Aggressive Data Mining May Prompt Federal Regulation
Technological advances and a public now used to sharing information online has led to a new frontier for marketers, one in which they can mine rich data troves and serve up relevant and useful advertising. But marketers are risking the wrath of regulators and the public. Marketers are now taking offline data (income, credit rating, home value, savings) and merging that with online data. The offline data — including extremely sensitive, personally identifiable information — has been used by the direct marketing industry for decades. But only recently have marketers begun to connect it to online behavior. But it’s getting more common. “The line between merging online and offline data isn’t no-man’s land anymore; it’s becoming more of a common practice,” said Mike Zaneis, Washington lobbyist for the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Read More: AdAge
Why Online Ad Categories Are Won By New Entrants
In Silicon Valley, every startup fears than an established brand will one day acquire a rival or build a similar offering and instantly become the industry gorilla. When it comes to advertising, Google, which claims not only both the largest ad network and number of relationships with advertisers, but the most automated and profitable system on the Internet, is the most obvious example of this phenomenon. Ditto for Oracle and Cisco in the enterprise software space and eBay and Amazon in e-commerce. Yet while fear of the 800-pound gorilla rightfully looms, upstart ad ventures can take heart in mounting evidence that suggests online ad categories are not cornered by deep-pocketed brands, but by new market entrants. This has held true across several different categories, including Google in search, DoubleClick in ad serving, Advertising.com in display, NexTag in CPA, RightMedia in exchanges and AdMob in mobile. Each of these companies emerged from humble beginnings to become billion-dollar businesses, and did so in the face of large, incumbent competitors. Additionally, a slew of other firms exited at valuations in the hundreds of millions of dollars, among them Overture (search), Atlas (ad serving), ValueClick (display) and Quattro (mobile), to name just a few.
Read More: Gigaom.com
Angel Investor Jerry Neumann Discusses The Online Advertising Value Chain
AdExchanger.com recently asked several members of the advertising ecosystem about “Middlemen” and, specifically:
- “Are there too many parties trying to insert themselves into the online advertising value chain? How do you see this playing out?”
The following contribution is from Jerry Neumann, an angel investor in The Trade Desk, 33Across, Domdex, CPM Advisors and Flurry and a co-founder of Root Markets, a quantitative marketing pioneer.
Once there was only one intermediary: the black box, the ad networks, AdSense. They operated on a model that I’m personally familar with from raising children: you get what you get and you don’t get upset. Then the producers and users of ad inventory decided to grow up and take control of their own process -deconstruct the black boxes and start to learn themselves what works and why.
Read More: AdExchanger
Google: Dynamic Data And Social Features Can Save Display Ads
Display ads will incorporate a variety of social elements in future campaigns, but integrating creativity and dynamic data today can provide marketers with indispensable consumer mindshare and loyalty. The technology now exists to create these opportunities. The challenge may seem daunting to some marketers, but technology has made opportunities creative and dynamic ads limitless, Neal Mohan, vice president of product management at Google, told OMMA Global attendees in San Francisco Thursday. Google has the ability to integrate real-time data into display ads that serve up messages based on the time of day, the weather in a specific region, and more. “It’s a combination of taking in real-time data and determining what elements of the ad should go where,” Mohan told MediaPost. “You need to do this on the fly across millions of impressions every day. You can’t do this once or twice daily, but all day long.”
Read More: MediaPost
Google and Partners Seek TV Foothold
Google and Intel have teamed with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes. The move is an effort by Google and Intel to extend their dominance of computing to television, an arena where they have little sway. For Sony, which has struggled to retain a pricing and technological advantage in the competitive TV hardware market, the partnership is an effort to get a leg up on competitors. The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel. Some existing televisions and set-top boxes offer access to Web content, but the choice of sites is limited. Google intends to open its TV platform, which is based on its Android operating system for smartphones, to software developers. The company hopes the move will spur the same outpouring of creativity that consumers have seen in applications for cellphones.
Read More: NYTimes
Yahoo No. 2 Steps in to Lead Sales on Interim Basis
Yahoo No. 2 Hilary Schneider will oversee ad sales at the portal for at least the next few months as it searches internally and externally for a replacement for Joanne Bradford, who left suddenly to be come chief revenue officer at Demand Media. In an interview, Ms. Schneider said all of Ms. Bradford’s direct reports would report to her to ensure a “level of continuity.” Ms. Schneider has been deeply involved with the integration of Yahoo and Microsoft search sales operations and said that effort, under way now, won’t be affected by Ms. Bradford’s departure. “My plan is to work with Joanne’s team directly,” Ms. Schneider said. “At the same time we are going to launch an external search which I expect will take a couple of months.”
Read More: AdAge
What Drove Yahoo’s Purchase Of Citizen Sports
To buy or to build? That’s the question that drove Yahoo’s decision to buy social sports startup Citizen Sports, which owns a series of sports-related apps on the iPhone and on Facebook, according to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) media head James Pitaro. “When we really sat down and looked at what we were doing in the social space and where we were trying to get, we ultimately decided that what they already had is superior than what we would have been able to do in the short term,” he says. Now, he says, Yahoo Sports—which is “doing a very good job on the PC”—will be able to bolster its presence on the iPhone—and also build a presence on Facebook. “We haven’t been as active on Facebook as we should be,” he says. “It’s a top priority for our media businesses.” During a discussion with Pitaro and Citizen Sports CEO Mike Kerns, the two men also talked to us about the future of fantasy sports online, the overlap between Yahoo Sports and Citizen Sports and also some details about the deal, which will see about 30 employees joining Yahoo.
Read More: PaidContent.org
X+1 Adds ‘Smart Tagging’ To Targeting Platform
In the latest upgrade to its audience targeting platform, x+1 has added a feature designed to streamline the process of tagging multiple Web pages and types of media by employing a universal piece of code across all digital formats. Unlike traditional ad-tagging methods — which may entail offline development and installation by IT staff for each page — x+1′s new Smart Tagging System included in its platform will apply a uniform tag across Web sites, landing pages, online display ads and e-mail, promising to reduce costs and boost campaign performance. The code for Smart Tags is generated automatically when a campaign is created through the company’s solution, allowing users to place tags via the dashboard. The new tagging system pulls in anonymous visitor data on the fly including IP address, demographic information, prior sites and Web pages viewed and other tracking information funneled into x+1′s POE optimization engine.
Read More: MediaPost
AOL Goes ‘Local’ With $10 Million V.C. Fund
Aol. said Wednesday that it is putting together a $10 million venture capital that will invest in start-up’s whose businesses target the “local” space, as the newly liberated company continues its bet on local content, PaidContent reported. “An increasing number of start-ups are fundamentally improving the local experience for consumers, businesses, governments and organizations throughout the world,” the company said in a statement. “Aol. will target these types of companies with its local fund which will operate out of Aol. Ventures.” The move follows Aol’s purchase of hyperlocal news firm Patch.
Read More: Blogs.NYTimes.com
