Google’s partnership with Omnicom to build out the agency’s trading desk with the view of putting hundreds of millions of display dollars through automated channels (Google’s mostly) could well be a transformational moment for the display market. I could be accused of a certain degree of hyperbole here, but you have to look at the size of this deal and take note of the other significant relationships Google has already established with the biggest media buying agencies. It is slowly bringing the dsplay market under its control. You also need to recognise the significance of how details of the story were released: instead of giving the “scoop” to a trade press journo, it was given to Emily Steel at the WSJ. Google is serious about display, and bringing order to a ridiculously chaotic and opaque market. And it wants Wall Street to know this. Google maybe chasing profit, but in doing so it is pushing innovation in this space. This might be unpalatable for some in our industry who fear change, and would rather keep this innovation at bay. But change is upon us and we, as an industry, must act now.
There must be a lot of potential in the ad verification space because there’s an awful lot of VC money flowing into this burgeoning area of display. A lot of companies in the US and in Europe active in the area of ad verification have been raising considerable sums of money. Adsafe is the latest in a growing list. It announced today that it has raised a further $7.5 million dollars in funding. The money will be used for international expansion – particularly in Europe. There will also be further investment in product development.
» Click Forensics has announced that it has raised an additional $6 million dollars in funding. It’s total funding now stands at $21 million. One of the leading lights in the ad verification space, Click Forensics will look to use the money for further product development in display advertising where click fraud remains a major problem for advertisers and agencies. Ad nets and publishers also use Click Forensics to make inventory buys more transparet, allowing would-be media buyers to cut back on wastage. [Paidcontent]
ContextWeb has just launched an interesting new feature for publishers on its site. The new service, entitled Pubvantage, allows publishers to learn about and connect to ad networks in the US market. Publishers have the opportunity to anonymously rate ad nets on two key criteria: a) the quality of ads served by networks; and b) how quickly they pay their bills. It’s quite useful for any European publishers looking to work with an aggregator, given that most of these players listed on ContextWeb’s Pubvantage site also have a presence in the European market. This will no doubt become an excellent resource on ad nets – and the commentary on their performance will become compelling reading for publishers. Everybody loves a bit of public sneering (well, I do). I do think that ad nets should be allowed to respond to any criticisms about their service – in order to show publishers they’re actively addressing any ongoing problems. I would love to see one of these review sites popping up in Europe. Word of mouth seems to be the only to get ad nets to change any wrong doings in this market. And of course it does help that IASH carries a big stick over here. {Pubvantage]
Today’s guest post is wirtten by Paul Silver (@thepaulsilver)
Late last year I did a piece for ExchangeWire about some of the exciting changes happening in display advertising. Given the number of blog posts and op-ed pieces that have since been published on the subject, I am sure everyone is now tired of hearing the “exciting times ahead” mantra. Let’s take a reality check and see what’s actually happening NOW in the space:
» AOL and Rubicon have entered into a non-exclusive partnership in six different European markets that allows the yield optimiser to manage the non-premium display of AOL owned and operated inventory. The partnership covers all Ad.com inventory – with AOL recommending the Rubicon platform to its network partners. The deal extends to six countries in total, including Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain. Both parties were at pains to stress that the deal only applies to unsold ad inventory. Having shuttered a number of regional offices, AOL is clearly looking to refocus its efforts on stronger areas: AOL still has significant reach and share in Europe’s powerhouse display markets, namely France, Germany and the UK. There are no details of how much non-premium inventory AOL has in the six countries named above, but it would appear Rubicon has achieved a significant win here. The combined ad network market of these six countries has an estimated value of around 200 million euro – and growing. They have now got a foothold in markets, particularly Spain, that have been traditionally difficult to break into.
Alenty is a Paris-based ad visibility specialist, offering advertisers and agencies the tools to monitor the visibility time of their display campaigns. Laurent Nicolas, Alenty Founder and CEO, took time to speak with ExchangeWire this week about the company’s ad visibility offering, how it is helping European agencies and advertisers gain more transparency into their display advertising buys and why Alenty can improve CPM rates for publishers.
Google’s partnership with Omnicom to build out the agency’s trading desk with the view of putting hundreds of millions of display dollars through automated channels (Google’s mostly) could well be a transformational moment for the display market. I could be accused of a certain degree of hyperbole here, but you have to look at the size of this deal and take note of the other significant relationships Google has already established with the biggest media buying agencies. It is slowly bringing the dsplay market under its control. You also need to recognise the significance of how details of the story were released: instead of giving the “scoop” to a trade press journo, it was given to Emily Steel at the WSJ. Google is serious about display, and bringing order to a ridiculously chaotic and opaque market. And it wants Wall Street to know this. Google maybe chasing profit, but in doing so it is pushing innovation in this space. This might be unpalatable for some in our industry who fear change, and would rather keep this innovation at bay. But change is upon us and we, as an industry, must act now.
There must be a lot of potential in the ad verification space because there’s an awful lot of VC money flowing into this burgeoning area of display. A lot of companies in the US and in Europe active in the area of ad verification have been raising considerable sums of money. Adsafe is the latest in a growing list. It announced today that it has raised a further $7.5 million dollars in funding. The money will be used for international expansion – particularly in Europe. There will also be further investment in product development.
» 
Today’s guest post is wirtten by Paul Silver (
» AOL and Rubicon have entered into a non-exclusive partnership in six different European markets that allows the yield optimiser to manage the non-premium display of AOL owned and operated inventory. The partnership covers all Ad.com inventory – with AOL recommending the Rubicon platform to its network partners. The deal extends to six countries in total, including Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain. Both parties were at pains to stress that the deal only applies to unsold ad inventory. Having shuttered a number of regional offices, AOL is clearly looking to refocus its efforts on stronger areas: AOL still has significant reach and share in Europe’s powerhouse display markets, namely France, Germany and the UK. There are no details of how much non-premium inventory AOL has in the six countries named above, but it would appear Rubicon has achieved a significant win here. The combined ad network market of these six countries has an estimated value of around 200 million euro – and growing. They have now got a foothold in markets, particularly Spain, that have been traditionally difficult to break into.
