Infectious Media today released its Insight Report looking into the Spring 2012 online advertising trends. It details how advertising prices through the RTB ad-exchanges are shifting across Europe, in addition to other trends impacting online advertisers. The report offers opinions on the causes of these movements and makes predictions of coming trends within the market.
This, the third quarterly report from Infectious Media, encompasses data collected between March and May to identify the European trends in CPM (cost-per-thousand), CPC (cost-per-click) and CTR (click-through-rate). It also draws on original data sources to provide an analysis of brand exposure time per impression, the effect of increasing ad impressions on CTR, and a league table of the leading inventory sources, by European region.
The next Trend Report will be out after summer – just in time for dmexco, ATS London and ATS Paris.
Rocket Fuel Secures $50 Million in Funding to Fuel Global Growth
Rocket Fuel, a leading provider of artificial intelligence advertising solutions for digital marketers, announced it has secured $50 million in new financing. The round was led by long-term Rocket Fuel investor Northgate Capital, and included two new investors: Summit Partners, and Cross Creek Capital, the private equity affiliate of Wasatch Advisors. Existing investors Nokia Growth Capital and Mohr Davidow Ventures participated, as did Comerica Bank. Total Rocket Fuel funding now exceeds $76m.
Rocket Fuel is on a rapid growth trajectory. Between 2009 and 2011, its compound annual growth rate exceeded 325%; in 2011 alone, the company grew revenue to $45m and reached EBITDA profitability in Q4 2011. Rocket Fuel will use the infusion of new capital to accelerate its aggressive growth strategy. Rocket Fuel plans to expand into more international markets and invest in hiring, technology and business development.
The sales house used to be the predominant way of creators of content connecting with buyers of media space. The sales house was the ultimate middleman, effectively a broker between two parties. It inspired a new generation of middlemen, namely, the ad networks. The sales house model has been completely modernised and overhauled. In the UK that is.
In Germany, the sales house is still a major component of the online advertising ecosystem. In fact, the very foundation of the term ‘sales house’ in the UK and Germany now represent two entirely different things.
Ad Tech Goes Mainstream with Turn’s Mad Men TV Advert
A primetime commercial which screened Sunday during Mad Men’s U.S. season finale as part of a global online advertising campaign is set to illustrate how much advertising has changed since Don Draper’s heyday.
Weborama announced yesterday that it was acquiring Datvantage, a data management solution, for an undisclosed figure. The acquisition might well signal the start of a wider consolidation in the European ad tech space. Here Weborama CEO, Alain Levy, and Datvantage’s Co-Founder, Arnaud Caplier, discuss the deal and how it will augment the current pan-Euro data solution offered by Weborama.
For those not accustomed with Datvantage, please explain what the value proposition; what category do they operate in (exchange, DMP, etc)?
Arnaud: Datvantage is a data exchange: it aggregates audience segments from publishers and offers them to audience buyers (advertisers, agencies and networks) to help them target and optimise their campaigns. The Datvantage platform offers DMP capabilities which enable all stakeholders (publishers, agencies and advertisers) to understand and manage monetisation and usage of their data assets.
Well we finally passed the date of the ICO amnesty. And no arrests so far. In fact the new “implied consent” interpretation makes the cookie apocalypse soothsayers look a little foolish. The UK looks good for now – but the greater European market cannot be ignored by any company based here. The recent decision for instance by Dutch legislators suggests things are going to get very hairy in the European digital advertising space.
The Dutch Are Going Hardcore On The Explicit Opt-In
We can thank the ICO for taking the sensible decision of implementing implied consent but spare a thought for our Dutch friends. ExchangeWire attended a recent IAB event in the Netherlands on automated ad trading, and spoke to some senior industry leaders about the implications of hard opt-in for all cookies set on websites in the Netherlands. Again the government there has given the industry an amnesty – this time until the end of 2012 – to get its act together. The new law sees no distinction between first and third party cookies. This means that even websites using Google analytics will need permission from users to set the cookie. It means re-targeting is completely out of question – as is the use of social tools. And you can forget about third party ad serving. It would seem contextual advertising is back. Let’s target like it’s 1999. Wooooh.
Am I Breaking The Law If I Serve A Cookie To A Dutch User From A Site Outside The Netherlands?
The first question most people asked in private conversations around the fringes of the IAB event was whether sites outside the Netherlands that drop cookies on users with Dutch IPs are exempt from the law. The answer is: Yes. As long as your content isn’t in Dutch you can drop as many first and third party cookies as you want – just as long as you comply to the laws of the country you are based in. This is a potential disaster for the Dutch digital media industry: it has effectively put in place a huge commercial disadvantage on the companies based there. There is already speculation over whether or not some of the native and international ad tech vendors will keep their data centres there given that the new Dutch law would cover their activity across Europe.
Improve Digital released its updated eco-system map last week, and it is messy. Very messy. More new categories, and even more companies. You need to ask yourself if the display market (4.5 billion euro at the last count) in Europe is big enough to support all these companies. In an interesting caveat at last week’s Automated Ad Summit (encroaching on trademark there, perhaps) in Amsterdam, AppNexus CTO, Mike Nolet, presented his own version of the eco-system – the Nolet-scape if you will.
Many of the categories on the Nolet “no nonesense” map were replaced with just two: namely, tech enablers and buyers/sellers. He pointed out to the audience that Google was slowly assembling the complete stack, and that many feature companies would get crushed by this formidable end-to-end stack. In fairness to Nolet he did intimate that AppNexus was taking a similar approach albeit with a more open strategy.
MediaMath & Improve Digital present: Battle of the Machines
Robots! Diagrams! Swelling music! Almost ten full minutes of automation animation RTB bliss.
Privacy is a Red Button Issue, But Most Users in the UK Don’t Know What a Cookie Is — IAB & ValueClick Report
The vast majority of UK consumers want some aspect of control or more information about how companies use consumer information to serve online advertising. However, the exact same number of people (81%) also agreed the internet is powerful because it provides unrestricted access to information.
The findings come from a report being published by the IAB UK and ValueClick, based on 2,000 interviews carried out by Kantar Media – 650 face-to-face and 1,350 online.
adscale has announced that is putting two-thirds of its available inventory through its new RTB platform, and integrating local and international demand into Germany’s biggest supply source of – coveted – .de domains. Here Matthias Pantke, CEO of adscale GmbH, speaks to ExchangeWire, about the launch of the RTB platform and what it means for German publishers.
Can you give an overview of the new RTB-enabled platform? And who will be integrated with the platform?
The RTB offering at adscale is competing with the already existing marketplace. As a first step we will offer only IAB ads.
With our RTB solution Publishers get the opportunity to decide from case-to-case which advertisers and campaigns they want to allow for RTB. Another option which is really unique at adscale compared to international players: Publishers are able to individually approve or disapprove post view campaigns.
Can you give some overview on the rationale behind this strategic move?
Kepler Group is an independent business born out of a recognition that MediaMath needs to focus on what it’s excellent at: building technology for marketing professionals that grows our clients’ businesses. Particularly in the US market, we found ourselves in the strategy and consulting role more and more, and so we made the decision to spin off that practice. This enables both businesses to focus on what they are best at. While we are a minority investor in Kepler, it will be operate independently from MediaMath. We strongly believe in its leadership and are excited to be an investor.
Infectious Media today released its Insight Report looking into the Spring 2012 online advertising trends. It details how advertising prices through the RTB ad-exchanges are shifting across Europe, in addition to other trends impacting online advertisers. The report offers opinions on the causes of these movements and makes predictions of coming trends within the market.
Rocket Fuel Secures $50 Million in Funding to Fuel Global Growth
The sales house used to be the predominant way of creators of content connecting with buyers of media space. The sales house was the ultimate middleman, effectively a broker between two parties. It inspired a new generation of middlemen, namely, the ad networks. The sales house model has been completely modernised and overhauled. In the UK that is.
Ad Tech Goes Mainstream with Turn’s Mad Men TV Advert
Well we finally passed the date of the ICO amnesty. And no arrests so far. In fact the new “implied consent” interpretation makes the cookie apocalypse soothsayers look a little foolish. The UK looks good for now – but the greater European market cannot be ignored by any company based here. The recent decision for instance by Dutch legislators suggests things are going to get very hairy in the European digital advertising space.
Improve Digital 
