Technology

Alliance Data Systems (ADS) reported Q3 2014 revenue of $1.3 billion, a 20% YoY change, mostly driven by the company’s private-label credit card services division, which saw 17% YoY revenue growth to $622 million. ADS has steadily increased its outlook with each earnings call, and it did so again in its Q3, raising its core […]

The digital ad sector has made some tangible progress in the war on fraudulent ad impressions, thanks to new detection methods and improved hygiene from many sell-side platforms. But one of the biggest exchanges has added rather than subtracted invalid impressions, and buyers are complaining. AppNexus, the industry’s uber-exchange and one of the most promising […]

An AdExchanger story published Wednesday describes the persistent problem of fraudulent ad impressions in the AppNexus inventory supply, and the company’s plans to fix it. Its plan of attack includes a new certified supply program that will clearly label inventory AppNexus has deemed “valid.” Buyers can choose to purchase only the good stuff, while ignoring the uncertified […]

Cross-device is hot (hey there, Atlas), and now data-management platform Lotame has tossed its hat into the ring with a feature built from AdMobius’ technology, a company Lotame acquired earlier this year. The feature, announced Wednesday, uses a combination of deterministic and probabilistic algorithms to create device matches and cross-screen audience segments within Lotame’s DMP. […]

Distributing the same sponsored posts across a network of sites isn’t a widespread practice – yet. While planning the media spend for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, ad agency Mediasmith turned to Distroscale, which allowed the team to leverage existing content to connect with readers about the hospital at scale. “Native advertising had a key role to […]

FreeWheel, a video ad server owned by Comcast and used by broadcasters like ABC and Discovery Communications, has teamed up with digital demand-side platform (DSP) TubeMogul to make premium digital video inventory accessible on a programmatic reserved basis. FreeWheel is arranging several data escrows with TubeMogul and providing access to agencies and marketers like Allstate, […]

When Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage in Cupertino last month and unveiled Apple Pay, it was game on for many in the mobile payments industry. While Apple’s embrace of mobile payments doesn’t mean retailers immediately need to outfit every point-of-sale system with an NFC reader, megacompanies like Disney, Macy’s, Panera, Sephora, Starbucks, Walgreens […]

Germany is leading the attack in the EU’s deepening privacy war against Google. Late last Tuesday, a legal ruling levied by Hamburg data protection commissioner Johannes Caspar required that Google obtain Germans’ expressed permission in order to access their data, or face $1.27 million in fines. “Our requirements aim at a fair balance between the […]

Visible Measures has forged a number of supply-side integrations with AdsNative, TripleLift and DistroScale, adding “thousands” of publisher supply sources as a result of the deal, revealed Friday. These partnerships build on the recent rollout of Fabric, a demand-side platform (DSP) designed to place native ads, used first by Publicis Groupe’s media buying unit VivaKi. The DSP is primarily […]

This is the 11th in a series of interviews with vendors combating the problem of ad fraud. Other companies participating in this series include  Sizmek. Read previous interviews with comScore, DoubleVerify, Dstillery, Forensiq, Integral Ad Science, PubChecker, Telemetry,Videology, White Ops and RTB Asia. The meta-problem with ad fraud, according to Moat CEO Jonah Goodhart, is that it’s a tremendous […]

Once upon a time, Microsoft seemed to be positioning itself as both a publisher, via its network of owned and operated sites, as well as an ad tech provider – sort of like where AOL is today. In 2007, it bought aQuantive for just north of $6 billion, which included major digital marketing players like […]

Verizon bills itself as a triple threat. It’s got mobile, it’s got television, it’s got broadband. And those three channels form the foundation for a deterministic data cocktail that Precision Market Insights (PMI) – Verizon’s addressable advertising division – is tapping to power Precision ID, the carrier’s answer to the ever-elusive mobile cookie. When Verizon […]

Why would former MediaMath Chief Strategy Officer Eoin Townsend join Collective, a company that built its reputation as an old-school ad network? On the surface, the move seems counterintuitive: a guy working for a provider of self-serve ad technology jumping to a company that made its rep performing media-buying services. Since mid-September, Townsend has operated as Collective’s […]

Until May, Virgin Holidays lived up to the name of its parent company in terms of its experience with programmatic. As its senior digital marketing executive, Alex Adamson, attests, “We’d run some [display] activity in the past, but we never had a programmatic strategy in place. We never had an always-on approach.” That changed in […]

“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 Kirk McDonald, president at PubMatic. When it was first introduced to the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1989, the term “integrated marketing” sounded like the quintessential buzzword, just vague […]

At the outset of Advertising Week in New York City, WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell turned his attention to Amazon’s VP of global ad sales Lisa Utzschneider on the stage they shared with Live Nation, CBSi and ESPN. “Your job, I guess, is to demonstrate the value of Amazon’s data for off-platform advertising,” he quipped. “Your revenues […]

“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 Ari Lewine, co-founder and chief strategy officer at TripleLift. RTB has revolutionized digital marketing. That said, it still has a number of well-known hurdles to overcome, most notably quality, fraud […]

In Russia, programmatic and RTB practices are still in an early stage and make up less than 10% of the digital display advertising market. Yet despite that, or maybe because of it, demand-side platforms seem to be saturating the market – each seeking to distance itself from the competition. “The market is getting new DSPs every month,” Vladimir […]

CPG giant Mondelēz International, which made waves in the ad industry earlier this year by owning its deal with video demand-side platform TubeMogul, has entered another agreement designed to enhance its online video investments: a partnership with Google covering markets in North America, Europe and emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East […]

Audience Partners, which provides an advertising platform focusing on advocacy, political and healthcare verticals, reached an agreement Wednesday to acquire Bering Media for an undisclosed sum. Audience Partners expects the deal to close in October. For Audience Partners, Bering Media – with whom it has partnered over the past two years – provides an ad-targeting solution […]

In a reprise of their recent startup adventure, former Sociomantic CEO and Admeld exec Jason Kelly will become “President of the Company’s Managed Media” as Millennial CEO Michael Barrett looks to re-create the programmatic magic of his Admeld days which led to an eventual acquisition by Google. From today’s release (see it): “Reporting to CEO and President Michael Barrett, Kelly will […]

Early in September, Russian search engine Yandex acquired ad tech company ADFOX, generating a bit of buzz around the relatively early stage programmatic buying market in Russia. Yandex only entered the RTB market in 2012 and ADFOX, a Moscow-based sell-side platform, was originally founded in 2005 but also introduced its RTB offerings in 2012. “We expect […]

While marketing clouds push the promise of technological integration, the fact that every major cloud was built through acquisition means it’s fair to question the extent to which the components are truly unified. Getting applications within a cloud to communicate is ultimately an iterative process and Oracle, on Tuesday, unveiled its latest development within its […]

Google’s betting the industry needs a hand making ads workable across devices. On Monday, it unwrapped two mobile display formats and a handful of desktop tools that aim to help advertisers optimize ads across multiple screens. Google will release the tools piecemeal over the coming months across the Google Display Network, the AdMob Network and […]

Facebook has done something big with the relaunch of its Atlas ad server, acquired from Microsoft 16 months ago, but that something has little to do with serving ads. Rather it’s about replacing the beleaguered cookie with a new, more reliable ad-tracking mechanism for the mobile age. The new Atlas – expected to be unveiled […]

Yahoo has $6 billion in its wallet thanks to Alibaba’s IPO last week. But investors showed little faith in Yahoo’s core business, sending the stock plummeting. An article in Businessweek went so far as to value Yahoo’s business at zero. That means CEO Marissa Mayer needs to go shopping. “I think she’ll do a big […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Sam Cox, vice president of OPEN global media management at MediaMath. Programmatic is changing, and for the most part, it is changing for the better. Inventory that started as remnant now inches towards premium, […]

MediaLink, long a dabbler in ad tech, has now jumped in with both feet. The strategic advisory firm tapped agency and startup veteran Matt Spiegel to ramp up its consulting work in the marketing technology area. That work will include advising marketers, publishers and tech companies on how to capitalize on the data-driven media automation […]

Sift Media, publisher of such websites as Accountingweb.co.uk and HRZone.co.uk, wanted to use data to create better experiences for the reader and better results for its advertisers. It found its technology match in Cxense, which offers audience data management and analytics geared to the publisher. “It was the first solution [we came across] that came […]

Roku, the first streaming player to translate Netflix to TV, has reached the 10 million-device mark. With 1,000-plus channels ranging from free to subscription (Hulu Plus, Netflix) and on-demand services (HBOGo and WatchESPN), Roku is scaling up its ad-supported vertical. Bringing publishers and brand partners onboard in a cookieless, connected TV environment comes with its own unique challenges, […]