Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Swing And A Miss
Amazon came under fire Tuesday for a “technical glitch” that inadvertently delivered baby gift registry alerts to men and non-pregnant women alike, resulting in a light-hearted tweet storm from customers. One read: “Amazon just informed me that someone has purchased a gift from my baby registry. My baby is 21, and hopes it’s a keg.” Some customers, however, had experienced recent miscarriages and were put off by the faulty email promotion. Gillette, too, raised eyebrows in July when the P&G-owned brand delivered free razors and a “Welcome to manhood” promotional package intended for 18-year-olds, to a much older demographic – or women. Whether a case of bad data or a standard technical glitch, moral of the story is: Marketing mishaps spare no brand. More.
Moving On
Seth Demsey, the high-profile CTO of AOL Platforms, stepped down earlier this summer. Demsey, who helped AOL consolidate its ad products under one roof, left his post after more than six years to start a new “technology studio” called 300 Qubits. He will also act as an adviser to Revcontent. “[I] took it from a pre-programmatic company to a full-feature global program platform for buyers and sellers across mobile, display and video,” Demsey told AdExchanger. “It’s a phenomenal journey.” Why Revcontent? Because the focus is on more than monetization, and that’s interesting. “It feels good to not only be working on ad tech but using the techniques to create better organic content environments from a UX and interaction perspective,” Demsey said. Revcontent claimed $183.8 million in revenue last year, according to Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 survey [AdExchanger coverage]. Demsey will divide his time between Revcontent, 300 Qubits and other ventures. TechCrunch has more.
Snap added 14 creative partners to its network to help advertisers drive ROI through swipe-up ads with in-app games, GIFs, 360 videos and mobile coupons. Among the selected few are rich-media platform Undertone, Adludio, which leverages the smartphone’s haptic and gyroscope features, and in-app game platform GameCommerce. Read the full list here. The new roster joins Snap’s original list of creative partners, including Celtra, VidMob, Vidsy, Quickframe, Spreadfast and Percolate.
But Wait, There’s More!
- Facebook Gives But Continues To Take More From Publishers – Digiday
- mParticle Raises $35 Million In Series C Funding – Business Insider
- Amazon Reviewing Its Website After It Suggested Bomb-Making Items – NYT
- Fox’s ‘Ghosted’ Will Premier On Twitter Before Broadcast Debut – Variety
- YuMe Launches Cross-Platform Connected TV SDK – release
- Media Startup Patreon Raises $60 Million – Recode
- Small Businesses Crowd Facebook And Twitter For Marketing – eMarketer
- Facebook Users Can See Ads They’ve Clicked In Recent Ad Activity Tab – TechCrunch
- Acast Secures $19.5 Million In Series B Funding – release
You’re Hired!
- Twitter Adds Another Former Google Exec, Patrick Pichette, To Board – Recode
- DWA Media Makes Three Executive Appointments – release
