Third-Party Valuation; Rating Online

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Third-Party Valuation

How much is your data worth? Merkle is launching a new product called Merkle’s Digital Data Optimization Lab, which brings data valuation and optimization to CRM for its clients. Ozgur Dogan, SVP & GM of Merkle’s Data Solutions Group, tells AdExchanger the announcement is more than just its data marketplace Brilig (acquired in 2012) being formally integrated into Merkle’s product offering. In answer to whether this is a data management platform (DMP), Dogan said, “This could be one of the solutions that powers a DMP, but our focus here was to look at all the different third-party data sources that are available in the marketplace and leveraging the first-party data we have access to – as well as our analytics – to determine the value of third-party data sources.” Read the release.

Rating Online

Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger claims Nielsen is going to be the clear winner of the online measurement derby, in spite of comScore’s efforts. MediaPost’s David Goetzl quotes Juenger from a research note: “When faced with two multi-platform offerings (comScore and Nielsen), one of which is tied to the TV currency (Nielsen) – as long as the two products are reasonably comparable, we believe Nielsen will win.” Read more.

More iRadio Rumors

Apple will indeed be offering advertising on its yet-to-be-announced streaming music service, says Ad Age. The ads will be sold through iAds, and there will be an option to purchase each song directly from iTunes, according to the article. Nobody from Apple has commented on the new product yet, but they are expected to announce it at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference. Read more.

Search Is Display

Search results are getting more visual as Google told advertisers that you can add images to your ads for search engine results – called “image extensions.” Read it. It is well-known that pictures next text ads helps drive click-throughs, and Google has already enabled images for Product Listing Ads, for example. Googler Awaneesh Verma explains on the Inside AdWords blog, “More than one in six searches on Google today provide results with visual content. Image extensions will show in some cases when we determine that a search is likely for visual content. For example, it is more likely that your image extensions will show for a query like luxury car designs than locations of nearby car dealerships.”

The Video Of Mobile

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But Are They Really Integral?; Don’t Pontificate, Verificate

Digital video is a hot topic in advertising, so it’s no surprise that Google’s YouTube tripled mobile sales in the past six months, according to a Bloomberg news article. Of course, the challenge is keeping consumers engaged enough to watch pre-roll ads on their mobile devices. “People have less patience on the phone; consumers have become more task-oriented. The ads have to be entertaining and there’s a higher bar to some extent,” said Julie Ask, an analyst at Forrester Research. Read more.

The Intent Of Mobile

The abacus continues to burn at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Followings its Q1 report with the IAB on digital ad spend, Multichannel News’ Mike Farrell brings word of PwC’s “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2013-2017.” At an event in NYC yesterday, PwC partner Sean DeWinter said, “77% of Internet searches are done with a mobile device in the presence of a fixed PC or a laptop. People reach for their mobile device even before they look at the browser on their laptop,” according to Farrell. Read more. There’s a lot of intent in mobile.

Contextual Is Back!

Oliver Jacob of local ad firm Vantage Local shares details of recent display ad research on Search Engine Land. He begins, “We challenge the hypothesis that big data analytics and behavioral targeting are the next frontier for locally-focused marketers by presenting data from 28 display advertising campaigns…” Contextual FTW? Read more.

But Wait, There’s More!