Technology

Purch, which first implemented header bidding three years ago, has moved on. The portfolio of product review and tech sites turned off most of its header bidders last month and moved to server-to-server integrations with the same partners. Industrywide, server-to-server is considered a logical next step after header bidding. Amazon is moving server-to-server, and Google’s […]

Amazon’s four-year-old header tag is going server-side, making it among the first header tag solutions to move to the faster, more sustainable setup. Sources briefed on the change described the details of this change to AdExchanger, which Ad Age first reported Thursday. As header bidding has taken off with publishers and more ad tech companies […]

While private marketplaces (PMPs) and preferred deals are predicted to outpace open exchange buys by 2018, their rate of adoption has been inconsistent – especially when it comes to video advertising. Some ad buyers have avoided PMPs out of concerns over reach, leaving some publishers twisting in the wind to accurately forecast their fill rate. […]

This is the latest installment in “PII,” a series featuring the talent that makes the wheels turn in our data-driven advertising world. Read previous interviews with talent from Mindshare, Mediavest | Spark, Razorfish, Essence and INNOCEAN. Digital native Andy Stevens is SVP of research and insights at Clear Channel Outdoor. He works on the Radar initiative, which uses mobile location […]

Lauren Nemeth, former head of sales for AppNexus, has joined Turn as chief revenue officer. She arrives from a stint at Pinterest-owned mobile search engine URX, and will oversee sales, client services and consulting. Prior to her role at AppNexus, she helped build Google’s programmatic business alongside Bruce Falck, Turn’s CEO. “We’re selling a complicated, […]

AppNexus has filed confidentially for its IPO, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. AdExchanger reported in June that its IPO filing was imminent. The company is seeking a valuation in the $1.5 billion to $2 billion range, according to the Journal, which would put it in line with its 2015 round of […]

Welcome to episode No. 6 of AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. Scott Knoll was named CEO of Integral Ad Science five years ago, when ad verification mostly served to ameliorate brand safety concerns. Then the twin terrors of fraud and viewability came along and recast the programmatic marketplace in terms of […]

WPP-owned GroupM said Tuesday it will centralize its tech and data expertise worldwide into a unit called [m]Platform. The division will be helmed by Xaxis CEO Brian Gleason with key executives drawn from Xaxis and across GroupM. “The collective mission of [m]Platform revolves around technology, data and expertise,” Gleason told AdExchanger. “The mission is how […]

Adobe might have won TubeMogul’s hand in marriage, but there were several other strategic acquirers involved in the courtship. According to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated Nov. 18, TubeMogul’s sales process really began last November. Up until the time Adobe agreed to acquire the DSP in mid-November, 16 entities – including […]

Programmatic ad spend will grow faster globally than all other buying methods in 2017, according to Zenith’s Programmatic Marketing Forecast, released Monday. Zenith also reported that premium buying models like private marketplaces (PMPs) are taking off as RTB tapers off. Globally, programmatic will account for 64% of digital display spend by 2018, or $64.1 billion. “We […]

Ad networks catch a lot of flak as conduits of bad traffic from shady publishers. “It is true that some bad players intentionally sell fraudulent traffic and that other players are just turning a blind eye,” said Asaf Greiner, CEO and founder of fraud detection company Protected Media. “But there are also others working very […]

As the CMO role has evolved, so too has Epsilon’s selling strategy. “We were trying to sell everything to every customer,” said Stacey Hawes, president of Epsilon’s data practice. “We want to step back and ask, ‘Where does methodical selling make sense, rather than being everything to everyone?’” In September, Epsilon reorganized into six practices […]

AppNexus has banned right-wing publisher Breitbart from selling on its exchange for violating its policy on hate speech – an order endorsed by CEO Brian O’Kelley, and depending on who you ask, also instigated by him. The ban was first reported by Bloomberg. According to an internal source, at some point last week O’Kelley demanded that his ad quality team […]

Agencies often select a few “preferred partners” instead of dealing with numerous demand-side platforms (DSPs). While agencies, barring a client preference, should choose a DSP that can access the best inventory at the best rates for a given campaign, many buying platforms offer volume-based discounts. And because agencies feel the squeeze on margins, they might […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Eric Berry, CEO at TripleLift. Many supply-side platforms (SSPs) herald header bidding as a liberating force, democratizing access to the publisher ad server and opening hitherto inaccessible inventory. Yet this myopic view – that […]

AT&T now has controlling interest in addressable TV platform Invidi, following an investment the telco giant revealed Monday. The exact amount was undisclosed. Prior investor WPP and Dish Network also participated. Although Invidi will remain independent, AT&T, Dish and WPP have collective ownership. An AT&T spokesperson said the telco sees “opportunity for continued expansion in […]

Oracle is buying domain services provider Dyn. While Oracle didn’t reveal the sale price in its release, former Forbes columnist Dan Primack pegged it at just north of $600 million. Dyn made waves in recent months after it was hit by a massive DDOS attack, which temporarily shut down major websites including Spotify and Twitter […]

Since launching “programmatic guaranteed” at the 2015 DoubleClick Leadership summit, Google says demand for programmatic execution of direct deals has skyrocketed. In the last 10 months alone it has quadrupled the number of video impressions served on a programmatic guaranteed basis. More recently, it opened this mode of buying to a wider set of customers, […]

LiveRamp will drop $140 million to finance its people-based marketing dreams. On Thursday, the Acxiom-owned onboarding company announced its intention to acquire two companies: Arbor, a marketplace for people-based data, and Circulate, which helps app developers monetize their first-party data in a privacy-friendly way. LiveRamp declined to say how much it paid for each company. […]

  Facebook admitted additional measurement errors Wednesday, along with policy and organizational changes meant to narrow the trust gap between marketers and the mobile world’s leading ad platform. The news comes less than two months after Facebook disclosed that it had been overstating video engagement results, prompting backlash from agencies and concern from other digital media […]

MediaMath is talking up its data management capabilities. The company has rolled out a tool called Adaptive Segments, which lets a marketer gauge the performance of an audience and media placement before an ad runs. The enhancement come on the heels of Salesforce’s $700 million agreement to buy data management platform Krux, an indication that […]

Google is sticking with the script of “openness” in its publisher roadmap, citing a flurry of product updates designed to maximize publisher revenue, access to inventory and the user experience on mobile. There is an uptick in publishers, including USA Today Network, The New York Times and Time Inc., that are structuring direct deals programmatically, Google […]

Adobe’s $540 million acquisition of TubeMogul this week was a bet on more automation and addressability in TV. In addition, the deal gives Adobe Marketing Cloud – which is known for its strength in site analytics and creative – the ability to do more cross-screen media execution. TubeMogul has shown consistent growth quarter after quarter, following […]

Adobe will acquire the video demand-side platform TubeMogul for $540 million in debt and cash, the companies said Thursday. [Here’s the deal release.] The deal gives Adobe a sophisticated DSP capability for the first time. Though Adobe had display and search-buying capabilities via the Efficient Frontier acquisition (now Media Optimizer), Adobe has never been lauded […]

LinkedIn is going all-in on automation – promising to activate all display ads programmatically starting in 2017. In the meantime, it is expanding the number of native ad units that are available in a self-serve capacity. While advertisers could previously buy Sponsored Updates and text ads via LinkedIn’s self-serve campaign manager, they now can buy […]

Despite being one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms, CBRE has a low profile in digital media. Until 2014, all of the 110-year-old company’s marketing was executed through traditional media. Then it hired Paul Suchman as chief marketing officer. An agency vet with a history at Young & Rubicam, OgilvyOne and BBDO, Suchman […]

In ad tech, even standards need standards. On Monday, the Interactive Advertising Bureau Tech Lab unveiled a compliance program for vendors to prove they’re adhering to the alphabet soup of ad delivery industry standards. Over the years, the IAB has developed a protocol for ad delivery: VAST for video ad serving; VPAID to allow video ads […]

For ad tech vendors, chances for exit are still slim and getting slimmer, according to a panel of investors at ad:tech New York at the Javits Center on Thursday. Warren Lee, a partner at venture capital firm Canaan Investors, an early investor in DoubleClick and Tremor Video, put it bluntly: Those who want to succeed […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Will Doherty, vice president of business development at Index Exchange. Header bidding is the rare ad tech phenomenon where the noise is equal to the fury. Its staggering growth and adoption has propelled it […]

Publishers are under pressure to scale and monetize, but those business realities can dampen audience experience. When Slate’s president, Keith Hernandez, called out janky links from content recommendation engines earlier this week, he noted that while they drive revenue, it’s often at the expense of quality. Hernandez, who started at Slate a year ago after […]