Ad Operations Online » Digital Intelligence

Socialbakers Appoints James Bodha as CFO

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:16:44 +0000

Strengthens team by bringing outstanding track record and deep expertise as a successful CFO of dynamic technology businesses

PRAGUE – Socialbakers, the global provider of analytics platforms that allows brands to measure, compare, and contrast the success of their social media campaigns, today announces the appointment of James Bodha as Chief Financial Officer.

Bodha joins Socialbakers from Myriad Group AG, a leading provider of global social messaging services listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. He will report to Jan Rezab, Socialbakers’ CEO, assuming responsibility for all financial, commercial and legal operations.

Bodha brings to Socialbakers over twelve years of experience in senior financial leadership roles within global, growth technology businesses held in public, venture capital and private equity ownership. During his time at Myriad Group, he oversaw the consolidation of three substantial businesses to create a market leader in social messaging, including the acquisition of Synchronica Plc., an AIM/ TSX dual listed mobile social platform provider.

Prior to joining Myriad Group, he was Chief Financial Officer at Aircom International, a mobile network software provider and Magic4, a mobile phone messaging software provider.

“James brings to Socialbakers an outstanding track record and deep expertise as a serially successful CFO of dynamic technology businesses,” said Rezab. “In particular, his knowledge of establishing and growing profitable and sustainable global, multi-site operations will be invaluable in helping Socialbakers accelerate its growth worldwide.”

“Socialbakers is a truly international company with a market leading social media analytics platform and an outstanding client base of the world’s biggest brands,” adds Bodha. “I am excited to be joining such an ambitious, highly talented team and look forward to helping the company scale operations to achieve its aggressive growth strategy.”

About Socialbakers:

Socialbakers.com is a user-friendly social media analytics platform, providing the only global solution that allows brands to measure, compare, and contrast the success of their social media campaigns with competitive intelligence.

Since 2009 Socialbakers has continuously developed innovative tools for companies to measure and maximize the effectiveness of their social marketing campaigns across all major social networks. With more than 160 employees located in 10 offices worldwide, Socialbakers is one of the world’s fastest growing social media and digital analytics company.

New Kantar Solution Optimizes Campaigns Based On Impact

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:02 +0000

New Kantar Solution Gives Advertisers the Power to Go Beyond Reach and Optimize Campaigns Based on Impact

Compete, Dynamic Logic, DoubleVerify integrate audience, ad viewability, brand and behavioral data into a single measurement and optimization solution

Boston, MA – Leading digital insights and Kantar Group companies Dynamic Logic and Compete have teamed up with DoubleVerify, the pioneer in online media verification and viewability, to launch Advance™ − an integrated solution that provides marketers the insights needed to optimize digital media campaigns based on brand, behavioral and sales impact.

Advance is the only solution in the industry to combine exposure metrics (audience composition, reach and viewability) with effectiveness measures (brand, behavior and sales outcomes) into a unified reporting and optimization system.

The Advance platform addresses the measurement struggles advertisers, agencies and publishers face in aligning key data and increasing marketing ROI. Advance provides end users with more control over the data needed to make critical media selection, placement and creative decisions. Rather than being limited to basic measures of audience reached, media planners can now incorporate brand, behavioral and sales impact data as inputs into their optimization decisions. This new capability brings increased transparency to media planning and performance, enabling well-informed changes in real time and ultimately brand and sales lifts – the key drivers of marketing ROI.

“While digital media is thought to be more measurable than traditional media, there have been blind spots preventing advertisers from really understanding their digital media ROI,” said Yaakov Kimelfeld, Chief Research Officer of Compete. “Advance removes these blinds spots with a holistic tool that enables optimization focused not just on reach and impressions, but squarely on advertiser impact.”

Advance reports on the four critical aspects of a campaign in a single interface: Audience Target Reached, Ad Viewability, Brand Impact and Behavioral Impact. The platform includes a real-time analytics dashboard to provide planners with the ability to adjust campaigns “in-flight” and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of digital spend. In addition, a cost-analysis calculator enables planners to input media costs and compare Effective CPM, Effective CPP (cost–per–point), Viewable CPM rates and Cost-Per-Impact.

“Until now, optimization solutions have focused primarily on campaign delivery; but GRPs or TRPs alone are not sufficient,” said Michelle Eule, SVP of Digital Solutions at Dynamic Logic. “Advertisers and planners now have a more complete formula for evaluating the success of their campaigns using unique metrics such as Impacted Audience and Cost-Per-Impact to optimize how they reach their target audiences.”

“We’re excited to partner with Compete and Dynamic Logic to help solve the performance measurement gaps that exist in online marketing today,” said Wayne Gatinella, CEO, DoubleVerify. “Together we can build a better industry that enables brand advertisers and their agencies to achieve optimal media performance and insights.”

Additional benefits of the Advance solution include:

• Customizable demographic and behavioral audience definitions to pinpoint reach within the audience segments that advertisers value the most

• Verification and viewability technology that is accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC), adheres to 3Ms standards and is used by more than two hundred Fortune 500 brands

• Streamlined tagging solution that leverages existing workflow and is already merged into most media buying platforms

• Normative insights for brand and behavioral measures; brand impact metrics are benchmarked against norms from thousands of other campaigns and correlate with changes in brand equity

• Customizable reporting and deliverables that extend client insights into cross-media, cross-device and cross-channel applications

“By bringing delivery, attitudinal and behavioral data together, Advance allows us to understand how optimizing against one metric is impacting the others in real time, which is critical not just for managing complex digital campaigns but for elevating the level of insights we provide for our clients,” said Hilary Kolman, Director, Analytics & Insight at MEC.

“In our client work we always focus on delivering a holistic view of metrics and KPIs so as to optimize and truly drive performance,” says Tommy Wiles, Associate Director, Strategy & Analysis, Digitas. “Advance’s dashboard has made the process of creating a full picture view easier by putting all of our reporting data in a single, easy-to-use interface.”

Live Webinar

The companies will introduce Advance and share insights in a webinar entitled “A New Formula for Optimization: Optimize Digital Ad Campaigns Based on Impact” on June 6th at 2 p.m. EDT. Please register for free at: http://success.compete.com/newformula.

www.compete.com/us/products/advance

About Compete
Compete (www.compete.com) provides digital insights that helps the world’s top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions of consumers. Compete’s offerings are fueled by the largest integrated online consumer behavior and survey panel in the industry. Consumer and media insights are interpreted by analytical experts in the automotive, entertainment, financial services, media, mobile, packaged goods, retail, technology, telecom and travel markets to deliver data and recommendations to create effective online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns.

About Dynamic Logic
Dynamic Logic (www.dynamiclogic.com) is the world leader in digital insights. Founded in 1999 as a pioneer of the digital revolution, Dynamic Logic helped establish the Internet\’s true marketing value to businesses by developing solutions that measure beyond click-through to quantify the full brand impact of online advertising. As part of Millward Brown, Dynamic Logic continues to lead the industry — developing innovations to optimize and track digital ad impact, specializing in emerging media platforms, and integrating insights across all digital and non-digital media. For marketers, agencies, and publishers alike, Dynamic Logic offers the most cutting-edge and adaptable solutions to make the most of every digital marketing dollar.

About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the world leader in online media transparency, accountability and effectiveness insights. MRC-accredited, DoubleVerify is the top choice of brand marketers, agencies, advertising networks, demand side platforms, exchanges and digital publishers looking to ensure quality advertising environments, campaign transparency and performance. DoubleVerify validates over 60 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of Fortune 500 brands, advertising networks and media platforms. DoubleVerify was conferred the World Economic Forum 2012 Technology Pioneer Award for being one of the most innovative stakeholders in the technology space. Headquartered in New York City, DoubleVerify’s investors include JMI Equity, Institutional Venture Partners, Blumberg Capital, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.

DataXu Introduces the Industry’s First Algorithm Marketplace

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:00:06 +0000

Programmatic Marketing Platform Employs Data Science to Drive Business Goals with Unprecedented Choice and Flexibility

Boston – DataXu today introduced the industry’s first Algorithm Marketplace, a major new addition to its enterprise programmatic marketing platform that leverages data science to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of digital advertising. The Marketplace is a library of algorithms created over time from DataXu’s experience solving clients’ complex marketing problems. For the first time, dozens of algorithms are available to users in one place, so brands and their agencies get complete transparency and control of their advertising investment strategies. Marketers can also continue to innovate and collaborate with DataXu to develop custom algorithms that address their business’ unique opportunities and challenges.

“The Algorithm Marketplace helps brands drive sales through data science,” said Mike Baker, CEO of DataXu. “We’ve worked with our clients to solve difficult business problems requiring advanced targeting rules and optimization techniques. We’re excited to codify our learnings and share them in a scalable, easy-to-use way. It’s like putting a data scientist at our customers’ fingertips – now they can confidently target and optimize digital ad investments based on real-time data to improve ROI.”

Marketers looking to capitalize on the programmatic aspects of digital marketing have been frustrated by the one-size fits all approach to targeting and optimization, forcing them to juggle multiple platforms and partners, which leads to higher staff and vendor costs, loss of data and reporting inconsistencies. The DataXu Algorithm Marketplace offers marketers a scientific “test and learn” methodology to continually refresh campaign models based on learnings acquired over time. The continuous cycle of testing, learning and executing plus the flexibility of the DataXu Platform gives marketers the ability and confidence to standardize on one platform that will meet their needs today and tomorrow.

The Marketplace also offers algorithms that tap into attribution and validation models from partners such as Adometry and Nielsen, and smart data sources from partners like eXelate. The intuitive user interface gives guidance on which algorithm is right based on a marketer’s channel, performance, targeting and delivery objectives.

The DataXu Algorithm Marketplace helps marketers:

Customize programs to achieve their own unique business goals
Engage consumers with relevant messages across multiple channels including display, mobile, video and Facebook Exchange
Integrate partner attribution and validation models for better audience insights and results
Apply a test and learn methodology that measures, models and optimizes every individual consumer interaction
Confidently standardize on one platform, avoiding duplicate fees and switching costs

For more information on the DataXu Algorithm Marketplace, a video demo is available.

About DataXu

DataXu is transforming the way companies build their brands in a digital world through the industry’s only fully integrated programmatic marketing solution. The DataXu Platform offers cloud based software that leverages data science to help enterprise marketers better understand and engage consumers, and optimally manage marketing investments for more efficient and effective customer acquisition strategies. With 11 offices in eight countries, DataXu services more than 700 brands across the globe. For more information, visit or follow us at twitter.com/dataxu.

Innovation in Action:

“Adometry solves a problem faced by the world’s top marketers every day—knowing and acting upon what truly influences customer conversions. The DX Algorithm Marketplace allows marketers to leverage Adometry’s best-of-breed attribution solution and their own algorithms in a single platform. The result for marketers will be increased ROI from media buys on DataXu as part of their overall omni-channel media strategy.”- Gad Alon, VP of Business Development for Adometry

“The Algorithm Marketplace combines eXelate’s smart data platform which provides accurate, actionable and agile consumer data and analytics with business rules that will achieve a Brand’s specific marketing objectives. Together, the two address a growing demand for programmatic marketing platforms that provide a single integrated solution for driving smarter marketing decisions that provide immediate top and bottom line impact.” - Mark Zagorski, Chief Executive Officer at eXelate

“Marketing in a digital world is evolving so quickly that one size fits all solutions can’t meet the demands of today’s brands. A solution like the Algorithm Marketplace helps us maximize ROI for each individual client based on their unique business goals and grow with them as their needs change.” – Scott Macdonald, Head of Display at Forward

AOL Signs on as First Large-Scale Digital Media Company to Require Entire Sales Team to Be Certified Through IAB Digital Media Sales Certification Program

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

NEW YORK - The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced that AOL is the first large-scale digital media company to require its entire sales team to take and pass the IAB Digital Media Sales Certification exam, marking a major milestone for this program, created less than a year ago. With today’s digital media sales roles requiring in-depth knowledge across a spectrum of ever-evolving standards, measurement guidelines and best practices, IAB launched the certification program as the first-ever professional benchmark for interactive advertising sales teams.

“AOL is dedicated to providing clients with the best digital advertising customer service, knowledge and innovation”

“AOL is dedicated to providing clients with the best digital advertising customer service, knowledge and innovation,” said Marta Martinez, Head Of Sales Strategy and Operations, AOL. “Customer service is a hallmark of AOL’s business, and fundamental to building a long-term relationship with our clients. By certifying all our sales employees and ensuring that they have a deep understanding of the interactive advertising platforms, technologies and capabilities that impact the industry, we are demonstrating our dedication to our clients and staying ahead of the curve.”

“The digital advertising space is booming,” said Michael Theodore, Vice President, Training and Development, IAB. “With competition at an all-time high for talent in the digital advertising space, to recognize those who have attained the requisite skills and intelligence needed to succeed. The IAB Digital Media Sales Certification is the professional barometer that all digital media companies should aspire to, and we are thrilled that an industry leader like AOL has been so proactive about adopting it.”

To receive the certification, digital sales professionals must complete an examination, which covers general comprehension of the interactive advertising ecosystem, selling digital media and analyzing campaign performance.

The certification knowledge areas include:

Comprehending the digital advertising ecosystem
Selling digital media
Managing digital advertising campaigns
Analyzing campaign performance

No formal coursework is required to take the IAB Digital Media Sales Certification examination. Designed for salespeople with 2 to 5 years of experience in the digital industry, the exam is recommended for candidates who have a strong command of current industry issues, players, and operations, as well as a broad understanding of every major digital platform. The test costs $400 for IAB members and $500 for non-members.

The IAB worked with the fully accredited test development company Professional Testing, Inc. to create the content of the exam, alongside subject matter experts. All exams are administered through Pearson Testing Centers and are available worldwide.

Earlier this year AOL was one of only two companies selected for the IAB Award for Overall Sales Excellence, recognizing the company’s commitment to providing its clients with the industry’s best customer service.

For more information on the IAB Digital Media Sales Certification program or to register to take the exam during the next window, July 1 – 31, 2013, please visit www.iab.net/certification.

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a brand company, committed to continuously innovating, growing, and investing in brands and experiences that inform, entertain, and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

Kontagent Experiences Strong Growth in 2013 as Momentum Builds for Sophisticated Mobile Analytics Offerings

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:00:39 +0000

Company expects revenues to double in 2013 as demand surges for its solutions from leading retail, entertainment, healthcare and travel companies.

Partners with UBER, HotelTonight, General Motors Company and others at annual user conference to discuss enterprise needs for a changing mobile landscape.

SAN FRANCISCO – Kontagent, a pioneer in mobile analytics, today announced at its second annual Kontagent Konnect User Conference that the company expects revenue to double in 2013, as interest in its mobile customer intelligence solution has grown rapidly; especially from retail, entertainment, healthcare and travel companies. The company has signed new enterprise clients, including: Telenav, Warner Brothers, eHarmony, Thrillist/JackThreads and ooVoo.

Kontagent Konnect is being held in San Francisco, where hundreds of mobile business leaders are converging to discuss the changing mobile landscape. Executives from UBER, HotelTonight, Tapjoy and General Motors are among the panelists who will share secrets on how “mobile-first” companies are light years ahead of their online competitors. Other topics of discussion include: the importance of using customer behavioral data to make app-development decisions; the techniques non-gaming industries can learn from game developers in order to ramp customer engagement and monetization; and the shift from analytics to mobile intelligence.

“The strong growth that Kontagent has seen this year does not surprise me, given the breadth of their offerings and strength of their team,” said Rand Schulman, founder of the Digital Analytics Association (formerly Web Analytics Association). “Think of it this way: 2013 is for mobile what 1997 was for the Web. As the evolution of mobile analytics continues, Kontagent will be to mobile what Omniture is to the Web.”

Founded in 2007, the company has achieved major milestones including:

· The release of several new updates to its popular kSuite product, including:

o kSuite Mobile, which provides the insights mobile businesses need in order to improve their apps to better acquire, engage and monetize customers;

o kSuite DataMine, which provides data analysts unlimited, unparalleled query power to find the patterns, connections, and correlations that lead to engagement and in-app purchases;

kSuite Mobile App for on-the-go executives to check the health of their mobile businesses;
kSuite Multiscreen, which provides high-level views of how a business’s apps perform across multiple platforms—smartphones, tablets and desktops;
Cohort Explorer and Revenue Analysis, which provide deeper customer lifetime value and performance analytics.

In conjunction with Econsultancy, Kontagent released “The 2013 Mobile Sophistication and Strategy Study,” which found that 75% of companies haven’t defined a way to measure ROI or determine if their mobile experiences are truly effective, yet most expect to spend more in mobile in 2013;
Kontagent is funded by Altos Ventures, Battery Ventures and Maverick Capital, with initial funding from Facebook;
Kontagent is experiencing more than 100% revenue growth year-over-year;
Kontagent now has 140 employees and offices in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Japan and Korea;
- The Kontagent kSuite platform currently tracks:
- 250 billion+ customer data points tracked on a monthly basis
- 32 million+ daily active users tracked
- 210 million+ monthly active users tracked
- And has been instrumented on 1,000s of applications

Large enterprise brands trust Kontagent with their mobile analytics needs because of the company’s depth of technology and expertise. Kontagent has spent the past five years working with some of the game industry’s most sophisticated developers, who rigorously use data to optimize their apps. Among those that have leveraged kSuite to increase user engagement and monetization rates include: Halfbrick (Fruit Ninja), Ubisoft, SGN, Electronic Arts and Big Fish. To that end, Kontagent has developed best practices for using data to optimize social and mobile apps that are used industry wide. These best practices are now applied to applications created by businesses in other industries—such as retail and healthcare—that wish to increase customer engagement and monetization rates, across smartphone and tablet devices.

“Mobile represents a vast market opportunity and the smartest companies are starting to understand that they need to learn how to decipher their ‘big data’ to create memorable customer experiences, which in the end is what drives growth,” said Jeff Tseng, CEO and co-founder at Kontagent. “Otherwise, it’s just a pile of wasted potential. Interest in what we’re doing is taking off and right now we’re continuing to put the pieces in place, not just to succeed, but to lead the market.”

About Kontagent

Kontagent is the leading mobile customer intelligence solutions provider for business enterprises, application developers, marketers and producers. Kontagent tracks over 250 million monthly active users, thousands of applications, and more than 250 billion events each month for customers around the globe. Its unique people, process and platform approach to MCI enables companies to translate their metrics into actionable, data-driven business decisions. The company’s proprietary mobile analytics solution, kSuite, was built from the ground up to help organizations gather, analyze and use their data to grow and dominate in the mobile marketplace.

Kontagent is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Toronto, London, Seoul and Tokyo. Its clients range from medium to enterprise-level companies worldwide, including: North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. For more information, visit www.kontagent.com and follow Kontagent on Twitter @Kontagent.

Martini Media UK Announces Content Syndication Deal With Incisive Media

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:00:35 +0000

Incisive Media, One of the Largest International B2B Publishing Companies, Cites Affluent Reach, Native and Rich Media Units as Key to Partnership

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and NEW YORK, NY and LONDON - Martini Media, the digital media and content platform for engaging the audience with the most money and influence online, has formed a content syndication partnership with Incisive Media, one of the world’s leading business-to-business (B2B) information providers, serving a wide range of financial, business technology and professional services markets globally. The partnership gives Martini Media the ability to seamlessly integrate Incisive Media’s vast vault of content within Martini Media’s unique custom content unit (CCU).

Incisive Media selected Martini Media for this strategic partnership because of its distinctive custom content ad unit. Martini Media, one of the first to adopt IAB’s Rising Stars rich media ad units, will continue to leverage these engaging ad formats to help its clients reach the most valuable audience at scale. These custom content rising stars units offer the ability to marry compelling brand stories with engaging content. Martini Media immerses brand advertisers’ message at scale into the content of top sites visited by the affluent audience, AB1 professionals with household incomes over £50K.

“At Incisive Media, we aim to bring product provider and purchaser business communities together using all the varied platforms available to a modern information business,” said Darren Sharp, Incisive Media. “Martini Media was the natural selection for this content syndication deal because of their stronghold on the affluent audience as well as their rich media ad units across all digital platforms.”

The content syndication agreement will help Incisive Media publishers such as Investment Week, Legal Week, Post, Risk, FX Week, AVCJ, Professional Pensions, SES, clickz.com, Accountancy Age and V3.co.uk monetize their inventory. Additionally, this deal will assist UK advertisers to engage affluent consumers more effectively with the massive amounts of relevant content and the custom content ad units.

“We are thrilled to announce this partnership with a world renowned publishing group, such as Incisive Media,” said Tom O’Regan, President and CRO of Martini Media. “The top priority for marketers worldwide is content marketing according to several industry studies, and our very own research supports this. According to our recent digital brand study, 60% of UK marketers noted they were leveraging their own content or other publisher’s content in ads. That’s why we believe forging a partnership like this will be so valuable for brands looking to align their messaging with compelling and engaging content. We’ve already witnessed that ads integrated with content increase engagement rates by 33% vs. ads without content.”

About Martini Media:
Martini Media is the digital media and content platform for engaging the audience with the most money and influence online. With more than 1,000 publishers organized across multiple lifestyle and business verticals, Martini Media has helped the world’s leading brands reach over 125 million consumers across the globe that invest in their passions at work and play. Martini Media’s full-service marketing capabilities encompass display, video, mobile, social, and audience targeting to effectively engage the most valuable audience online at scale. Since 2008, Martini Media has been the premier media destination where influence meets affluence. Headquartered in San Francisco, Martini Media has offices in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and London. Visit www.martinimediainc.com to learn more.

About Incisive Media:
Incisive Media is a leading global business information and events company. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal and accounting services, marketing services, technology and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include, Investment Week, Legal Week, Post, Risk, FX Week, AVCJ, Professional Pensions, SES, clickz.com, Accountancy Age and V3.co.uk. It has offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Beijing.

ChoiceStream’s May Audience Cost Calendar Finds Travel Segments on Top in Online Advertising

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:00:08 +0000

BOSTON – ChoiceStream, the top choice for brand advertisers interested in advanced target optimization and programmatic buying, today announced the next installment of its Audience Cost Calendar — a monthly aggregation of impressions traded on digital ad exchanges. The Audience Cost Calendar was created to help media buyers and marketers understand trends in the cost of various online audiences. This month looks at April’s data and highlights the top traded audience segments, including Careers, Travel and Holidays & Events. Once again, Careers: Customer Service remains the top performing segment with a 40 percent increase above the average price for that targeted inventory.

“In previous Audience Cost Calendar reports it seemed that specific audience segments changed specific to cyclical trends”

Five of the top ten best performing segments based on month-over-month increased cost of the targeted inventory include:

• Travel: Italy – 11 percent increase in price since March

• Holiday & Events: Anniversary – 11 percent increase in price

• Travel: Greece – 8 percent increase in price

• Travel: Spain – 6 percent increase in price

• Travel: Europe – 6 percent increase in price

“In previous Audience Cost Calendar reports it seemed that specific audience segments changed specific to cyclical trends,” said Bill Guild, vice president, product management and marketing at ChoiceStream. “However, for the past two months, the top ranked segment, Careers: Customer Service, remained consistent. Hopefully this is yet another indication that the economy and job market are recovering. Another indication of a recession turn around is the increased interest in travel and destination specific inventory. Eight of the top ten segments were travel destinations with Italy and Greece in the number two and three spots, respectively.”

Vacation and Travel
With the summer travel season approaching, it’s not surprising to see that eight out of the top ten ranking segments in April were travel related. Leading the May Audience Cost Calendar in relative cost was Italy and Greece segments, followed by the South Pacific and Spain. Other spikes in the travel segment include warmer destinations including: Australia & New Zealand, Mexico and Central America.

Anniversary Segment Highlights Spring Wedding Season

The Holiday and Event: Anniversary segment jumped to the number eight spot on the list, potentially predicting an early shopping season for summer wedding gifts or a shift to earlier season weddings from the more common June time frame.

To view the full infographic, complete dataset and the most active categories for the month of April, take a look at ChoiceStream’s Audience Cost Calendar located on the company’s newly relaunched website that can be found here.

About ChoiceStream
ChoiceStream improves ad relevance and digital campaign performance by programmatically selecting optimum advertising opportunities based on a dynamic understanding of consumer’s active preferences. With an extensive first and third party data network enhanced by proprietary data, ChoiceStream can target and convert the most valuable consumers in real-time. ChoiceStream is headquartered in the Innovation District of Boston and works with industry leading brands and their agencies. For more information on ChoiceStream, please visit www.ChoiceStream.com.

Programmatic Buying: The Advertiser’s Upside and the Publisher’s Dilemma

Caroline Watts — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00:25 +0000

Programmatic buying is the not-so-new, technology-based form of ad buying that’s changing the game for online advertising.

Advertisers have adopted programmatic buying in droves (in the form of RTB or otherwise), because it’s faster, easier, and more efficient.

Publishers, however, have largely been hesitant to get on board with programmatic buying — some for better reasons than others. Here’s a look at how programmatic is changing the landscape, and why advertisers and publishers aren’t always aligned when it comes to programmatic:

Why Programmatic Is Changing Everything

Seventy percent of advertisers are currently using programmatic buying as part of their media-buying plan, and three-quarters of those currently using it plan to increase the percentage of their spend dedicated to programmatic over the next year. This shift is happening for a reason: programmatic buying makes media planning easier and more efficient.

As the programmatic ecosystem expands and matures, the benefits for advertisers continue to expand. Programmatic advertising has removed the lengthy, cumbersome process that’s required to complete a direct ad sale online.

Not only is programmatic efficient, it’s opened the doors for robust audience-targeting data that can allow advertisers to truly hone in on the precise audience that’s most valuable to them. Each impression can be layered with valuable data that lets the advertiser make the most of every impression.

Through both efficiency gains and the layering of valuable audience data, programmatic lets advertisers get more from less.

The Publisher’s Dilemma

The benefit to advertisers are obvious, but what about publishers? For some publishers, real-time bidding is a great way to monetize a chunk of their inventory, or in some cases, all of their inventory. (To be clear, real-time bidding or RTB is a form of programmatic buying, but not all programmatic buying is RTB).

RTB lets publishers automatically sell inventory without sales resources, RFPS, or IOs. Everything is automatic, so the overhead for the publisher is minimal. For some publishers, this is the most efficient way to monetize all their inventory. For many large publishers with expansive inventory, this is the best way to monetize a subset of inventory that isn’t sold directly. Inventory that may previously have gone unsold can be added to networks or exchanges and can earn incremental revenue for the publisher where previously they may not have earned anything.

On the other hand, RTB can have a downside for the supply side. RTB impressions tend to be relatively low priced, so even without the overhead the publisher can sometimes end up earning less money from RTB than from direct sales. Because RTB is often associated with remnant inventory, publishers with strong name recognition who rely on direct sales are sometimes hesitant to use RTB to sell any of their inventory for fear that it could harm their brand value.

In some cases, there is a fundamental misalignment between what advertisers want and what publishers need to sustain their business. Programmatic buying has changed media-buying forever, and there’s certainly no turning back now. The increased efficiency brought to the ecosystem can benefit publishers as well as advertisers, as long as the needs of both groups are met.

Two Thirds of Brands, Agencies Say Branded Content Marketing Now Important To Their Marketing Mix

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:42 +0000

MailOnline Survey Finds About 70% Plan to Spend More on It in the Next Year

New York - MailOnline, the world’s largest global newspaper website, today reported that a new survey of over 600 online advertising and marketing execs reveals that about two thirds of brands (66%) and agencies (65%) say that branded content marketing has become very important or most important to their marketing mix. When asked “Have you employed branded content marketing for advertising purposes in the last year?”, an overwhelming percentage of both brands (70%) and agencies (77%) replied “yes” clearly indicating that this tactic is enjoying great popularity.

“There are many ‘flavors’ of branded content marketing from native advertising to content hubs, from advertorials to branded entertainment and even custom video, but given the on-set of social media, there has been an evolution of this marketing approach and a new emphasis placed on it by both clients and their agencies,” says Sean O’Neal, Global Chief Marketing Officer for MailOnline. “It is now a top tactic for driving brand lift and sales lift online”.

Asked “What is your preferred method of measuring the effectiveness of your content marketing programs?” the top response for agencies (30%) was “Brand Lift”, and the top response for brands (32%) was “Sales Lift.” When asked “Rate the following tactics for their ability to achieve your branding objectives”, brands cited branded content as amongst the most effective, virtually tied with video as a leading tactic.

The survey was in-field for three weeks in April and combined both qualitative and quantitative research. Of the 610 respondents, the majority were media buyers – 17% on the brand side and 47% on the agency side – and the remaining 36% were publishers.

“Content marketing is intended to take advantage of the one key difference between marketing and content which is that consumers are more guarded against marketing messages,” adds Mr. O’Neal. “For this reason, many brands are becoming adept ‘publishers’ of information and content, and tapping into the more trusted nature of valuable content vs. advertising.”

Asked “Where do you acquire your branded content?”, 71% of agencies said they partner with the publishers that they are buying the media from. This tactic leads all others.

When we asked brands about their content marketing activities, 83% have used it for their website or email – but more interestingly is over two-thirds have partnered with content providers to create and distribute branded content beyond their own websites.

The MailOnline survey also reveals that brands are increasing their investments in content marketing with 72% saying their spending on branded content increased in the past year and 69% predicting a budget increase ON TOP of that in the COMING year.

Data from agencies validates how the brands responded with 71% of agencies saying their clients spent more in the last 12 months on branded content marketing and 73% say their clients’ spending on branded content marketing will increase over the coming 12 months.

Of the buyers who haven’t yet tested branded content marketing, 57% of those brands said they plan to test in the next year and 84% of those agencies said they plan to test in the next year.

Finally, when asked “What prevents you or your clients from investing more in branded content marketing?” a whopping 24% of brands and 17% of agencies replied, “Nothing, we are fully committed!”

Full details of the study will be presented during a free live webinar Wednesday May 22, 2013 at 2:00 EST which can be registered for at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/358476087

MailOnline (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html) is a division of UK-based DMGT, an international portfolio of digital, information, media and events businesses, which employs over 12,000 people and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: DMGT.L). In the U.S., MailOnline boasts more daily unique visits than any other newspaper web site and is known for its unique blend of entertainment/celebrity buzz, pop culture news, female lifestyle editorial, and phenomenal images. MailOnline delivers a highly desirable audience to advertisers in the U.S. Its visitors are 22% more likely to live in households with income over $100,000/year and the overall property has a median Household Income of over $74,000/year. In candid video interviews, U.S. visitors call the site “addictive, revealing, funny, honest, and probing.”

In Just a Few Clicks, SendUs Turns Unfocused User-Generated Content into Valuable Video Engagement

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:51 +0000

The Cloud-based Video Platform Enables Companies to Easily Leverage the Power of UGC to Co-Create High-Value Content

LOS ANGELES - With consumers holding ever increasing control of an organization’s message, how do organizations bring together what consumers are saying about them to tell a focused, controlled and consistent story? SendUs unveiled its cloud-based video submission and management platform that enables businesses to interact and engage with audiences who share their ideas and values via user-generated video content. With its new 2.0 release, SendUs empowers this conversational storytelling with an easy-to-use platform through which organizations can invite their audiences to co-create with video and automatically own the content use rights.

“Understanding the importance of co-creating with members of the Tata Harper community, we believe that video is more powerful and authentic than any other advertising medium. SendUs is the only platform that enables us to engage in such personal and authentic communication”

For a video snapshot of the SendUs platform at work, visit: http://bit.ly/10DhVJt.

“Today, the consumer is controlling the message through social media. For businesses, this message, though loud and exciting, is unfocused, uncontrolled and often inconsistent with commercial goals,” says George Crowley, Executive Chairman, SendUs. “Our platform cracks the code on this audience engagement problem by bringing brands and consumers together to create customer-focused video content. In turn, this interactive dialogue helps drive sustainable long term relationships and increased sales.”

In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute:

80 percent of consumers would love to be involved in co-creation projects of brands they like.
However, currently, less than 1 out of 5 companies are actually involving their consumers in their marketing planning.

“Organizations know they have to widen the channel that connects them to their audience or customers, but too often the result is noise or information overload,” says author and Web pioneer Steven Johnson, who is an advisor to the company. “SendUs is a platform that uniquely opens the floodgates to much wider participation, and at the same time allows organizations to curate the best material that emerges.”

In this era of relationship marketing, recent studies show that video drives consumer engagement in a more credible and personal way than any other medium. From enterprise brands and small businesses to creative agencies and non-profits, organizations can use SendUs as either a turn-key platform or a customizable solution via the SendUs widget and API.

Additionally, as part of its launch, SendUs has partnered with natural skincare company, Tata Harper Skincare, on a national contest asking their customers what natural beauty means to them. Powered by the SendUs platform, Tata Harper is featuring the contest through May 24, on their Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/tataharperskincare.

“Understanding the importance of co-creating with members of the Tata Harper community, we believe that video is more powerful and authentic than any other advertising medium. SendUs is the only platform that enables us to engage in such personal and authentic communication,” said Tata Harper, founder of Tata Harper Skincare. “We are leveraging SendUs for video testimonials featured in our marketing and in our upcoming commercials. We are excited to be hosting this nationwide contest powered by the SendUs platform.”

SendUs has successfully deployed its first generation platform with brands such as FremantleMedia (producers of American Idol), Singapore Airlines, Peugeot, Nextel International, Sierra Club, and Susan G. Komen for The Cure. To see how the SendUs platform works in 3 easy steps, visit: http://corp.sendus.com/how-it-works.

ABOUT SENDUS

SendUs is a revolutionary video submission and management platform enabling a variety of organizations – from enterprise brands to non-profits – to acquire, manage and edit videos from their customers, supporters or audiences. Additionally, media use rights to the content are automatically secured at the time of submission. For more information, visit www.sendus.com.

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