Microsoft has added new ad formats to Skype’s “connection hub,” the screen users see before and after placing calls and while instant messaging each other. The new placements are a logical way to boost Skype’s monetization. The company hopes connection hub ads will generate an at least 20 billion additional impressions per month for advertisers. […]
Microsoft is providing more transparency into the inventory on the Microsoft Advertising Exchange. The inventory on the Exchange was previously sold in a “blind” manner using a masked URL. Ad buyers can now target the inventory by its top-level domain name and sub-domains, the company said Friday. “We want to give customers a clearer view […]
Location-based marketing technology company MomentFeed is betting big on the hyper-local search and marketing movement. Founded in 2010, the Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) company has raised $3 million in seed funding and recently closed a $6 million Series A round. According to its chairman and CEO Robert Blatt, MomentFeed is “the first company to […]
After years of handling programmatic with a light touch, Microsoft is making up for lost time. It has recently rolled out global programmatic direct options, agreements with other portals on automated ad serving standards, and last week, the addition of Window 8.1 apps and Outlook.com email-based placements. Esco Strong, director Microsoft’s of Display Marketplace, said […]
Bank of America’s card-linked offers program, BankAmeriDeals, offers customers cash back when they purchase from any of 4,000 partnering retail merchants. Cash-back discount deals are surfaced to customers right in the Online Banking environment, based on their past purchase history. Powered by purchase data platform Cardlytics, Bank of America, to date, has issued about $17 […]
Microsoft has added a new unique identifier to Windows 8.1 to help app developers better monetize their apps, the company said today. “Specifically, in Windows 8.1 we include a unique identifier that can be used to improve the quality and relevance of advertisements displayed within Windows Store apps while providing other services such as analytics […]
The major reorg that retiring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer engineered two months ago is resulting in the end of its portal MSN producing original content. As detailed by Romenesko, MSN freelancers were told in a mass email that their services would no longer be needed and that the budget for original content was “zero” for […]
Digital ad veteran Brian McAndrews has been named chairman, president and CEO of streaming music service Pandora. He replaced Joe Kennedy, who announced his intention to retire in March. (Read the release.) McAndrews built one of the first digital agency networks at aQuantive, where beginning in 1999 he began rolling up firms including Razorfish, Avenue […]
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 […]
“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 Jay Seideman, US director of the targeting and exchange team at Microsoft. At the end of every year, publishers enjoy many wild debates about budgeting, forecasting and sales compensation. […]
