Technology

While “programmatic technology” has come a long way, many longtime players in the space are now reckoning with the term. AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley penned op eds about the “death of programmatic.” Rubicon Project SVP of market development Jay Sears also has acknowledged the limitations of the terminology. AdExchanger reached out to ad tech executives, some […]

  Header bidding is changing the industry and creating a new set of winners and losers. After a dismal earnings call, Rubicon Project’s stock fell 32% and lost $200 million in value Wednesday. Rubicon CEO Frank Addante said the company failed to respond quickly to the header bidding trend, sending its desktop revenue into decline. […]

French performance marketing company Criteo came out swinging yet again in its quarterly showing on Wednesday despite a 7% dip in its share price when the market opened. Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, rose 36% to $166 million in the second quarter, with mobile ad revenue generating half of it for the first time. Criteo […]

Private equity firm Vector Capital has agreed to acquire ad tech company Sizmek. “Vector will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Sizmek common stock for $3.90 per share in an all-cash tender offer,” according to a release, which values the company at $122 million. Notably, Sizmek’s market cap, just prior to the acquisition announcement, […]

Podcast platform Art19 has taken a step to address the targeting and measurement problem standing between advertisers and a ripe audience of podcast listeners. The company’s platform hosts and distributes podcasts while letting advertisers better target and monetize their audiences through an API integration and an ad server. It launched with hundreds of shows from […]

WPP-owned ad network-slash-tech shop Xaxis has its first-ever Latin America CEO. Lucas Mentasti was promoted from the unit’s Latin America managing director to its chief. It’s a big step up from where he started in 2013, moving from Publicis-owned Starcom to head up Xaxis’ Latin America business. At that time, “head up” meant doing everything, […]

Rubicon Project CEO Frank Addante told investors on Tuesday that the company was slow to recognize the importance of header bidding to its publisher customers. As a result, desktop managed revenue declined 2% in Q2. That unexpected drop led Rubicon to lower its revenue guidance for the year. Rubicon’s FastLane header bidding product did not enter the […]

Malicious bots are getting more sophisticated and bot blocking companies are raising more cash – the arms race is in full swing. One such company, Distil Networks, announced $21 million in Series C funding on Tuesday as part of its bid to keep combating what CEO Rami Essaid called “a growing problem.” The round, led by […]

French video supply-side platform Teads has raised 43 million euros in debt financing – about $48 million – to continue pushing its outstream video ad formats. The financing came from several sources, including French multinational bank BNPP, Bank of China and HSBC. The company has raised $70 million in combined VC and debt, according to […]

One year ago, eBay put its enterprise marketing assets up for sale, and its commerce platform Magento was taken private again. Now Magento is making an acquisition of its own. The company revealed on Monday it had acquired RJMetrics, a Philadelphia-based advanced analytics startup. Financial terms of the deal were not announced, but RJ Metrics […]

Google parent Alphabet finished out Q2 2016 with $21.5 billion in overall revenue, a 21% jump from Q2 2015. It’s also a notable acceleration of growth rate from that year-ago quarter, when top line revenue grew 11%. [Read the earnings release.] The company chalked up the faster growth to investments in mobile and video. “The strength of the quarter […]

If you’re a developer looking to monetize and attribute spend across devices, Facebook and Google might soon become the only shows in town. “Bummer,” called out an audience member at Grow.co’s MAU event in New York City on Tuesday. As programmatic buying grows on mobile, so does the need for an analytics infrastructure that traces […]

Despite similar origins as Web 1.0 content portals, Yahoo’s inability to shake its roots and AOL’s decisive transformation into an ad tech company sent the two down starkly different paths, even as they both landed beneath Verizon’s big red checkmark: the communications giant purchased AOL for $4.4 billion last May and revealed its intention 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 Brandon Atkinson, chief people officer at AppNexus. Imagine driving to your office, dropping off your dog with a caretaker, leaving your laundry with a drycleaner and buckling up your cycling […]

Verizon won’t complete its $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo until next year, but that hasn’t stopped speculation about which pieces of ad tech will come along for the ride. As Yahoo and AOL built their respective ad stacks to serve publishers and advertisers over time, obvious crossovers have occurred. So what’s complementary, what’s redundant and […]

Cat fight. Shortly after Criteo sued competitor SteelHouse for allegedly engaging in click fraud and falsely representing its service to clients, the latter is firing back. SteelHouse filed a counterclaim against Criteo in the Central District of California court early Tuesday, alleging that “In an effort to win back customers, injure SteelHouse and blunt SteelHouse’s […]

With its acquisition of Yahoo on Monday, Verizon – and therefore AOL – is sinking its hooks into a treasure chest of cross-device data. “It’s very large and very deterministic,” said 360i president Jared Belsky. Cross-device connectivity was ostensibly one of the big motivators behind Verizon’s acquisition of AOL in May 2015, and now the same […]

Home decor ecommerce site Wayfair is turning to its digital ad buying partner AppNexus to expand its media business. AppNexus will sell advertising across Wayfair’s ecommerce sites, which include Wayfair.com as well as Joss & Main, AllModern and DwellStudio. Using the same platform will make it easier to share data segments across Wayfair’s retail and […]

WPP’s GroupM upended the industry’s mutual viewability standard back in 2014, when it promised to buy only 100% in-view ads for clients. Now it’s created an executive position to enforce that standard in all of its markets as well as to shield clients from a slew of other brand safety issues presented by digital advertising. […]

By Kelly Liyakasa and Zach Rodgers   Verizon emerged victorious in the bidding contest for Yahoo, snapping up the media and technology assets of the still huge if perpetually down-at-the-heels digital media giant for $4.8 billion. The deal, officially announced Monday, dramatically extends the carrier’s addressable audience, adding 600 million monthly active mobile users that […]

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) turned on video header bidding with Index Exchange. The broadcaster and publisher requested that Index Exchange develop the feature because it wanted “to make more data-rich inventory available to [private exchange buyers],” said Jeff MacPherson, director of monetization platforms and services at CBC. The move will also boost yield for […]

It’s probably not a good idea to use Google Translate on legal language. Roughly two weeks ago, the Chinese government released online regulations that include new rules governing paid search results, embedded links, video ads and email advertising. A buried clause within the edict also seems to outlaw ad blocking – and when Adblock Plus realized […]

Like many companies, outdoor lifestyle brand Columbia Sportswear was no stranger to using 15- and 30-second YouTube videos as a complement to TV. Because consumers weren’t necessarily going to YouTube for “conversion-based” content like product reviews, Columbia experimented with 360-degree video to make its content more immersive. Columbia sent its production crew out with US […]

Google launched a customer call center measurement and attribution solution on Wednesday alongside new research on call-based marketing. The product uses a unique identifier placed on Google’s search ads with tap-to-call functionality to tie inbound calls to an AdWords campaign. If the user goes to the company site instead and ends up making a call […]

Nielsen has entered into an open marriage with three viewability providers. The company will now support Integral Ad Science, Moat and DoubleVerify within its digital audience measurement solution, Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings. Although it had a preexisting relationship with Integral Ad Science since 2012, clients have requested support for alternative providers that fit their preferences. […]

Google wants to improve the mobile ad experience, which is too slow and reliant on desktop ad formats. Its solution? AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) ads and the expansion of programmatic native, both of which Google VP Paul Muret introduced Tuesday at the company’s DoubleClick Leadership Summit. “Winning starts with creating an amazing user experience that […]

Kiip is having its moment. The mobile rewards platform announced its $12 million Series C on Tuesday, bringing its total funding to $32 million. Led by new investor North Atlantic Capital with participation from US Cellular (also a new investor) and existing investors Verizon Ventures, Relay Ventures, HWVP and True Ventures, the cash is destined to […]

Retargeting can be more complicated for auto advertisers than for their counterparts in consumer packaged goods or retail. “In the old days, retargeting campaigns gave us a giant boost to our [digital] KPIs,” said Tom Maxmølris, marketing operations manager for Ford Denmark. But that was because Ford Denmark focused on “click to act” campaigns, which strengthened […]

Deals fall through all the time. But the failed acquisition of Opera’s ad business could be a signal that China’s western buying spree is liable to hit a few regulatory snags. In February, a consortium of Chinese companies, which comprises mobile game maker Kunlun and security software provider Qihoo, announced its intention to buy up all of […]

Less card. More connected commerce. That’s Mastercard’s new mantra as it paves the way for payments in an IoT environment. While IoT commerce might mean consumers buy en masse from their connected fridge one day, Mastercard is starting from a more tangible place, helping brands like JetBlue test bookings in chat apps like Facebook Messenger. […]