Digital Measurement Goes OOH; Twitter Paid Less For TellApart Than Reported

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The Billboards Have Eyes

Billboards are nice, but it’s hard to get granular metrics around a sign in the street. Aiming to change that, iHeartMedia subsidiary Clear Channel Outdoor Americas unveiled a program called RADAR that uses location data from PlaceIQ, Placed and AT&T Data Patterns to figure out “consumer movement patterns.” Basically, it’s an attempt to bring digital measurement into an OOH environment. The New York Times has the story, with the privacy implications as well.

Twitter And TellApart

Twitter paid a little less than originally reported for TellApart. In its Form 10-K, the company disclosed a purchase price $479 million, about $50 million less than what this and other publications claimed when the deal was done a year ago. The main reason: Twitter’s declining value in the public markets. More in the 10-K. Also: Twitter reported a big leap in third-party ad revenue largely as a result of the acquisition, from $11 million in 2014 to $194 million in 2015.

Wind In Your Sales

Turner Broadcasting, IBM’s Watson and Neustar’s MarketShare are joining arms for a television media-planning tool. The goal is to “lead a shift away from proxy metrics like ‘eyeballs’ in favor of hard insights on how media buys determine business outcomes,” said Neustar VP Wes Nichols. According to Broadcasting & Cable, Turner’s work with the two vendors is as much about helping the broadcaster’s ad sales team as it is about client campaigns, though part of what Turner and its partners are pitching is a new style of planning and reporting. More.

ISPs On The Sidelines

Much has been made of the data available to Internet service providers, should they choose to access it. In a new study, privacy expert Peter Swire pokes some holes in that assumption. He notes that wider use of encryption has shielded data from ISPs, and that households now spread their connected activity across multiple ISPs and devices. Swire writes, “ISPs lack ‘unique’ insight into users’ activity, given the many contexts where other players in the ecosystem gain insight but ISPs do not.” More in Re/code.

Vintage Chic

Deloitte Digital’s acquisition of creative agency Heat on Monday is yet another example of management consultancies pushing their way into Madison Avenue territory. “We realized the consulting industry needs a bit of a shake up and the way you do that is bring creative thinking to the business,” said Andy Main, CEO of Deloitte Digital, now one of the world’s biggest digital agencies. In efforts to work closely with CMOs, consultancies like Deloitte, IBM, and PwC “are definitely trying to move into the turf” of holding companies, said Forrester analyst Anjali Yakkundi. More.

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Curation Critics Cry Foul; Hot Ad Market Trends For 2025

In Development

Everyone is (understandably) focused on short-term hurdles confronting the mobile industry, such as platform fragmentation, measurement blindspots, fraud and a lagging advertiser ROI. But that means we often forget the long-term strength of mobile and connected devices, writes Michael Jones for TechCrunch. For one thing, even in the US, there’s plenty of room for growth in the smartphone market, as Pew has shown. Jones also predicts an easing of the talent squeeze that has empowered Silicon Valley giants (who throw unmatchable salaries and benefits at top engineers), with some tech commoditizing and more engineers entering the market.

Tube’s PTV Uptick

Days after video ad platform TubeMogul said it would issue automatic make goods for non-human traffic beginning on April 1 (see AdExchanger coverage), the company reported its Q4/FY 2015 earnings. Among its strongest showings was “PTV,” the company’s linear TV planning system launched last winter. Though in its infancy, PTV accounted for 10% of total spend for TubeMogul and was on a $60 million run rate. Total advertiser spend was $134.5 million for Q4, up 63% YoY. That figure was $414.2 million for FY 2015, a 63% increase YoY. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $58.5 million, a 62% increase YoY, while revenue for the year was $180.7 million, a 58% increase. Although a number of forces seek to corner the market in programmatic TV, more broadcast networks like NBC are bringing additional inventory to bear. “It was inconceivable a year ago for TV networks to announce publicly that they’d put their inventory up for sale programmatically,” said CEO Brett Wilson. “I think that’s a sign of what’s to come.” The release.

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