Ciaran O'Kane
CEO
Articles by Ciaran
Mixed News on CPA Shifting 2019 Gaming Monetisation Strategy
A report released by Liftoff and Leanplum on the state of mobile app marketing suggests that app marketers are coming under increased pressure to improve ‘deep-funnel interactions’, specifically around usage and in-app purchases. While CPA has dropped around installations and usage, the cost of getting users to make in-app purchases has increased by 56% year-on-year. Compounding this increase in the CPA is the drop in the conversion rate to 2.8%. This is a huge concern for a lot of big gaming publishers, [...]
Why Apple Will Be the Number 4 Ad Platform in 2 Years
When Apple’s Tim Cook took such a public swipe at the way Google and Facebook use personal data to generate ad revenue, you felt it was a calculated move from the canny tech CEO. Apple’s hardware business is starting to slow, as users take longer to upgrade devices. The additional features are just not enticing people quickly enough to part with USD$1000. Apple can still grow revenue through its services business. And advertising will be a big part of that. [...]
Announcing the Launch of the DTC Index
Today, we are proud to be announcing the launch of the DTC Index, a global list of the fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. Direct to consumer is one of the biggest trends in marketing, and is having a huge impact across the digital advertising and marketing industry. Small, agile brands are using data-driven tools to acquire and and build a customer base – disrupting established legacy brands that have spent decades building brand equity through traditional methods. The fragmentation of the the [...]
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Germany: A Tale of Two Ecosystems
ExchangeWire has been running events in Germany since 2013; and in that time I have had a firsthand look at the workings of the local digital advertising market. Like in most markets, Google, Facebook, and Amazon dominate in Germany. But there is an interesting split between the remaining 20 percenters. The German 20 percenter market can be described as a tale of two ecosystems: the ever-evolving in-app ad market, which is mostly based in Berlin; and the slow-moving, legacy web-based ad [...]
The Case for the 20% & Independent Ad Tech in a Consolidated World
Is independent ad tech on the wane? Its most vocal champion, Brian O’Kelley, is now a paid employee of AT&T. His company, AppNexus – for the best part of ten years the standard bearer for independent ad tech – is now part of the biggest telco in the world. You wonder where the priorities will lie in the coming 12 months. Will it continue to be the home of the innovative independent ad tech companies that built their business on [...]
Is In-Housing Viable in a World of Walled Gardens?
Having done a number of Road to ATS video segments, panels, and op-eds on the future of the service layer of late, I am reminded of just how complex media buying is at a global scale. There is a common misconception that programmatic has made in-housing easier for brands. Some marketers think the algo can now do all the heavy lifting, making activation an easy process. So, why bother to work with an agency or third party? I know of [...]
Your Guide to Scaling Your European Madtech Business
We sent out a mailer a few weeks ago to our GDPR-compliant subscriber list, titled ‘9 Reasons to Love the Industry. This was to highlight our optimism about the industry and encourage you (dear reader) to attend ATS London this year. Number seven on our upbeat list refers to the opportunity for the current crop of European madtech startups. Never have I seen a bigger opportunity. We are heading into a new epoch for digital marketing. The convergence of ad [...]
The Battle for the Service Layer & the Key Contenders
The service layer is arguably the most competitive segment of digital marketing right now. A bunch of macro and micro trends are transforming the relationship between the marketer and its service provider. The convergence of ad tech and martech, the move towards a customer-first world, and the increasing importance of tech and data in the marketing function, has created a new whitespace where agencies, consultancies, and specialist solution providers are all fighting to own the marketer relationship. In this post, [...]
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The Madtech Rollercoaster of 2018: 9 Predictions for the Rest of the Year
2018 has been the most eventful year I have seen in this industry, since the great ad-tech panic buy of 2007. A number of factors have contributed to this. Firstly, the growing threat and power of the ‘BAT-FANG’ (China’s Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent [BAT], along with the USA’s Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google [FANG]) has forced the hand of big legacy telcos and TV companies globally. The realisation that these tech companies are out to destroy the business of established [...]
Voodoo Gets Some Help from Goldman; Apple Back in the Ad Business
TheGamingEconomy rounds of some of the biggest stories in the business of gaming. In this week’s edition: Voodoo Gets Some Help from Goldman; Apple Back in the Ad Business; and Zynga Grabs Gram Games for USD$250m. Voodoo Gets Some Help from Goldman There is a huge amount of money still going into gaming. Goldman Sachs is investing USD$200 (£150m) into French gaming firm Voodoo, which has had a string of hits over the past twelve months, and is looking to use the money to build [...]
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