ARCHIVE FOR:

Rare Crowds

  • MediaMath Acquires Rare Crowds And Its Founder, Eric Picard

    MediaMath has snapped up Rare Crowds, a small, 2-year-old startup founded by ad tech trailblazer Eric Picard, AdExchanger has learned. Under the all-stock transaction, Picard will join MediaMath as VP of strategic partnerships as the media-buying platform builds out products around private marketplaces and “automated guaranteed” inventory (i.e., direct site buys). The deal has the […]

  • The Digital Advertising Industry Needs An Open Ecosystem

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds.  Thanks to amazing new offerings from Facebook, Google, Amazon and others on deeply connected identity and tracking solutions, we are seeing two major developments. […]

  • Programmatic: A Rising Tide

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. While we’ve been sitting in the progressively warmer water of the “programmatic kettle” without noticing the heat, the world has changed. The incremental changes have […]

  • The Difference Between Programmatic RTB And Direct

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. I had the great fortune to moderate a panel called “Programmatic Guaranteed” at AdExchanger’s recent Programmatic.io conference in San Francisco. The prep conversations for […]

  • How To Use RTB For Targeted Reach Instead Of Retargeting

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. I was recently told by an executive in a position to know that 70 to 80% of revenue in the RTB space comes from […]

  • The Opportunities Ahead For New Millennial Media CEO Barrett - Industry Reaction

    Yesterday, mobile ad network Millennial Media announced the hire of industry – and programmatic-media – veteran Michael Barrett as its new CEO. As Barrett told AdExchanger’s Judith Aquino yesterday, “Buying programmatically is certainly a big interest with a lot of our advertisers, publishers and developing partners, and we’ll continue going down that path. [But] Millennial is also […]

  • Enterprise Adoption Of Ad Tech Will Supercharge The Market

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. The appetite for ad technology is just beginning to appeal to new markets in new ways. Expect to see significant growth in the sector […]

  • Who Will Win The Digital Media War?

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. Lately I’ve had many conversations about the digital advertising market and how it’s evolving. The most-asked question: “Who will win the battle over […]

  • The New Digital Ad Ecosystem

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. There has been a quiet shift in the digital ad ecosystem over the past few years, although it isn’t clear to many people working […]

  • Why The Local Digital Ad Opportunity Remains Unsolved

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. Local advertising is the largest pool of dollars in the US advertising industry, but is also by far the most fragmented and complex marketplace. […]

  • Programmatic Platforms Vs. ‘Standard’ Digital Platforms

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. I’ve been struggling lately with some oddities in how the “programmatic” media space functions. Ad-tech infrastructure — both the “standard” digital infrastructure made […]

  • Life After The Death Of Third-Party Cookies

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. In spite of plenty of criticism by the IAB and others in the industry, Mozilla is moving forward with its plan to block third-party […]

  • Which Type Of Fraud Have You Been Suckered Into?

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. For the last few years, Mike Shields over at Adweek has done a great job of calling out bad actors in our space.  He’s […]

  • Changing The Industry: Don’t Just Complain, Do Something

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO of Rare Crowds. Take it from me: It’s easy to complain. I’ve been writing monthly articles in this space since 1999, which I think qualifies me […]

  • Time For A New Mobile Ad Format

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. I’ve been designing, prototyping and deploying new ad formats in digital advertising for more than 15 years. I started one of the first rich […]

  • Rare Crowds Aims to Help Publishers More Perfectly Answer RFPs

    Digital ad pioneer Eric Picard started Rare Crowds last year with the vision to help publishers and ad networks create more complete media packages in response to complex advertiser RFPs. He says the company does this by layering more attributes onto each impression than has previously been possible through existing ad serving technologies. Rare Crowds […]

  • Entering the Fourth Wave of Ad Technology Innovation

    “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 Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. Ad tech is a fascinating and constantly evolving space.  We’ve seen several ‘waves’ of evolution in ad tech over the years, and I believe […]

  • Why Media Companies Are Being Eaten by Tech Companies

    “Data Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and containing fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Eric Picard, CEO at Rare Crowds. My friend and colleague Todd Herman (LinkedIn) once wrote a strategy paper about video content when we worked together at Microsoft. Called “Don’t […]