What do you do when the entire structure that acted as the foundation of a multi-billion dollar industry collapses in on itself? It’s not an easy question to answer. And an even more difficult problem to solve. But that’s where we are as an industry right now. The third-party cookie was the measurement and targeting currency for the better part of twenty-odd years. And now that currency is about to be taken out of circulation. I still think people in the industry [...]

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These are strange times, readers. COVID continues to tear away at the socio-economic fabric of the world. The once noble institutions of the ad tech ‘POWA’ breakfast, and the extended media lunch, have been reduced to sad Zoom/Google Meet/Microsoft Teams calls. And to top it all off, our industry is slowly being chewed alive in the cookie crunch.  I’ve always been a contrarian by nature. When things are going well, I am deeply sceptical and fearful of unseen disasters. When things [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: Google reveals some of the details of its ad network fees; WhatsApp sees its payment service barred by Brazil’s Central Bank; and Facebook releases a new tool to help businesses comply with the CCPA.   Google opens up about ad tech fees across its services   Google has shed some light on the details of its ad tech fees, revealing how spend is attributed across its DV360, Google Ads, and Ad Manager services. The firm disclosed its financial details [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: the New Zealand government provides a $50m cash boost to media groups struggling amidst the Coronavirus; AT&T reports a loss of almost 90,000 subscribers from its paid TV services; and CVS is breaking into retail media with the upcoming launch of the CVS Media Exchange.   New Zealand gives $50m to struggling media firms The government of New Zealand has announced that it will give NZD $50m (£25m) to help media companies stay afloat amidst the Coronavirus crisis. [...]

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The term ‘ad network’ surfaces a lot of ill-feeling when discussed at conferences or in the trade press – its reputation has been besmirched by consistent bad behaviour over two decades. Programmatic ad tech vendors built market share in the 10s, by promising to remove ad networks from the supply chain. The irony here of course is that the majority of these ad tech vendors offer a managed service and happily accept IOs.  But things are about to change for the [...]

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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. [...]

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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 longevity; but anyone who has worked with Gurman knows and respects his deep understanding of advertising technology and what’s possible operationally. Media iQ’s core offering was going to be about 100% programmatic trading. The main reason I was so skeptical of [...]

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An intense price war has been waging between performance ad networks in China; but competing based on price is unsustainable and will not prevent advertisers from jumping ship. Richard O’Connell, general manager of MobAir’s China operations, observes that some ad networks in the country have been willing to lose money on deals in a bid to win big deals and reflect a positive showing for investors. However, with investor capital drying up, networks that have depended primarily on a price strategy [...]

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Today (24 February) ad blocking company Shine, announced that they are rebranding as ‘Rainbow‘. Rainbow is described as “a consumer ad experience”, and the company states: “We are no longer selling ad blocking to mobile carriers, or ISPs.” In short, Rainbow is an ad verification company, and the verification criteria is not unique – Rainbow uses industry-defined standards. For advertisers and agencies, the process of Rainbow verification is the same as working with any other verification company: submit ads to Rainbow and they [...]

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Yesterday, (26 January) Google parent Alphabet Inc., (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) announced financial results for the quarter ended 31 March, 2016. The internet giant boasted an 8.3% increase in fourth-quarter profit, largely driven by the sustained shift to mobile. However, the results fell short of analysts’ expectations leading to a decline in share price. “Our Q1 results represent a tremendous start to the year with 17% revenue growth year-on-year and 23% growth on a constant currency basis. We’re thoughtfully pursuing big bets [...]

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