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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Mergers and acquisitions within ad tech and martech are firmly in the spotlight at the moment, with some very interesting moves happening across the space. Following the release of their H1 marcoms M&A analysis, James Kesner (pictured below), director of M&A advisory firm, Results International, speaks with ExchangeWire about how the M&A scene is changing, as well as the big global trends to look out for. ExchangeWire: The marcoms M&A scene in 2018 appears to be much more buoyant so far, [...]

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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 [...]

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RetailTechNews’ weekly Amazon watch brings you some of the company’s biggest moves from the past seven days, analysing how the giant is revolutionising the retail space. In this week’s edition: Amazon on Hunt for Indian Deal; Kroger Fighting Back with Ocado Deal; and Google Will Cut Alexa’s Market Share. Amazon on Hunt for Indian Deal After failing to crack the deal with Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart, retail giant Amazon is said to be in talks with India’s largest brick-and-mortar retail company, [...]

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M&A in the retail space has made headlines across the globe in recent weeks, with big ticket deals involving Sainsbury’s and Asda, and Walmart and Flipkart, being finalised. But what is driving this recent surge in activity in the industry? This edition of Now & Next dives into the trends behind these deals, how the UK’s merger activity is different to the rest of the world’s, and the future for M&A in retail. Even though the deals mentioned above are [...]

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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 been the telcos.   Looking to unlock the value of their first-party data, and diversify beyond their plateauing core business, the telcos have been actively shopping for ad tech assets.   They all seem to have varying strategies – and it’s uncertain [...]

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In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: Marketing analytics firm snaps up Japanese influencer platform; VMO lights up ‘smart’ billboard in AU; Publicis sees drop in APAC growth; Vietnamese agency offers free access to Decision Lab; Dentsu buys in South Africa & creates JV in Russia; and Dentsu looks to IndoChina for growth. Marketing analytics firm snaps up Japanese influencer platform Ginzamarkets has unveiled [...]

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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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On 18 July, 2017, it was announced that Sizmek had agreed to buy Rocket Fuel in a proposed USD$145m (£110.4m) deal. The acquisition was completed on 8 September, 2017, and has placed Sizmek in a tech-agnostic position. ExchangeWire speaks with Mark Grether, CEO, Sizmek, about the acquisition, what this signifies within the wider industry, and how Sizmek plans to develop its post-acquisition offering. ExchangeWire: Sizmek recently acquired Rocket Fuel – the leading AI predictive marketing platform – in a USD$145m (£110.4m) [...]

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