Commerce

No company in the world is better positioned than Amazon to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic stronger. Most advertising companies suffered a painful contraction in March. But Amazon’s advertising revenue was up by about 40% in Q1 compared to the year before, accounting for most of the $3.9 billion Amazon earned in its “Other” business […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Primed For TV  Amazon beefed up its ad-supported OTT ranks with the hire of Maggie Zhang, former EVP of video research and insights at Dentsu Aegis Network. At Amazon, Zhang will develop reach and measurement products for Prime Video advertisers in a role that […]

Retail foot traffic and recessions be damned, people need to snack. That fact has boosted Mondelēz, despite the coronavirus crisis and economic downturns. And, unlike in previous recessions, Mondelēz is investing to win market share, instead of cutting spend to protect the bottom line, CEO Dirk Van de Put told investors on a quarterly earnings […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cashing In The new hottest thing on Instagram is … giving away cash. Facebook and Google ads are a slow, expensive way to accrue followers. With cash giveaways, brands acquire hundreds or thousands of new users in one swoop. Influencers provide a list of […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Google Cuts Google plans to reduce marketing investments for the second half of 2020 by up to half, CNBC reported. A selective hiring freeze has also been imposed for both full-time and contractual employees. “We are reevaluating the pace of our investment plans for […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Third Time’s A Charm Bryan Wiener and Sarah Hofstetter joined the ecommerce software company Profitero as CEO and president, respectively. This is the third business Wiener and Hofstetter have jointly led, following their long tenure at 360i before it was acquired by Dentsu and […]

NBCUniversal’s Fandango snapped up Vudu from Walmart for an undisclosed price Tuesday, making it the latest independent streaming service to get gobbled up by a big media player. “We are moving into the consolidation phase of the streaming business,” said Forrester principal analyst Jim Nail, citing this deal and Fox’s acquisition of Tubi in March. […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Junior Streamers Children’s TV shows are losing out to new streaming options. Just look at Disney. Disney Plus passed 50 million subscribers last week while prime-time viewing on its cable network, Disney Channel, slumped 37% in mid April. The network is cutting back on […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Retail Slump The Commerce Department estimates that US retail sales dropped by 8.7% from February to March. That’s the worst month-to-month drop since the department started collecting data 30 years ago, more than twice the worst months of the 2008 recession. The definition for […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Peacock Takes Flight Peacock launched on Wednesday as a free add-on for Comcast Xfinity and X1 Flex subscribers. The NBCU-owned service will launch nationally on July 15 with an ad-supported option and a premium tier at $4.99 per month. NBCU stuck to its original […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Movie Night (On The Couch) TV networks hope nostalgia will win over home-bound viewers. NBCU launched a franchise last week called “Stay-In Theater,” simulcasting family movies across its family of networks. NBCU will cut national commercial time for the broadcast from 35 minutes to […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Kacie McKee, head of ecommerce at Wavemaker US. Marketers may have missed the new features Amazon added to their site around the end of 2019 to help boost brands more […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Lightening The Load NBC said it will reduce its ad load in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ad sales chairman Linda Yaccarino wrote a blog post detailing a plan to reduce ads across categories, including news and late-night talk shows, to free more time […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Sub-Prime Amazon will delay Prime Day until at least August, Reuters reports. Amazon hasn’t confirmed the postponement, but it’s mentioned in a memo obtained by Vice News last week. The delay would mean $100 million to $300 million in losses on excess devices Amazon […]

Amazon has removed third-party vendors from its affiliate program. Starting at the beginning of this month, affiliate networks such as Skimlinks and Sovrn (which acquired VigLink) can no longer send traffic to Amazon and get a cut of transactions, according to sources at many affiliate networks and publishers. Removing third-party affiliate networks frees up significant […]

Ecommerce is all about planning. It’s a carefully choreographed dance between manufacturing, warehousing and selling. But what happens when Amazon – and the world in general – has gone off the rails? It’s the nature of ecommerce and Amazon that tactics constantly change, said Sarah LaVallee, VP of client success at the ecommerce agency Channel […]

Consumer buying habits are in flux. Need proof? Just look at the affiliate marketing category. Affiliate network Pepperjam is seeing “a dramatic shift” in how people shop,” said CEO Matt Gilbert. Between March 11 and March 16, just as the coronavirus crisis was really starting to crack wide open, Pepperjam’s sales volume, measured across about […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. True Story Snapchat is finally letting developers integrate its flagship Stories format outside the app. “The social media giant hopes that expanded access to its content and flagship features on other apps will increase its user base – and maybe its bottom line,” Axios […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hold The Phone The smartphone industry took a beating this month, and Apple in particular has to rethink its plans for the long term. Thirty-eight percent fewer total smartphones were shipped last month, as consumer spending fell and manufacturing shuttered in China. Apple will […]

The ad tech industry is pressing Google, Facebook and Amazon to offer more flexible payment terms during the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis. An industry petition on Change.org, whose author prefers to remain anonymous due to business conflicts, asks Facebook, Google and Amazon to offer more flexible payment terms during this crisis. The […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Games Must Not Go On It’s official: The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be postponed, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member told USA Today. It’s the first time that the Olympic games won’t be held since World War II, though brands and athletes may […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.  Today’s column is written by Alison Weissbrot, senior editor at AdExchanger. It’s part of a series of perspectives from AdExchanger’s editorial team. Facebook’s director of product management Rob Leathern tweeted Thursday that the social media […]

Related: Which coronavirus-related consumer behavior shifts are here to stay? It’s COVID-19’s world right now. Consumers – and marketers – are just living in it. The virus is having a palpable impact on how consumers shop and consume media and goods, and marketers need to figure out how to communicate with people in a new […]

How do all these changes affect marketers, and how should they adapt their messaging and media strategies to the COVID crisis? Click here to find out. Once the coronavirus-induced toilet paper panic buying dies down, consumers will probably chill on their TP sprees. But COVID-19 has the potential to create more permanent behavior changes in […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Not Very Sporting The sudden absence of live sports in television schedules has thrown broadcasters for a loop, with billions of dollars in rights fees and ad commitments on the line. But the most consequential effect may be a swing of users from linear-TV […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Disinfect Ads The coronavirus has led companies in certain categories to halt advertising, some (such as cruise providers) because demand has evaporated and others because supply has evaporated. “Clorox confirmed that as stores of its cleaning products dry up online, it has pulled back […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hang On St. Christopher Google’s travel advertising business (along with the travel marketing vertical in general) could be severely disrupted by the impacts of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Spending on travel search ads may drop by $1 billion in Q1 […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Empire Strikes Back Amazon Prime smashed brick-and-mortar retail with a combination of price discounts, speedy shipping guarantees and a raft of other benefits, with the biggest being the Prime Video streaming service. Now Walmart plans to launch a paid membership service with a focus […]

Although Amazon, Walmart and Target know which brands are sending them fruitful traffic, the brands themselves are often in the dark. Some of the top-spending brands don’t have meaningful dot-com sales of their own, and even when they direct traffic to retailers with an affiliate link, people don’t always convert immediately or on the same […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Data Dwindles Facebook will no longer share device-level data with its partners for mobile campaign measurement. The company quietly updated the terms of its advanced mobile measurement program in January, which previously allowed advertisers to view and share raw data associated with unique […]