coronavirus

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Digital Election  The 2020 campaign is happening online. Trump has recreated the appeal of his rallies on the “Trump 2020” app, which highlights programming from right-leaning news organizations. His team also hosts nightly webcasts on Facebook and Twitter. Trump’s outlandishness and media dominance […]

Direct-to-consumer sales at Skullcandy are up more than 100% year over year. That doesn’t mean the audio, headphone and earbud company isn’t feeling the effect of the coronavirus situation like most everyone else. “Of course we are, “ said CMO Jessica Klodnicki. But the uptick validates Skullcandy’s long-term strategy to diversify its sales channels. It […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. On Again, Office Again Agencies are starting to plan for office returns. Omnicom is developing a three-phase return strategy based on local government guidelines, Campaign reports. Phase one involves returning offices to 25% occupancy with social distancing rules in place, such as wearing masks, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Back To Work Facebook has a plan for reopening offices in July. The company will have a 25% occupancy limit, bring people back in shifts and require temperature checks, Bloomberg reports. Facebook will also limit the number of employees in meeting rooms and shut […]

During a time of economic uncertainty, should a CMO put her brand on the sidelines? Or should she increase media investment – especially if buying ads is cheap? NerdWallet’s CMO Kelly Gillease has been in the midst of that marketing calculus as the brand recalibrates its strategy for the rest of 2020. “We decided that […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Sign Of The Times The New York Times will remove third-party data and build a first-party data market as cookies bite the dust, Axios reports. Starting in July, the Times will offer 45 audience segments based on reader and subscriber data under categories including […]

BrightLine co-founder Rob Aksman is living the dream from his in-laws’ basement. “We have a 2-year-old, and with daycare canceled and a small New York City apartment, it was becoming untenable for us to get any work done,” he says. “We were defaulting to a little too much television, a little too much Disney Plus […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Big Mac Budgets McDonald’s is increasing its marketing spend during the pandemic to gain share as smaller restaurant chains struggle. Doubling down on spend in markets where McDonald’s handles its own operations, including the United States, Australia and Canada, is part of a three-pronged […]

What’s it like to start a new agency just as the coronavirus pandemic takes over the world and advertisers pull back spend? In early February, Kern Schireson unveiled his data agency Known, which he built by combining his company Schireson Associates with two acquisitions: Stun Creative and the branding agency Blackbird. A month later, the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Add To Cart Online grocery shopping is exploding. More than a third of Americans bought groceries online for the first time in the last month, and they have spent more on grocery delivery each week as lockdowns drag on, The New York Times reports. […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cut Me Some Slack Advertisers are trying to get out of their TV deals as the pandemic timeline lengthens. Brands including GM, Pepsi, Domino’s and General Mills are trying to cancel commitments to broadcast and cable networks, threatening to upend the deal-making process, The […]

Pinterest would’ve had a pretty decent first quarter if it wasn’t for … the coronavirus, of course. But engagement is at an all-time high, and the immediacy of what people are searching for is changing, said Arthur Sevilla, Pinterest’s head of global vertical strategy. The shift first became noticeable in early April. “It’s gone from […]

“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 Bruno Gralpois, co-founder and principal at Agency Mania Solutions. In times of crisis, traditional playbooks go out the window. Under pressure, with mounting concerns and increased tension, the risks of mishandling […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Privacy On Pause COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in the United Kingdom’s investigation of ad tech privacy practices. The country’s data protection agency paused its probe into the sector’s use of personal data due to business disruptions, TechCrunch reports. The investigation stems from a […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. YouTube Flexes YouTube represents a quarter of all AVOD and SVOD viewership in the United States, growing 80% year over year, per Comscore. Among ad-supported services, YouTube has the highest reach and streaming hours, the company said in a blog post. Time spent watching […]

Both Words With Friends and Zynga Poker are more than 10 years old. But players who left long ago have been returning to the titles organically in recent weeks thanks to shelter in place. And new users are coming on board too. The uptick, which only really started in earnest during the last two weeks […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Let Me Be Upfront Advertisers are pressing networks to delay upfront negotiations until September or October, when they’ll have a sense of how programming is being watched right now and (hopefully) can forecast their finances. Some brands are eager to buy ad space right […]

Rubicon Project is laying off 8% of its combined staff this quarter to reduce short-term costs in response to its merger and the coronavirus pandemic. Originally, Rubicon Project and Telaria expected to achieve $15 million to $20 million in cost synergies post-merger, but the coronavirus pandemic led the newly combined company to increase cost-cutting to […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Paul T. Ryan, chief technology officer at OpenX. I am hearing more publishers bring up Prebid when discussing their supply-side strategies. At a time when publishers are facing pressure from multiple fronts – evolving […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cadreon No More  IPG Mediabrands rebranded Cadreon to Matterkind. The unit will focus on addressable media by leveraging Acxiom data and Kinesso technology to target across channels. Matterkind claims to offer “an expanded and enhanced suite of addressable activation solutions and advisory services” that […]

When Adam Blitzer, EVP and GM of three Salesforce clouds (Marketing, Commerce and Community) co-founded marketing automation platform Pardot in 2007, the Great Recession was just around the corner and real estate was damned cheap. Pardot the startup snagged the top floor of a 34-story office building in Atlanta for $4 a square foot and […]

The world is in a state of flux – but so is the ad tech industry. That’s why IAB UK created a new role in April focused solely on helping ad tech “build a more sustainable future,” said Tina Lakhani, who was elevated to fill the head of ad tech position. Lakhani joined IAB UK in […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. DR FTW Brands are pulling back, but direct response marketers are making up some of the loss. Facebook, Google and Snap called out DR advertisers as a bright spot during Q1 earnings, while brand advertising declined. The roughly $40 billion app-install market was “likely […]

April 20 – or 4/20 – the biggest day on the cannabis enthusiast’s calendar, was a muted affair this year. But despite canceled events and socially-distanced smoking, the demand was still there, said Cory Rothschild, SVP of brand marketing at Cresco Labs, a publicly traded multistate cannabis company based in Illinois, where recreational weed became legal on […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Breaking Bad (Ads) Google blocked 2.7 billion ads from being served last year – more than 5,000 ads per minute – and suspended almost 1 million advertiser accounts for policy violations. Plus 1.2 million publisher accounts were terminated over violations. That’s according to Google’s […]

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 […]

While the coronavirus pandemic hit all of Comcast’s businesses in Q1, its impact on ad revenue differs across NBCU, Sky and its Xfinity cable unit, the company revealed Thursday. And as with every other company in the world, Comcast expects to experience much more severe effects in the next quarter. Higher prices stems NBCU’s losses […]

The story of Twitter’s first quarter is familiar: a strong start to the year … and then a rapid ad revenue decline in March as COVID-19 began to take hold. Twitter posted modest growth in Q1, a 3% YoY increase to $808 million, while total ad revenue was $682 million, up $3 million compared to […]