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The GDPR Butterfly Effect: What Comes After The Agency M&A Spree?

by AdExchanger // Posted on Friday, October 20th, 2017 at 10:50 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 Tobin Ireland, co-founder and CEO at Smartpipe.

When it comes to adding agencies to their portfolios, the major media groups are certainly not afraid to spend big. There were 398 acquisitions in 2016 with a total investment of $14 billion, according to consultancy R3. The Big Six – WPP, Dentsu, Havas, Publicis, IPG and Omnicom – were responsible for 89 acquisitions, at a value of more than $3.3 billion.

Figures through September showed 291 acquisitions this year. And in this game of agency supermarket sweep, many of the targets come from the data, digital and programmatic aisle.

But while collecting emergent businesses has always been the no-brainer route to revenue growth and new capabilities that – hopefully – future-proof the holding company, some regulatory changes may cast those shiny new purchases in a different light.

For instance, after May 2018, any company processing the personal data of EU citizens will need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a strict law that outlines how personal information should be used. And, as most global corporations have European subsidiaries or clients, the GDPR butterfly effect will likely reach them, too.

This might be less of a problem if global media, marketing and advertising holding companies had a track record of creating tight command-and-control structures for their operating companies or driving uniform organizational culture and operating models across each of their subsidiaries. But they don’t do that for very good reasons: They are creative-led businesses, which generate value with a diverse corporate portfolio.

IBM’s Agency Pitch Goes Straight To The C-Suite

by Kelly Liyakasa // Posted on Friday, October 20th, 2017 at 6:00 am.

Unlike at a traditional agency, which typically services the brand marketer, IBM Interactive Experience (iX) has a direct inroad to CEOs.

Clients undergoing massive transformation will often hire IBM to rethink commerce or marketing – and those conversations trickle down to IMB iX to put into practice, said Robert Schwartz, global head of agency services at IBM iX.

But Schwartz, who served for years as a global managing director at WPP and marketing director for AT&T, says tactics around cognitive, AI and design thinking are increasingly entering media discussions.

Schwartz spoke with AdExchanger about how IBM iX’s pitch has evolved over the years.

AdExchanger: What does the agency services team at IBM iX focus on?

ROBERT SCHWARTZ: I lead a team of strategists, designers and everyone who does our experience transformation work, as well as manage the day-in and day-out competitive intersection with global digital agencies.

Just within my practice, there are about 3,900 people with about 35 studios around the world. One of the things we’re working on now, which we haven’t rolled out yet, is figuring out what the IBM and iX approach to creativity is and how we replicate it around the world.

The 10/90 Rule: The Media Industry’s Future Business Model

by AdExchanger // Posted on Friday, October 20th, 2017 at 12:05 am.

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

Today's column is written by Mark Grether, CEO at Sizmek.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Every company is becoming a tech company,” but it seems we’re moving past that notion, with every company now becoming a media company.

It’s clear that the content consumed by audiences must be relevant, and it’s up to brands to ensure it’s rigorously curated with purpose. The more insights available when delivering content to a specific consumer, the more value both parties receive.

With this in mind, organizations across industries are voraciously searching for the next best strategy to enhance interactions with their respective customers. Some companies are taking steps to restructure their business model, making first-party data creation, aggregation and analysis critical components.

It’s a critical strategy that will help companies maximize the impact of first- and third-party content through a modern business model.

Comic: GDPR Compliance

by Nate Neal // Posted on Friday, October 20th, 2017 at 12:04 am.

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

Amazon Offers Glitzy Brand Pages; Fraud Found On Sports Sites

by AdExchanger // Posted on Friday, October 20th, 2017 at 12:03 am.

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

Welcome Shopper Marketing Dollars

Amazon is letting brands enhance their product pages with widescreen videos and interactive displays, Ad Age reports. The new feature, called Premium Pages, costs $500,000 per year, per brand, and allows marketers to take advantage of a full-screen video experience on the platform. "The industry talks a lot about virtual shelf space," said Evan Hanlon, VP of strategy and platforms at GroupM. "They have to make sure to optimize that presence like they would at any grocery store or retailer. People have to take that deathly seriously now at Amazon." Bose is already buying. More.

Lost In The Jungle

In other Amazon news, the company has officially started its partnership with Kohl’s, where store locations will accept Amazon product returns, and will also include in-store space dedicated to Amazon products like the Echo speaker. Walmart, meanwhile, gave a peek at a product it’s working on to offer other retail brands dedicated space on its site. Walmart is pitching the idea as an anti-Amazon coalition, though Lord & Taylor is the only seller not owned by Walmart known to be considering a deal, reports The Wall Street Journal. More. The new retail battleground is, uh…the old retail battleground.

Podcast: Who Doesn't Envy Hulu?

by Zach Rodgers // Posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2017 at 4:39 pm.

Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here.

As big brands seeking younger audiences move TV budgets online, some have been put off by digital's triple threat: brand safety, viewability and fraud.

Hulu is there for them.

Hulu basically offers the benefits of TV in a digital buy, according to Doug Fleming, Hulu’s head of advanced TV. Seventy-seven percent of Hulu viewing happens on a TV device, offering advertisers the creative impact of television with the data advantages of digital.

"Because we've always been able to talk TV, that money is moving toward us," Fleming says in the latest episode of AdExchanger Talks. "We are the first stop for those replacement dollars."

Hulu is group owned by network rivals ABC, Fox, Turner and NBCU, and the joint venture's durability (it's nine years old) testifies to the seriousness of their project. Hulu now reaches 47 million people, and 32 million see its ads. Once known as "the best of last night's TV," the company is now winning accolades for its original programming, including eight Emmys this year for “The Handmaid's Tale.”

Senators Crack Down On Facebook And Other Platforms With A Bill To Regulate Online Political Ads

by Allison Schiff // Posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2017 at 3:54 pm.

If lawmakers have anything to do with it, political ads on Facebook, Google, Twitter and other online platforms may soon be subject to the same disclosure requirements as traditional political advertising.

Senators introduced a bipartisan bill on Thursday to do just that, prompted by revelations of Russian meddling before and during the 2016 US presidential election. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) are sponsoring the bill with support from John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Dubbed the Honest Ads Act, the proposed legislation aims to make online platforms disclose paid political ads. Broadcast, radio and print publishers have long been required to publicly share this information.

Identical companion legislation was introduced in the House by Representatives Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) and Mike Coffman (R-Colo.)

The goal is to pass the bill by early next year, well before the next midterm election, although it’s unclear exactly when Congress would vote on it.

“Americans deserve to know who’s paying for the online ads and, honestly, even if the Russian interference had not occurred, we should still be updating our laws,” Klobuchar said during a press conference Thursday. “Our laws should be as sophisticated as those who are trying to manipulate us or to break the law.”

Almost Three Years Later, Publicis Is Still Explaining Its Positioning With Sapient

by Alison Weissbrot // Posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2017 at 12:43 pm.

Publicis is still clearing up confusion among its employees, clients and investors about its offering and value prop since it acquired Sapient in early 2015.

“We are currently making sure our model is clear for everyone,” CEO Arthur Sadoun said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday. “We have to start with our people so they understand what we do.”

Despite recently winning accounts from McDonald’s, Lowes and Walmart, Publicis’ journey to transform from marketing services provider to a partner helping clients through disruption has been slow to catch on. Publicis wrote down its $3.7 billion purchase of Sapient by almost half its valuation in 2016 because it was dragging down the business.

Investors on the call asked multiple questions about Publicis’ business model and how they should measure its success. Sadoun told them to focus on organic growth and client stickiness, metrics investors typically use to evaluate advertising holding companies, and suggested that its change in direction warrants a change in valuation.

“I want to believe that, at one point, somebody will realize it will change our valuation,” he said.

Publicis has made some progress convincing clients of Publicis.Sapient’s new position. The firm in August beat Accenture for McDonald’s retail transformation account, on which it will team up with IT consulting firm Capgemini to build a digital retail experience for the fast food chain. (It will be interesting to see how the two firms work together, as Capgemini has hinted at its own intentions in the advertising space.)

Fraudsters Have Media Plans, Too

by Allison Schiff // Posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2017 at 12:38 pm.

Like any good media planner, fraudsters are attuned to time of year, seasonality, demographics, ad formats and trends in consumer behavior.

With football season and the MLB playoffs in full swing, they seem to have turned their attention to pro sports sites.

“We see a lot of sophisticated invalid traffic targeting premium sites,” said Amit Joshi, director of product and data science at fraud detection company Forensiq, which recently uncovered a bot that’s targeting sports team websites.

All 32 NFL team domains are affected. The bot appears to hijack a browser and loads ads without the site being aware of it. It’s unclear exactly how Sports Bot, as Forensiq calls it, gets deployed, but it’s likely through malware.

Forensiq was tipped off to Sport Bot’s shenanigans when the company’s machine-learning traffic detection algorithm identified likely fraudulent activity among roughly 75% of pre-bid requests to NFL team sites.

After cross-referencing the NFL data with other sports team websites for the NBA, NHL and MLB, it became clear that team domains were particularly exposed, having yet to implement Ads.txt, the anti-spoofing method introduced by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The volume of invalid traffic to team sites is higher than to larger websites, like nfl.com or espn.com, both of which have published their Ads.txt files.