AT&T Ramping Ad Targeting; Audience Lives, Deals Die Says Forrester; Natural Born Old Clickers

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AT&T Targeting Ads

CNET’s Roger Cheng says AT&T is busy ramping up its ad network business, which has been renamed AdWorks, and he notes the ad targeting opportunity ahead for the wireless phone company: “The company boasts nearly 100 million wireless subscribers, 16.5 million high-speed Internet customers, 5.3 million TV subscribers (although only 3.4 million U-Verse TV subscribers can get the ads), and millions more using its online search sites such as YP.com. AT&T promises advertisers access to valuable customer user habits and more accurate placements of commercials and ads.” Read more about the plans.

Deals And Targeting

Now there’s a prediction! Death – and life! A new report out from Forrester says that the popular local ad format will meet its untimely demise in the next few years. From the Forrester blog, “daily deals a la Groupon will die in a flurry of competition in your inbox, for example, and that we’ll see ad-supported devices that make their success based on audience targeting. It’s a hell of a world we’re entering.” Read more about Hell!

The Big Exit?

Adweek says that Aol is hiring an investment banking arsenal as some sort of unidentified, big transaction may be imminent. Aol CEO Tim Armstrong clarified with Adweek by email, “‘There is no deal on the table, no proposed deal, and both parties are on retainer with us and we work with them. Our strategy hasn’t changed and we are moving faster than ever on it.’ The company declined to say if there are ongoing discussions about a merger or acquisition.” Read more.

Natural Born, Old, Clickers

In its latest STAT (Simple Targeting & Audience Trends) Report, mobile ad network Jumptap offers many findings including one around age and CTR: “Mobile users in their 50s continue to click on more ads than any other age group. Meanwhile, we saw an 11% uplift in CTR for 14-17 year-olds, which may be related to increased device use during summer vacation.” Here’s to old people!! Download the report (PDF).

Setting Floors

Sounding a bit like a private exchange product offering, online display ad marketplace AdBrite says it’s focusing on the sell-side with its latest announcement and offering Real-Time Pricing for publishers. The release adds, “A fully-automated Real-Time Pricing solution that optimizes floors for every individual visitor will be available for wide adoption in the fourth quarter of 2011.” Read more details.

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Agencies Like Display

Ad Age’s Kunur Patel surveys search-focused agencies for their thoughts on where their clients’ business is headed. Display is a hot topic. David Gould of Starcom MediaVest Group says, “When a channel is nascent, advertisers tend to think they need a specialist because media agencies are a mile wide and an inch deep; expertise outweighs integration. But as display and search – in this case – become more accepted, it needs to be integrated and that’s what you’re seeing now.” Read more.

Taboola Recommends $9 Million More

Video recommendation vendor Taboola (AdExchanger.com Q&A) has raised $9 million more in venture capital bringing its total raise to-date to 15 million. TechCrunch adds, “Alongside the funding, the company is announcing a new milestone: the service now generates 250 million recommendations per day across its publisher partner sites.” The company has an interesting story around engagement… increasingly a key buzzword for 2011. Read more.

The Great Seller In The Sky

On the Upstream Group blog, Doug Weaver asks his readers “So what then is the quality that should be most valued in a digital seller?” And then answers, “Disruption. To disrupt is not simply to sow anarchy. Disruptive thinking and action are the staple ingredients in growth and innovation. Rather than simply accept and report back on the latest roadblock or dead-end (…), the great seller acts a positive agent of disruption.” Read more.

Transparency, Please

Australia ad industry trade MuMbrella says that independent media agency Ikon Communications (AdExchanger.com Q&A) is moving toward a full transparency policy for the display ad inventory it buys from ad networks in the region. A quote from company release: “The agency (…) has worked closely and collaboratively with key partners to ensure that the way we trade is not disrupted by our new focus on visibility and accountability.” More evidence of disruption of the classic ad network model as exchanges often provide impression-level transparency. Read more.

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