Adap.tv's TV Conversion Tracking; Yahoo Ad Problem Musings

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Path-To-Purchase Patent

AOL’s Adap.tv recieved a patent for TV conversion tracking, which the company claims will help advertisers glean if TV spots are sending people to the Internet, to mobile or to stores to make purchases. “Online advertising systems have a problem with over-attribution. They tend to be very good at taking credit for – well – everything! TV has the opposite problem; TV tends to take no credit at all.” Read the blog post.

Native Ghetto

Writing for WSJ, Mike Shields wonders if the rise in direct response-oriented native ads on Yahoo may have contributed to the “unfavorable mix shift” CEO Marissa Mayer cited in the company’s Q2 earnings, reported Tuesday. “Native ads until now have been billed as premium spots. But judging from the ads on the Yahoo homepage – which features plenty of direct response – some of the most valuable real estate in online advertising has lost some of its luster.” Read it.

eBay Adds Mobile Ads

CEO John Donahoe hinted on eBay’s Q2 earnings call that the company would open up more mobile inventory and begin experimenting with app ads in Q3 and Q4. While eBay had mostly avoided mobile advertising in favor of a clean interface, Donahoe acknowledged “there’s some tasteful ways to add some ads into a mobile experience that doesn’t detract.” Since eBay began its mobile presence, it’s received 260 million downloads, gaining 6.6 million new customers in Q2. Additionally, mobile-enabled commerce volume (ECV), which is basically the transactions that go through eBay, increased 26% in Q2 2014 to $62 billion, accounting for 20% of eBay’s total volume.Earnings release. Donahoe also alluded to better leveraging eBay’s first-party data, if not for advertisers, then to reach out via CRM and email campaigns to drive lapsed eBay users, scared away following the data breach, back to the site.

iB2B

IBM and Apple struck an enterprise deal on Tuesday, through which IBM will create big data analytics and business apps for use on iPhones and iPads. So far, Apple hasn’t had much luck convincing large corporations to buy iPhones and iPads in bulk – at least, not like Blackberry’s success circa 2002. “The kind of deep industry expertise you would need to really transform the enterprise isn’t in our DNA. But it is in IBM’s,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. Read on at Re/code.

DOOH Meets Mobile

A new Clear Channel platform, Connect, aims to reimagine how mobile users connect to, and interact with, outdoor advertisements. Connect will launch in 28 US cities and in Toronto, and the North American debut accompanies a partnership with ad tech firm Blue Bite. It works by attaching tags to digital and static outdoor ads in high-traffic areas like storefronts, bus stops and shopping malls. Pedestrians interact via mobile location sensors. Read more via Ad Age.

Down The Rabbit Hole

“The marketing world is getting curiouser and curiouser,” writes Doug Weaver in a response to Walmart’s newfound marketing platform, WMX. “The basic notions of identity and structure in the advertising world are falling away.” Weaver enumerates the oddities he sees as the industry transforms: publishers soliciting marketers, agency trading desks becoming ad networks, cats and dogs living together. Read on at The Drift.

Search And Social Rising

Search and social ad spend and impressions are up over last year’s second quarter, according to new findings from Kenshoo. Search ad spend increased 25% YoY and social ad spend grew 51% YoY. In terms of engagement, search click-through rates increased 15% while social impressions were up 13% YoY.Read the press release.

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