Telefonica's New Mobile Ad Exchange; Mindshare Gains Access To Weather Data

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New Mobile Exchange

Telefonica and Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners have teamed up to create a new mobile ad exchange called Axonix. CEO Simon Birkenhead tells The Drum, “At the moment in mobile advertising there are very few ways of having verified demographic data. There are lots of companies that claim to offer demographic and location data, but actually once you dig into the details it turns out they are actually just algorithms … whereas operators like Telefonica have verified demographic data so we can guarantee to advertisers that they are targeting the right people.” Read it. A hundred DSPs are already sipping from the Axonix trough.

Storm Watch

The Weather Co. will announce this week plans to make weather-related data available to Mindshare. Mindshare buys about $29.2B in ad time and placement for its clients and will now be able to leverage weather data to adjust ad buys depending on upcoming weather conditions. Bad weather has long affected consumer patterns, and access to forthcoming and historical weather patterns will give Mindshare analytics for more targeted ad buys. Although Weather Co. isn’t charging Mindshare for access to the data, the company said it hoped Mindshare would buy more ads across Weather Co.’s various media channels. Read more via The WSJ (subscription).

Growing Budget

In this week’s Drift column, Doug Weaver drills down into the budget-setting process between sellers and agencies. “For every thousand salespeople who show up to help an agency spend an existing budget,” he writes, “only one or two ever talk about helping the agency grow budgets or tap into new ones.” If ad sellers push harder for increased spend from established clients before budgets are actually set, they may just change how key agencies perceive them. More from the seller swami.

ComScore’s New Brand Metrics

ComScore announced Wednesday its latest in actionable brand metrics for mobile ad campaigns across smartphones and tablets. Through vCE Mobile and vME Mobile, publishers and advertisers can now access demographic delivery, reach, frequency and GRP metrics across multiple platforms. ComScore’s CMO Mark Donovan explained, “More than half of digital media engagement is now spent on smartphones and tablets, but mobile advertising is currently just one-sixth of the digital ad market. Mobile’s ability to realize its potential depends in large part on the ability to measure its performance, especially in relation to other media channels.” Read the press release.

Video Touch

AOL.com has added a very video-heavy touch to its homepage – a 24/7 video player equipped with recurring content. It seems AOL has decided to walk the talk – particularly since the company, which recently went through a rebrand to replace “Networks” with “Platforms,” preps for its NewFronts where video will take center stage. AOL President Ran Harnevo recently told AdExchanger, “As consumers expand into tablets and OTT devices … AOL has decided to experiment with new content formats.” AOL also has inked programming deals with HSN, ESPN, WWE, Conde Nast and Simon and Schuster to expand licensed content. Read Ad Age.

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Integration Challenge

According to an Adobe exec, IBM’s recent acquisition of Silverpop could prove problematic for marketers using Big Blue platforms because of “silo problems.” Oh, and Adobe’s Neolane unit is a competitor. Adobe’s VP of marketing strategy, Suresh Vittal, takes a swing at Big Blue on CMSWire, “This acquisition feels like an attempt to fix the failings in the Unica acquisition: namely email and cross-channel execution. We think Silverpop is a partial answer that creates significant overlap problems for both Unica and Silverpop clients.” Conversely, IBM highlights its history of successful integrations such as Tealeaf and Coremetrics. Read on at CMSWire.

Planning Programmatic

Kantar says it will publish avails for “programmatic guaranteed-direct and private marketplace inventory from various third-party buy-channels, such as SSPs and other vendors that facilitate the automated buying of premium publisher inventory.” The SRDS.com planning platform will be used, according to a release. Read it.

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