Technology

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. […]

The European Union’s antitrust commission on Thursday added two formal charges to Google’s ever-growing pile of regulatory burdens. The first charge substantiates a previous objection claiming Google favors its own comparison shopping service in search results. “It means consumers may not see the most relevant results to their search queries,” wrote European Commissioner for Competition […]

Google’s programmatic video revenues are growing fast, thanks in part to its decision to turn on exchange-based monetization of YouTube’s TrueView ad formats. Just how fast they’re growing can be seen in figures obtained by AdExchanger as well as in data released by Google directly. Google claims programmatic buying on YouTube via its demand-side platform, […]

Social listening data is often used only to influence social campaigns. Siloes within agencies can keep it from informing media campaigns in other channels. IPG Mediabrands, for instance, has multiple media buying agencies, including a search and social unit called Reprise Media as well as its trading desk, Cadreon. Reprise and Cadreon made a good […]

Google debuted a number of shopping and travel ad products on Tuesday, including dynamic price alerts for flights based on Google search queries. But first, YouTube. When Google rolled out TrueView for shopping last spring on YouTube, it claimed the units generated three times the revenue of standard TrueView video ads – and the volume […]

Now available on your mobile device: all the crummy, spammy experiences you’ve come to expect from desktop. Shady affiliate marketing tactics are a particular annoyance for publishers and users alike, especially forced redirects that unexpectedly shunt users to an app store, either by way of an intrusive popup or a mobile webpage overstuffed with display […]

As fraudsters get smarter, anti-fraud players must evolve to put up a worthy fight. To scale its fraud detection capabilities, viewability and verification measurement vendor Integral Ad Science (IAS) has acquired bot detection company Swarm. Terms of the deal, which was announced Friday, were not disclosed. “Fraud is not going away, it’s getting more sophisticated,” […]

Google’s acquisition of cloud video platform Anvato late Thursday gives the search giant serious skin in server-side ad stitching. While Anvato provides video editing and file encoding tools, it also ensures content and dynamically inserted ads are delivered properly. So if a broadcaster wishes to stream content simultaneously to Roku, Amazon Fire and iOS and […]

For many in the native space, the always-on-the-horizon prospect of the Promised Land has been a hard sell to other digital stakeholders. And though the industry has grown at a rapid clip, there’s still deep confusion over questions as basic and crucial as “What is native?” Native is “a broad term that lacks definition,” said […]

Mediaocean has acquired Invision, a software company that helps broadcasters and major media companies manage sales workflow. The financial terms of the deal, announced Thursday, were undisclosed and Mediaocean expects to add 100-plus employees as a result of the transaction. This deal represents Mediaocean’s first serious foray into sell-side tools, since it had previously focused […]

While the VC well has runneth dry for many of the middlemen of ad tech, the cash is still flowing for companies focused on the cross-device space, mar tech, artificial intelligence and mobile marketing automation. Flowing with caveats, however. “It’s not that capital has dried up, but rather that investors are being more deliberate in […]

When brands think about video advertising, sequential retargeting isn’t always top of mind. But multinational rental-car company Sixt, in its bid to capture more share in the US market (it has 50 stations across the US, after opening its first in Florida in 2011), is test-driving Facebook video coupled with expanded Custom Audiences to improve […]

It’s a tale of the haves and the have-nots. Deal values for mar tech are exploding, according to M&A activity surveys from Jordan Edmiston Group (JEGI) and Petsky Prunier, highlighting the first half of 2016. By contrast, ad tech, despite heavy consolidation speculation, is still in a slump. JEGI noted $13.3 billion in deal value […]

The out-of-home market is turning its real-world infrastructure into a tool for data-driven digital media. An OOH campaign nowadays for a CPG client may look more like a tapestry of strategic relationships. The media provider may allow some mobile tracking (in the US that probably means Outfront or Clear Channel, which together account for a […]

Let the data mingling commence! Google is going to start storing Chrome and Google app browsing history alongside an individual’s Google account information, which catalogs what you watch on YouTube and what you search for. The internet giant previously siloed those two types of information, and now that they’re coming together that data could eventually […]

It’s come to this: The hopes of an industry are pinned on two SEC filings. Both AppNexus and The Trade Desk are close to submitting S1 forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating plans to go public in the coming months and releasing key financial details. In the case of The Trade Desk, the […]

LinkedIn is launching more programmatic buying access to its historically walled arsenal of B2B inventory, just two weeks after Microsoft acquired it. Tuesday’s launch of programmatic display opens RTB access to all major demand side platforms and agency trading desks. Advertisers can either buy LinkedIn display ad inventory via the open exchange or through LinkedIn Private Auctions. The […]

After a string of court losses, Axel Springer finally landed a blow on Eyeo’s Adblock Plus (ABP). On Friday, a German court granted the German publishing giant a partial victory in its appeal of a previous decision. In question was ABP’s Acceptable Ads initiative, an open source ad-block revenue channel (meaning other ad blockers can […]

Buyers have decidedly mixed feelings about outstream video. Outstream formats are generally billed as a highly viewable alternative to scarce pre-roll because they’re embedded natively within article text and only play with the sound on when a consumer scrolls over. But some say outstream formats are difficult to discover within the exchange environment and, unsurprisingly, […]

Google is building a technology platform that will underpin two of its buy-side solutions: DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM), a DSP and ad server for large advertisers, and Google Display Network (GDN), where search advertisers and small advertisers play. “We think there are huge opportunities to democratize programmatic for Google Display Network buyers,” said Brad Bender, […]