Chris Swanicke
Articles By Chris
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Media and Marketing M&A Values Rise, Small Deals Abound
Investment bank Berkery Noyes’ first-half report for 2014 shows total value for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the media and marketing industry up on a half-year basis, from $45.8 billion to $49.8 billion. Total value of M&A in the industry had a sharp 70% increase compared with the first half of 2013, which had a […]
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Another Firm Exits Free Ad Serving
Free ad serving might be bad business for all but the biggest players in ad tech. AdZerk, an ad-selling platform for publishers, sent a notice to its free and self-service customers that it’s shutting down that part of the business to focus on its enterprise clients. The company will complete its exit Aug. 31. The […]
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Kenshoo Hires Brand And Agency Vet Doug Chavez To Help It Transcend Search
Search and digital marketing platform Kenshoo has hired Doug Chavez as global head of marketing research and content. Chavez will lead a group analyzing data from the Kenshoo platform and producing insights on the search and mobile advertising space. Chavez, previously SVP of emerging media at Universal McCann Worldwide, VP of marketing at RadiumOne, director of marketing […]
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Kantar Confirms Ad Sector Strength, Display Surged 13% In Q1
TV and digital are the twin wunderkinds of the ad industry. A report by WPP Group’s Kantar Media indicates a healthy 5.7% increase in total advertising expenditures to $34.9 billion for Q1 2014, led by big-brand advertisers’ TV ad buys for the Winter Olympics. Internet display ad spending meanwhile grew 13% for the quarter, which […]
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Dynamic Yield Raises $12M Series B; Plots US, European Expansion
Dynamic Yield, a yield optimization platform that has positioned itself as a quasi-ad server for content, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Marker L.L.C. The Tel Aviv-based company has plans to grow its sales and operations teams in New York and London. Also joining the round as a distribution partner is […]
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Should Mobile DSPs and Analytics Mix? 1-800-Flowers Says No
When mobile analytics company Apsalar started telling its demand-side platform (DSP) customers a few months ago that is was exiting the DSP business, some took it as welcome news. Having a dedicated mobile DSP isn’t a priority yet for some marketers, and by taking their DSP off the table, Apsalar seemingly removed the conflict of […]
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VigLink Raises $18M to Grow Native Link Exchange
Link monetization platform VigLink has raised $18 million in Series C funding. The round was led by RRE Ventures and will go toward building out its new VigLink Exchange, which launched in October, as well as new tools for advertisers. The deal brings VigLink’s total funding to $25.3 million. San Francisco-based VigLink was founded in […]
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Are You A Human Packages The 'Real Person' Data Set
User authentication company Are You a Human started in 2007 with its CAPTCHA replacement tool, PlayThru, which fights back against fraudulent impressions and bots that have become increasingly effective in mimicking real users. The tool uses interactive visual tasks – say, dragging a virtual ball into a bucket – that are more difficult for bots to fool. […]
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Placed Lands $10M In Series B Round
Location analytics startup Placed announced today $10 million in a Series B funding round led by Two Sigma Ventures, bringing its total to $13.4 million. Seattle-based Placed’s founder and CEO, David Shim, said the investment will go toward hiring data scientists and engineers over the next year to enhance Placed Attribution, a feature launched last […]
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Travel Republic And Criteo Play The Dangerous Game Of Trading Impressions For Conversions
Ad retargeter Criteo has expanded its engine to analyze conversion performance rather than simply clicks – a change intended to let marketers more selectively target impressions. The change looks good at face value, but for many companies, optimizing impressions means reducing them, which runs the risk of cutting off a nice revenue stream. Nevertheless, Travel Republic, a […]