RTB Inventory Flat; X+1 Adds Mobile

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

RTB Inventory Flat

Growth has slowed for exchange-traded media, according to a report released by Accordant Media, but media quality has increased. “Q2 turned out to be a notable period for (the) programmatic media industry,” said Art Muldoon, Accordant Media’s co-founder and CEO, in a release. “The headlines shifted from hyper growth of RTB volume to how buyers are assessing and scaling a broad range of innovative targeting tactics that create value for advertisers.” Read more. One finding: “Global volume growth of RTB ad inventory was flat in Q2 over Q1, although still up 28% vs. the prior year quarter.” The “flatness” echoes a similar report by Rubicon Project recently. Meanwhile, mobile exchange and ad server MoPub sees more “demand participation in RTB” for its growing mobile exchange. See the Slideshare prezo.

More Mobile

Another day, another mobile acquisition. Data-management platform [x+1] announced its acquisition of mobile-marketing firm WDA through a press release. “Mobile is critical to our clients,” said John Nardone, [x+1]’s chief executive officer, “and it’s only becoming more so as time goes on. Meeting the full range of their needs was important to us; and this led us to WDA.” Read more.

RTB Trading Soars

Nexage announced that RTB-traded inventory accounts for 50% of money flowing through its exchange. The company’s CMO, Victor Milligan, spoke to MediaPost, saying he doesn’t think RTB is cannibalizing mediated trading, but RTB continues to grow rapidly. “We expected to have fast growth,” Milligan said, “but I think it’s fair to say this has exceeded expectations.” Read more.

Latency Solutions

Site latency is an issue, and mismanagement of tags contributes to that problem, according to an Evidon blog post. If pages are loading slowly, users click away before any data is collected, so Evidon recommends optimization as a solution. “Strategic deployment of tag managers and CDNs allow tags to load synchronously, mitigating the impact on total page time. Site technology can also be configured so that certain tags only fire when they’re most useful, and well-managed exchange relationships can maximize return from fewer deployed marketing partners.” Read more.

Relevant Funding

Under-the-radar Context Relevant, which has been working with several large Web publishers, among others, has raised venture funding. Read more about it on TechCrunch, which explains, “Context Relevant uses real-time data from HDFS, SQL, web logs, CRM systems, market data and social media to output analyses and projections on how a business might be impacted in the future.” Read more.

No Cookie Means Creative

Dan Schwartz, co-founder of ad platform Run, says the lack of cookie targeting that inhibits effective real-time bidding in mobile compared to desktop may be a good thing. He tells Mobile Marketer, “Brands should be aware of the fact that unlike in the desktop world, mobile is not predisposed to the commoditization impact that is now so prevalent in the desktop world. Because of the lack of a persistent cookie in mobile, true creativity is required in order to target at scale.” Read more.

Ad Tech Isn’t The Only Tech

Ad spend in the technology industry soared in Q1, with the biggest players being Intuit and Microsoft, according to Nielsen. Intuit, maker of personal financial software, generally spends a lot in Q1 because of taxes, but this year Microsoft knocked the company from its No. 1 spot. A possible reason technology ad spend is so high could be that as people become more comfortable with technology, the advertising potential to grab new customers expands. Read more.

Microsoft and comScore Duet

Microsoft Advertising announced it will begin using comScore’s validated Campaign Essentials for its digital ad inventory. “Microsoft already provides a compelling platform for marketers. By utilizing vCE’s audience, viewability and brand safety features, it can significantly improve the delivery of campaigns and optimize performance across a variety of dimensions for its advertising associates,” said Serge Matta, President of comScore. Read more.

Earnings