Technology

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 […]

When the outdoor recreation retailer REI closed its shops for Black Friday, the biggest sales day of the year for many stores, it was testing brand appeal against strong short-term revenue, as well as its out-of-home (OOH) media and data services. REI has grown its OOH media from nothing two to three years ago to […]

Publishers are rethinking their Facebook strategies in the wake of LittleThings’ sudden shutdown on Tuesday. While LittleThings is the first pub to fall victim to Facebook’s news feed algorithm change, it is likely not the last. Many pubs play Whac-A-Mole with the news feed, optimizing article and video content to fit the whims of a fickle Facebook […]

When Facebook, Twitter and Google executives were summoned late last year to testify before Congress on political interference and advertising in the 2016 election, they were steadfast that they could manage the issue through ad policies and disclosures. Early bipartisan calls for legislation have mostly faded and, for now, self-regulation is the name of the […]

AdWords, search, display, the Play Store, YouTube, AdMob, the Google Display Network… App advertisers used to have to run six or more campaigns at once with Google to try and achieve a single objective. But, as of November, there’s been only one way to promote apps across all Google properties: Universal App Campaigns. Google first […]

AdRoll reorganized on Tuesday by splitting its business into two parts: a new unit called RollWorks focused solely on B2B, and the legacy AdRoll business that services small to mid-size ecommerce companies. Each business division has its own P&L and sits under the newly formed parent holding company AdRoll Group. Toby Gabriner, current CEO of […]

With additional reporting by Alison Weissbrot. Sizable brands and top-tier publishers can use their clout to pressure media platforms into sharing more measurement data – but what are advertisers actually getting? Just enough to keep them spending, said Chris Kane, founder of programmatic consultancy Jounce Media. “Walled gardens will do the minimum acceptable thing so […]

Advertisers spent $1.55 billion on The Trade Desk’s platform in 2017, helping the DSP grow its annual revenue 52% to $308 million, the company disclosed in its Q4 2017 earnings report Thursday. Shares increased more than 10% during after-hours trading. The Trade Desk also cleared another milestone, with mobile surpassing desktop display last year for […]

Major brands like AT&T and Bayer are on a crusade to bring transparency back to the digital media supply chain – and are hoping the blockchain-based solutions they’re testing can be an answer. “Who specifically are those tech providers [in the supply chain] and how much of a fee are they assessing to my working […]

LiveRamp has acquired B2B audience marketplace Pacific Data Partners to boost its B2B data footprint, the company said Thursday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company’s co-founders, Pieter De Temmerman and Grant Ries, both formerly of BlueKai and Oracle Data Cloud, will join LiveRamp to expand its IdentityLink business and its B2B data […]

Data providers have embraced an alternative way of buying audience segments: selling data as a percentage of media rather than transacting on CPMs. Instead of buying data at a fixed rate per thousand impressions, a percent-of-media model ties the cost of data to the cost of media. An advertiser, for instance, is unlikely to spend […]

Criteo stock shot up Wednesday morning after the French advertising technology company reported revenues of $674 million in the final quarter of 2017, a 19% gain from the same period the year before, and a 27% jump in gross profits for the year. The Q4 revenue numbers came in at the top end of Criteo’s […]

Ericsson remains keen on ad tech. On Wednesday, the Swedish networking and telecom company announced its acquisition of Placecast, a combo data management and demand-side platform (DSP) for location data. Placecast is now part of Emodo, Ericsson’s programmatic mobile ad platform that helps telcos monetize their subscriber data. Emodo is housed within a newly created […]

There’s no love for annoying ads on Chrome this Valentine’s Day. Google will release a new version of its browser on Thursday with a built-in ad blocker. Here’s how it works. Chrome will now block all ads on sites that don’t adhere to the ad quality standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads, an […]

OTT audiences are prevalent and engaged. But while advertisers are buying, they’re not exactly beating down the doors. Watch any premium long-form show on an internet connection and you’ll see the same irrelevant message played so frequently it’ll haunt your dreams. What gives? The main issue is buyer confusion about how to transact on OTT […]

Paris-based app retargeting platform Adikteev – think Criteo for apps – snagged $12 million in Series B on Tuesday. The company plans to spend it on research and development and on expanding its 100-person headcount with around 40 new engineer hires over the next month. The round, which brings Adikteev’s total funding to $14.2 million since it […]

Adobe has placed a new exec in charge of its advertising cloud. TubeMogul’s longtime CMO and head of strategy, Keith Eadie, now oversees product, engineering and overall go-to-market for Adobe’s media and advertising business. His title is VP and GM of Adobe Advertising Cloud. Meanwhile his predecessor, TubeMogul CEO and founder Brett Wilson, is now […]

In an early draft of his prepared remarks at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting on Monday, Unilever CMO Keith Weed threatened to stop advertising on digital platforms that “do not make a positive contribution to society.” But when he actually took the stage in Palm Desert, Calif., a few hours later, Weed struck a softer […]

Penske Media, the publisher of WWD, Variety and IndieWire and majority owner of Wenner Media, is doubling down on video across its portfolio. Its formats range from snackable, short-form clips and pre-roll to text-based video and more cinematic, long-form series. Although Penske’s video mix is diversified, monetizing that inventory to its fullest potential can be […]

It’s IPO day for Cardlytics, the maker of an analytics platform that leverages purchase data sourced directly from bank partners. Cardlytics began trading at about $12, below its target share price of $13-$15, when Nasdaq opened Friday, before climbing modestly to $13 in afternoon trading. Cardlytics aims to raise about $70 million in the offering. […]

If 2017 was the year of brand safety and transparency, 2018 is set to be the year GDPR reshapes programmatic marketing. That’s the sentiment of 28 brand marketers and media directors surveyed by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) trade group for its “Future of Programmatic Media” report published Friday. The brands represented collectively spend […]

Acxiom stock ticked up Tuesday despite missing revenue estimates and lowering revenue guidance. A likely reason: The company announced a strategic review of its Marketing Services business and some of its Audience Solutions assets to consider a potential sale, merger, spin-off or other exit. CEO Scott Howe told investors the plan is to consolidate Acxiom’s […]

At M&C Saatchi Mobile, a senior media planner who once created up to 25 reports per week coded a solution to generate those reports from Excel with just a click. The move saved the planner about an hour and a half per week, and now the code is scaled for others to use. The planner […]

Google will turn on its built-in Chrome ad blocker on Feb. 15, meaning ad tech companies must hustle to get their products in compliance as publishers fear lost revenue. Beginning that day, Chrome will begin auto-blocking ad formats that obstruct access to content. Chrome has more than 62% of the mobile browser market share and […]

Amazon has become part of virtually every media plan and it’s only going to continue to grow. Yet, Amazon’s advertising business remains an enigma. Even its closest partners aren’t exposed to the inner workings of its ad stack. It’s also not clear how much spend flows through Amazon’s ad platform, though the investment bank BMO […]

Criteo has always been something of an ad tech enigma. That French retargeting virtuoso, the golden child of Wall St. as the markets soured on advertising technology. But nothing gold can stay. And now Criteo has its work cut out to convince investors that the company can grow in the face of browser anti-tracking updates, namely […]

Alphabet posted revenues of $32.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, up 24% compared to the same period last year. The earnings showed a spike in traffic acquisition costs [TAC] as Google paid more to publishers in its Google Network Members’ properties revenue segment. The segment also includes revenue from Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager, […]

Rich-media ad server Flashtalking has merged with the dynamic creative optimization (DCO) specialist Spongecell. Terms of the deal, announced Monday, were not disclosed. As a combined entity, the two companies should gain more dominance in the US and internationally. Flashtalking is based in the United Kingdom, and works with blue chip brand clients like Lowe’s, […]

Paris-based ecommerce analytics platform ContentSquare has raised a $42 million Series B round from a series of investors including US VC firm Canaan and Highland Europe. ContentSquare previously had raised $20 million, bringing it to a total of $62 million after this round. The company will use the financing to support research and development of […]

Media and telco M&A volume in the US increased 29% year over year in 2017 to nearly $140 billion, driven mostly by megadeals like Disney’s $68.4 billion bid for 21st Century Fox, according to new data from PwC. More specifically, there were 18 megadeals in 2017, including Discovery’s $11.8 billion merger with Scripps. Although large […]