Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Private Exchanges
OpenX has announced a deal with mobile device manufacturer Samsung to supply the company with a mobile, private ad exchange infrastructure called “the Samsung AdHub Market, Powered by OpenX.” It’s scheduled to launch in the second-half 2012. The real-time biddable exchange “enables advertisers worldwide to purchase mobile inventory from mobile developers and Samsung Electronics within a closed marketplace environment, allowing easy targeting of desired audiences,” according to a release. Read it. OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan tells The Wall Street Journal, “‘This is the first time any device manufacturer has entered the ad tech space in this way. It is becoming very clear to the principals in the mobile space that advertising is going to be a very important part of the revenue mix.'” If advertisers can use a device’s unique identifier and target across devices, that might be especially compelling. Read more (subscription). Samsung previously made a similar announcement with SmartTV apps in January. Google bought Motorola, Singtel bought Amobee, Samsung is getting into the ad business, etc. etc.. Mobile devices love ads and vice versa.
Do-Not-Track Review
Reuters takes a look online ad targeting in a feature article that reviews privacy regulation and Do-Not-Track’s impact both in the U.S. and Europe. Reuters Claire Davenport writes, “You only know these trackers are at work if you read the fine print. The New York Times has a disclaimer saying it hires WebTrends and Audience Science to interpret its readers’ interests, and Britain’s Guardian newspaper says it pays Criteo and Quantcast, among others, to do the same.” Read more.
Going ‘Round The Apple
In an Apple UDID end-around, TRUSTe has released a new tool which provides opt-out for mobile tracking for consumers in mobile applications. Or, if the consumer does not opt-out, advertisers can use TRUSTe can to target in-app. MediaPost’s Wendy Davis quotes TRUSTe CEO Chris Babel (AdExchanger Q&A 2011) on the new tool, “…Consumers who install the identifier can later effectively delete the data associated with their devices by ‘renewing’ or ‘revoking’ it. Consumers who ‘renew’ the identifier will receive a new one that maintains their opt-out preferences, but isn’t tied to their old identifier — and, therefore, can’t be linked to cookie-like data previously associated with their devices.” Millennial Media, Jumptap and others have signed on. Read more. And, read the release.
On ClickZ, Hollis Thomases taps Joanna O’Connell of Forrester Research about what media planners need to know about programmatic buying. O’Connell answers why media planners are having a tough time thusly: “Change is hard and scary. Plus, frankly, planners weren’t hired to be technologists or quants. Probably most of them are thinking, ‘Why am I not getting to work on the interesting custom brand building stuff?’ not, ‘Oooh, I love logging into platforms, pulling levers and looking at data.'” Read it.
Brick, Mortar, DSPs
Retailigence which assists brick-and-mortar retailers with their local, digital marketing initiatives announced a new mobile targeting capability in partnership with DataXu called AdPOP. Retailigence explains in the release that by using DSP DataXu’s platform, “AdPOP will deliver the first programmatic buying advertising solution that dynamically embeds local store inventory data into mobile display ad creative while targeting ads to nearby points of purchase (POP). Read more.
ValueClick Taps Dotomi CEO
Former Dotomi CEO John Guiliani ascend to the COO role at ValueClick. According to a release, “Reporting to chief executive officer James R. Zarley, Mr. Giuliani will oversee multiple U.S. ValueClick businesses, including: the ValueClick Media and Dotomi online media businesses; the Commission Junction affiliate marketing business; and the Mediaplex technology business.” Giuliani could be the next CEO there. This move is an internal affirmation of not only the Dotomi acquisition but the direction of the company going forward – data-driven, addressable media that leverages core ValueClick assets. Read more.
Compliance Touchstone
DoubleVerify has released its new Trust Index, which has increasingly become touchstone for buy-side media and tech companies looking to say that, according to certain “brand-safe” metrics, they are compliant to the client’s requirements. DoubleVerify notes “the winners” from the “ad platform” group: Mediabrands Audience Platform’s Cadreon, MediaMath, and WPP Group’s Xaxis.” Read the release. And, download the Trust Index (pay with some PII).
Name Change
XA.net has changed its name to Optim.al as the demand-side platform aligns itself with the name for its optimization technology for Facebook ads and social media advertising. Founder and CEO Rob Leathern proclaims in the release, “…only by harnessing both the addressable interest-graph and the evolving social-graph that ad-buying can truly be ‘optimal’!” Read more. Optim.al, which hasn’t taken much VC funding, remains a candidate to get gobbled up by a company looking to add social buying to their end-to-end solution.
Atherton To AppNexus
Former Brand.net COO and co-Founder Andy Atherton has taken a position at AppNexus as SVP of Strategic Accounts. AppNexus President Michael Rubenstein unleashes the praise in a release, “Andy Atherton is a star in the world of digital advertising. (…) This hire also underscores AppNexus’ ongoing commitment to building the best leadership team in digital advertising, full stop.” This is the second, recent, high-profile hire by AppNexus from the ad network sector as the company hired former Collective sales SVP Andrew Kraft (LinkedIn) as its VP of biz dev in February. Atherton will open a San Francisco office for AppNexus – no word on his commute time. Read the release.
Audience Targeting Twitter
GraphEffect announced extended functionality for its AudieceBoost tech which now enables Twitter ad audience targeting. From the release, brands can “uncover new interest targets for their Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts. American Express and Digitas beta tested the new offering during last month’s successful American Express Twitter Sync campaign.” Read more. Also, GraphEffect offers a basic how-to on advertising on Twitter. Get it here (pay with some PII).
But Wait. There’s More!
- Mortar Data, Hadoop for the Rest of Us, Gets Seed Funding – All Things D
- Amazon Tests In-App Purchases to Challenge Apple, Google – Bloomberg
- FreeWheel Announces Multi-Year Digital and Mobile Ad Management Agreement With NBCUniversal – press release
- ExactTarget study shows discrepancy in consumer purchasing drivers – eConsultancy
- Altitude Digital Partners Launches the World’s First Video and Display Supply Side Platform – press release
- What Is Big Data — And How Does It Matter To Marketing? – Max Kalehoff on MediaPost
