Ciaran O'Kane
Contributor
Articles by Ciaran
The Pivot Back to the Ad-Funded Model
It seems like every day there is a media or tech company launching a streaming service. This week was Disney’s turn. At its glitzy media launch event, Disney CEO Bob Iger and senior execs outlined the Disney+ dream. The company announced new shows and back-catalogue content that will be available on the Disney+ service. Iger also prepared the market for significant cash burn over the coming years, as the company looks to onboard 90 million customers over the next three-to-five [...]
Ad Tech: Keep Calm & Carry On
Sizmek’s downfall seems to have triggered panic in ad-tech circles. We all love a bit of drama – but we truly have reached new heights of hyperbole when we get comparisons between the fall of a mid-sized ad-tech firm and the 2007 multibillion dollar financial meltdown. Drama, indeed. Maybe there are unseen debt-bergs submerged in the murky waters of media ready to sink ad tech. But then this is always the case. Intermediaries always carried debt – and always will. When [...]
In Digital Media We Are All the Same
ExchangeWire has been doing ‘proper’ European events for over ten years. All our events are done predominantly through the native language of the country in which we host events: French, Spanish, Swedish, or German. I have even given two French monologues to an audience of over 500 French men and women. It must have been laughable to hear me blunder my way through a ten-minute overview of the programmatic landscape. I thank those attendees for not walking out on both those [...]
TagsAdvertiserAgencyATS ParisAudienceDataFranceMonetisationPublisherTV
RetailTechNews Is Becoming DTCDaily
We are big believers in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) segment. We firmly believe this will be a big trend, not only in marketing, but also in the wider economy over the next ten years. The rise of media platforms, like Facebook and Google, commerce platforms (Amazon, Alibaba, Shopify, et al), data-driven buying, and a fundamental change in consumer behaviour, have provided the perfect opportunity to spin up agile direct-to-consumer companies. Some are calling this the ‘democratisation of capitalism’, where transnational startups can compete [...]
TagsDTC
19 Things to Consider in 2019
I have read some utterly depressing outlooks for the year ahead. It would seem most think it will be an epic struggle for the advertising industry in 2019 – but then when was it ever easy for anyone? There’s always an existential crisis out there, if you look hard enough for one. It has become too easy to blame the duopoly for everything (I, too, get caught up in the ‘GooBook’ bashing). Ever the contrarians, we at ExchangeWire have an unashamedly [...]
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 [...]
TagsDTC
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 [...]
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