Driving Mobile to Scale
Mobile advertising is beginning to live up to its promise. There is so much innovation at the moment that it’s hard to find a more exciting place to be. But as with all beginnings, a million things still need to fall into place before mobile fully evolves.
In order to drive growth, education is vital. We must to continue to educate and evangelize about mobile’s range of advantages to marketers and agencies.
Then we need to deliver the goods. In order to do so, we have to establish a more scalable framework where the creativity and special features of smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices are not being compromised.
New ad formats are a given when it comes to achieving this goal. Embracing the ecosystem’s desire for richer brand marketing that speaks to mobile’s unique requirements and benefits, one of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s key initiatives of this year is the Mobile Rising Stars contest. Winning ad format concepts were revealed a few short weeks ago in Miami Beach at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting. These winning ad concepts will go through a development, deployment, and testing process and, with success, be inducted into the IAB standard advertising unit portfolio, the definitive standards for the digital advertising industry.
Are Ad Servers Specifically For Publishers Or Advertisers Still Necessary?
Publisher ad server. Advertiser ad server.
Does it really matter any more?
As ad servers on both sides of the digital media aisle look to buy and sell, ad serving capabilities would, in theory, appear to be on the verge of merging – especially as demand-side platforms, sell-side platforms and exchanges take over the delivery of real-time biddable ad impressions.
AdExchanger reached out to executives in the data-driven ad ecosystem and asked the following: ”Are ad servers specifically dedicated to the publisher or advertiser still necessary?”
Click below or scroll for more:
•James Avery, CEO, Adzerk
•Sebastiaan Schepers, COO, BannerConnect
•Dean McRobie, CTO, annalect (Omnicom)
•Ben Kneen, Director of Ad Products, WebMD
•Eric Simon, VP Business Operations, [x+1]
•Brian Tomasette, VP Media Products, DoublePositive Marketing Group
•Larry Allen, SVP Business Development, 24/7 Real Media
James Avery, CEO, Adzerk
“No. As a product guy it baffles me that they have continued as separate products for so long. The difference between a publisher side ad server and an advertiser side ad server is small enough that many small and medium size advertisers currently use publisher ad servers (especially the free ones). Adding to the pressure for these products to combine is that the modern ad network tends to be a half publisher and half advertiser – on any given day they might be optimizing the traffic that comes from their publishers or placing ad buys through the exchanges or through other publisher side ad servers. As publisher side ad servers continue to add the features that these networks and small advertisers are looking for the feature gap will close and advertiser side ad servers will start to see more and more competition from the publisher side ad servers.”
Read more: AdExchanger.com
Wall Street Keen On Internet Prospects, But Touts Commerce Vs. Ad-Supported Players
The influential Wall Street equity research team at J.P. Morgan released a 2012 outlook for the online industry saying it “remains positive on the Internet sector,” and expects the medium to “be driven by strong secular growth, increased online accessibility through smartphones and tablets, and strengthening trends around social, local and video.” That said, the securities firm said its favorite picks for the year are not the Internet’s ad-supported biggies, but major e-commerce players Amazon and Priceline.
“Amazon and Priceline are our top picks for the year,” opined lead Internet analyst Doug Anmuth in a note to investors, adding: “We continue to like Google at current levels, but believe the risk/reward is now more favorable in these other large-cap names.”
While J.P. Morgan did not tout any specific online advertising players, it is positive on the overall sector, noting that online ad spending will continue to be driven by display and is expected to rise about 16% in 2012.
“We expect online advertising to continue to see strong growth, driven by increasing consumer consumption of digital media and increasing allocations of branded ad budgets online,” the report reads, adding: “Consumers have greater touchpoints to digital media through the rapid adoption of mobile devices and tablets, supported with higher engagement trends through the use of social media and networks. We believe consumer time spent online will continue to increase, and the online advertising dollars to follow.
Read More: MediaPost
Brands Will Choose Online Video Over Display Ads in 2012: Adap.tv
Study shows that advertisers will increase online video spending this year, and that brands want viewer engagement.
Adap.tv completed a research report on the digital video industry shortly before the recent Streaming Media West conference in Los Angeles, and company co-founder and vice president of product Teg Grenager sat down at a red carpet interview to share some of its findings.
This is a good time to be in the online video advertising space, as nearly all the advertisers surveyed said they were sure they would increase their online video spending this year. In previous years, advertisers were more hesitant to jump in.
“This year there were some very interesting findings. The industry is changing and maturing a little bit,” said Grenager, noting that the market was due for significant growth.
That extra spending has to come from somewhere, and the loser in advertising budgets looks to be display advertising.
“Digital video actually is, in some ways, a replacement for some of what display was trying to achieve. It’s trying to achieve branding on the Web, and digital video’s just much better at that,” Grenager noted.
Advertisers’ goals are also changing this year. In previous years, they looked to online video ads to build awareness. Now they want brand engagement with their ads. Noting that engagement is more a tactic than a goal, Grenager explained that viewers who engage with an ad in some way are more likely to think about that brand and see it favorably.
Read More: Streaming Media
DataXu Thinks Global, Acts Hyper-Local: Acquires Europe’s Mexad
In a move it says gives it the biggest global footprint of local manpower of any demand-side platform (DSP), DataXu has acquired London-based Mexad, a leading European DSP with offices in Western Europe and Brazil. Both companies are privately-held and terms were not disclosed, but DataXu Co-Founder and CEO Mike Baker says the acquisition gives DataXu a competitive advantage in a sector that increasingly is about local service and market knowledge.
With 36 employees, Mexad manages real-time bidding campaigns and inventory in about 60 countries in Europe and Latin America, complementing DataXu’s local market knowledge in North America, he says.
“They have an on-the-ground presence in all the major markets in Europe right now,” Baker tells Online Media Daily, adding that “feet-on-the-street” is becoming a key differentiator for the DSP business, because it’s not just about having the best software, algorithms and access to RTB inventory that determines success in local markets, but understanding local cultures, ways of doing business in specific markets, and the ability to advise and service local marketers and agencies in those markets.
Read More: MediaPost
Banner future for digital advertising
Online spending has leapfrogged every traditional medium except television, and that gap is narrowing
When Sprint Nextel this month moved its $1.1 billion account from San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to Digitas Chicago and Leo Burnett, it was one of the biggest wins in Chicago advertising history.
Beyond the 300 or so new jobs the account will bring to the city, with online-focused Digitas named lead agency, it also represents what may be the tipping point for digital advertising, which has rapidly transformed from a fringe buy to an integral part of the media mix.
“I think it’s a validation of the next evolution of this industry,” said Tony Weisman, president of Digitas Chicago.
Once the insular domain of direct marketers and tech-savvy programmers, online advertising accounted for just a fraction of total media spending in the U.S. at the start of the new millennium. Since then, the medium has leapfrogged every traditional advertising vehicle except television, and it is closing ground fast.
“The Internet has become as important as television to advertisers,” said David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer, a New York-based research firm. “This is where people spend a large share of their time. Marketers chase the audience.”
Read More: Chicago Tribune
Akamai is acquiring Cotendo for $286M
App delivery company Akamai is acquiring app delivery network Contendo, the companies jointly announced today.
Akamai will purchase all of Cotendo’s outstanding equity for a net cash payment of $268 million.
Pending regulatory approval and other typical acquisition conditions, the deal is expected to close sometime over the next six months.
In a release today, the companies stated that they expect their combined technologies, which each have a lot to do with safely and securely delivering content and application packages in the cloud, to accelerate innovation in cloud and mobile services.
“As we look to accelerate growth across the dynamic landscapes of cloud and mobile optimization, we are excited to be joining forces with Cotendo,” said Akamai president and CEO Paul Sagan in a statement.
“Cotendo’s technology, partnerships and people are a strong complement to Akamai. Together, we believe there is tremendous opportunity for our combined technologies as enterprises embrace the move to the cloud and seek solutions for an increasingly mobile world.”
Read More: VentureBeat
