Technology

Digital audio inventory is increasingly available for programmatic purchase. But while audio publishers see value in the audience-based buying and granular targeting that programmatic offers, they are wary of dumping their inventory into an open exchange. And advertisers aren’t really sure how programmatic audio fits into their paid media mix. Here’s the landscape: iHeartRadio inventory […]

When YP Canada quietly acquired programmatic mobile ad platform JUICE Mobile for $35 million on March 17, its main concern was to assuage any potential investor concerns that the directory and listings behemoth wouldn’t be able to make its debt payments. YP Canada was $1.7 billion in debt and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy […]

1-800-Flowers.com announced on Friday that it will deploy IBM Commerce on Cloud to begin integrating its supply chain from inventory to fulfillment and delivery. “The IBM Cloud will reduce complexity, provide the proper focus and enhance the ability to provide wonderful services to the customer,” said the CIO of 1-800-Flowers, Arnie Leap. The tech-savvy retailer […]

IBM’s hire of AOL’s former president Bob Lord as its chief digital officer naturally begs the question: What will it mean for IBM’s collection of marketing applications? After all, Lord helped architect AOL’s transition into an ad tech platform – which eventually led to its acquisition by Verizon. But while Lord’s duties at IBM will […]

Susan Athey will speak at AdExchanger’s PROGRAMMATIC.IO conference in San Francisco on April 14. Academia has a unique role to play in supporting the digital economy, as its members bring a completely different perspective to studying ad auctions. The academic underpinning of ad auctions isn’t new – Hal Varian, Google chief economist and early AdWords designer, […]

It’s possible to sync radio ads and digital billboards to reach drivers with cross-channel messaging – but scale, targeting options and measurement are roadblocks to adoption. For one, there’s just not that much inventory available programmatically yet. “It’s nascent,” admitted Mark van de Crommert, CEO of Mediasynced, an Amsterdam-based TV/online syncing company that recently released […]

Getting agencies to buy enterprise software is hard, which is why AppNexus quietly killed off its two-year-old product Twixt in December – which included both workflow automation (aka RFP automation) and automated guaranteed functionalities. Ultimately, Twixt was too difficult and expensive to sell. “The level of investment that would have been required to drive penetration, […]

Ad tech veteran Ramsey McGrory has joined Mediaocean as its top sales executive, effective Monday. McGrory was most recently president of sports network Scout Media. Prior to that, he was CEO of AddThis, which Oracle acquired in January, and head of Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange. He has a long history with Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise; […]

IBM has nabbed Bob Lord, who formerly served as president of AOL and global CEO at Publicis-owned Razorfish, as its chief digital officer. Lord is one of the few executives with experience running companies in both marketing services and advertising technology, a nexus where IBM has been making large bets lately. An IBM spokesperson said […]

While content recommendation engines used to be a commodity business, that’s no longer the case, said Camilla Cho, executive director of business development and strategy at New York Media. New York Media – owner of the NYMag.com, Vulture, The Cut and Grub Street sites – is looking for partners that share its focus on using […]

“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 Mollie Spilman, chief revenue officer at Criteo. Last month, Facebook launched its new Reactions buttons, allowing its 1.6 billion users to express how they feel about status updates, check-ins and […]

Jonathan Hsia will discuss advertiser perceptions of ad tech on April 13 at PROGRAMMATIC.IO in San Francisco. While ad tech capabilities have matured, marketers still need to catch up, said Jonathan Hsia, Mindshare North America’s head of digital investment. “It really is more a question of: What do marketers need to do to leverage ad tech in a […]

A group of publishers is testing a header bidding solution from Rubicon Project that is compliant with Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages program. Tribune Publishing is among those who have implemented header bidding for AMP. It’s the first time header bidding functionality has been leveraged in support of the “platform publishing” craze that has lately seen […]

The National Football League (NFL) customer database is about as diverse as it gets. Segments span season ticket holders, a millennial parent who loves football but might lack time for games and younger fans who may have been introduced to the sport in school. But the NFL recognizes that “a fan is not a data […]

Condé Nast is expanding its programmatic offerings, giving buyers more options to use its first-party data and adding header bidding to boost programmatic supply. The new offerings, unveiled in a pitch to buyers Wednesday evening as “premium programmatic at scale,” comes three months after the company hired Evan Adlman as its head of programmatic. Condé […]

Here at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, phrases like “change management” are getting nearly equal airtime as data and analytics. Over the past 12 months, Marriott International has accelerated its tech investments as it blends digital and offline. To do so, it has needed to prove marketing strategies align with corporate objectives. “We’ve been […]

Beyond the headlines, the drama and all the talk, there’s the daily reality of actually putting viewability into practice. “The questions around how to transact around viewability have been such a big issue for both publishers and advertisers that I think there has been a session in just about every major conference over the past […]

ComScore’s got a memo for Nielsen: It’s moving into cross-platform video and audience measurement – big time. Just days after comScore inked a multiyear measurement deal with Viacom, the first since its merger with Rentrak, it struck a strategic partnership with Adobe, the two companies revealed on Tuesday at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas. […]

Adobe rolled out the Adobe Marketing Cloud Device Co-op – a cross-device system built around Adobe Analytics and the Audience Manager data management platform – at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas on Tuesday. AdExchanger first reported on Adobe’s attempt to create the data co-op last July. Adobe hopes to patch a big hole in […]

Mobile viewability is going through its awkward adolescent phase. There’s no official standard yet – the Media Rating Council (MRC) is planning to circulate a document for public comment in the next few weeks – and vendors are still tinkering with their methods. Which can lead to confusion around implementation, measurement-induced headaches and wonky reporting. “Everyone is […]

“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. The concept of scarcity tends to have a negative connotation, as anyone who has ever shopped for real estate in a hot market can […]

A handful of ad tech employees who started out at agencies are now returning to senior-level agency roles. And they’re bringing a particularly valuable blend of skills with them. According to Accuen CEO Megan Pagliuca, that initial agency experience is key. “There’s a big con of hiring people from ad tech [without an agency background] […]

Programmatic native is scaling, but the rate of progression hasn’t been rapid, according to agencies and ad tech vendors. While most major demand-side platforms (DSPs) can place ads on Facebook or Twitter – the most common strain of native inventory being social/in-feed ads – native programmatic platforms like Sharethrough, TripleLift and Nativo seek to corner […]

Google, Facebook and Twitter have become powerful platforms for political candidates, and each has earned a line item on every campaign’s media plan. But it may require another election cycle before smaller players can break into the big time. In 2015, Borrell Research predicted $1.1 billion would be spent by political buyers on digital media […]

Google on Tuesday launched an analytics service, Google Analytics (GA) 360 Suite, designed specifically for enterprise marketers. The suite consists of six products: the former GA Premium as the centerpiece; Adometry, rebranded as Attribution 360; the data management platform (DMP) Audience Center 360; Optimize 360, a website optimization and personalization product; Data Studio 360, an […]

Consumer tech and lifestyle publisher Digital Trends always tries to provide what its brands request – rich media, video, custom units, home-page takeovers – but that can-do attitude is tested when it comes to native advertising and sponsored content. Since it was founded in 2006 out of Portland, Ore., product reviews have formed the core […]

Integral Ad Science on Thursday rolled out pre-bid viewable segments for video that will let advertisers target against different viewability thresholds. MediaMath is the first demand-side platform (DSP) to adopt Integral’s new pre-bid segments. Rather than bidding based on historical data, Integral’s pre-bid viewability segments help marketers fine-tune their bids before the fact. So instead of […]

To reach the diverse purchasers of Hunt’s Tomatoes with the message that would best resonate with them, ConAgra looked to its customer data. ConAgra – which owns the brand –created dozens of messages targeting dozens of consumer segments for a campaign that ran from September through early March. The goal was to move away from […]

When Heineken moved more of its advertising budget to digital video, it didn’t see results. “Digital never rose to the top [in marketing mix models], in an almost mind-boggling way,” said Ron Amram, VP of media for Heineken USA. But Heineken knew its audience was moving to digital environments, so it didn’t want to leave […]

Following a previous Snapchat campaign aimed at campus students from last year, Goldman Sachs is doubling down with a broad investment across the messaging service’s Discover and Live Story channels. Major financial players like American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Bank of America and JP Morgan have also been early adopters to Snapchat advertising. Goldman’s ad buy, which […]