Ciaran O'Kane
CEO
Articles by Ciaran
Likely Outcomes as We Move to A First-Party Ad Economy
It’s easy to hold negative views about the state of the market right now. The third-party infrastructure that forms the basis of the digital marketing ecosystem is slowly being dismantled by regional privacy legislation and browser ITP initiatives. We are witnessing a shift to a first-party ad economy. It’s going to be a difficult transition. From the DPA’s subjective interpretations of the GDPR, to unpredictable browser ITP moves, it is difficult to read what will happen next. In this post I will [...]
10 Wild Predictions for Europe's Big Ad Tech Week
We are just three weeks away from Europe’s ad tech week. Our ten-year anniversary of ATS London kicks off the week on 9 September. As ever, we have a serious selection of big name Madtech speakers, including Sir Martin Sorrell, Insider Inc’s Jana Meron, ITV’s Lara Izlan, Xandr’s Michael Rubenstein, as well as the best minds from agencies, publishers and brands. We are very close to selling out – so make sure you get your ticket today. ATS London is followed by [...]
In This Privacy-First Era, Ad Tech Needs to Evolve or Die
The industry is literally being held together with a thin layer of ad tech adhesive tape, namely the Chrome browser. Much of the current programmatic demand is being funnelled into Google Chrome – where cookie matching, frequency capping, retargeting and measurement is still possible. Safari has become the wasteland of programmatic buying with demand falling away. That can be seen in the disparity of eCPMs between Chrome and Safari. The industry was put on alert a few months back when it [...]
Four Ad Tech Rosé Talking Points
It’s the time of year again when the media herd heads to Cannes. Cannes has always been a weird event for ad tech. Never invited into the main tent by the event organisers for fear of backlash from the ‘creative’ types, ad tech has built its own mini fringe festival around the main event. And let’s be honest here, it’s way more fun. I am not one of those hypocrites who badmouths the festival, while still indulging myself in copious [...]
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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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, [...]
