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For this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks, we have The Weather Co. in the studio. Weather was ranked No. 2 on AdExchanger’s recent list of the Top 10 Programmatic Publishers for 2017. The IBM subsidiary is a huge seller of mobile app inventory, and has recently opened a new chapter by licensing its data asset separately from media.
“We’re always going to have a great media business selling impressions on our properties, and that’s growing very nicely,” says Jeremy Hlavacek, VP of global automated monetization. “But the ability to create new revenue streams within IBM is really important, so I think that added some pressure.”
The shift also makes sense when you consider IBM’s broad focus on artificial intelligence through its Watson platform. As Weather gets more experience leveraging Watson, Hlavacek said it will begin ingesting outside data – not merely exporting its own segments.
“I envision us becoming more like a data trading desk, where we’re buying and selling data and mixing that up in interesting recipes – maybe with Watson as the chef,” he says.
Also in this episode: Securing data, the state of badvertising and the future of ad sales.
