By AdExchanger
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Two Become One
Viant may buy MediaMath, knitting together the pair of well-known DSPs, Digiday reports.
MediaMath is an OG player that sprang up back in 2007 and was once valued at $1 billion. But it’s been on the market for a long time, starting its search for a home in 2020. Since then, its troubles have often been in the spotlight.
Notably, in 2022, Founder and CEO Joe Zawadzki left the company, causing it to refinance. Eventually, MediaMath sold a controlling stake to a private equity firm, wiping out much of the valuation held by its co-founders and employees.
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By Hana Yoo
They say comparison is the thief of joy, but in commerce, accurate comparisons can bring peace of mind.
MikMak rolled out an “apples-to-apples comparison” tool across social, search, programmatic, streaming video and retail media Wednesday, dubbed MikMak Commerce for Retail Media. The platform upgrade ramps up its ecommerce and analytics offerings, according to CEO and founder Rachel Tipograph.
MikMak can track which platform or retailer people are checking out from with their purchases and holds a patent on its ability to observe “Add to Cart” sessions in media. It was already integrated with most major media channels. Now it integrates with retail media, too.
“Anyone who’s in media has to get into retail media,” Tipograph said, because it’s “the fastest-growing part of brand advertisers’ investments.”
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If there’s one thing The Trade Desk’s CEO Jeff Green appears to hate, it’s walled gardens.
At an event in New York City on Tuesday, The Trade Desk (TTD) announced an AI-powered upgrade to its platform – dubbed Kokai – that Green pitched as an attempt to save the open internet from being dominated by Big Tech.
The upgrade is the culmination of multiyear investments in AI-driven campaign optimization, measurement, reporting and data-sharing partnerships with publishers, CTV platforms and retail media networks, Green said at the launch event.
Kokai is the Japanese word for “open waters” and is also a slang term that translates to “open for business” – which is a little wordplay shade tossed in Big Tech’s direction.
“One way to define a walled garden is that you’re big enough to be draconian,” Green said. “None of us in the open internet are big enough to be draconian and be successful, so we have to work together.”
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Linear TV is taking a programmatic turn.
Charter’s full linear footprint is going programmatic, the result of a partnership announced Wednesday between Spectrum Reach, the ad sales division of Charter, and supply-side platform Beachfront.
Spectrum’s move is part of a trend of programming distributors setting their sights on addressable. Last week, Dish released a new way to package linear and streaming inventory programmatically.
Until now, Spectrum had prioritized making its streaming inventory programmatic before taking on the task of automating the buying and selling of linear impressions.
But focusing on streaming and not linear meant Spectrum could only count cross-platform reach and frequency for direct deals, because linear wasn’t part of the programmatic mix yet, said Rob Klippel, SVP of advanced advertising products and strategy at Spectrum Reach.
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Who needs friends when you can converse with your data clean room, chat with your ad platform and, uh, talk to your marketing cloud?
On Wednesday, Salesforce announced a series of new features for its marketing and commerce clouds that use generative AI technology to help marketers be more efficient with their campaign creation, personalization, segmentation, measurement and offer customization.
Marketing GPT and Commerce GPT, both generally available, rely on Einstein GPT, the generative AI version of Einstein, a machine learning-based system that Salesforce introduced in 2016 for analyzing large CRM data sets across multiple sources.
With its newer AI investments, Salesforce is looking for inspiration from consumer-facing versions of generative AI, including ChatGPT and other platforms, said Michael Affronti, GM of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, during a press briefing on Monday.
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By AdExchanger
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Rise (And Fall) Of The Machines
CNET made waves in January when it started publishing articles that were completely generated by AI.
But the publisher is already rethinking how it’s using AI to write content after some early missteps, The Verge reports. Half of the 70 AI-generated articles it published this year needed to be corrected by human editors because of factual errors or potential plagiarism.
In a memo shared with employees on Tuesday, CNET promises to no longer publish stories written solely by AI. It also says it will not publish AI-generated images and videos “as of now.” But it will continue to use AI to analyze data and existing text, create outlines for story ideas and generate “explanatory content.”
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Microsoft’s purchase of Xandr from AT&T in late 2021 might have looked like an embrace of third-party ad tech.
But while parts of the Xandr tech are considered valuable by Microsoft, the future of Xandr as an SSP integrated with thousands of outside publishers is in doubt.
Since completing the acquisition in June of last year, Microsoft Advertising has shifted its focus to first-party products and integrations to win and secure key accounts, such as Netflix, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of recent changes within the group.
Xandr’s third-party ad tech isn’t under a strategic review to find a buyer. Rather, Microsoft Advertising is evaluating how Xandr fits into the overall Microsoft business and has enlisted outside consultants to advise.
AdExchanger has learned that one of these consultants is FreeWheel’s former product chief, Jon Whitticom, who is also an advisor to Netflix on the streamer’s nascent advertising platform. (Netflix selected Microsoft as its global ad tech and sales partner in July.)
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Sponsored post bySteve PintoGo-to-market lead, targeting and addressabilityAmazon Ads SPONSORED BY: In truth, it doesn’t matter when – or if – third-party cookies go away for good.
Despite the industry’s collective hand-wringing, we’re in a moment rife with possibility. The advertising industry has never been better positioned to think differently about how to delight consumers with useful and relevant advertising while continuing to prioritize their trust. Of course, this requires making use of different, sometimes new technologies and tactics and embracing an open mind.
Here are a few recommendations for your advertising strategy as we inch closer to 2024 –regardless of whether cookies disappear.
- Maximize first-party signals
At first, this may sound like nothing new. After all, brands have been ingesting first-party signals for years now. But as we move away from third-party cookies, the necessary shift is in understanding that it’s not just about the number of insights and signals advertisers have.
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A podcast interview withSean BuckleyCRO Magnite CRO Sean Buckley takes issue with the recent characterization of supply-side platforms (SSPs) in peril.
The prevailing narrative is that SSPs are cutting out demand-side platforms (DSPs) in a desperate attempt to differentiate – and in response to ominous countervailing forces.
Last year, The Trade Desk launched OpenPath, a product that allows buyers to circumvent their supply partners (especially Google) and buy inventory directly from publishers. This year, both Magnite (with ClearLine) and PubMatic (with Activate) launched products that give advertisers direct access to CTV and online video inventory.
Most observers have interpreted these moves as battles and skirmishes in the great disintermediation and supply-path optimization wars, whereby SSPs are battling for relevance by blurring the line between supply-side and demand-side technology.
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Dotdash Meredith (DDM) made a major bet on contextual with last month’s launch of D/Cipher.
While DDM is putting a lot of eggs in D/Cipher’s basket, it remains to be seen whether it will help turn its revenue numbers around. The publisher reported a 15% drop in digital ad revenue in its Q1 2023 earnings, citing declines in premium sold ads and lower programmatic rates.
DDM guarantees its contextual targeting, productized as D/Cipher, will outperform “cookies or whatever other cockamamie audience” solution, CEO Neil Vogel told AdExchanger.
But while DDM hopes to wean advertisers off third-party cookies by offering a competitive alternative, the plan isn’t to convince them to quit their cookie habit completely, he continued. “That’s a fool’s errand” as long as cookies are in play.
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