Why do European agencies and advertisers need hyper-local datasets to successfully target audiences, and can concerns around online privacy hinder the use of this data? Frank Bobo, Vice President of Digital Element, spoke to Exchangewire this week about how the company’s targeting technology, NetAcuity, is helping marketers to engage the right audiences at the hyper-local level, and why user privacy is at the core of its offering.
Specific Media is arguably one of the strongest DR ad networks in the European market, appearing on most of the big agency media plans. How do they do it? Good optimisation? Good technology? Good ad ops? Good sales? You could say it’s a bit of all of the above.. Ian Dowds, VP UK, Specific Media, took time this week to speak to ExchangeWire about Specific Media’s premier status in the DR space, the possibility of consolidation in the ad network market, and the continued evolution of online display.
» We’ve had yet more European M&A agency action this week. It was announced yesterday that LBI and Bigmouthmedia are to merge to form Europe’s largest digital marketing agency. The new company is expected to list on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam in July. This consolidation within the market comes hot-on-the-heels of LBI’s takeover of Danish digital agency, Triple Copenhagen. The new agency will have around 1,800 staff, and offices in 15 countries – and has plans to expand its operation beyond its European footprint. (WSJ)
Tagman is one of the quiet success stories of the European ad-tech sector. Its universal tagging technology is being used in a number of high-profile US and European agencies, as well as some of the largest e-commerce players on the web. Tagman recently raised $1.3 this month in new funding to further expand its business in the US and European markets. Jon Baron, General Manager and co-founder of Tagman, spoke to ExchangeWire this week about tracking the complete user journey, the state of display market, and how Tagman’s technology can be used for better re-targeting.
nugg.ad is one of Europe’s leading BT specialists, offering its predictive behavioural targeting platform to agencies and advertisers in multiple European markets. The company has been a strong player in the BT sector for a number of years. With the EU “cookie” directive hanging ominously over the online advertising industry, it is interesting to see how a company so utterly dependent on the existence of the cookie industry is engaging with legislators and privacy advocates. ExchangeWire caught up with Stephan Noller, Nugg.ad CEO & Founder, to discuss its BT platform in more detail, the growing issue of user privacy and the plans for growth in 2010.
The launch of the AdAudience last month was the first of its kind anywhere in Europe: a collaborative effort by some of the EU’s biggest sales houses (namely, G+J Electronic Media Sales, IP Germany, SevenOne Media and Tomorrow Focus) to leverage their own data and ad inventory in order to build out a premium audience-buying proposition for agencies and advertisers.
AudienceScience officially launched its audience-buying network in the UK last week. Its user profiling technology helps publishers segment premium audiences. These audience profiles are then packaged and sold into agencies and advertisers. There has been a move by agencies of late towards more audience-centric media buying, and AudeinceScience seem to be launching its premium offering at a very opportune time.
» Tagman the “universal tag company” raised $1.3 million in funding yesterday to expand its offering globally. Tagman is already working with a number high-profile ecommerce and agency clients (it recently inked a recent deal with Boden to track all of its online channels) as it seeks to rid the world of duplication. (TagMan Blog)
» Adweek published an extensive piece on the evolution of the exchange eco-system and the way it’s affecting display advertising. It is a thorough overview of how the display market is moving more towards automated platforms and how data is being leveraged to deliver better performance. (Adweek)
» According to the US & Trademark Office, there is an application to patent Real-Time Bidding. The patent was filed by David Roth (possibly the same David Roth who is Director, Search Marketing at Yahoo?) in October 29, 2007. (US & Trademark Office)
» Yahoo has announced a new partnership with Nectar. Yahoo will use Nectar’s data on shopping habits to target relevant ads at users. The new BT product, entitled Consumer Direct, will look to work with FMCG brands, which have traditionally not committed significant amounts of marketing budget to online display. (Guardian)
The holding agencies are busily putting together exchange strategies, as they look to deliver better campaign performance for clients. Some are building out their own platforms; while others are partnering with technology companies. There does seem to be a real appreciation – in the senior ranks at least – of the changes happening in the online display market. It hasn’t been obvious thus far what the agencies are planning. But the arrival of the DSPs and the release of Google’s new Adx platform seems to have concentrated the minds of some senior holding company execs, pushing exchange trading to the forefront of actionable items.
Why do European agencies and advertisers need hyper-local datasets to successfully target audiences, and can concerns around online privacy hinder the use of this data? Frank Bobo, Vice President of Digital Element, spoke to Exchangewire this week about how the company’s targeting technology, NetAcuity, is helping marketers to engage the right audiences at the hyper-local level, and why user privacy is at the core of its offering.
» We’ve had yet more European M&A agency action this week. It was announced yesterday that LBI and Bigmouthmedia are to merge to form Europe’s largest digital marketing agency. The new company is expected to list on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam in July. This consolidation within the market comes hot-on-the-heels of 
