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Three Ways Amazon Stays A Step Ahead On Prime Day How OTT Platforms Fit Into The Complicated TV Landscape Here’s How The Rest Of The World Is Going After Facebook, Following Its $5B FTC Fine Amazon Emerges As Google Challenger In Advertiser Perceptions SSP Report Amperity Raises $50 Million As Mar Tech Heavyweights Turn To CDPs The Rise And Fall And Rise Of The Global CMO Leadership Changes At WarnerMedia Are A Sign Of The Times For TV Networks Bain Capital To Buy Majority Stake In WPP’s Kantar For $4 Billion Zeta Takes Over PlaceIQ’s Advertising Business And Marches Into Media

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Why Is Vungle Worth $750 Million?

by Allison Schiff // Posted on Thursday, July 18th, 2019 at 12:45 pm.

When private equity firm Blackstone announced its plan this week to acquire video-focused mobile ad network Vungle, multiple sources pegged the deal at $750 million – a remarkably large price tag for a company that only raised a little over $25 million.

The question is, why so high?

Mobile gaming is massive

For one, Vungle has the potential to be a cash cow for Blackstone.

Mobile gaming is a massive business, and it’s only growing. Smartphone game revenue is on track to bring in just under $55 billion this year, according to the most recent global games market report from mobile marketing researcher Newzoo.

“Anywhere there is opportunity in a growth sector, there will inevitably be action,” said Matt Barash, head of strategy and business development at AdColony.

Advertisers are also looking to expand beyond Google and Facebook, where CPMs and CPCs have been consistently on the rise over the last couple of years.

Is 5G On A Collision Course With Privacy?

by AdExchanger // Posted on Thursday, July 18th, 2019 at 11:29 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 Kelly Anderson, vice president of data protection and privacy at Ericsson Emodo.

Just as 5G is coming into view on the horizon, there’s a trainload of new privacy regulations and initiatives gaining steam from the other direction. The timing of both may be coincidental, but it’s also consequential. The two seem to be on the same track, heading straight toward each other.

5G left the station late last year, and now it’s picking up some real speed. 5G phones are being sold in stores. 5G operators are running national ad campaigns. Early adopters are jumping on board, and it won’t be long before forward-looking marketers seek to take advantage of new 5G opportunities.

For consumers, 5G’s highly anticipated speed and low latency could enable new experiences and spark an explosion of connected devices. 5G networks, technologies and devices also may provide security protections against identity, device, content and data compromises from end-to-end.

For marketers, 5G holds great potential for improving data models and enabling more personalized communications. In the 5G future, data will be collected by a growing number of devices in the home, business locations, public gathering spots and on streets and highways – not to mention consumer phones and wearables.

The Big Story: Layser Sights

by Ryan Joe // Posted on Thursday, July 18th, 2019 at 12:35 am.

Working with Google can feel like an arms race.

Header bidding threw Google for a loop, since it took away its priority in the waterfall auction. But Google rebounded when it released a product called exchange bidding more than a year ago. Since then, it has continuously tweaked its auctions to accommodate – or control – the new normal.

Over the past year, Google gave up its last-look advantage, switched to a first-price auction and most recently instituted a bevy of changes under the umbrella of “unified pricing.”

This last change was extremely contentious among online publishers, who are concerned these changes, enacted without their input, will take away their control over their inventory.

None were more vocal than News Corp., a publisher that admittedly has always been quick to clap back at Google. Stephanie Layser, News Corp.’s VP of advertising tech and operations, wrote a scathing column this week questioning Google’s motives for enacting those changes.

Viewers Want To Add More SVOD To Their Streaming Lineups, But Competition Will Be Fierce

by Sarah Sluis // Posted on Thursday, July 18th, 2019 at 12:05 am.

Even though three-quarters of consumers already use a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, they are open to adding more – for the right content.

Viewers are willing to add an average of 1.6 more SVOD services to their current lineup, according to the 2019 Manatt, Vorhaus Digital Strategy Study. Since Disney, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, Apple and Discovery are all launching streaming services in 2020, the competition will be fierce, with the key to winning new subscribers being unique content.

The top three draws for a new SVOD service all centered on exclusive content. Half of people said they joined for a specific movie or TV series, 43% cited an original series, and one-third signed up because of the general theme of the content offered, such as anime, sports or nature.

“We are going to get to the point where [services] are going to start cannibalizing each other, and I think Netflix will remain No. 1,” said Mike Vorhaus, CEO of Vorhaus Advisors, the market research consultancy that ran the study.

Netflix’s dominance was stark in the report. Almost six in 10 people subscribe to Netflix, followed by four in 10 for Amazon Prime Video and about three in 10 for Hulu. HBO Now (15%), YouTube Red (10%) and CBS All Access (8%) followed.

Amazon Faces EU Data Inquiry; Apple Will Fund Podcasts

by AdExchanger // Posted on Thursday, July 18th, 2019 at 12:03 am.

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

The Ecom Advantage

The EU’s top antitrust regulator, Margrethe Vestager, opened an investigation into whether Amazon unfairly collects or uses data to promote its own products at the expense of other retailers or manufacturers. “Ecommerce has boosted retail competition and brought more choice and better prices,” Vestager said. “We need to ensure that large online platforms don’t eliminate these benefits through anticompetitive behavior.” The announcement came on the same day as a settlement between Amazon and the German data regulator over the platform’s treatment of third-party sellers. Amazon will face tougher rules when it comes to blocking outside products on its platform and will have to cover more costs for reimbursement in Germany, The New York Times reports. More.

Apple Makes Noise

Apple has been notoriously slow innovating its podcast platform, even though so much listening happened through its app. But that’s changing. As the hardware giant faces growing competition from apps like Spotify and Stitcher, it will start to invest in original content exclusive to its platform for the first time, Bloomberg reports. The move reflects a broader shift at Apple to monetize content and services accessed through its hardware. The company is producing a slate of movies and TV shows for its forthcoming streaming service, Apple TV+, which will launch this year. At Spotify, which has spent $400 million this year to be the second-largest podcast listening platform, shares were down 2.7% on the news. More.

Netflix Flatly Dismisses Ad Rumors

by Allison Schiff // Posted on Wednesday, July 17th, 2019 at 5:04 pm.

Holding your breath on ads coming to Netflix? Time to let it out.

There will be no advertising on Netflix anytime soon if ever, the company said in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday in advance of its second quarter earnings call.

“We, like HBO, are advertising free. That remains a deep part of our brand proposition,” the letter stated.

“When you read speculation that we are moving into selling advertising, be confident that this is false.”

Netflix is eschewing ads not because they aren’t potentially lucrative, but because it sees the user experience as more important than any potential revenue.

“We believe we will have a more valuable business in the long term by staying out of competing for ad revenue and instead entirely focusing on competing for viewer satisfaction,” Netflix said in its letter.

Alternatively, advertising-supported streaming services, like the one NBC is cooking up with content it's removing from Netflix, such as "Friends" and "The Office," are hoping that viewers will have room in their hearts for a platform that doesn’t gouge their wallet.

Podcast: How Accenture Interactive Gate-Crashed The Agency Business

by Zach Rodgers // Posted on Wednesday, July 17th, 2019 at 3:28 pm.

If you’re still confused about what’s motivating global consulting firms to move in on agency turf, who better to explain than a longtime holding company executive who defected to the other side?

Nikki Mendonça, global president of Accenture Interactive Operations, spent 28 years in marketing services, including 16 years at Omnicom. She left in 2018 to join fast-growing Accenture Interactive as head of its activation arm.

“When someone like Accenture calls, you take it very seriously,” Mendonça says in this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks. “I knew that they were encroaching in on the marketing ecosystem with some energy.”

Three Ways Amazon Stays A Step Ahead On Prime Day

by James Hercher // Posted on Wednesday, July 17th, 2019 at 3:06 pm.

Prime Day has grown out of Amazon to become a general shopping holiday.

Monday and Tuesday were the third ever two-day period with more than $2 billion in online shopping in the U.S., aside from the Thanksgiving holiday week, according to Adobe data. Only Memorial Day weekend this year and Labor Day 2018 had similar spending results.

But even if other retailers have learned to harness the shopper whirlwind that Amazon spins every year, the Prime Day bonanza shows how the ecommerce giant is pulling away from other retailers in terms of the data and deals it can offer to brands.

AdExchanger took a look at some of the examples that cropped up during Prime Day this year.

Brands Amazon sells feel the most love

Practically any seller can slash prices, pony up on promotional spend and get in front of a lot of Prime Day shoppers. But Amazon’s top first-party merchants form the most eye-grabbing deals.

Those brands, like Apple and KitchenAid, put Amazon in charge of promotions and fulfillment for their sales on the platform. They make products that are rarely discounted online or in stores, but Amazon knocked hundreds of dollars off on some items for Prime Day.

Those first-party merchant deals show how strong Amazon’s pitch to a brand can be for premium and upscale products, where Amazon can over a day or two massively extend the company’s reach to millions of new customers who were interested but previously priced out, said Eric Heller, Wunderman Thompson Commerce’s EVP of marketplace services.

This dynamic also makes it harder for smaller or third-party merchants to get attention when some of the largest brands in the world redouble their promotions on Amazon and commit to working directly with Amazon, said Connor Folley, co-founder and CEO of the Amazon ad tech startup Downstream.

Omnicom Sees Long-Term Risks In Owning A Data Company

by Alison Weissbrot // Posted on Wednesday, July 17th, 2019 at 1:28 pm.

Omnicom does not intend to buy a data company, even after Publicis Groupe bought Epsilon ($4.4 billion), IPG bought Acxiom ($3.2 billion) and Dentsu Aegis bought Merkle ($1.5 billion).

Omnicom steadfastly believes that owning a data company would compromise its neutrality when serving advertisers.

“Our systems have always been open and unbiased,” CEO John Wren told investors on the company’s Q2 earnings call Wednesday. “We think that’s critical for us to get the best results for our clients.”

Omnicom has taken a different path from Publicis, IPG and Dentsu. It began investing in data and analytics 10 years ago via its data and tech group Annalect, which was recently dispersed into Omnicom’s agency brands. Last year Omnicom launched a platform that lets agencies plan and buy media around the customer journey, and it continues to invest in talent to run those platforms, said holding company CFO Phil Angelastro.

He added that despite those investments, Omnicom hasn’t spent nearly what Publicis and IPG paid for Epsilon and Acxiom respectively.

Investing in internal solutions also adheres to Omnicom’s long-standing philosophy of renting vs. owning tech and data. By operating neutrally, Omnicom gives clients the flexibility to work with the systems and data providers they want and switch easily as the ecosystem evolves.

“We don't need to own [data] to connect to data on behalf of our clients,” Wren said.

Ad Ops Manager Turned Ad Tech Founder Solves Viewability For Publishers

by Sarah Sluis // Posted on Wednesday, July 17th, 2019 at 10:44 am.

Optimera increases site viewability solely from a publisher’s point of view.

The tech optimizes campaigns toward the most viewable placements in real time – key in an era where buyers demand highly viewable ads, but publishers lack the technology to meet these demands in a way that’s sustainable for their businesses.

“The market has failed the publisher,” said Optimera founder and CEO Keith Candiotti. “So much of innovation is focused on the buy side – ad tech and mar tech – [and] it’s left the publisher without a voice. We solely focus on the publisher standpoint and pub tech.”

Candiotti is an ad ops manager turned founder and CEO. Keeping campaign viewability high is a job that falls to publisher ad ops, and he built the viewability technology to make his own job at the New York Daily News easier. Optimera was sponsored by the Daily News Innovation Lab.

An early test of his tech increased viewability for a campaign he was managing from 40% to over 90%.

Now four years old, Optimera works with more than a dozen publishers, including the New York Daily News, McClatchy, Bustle and LoveToKnow Media. Last year it grew revenue by a factor of eight and clients by a factor of seven. It claims to be on track to finish this year with even stronger numbers.

Optimera only hired its second employee last year, and unlike some of its peers, it never took venture capital funding to chase unsustainable growth. It also charges a monthly fee that’s a fraction of what third-party measurement companies charge, Candiotti said.