Advertising

I see a concerning pattern forming in the marketplace. Agencies are bracing for change as advertisers heavy up on programmatic, often in-house, according to a recent report. But that wasn’t the first piece to address this topic. I believe this is a troubling trend for all parties, not just agencies. There are three primary causes Continue Reading →

It looks as if Instagram users love themselves some brand ads: According to Ad Age, in the second quarter of 2014 Instagram brand posts saw more than double the amount of interactions of Facebook brand posts. Users liked, commented, and shared companies’ content on Instagram an average of 6,932 times per post, compared to Facebook’s Continue Reading →

I was bitten by the soccer bug during this year’s World Cup, so I decided to purchase an authentic jersey to show my support for my favorite team. Having seen ads from Macy’s about soccer merchandise, I chose to purchase the jersey from the Macys.com site, but first checked out the possibility of getting a Continue Reading →

Content recommendation engine Taboola has acquired Perfect Market, which develops a publisher-side solution designed to improve engagement, driving traffic, and monetization. Taboola CEO Adam Singolda wouldn’t disclose the deal’s terms, though he said it was a mix of cash and stock. With the acquisition, Taboola will change from being a content discovery engine to being a Continue Reading →

By the year 2015, more than 40 percent of media companies will employ subscription services to sustain their businesses, according to independent research group Gartner. This emerging business model of recurring revenue (also known as subscription billing) has yielded impressive results, particularly in the software as a service (SaaS) market. So how can businesses that sell SaaS Continue Reading →

The British Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has started to replace advertising on copyright-infringing websites with official warnings telling users that the site is under criminal investigation. The sites in question are those that have been identified as hosting copyright-infringing content and reported to PIPCU by rights holders. Officers from the unit evaluate the Continue Reading →

The strategic deal struck Monday between AOL Platforms and French agency Havas’ programmatic trading desk Affiperf benefits both parties: AOL Platforms gets sell-in with Havas’ clients and Havas can unify media assets for marketers in a central hub – ONE By AOL. This is AOL’s second major agency deal since March, when it debuted ONE Continue Reading →

LinkedIn just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Bizo, a company that helps advertisers reach businesses and professionals. LinkedIn says the deal is worth around $175 million — 90 percent cash and 10 percent stock. Bizo spun out from business directory ZoomInfo back in 2008. It raised a total of $20 million Continue Reading →

Based partly on a previous filing by Google about an unnamed foreign company it tried and failed to buy for $4 billion to $5 billion and a line I had in a story that noted that a top exec at the search giant had expressed interest in buying Spotify — the Journal is reporting that Continue Reading →

There’s a new internet retailer on the world’s smartphones, tablets, and PCs. It’s called Facebook. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg and company started testing a “Buy” button inside the News Feed posts and ads that turn up on the world’s most popular social network, letting users instantly pay for goods and services from other merchants without Continue Reading →