Technology

Television advertising is getting smarter. And the smartest companies in digital advertising are coming for TV. That means a royal rumble is playing out over who controls the ad serving for data-driven TV campaigns. AdExchanger looked at the TV and video ad serving landscape, where broadcasters and digital ad platforms like Google and Amazon fiercely […]

When Publicis acquired Epsilon for $4.4 billion on Sunday, it put a big emphasis on the value the company brings to the group around first-party data. But while Epsilon has deep experience working with its clients’ first-party data and managing their CRM databases and loyalty programs, it doesn’t actually own first-party data – depending on […]

A+E Networks said Wednesday that it will work with Comcast-owned FreeWheel to unify demand across its direct sold and programmatic ad buyers. When viewers stream shows via an OTT device, phone or computer, A+E has to balance programmatic bids with direct sold buys sold through cable channels, like A&E, History and Viceland, said Jason DeMarco, […]

While most DSPs let marketers increase or decrease bids based on factors like time of day, Beeswax is upgrading that idea with a product that lets buyers optimize bids based on up to 40 factors from the bid requests. Bid Models, which graduated from beta Wednesday, uses multivariate bidding algorithms to help marketers find “pockets” […]

WPP Group’s programmatic platform subsidiary Xaxis has navigated several seasons of change in programmatic. “When Xaxis was started it was very much around this concept of leveraging programmatic to help advertisers reach audiences,” Global CEO Nicolas Bidon says in this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks. But over time that old definition of programmatic has become […]

One of the most pressing concerns from Sizmek’s bankruptcy comes from SSPs, which must reconsider how they think about risk and credit with their longtime partners. Brands and agencies often pay DSPs on 90-day or even 120-day cycles. But DSPs pay SSPs between 30 to 60 days. There’s a separate contract between an SSP and […]

Publicis Groupe’s $4.4 billion purchase of email marketing and data company Epsilon on Sunday comes down to three words: first-party data. “What is really important for our clients is to build their first-party data,” said Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun on an investor call Monday. “If not, they will be killed by direct to consumer […]

BuzzFeed thrives on using data to inform its advertising programs, social strategy and editorial. But its cookie-dependent data-management platform (DMP) had too many holes in how it collected data. So the publisher switched to Permutive, a next-gen DMP that uses a browser’s local storage to find patterns in how its users engage with content and […]

First there was Ads.txt, then there was App-ads.txt. Now there are Sellers.json and OpenRTB SupplyChain Object Specifications. The two new specs, released for public comment by the IAB Tech Lab on Thursday, are both meant to help advertisers get a better understanding of whether the inventory they’re buying is legit and where it’s coming from. […]

LiveRamp has acquired the consent management platform (CMP) Faktor, the company said Thursday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But LiveRamp will take on Faktor’s 11-person team in Amsterdam. Faktor was founded in 2017, in the run-up to the European Union’s implementation of GDPR, when publishers reevaluated their data collection and privacy policies. LiveRamp […]

Dentsu Aegis Network launched Sellwin, an Amazon-focused consultancy, on Wednesday. The business is made up of six consultants, with access to another 130 specialists across Dentsu’s US agencies for things like ecommerce search, creating product page content and Amazon voice skills, said Sellwin President Travis Johnson. The consultancy model is new for Dentsu, Johnson said, […]

Waze is navigating toward programmatic. The traffic and navigation app owned by Google said Wednesday it has made its Zero-speed Takeover ad unit available programmatically in Display & Video 360 (formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager). The unit shows up as a banner ad at the bottom of the screen when a driver stops their […]

This week on AdExchanger Talks, 614 Group CEO and Founder Rob Rasko graces the studio for a discussion of the changing nature of programmatic and entrepreneurship. 2018 was a year of change in programmatic, exemplified by Xandr’s acquisition of AppNexus. The deal has created uncertainty: Where will networks that used to transact on the AppNexus […]

Q1 2019 in a nutshell: Ad tech isn’t doing as poorly as you’d think (all things considered), TV and data are colliding, DTC is sizzling, private equity is still gung-ho on M&A, and so are the marketing clouds. It’s not a bad report card, despite a general sense of caution and trepidation about macro factors […]

Pinterest’s valuation in its amended S-1 released today is lower than the $12 billion it was gunning for last year. With price per share ranging from $15 to $17, Pinterest is valued between $10 billion and $11.3 billion. Could this lower-than-expected valuation indicate skepticism about Pinterest’s core business? Elgin Thompson, managing director of Digital Capital […]

It’s a good time to be in the first-party data biz. Jebbit, a Boston-based startup that helps marketers collect data directly from consumers, announced its $12 million Series B on Monday led by K1 Investment Management. Previous angel investors include ad tech big wigs, such as Jonah Goodhart (currently of Oracle Data Cloud) and Eric […]

Sizmek regained access to its cash this week after Cerberus, the investment firm that owns Sizmek’s debt and now owns its equity, seized its holdings and pushed the company into bankruptcy last Friday. Sizmek has resumed business operations and is covering payroll and employee benefits, after missing the previous pay period. The next two to […]

“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 John Slocum, vice president, DMP, at MediaMath. Two years ago, MediaMath partnered to find a way for open and independent digital marketing platforms to rival the scale of walled gardens […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Eric Berry, CEO at TripleLift. There have been an increasing number of recent rumors that Google Chrome might block third-party cookies, or at least limit them to some degree, which would fundamentally change the programmatic ecosystem. […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Xaxis technology and partnerships director Nishant Desai will speak at AdExchanger’s upcoming Programmatic IO San Francisco conference on April 29-30, 2019. Agencies aren’t first-party data owners, cookie trackers or data processors, but they must still keep a handle on online identity while the tech ecosystem shifts underfoot. “The notion of how advertisers identify audiences and what identity […]

Agencies need access to unique data sources to bring strategic value to their clients. Publicis said Monday it is in talks to acquire Epsilon from parent Alliance Data Systems in an effort to beef up its own data assets. The agency network is bidding against Goldman Sachs and private equity firm Advent International for Epsilon, […]

If Google Chrome follows Apple’s ITP and Firefox’s ETP to create a cookie blocker that limits third-party tracking, what would it look like? Google is considering its options, according to an article by AdWeek that said multiple teams at the company – not just its advertising division – are contemplating how to limit third-party data […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Pluto TV is the anti-Netflix. It’s free and ad-supported. Users scroll through channels and watch whatever show is already playing, replicating the channel surfing that’s a hallmark of old-fashioned TV watching. Viacom spent $340 million in cash to acquire Pluto TV in January, validating the concept and its audience. The deal felt like “Cinderella getting […]

IAB Europe has notified vendors of changes to its consent management platform (CMP) program, which registers companies that collect and manage consent data for publishers, and is narrowing the gap between its GDPR framework and Google’s GDPR consent standards. These changes also come with a significant price increase. Last week, IAB Europe notified CMP vendors […]

McDonald’s is buying an Israeli startup called Dynamic Yield that provides personalization software to brands and publishers – but this acquisition is about a lot more than tailoring menus based on the weather or serving up customized content. The deal, announced late Monday, is the first major acquisition McDonald’s has made in around 20 years, and […]

Late last year, Havas Media began formalizing rules for how it works with SSPs and exchanges. The rules required them to shed light on previously non-transparent practices, like publisher fees, supply quality, access to log-level reporting and auction dynamics. Havas wasn’t an outlier. Hearts & Science also runs a 50-point certification process with SSPs and […]

Buying beer online may be uncommon, or downright illegal in some states, but that isn’t stopping Anheuser-Busch from investing heavily in ecommerce. Except since beer is such a poor ecommerce converter, the world’s largest beer brewer is focusing on merchandise and apparel to generate online sales and shopper data. Branded merch is insignificant compared to […]

Internet-age companies like Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix, not to mention Chinese technology giants, are spending more on advertising, catching verticals like CPG, automotive and financial companies that traditionally spend the most on ads. There are 10 new-age tech companies among Ad Age’s top 100 global advertisers. In 2017, the most recent full year data […]