AdExchanger News for February 1, 2017

Today's Must Read - Facebook Bows To The Buy Side With MMM Rollout Sponsor Message [Introducing PulsePoint VISION] [A clear view of your entire bid landscape, in one platform.] [insights.pulsepoint.com/vision] [AdExchanger | Optimizing the News] Today from AdExchanger Wednesday, February 1 Join Us [PROGRAMMATIC I/O San Francisco, April 4-5, 2017] - Session Spotlight: The Programmatic Pulse On Wall Street. Andrew Bruckner of RBC Capital Markets provides a look through the Wall Street lens at online advertising and programmatic media. Sponsored by Dun & Bradstreet. --------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Must Read [Facebook Bows To The Buy Side With MMM Rollout] "Basically, we want to help advertisers be more strategic about how much investment they’re making in advertising on our platform with more specificity," Jonathan Lewis, Facebook’s manager of measurement and identity products, said. [More]. [Facebook] [Twitter] [LinkedIn] --------------------------------------------------------------- More from AdExchanger [Data-Driven Thinking Column...Programmatic Consolidation Is Coming, But Where? by Gil Rachlin, Sizmek] Whoever develops the best mechanism for optimizing the data drawn from beacons and latitude/longitude coordinates, while properly dealing with the related privacy issues, will own location the way Google owns search. [More]. [Snapchat Adds APIs, Offers Self-Serve Option For Ad Buyers] "There has been a pent-up demand, specifically from trading desks and media agencies," said Jamie Tedford, CEO of Brand Networks, an original Snapchat Ads API partner. "They want to have more hands-on experience to really understand and do optimizations on their own." [More]. [Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg Makes Platforms Pay For Content] On the business side, Cheddar doesn't see advertising as a main revenue driver. Instead, it’s struck deals with OTT partners like Dish Networks’ Sling TV, which – wait for it – pay for the content. [More]. [IAB’s Randy Rothenberg: ‘Tragedy Of The Commons’ Harms The Ad Ecosystem] "As long as you keep incentivizing the wrong behavior, the wrong behavior will continue," Rothenberg told AdExchanger. "The wrong behavior in this case is noncompliance with industry standards." [More]. [DMP Adoption Is On The Rise, But Challenges Remain] There’s a "huge opportunity" for vendors and trade orgs to step in and help marketers make the case for DMP implementation and people-based marketing to the C-suite, with proof points tailored to a brand’s needs. [More]. Sponsor Message [Nielsen] [Learn more about The Science Behind What’s Next™] [www.nielsen.com] News Round Up Too Big To Fail Did Snapchat wake a sleeping giant? TechCrunch reports a drip-drip of alerts from analytics providers, social media influencers and agency talent managers who say Snapchat Stories engagement and content volume have fallen since Instagram rolled out its copycat Stories feature. This is partially measurement self-enforcing measurement. (Instagram “engagement” outstrips Snapchat because Snapchat doesn’t have comments or likes on posts and Snapchat exposes less about its audience to marketers.) Instagram pitches its Stories product as a more brand-enabled way to reach Snapchat-esque audiences [[AdExchanger coverage]]. But Instagram could be stealing more than just formats from its rising rival. [More]. In-House More brands want to bring media buying in-house, but the talent pool with programmatic skill sets is slim pickings. Ticketmaster had to move an executive from London to staff its programmatic team, and brands outside of the New York City area, where most ad tech talent lives, struggle to find people who can think through programmatic strategy. “We would not have been able to find the same caliber of talent locally, even though LA is the second-biggest city in the US,” said Gosha Khuchua, Ticketmaster’s senior director of digital and programmatic. For larger firms with multiple brands, integrating programmatic into the overall media strategy takes winning over executives across institutional silos. Then there are the cultural barriers. “If you work for a brand, you will likely be the only person versus working for an agency where you are surrounded by a group of ad tech people and learn more,” said Jay Friedman, COO of Goodway Group. [More at Digiday]. Artificial, But Real Artificial intelligence has quickly become “a core technology for companies such as Google, Facebook, Baidu, Microsoft and Amazon,” Altimeter Group analyst Susan Etlinger writes in a report. It’s a muddle at the moment because AI definitions aren’t well understood [[more on that]]. There’s “strong AI,” the kind of general intelligence moviegoers would recognize from sci-fi spaceship computers. What we (currently) have is “weak AI,” which is software that learns but is bound by a narrow task (like Google voice search or Alexa skills). And if you’re curious why ad platforms are so invested in AI, look at what’s easiest to replicate: “optimizing marketing budgets, reducing customer churn, predictive models for sales, adding intelligence and interactivity to knowledge bases/graphs, automating software development, medical diagnostics and even chatbot lawyers and ‘roboadvisers’ in financial services.” [Check out the report]. Shutting The Set-Top Box It didn’t take new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai long to reverse his predecessor’s unpopular proposal (at least, among the cable and MVPD set) to[unlock the set-top box]. The highly contested proposal sought to “democratize” the set-top box by essentially giving OTT device manufacturers easier access to cable content in the name of consumer choice. Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler faced massive opposition from media companies and fellow government regulators, including Pai, who thought the initial FCC set-top box proposal would be a licensing, advertising and security nightmare for TV networks and distributors. More at [Deadline]. Acxiom’s Solid Q So it was a pretty solid 2017 Q3 for Acxiom. Read the financial details[here]. Amid the highlights: Acxiom[expanded its partnership] with DataXu, such that the ad tech platform can license Acxiom’s data for its analytics and TV solutions. Company CEO Scott Howe also extolled Acxiom’s acquisition of Arbor and Circulate (AdExchanger[coverage]), which has “materially strengthened” publisher relationships and has enhanced scale and improved match rates. Acxiom claims it can ID 190 million individuals in the US. Down the line, though, Acxiom noted its business model for publishers around digital data might change in FY 2018. “We expect our growth rate in digital data might slow,” said CFO Warren Jenson. “It won’t be north of 100% – it’ll probably be 15% to 20% next year.” But Wait, There's More! [IAB Chief Calls On Online Ad Industry To Fight Fake News] - WSJ [Google Is On The Prowl For Cloud And AI Deals In 2017] - Fortune [Acxiom Expands Partnership With DataXu] - release [Japanese Ad Industry Association And The IAB Form IAB Japan] - release [Mobile App Activity And Engagement Estimates] - eMarketer [Brands Are Taking Strong Positions On Trump’s Immigration Orders] - Adweek [Tru Optik, Kantar Millward Brown Partner On Connected TV Attribution] - release [Centerfield Secures $156M Financing, Acquires Qology Direct] - release [IoT Rivals Invest $75M In SoundHound For Non-Google/Amazon AI] - Bloomberg [Marketo Releases Inaugural “Marketing Benchmark Report”] - release [PHD Partners With Facebook For Global Digital Training Scheme] - release [Google Open-Sources Chrome For iOS] - VentureBeat [Report On The Podcasting Industry And Its Issues] - Nieman Lab You're Hired! [Ad-Juster Promotes Internal Execs To CTO And CMO Roles] - release [Igor Polovinchik, Dipanjan Chattopadhyay Fill VP Roles At OpenX] - MediaPost [MediaBrix Taps David Cohn To Lead East Coast Sales] - release [PubMatic Appoints Emma Newman As UK Country Manager] - release Sponsor Message [Throtle Onboarding] [Accurate and transparent individual-based onboarding.] [throtle.io/onboarding] Jobs [Product Marketing Director] - NYC - SundaySky [Account Manager] - NYC - IDG TechNetwork [Director, Business Development, Broadcast Publishers] - San Mateo - AdsWizz [VP, Marketing] - San Mateo - AdsWizz [Account Director] - Chicago - IDG TechNetwork [Director of Direct Demand Sales] - NYC - Inneractive [Sales manager] - NYC - VertaMedia [Account Manager] - NYC - Crisp Media [Account Manager, Programmatic Demand] - NYC - AdsWizz [Director, Programmatic] - NYC - Placed [Account Manager-Advertising] - NYC - Curejoy [Ad Operations Manager - Programmatic] - San Diego - GasBuddy [Ad-Operations Associate] - NYC - Sublime Skinz [Director, Programmatic] - NYC - Placed [Account Executive] - San Francisco - IDG TechNetwork [Audience Buying Strategist] - NYC - International Data Group [View All Jobs on AdExchanger’s Job Board] Podcasts [AdExchanger Talks Episode 11:] Drawbridge's Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan [AdExchanger Talks Episode 10:] The Trade Desk's Jeff Green [AdExchanger Talks Episode 9:] PubMatic's Kirk McDonald [AdExchanger Talks Episode 8:] IPONWEB's Nate Woodman [AdExchanger Talks Episode 7:] Cadreon's Erica Schmidt [AdExchanger Talks Episode 6:] Integral Ad Science's Scott Knoll [AdExchanger Talks Episode 5:] Annalect's Erin Matts [AdExchanger Talks Episode 4:] MediaMath's Joe Zawadski [AdExchanger Talks Episode 3:] Google Vet Brian Adams [AdExchanger Talks Episode 2:] Nielsen's Lynda Clarizio [AdExchanger Talks Episode 1:] GroupM's Brian Lesser Events [PROGRAMMATIC I/O], SF, April 4-5, 2017 [PROGRAMMATIC I/O], NYC, October 25-26, 2017 [Industry Preview 2018], NYC, January 17-18, 2018 [Share This Email] | [Forward To A Friend] [Facebook] [Twitter] [LinkedIn] [Blog] AdExchanger | 41 E. 11th St., Floor 11 | NYC | 10003 [Update your email preferences]