Technology

“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 […]

Video supply-side platform Beachfront Media is expanding its partnership with White Ops, the digital verification vendor that specializes in bot detection, to include over-the-top (OTT) inventory. All inventory passing through Beachfront’s marketplace is now vetted and verified by White Ops, according to Frank Sinton, Beachfront’s founder and chief product officer. But is OTT fraud a […]

Google is testing header bidding – again. But this time it’s for in-app demand. On Thursday, Google announced the kickoff of a beta test to blow up the waterfall mediation model within its mobile ad network, AdMob, and replace it with a unified auction. “Think of it as [Google’s] Exchange Bidding, but for networks,” said Sissie […]

Condé Nast has appointed the company’s first chief data officer as it doubles down on data and tech across its business groups. Karthic Bala, most recently Condé’s head of data strategy, is also responsible for creating new data-driven revenue streams and expanding ad-supported products. Its acquisition of data solutions company Lighthouse Datalab in late January […]

Here’s the central mystery of our time: What will Amazon let brands do on Alexa? That’s something dressing and ingredients manufacturer Hidden Valley is testing right now, via an integrated marketing product from Allrecipes designed to link its native inventory to grocery orders on AmazonFresh. Clorox-owned Hidden Valley and other grocery brands work with Allrecipes […]

SourceMedia, the Observer Capital–owned publisher of financial trades like American Banker and The Bond Buyer, along with other B2B sites, is taking a page from the B2C playbook. While B2B pubs have been slower to embrace programmatic, SourceMedia plans to buck that trend by being a better steward of its first-party data. A new integration […]

Dish Network hopes to perform attribution and cross-device targeting using non-cookie-based browser data, said Brad Stamulis, Dish’s director of digital marketing. The satellite TV provider is using a solution called fTrack, from online ad platform Flashtalking, which recognizes consumers based on about 50 data points – including browser type, user location, screen size and orientation, […]

The IAB Europe GDPR working group has released for public comment its framework for transmitting user consent data up the supply chain, from publishers to technology companies and marketers. The final version is scheduled to come out mid-April. Read the tech specs. The framework provides standards so that publishers can provide transparency into their data […]

Ever since AT&T hired GroupM honcho Brian Lesser last August to lead its new advertising and analytics business, he’s been on a hiring spree. And many of the recruits share one thing in common: They’ve earned their programmatic stripes in some capacity. Time will tell how the AT&T Advertising & Analytics division will develop should […]

Verizon Connect, the telco’s telematics business unit that helps companies keep track of their truck fleets, has been around for almost a decade. But after acquiring two smaller companies in 2016, it was time to relaunch its brand and its value prop. On Tuesday, it launched a digital campaign that targets automakers and businesses that […]

Brevity is the soul of content – and advertising – at Axios. The tech, news and politics site, founded by former Politico execs a little over a year ago, was built on the premise that people are bombarded by info and find it nearly impossible to keep up. “Less than 5% of people who click on a […]

Penske Media, the publisher of WWD, Variety and new majority owner in Wenner Media, acquired multiplatform women’s lifestyle publisher and events company SheKnows Media, the company revealed Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. SheKnows, which claims to reach 79 million uniques per month across its flagship property, StyleCaster, HelloFlo and BlogHer sites, also […]