Australia takes a big leap into programmatic TV
Analysts often make market comparisons between Canada and Australia — but our friends down south just made a big, bold move in programmatic that we’ll have trouble matching. According to the the Wall Street Journal, primetime TV ads will soon be available for programmatic purchasing across a wide swathe of major cable networks in Australia, including big U.S. affiliates like MTV, Fox Sports and Discovery. It’s the result of a partnership between AOL’s Adap.tv programmatic TV platform and Multi Channel Network (MCN), an Australian media sales company that represents some 70 networks in the country. It’s a deal that’s hard to imagine in a market like the U.S., where the media sales market is a lot less concentrated. Canada, on the other hand, has a similar representation model for international networks — but we’d have to get a whole lot more interested in programmatic first.
Publicis gets itself (another) DSP
Publicis has topped recent news with two major acquisitions — digital agency Sapient and programmatic demand-side platform Run. Though the latter was a lot less hyped (probably because it wasn’t worth anywhere close to $3.7 billion) it’s a big deal in the ad tech world, which hasn’t seen an agency-vendor acquisition since agency trading desks first got rolling several years back. Run’s targeting and data management technology will be integrated with Publicis’ proprietary Audience on Demand DSP, and become integral to media buying strategy at Starcom MediaVest and ZenithOptimedia, AdExchanger reports. The holding company’s recent acquisitions are likely a show of confidence for investors in the wake of the company’s disappointing Q3 results.
Exchange ads aren’t good enough for Kraft
In a talk at the Ad Age Data Conference last week, Kraft director of data and media Julie Fleischer told the audience that 75-85% of all the open exchange inventory Kraft considers is “deemed to be fraudulent, unsafe, non-viewable or unknown.” Kraft isn’t alone — other brands and vendors looking for premium inventory have similarly high screen-out rates, like Videology, which ditches all but 10% of open exchange inventory. Rather than sifting through the muck on the exchanges, Kraft is willing to pay a premium to get scale on private exchanges and preferred deals, but it hasn’t given up on the open market entirely. That would suggest the company’s getting enough performance out of the top 15-25% inventory to justify the investment, likely thanks to data targeting and cost optimization.
Alleged copyright pirate sues ad verification firm
The gloves have come off in the ad security game. Media Post reported that streaming video site FilmOn is suing DoubleVerify, a fraud detection and verification firm, for placing it on a blacklist as a copyright pirate and adult-content site. DoubleVerify’s blacklists prevent clients from buying ads on the site, ostensibly because they’re fraudulent or unsafe for brands. The company said its staff have manually reviewed FilmOn’s content on multiple occasions, and have consistently found that it’s infringing copyright. FilmOn called the claim “false and disparaging” and is suing for trade libel. DoubleVerify plans to fight the suit in court. With the large number of copyright infringing sites on the web sucking up ads, advertisers must be pleased to see a security firm sticking to its guns.
Another year of double-digit growth for Canadian smartphone ownership
Mobile-happy Canadians are still buying smartphones, with ownership up 12%, ahead of eMarketer’s projections. The research firm cited comScore numbers finding that 18 million Canadians now use smartphones and 7.8 million use tablets. The highest-penetration province was Ontario, where 80% of residents own a smartphone; the lowest was Quebec with 72%.
Agencies are shelling out for data experts
These days agencies have to fight Silicon Valley and Wall Street for data experts, and the marks are starting to show. A new study from Venture Partners, covered in Ad Age, found agencies are willing to pay up to 30% more for data scientists than other agency talent at the same seniority level. Entry-level jobs at agencies start at $60,000 for data scientists, compared to $30,000 on average, and grow a lot faster in the first few years. (Make sure to tell your kids when they’re looking at college careers.)
Big Deals
Acquisitions and partnerships shaping the landscape
Around the Web
The week’s must-read features and opinion
- A data lab rat in big city: why trackers couldn’t trap this city dweller (Ad Age)
Ad Age reporter Kate Kaye takes a deep dive on data tracking, by letting five consumer data firms track her for three weeks. Spoilers: their detective skills leave a lot to be desired. - GRP 2.0: How to defibrillate an old metric with fresh data (AdExchanger)
A look at the much-disputed digital ratings point, and a broad overview of the different market players looking to revamp it. - Inside the New York Times’ video strategy (Digiday)
As the Grey Lady ends another quarter of meagre growth, Digiday takes a look inside one of its departments that’s actually expanding — the video studio.
