Technology

Programmatic auction dynamics can be arcane, even for the most technical among us. Google has Open Bidding (nee Exchange Bidding), Amazon’s got Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) and Prebid predates them both, not to mention a host of other wrappers on the scene. But what do buyers, exchanges and publishers have to say – and, more […]

Most agencies are myopic in their approach to Amazon. They might only focus on retail optimization or just concentrate on search. But Amazon also offers an array of opportunities across OTT, audio, social and branding, said Travis Johnson, global CEO of Amazon consultancy Podean. “What Amazon is doing is very broad, [and] nobody is thinking […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. All In Context  Integral Ad Science acquired European contextual targeting company ADmantX for an undisclosed amount. Using natural language processing and machine learning, ADmantX identifies the context of an article and whether a piece of content is positive or negative, The Wall Street Journal […]

Google’s $3 billion acquisition of the DoubleClick ad server business in 2007 was a massive home run. But today, privacy regulations and changes to digital advertising have transformed Google’s ad tech unit. Google’s original vision for DoubleClick, to combine tech with automation, is still a recipe for scale, because it minimizes hands-on service, said Clint Tasset, […]

The IAB Tech Lab released the first version of technical specs on Monday that publishers and ad tech companies can use to start complying with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) while transacting via real-time bidding. The Interactive Advertising Bureau sought public comments for a draft of the compliance framework over a two-week period from […]

Kinesso, the data and technology unit IPG launched in October, announced the formation of a Digital Responsibility Practice on Monday. The group will be led by Sheila Colclasure, a 20-year Acxiom vet who was most recently SVP of global public policy at LiveRamp. In her new role, Colclasure will help Kinesso technologists, data scientists and […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. MPlatform No More GroupM is disbanding mPlatform, the unit it launched in 2016 to centralize client access to data and technology across its agencies. Newly minted CEO Christian Juhl wants to create more consistency across the group’s four media agencies, and the mPlatform brand […]

Amazon introduced a new way for its cloud customers to buy and use third-party data with the launch of the AWS Data Exchange on Thursday. There are about 90 data companies as launch partners, including PlaceIQ, Epsilon, Acxiom and Foursquare. Unlike data marketplaces such as those operated by The Trade Desk, Oracle or LiveRamp, the […]

Beginning in February, Google will no longer include contextual content categories – content identifiers such as “sports,” “news” or “weather” – in bid requests to ad buyers, the company said Thursday. Google cited privacy concerns as the reason for the change, since contextual categories exposed in a bid request can be appended to individual profiles, […]

The B2B marketing platform Octane11, the first company incubated by MathCapital, a venture fund backed by MediaMath CEO Joe Zawadzki and ad tech vet Eric Franchi, launched on Thursday. Dan Rosenberg, Octane11 founder and CEO, developed strong feelings about B2B mar tech vendors and where there were unmet needs in the market from his time […]

You can’t swing a cat these days without hitting a customer data platform. On Thursday, Adobe made the CDP capabilities within Adobe Experience Platform generally available after a roughly five-month beta period. Earlier this week, Microsoft got vocal about its new CDP offering, and Salesforce, whose CDP is still in beta, has multiple CDP-related sessions […]

MDC Partners is the latest holding company to place its programmatic, search and social talent into a team that spans across its media network, MDC Media Partners. The group, which doesn’t have a name, was announced internally on Thursday and contains roughly 100 experts across biddable media and digital planning from agencies Assembly, Unique Influence […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Strong Cards Cardlytics shares jumped almost 40% on Wednesday, pushing its market cap above $1 billion. The company partners with banks to create cash-back offers – so banking app users can be served promotional deals, and the discount is credited by the bank when […]

Nestlé has launched a team of media and tech experts to improve its programmatic supply and analytics. The new hybrid unit, called the Global Digital Media Center of Competencies (DCoC), consists of internal media talent and executives from Nestlé’s holding company vendors, WPP, Publicis, IPG and Dentsu. The team focuses on six core competencies: supply […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Raise The Roof Vice, Refinery29, Mashable, Mic and BuzzFeed are just a few of the VC-backed digital media companies that faced painful revenue shortfalls and setbacks over the past year. But newer news startups are starting to gain traction, typically in narrow categories – […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. You Down With CDP? Microsoft is throwing its hat in the CDP ring (that ring’s getting pretty crowded) with the launch of Dynamics 365 Customer Insight, a cloud-based data and customer identity portability service. Data analysts and marketers are the obvious targets for a […]

Microsoft is planning to apply the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) across the entirety of its business and customer base in the United States. Why? Because Congress can’t get its act together (literally). In a blog post on Monday, Microsoft decried the fact that there’s been no serious movement to draft bipartisan federal privacy legislation. […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. That’s Settled Disney reached a deal with Amazon to carry Disney Plus on Fire TV sets. The two companies were at an impasse on a distribution deal because Amazon was demanding a substantial percentage of the media giant’s ad revenue, The Wall Street Journal […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Political Ad Firestorm Google is considering changes to its political advertising policy, according to The Wall Street Journal and Axios. The reports come as Facebook is under pressure from users, issue groups and regulators to block some (or even all) political advertising. Twitter banned […]

The Trade Desk brought in $164 million in Q3 revenue, up 38% from Q3 2018, according to its earnings report Thursday. The company’s profitability ticked down from $20.3 million to $19.4 million in the quarter because of large investments in areas like connected TV (CTV) that will maximize profitability over the long term, The Trade […]

“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 Sarah Sluis, senior editor at AdExchanger. It’s the first in a series of perspectives from AdExchanger’s editorial team.  There’s a question in ad tech that’s been surprisingly difficult to get […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Privacy As Product Who reads privacy policies? Maybe lawyers, definitely not users. Apple wants to change that, Engadget reports. On Wednesday, Apple revamped the privacy page on its website to make it easier to understand. The policies themselves haven’t changed, though, just the way […]

The New York Times is removing open marketplace programmatic ads from its mobile app starting in January 2020, because their slow loading times detract from the user experience. The decision will result in a single-digit millions loss of revenue. “We believe that this will be more than made up by gains in engagement and a […]

Google is taking advantage of all the product discovery happening on YouTube. The company said on Tuesday that advertisers buying Shopping Ads can extend their campaigns so those ads show up on YouTube’s home page and search feed. Google first let marketers use its search data to inform YouTube targeting back in 2017. User behavior, […]

Here comes the customer data platform consolidation: Amperity is buying customer analytics platform Custora to help clients do more with their data in a merger announced on Tuesday. Kabir Shahani, Amperity’s CEO and co-founder, declined to share a deal price. The companies will spend the first 100 days following the acquisition focused on fully integrating […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hiding In Plain Sight Facebook and Twitter have opened up a very public debate about political ads, but where is Google? The internet giant was still working on its pitch to lure political ad buyers away from Facebook and onto YouTube with new tools […]

Monday’s Links: Algo Secrets A bipartisan group of senators filed the Filter Bubble Transparency Act on Thursday, a bill that would require large internet and search providers (those with more than 1 million users, at least $50 million in revenue and 500 employees) to disclose how and why users see certain personalized content, as well […]

Google is acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion, or $7.35 per share, the companies revealed today. With the purchase, Google gets access to a wearables business that is largely dominated by Apple Watch. Apple, for example, made $2.1 billion from wearables last quarter (a segment that includes both its watch and AirPods). Google will use Fitbit’s […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Distribution Dilemma AT&T is leaning into its 34 million HBO subscribers to drive sign-ups for its forthcoming HBO Max streaming service. But it may face roadblocks in working with competitive cable providers on distribution, Digiday reports. AT&T has yet to sign on any distribution […]

Ghostery aims to help users block the trackers it has been helping them monitor… for a price. The company has developed a VPN and blocking tool that will shut down trackers embedded in desktop applications. The tools, which entered an invite-only beta on Thursday, will be grouped together under the name Ghostery Midnight and sold […]