Technology

MoPub co-founder and former CEO Jim Payne is getting his next startup off the ground with MAX, a platform that helps mobile publishers sell programmatically. The company launched Thursday following around six months of beta-testing with a $3.5 million seed round led by Payne’s investment fund, Breakpoint Capital, and a handful of angels. They include […]

IAB Europe and the IAB Tech Lab released on Wednesday a commercial version of the Transparency and Consent Framework, a new publishing standard meant to reconcile ad tech with GDPR regulations. From a consumer point of view, the experience would be similar to the current standard for web browsing in Europe, where there’s already omnipresent […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Free Ride Spotify updated its free, ad-supported app on Tuesday with personalized playlists and other features. The changes elevate the user experience to within spitting distance of its paid tier. So why would anyone buy a subscription? “The better our free experience is, the […]

Trigger warning: This article contains references to yet another three-letter acronym in the advertising technology ecosystem. Improvado is an extract, transform, load (ETL) data startup focused on the agency and advertiser landscape. The company raised a $3 million seed round with backing from a range of familiar ad tech names, including Auren Hoffman, the CEO […]

Oracle has acquired Grapeshot, a UK-based contextual targeting startup, the companies announced Tuesday. Grapeshot provides pre-bid insights based on the media being considered. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Grapeshot will join the Oracle Data Cloud, where it will be combined with Moat to strengthen the company’s brand safety service. The company initially focused […]

As the governing body for professional surfers globally, the World Surf League (WSL) promotes the sport to both casual fans and diehards. But just a few years ago, the WSL – at the time called the Association for Surfing Professionals – lacked a cohesive marketing strategy, and campaigns for different surf events were heavily siloed. […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Other Giant Google deserves some of the flack that Facebook is almost exclusively catching in the wake of its Cambridge Analytica scandal, writes Christopher Mims for The Wall Street Journal. Mims argues that Google has lax standards for merging data between its various […]

The Alphabet revenue train is full steam ahead, as the company reported more than $31 billion in revenues in the first quarter of 2018, a 26% jump from the same period last year, the company announced in its earnings report Monday. Programmatic and the core search business were the biggest driver of that growth, rising […]

Viacom on Monday formed a multi-year agreement with Comcast’s advanced ads business, FreeWheel, to expand its use of the tech platform. Previously, Viacom used FreeWheel to power digital ad decisioning, but now, it will also use FreeWheel’s operating system to manage yield and grow revenue across live TV, set-top box and video-on-demand inventory. In addition, […]

The IAB Tech Lab, the research and development arm affiliated with the trade group, has acquired the nonprofit online identity consortium DigiTrust. Terms of the deal are unknown, though a key feature is the acqui-hire of Jordan Mitchell, DigiTrust’s founder and CEO, as the Tech Lab’s senior VP of members and operations. The Tech Lab […]

AdRoll and Magento Commerce announced a partnership on Friday to combine the companies’ ecommerce platforms, incorporating AdRoll’s ad targeting and attribution directly into the Magento cloud management service for online sellers. Bay Alarm Medical, which sells medical alert systems, has been working with Magento for four years and with AdRoll for almost a decade, said […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Rachel Parkin, senior vice president of strategy and sales at CafeMedia. Imagine if every impression could find its perfectly matched buyer. Demand-side platforms (DSPs) are the ultimate gatekeepers for screening inventory, but publishers only […]

No other holding company has had its CEO as ingrained as WPP. Now WPP must keep its massive organization, with so many disparate agencies and pieces, together without Sorrell. “He was important not only as the voice, look and feel of WPP, but he was very much involved in the day-to-day operations,” said Rebecca Lieb, […]

Is opportunity fading for ad tech startups to go public or be acquired at a healthy premium? The answer is no, at least not for everyone, said Elgin Thompson, managing director of the technology investment advisory firm Digital Capital Advisors, at AdExchanger’s PROGRAMMATIC I/O in San Francisco last week. A look back at IPO filings […]

Marketers taking a conservative approach to brand safety are pulling back from buying the long tail to minimize their exposure to fraudulent, non-viewable and brand-unsafe inventory. As premium publishers develop strong programmatic capabilities, brands are transacting with them directly rather than on the open exchange. EMarketer predicts that nearly 80% of programmatic dollars will be […]

In 2017, the National Hockey League debuted its newest franchise, the Las Vegas Golden Knights. But not only did the NHL have to localize its message in a new market, it had the bigger challenge of reaching a digital-first fan base. Which means NHL CMO Heidi Browning, who is tasked with expanding interest and audiences […]

YouTube will no longer support third-party ad serving on reserved buys in Europe beginning May 21, and it will assess whether to extend that policy globally, according to a memo obtained by AdExchanger. Google advised advertisers who aren’t currently using its ad server DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM) to host video on YouTube to “retraffic their […]

“The Complete Guide to CDPs” is presented by mParticle. “The Complete Guide To CDPs” is part 1 in a multipart series on the rise of the CDP and is an independent editorial report. The customer data platform (CDP) is the new “it” acronym, an emerging technology commanding a recent deluge of analyst and investor interest […]

Despite broad concerns about the viability of online media and advertising, M&A in the sector is heating up thanks to the growth of ecommerce and commerce-based media solutions, like Apple’s purchase of digital subscription service Next Issue Media for an undisclosed amount. The total number of deals in media, marketing and technology dropped by 7% […]

Facebook might be reconsidering the policy it initiated last Wednesday about third-party data providers, Acxiom CEO Scott Howe said Tuesday in a letter to advertisers. Read it. “We’ve seen some signs that Facebook is reconsidering the initial policy they issued last week on data imports in light of advertiser concerns that will have an economic […]

Salesforce’s data management platform (DMP) continues the strong ascent it began last quarter, according to Advertiser Perceptions’ Q4 Programmatic Intelligence report, and has moved closer to catching Oracle. Oracle DMP, despite leading in marketer use and intent, lags behind in the selection factors relevant to marketers. Advertiser Perceptions Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Mannion noted that Oracle inherited […]

YouTube on Monday released a CPM-based pricing model for its skippable video format called TrueView for reach. Read the blog post. This pricing model optimizes not for viewability but for on-target reach – similar to YouTube’s six-second bumper ad format. Previously, TrueView ads were transacted on cost per view, with YouTube charging advertisers once consumers […]

AppLovin is one of the most well-funded indie ad platforms out there – and it’s growing like a weed. The mobile ad network last year received $841 million in debt financing from Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital. In 2014, AppLovin raised just $4 million in seed funding. Originally, Orient Hontai had intended to acquire a majority […]

One would think Time Inc., which under new parent company Meredith will lay off 1,200 as well as restructure its ad sales org, wouldn’t be in the market for new vendor implementations. Nevertheless, the publisher is testing a publisher tool called Audience Manager Reporting for Publishers, which Adobe will roll out over the next few months. The […]

All eyes have been on Google as May 25 draws near. That’s the day the General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect in Europe, where Google has a target on its back. Google laid out its GDPR prep plan Thursday in a letter to partners after months of playing its cards close to the vest. […]

When Andrew McKechnie left the role of global creative director at Apple to become Verizon’s first-ever chief creative officer in February 2017, he had a tall order. McKechnie, who reports directly to Verizon CMO Diego Scotti, was tasked with developing the brand’s own in-house creative agency. Named 140, after the group’s digs at 140 West […]

Moen’s social marketing stack used to include everything but the kitchen sink. “We used seven-plus tools to facilitate our social media program and I always say ‘use’ is a very strong word because we certainly weren’t leveraging all those tools,” said Brittany Neish, senior social strategist for kitchen and bathroom fixture manufacturer Moen. And because […]

The almighty duopoly is losing share – but just a little bit. Google and Facebook will take a 56.8% share of US digital ad spend this year, down from 58.5% in 2017, according to a report published by eMarketer on Monday. The report also predicted the duopoly’s share of new digital ad dollars entering the […]

Elgin Thompson, managing director of Digital Capital Advisors, will speak at AdExchanger’s upcoming Programmatic IO conference on April 10-11 at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. The passion of Wall Street’s 2013-era love affair with ad tech may have cooled, but investment banker Elgin Thompson expects the industry will produce some noteworthy exits yet. “I […]

The trial that will resolve the US Justice Department’s challenge to AT&T’s $85 billion proposed acquisition of Time Warner will begin on Wednesday. The case, the first major US media merger to go to trial in decades, will indicate how the government may oversee telco and media consolidation going forward. If successful, the DOJ’s challenge […]