Home Ad Exchange News Digitas Exec Baba Shetty Is Starting A Research Firm; Small Pubs Struggle With Bad Traffic

Digitas Exec Baba Shetty Is Starting A Research Firm; Small Pubs Struggle With Bad Traffic

SHARE:

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

Programmatic Adviser For Hire

DigitasLBi Chief Media Officer Baba Shetty will leave his role to start his own research and advisory firm, Invisible Science. The company will be a subscription-based membership service that helps clients sift through the more than 3,500 vendors in today’s ad tech marketplace to find the technology that best serves their needs. “It’s all around a sense of confusion and anxiety about, are we getting the intersection of marketing and technology right?” Shetty told Adweek. “What we are trying to do is create indispensable guidance for the modern marketer.” More. Related in AdExchanger: A Marketer’s Guide To Ad Tech Consultants.

Bad Traffic Vs. “Sourced” Traffic

Not all sourced traffic is bad, but most bad traffic is sourced. Where does that leave the legitimate indie publishers who rely on networks that help build their audiences? Modern Farmer is a respected pub with a small but valuable readership, and Vice’s digital ad network is “literally an extension of our sales team,” Modern Farmer CRO Jane Wladar tells Ad Age’s Jeremy Barr. It’s just one of many new publishers that have become casualties in the war on bad traffic. More.

Bot Craze

Chat bots have better retention and reach with consumers because they integrate on the platforms users already have and use, rather than requiring an install. For brands, bots are an increasingly enticing way to drive commerce through messaging platforms like Facebook’s Messenger, Kik and other environments. “All current directories are owned by the platforms themselves, having one central place not owned by the platform just made sense,” said Botlist co-creator Ben Tossell. “People can find all types of bots across a variety of platforms.” More.

Just A Bug?

Fraudulent advertisers continue to use big ad platforms as a jumping-off point. Last week we noted a BuzzFeed exposé that detailed how purveyors of knockoff apparel have brazenly used Facebook ads to commit fraud. On Friday, Kenny Jacobs, CMO of the European airline Ryanair, attacked Google in a Guardian column, alleging the search giant has promoted scammy booking services (who pay) to the top of the page. Twitter has also fallen prey to a new loophole where junk services piggyback on legitimate influencers to push their own links.  

But Wait, There’s More!

You’re Hired!

Tagged in:

Must Read

AI Helps Manscaped Trim Social Chatter Down To The Bare Essentials

Meet Clamor, a new social listening product that pulls cultural insights from online conversations in real time. Clamor helped Manscaped freshen up its marketing, including for this year’s Super Bowl.

A man talking to a robot

How Red Roof Is Bringing In More Customers With Zeta’s Voice-Activated AI Agent

Hotel chain Red Roof is using Zeta’s new voice-activated AI agent to guide its campaign creation, deployment timing and audience development.

Jean-Paul Schmetz, Chief of Ads, Brave

Why Ad-Blocking Browser Brave Introduced Its Own Ads

Brave’s chief of ads Jean-Paul Schmetz on competition in the search and browser markets, the fallout from the Google Search antitrust ruling and whether AI search will help smaller upstarts compete with Big Tech.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters

Vizio Helps Walmart Cut A Bigger Slice Of The CTV Ad Pie

Walmart and Vizio announced at NewFronts that unified account logins are coming to smart TVs using Vizio’s operating system.

Comic: CTV Tracking

Carl’s Jr. And Hardee’s Marketing Goes Regional With Amazon Ads’ Streaming Media

The age-old question for streaming TV advertisers is, how to target the viewers they want while reaching the scale their businesses need. The quick-serve restaurant operator CKE, which owns Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, sought an answer in a case study with Attain and Amazon Ads.

Cartoon of a woman in an apron cooking vegetables on a stovetop, holding a ladle as if to taste her creation

America’s Test Kitchen Puts Direct And Programmatic Access On Its Menu

America’s Test Kitchen introduced direct and programmatic buying for its free ad-supported TV channels – marking the first time it’s selling ad inventory as a standalone package.