At Connected Marketing Week, Talk Is Heated Around the Future of Display

Investment analysts, agency media buyers, and executives speaking here this week all agree on one thing: The resurgence of online display ads is real, and will proceed apace for the next several years. But they disagreed about nearly everything else. For instance: What’s the future of CPM pricing? To what extent will media agencies be disintermediated in coming years? And just how important is Google in this space?

On a Connected Marketing Week panel featuring investment analysts, all four participants said they were bullish on display – predicting overall demand and pricing will rise. However the specific outcomes they described were very distinct.

Doug Anmuth of Barclays Capital said discussions with advertisers have convinced him large consumer goods sellers will make it rain this year and next.

Researchers and agencies anticipated such an influx of brand ad budgets way back in 2007, but that was before the bottom fell out of the economy. Now Anmuth believes the time is ripe again. “At CPG companies, [we're seeing] reinvestment in their brands,” he said.

But not all will benefit. For instance, it’s unclear whether the rise of exchange-traded display ads on Yahoo’s Right Media and Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange will suit large brands. Two of four analysts lauded Google’s strategy of automating display ads, while the other two offered weak or qualified support.

One of those was Robert Coolbrith, an analyst with ThinkEquity. He said, “We’re positive on Google’s display ad strategy, assuming that automation of display will serve the interest of brand advertisers. The jury’s still out on that.”

Read More: ClickZ

Apple Shuts Down Quattro Wireless To Focus On iAd

Starting in September, Apple will focus its mobile advertising efforts entirely on the iAd, which runs ads in applications on the iPhone and iPod. As a result of that decision, the company is shutting down the Quattro Wireless mobile ad network it acquired in January for $275 million.

In a statement posted on the former Quattro home page, Apple said it will no longer accept new campaigns for the ad network and will wind down existing campaigns across different devices and platforms. “As of September 30, we will support ads exclusively for the iAd Network,” read the notice.

That Apple has eschewed running a horizontal ad network to concentrate solely on ramping up the iAd platform launched in April isn’t terribly surprising. With the company’s high ambitions for the new interactive format and commanding position in mobile apps, it’s become clear Apple is betting everything on the iAd to succeed in mobile advertising.

And after enticing a roster of blue-chip brands to sign on as charter iAd advertisers at least $1 apiece, Apple likely needs to turn all its Quattro resources toward preparing and running campaigns for its new batch of clients. A recent Wall Street Journal report indicated that the service has been hampered by campaign delays, with at least one announced partner, Chanel, shelving its iAd effort.

Read More: MediaPost

RIM Reportedly Shopping For Mobile Ad Network For BlackBerry

Since Google (NSDQ: GOOG) bought AdMob and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) bought Quattro, RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) must be shopping for a mobile ad network, right? That’s what’s happening, according to people familiar with the matter, reports the WSJ.

The unnamed sources said the BlackBerry-device maker has been in talks with Millennial Media, an independent mobile ad network based in Baltimore, but that the talks have stalled over disagreements regarding the value of the deal. Millennial is reportedly asking for $400 to $500 million based on the recent prices that AdMob and Quattro were able to score ($750 million and an estimated $270 million, respectively). Both companies declined to comment, WSJ says.

Of course, there are other free agents in the space that RIM could investigate buying, including JumpTap and Greystripe, which have been very vocal about how much their networks are growing in lieu of the recent purchases by Google and Apple, which have successfully drawn attention and more advertising dollars to mobile.

RIM’s user base can be looked at as a valuable demographic for advertisers, given that a majority of its install base are business users. However, those users can be already targeted today by using existing mobile ad networks, so presumably, RIM would be able to bring something additional to the table if it owned its own network. Likewise, RIM would be able to skim some of the profits off for itself, which both Apple and Google are doing through its ad networks.

Read More: MocoNews.com

Media Buyers Discuss Ad Verification At ClickZ, IAB Ad Networks And Exchanges Event

Today, during ClickZ’s Connected Marketing Week in San Francisco which brought together name-your-digital-pleasure marketers to discuss their respective marketing channel, ClickZ and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) also co-sponsored an Ad Networks & Exchanges event.

Editor’s note: It would seem the name of this type of IAB event may need to evolve. Demand-side platforms don’t want to be called ad networks. And, ad networks – to a certain degree – want to be known as demand-side platforms. Looking forward to the new name!

Just prior to the day-long event, the IAB released news (see it) that 16 IAB member ad network and exchange companies had become “the first to commit to comprehensive self-certification against the IAB ‘Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines,’ [which aims to] increase buyer control over the placement and context of advertising on ad networks and exchanges.”

In the third panel of the day, San Francisco-area media agencies provided their take on the fast-moving ad ecosystem and ad verification technologies, in particular.

Moderated by ValueClick Media’s Matthew Boyd, panelists included associate media director Kim Small of Universal McCann, senior media manager Pablito Padua of Signal to Noise (formerly Agency.com), associate media director Lindsay Wong of Razorfish and vp, digital strategy director Chris Unno of PHD.

Noting the new guidelines and their adoption by 16 member companies, panel members agreed they were heartened to see the step forward in adopting the brand safety measures. But Signal to Noise’s Padua added that he was disappointed that there weren’t additional networks on the initial list.

Read More: AdExchanger

Excess Ad Inventory Pushing Value-Added Services

The movement into value-added services by companies throughout the online advertising space continues to get more interesting. First we saw Google provide free tools and services to support online ad sales. Now search engine marketing companies have begun to provide free tools and platforms to small-and-medium size businesses in hopes of eventually locking them in to subscription services for life. Take that one step further, to find demand side platforms (DSP) building networks of tech offerings on top of real-time bidding platforms.

Xa.net built its platform as an integration hub to bring in data from BlueKai, eXelate and TargusInfo, as well as the media from ad exchanges and publishers. Add to that creative services and it gives advertisers a way to pull in targeting data, purchase ads, and design creative pieces.

The xa.net built technology that allows companies to access inventory from ad networks and exchanges through a real-time bidding system will also offer value-added services that assist companies with copywriting and creating ads. The company’s CEO, Rob Leathern, tells me xa.net began to build the platform earlier this year and will sign on five companies to augments its services. Think of it this way, Leathern wants xa.net to provide the underlying technology that connects complementary services to make everything work together. That includes ad creation for social media platforms, too.

One of those companies will become BoostCTR, a network of copywriters for text ads that will help xa.net clients improve the quality of copy written for Facebook ads. Others include 4Delit, a self-service system that lets small advertisers create Flash and rich media ads; Interpolls, which creates rich-media formats and widgets; OneScreen; and OggiFinogi.

Read More: MediaPost

Google TV plan is causing jitters in Hollywood

Google revolutionized the way people access information. Now it wants to transform how people get entertainment.

The search giant is touting an ambitious new technology, called Google TV, that would marry the Internet with traditional television, enabling viewers to watch TV shows and movies unshackled from the broadcast networks or cable channels on which they air. Users would need to buy a TV or set-top box with Google software that could connect to the Internet, along with a keyboard to type commands. Users could also use their iPhone or Android phone to operate Google TV.

The prospect of Google getting into television frightens many in Hollywood, who worry that Silicon Valley will upend the entertainment industry just like the Internet ravaged the music and newspaper industries.

Read More: LATimes.com

Another Search Firm Embraces Exchange-Traded Display Ads

Hearst-owned iCrossing has become the latest search agency to try and boost its display ad chops by partnering with a demand-side platform.

Scottsdale, AZ-based iCrossing will work with DataXu to support real-time ad optimization and bidding on ad exchanges such as Yahoo’s Right Media and Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

The move follows a slate of developments in which search agencies have made advances in the display arena. Recently, four search firms – Efficient Frontier, SearchIgnite, Kenshoo, and Marin Software – joined a Right Media pilot program involving real-time bid display ads. Back in April, SEM firm Efficient Frontier launched a DSP of its own, fusing real-time bidding functionality with search campaign management.

While not purely a search agency, iCrossing’s roots are in the search arena. Dax Hamman, the agency’s VP of display media, said in a statement that data integration is key to the company’s clients’ exchange ambitions.

“We wanted a partner…that could provide the technical framework in which we can test the effectiveness of multiple data sources for our clients,” he said.

iCrossing was not the only search firm to announce new moves into display this morning. Marin Software, a search management platform company that manages $1 billion in marketing spend annually, today released applications for managing Facebook Advertising. The new features allow clients to manage algorithmic bidding, segmentation, and ad rotation on Facebook, alongside their search campaigns on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Read More: ClickZ

ShortTail, TidalTV Ink Video Ad Deal

ShortTail Media, a company that helps publishers deliver video ads to text-based portions of their Web sites, has signed a deal with Web video network and technology firm TidalTV.

As part of the pact, publishers in TidalTV’s network, including 30 newspaper sites owned by McClatchy, have begun selling advertisers ShortTail’s signature D30 ad unit — a video interstitial that appears as users click between Web pages.

ShortTail touts the D30 as a way for sites to better monetize text content, which still makes up the majority of publishers’ content outside of the YouTubes and Hulus of the world. The company already works with sites such as EW.com and The Huffington Post and has run campaigns for brands like A&E, Sonic, Jim Beam and General Mills. (See also: “Web Ads Get More Intrusive.”)

That monetization concept appealed to McClatchy, which is testing the D30 on the sites for newspapers such as The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star. “We’ve traditionally had our own video and video from the Associated Press, but that requires users to say, ‘I’m going to watch video now,’” said Chris Hendricks, vp, interactive media at McClatchy. “We’ve had very limited [video] inventory because of that. This puts video front and center on our site, and it helps us compete from a volume perspective.” McClatchy’s sites reach about 35 million unique users, per Hendricks.

Read More: AdWeek