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Zeta Global Buys Sizmek DSP And Rocket Fuel DMP Assets For $36 Million Founding OpenAP Member WarnerMedia Pulls Out Breaking Down Epsilon’s Stack: What’s In It For Publicis? Publishers Lash Out Against Google Over 'Unified Pricing' Changes These Are The Supply-Side Ad Servers Trying To Win The Next Generation Of TV What First-Party Data Does Epsilon Actually Have? A+E Networks Connects Direct Sold Inventory To Programmatic Disney In One Buy: How Disney Is Unifying Its Advertising Approach Sizmek’s Bankruptcy Is Changing How The Supply Side Manages DSP Debts

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As The Feds Blaze A Trail On Differential Privacy, Will Ad Tech Follow?

by AdExchanger // Posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2019 at 12:05 am.

"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 Victor Wong, CEO at Thunder Experience Cloud.

Some might not consider the US government to be a technological innovator. Yet as it arguably tracks more information about US citizens than any other tech company, the US Census Bureau is pioneering a new form of data privacy protection called “differential privacy.”

The tech industry has started to take notice, with Uber and Apple both implementing differential privacy into their technology. Perhaps it’s time for ad tech to follow.

So what is differential privacy?

The Future Of TV Depends On More Frenemies And Fewer Enemies

by AdExchanger // Posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2019 at 12:05 am.

"On TV And Video" is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.

Today’s column is written by Jay Prasad, chief strategy officer at VideoAmp.

In a multibillion-dollar ad market where digital will finally overtake traditional ad spend, TV remains the highest-valued medium, particularly as it evolves to become an even more efficient marketing platform.

And that’s why the battle to drive that evolution – whether it’s in the ad tech fire sales and patent scuffles, or the behemoth content bidding wars – continues to get bloodier.

But, what if the most lucrative path forward is less about the fight and more about better alignment?

For the real vision of TV as a platform to succeed, a few elements must continue to take shape. Building a new TV marketplace requires collaboration in the development of technology, processes and policies between players that are sometimes cooperative – but are more often competitive.

US Census Case Heads To Supreme Court; After Agency Cuts, Unilever Ploughs Savings Back Into Marketing

by AdExchanger // Posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2019 at 12:03 am.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

Called Into Question

The Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in a case disputing plans for the 2020 census. The current administration introduced a census question on whether the survey taker is or is not a citizen. It would be the first decade since 1950 that the census included a citizenship question, the Associated Press reports. The U.S. Census Bureau has kept citizenship out of the survey because it discourages immigrants or Spanish-speaking residents from participating, and the census is tasked with establishing a full tally, not just of citizens. Marketers and the ad industry are impacted as well, since market research and media ratings are often benchmarked against the census. Marketers and measurement firms would have to invest even more time and money to make sure they account for younger, more diverse audiences, if the census is skewed. More.

Spring Cleaning

Consumer goods giant Unilever is taking the roughly $337 million in savings it’s made from agency cutbacks over the past two years and funneling it right back into marketing spend. The amount Unilever has been able to save from agency cutbacks increased by $56 million last year, The Drum reports. Unilever has been designating more work to its in-house marketing hubs, U-Studio and U-Entertainment, and consolidating its agency roster by region. Unilever has also stood up 28 so-called “people data centers” around the world where it aims to drive one-to-one marketing at scale. "Agencies shouldn't be enabling companies like ours to [build their own data centres], they should be ahead of us and they should offer us that service themselves," said former Unilever CMO Keith Weed. More.

Zeta Global Buys Sizmek DSP And Rocket Fuel DMP Assets For $36 Million

by James Hercher // Posted on Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 5:44 pm.

Sizmek will sell its data management platform, which it acquired with Rocket Fuel, and its demand-side platform to the marketing technology cloud Zeta Global on Friday in a deal worth up to $36 million.

If the deal is approved, Zeta will pay $5 million in stock and $10 million in cash, with another $20 million or so on the table depending how effectively Sizmek pays off its other debts.

Sizmek has been fielding offers on other parts of its business, like its core ad server accounts, the PointRoll dynamic creative company and Peer39, a contextual targeting solution. But it makes sense to close and announce the DSP and DMP deal as early as possible.

Many exchanges and supply-side companies stopped accepting bids from Sizmek after it filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago, since they didn’t want to take on more credit if Sizmek defaults on those payments.

Zeta has the bankroll to convince ad tech partners that Sizmek won’t miss payments moving forward. The company raised $140 million in 2017, bringing its total funding to $380 million, and is profitable, said CEO David Steinberg.

The number of impressions available on the Sizmek DSP dropped from 284,145,765 the week before its bankruptcy announcement to 60,607,433 earlier this week, according to a court filing on Friday.

Founding OpenAP Member WarnerMedia Pulls Out

by Allison Schiff // Posted on Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 5:08 pm.

WarnerMedia has exited the OpenAP Consortium.

It’s a major blow to the TV industry’s attempt to jointly promote audience-based buying on television by creating standardized segments and measurement across their networks.

Turner was one of the consortium’s original members in 2017, along with Fox and Viacom. NBCU joined the following year.

But now that WarnerMedia is owned by AT&T, it doesn’t feel like playing along anymore.

“As our company has transformed, our advanced advertising strategy has evolved,” WarnerMedia said in a statement. “As a result, we are withdrawing from OpenAP. We appreciate what OpenAP has supported to this point in widening the adoption of audience-based buying on television.”

WarnerMedia declined to comment further for this story.

Reading between the lines of that kiss-off: We have Xandr now, but thanks anyway.

How Will Branding Survive In A ‘World Without Ads’?

by AdExchanger // Posted on Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 9:21 am.

“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 Gary Ellis is the co-founder and COO of Remesh.

In recent months, Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Marc Pritchard has shared his prediction that we’re evolving into a "world without ads."

Thanks to the rise of new technology, the environment and landscape in which brands connect with consumers is drastically changing. Pritchard predicted that brand engagement in these new environments will evolve as well, resulting in an ad-free world.

That might cause panic among people who work in advertising but sound blissful to everyone else. Realistically, is it achievable?

In the current landscape, we’re increasingly experiencing ad-free environments. SiriusXM was arguably the pioneer of the ad-free, subscription-based model. Today, the rise of ad-free environments on streaming platforms and voice-enabled speakers, along with ad blocking tools and a move away from traditional broadcast media, suggest that a future world without ads is already here.

Breaking Down Epsilon’s Stack: What’s In It For Publicis?

by Alison Weissbrot // Posted on Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 12:30 am.

Publicis acquired Epsilon on Sunday primarily for the latter’s expertise in working with first-party client data. But Publicis got a lot more with Epsilon’s hefty $4.4 billion price tag.

Epsilon is best known for its services related to data management, email marketing and loyalty platforms. But Epsilon also gives Publicis an affiliate marketing network (Commission Junction), a third-party data marketplace, a retail data co-op (Abacus) and an ad tech platform (Conversant) built from multiple bolt-on acquisitions.

Publicis has made it clear that the biggest value add for its business comes from Epsilon’s experience working with first-party data.

Epsilon’s CEO, Bryan Kennedy, also pointed to the breadth of offerings Publicis is getting through the deal: data, tech and “scaled platforms that activate data built around a proprietary identity resolution technology linked to all of our offerings.”

But it’s a lot of stuff, and even though it’s still early – the integration plans aren’t set yet and the deal hasn’t officially closed – the industry is already wondering what Epsilon’s smorgasbord of assets really bring to the table for Publicis, and what might be spun off.

Complexity Vs. Simplicity: Which Way Will The Sell Side Swing?

by AdExchanger // Posted on Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 12:05 am.

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community.

Today’s column is by Paul Bannister, co-founder and executive vice president at CafeMedia.

Over the last few years, there has been a steady trend toward complexity on the sell side. The growth of programmatic unleashed an explosion of innovation, with new vendors emerging to solve every potential issue.

Header bidding exchanges were only the beginning. A second wave of wrappers, analytics platforms, DMPs, dynamic flooring systems, ad quality vendors and other companies emerged. And the technical and statistical skills (and teams) required to implement and effectively use these tools continues to increase with every new release.

Now, for the first time in quite a while, there are changes on the horizon that could potentially simplify the way things work for publishers. Will the wind blow back in this direction? Or is complexity here to stay?

Comic: Get Educated

by Nate Neal // Posted on Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 12:04 am.

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem...

Facebook 'Unintentionally' Uploads 1.5 Million People's Email Contacts; Chinese Apps Commit Heavy-Duty Ad Fraud

by AdExchanger // Posted on Friday, April 19th, 2019 at 12:03 am.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

Oops, Facebook Did It Again

Facebook has harvested 1.5 million email contacts without user knowledge or consent since May 2016. The company said the data was “unintentionally uploaded” through a security feature that asked users to enter their email addresses to verify their identity, Business Insider reports. The feature, which has been discontinued, did not give users a way to opt out of having the information collected. Facebook couldn’t read the contents of emails from the addresses it collected, but was able to use the information to enhance its ad targeting and user identity graph (but of course). It’s unclear how many people were actually impacted as one email address can have hundreds of contacts stored in its account. Facebook will notify all 1.5 million affected users over the next few days and delete their emails from the system. More.

Play Dirty

Six apps developed by DU Group, a Chinese mobile company spun out of Baidu last year, have been committing ad fraud and abusing user data, BuzzFeed reports. The apps took advantage of AdMob and MoPub, the mobile ad networks of Google and Twitter, respectively, by dropping code that simulated an ad being clicked or an app installation. The apps also did not disclose that data was being sent back to DU Group in China, in violation of Play Store policy. This isn’t the first mobile ad fraud operation connected to large Chinese tech companies. Last year, BuzzFeed reported that eight apps developed by Cheetah Mobile and Kika Tech, two large Chinese mobile startups, were committing attribution fraud, claiming unearned credit for app installations. More. The Android Developers blog posted an update with tips on how to implement a more rigorous vetting process to “prevent bad-faith developers from gaming our systems.”