Technology

“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 Diaz Nesamoney, CEO at Jivox and co-chair of the IAB Tech Lab Dynamic Content Ad Standard Working Group. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this week introduced the industry’s first standard for […]

The IAB unveiled a dynamic content ad standard that will move forward programmatic creative, which is open for public comment for the next month. Instead of churning out ads with dozens of different messages for different channels, advertisers simply define all the creative components and variations. Once served, the ads will dynamically assemble to adapt […]

Julie Clark will speak at AdExchanger’s PROGRAMMATIC I/O Conference in New York on Oct. 26. Hearst had deployed header bidding for years before it became one of the industry’s hot topics. As a veteran user of header bidding, Hearst focuses on adapting it to make programmatic buying more efficient for marketers and publishers. “The old way would […]

Ever since Publicis Groupe disaggregated its trading desk, VivaKi, programmatic has been searching for a new home within the holding company. DigitasLBi is taking an integrated approach by embedding programmatic experts into account teams. “I’m not looking to create a long-term programmatic team silo,” said Carol Chung, who became head of programmatic, North America, at […]

There’s no point in being a me-too solution. That notion is what prompted ConvertMedia to evolve itself from a display network to a supply-side platform focused on outstream video about two years ago. It was also a main driver behind ConvertMedia’s decision to sell to content rec engine Taboola this summer. Once the ink was […]

When SAP first dove into ad tech, it was under the guise of a standalone incubator – an “intrapreneurship,” as the company calls it – called SAP Exchange Media (XM). The launch raised questions about where ad tech fit within SAP’s broader stack. SAP’s commerce and marketing prowess has historically fallen under the SAP Hybris portfolio […]

AppNexus laid off 150 of its 1,125 employees on Thursday and Friday, a 13% reduction of its workforce. Internally, the company is telling employees the cuts are part of a reorg that will unify its buy-side and sell-side product groups, which have operated separately until now with distinct engineering, sales and service teams. The company’s […]

As WPP’s direct marketing agency, Wunderman began collecting data about individual consumers before it was the currency of the digital world. “Data was the lifeline of this place to begin with,” said Wunderman’s New York president, Jamie Gallo. “It was very pedestrian and primal data, but it was what the agency was built on.” As […]

The Weather Co. is no novice at linking weather patterns to consumer actions like in-store purchases, but IBM is giving it some more juice. The Weather Co. rolled out a tool called Journey FX on Thursday. The platform aims to help marketers move beyond one-off media buys to target more predictively against weather attributes and […]

MParticle is in growth mode. The mobile data platform, which helps collect and connect mobile data across platforms, has added $17.5 million in new funding, just nine months after its $15 million Series A in January. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, a new investor, with participation from existing investor Social Capital, bringing […]

AT&T, which completed a $49 billion merger with DirecTV last July, is relatively behind competitive carrier Verizon in acquiring (or building) an ad stack and monetizing its mobile data set. AT&T has been largely silent on the mobile data front following its shift away from building a mobile ad network in 2013 in order to prioritize […]

People-based marketing is the natural evolution of data onboarding, according to LiveRamp, the data onboarder owned by Acxiom. On Wednesday, LiveRamp launched IdentityLink, which aims to resolve a single identity across different online and offline touch points. It’s an extension of what LiveRamp already does, said CEO Travis May. LiveRamp’s bread and butter has always been […]

Cross-device identity match rates have shot up in recent years, but brands and agencies remain skeptical of the results. “We were consistently disappointed with cross-device identity matches,” said David Kohl, CEO of the digital media advisory firm Morgan Digital Ventures. “There’s a gap in understanding of what’s possible between vendors and the buy side, [which […]

On Thursday – amid strengthening rumors of an IPO – Snapchat finally released its anticipated ads API to enable better automation, targeting and measurement. It is running with nine partners. Advertisers can buy Snap Ads – full-screen, sound-on, vertical video ad units – programmatically on the platform. “Advertisers [can now] glean insights and better optimize […]

The Marketing Cloud keynote address at Dreamforce included a phrase never before uttered publicly by a Salesforce exec: “You can’t be a marketing cloud without a DMP.” That was SVP and chief product officer Bryan Wade, speaking to around 3,200 Marketing Cloud partners and clients about Salesforce’s intent to acquire Krux. “Think of us as […]

Now that Salesforce has agreed to buy Krux for an estimated $700 million, which standalone data management platforms are left? And is there still a market for independent DMPs, given the trend toward integrated marketing tech stacks and the high cost of maintaining data infrastructure? To answer those questions, it’s important first to define terms, […]

Forget ecom platform Demandware and data management platform Krux. Investors only want to know why in the world Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has any interest in Twitter. The pounding Salesforce’s stock has taken since Benioff expressed interest certainly reflects their skepticism. So while the little blue bird hasn’t been an explicit presence in this year’s annual […]

The New York Times’ new Flex Frame ads are among the first component-based ads deployed in the wild with the help of Google tech. The ads adjust their look and feel according to screen type and page environment. Expect other publishers to follow with their own versions over the next year. The Flex Frame ads […]

After many years in leadership roles at media agencies, Jordan Bitterman will move to the brand and media side as chief marketing officer of The Weather Co., the IBM-owned company said Wednesday. Bitterman brings extensive knowledge of how media companies can drive efficiencies in the data-driven milieu. He said The Weather Co. is in a […]

Change isn’t easy. Just ask Farmers Insurance Group CMO Michael Linton and CIO Ron Guerrier. About three or four years ago, the company had a dismal digital presence. Its Net Promoter Score, which ranks customer loyalty from -100 to 100, was in the gutter at -30 and its website bounce rate was about 40%. “Our […]

By Kelly Liyakasa and James Hercher Criteo’s $250 million, all-cash purchase of retail exchange HookLogic on Tuesday was premeditated. Meaning, the two companies already knew of the other’s capabilities – and a marriage felt right for the future of both ecommerce ad tech companies, said Criteo CEO Eric Eichmann. “We’d been talking to HookLogic for almost […]

French performance marketing company Criteo will acquire HookLogic, a retail exchange, ad server and attribution company focused squarely on retailers. The deal, a $250 million all-cash transaction, gives Criteo a brand new set of customers – including CPG advertisers like Clorox and Kraft. HookLogic’s performance marketing exchange enables these consumer brand manufacturers to bid on sponsored product […]

Salesforce has shifted back into gear on ad tech M&A after a three-year quiet period. The company will snap up data management platform Krux in a move that could bring its marketing stack into closer parity with its archrival Oracle. The acquisition’s price tag is $700 million, a number that will put smiles on the faces […]

Carat has a leg up on holding companies scrambling to integrate siloed teams. As part of Dentsu Aegis Network, the media agency operates on a shared profit-and-loss (P&L) statement by country across the network. That allows it to pull in specialist media capabilities to better serve its clients, without those teams competing financially. “This idea […]

With Omar Tawakol departing as head of Oracle Data Cloud, Eric Roza, who served as the unit’s co-SVP after Oracle acquired his company Datalogix, will become GM. Roza had previously focused on Data Cloud’s go-to-market strategy and will now oversee product, engineering, operations and data science. But he’s also shepherding Data Cloud through a philosophical […]

By Kelly Liyakasa and Alison Weissbrot Agencies are becoming more consultative. Consultants are buying creative agencies. And systems integrators are dabbling in client strategy. “Everyone talks about online vs. offline media or creative vs. media, but when a marketer wants to change the consumer journey, we’re talking new operating models and governance,” said Glen Hartman, […]

Google will expand its free marketing measurement software by adding an A/B testing product (Google Optimize), a data reporting and dashboard-creation tool (Google Data Studio) and new machine learning capabilities for Google Analytics. These products will be available in an open beta starting next month. “The ultimate goal is to provide a kind of analyst […]

There’s no splashy programmatic AOL upfront at this year’s Advertising Week. Instead, the company is addressing more serious matters – like the state of integration with Yahoo amid a data breach. AOL’s senior execs are also talking up consumer-driven content and innovative ad formats. “We had this giant emphasis on algorithmically driven media over the […]

Sourcepoint, a company founded last year to provide publishers with an antidote to ad blocking, has made its first major product release since raising a $10 million Series A round in June. The product, Dialogue, allows publishers to deliver a message to users with ad blockers installed and then test the efficacy of those messages. […]

Demandware has officially ascended into the clouds. The ecommerce platform that Salesforce bought for $2.8 billion in June became Commerce Cloud Tuesday, and will gradually retire the Demandware brand. Next step: integration. While that process won’t be entirely onerous – Demandware and Salesforce Marketing Cloud clients have “significant overlap,” said Commerce Cloud marketing SVP Elana Anderson – there […]