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 was a certain amount of surprise and incredulity in the European ad industry when Wunderloop announced its bankruptcy at the end of April. Wunderloop, unlike a lot of ad tech companies, had demonstrable technology. It had also a decent share of the European data market, particularly in France and Germany – and was one of the leading data companies in the European display space. So why did it go bankrupt?
» 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]
Martin Kelly is Managing Partner at Infectious Media, an exchange-trading specialist based in London. Martin took time this week to speak to ExchangeWire about the company’s rebrand, the evolution of the UK exchange space and the continued growth of the data market.
You’ve recently went through a rebranding and a repositioning of the Infectious offering. Can you explain the Infectious Media proposition in more detail?
MK: Yes, it’s simple, we make display advertising work for our clients. Clearly there’s a lot more to our business in terms of how we do that but that is our proposition and how we sell our services. We operate exclusively in the ad exchange space and offer these services to both advertisers direct and to agencies. We’ve purpose built both a team and trading platform, Impression Desk, to service this opportunity in the UK and Europe.
Marco Bertozzi is the Managing Director, EMEA, VivaKi Nerve Center. Vivaki is a strategic unit within Publicis Groupe that helps agencies leverage the scale of the group’s media and digital operations to improve campaign performance for its clients. Marco took time this week to speak to ExchangeWire about the Vivaki operation in more detail, the industry’s move to automated audience-buying, and the evolution of the agency model.
There’s much confusion about what Vivaki does? Is it buying platform? Is it a crack exchange trading unit? Can you explain the Vivaki proposition in more detail?
MB: Vivaki is the strategic entity created by Publicis Groupe to leverage the combined scale of its media and digital operations, which represent nearly $60 billion dollars in global ad spend and influence. VivaKi aggregates the marketplace influence of five autonomous brands, including: two global media agencies, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; two leading digital marketing agencies, Digitas and Razorfish; and a premiere futures practice, Denuo.
Qunatcast announced yesterday that they are moving into the European. They have hired Philip MacCauley, the former Director of Business Development and Commercial Relations at Yahoo!, to head up the operation. The feeling here in the market is that Quantcast’s arrival is a positive move. There is still a lack of good data in the market for automated buys, and Quantcast’s European lookalike data should give agencies and advertisers better targeting capabilities. No offence to any of the blogs or trade sites reporting on this story, but Quantcast are not exclusively an analytics company. VCs did not hand over fifty-odd million dollars for an analytics solution for publishers. If you were to definition (and that is generally a dangerous game in this industry), I’d say Quantcast is more of a data and audience profiling platform. So how does Quantcast collect and segment data and what is “lookalike”?
Some data released today from Improve Digital indicates that a majority of UK premium publishers believe better transparency around behavioural targeting will encourage acceptance by consumers. The poll was carried out at the recent AOP event, ‘New Rules of Revenue’. 62.5% of respondents said the best way to address concerns around retargeting was to be open and transparent about how publishers use consumer data (see my EPTAB suggestion). Publishers also felt that users would be more comfortable with BT if they could be provided with more targeted and relevant ads.
DeSilva + Phillips, an investment bank based in New York, released a whitepaper last week on the continuing evolution of the global exchange eco-system. It’s a solid overview on what the landscape currently looks like and how it’s likely to change in terms of technology adoption by the buy and sell side, mergers and acquisitions and the entrance of new players into the space. It’s probably not as definitive as last year’s report by ThinkEquity, but it provides excellent insight nontheless.
» Most content available on European web sites is free to access. All this free information is invariably funded by ad revenue. This ad revenue comes mostly from contextual buys but over the past two-to-three years behavioural advertising has been key revenue driver for some publishers. And as we move towards audience-buying the cookie will become even more important to the overall success of online advertising. So it puzzles me why the EU wants to kill the cookie, and ultimately free information on the web.
Do publishers fear change? Are they worried that automated platforms will commoditise their ad impressions? The “pork belly” mandate – namely, putting inventory through exchanges is prohibited for fear of commoditisation – has been zealously adhered to by some of Europe’s largest publishers over the past couple of years. But there’s serious changes happening in online advertising: technology and data is fundamentally shaping the way display is being bought and sold. Publishers are now realising they have to adapt to the changing forces in the market. ExchangeWire got the perspective of Richard Foster, Digital Director at Future Publishing Ltd (UK), to understand how one leading publisher views the current trends in the market and how it’s addressing the challenges of trading display advertising.
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 was a certain amount of surprise and incredulity in the European ad industry when Wunderloop announced its bankruptcy at the end of April. Wunderloop, unlike a lot of ad tech companies, had demonstrable technology. It had also a decent share of the European data market, particularly in France and Germany – and was one of the leading data companies in the European display space. So why did it go bankrupt? 
» 
Martin Kelly is Managing Partner at 
Marco Bertozzi is the Managing Director, EMEA, 
Some data released today from 
» Most content available on European web sites is free to access. All this free information is invariably funded by ad revenue. This ad revenue comes mostly from contextual buys but over the past two-to-three years behavioural advertising has been key revenue driver for some publishers. And as we move towards audience-buying the cookie will become even more important to the overall success of online advertising. So it puzzles me why the EU wants to kill the cookie, and ultimately free information on the web. 
Do publishers fear change? Are they worried that automated platforms will commoditise their ad impressions? The “pork belly” mandate – namely, putting inventory through exchanges is prohibited for fear of commoditisation – has been zealously adhered to by some of Europe’s largest publishers over the past couple of years. But there’s serious changes happening in online advertising: technology and data is fundamentally shaping the way display is being bought and sold. Publishers are now realising they have to adapt to the changing forces in the market. 
