Technology

Sapient is a company with many faces, and revenue sources. About 70% of its business comes from the SapientNitro digital agency. Another 25% derives from Sapient Global Markets, which serves the capital and commodity market needs of clients in the financial and energy sectors. And 5% is in government services, where it has done work […]

Just two years after Federated Media Publishing founder John Battelle handed the reigns over to then president Deanna Brown so he could step back as executive chairman, Battelle is taking back the CEO position. In an official blog post, Battelle said that Brown told him that she planned to do something “smaller” and directly involving […]

Facebook has confirmed its agreement to buy Atlas from Microsoft, paving the way for a more robust demand-side offering from the company. In an interview with AdExchanger, Ads Product Director Gokul Rajaram said the primary aim is to help advertisers compare their Facebook ads with all online, and eventually offline, placements. An ad network is not […]

Maybe the Interactive Advertising Bureau should have titled its Annual Leadership Meeting, “Data, Data Everywhere And Not A Terabyte To Think.” This year’s theme was how Big Data can complement or conflict with big advertising – i.e., creative ideas. The general takeaway was that yes, the two sides can inform and influence each other, but […]

Over the past two months, the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab has released two reports highlighting the ad exchanges and networks that were placing the most advertisements on piracy sites or illegal download sites, and the brands whose ads appear on such sites. This has brought this issue to light once again, after last year’s discussion […]

In his first high profile appearance since jumping from Google to Yahoo, Henrique De Castro, the portal’s COO, took the stage on the second and final day of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Annual Leadership Meeting to showcase the company’s vision under his fellow ex-Googler, CEO Marissa Mayer. The content vision, as demonstrated by the new […]

Both major publishers like Forbes and startups like Buzzfeed have found there’s little point in trying to replicate the traditional ad model when it comes to digital. And even programmatic has its limits, in their view. In what was billed as a “debate” on the value or hype of native advertising at the Interactive Advertising […]

It has become de rigueur at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual conferences for executives to take to the stage for sessions that were half encouraging and half lecturing industry professionals for getting the science of digital marketing right, while not quite nailing down the art side of the equation. This year’s IAB Annual Leadership Meeting […]

“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 by Heather Pidgeon, VP of Services at iProspect. Imagine seamlessly delivering relevant content to customers and prospects based on their location, historical behavior, and current actions. Content that removes the boundaries […]

“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 by Jaysen Gillespie, Director of Analytics and Business Intelligence at Criteo. It is a response to an earlier AdExchanger column by Tal Keinan, CEO of AdExtent (Read it: “DSPs Vs. Personalized Retargeters. […]

AOL Advertising has hired former MediaMath marketing executive Marta Martinez to the newly-created position of Head of Sales Strategy & Operations. With AOL’s mixed display results the past few quarters — third party network dollars continue to surge, while spending on “premium” owned & operated properties strive to be better than flat — the company […]

Restaurant chain Moe’s Southwest Grill recently hired marketing agency Engauge as its media agency of record, handling a new national television campaign and the company’s foray into programmatic buying. “Moe’s is about 12 years old and we’ve just now gotten to the point where we’re collecting marketing dollars at the national level, rather than just […]

Comparison shopping service Shopzilla has unveiled a business unit called Aisle A that will focus on display ad sales and retargeting. Shopzilla, which has been around since the practical dawn of the consumer internet in 1996, says it now has the capabilities to better leverage purchase intent data aroundwide range of retail products to create a […]

“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 by Andy Atherton SVP at AppNexus. It’s the first in a series on the emergence of programmatic reserve. There has been no shortage of attention paid to programmatic reserve of late. The […]

In the two months since tech publisher IDG finished a major redesign of its PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive sites, the company is ready to expand the centerpiece of that effort: the “Homepage Hero” box. The box is intended to serve as a front door for each site, displaying a large slot called the “Content Hero,” […]

Looking at the 2012 holiday shopping season, retailers with ecommerce websites deployed more marketing technologies, including social plug-ins, than in 2011, according to data gathered from Evidon and analyzed by kbs+ Ventures, the investing arm of kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners. Kbs+ Ventures analyzed 20 retail brands including Best Buy, Old Navy, Gilt, Piperlime, Gap, […]

Publishers, marketers and agency executives are still talking about native advertising, whether it’s to say it’s hype, hope, old wine in a new bottle, or some combination.  We spoke with interactive shop veteran Adam Kleinberg, CEO of San Francisco’s Traction, about the headaches and opportunities associated with native ads and whether this model can stand […]

Video promoter startup Virool has raised a $6 million first round to help it quickly expand internationally and fulfill co-founder and CEO Alex Debelov’s plan to become the “Google AdWords” of video. “We grew from 200 to over 30,000 advertisers in 8 months ,and are going to release our own viral video that 1 million […]

Despite the benefits of RTB, ads purchased through direct sales still have the highest quality when it comes to viewability and potential risks, according to data from Integral Ad Science. In its 2012 Semiannual Review for Q3 and Q4 2012, Integral, previously known as AdSafe, showcased data related to its new TRAQ Score, a quality […]

Google, AppNexus, and PubMatic are all talking up the convergence of guaranteed and non-guaranteed media. The first solutions designed to address this convergence were private exchanges, embraced by many sellers but fewer on the buy side. Now the companies are moving forward on the next wave of features. Among the favored approaches is so-called “holistic […]

AOL’s Q4 results had a number of positives, not least of which was a return to overall revenue growth for the first time in eight long years. And yet, Q4 saw the company’s display ad dollars slip further, with numbers in that segment flat globally and down 3% in the U.S. Read the release. For […]

Steve Katelman, EVP, Omnicom Media Group. took a slightly different tack with our round-up question on “When Is A Startup No Longer A Startup?” From his agency perch, Katelman opted for defining the startup. The “startup” company became famous in the late nineties during the dot.com boom/bust, and even though those days are long behind […]

Google executives have been banging the drum on “premium programmatic” for months now, calling out the false dichotomy between automated media buys and traditional direct selling. In a discussion with Steve Sullivan, the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s VP of Ad Technology, Scott Spencer, director of Product Management at Google, offered outlines for the company’s approach, including assurances […]

Since last fall, Google has shown a more aggressive stance in challenging Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce, particularly as Facebook has also been making its own significant maneuvers in the space. Google’s $125 million acquisition of Channel Intelligence, one of its four Google Shopping launch partners, is designed in part to develop more in-house capabilities to […]

Terence Kawaja, founder and CEO at LUMA Partners, has surveyed the past few week’s notable deals — demand side platforms MediaMath’s acquisition of Akamai’s Advertising Decision Solutions (ADS) unit (which his firm helped broker); exchange platform AppNexus’ $75 million venture capital funding; and the shuttering of adBrite’s exchange business. And he sees the clear formation […]

“The Sell-Sider” is a column written by the sell-side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Esco Strong, Director, Marketplace Strategy at Microsoft. If you’re a publisher managing a sizable direct-sold, guaranteed-delivery display ads business, you’ve almost certainly been tempted by the prospect of squeezing a few more dollars out of your […]

Most media industry observers expect to see a another strong year in M&A for the Ad Tech sector. For example, a survey [PDF] of 231 top media/tech executives released last week from media investment bank Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. and Econsultancy shows an upward trend in organizations planning an acquisition in the next 12 months, […]

Although the major internet ad players – e.g., Pandora, Spotify, Last.fm – all swear by their direct sales, Xaxis, WPP’s audience buying unit, is looking to leverage audio ads as a way to get more brand campaign ad dollars within its programmatic system. “The appeal [of internet radio audio ads] is that we want to […]

“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 Josh Dreller, Director Client & Industry Solutions at Visual IQ.  Most people aren’t fans of advertising — online or offline. They’re clutter. They’re distracting. And I’m not even talking […]

No AppNexus insiders will take money off the table as the RTB pure play soaks up a new $75 million investment led by Technology Crossover Ventures. Instead, funds from the series D round will be pumped into the company in the form of new features, marketplace quality improvements, and employee development. CEO Brian O’Kelley wrote […]