EMEA > CEE

It’s probably the last thing you want to be seeing on your first week back: namely, another prediction list for 2012. But given that 99.5% of these lists have been overwhelmingly US-centric, it’s useful to have some European perspective. ExchangeWire will not be held to account for any of these predictions except if all of the following are realised through the course of 2012. Do include some of your own soothsaying in the comments area.

1. Publishers Banding Together To Pool Data & Inventory

Watch out for a sizeable announcement in the first half of the year from a group of large European publishers looking to build their own publisher exchange. This will be the first of many. I expect a similar initiative in Germany, as the powerful sales houses look to close ranks. It won’t be pan-Euro – but instead start out country specific. There have been numerous debates on ExchangeWire in 2011 as to why publishers should/shouldn’t do it. But ultimately it comes down to control. Control over inventory, data and pricing. Publishers are within their right to trade on their own terms. I think a centralised exchange would allow publishers to put in place the right resource to get the best price for their (data-enriched) impressions. Managing premium supply when the marketplace is saturated with brand unsafe inventory could turn out to be a stroke for struggling pubs. European publishers would be wise to steal a move on the market now and partner with a tech provider to build their own exchange. If you think I’ve lost it, how do you explain the MicroYahooAol “partnership”?

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Season’s greetings, listeners. Today TraderTalk looks at the 2011 year in full – with some perspective on possible trends in 2012. This edition covers everything from the rise of the trading desk in Europe to ad tech’s growing obsession with acquiring/building the end-of-end stack. ExchangeWire Editor, Ciaran O’Kane, is ably assisted in the end-of-year review by the Guardian’s Tim Gentry, Martin Kelly, Managing Partner at Infectious Media, ValueClick’s Carl White and Eric Ward, Director, Digital Media at goetzpartners. So that you get all future episodes, you can subscribe to TraderTalk here.

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Yet another video from the recent ATS London event. This time we have Jason Kelly, Chief Revenue Officer at Admeld, speaking to Anthony Rhind, co-CEO at Havas Digital about the evolving data-driven media buying landscape and the agency strategy. Rhind, one of the most respected and senior digital agency executives Europe, give his analysis on some of the big changes happening in the market and how it will affect the European agency.

If you were expecting some concrete guidelines from any of the myriad of European government privacy agencies, such as the ICO, on a) how not to be taken to court for contravening the new EU directive and b) how not to incur a massive fine after some privacy nut accused you of being TOO “intruisive” with those horrid cookies then I’m afraid you are going to be sorely disappointed. That’s how I felt after leaving Evidon’s conference on privacy this week. It wasn’t that it was a bad conference. I would say it was one of the best privacy events I’ve been to. Good speakers. Engaging content. But the truth is nobody has a clue what is going on – still. I asked a panel point blank what I should do as a small publishers, running 3rd party cookies, to comply with the directive.

The answer was as vague as the directive itself: appear to be doing something and you should be alright. Right. And that is? Updated T’s & C’s? Opt-in? Maybe a pop-up warning of imminent cookie “intrusion”? Implied consent? Explicit consent? All strategies are plausible, says the ICO. The bottom line is just look like you are doing something. It’s all sensible advice but this comment by David Evans of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in NMA this week only confirmed my current suspicion of mass legislator and industry body confusion around the current EU legislation:

“Companies need to start showing they are moving in the right direction as the directive has been around since May. As a regulator, we can point to lots of people doing different things, but do something is the message.”

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Laurent Nicolas is Founder and CEO at Alenty, a measurement vendor specialising in ad visibility for both DR and Brand digital buyers. Here Nicolas discusses the Alenty proposition, how it is addressing ad visibility and ad recall, why it is helping brand advertisers move into display, and he even gives us a case study with a real life example.

What does Alenty do? Give us an overview of the Alenty proposition in Europe?

Alenty is the European leader in Brand Advertising Efficiency measurement. We measure whether online ads are efficient for brand advertising.

To achieve this goal, we have built strong technology that measures if ads are seen (visible on the screen while someone is watching) and for how long. Our unique positioning is our ability to mix this technology with partnerships with Market Research companies (TNS in UK, France, Germany and Spain – and Nielsen worldwide). This is why we have been able to prove the link between ad visibility and message recall. So, our clients can use our census ad visibility measurement to optimize their brand advertising campaigns.

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Here are some of the highlights from the “Whither The Media Plan?” and Publisher panels from the recent ATS London. The first panel, ably moderated by Microsoft’s Zuzanna Gierlinska, focused around the media plan and whether or not it would still be around in 3-to-5 years given the rapid move towards automation. The panelists included Vivaki’s Marco Bertozzi, AOL’s Brandon Keenen, Martin Kelly, Infectious Media, MediaIQ’s Gurman Hundal and Nigel Gilbert. The discussion touched on wider trends in the marketplace such as the in-housing of the re-targeting function by agencies, the ad net’s potential demise and publisher concerns around CPM pricing.

The Publisher panel focused on sell-side issues and the opportunity for publishers in the emerging data-driven display space (note the mention of the Publisher Trading Desk and the pan-European publisher exchange here). This panel included: Tom Barnett, Director, Switch Concepts; Martin Van Der Meij, Yield Manager, De Telegraaf; Tim Gentry, Head of Optimisation & Effectiveness at Guardian Commercial; Jonathan Wolf, Chief Buying Officer, Criteo; and Nicholas Timms, Head Of Network Products, A&NY Media.

Damian Scragg is the Managing Director, UK, Evidon. Here he discusses the Evidon proposition in Europe and how its solution can help companies comply with the new directive.

What is Evidon’s value proposition to its clients?

Evidon helps brands, agencies, publishers and solutions providers both protect and grow their businesses. Our Evidon InForm platform, which delivers the ‘AdChoices’ icon/notice experience on ads and websites, helps companies give consumers transparency and control over how their information is used online, including the ability to consent to being tracked or targeted. This is the core requirement of compliance with the advertising industry’s Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioural Advertising in the US, and with the EU’s ePrivacy Directive.

Evidon Encompass, our newest solution, helps brands to discover all of the third-party trackers on their website(s) and disclose them as a part of their compliance obligation. It also gives them the ability to gauge and control the impact (data leakage, latency, etc.) those trackers can have on their business. This is powered primarily by Ghostery, our popular browser add-on that ‘tracks the trackers’, and its 300,000-member panel that voluntarily sends this tracking information back to us.

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AppNexus has announced the launch of its App Marketplace, as it looks to establish itself as the leading open platform for application distribution. The “App Marketplace” is now allowing ad tech companies to build applications and distribute through the AppNexus platform.

The first AppNexus Apps providers include behavioural and contextual data leaders such as Brilig, eXelate, Lotame, Proximic, uKnow and TARGUSinfo. They have also lined up Evidon and TRUSTe. BlueKai, Peer39, Crystal Semantics and CPX Interactive are expected to launch shortly and plans are in the works for apps from rich media vendors and other providers.

“AppNexus’ goal has always been to link together the complex map of companies in the ad technology industry and to help further online advertising innovation, and I’m thrilled we’re connecting the final piece of the puzzle”, said Mike Nolet, AppNexus CTO and co-founder. “AppNexus Apps is a huge step forward for the entire industry and we’re looking forward to playing an important role in helping to evolve this vibrant ecosystem.”

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