Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Lookery Closes Its Doors
No more Lookery. CEO Scott Rafer announced from the Lookery blog that the Company is winding down operations. Rafer offers a post mortem of regrets and/or mis-steps that he believes, if avoided, could have led to a different conclusion such as, “We could have and should have used the proceeds of the convertible note (Lookery’s funding) to get out from under Facebook’s thumb rather to invest further in the Facebook Platform.” More from TechCrunch.
It should be interesting to see whatever is next from Scott Rafer and his fellow, former-Lookery, colleagues. At the very least, Lookery provided a whole lot o’ learning that should prepare them for the next idea(s) which could be very relevant to the digital advertising space.
IPOs Ready To Take-Off
RRE Ventures LLC’s Co-Founder James D. Robinson IV says that he has never seen so many VC-backed companies properly prepared for an IPO. Robinson tells The Deal that once the market improves a bit more, their should be a flood of strong IPOs.
NY Times Brings Roadblock Ads To Iphone
Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider reports seeing new Visa ads in the New York Times Iphone app served by NYC-based mobile ad network, Medialets. Rafat Ali of PaidContent.org says that these may be the first “intrusive” (roadblock) ads served within an iPhone App by a major publisher – such as the Times.
Entertainment Vs. Math
In the New York Times, Randall Stross discusses the advantages that both Google and Yahoo! have and comes to the conclusion that the entertainment focus in Yahoo! content is helping Yahoo! win. He uses Yahoo! Finance’s huge lead – in terms of monthly uniques – over Google Finance, as an example. Read more.
Sir Martin as Soothsayer
Amanda Andrews of The Telegraph reviews the near and long term fortunes of WPP and Sir Martin Sorrell as well as Sorrell’s ability to correctly identify shifting tides in the global economy. Claire Enders of Enders Analysis tells Andrews, “”This is someone that is brilliant at forseeing the future. Martin is a genius. He predicted the structural decline of traditional media, although no one believed him at the time.” Read the article.
Oprah Ticked
Affiliate marketers who have been using the likeness of Oprah Winfrey are running into trouble according to Mashable’s Adam Ostrow who says, “Dr. Oz and The Illinois State Attorney General’s Office have filed a lawsuit against more than 50 different marketers.” Many of you have likely seen the Acai Berry ads with Winfrey’s image and she has apparently had enough. Read more. Jay Weintraub has a great overview with examples.
Analyzing (Targeting?) Sentiment on The Web
The New York Times’ Alex Wright looks at new services that measure sentiment from news sites, blogs and other social media apps and how companies are leveraging this information in their business. John Whelan, StubHub’s director of customer service, tells Wright that the service is “a canary in the coal mine.” Read more.
How Much Do Mobile Ad Networks Make?
Jeremy Laws, Principal at Cabana Mobile and former head of Universal Mobile Entertainment at Universal Pictures, suggests rates and revs for mobile ad networks on his blog. He guesses $1.75 Blended CPMs and $198 million in revs for the top 6 ad networks (AdMob, Millenial, Third Screen, MSN, JumpTap, Quattro). Read the post.
Privacy, Shmivacy?
Fetchback CEO Chad Little (AdExchanger Q&A) tells Abbey Klaasen in AdAge that after testing ad units with specific opt-out messaging for a month, consumers wanted to “opt-out” of cookie tracking even less. Read more.
Innovating Faster, Cheaper
Erik Brynjolfsson and Michael Schrage of MIT discuss how technology is making “innovation, the lifeblood of growth, more efficient and cheaper. In the article, Joan Lewis, global consumer and market knowledge officer at P&G, says something CMOs stuck in comfortable, traditional methods and strategies should consider: “In the U.S., we do the vast majority of our concept testing online, which has created truly substantial savings in money and time.” Read the entire article here. (source: Geeking with Greg)
Quantcast Report Tips
Quantcast has been posting tips on its blog about how-to read Quancast audience reports. Start reading here.
Ruminating On Remnant
From the recent AdMonsters conference, AdMeld CRO Ben Barokas provided attendees with an overview of the current challenges with remnant inventory as well as future innovation. Listen to and view his presentation here. Barokas’ pres even includes the drive to true value with real-time bidding (RTB). He writes that RTB is a “Big win for premium publishers: The most valuable inventory lies at the nexus of content, context and audience. Premium publishers have all three.
