The Cycle of Innovation for Digital Advertising
Michael Walrath is the former CEO of Yahoo!’s Right Media. I believe that there is a cycle of innovation at work in digital advertising. Where we are in the cycle at any given time depends on many factors, including the economy, availability of capital, supply and demand imbalances, M&A appetite, etc. Let’s take a look at the cycle. We’ve got to start somewhere, so let’s start with an ad recession. I think we can mostly agree that recessions suck, yet they also set the stage for periods of great innovation. How? Recessions cause growth to slow, revenues to suffer and some really lackluster financial performance. This is especially difficult for the large public companies that have to talk about how badly things are going…all the time.
Read More: AdExchanger
What Online Slump?
There was a lot of bellyaching last year about an online advertising market meltdown. Most of it was justified, as many advertisers’ budgets seemed to involve money that jingles rather than the kind that folds. Research firm eMarketer reported that U.S. online advertising dropped by 4.6% in 2009, the first decrease since 2002. However, recent news coming from three Internet start-ups shows not everyone dependent on advertising shed tears on their financial statements. This week alone, local online advertising provider Yodle Inc. announced a $10 million funding round on the back of a 135% revenue climb in 2009; female-focused ad network Glam Media Inc. said it grew revenue by 35% and raised a whopping $50 million Series E; and online video ad network BrightRoll Inc. declared it doubled revenue and raised $10 million.
Read More: WSJ
5 Sign’s of Mobile Advertising’s Coming Dominance
Mobile ads might consist of only a tiny portion of digital advertising – but their potential looms large. Analysts such as Morgan Stanley are adopting bullish assumptions about mobile computing’s growing reach. The industry is not there yet, however. Ad platforms are still very fragmented, making it cumbersome to place ads across multiple devices or OS. Also the mobile ad technology itself is only advancing in fits and starts. But progress is being made. Following are five important signs that mobile computing is not far away from becoming a dominant access point to the internet, according to JiWire.
Read More: MarketingVox
Online Advertising to Adopt Traditional Offline Metrics
Brands demand the promises and the guarantees of performance — the same performance and fundamental metrics they have come to know in traditional media, such as television and radio. During his keynote at OMMA Performance Monday, Young-Bean Song, senior director at Microsoft Advertising Institute, told attendees the online industry needs to adopt traditional performance metrics into online to make brands that traditionally advertise on television and radio feel more comfortable about moving advertising on the Web.
Read More: MediaPost
Dentsu Acquires Innovation Interactive
Dentsu Holdings USA, the U.S. division of one of Japan’s largest agency holding companies, this morning announced the acquisition of Innovation Interactive LLC, the New York-based parent of interactive agencies specializing in search, social media and audience targeting, including: 360i, SearchIgnite and Netmining. The companies said the Innovation Interactive units will continue to operate under the leadership of co-CEOs Will Margiloff and Bryan Wiener, who will report to Tim Andree, who in a separate move, was named president-CEO of Dentsu Holdings USA, and an Executive Officer of Dentsu Inc.
Read More: MediaPost
2010 Predictions
2009 was a big year at AdRoll. While we’ve watched display advertising come back into vogue, it’s been awesome to see our team innovate and develop the best display-based solutions for a growing range of SMB marketers. As we’re gearing up for another big year of growth, we thought we’d ask our own Adam Berke, VP of Business Development and Marketing, and founding team member here at AdRoll, to take a quick look forward at what he expects in 2010…
Read More: AdRoll
The Next Mobile Ad Merger
First came Google, with its November acquisition of AdMob, then Apple with its recent purchase of Quattro Wireless. Now, a host of Internet firms, device makers and even wireless operators are expected to snap up their own mobile advertising networks in the coming months. The challenge? There are only a few–possibly just two–ad firms left that are widely viewed as attractive candidates. A series of new deals would represent a second wave of merger and acquisition activity for the mobile ad market. The industry experienced an earlier burst of M&A in 2007, when Nokia bought Enpocket, AOL acquired Third Screen Media and Microsoft absorbed ScreenTonic. Rajeev Chand, a managing director at Rutberg & Co., says there are three reasons for a resurgence of interest: the strategic growth of the mobile Internet, a renewed interest in making acquisitions as the economy improves, and a greater number of potential acquirers.
Read More: Forbes
Five Acquisitions That Should Happen This Year
For the rest of the year we’re going to hear things like:
- The bailouts failed and we’re going into a Depression.
- We’re spending too much money and we’re going to have hyperinflation.
- Without government spending there’d be no more consumer right now.
- The U.S. government is manipulating the markets and that’s the only reason it is moving higher.
- P/E ratios are too high.
Please ignore all of that. The market is more than 60% higher since the lows. GDP growth is positive. Companies are starting to rebuild inventories, meaning they have to hire more people, and stocks are cheap when you factor in record-low interest rates (which is important because that’s the return benchmark people use for comparison) and the fact that earnings are at a trough low because of the recession we just emerged out of.
Read More: WSJ
