Ciaran O'Kane
President & CSO
Ciaran O’Kane is the CEO of WireCorp, the publishing holding group focused on the digital advertising, retail technology and gaming sectors. He has worked in digital advertising over the last twenty years as a developer, digital marketer, ad operations provider, media monetisation specialist and senior sales executive. He continues to write editorial for ExchangeWire on advertising technology, marketing technology and programmatic - and acts as an advisor to a number of leading digital media companies in Europe.Articles by Ciaran
Why the Outcome-Based Model Is the Only Logical Route for Agencies
Holding groups are under pressure. Their business model has been questioned and undermined by everyone over the past 12 months – from trade-press hacks, to auditors, to client bodies, to grandstanding FMCG CMOs. The relevancy of the agency function has [...]
The Telcos’ Various Routes to Ad Tech Dominance
Much has been made of ad tech’s new strategic buyers. With the demise of traditional buyers, like AOL and Yahoo, and the departure of Google, new players have filled the M&A vacuum. The most prolific of these new buyers have [...]
Surviving the Ad Tech Cull
In the face of the Google and Facebook duopoly, and squeezed margins, which models will survive? If you believe every ad tech naysayer in the industry, you will think ad tech is on its last legs. Many people see Facebook and [...]
A Tale of Two Ad Networks: How the Quiet Growth Story of Media iQ Defeated the 'Rocket Fuels'
When I met Gurman Hundal seven years ago in a small Soho pub for the first time, he told me he was going to start a programmatic ad network. At first I thought, as a model, it would have no [...]
Consultancies Have Huge Opportunity in Programmatic, But Only If They Buy These Ad Tech Companies
Consultancies have been busy acquiring creative agencies and leveraging their existing end-to-end relationship with clients to build market share in digital marketing. Deloitte, IBM, Accenture, and McKinsey are all building internal capabilities to attract more business from brand marketers. Creative seems [...]
Looking Ahead to Ad Tech’s Monster Week in Europe
For one week every year the global ad tech community descends on London and Cologne to feast on product releases, ad tech rumour, and granular content. This year, it all starts in London on Monday, 11 September, with the world’s most-respected [...]
ATS London 8 Years on: Why Ad Tech Matters More than Ever in 2017
ATS London is now in its eighth year and I still remember our first event vividly. It took place in the old Centre Point building and, like all of our ATS events since, it was oversold. The great Mike Nolet, [...]
Why 2016 Was The Beginning of The End of The Current Ad Tech Cycle
There was a lot of M&A this year in advertising technology. According to Eric Franchi's ad tech M&A tracker, there were eighteen acquisitions in excess of USD$100m (£68.4m) in 2016 - with a combined total of nearly USD$10bn (£6.8bn). This [...]
Why Telcos Are Going to Smash the Google/Facebook Ad Duopoly
The Yahoo saga is finally over. After the most protracted sales process of recent times, Verizon acquired Yahoo's core assets (content properties, email, search, and an assortment of ad technology) for nearly USD$5bn (£3.8bn). It is likely that Mayer will disappear into [...]
King: Testing New Reward Video Ad Format to Monetise 400+ Million Users
King is rumoured to be launching a media business later this year to help build revenue around its incredibly sticky global audience of 463 million monthly active users. The gaming giant has already made a number of key hires in the [...]
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