Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Data Providers Unite
The Wall Street Journal’s Emily Steel covers a new consortium of data providers called the Open Data Partnership which is intended to help consumers understand what is known about them and what isn’t. Steel writes, “The project is the first of its kind in the fast-growing business of tracking Internet users and selling personal details about their lives. Called the Open Data Partnership (ODP), it will allow consumers to edit the interests, demographics and other profile information collected about them. It also will allow people to choose to not be tracked at all.” Read more. Steel says eight data firms are part of the group including Lotame, BlueKai and eXelate and directed by Better Advertising. Read more about the partnership on Better Advertising’s blog here. And see the ODP in action with screenshots here (PDF).
TRAFFIQ Adds Search
Media buying and planning platform provider TRAFFIQ has added search to its toolkit as the company launched TRAFFIQ Search Desk. CEO Nick Pahade identified the search/display opportunity in a release: “There are obvious efficiencies around enabling agencies to manage both their search and display practices in one setting. That is what we can offer immediately. However, we want to go beyond that, giving agencies the ability to see how both types of marketing are intertwined.” Read the release. Cross channel is the ideal and effective attribution is at the heart of it.
Display Gets Self-Serve Search Retargeting
Search data exchange Magnetic announced the launch of a self-service search retargeting product. From the release, according to the release, the product’s interface is “similar to what paid search marketers use today. SEM agencies and in-house search marketers can now create text ads, upload keywords and buy on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis.” Read the release.
ClickZ’s Kate Kaye says that “Senator John Kerry and Rep. Ed Markey each have indicated they will propose bills relating to online privacy” as hearings concluded yesterday in a U.S. House of Representatives subcomittee discussing online privacy. Kaye adds a note on web analytics: “One thing that remains unclear is whether the FTC supports do-not-track for all third-party tracking technologies – which could include analytics technologies – or for online advertising technologies only.” Read more. Meanwhile, MDC Partners’ The Media Kitchen posted its “Privacy POV” on Slideshare last month. It shows how the agency is presenting its own rules of the road as it relates to online behavioral advertising to its clients. See it. The New York Times’ Riva Richmond covers a few of the technological options being discussed to provide Do-Not-Track capabilities here. CEO Oren Netzer says on his company’s blog that DoubleVerify plans on responding to the FTC report (FTC is accepting comment until January 31) and notes that “The FTC is supporting, not mandating, a ‘do not track’ mechanism at this time.'” Read more.
Brand Marketers Speak
Maureen Morrison provides highlights from the recent Media Evolved Conference produced by Advertising Age where marketers shared their thoughts on the ad biz and a comment from Coca-Cola vp of integrated marketing Scott McCune may mean good this for web publishers. O’Connell quotes McCune saying, “We’re looking at why we are buying media. It’s no longer looking at spots and dots. We’re thinking about how do we start to partner with content owners in a way that can actually drive our business.” Give me branded content! Read more.
DoubleClick Ad Exchange Aussie Launch
The launch of the Google DoubleClick Ad Exchange is meeting a cool response down under. The Australian reports that in spite of the fact that Google says it has 78% reach of Australian audience, the region’s largest publishers will remain on the sidelines including Fairfax Digital whose COO, Nic Cola, says in regards to his company’s remnant inventory, “We’ve taken the decision in this market that we’ll sell our own inventory.” Read more. On the Official Google blog in Australia, Matthias Kunze, Director JAPAC Publisher Monetization for Google, announces the launch and offers a stat, “For example, the average price a publisher receives for ad space sold through the Ad Exchange is 130% higher than the average price of ad space sold directly to ad networks.” Read more.
It’s About The Data
TV media consultant Terry Heaton has a different take on the Google acquisition of GroupOn (which still hasn’t been officially consummated as of this writing) – it’s about data. He writes, “This is what the pureplays understand that media companies don’t. The game has changed. It’s not about gathering audiences anymore; it’s about gathering data to provide targets for advertisers. This is where the money is, and traditional media is being left behind, because we’re too busy playing the same old game.” Read more. It seems from here that understanding local buying patterns helps establish a link in attributing sales that start online and move offline – or vice versa. The Google/GroupOn deal could be the ignition switch for offline attribution.
Amazon Gets Local
Perhaps noting the local ad and data grab by Google with its pending GroupOn purchase, ecommerce king Amazon announced that it had invested in daily deals competitor Living Social with $175 million Amazon dollars (same as U.S. dollars). Revenue momentum is extreme at the young company, “Because of LivingSocial’s rapid expansion, the company is currently booking revenues of more than $1 million a day on average and is projected to book well over $500 million in revenue in 2011.” Read the release.
You’re Hired!
Wayne Thorsen has joined BlueKai as VP of Strategic Partnerships after similar roles at Krux Digital and Microsoft. In a release, the company said that Thorsen’s responsibilities would include “architecting all large or non-standard deals and partnerships for BlueKai.” Read more.
Owned Exchanges, Crossing Platforms
Angel investor Jerry Neumann elaborates on his recent predictions in the AdExchanger.com 2011 predictions series. He writes, “The tensions between co-evolving layers is evident (AppNexus/Google anyone?). And forks are emerging. I expect that within three years there will be a major fork away from the owned exchanges into a crossing platform that can better support the demands of the adjacent layers: the data exchanges, analytics, the DSPs and the SSPs.” Read more.
