Facebook "Suggested" Videos; Programmatic's Growth in Latin America

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Suggesting Videos

Facebook is testing a way for video content creators to leverage its platform (à la YouTube). The idea is to have “suggested” videos – including ads – pop up when a user watches an in-feed video. Facebook and the creators will split the revenue generated from all suggested ads a user clicks. TBD if this method proves more effective than YouTube pre-roll. Ad Age has more.

Automation Across The Americas

Speaking to eMarketer, Internet Media Services CMO Maren Lau said Brazil is leading the programmatic charge in Latin America. But “there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said. “One of the challenges to programmatic in the region is that there isn’t a lot of digital inventory available, and what is available is not yet piped into major programmatic platforms.” Geolocation targeting is also on the rise in Latin America, driven primarily by marketing efforts in Mexico. Read the interview.

Bio-Segments

The Drum reports on a startup called BlisMedia, whose technology pools data from barometric sensors in smartphones. “In New York or Singapore, for instance, advertisers will be able to send different messages to people on the ground floor, likely to be in the shopping mall, [and] to office workers on upper floors,” explained BlisMedia CEO Greg Isbister. If successfully developed, the sensors could also measure heart rate and blood pressure. But from a consumer standpoint, the creep factor for biometric data could be sky-high. Read more.

Ad Tech Cynic

Writing for LinkedIn, Michael Wolff lambasts ad agencies that have gotten hung up on trading audiences rather than creating “grand illusions” – i.e., storytelling. “Advertising agencies have de-emphasized, even hollowed out, what had been their core talent and purpose – crafting vivid and theatrical consumer fantasies – in favor of being operators that profit off the transaction of ad placement, the measurement of response, and even the facilitation of payment.” In the piece, published last week, Wolff also bashes the “fake it til you make it” revenue models of big entrepreneurial publishers – but he seems mostly focused on BuzzFeed. Read it.

Measure Twice…

Twitter is tapping Datalogix and Acxiom to beef up its analytics dashboard. Now, “If you have conversion tracking enabled, campaign insights will tell you more about the users who have converted in the past. You can even compare insights between your reached and converted audiences to identify new ways to connect with an audience that is most likely to convert.” Blog post.

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