Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
More Jack Griffin Dirt
“He’s an ass!” “He’s the best!” Whether he was the Grinch or Papa Smurf, it’s going to be a while before the last of the Jack Griffin “stuff” hits the fan but, a bit more detail leaked into the press over the weekend regarding Griffin’s ouster from Time Inc. after only 6 months. Ad Age’s Abbey Klaassen looks at Griffin’s own statement and quotes anonymous sources such as a Time Inc employee who states, “He had a style that some people would describe as demeaning.” Read it. The Wall Street Journal takes another angle and looks at whether Time Warner’s CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, who hired/fired Griffin, has fulfilled his own CEO responsibilities adequately in recent years. Read the damning overview! Finally, in the Harvard Business Review, Julia Kirby comes to Griffin’s defense – to a degree – and explains the kind of friction stirred up by Griffin is typical of someone who is a “change agent” within a traditional organization. She offers survival tips for the “change agent” including: “Avoid the term ‘change agent.’ The strange thing about Griffin’s case is that he appears to have applied this ‘kick me’ sign to himself.” Kick more here.
Ad Trade Spearheads Comments
The ClickZ editorial team has spearheaded an effort to inform U.S. governmental authorities about the impact of regulation and the current do-not-track list proposal. The editorial team has gathered reader and industry representative comments and packaged it with its own coverage which will be sent to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission – see it here (PDF). And, read the story.
More FTC News!
Philadelphia Inquirer Business Columnist Jeff Gelles reviews the latest privacy news and he’s concerned. Gelles echoes the WSJ’s What They Know series and writes, “How do they find you? That’s where an ad network’s “Web bugs” and “tracking beacons” come into play. Invisibly to you, they look on your computer for cookies left by that same network when you were on other sites. Once you’re identified, the network can add to your profile or use it to deliver ads.” Read more. Gelles points to a press release from The Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (US PIRGs) that went out on Friday and highlights several concerns regarding consumer tracking – including the tracking of teenagers. Read it (PDF). And, read the “big data” release also sent by the same special interest groups to the FTC. Meanwhile, The Digital Advertising Alliance (slightly better known as the DAA) submitted its comments to the Federal Trade Commission on the Do-Not-Track initiative on Friday according to MediaPost’s Wendy Davis. No surprise – nobody at the DAA supports Do-Not-Track -instead preferring self-regulation. Read the details.
Glam Media announced that it has hired two Buysight (formerly Permuto) execs to add to its technology team. Navdeep Saini will joins as VP of Ad Products Engineering he was previously “VP of Engineering at Yahoo! for Search and Advertising Technology, where he helped build Yahoo!’s Panama ad platform (…) and, most recently he was CTO at Permuto (Buysight).” Also joining Glam is Stanley Wong who will become VP of Rich Media and Targeting and “leading Glam’s efforts to deliver super premium ad products across Glam’s network of more than 2,000 publishers.” Read the release.
Machine Learning Muscle
Chief scientist of social ad network Media6Degrees, Claudia Perlich, is blown away by the impressive computing power exhibited by IBM’s Watson computer on the television show Jeopardy. She writes about Watson’s machine learning capabilities, “On his way to determining an answer, Watson uses natural language processing and draws inferences to synthesize insights from millions of data sources to consider hundreds of possible answers to a nuanced question. At that point, machine learning is the gatekeeper so to speak, the critical conscience of the machine.” Read more. When will Watson step into the ad targeting landscape?
Ramsey Is Right About RTB
AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley takes time away from his day-to-day executive duties and pens an opinion piece for ClickZ inspired by recent comments by Yahoo!’s Ramsey McGrory. O’Kelley writes, “Ramsey is on to something. Real-time bidding (RTB) is an exciting new technology, but after two years, it’s become clear that it has strengths and weaknesses. As one of the pioneers of the real-time bidding revolution, I’d like to dig into how far this emerging technology has come and where it needs to go.” Read more.
You’re Hired!
Former CEO Jason Tafler of Gannett-owned PointRoll has returned to his Canadian homeland to take a role as Rogers Media’s Chief Digital Officer. Canada’s Marketing quotes from a company memo authored by Rogers Media’s President Keith Pelley, “We’ve already been working closely with Jason on our strategic and financial plans. Jason’s role will help us continue to build one Rogers Media organization that is aligned and integrated for better efficiencies and effectiveness and to best leverage the strengths and opportunities of the divisions.” Read more.
Media Is Back – And U Thought It Never Left
Former MTV Networks COO and current Activate executive Michael Wolf does a Q&A with Michael Learmonth in Advertising Age and says that media is back. And when he says it’s back, he means: “The world has turned back to the point where users want professional content. Yes they want a lot of other stuff — but people with the largest platforms are now focusing on content as a driver of their business.” Read more.
Airlines Taking Back Data – Part XIV
In yet another reflection of the move away from aggregation by big brands active in the eCommerce space – such as airlines- and effectively take back their data, RyanAir announced that it’s going to start contracting with London-based Ink to “to sell targeted advertising aimed at passengers booking and checking in online.” Read more.
The Shifting Of Net Neutrality
Marketing specialist looks at the oft-overlooked (in the ad world) topic of net neutraility on iMedia Connection. With Google and Verizon in her sights, she writes, “That term – major stakeholder – just begins to define the interest Google has in influencing net neutrality standards. Any radical shift in how the Internet operates will have a huge impact on how Google, and the entire interactive marketing industry, operates.” Read more about the possible shifts ahead.
