Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
isocket Launches Marketplace, DFP Plug-In
From its company blog, isocket CEO John Ramey announced a new marketplace for display ads called BuyAds.com, which leverages the company’s plug and play ad serving system for publishers selling guaranteed display advertising inventory. Read more here on the isocket blog. But, what may be even more intriguing considering the buzz on AdExchanger.com lately is isocket’s new DoubleClick For Publisher plug-in. Is this part of the Google Display Network reserve solution? CEO Ramey writes, “For the last year Google and isocket have been locked in a lab cooking up a batch of awesome. Many publishers use DoubleClick’s Dart for Publishers ad server (part of which was formerly called Google Ad Manager). But unfortunately those ad servers don’t make it easy enough to do direct ad sales.” But, now they can sell direct via isocket. Sounds like the makings of GDN Reserve to me. isocket won’t confirm it though. Read more on VentureBeat.
More On Yahoo! Earnings
Citibank analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated his “hold” on Yahoo! stock yesterday after earnings came out the day before. Mahaney stated in his Wall-Street-speak: “Valuation remains intriguing, but we’re still waiting for convincing Top-Line Turnaround Story Proof. Opex discipline is clearly on display. Catalysts (Asia assets liquidation) are clearly identifiable. Problem is that they have been for a very long time… In the meantime, the MSFT Search transition is not going smoothly. YHOO’s Display seg is growing, tho underperforming IAB benchmark, and competition is mounting. We believe YHOO shares have upwards bias, but we don’t have real conviction. Perhaps May 25th Analyst Day will help.” Need more Yahoo! earnings review – read Danny Sullivan’s exhaustive analysis of Yahoo!’s flagging search revenues on Search Engine Land. And, ClickZ analyzes the “look-back” window changes for Yahoo! search to stop “search share bleeding.”
Ad.ly Removed From Facebook
The party is over. Ad.ly and its celebrity social ad network has been booted from the Facebook ecosystem as Inside Facebook’s John Constine writes, “[Ad.ly] was violating Section 3.1 of [Facebook]’s terms of service which dictates ‘You will not send or otherwise post unauthorized commercial communications (such as spam) on Facebook.’” And, don’t you forget it. Read more.
The Cupertino crew made record “coin” in fiscal Q2 2011 as All Things D’s John Paczkowski downloads the earnings report and says Apple “reported earnings per share of $6.40 on revenues of $24.67 billion–an 83 percent increase over the same period a year ago.” Read it. Translating the EPS, that’s $5.99 billion of profit for the quarter (To give some perspective, Google made $2.3 billion in profit, Yahoo! made $190 million). With one quarter’s earnings, Apple might be able to purchase the LUMA Partners ad tech ecosystem – maybe LUMA Partners, too? Read the Apple earnings release.
When Your Ad Network Is Commodotized
Upstream Group’s Doug Weaver turns his attention to the ad network crowd and says on his company’s blog and warns about the need for change: “Commoditization is not something you can outrun and you can’t negotiate with it. It is ruthless and unforgiving. It can only be avoided through intellectual and strategic leadership. Now is the moment when network leaders will define themselves.” Define more here.
Managing The Lifecycle
In an interview with MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan, AudienceScience CEO Jeff Hirsch says that the update to his company’s DMP (data management platform) will store data for more than 12 weeks as marketers who “once talked about ad targeting — how to serve up the perfect ad to the correct person” now talk about “how they can increase their understanding of consumers’ behavior online.” AudienceScience is calling this “lifecycle management.” Read more.
Magazine Pubs Digital Struggle
PaidContent’s David Kaplan looks at the struggling magazine publisher category and how they’re grappling with online strategy. He writes, “One executive at a major publisher told me: ‘We shouldn’t be doing magazine apps. It’s a different format entirely from a print publication. We should be spending the resources to come up with special extensions of the brand.’ The source added: ‘Consider the fact that iTunes doesn’t even have a dedicated “magazine section,” so we’re effectively competing with Angry Birds and Flipboard at the same time.” Flip more here.
20 Billion Served
Behavioral privacy icon provider Evidon announced that it has served over 20 billion ad impressions with the behavioral “i”. Read more. From the Evidon blog: “Over 80 brand and 20 network/DSP leaders are using our assurance platform to deliver the DAA’s Advertising Option Icon with their ads and empower consumers with enhanced notice and choice around how their information is used online.” Read a little more.
In-App Mobile Ads
AT&T has decided it will compete agains Google’s mobile ad network AdMob as it plans to provide its own “in-app local ads.” Forbes writer Elizabeth Woyke claims, “It should (…) let developers earn more money from in-app ads because companies tend to pay more for locally-targeted mobile ads, believing they are more likely to translate into sales.” Read more.
eBay Targeting Local, Mobile
Yesterday, eBay announced that it had acquired Where, “a hyper-local advertising network that gives people relevant, real-time information and deals from businesses. The company also has a popular mobile app that allows people to find personalized deals and local recommendations.” Read more on the PayPal blog.
Agency Reports Earnings, Too
Agency holding company Omnicom reported its Q1 2011 earnings and they came out a-ok according to Wall Street analysts as the company reported a profit of $201.9 million. Morningstar’s Michael Corty told Dow Jones Newswires: “The fact there’s a deceleration in organic growth might concern some short-term investors, but from our point of view, the company was unlikely to continue that level of organic growth into this year given the comparison is more difficult in 2011,” he said. Read more.
Retargeting Without Cookies
Danny Wong gives five ways to retarget without cookies in a post on VentureBeat including using communities, email, twitter, guess blog posts and something he calls “Repeat Features.” He writes, “Print and web publications have some of the most loyal followers, with some readers reading every word or visiting many times per week (or even day). Therefore, it’s in your best interest to try to get editorial features in the same outlets several times. They act as trust-builders with that audience.” Read more.
M&A Aftermath
In a post on The Business Insider titled “Why The Most Important Part Of An Acquisition Is What Happens After,” Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry writes that there are three reasons why what happens after a company gets acquired is so important: “The best tech entrepreneurs are motivated by vision, not money, and are allergic to bureaucracy; Things move so fast and barriers to entry are so low that you need excellent execution over the long run; and The way your previous acquisitions work out are a huge signal to the startups you may need to acquire in the future.” Read more.
Getting VC Investment
Mark Suster shares snippets of a recent interview with First Round Capital’s Howard Morgan, who reveals how his firm whittles down applicants and decides on investment among other tops. He says, “First Round Capital receives about 2500 submissions each year. From those, 1000 get a quick no because it’s not the right fit. The next 1500 get a 10-15 minute phone call to decide if it is worth following up on. Then 500 of those get a one hour meeting. 100 get serious due diligence where the entrepreneur meets with several people from the firm. Ultimately, only 25 will be chosen.” Read the whole interview.
But Wait. There’s More!
- Martini Media, NetSeer Team to Target Richest Audience Online – press release
- 24/7 Real Media Receives IAB Ad Network & Exchange Quality Assurance Certification – press release
- Manhattan’s Tech Start-Ups Settle in the Flatiron District and Chelsea – The New York Times
