publicis Groupe’s creative chief, Arthur Sadoun, will succeed Maurice Levy as its chairman and CEO, the holding company announced Thursday. Sadoun will step into the role June 1 and Levy will transition to chairman of the company’s supervisory board. Publicis Media CEO Steve King will also join the Publicis Groupe Management Board. Sadoun’s appointment comes […]
Snapchat’s ads API works. And the ad platform is hitting product development milestones earlier than other social platforms, according to buyers participating in the API’s beta. It’s the benefit of last-mover advantage, said Noah Mallin of MEC Global. “They’ve seen all the pitfalls and all the successes.” The Ins And Outs Of Snapchat’s Programmatic Platform […]
